"W

HAT a lot of people need is a good live hobby," declared Rowland Haynes emphatically.

"I have in mind folks of middle age who have acquired sedentary habits even in their recreations," he continued. "Both business and society have laid cramping hands on their freedom, and the very suggestion of exercise is repugnant to them. The athletic and outdoor activities of youth have given place to committee meetings, club gatherings, dinners, business and social affairs. In none of these things are they required to put forth very much mental or physical effort, and the result is that many are living in the early stages of intellectual and bodily stagnation. This sort of life eventually ends in some disease of the heart, lungs, arteries, nerves, or stomach. No man thus afflicted is able to do good work.

"A person engaged in a sedentary occupation may grub along for some time just about half alive, not really understanding what ails him, until he goes to smash, and has to be sent to a sanitarium for repairs. A few wake up before the crash comes and save themselves by going in for golf, tennis, and other forms of recreation. A much larger group dope themselves with all sorts of patent panaceas, while others try indoor gymnastics. But the mass of indoor workers do not pay much attention to such matters. If they ever get out of the ruts at all somebody will have to 'do some cranking.' Such folks need a hobby -something that will take control of them, and give a different twist to their lives."

Clark, and served as a professor at Chicago University and the University of Minnesota without becoming a "highbrow." Indeed, his fondness for people caused him to abandon his "professorial career," as he terms it, and invest five years of his time as field secretary of the Playground and Recreation Association of America. For two years, he was secretary of recreation for New York City, under the Board of Estimate and Appropriation, and, later, director of war-camp activities in New York. Last March, he stopped off in Cleveland to put in a few years coordinating and developing the play facilities and play leadership for adults as well as children:It is a "whale" of an undertaking, and has already brought forth five or six books by way of getting a good start.

"What is your definition of a hobby?" I asked Mr. Haynes.

"A favorite pursuit which a man enjoys during his spare time," was the quick response. "One would hardly think of a hobby as a moneymaking affair, or as a rival of the main business of life, and yet, it can be made profitable. It should involve some physical effort, preferably in the open air. A mind worker can best rest himself by performing light outdoor work. The point is not so much to engage in violent exercise, as it is to get the mind entirely off the strain and demands of the regular job. Very often just 'puttering' around the house or yard, mowing the lawn, tinkering with an automobile, or making playthings for the children, will give the mind the desired relaxation.

"As you probably know, President Wilson and former Justice Charles E. Hughes rested from affairs of State by reading detective stories full of hair-raising action. Grover Cleveland, when he was President, found relaxation in fishing and in painting children's toys and odds and ends of household furniture. George Washington loved to train baby foxes. On the other hand, William

the Conqueror enjoyed a dog fight, and kept. dogs for that purpose. Napoleon relieved his jaded mind by constructing puzzles, and Daniel Webster made a hobby of painting the faces of his cattle. He gave them frequent changes of color and laughed heartily at the bewilderment of his friends who did not know of his skill with a paint brush.

"A"

The Hobbies of Great Men

DISTINGUISHED Boston preacher had a most unusual hobby. He was a man past middle age, but there were times when he wanted to be a boy again. He gratified his longing by playing with toy locomotives and trains. Two rooms on the third floor of his home were devoted to his railroad system, and when he felt in need of mental relaxation he would amuse himself by the hour with his little cars. Nobody knows how many ideas for sermons and addresses flashed into his mind while he was thus engaged. There was very little physical exercise in what this preacher did, but there was an immense amount of real rest in it.

"In New York, a former prosecuting attorney found relaxation in a basement carpenter-shop. He loved to get away from his law books, and the strife of the court room, and 'make things' with saw, plane, and hammer.

"There is a man in Cleveland who recuperates in a similar way. One Christmas, his wife, in an effort to be original, presented him with a box of tools. He did not know a brace and bit from a jack plane, but he made up his mind to learn. During the day he is employed at a brainracking job, but he plays with his tools at night. He has designed and constructed bedroom furnishings, music cabinets, lamp stands, card tables, and other useful articles with his own hands.

"In another part of the city, is a widely known scientist who plays with a fully equipped machineshop which he has set up in his own house. That shop is a place of joy to him, and he comes out of it greatly refreshed. In contrast, I recall a machinery manufacturer whose hobby is astronomy. At quite an outlay he has built an observatory and installed a powerful telescope, with which he takes photographs of the sun, moon, and stars. Now and then he invites in the neighbors and gives them free lectures on the heavenly bodies.

"A piano dealer, in a city of the Northwest, makes a hobby of inviting children to his Sunday school. Every Saturday he closes his store at noon, and puts in the entire afternoon calling from house to house and giving personal invitations to the people and the children to at

tend Sunday school and church. task or matter of duty with him. of getting recreation.

