Weekly Messenger - 1916 July 21

              The Weekly Messenger
Devoted to the Interests of the Student Body, Washington State Normal School £T
Vol. XV. BELLINGHAM, WASH., FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1916 NO./£
PLAYGROUNDSPEGIAUST
IY U
Dr. Henry S. Curtis, of Olivet, Mich-,
has been giving stirring talks thruout
the week. He is a very entertaining
speaker and was received with enthu­siasm
by the students. He helped
Miss Nickerson with some of her
classes in plays and games. If the
plans of this specialist mature into
practice in the State Normal School
at Bellingham, there will be plays and
games, folk dancing, story telling,
general singing, walking, trips, auto-ing
and horseback riding, swimming,
week end camps and moving pictures
for extra hours in summer school and
thruout the regular year.
In his address to the students on
Tuesday Dr. Curtis said in part:
"The playground movement through­out
the world stands for organized
play. People usually think at first
that children do not care for this, but
experience everywhere shows that
they do. In Washington there was a
playground about eighty feet square,
which contained about fifty dollars
worth of apparatus. We used to open
this at the beginning of the season in
charge of a very capable kindergart-ner.
She had a daily attendance of
400 children. She went away on her
vacation and we put a substitute in
her place; we had an attendance of
200 children. When the substitute
went away, we kept it open in charge
of the janitor for a week or two, and
we had an attednace of 15 to 25 child­ren.
The difference between 15 and
400 was purely a difference in organi­zation.
"The supervision of the playgrounds,
is essential to securing the attendance
of the children, as, without this super­vision,
the younger children never
have a chance at the equipment; and
parents, suspicious of the influences
of such a place, are apt not to allow
their children to attend, and there is
nothing going on that makes attend­ance
worth while. But the main
question in regard to the playground
is not that the children should come
but that they should get something
worth while when they do come, and
for this, supervision is absolutely nec­essary.
"The first thought of the playground
promoters was that the purpose of the
grounds was to keep the children off
the streets; but they might quite as
well have said that the purpose of the
public school was to keep the child­ren
off the streets. Both the play­grounds
and the schools serve this
purpose, but we could hardly say that
this is the object of either of them.
The ideals of the playgrounds have
become nearly as definite today as
the ideals of the school, and the play­ground
specialists believe that the ob­jects
which can be achieved through
organized play are no less important
than the objects attained through the
school itself."
The committee in charge of the
Chautauqua are doing some good work
making preliminary arrangements for
the big event.
E
On Wednesday evening of this week
at her home on High Street, Miss Ada
Hogle was united in marriage to Dr.
F. D. Abbott, prominent in the schools
of Broooklyn. Miss Hogle has been
head of the Art Department for foul-teen
years in the Bellingham State
Normal School. The wedding was a
beautiful affair and witnessed by a
few intimate friends. Dr. and Mrs.
Abbott will go leisurely across the
country, visiting Yellowstone Park en
route. The best wishes of all students
and teachers are extended to the de­parting
friends.
PRESIDENT IS HOST
TO SENIOR CLASS
At the president's home on Cedar
Street, a reception was tendered to
the members of the Senior Class and
the summer school faculty, Wednesday
between the hours of four and six o'­clock.
Dr. and Mrs. Deerwester, Pro­fessor
and Mrs. Moodie, Miss Hogle
and Miss Sperry assisted Dr. and Mr\.
Nash in receiving the guests. During
the evening an impromptu program
was given. Mrs. Colby, Miss Berg-strom
and Mr. Dan Hall gave attrac­tive
solos, while Miss Rodolf, Mr.
Berg and Mr. Dahlquist gave clever
readings. Following the program
light refreshments were served.
Last evening at the home of Mrs.
Florence Fox Thatcher, there was giv­en
a pleasing musicale. This "get to­gether"
of Mrs. Thatcher's pupils
proved to be one of the happy evenings
of the close of the school.
E E
The Hawaiian quartette returned to
Bellingham this week. They are Al­bert
Hennes, Lytton Swartz, Waltei
Fegley and Edwin Nattrass. The
last three are graduete of the Normal
School. Hennes will enter next fall
as a Senior. We are glad to welcome
the boys home after their year of
teaching in Hawaii.
SUMMER SCHOOL WILL
f ON NEXT
The work of the school year will
close on Friday of next week. The
week following steps will be taken to
put the buildings in fine condition for
the opening in the fall. Some few im­provements
will be made but there
will be no such extensive changes un­dertaken
as were the order last sum­mer.
*
Mrs. Minnie Termaat, supervisor of
the Grammar Grades, gave a delight­ful
summary of the events connected
with the Democratic nationtal conven­tion.
T
At 3:30 next Sunday afternoon at
the Auditorium, the Rev. Dr. Harrison
will preach the sermon to the gradu­ates
and their friends. A large atten­dance
is expected.
Mrs. Daisy D. Nettleton, who was
instructor in Expression at the Nor­mal
for a year during the absence of
Miss Hays some years ago, is in the
city from Tacoma where she con­ducts
an expression studio. Mrs.
Nettleton came up to attend the
Hogle-Abbott wedding.
TO
Saturday was a rainy day, but in
spite of the downpour, some three
hundred student excursionists took the
train for Glacier. The trips planned
into the Baker region were as follows:
Lookout Point seven miles. A won*
derful view of Baker and the "Sisters."
Nooksack Falls, seven miles. A
good wagon road.
The snout of Roosevelt Glacier,
about ten miles from Glacier—too far
for any but exceptional hikers to go
in the available time. A fine view or
Baker about four miles up this trail.
Twin Falls, seven miles.
Church Mountain, said to be five to
seven miles; feels like twenty. A
hard climb.
Sky Line Divide, seven or eight
miles. A fine view but a hard trip for
one day.
The students were advised to wear
well-broken substantial shoes, wlta
broad low heels, and were asked not to
over-do in the various hikes.
The excursion was under the super­vision
of Prof. Hulse, Miss Cosby
Jackson, Smith Carlton and others
appointed as special guides. The var­ious
trips indicated above were taken
in spite of the rain, and a spirit oC
good cheer was in evidence throughout
the day. The conductor and members
of the train crew showed every posiV-ble
courtesy to the excursionists-
Many of the residents of Glacier open­ed
their homes, after building roaring'
fires, and invited the students to go
in and "dry out." The hotel proprie­tor
showed a similar kindly spirit.
On the way home the last coach was
used as a drying room for late, arrivals.
The conductor of the train paid his
respects to the student party by say­ing
that it was the finest company he
had ever taken over the line. As one
the students said after returning,
"There wasn't a grouch in evidence."
We heard of Prof. Bond's struggle
with a giant trout which resulted in
his being dragged into the stream,
and also of a number of students who
were compelled to wade in water up
to their waists on one of the longer
trips.
Mr. Hintz went out in his automobile
to pick up the stragglers and after a
breakdown returned to Bellingham in
the "wee small hours of the morning.''
Not more than six or seven members
of the faculty attended the excursion.
Students and faculty were grieved
to learn of the death of Mr. J. M.
Scarseth, whose daughter, Miss Scar-seth,
and son Thos. E., are well known
as students of the Normal.