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Show "' " !, A PLACE CALLED li'.H'M UTL i 4 In the basin o: what was once a great inland luke. and what was per- haps for a million years afterward J a barren desert. I have found a para- . i dise for young humanity. It is a , , place called Bountiful, a country : town of Utah, where practically all j the essential elements of child care . and growth are operative. First of all. this happy place is a beehive of industry, and every child i gets into the dirt where the thrill of divinity is made possible. I would not cheat the growing child out of his right to get into the clean soil any more than I would shut off his; air or water. j But in Bountiful, where children, seem to be the chief crop, not only the little ones are at play in the sun ; and the soil, but every boy and girl big enough enjoys the blessed privilege privi-lege of working in the soil tending garden, gathering fijiit, .irrigating the crops and the like. At early morn ' ing ruddy boys and girls were seen j hurrying to the orchards where aj most perfect and luscious crop of : cherries was yielding six tons to the! acre. And in Bountiful, they told me i that at the public school it is re-1 ported that during the Fall term, no ordinary child under the prescribed prescrib-ed age limit is ever found habitually staying out of the class room. Here the wonder increases. Bountiful Boun-tiful is a place which seems to -harbor no character-destroying agency as affecting the young. The tough joint, the crap game, the other de-spoilers de-spoilers of youth so common to the large city these are allconspicuous-ly allconspicuous-ly absent, and the boys and girls are thus permitted to grow naturally into in-to good men and women. How simple and easy it all is, and how quickly the big city might be likewise transformed into a paradise i for children could the people all at i once become awakened t otho need and sensible of the means. It is merely the opportunity for , every child to exercise his right to play, to work and to be sociable in accordance with the present needs 1 and cravings of his nature. And to .this stimulating program of good things which furnish nourishment nour-ishment to the soul of growing humanity hu-manity we must add only a full guardianship guar-dianship against the well known agencies ag-encies which destroy character. Boun tiful Utah, has seen fit to furnish all this life-giving influence, both positive posi-tive and negative. Los Angeles Times |