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This is not a It is his way

Adults in Games with Children

N connection with our playground activities, I have heard of instances where men forty years of age and upwards have been taking part in the games of children at the playgrounds, or in streets that have been roped off. Indoor baseball, with a large ball and a short bat, is very popular with these older men, who do not enjoy the strenuous exertion of the regulation ball and bat. This is the kind of hobby that I hope will spread. Those who participate will be greatly benefited thereby.

"I know a woman who just loves to 'putter around' as she calls it. Her hobbies consist of three ducks, twenty-one chickens, sixty guinea pigs, thirty cabbage plants, and three children. She gets a lot of fun out of what looks like work.

"Another instance comes to mind of a man who has made a hobby of his front yard. He had left the care of the grass and trees to his wife and children until, one day, he awakened to the fact that he needed light exercise to tone up his health, so he decided to get it by working on the lawn. His property now has a well-kept appearance, and the owner is at least twenty per cent more efficient. He is studying the care of trees, the development of grass, and how to keep a lawn-mower sharp.

"A lot of fellows shrink from the conventional kinds of physical exercise, who could get it by playing a lone game. The simplest form of hobby I can think of is to be a 'hiker. Get out and walk. Set an easy stride and walk for several miles right through the city or out into the country. There are a lot of men who keep themselves in fair working condition in that way. But plan to end your journey at your office or store. If you walk part way, and finish by riding in a car, you run the risk of catching cold. I have heard of a very successful insurance-man who recovered his broken health by walking three miles each morning, drinking six glasses of water daily, eating light meals, and going to bed at nine. He is now a vigorous fellow, and is pointed out as a pacemaker for much younger men in the business."

How a Hobby Affects Ambition

bition. The point I am about to make has been developed by experiments in a big manufacturingplant. Men are induced to take up something outside of their regular work, as a means of recreation. Quite a number have gone in for raising chickens. Some have tackled bees, while others are trying something else. The company pays half the cost of the hobby.

"Riding a hobby during your spare time ministers to your self-satisfaction. It gives a feeling of success. Defeats and failures are the

common lot. Many men are restless under the exactions of a boss. It irritates them to be obliged to take orders. Did you ever feel cramped or choked, as if you wanted to express yourself and could not quite find a way? Suppose you should go home in the evening all out of tune because of the irritations of the day? You have failed and you feel humiliated. You have a hobby which takes you into a different world. You begin making something. Your mind travels in an entirely new groove. The thoughts and feel

ings that have been uppermost during the day vanish and you become absorbed in what you are doing. A feeling of success takes the place of your sense of humiliation, because you have actually been successful. You have made something in your own way, without taking orders from another man. All of us have a creative spirit, and our hobby becomes a means of self-expression. Some day we will understand that this very feeling, the innate demand for liberty of mind and soul, is at the bottom of a great deal of industrial unrest."

How Haynes Promotes Recreation

B

Y degrees, the conversation veered around to a discussion of motives, and how Mr. Haynes came to make a hobby of promoting recreation. Haynes is an original thinker. He wants to know "why." During his college days, he began to question the systems of philosophy that were being taught, and went on a still hunt for the philosophers who originated the systems. It was a daring thing for him to challenge the wise men of the books. But he did it, His attitude toward philosophers was expressed rather pungently, thus:

"This man's philosophy is his way of scratching his mental itch." Of course his professor was horrified, but that did not disturb Haynes in the least. He went right ahead and made another declaration quite as shocking: "What people want has a good deal to do with what they think is so." That was his way of saying that “a man's beliefs are shaped by his desires."

At the University of Minnesota, Mr. Haynes taught philosophy and ethics. But like all thinkers he wanted to try out something that was not on the calendar. Therefore, he originated a course on "The Psychology of Moral and Religious Experience." In spite of its mouthfilling title the course itself was very simple and practical.

Mr. Haynes's object was to find out why a certain man possessed particular characteristics. His method was to assign a specific student to a specific “case." Thus, John Jones was required to put Bill Smith under a psychological microscope, determine his dominant qualities, and how they originated. For example, Jones was found to be reticent. inaccurate, stingy, and careless about keeping his promises. His antecedents were ascertained. and all possible facts about his life assembled and studied. "What made him thus," was the question. And the conclusion was, "Habits springing from desires." In teaching this course, Haynes did not attempt more than to demonstrate his proposition that, “What a man wants has a good deal to do with what he

thinks is so. But he did more than that. He made it clear to his pupils that desire vitally affects both belief and conduct, and incidentally he furnishes a simple formula for analyzing human nature. He reached a conclusion from an academic point of view that is now the recognized foundation of business science, and which governs all successful advertising and sellingnamely, that sales are made by arousing desires and not by logic.

W

Shows People How to Play

HILE attending Columbia University, with the original intention of becoming a minister, Haynes had obtained some “practical experience" by dealing with boys and young people. There he caught his first glimpse of the "Invisible University" that is so potent in shaping desires and habits-the "Invisible University of Spare Time," which often has more to do with failure or success than the home or the school. So he set about studying methods for making better use of hours that go to waste. He wanted to turn them into profit instead of loss. He thought he saw a way to shape the desires of young and old by showing them how to "play." That was Haynes's "hobby." He worked at it on the side. Now it is his job. His entire system is based on trained leaders who know how to arouse the right kind of desires, and direct the activities of both young people and adults. His idea is to create play conditions that will cause the people to "want to play at his game," and thus get more fun out of living.

"While I was with the University of Minnesota," he explained, “we tried a little experiment that proves my point. Permission was obtained to use a school yard where about twenty children were playing in an aimless sort of fashion. Equipped with an outfit of bats, balls, and other games, that, all told, did not cost over ten dollars, Mrs. Haynes went into that yard one day and said to the children, 'Let's play.' They responded, and she started them going in groups. The next day, the crowd had doubled, and, in a short time, the yard was spilling over with boys and girls eager to take part. That is what I mean by leadership.

"In every city there are gangs of boys who have 'hang outs' in some alley, gully, or vacant building where they congregate and plan mischief, simply because they have nothing else to do. They steal, in order to get money for the 'movies.' Their imaginations are fired by the stories told by tramps, hoboes, and older boys who have graduated into confirmed loafers. Their leadership is bad. It is little wonder that they grow up (Continued on page 153)

T

HE pages of the United States Senate, as well as those of the more humble body, the House of Representatives, are much like other boys. There is open to them, however, a pathway to future life that is not approachable to other youths. But even with this great opportunity, it so happens that not all of the favored youngsters who, since the existence of this nation, have been favored with a seat on the steps of the Senate rostrum have become famous. It is gratifying for a boy to be a page in the United States Senate, but it is not altogether as gratifying as some people believe.

The opportunity for close observation of the methods and manners of American statesmen are inspiring and are sometimes turned to good account, but it does not follow that to rub elbows with the great men of our land, day by day, will graduate a boy into a similar state of greatness.

Famous Men Who Began as Pages

TH

HE late Senator Arthur Pue Gorman, of Maryland, for several years the political leader of his party, began his public career as a Senate page. Another man long prominent in the public eye, who once answered to Senatorial applause, was the late Brigadier-General John M. Wilson, U. S. A., retired, formerly Chief of Engineers. Stuart Robson, the actor with the infectious laugh, was also a Senate page.

Senator Gorman, in his later life, derived satisfaction from the fact that he had been a Senate page. He seemed to be proud of it and mentions the circumstances in the biographical sketches that accompanied his prolonged career in public life.

He was one of "Captain Bassett's boys," having originally been appointed a page in 1852, when he was thirteen years old. Gorman was recommended by Abraham Lincoln's rival for the

Presidency, Stephen A. Douglas, the "little giant" of Illinois. Mr. Gorman, when he was too old to serve longer as a page, occupied various subordinate positions in the service of the Senate, being promoted from time to time until he became postmaster of the body. He was then twenty-seven years of age and his office, being a political one subject to the unwritten political law, "to the victors belong the spoils," he was removed at the beginning of the political campaign of 1866, but was at once appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifth District of Maryland and held the place until the beginning of the Grant administration, in 1869.

In June of that year Mr. Gorman was appointed a director of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company which was for him a stepping stone into the political leadership he held so long. In November, 1869, he was elected to membership in the Maryland House of Delegates, then to the State Senate, and, finally, in January, 1880, to the United States Senate to succeed William Pinckney White.

Arthur Pue Gorman, while a Senate page, was a member of the baseball club made up of Capitol employees, and was a star player. Afterwards he was drafted into the more celebrated nine that brought honor and glory to the City of Washington, and died a baseball "fan" as he had lived a player.

General Wilson, when a page under the VicePresidency of Millard Filmore, was a genial, bright, and popular boy-just as he was a man. He made the intimate acquaintance of Senator Gwynn, of California, who took him to the Pacific Coast after his term expired. Wilson located in Oregon. The delegate from the Territory of Washington, Columbia Lancaster, had him appointed a cadet to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was graduated