Chapter I: Front Matter

Popular Amusements

BY

REV. J.T. CRANE, D.D.,

_Of the Newark Conference._

With an Introduction,

BY

BISHOP E.S. JANES.

"_For the Commandment is a Lamp; and the Light is Life; and Reproofs of Instruction are the Way of Life._" PROVERBS VI, 23.

_CINCINNATI_:
HITCHCOCK AND WALDEN.

_NEW YORK_:
CARLTON AND LANAHAN.

1869.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by

HITCHCOCK & WALDEN,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

Subject one of Grave Interest--Rule of Discipline--Charles Wesley
and the Ministers--The True Ground--Our Destiny, and on what it
Depends--The Sentiment of the Methodist Episcopal Church--How a
Minister may seek Recreation--How a Layman--Recommendation, Page 9

CHAPTER I.

RECREATION A GOOD THING.

City full of Boys and Girls, playing--Play not wrong--Let the
Children, the Youth, the Mature, and even the Aged have their times
of Rest and Recreation--Laughter as pious as Tears--How shall we
Play?--The World wants to Play with the Church, and lead us in their
Path--Total Separation neither Desirable nor Possible--One or the
other must Yield--The Church can not--Conscience Resists--Principles
are in the way--The World can Yield and Lose Nothing--The World
ought to Yield, 17

CHAPTER II.

TRUE RECREATION.

What is the Aim of Recreation?--RULES THAT GOVERN: 1. Our
Recreations must not be Immoral; 2. Not Damaging to Christian
Reputation; 3. Must not Interfere with Our Duty; 4. Must not Injure
Health; 5. Must not Waste Money; 6. Must not Waste Time; 7. Ought to
Improve the Mind and the Heart; 8. Ought to Impart Pleasure, Page 31

CHAPTER III.

THE THEATER.

Said to be a Good Place to Learn History, etc.--Some Plays "as
Good as Sermons"--Doubts--Theater always a Haunt of Evil--Must be so
or Fail--The Theater that tried to be "Respectable"--Failure, and
the Causes of it--Strategy and Calculation--Who must be Pleased, and
how--Immodest Costume an Indispensable Attraction--Circular, and
Reply of Actress--Birds of Prey--Traps Game for them--The fable of
Satan and the Monk--Theater can not be Reformed--Cage of every
Unclean Bird--"Come out of her, my people," 47

CHAPTER IV.

HORSE-RACING.

Horse a Noble Beast, no doubt--Races prohibited by Civil
Law--Revived under new name--Agricultural Fair, and what may be seen
thereat--Ludicrous side of things--Twenty gawky Boys with their
Colts--Strange Man and Horse--Science--Victory--The Effect on gawky
Boys--Reasons against Horse-racing--Expense--Bets--Fraud--Riot--
Villainy of All Sorts--How the thing is done, and the People
cheated--Quotation from Thomas Hughes, M.P., Page 63

CHAPTER V.

BASE BALL.

The Ancient and Honorable Way--Latter-day Absurdities--"Great
National Game"--Clubs; how formed--Science--Professional Players and
their Salaries--Expenses--The Exotics challenge the Cupids--Game
described--Victory--Supper--Speeches--Glowing Account in
Papers--Pain-killers--Bubble must Burst--Decay--Reasons against the
Game as now conducted--Foolish Exhibition--Bets--Cheating--Waste of
Money--No Good Result of any sort, 77

CHAPTER VI.

DANCING.

"Dances not all alike"--Bad and Worse--"The German"--Mere motion
not wrong--The Old Gentleman and his Exercises--Imaginary Scene in
"Happy Family"--REASONS AGAINST DANCING: 1. Lacks the Elements of
True Recreation; 2. Has a Bad Historic Name; 3. Inconsistent with
Piety; 4. Leads to Undesirable Associations--Evil in many ways, Page
89

CHAPTER VII.

CARDS, CHESS, AND BILLIARDS.

Cards an Old Game--Origin, Asiatic--History--Horne Tooke and
George III--Author confesses his Want of Knowledge--Cards the
Gambler's Tools--Game adds nothing to Mind or Heart--Dangerous to
some--Betting--Reasons against Card-playing--CHESS also
Ancient--Origin--Play a Laborious Nothing--Wastes Time--Wastes
Brain-power--Hinders Mental Culture--BILLIARDS--Big Marbles--How
Played--Women can never become Experts, and Why--Poor Affair
generally, 105

CHAPTER VIII.

NOVELS AND NOVEL-READING.

Definition of a Novel--A Vice of the Age--FOUR MAXIMS: 1. No
Fiction if Little Leisure; 2. Only the Best; 3. Fiction to be but
Small Part; 4. If any Harm results, Stop at Once--SEVEN REASONS
AGAINST COMMON NOVEL-READING: 1. Wastes Time; 2. Injures the
Intellect; 3. Unfits for Real Life; 4. Creates Overgrowth of the
Passions; 5. Produces Mental Intoxication; 6. Lessens the Horror of
Crime and Wrong; 7. Wars with all Piety--Disciplinary Rule, 121

CHAPTER IX.

SOCIAL GATHERINGS.

No List of Recreations Furnished, and Why--One Suggestion,
nevertheless--The Indolent have No Claim--The Busy need
Recreation--The Sedentary need Air and Sunbeams--The Active want
Books--The Solitary require Society--Talk the Universal
Recreation--Social Life--Grand "Party"--More Excellent Way
suggested--What the Fitzshoddies Think--Mrs. F.'s
Disappointment--Mr. F. Doubts--Miss F. Trembles--The Reform
Unpopular--The Author Despondent in regard to it, yet Firm in the
Faith, Page 153

CHAPTER X.

APPEAL TO THE YOUNG MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH.

Word of Exhortation--REASONS WHY WE SHOULD ABSTAIN FROM ALL
QUESTIONABLE DIVERSIONS: 1. Our Church has always Condemned them; 2.
Solemn Vows bind us; 3. Offenses disturb our Pastor and our
Fellow-Christians; 4. Our Errors injure the Unconverted; 5. Error
mars Usefulness; 6. Compromise Positions hard to hold, either in
Argument or Practice--Fight on the Right Line, 169

CHAPTER XI.

APPEAL TO THE CHURCH.

Lafayette's Witty Illustration of Compromises--Mr. Bright's
Description of Fashionable Religion--Compromise bad, even as a
Policy--The World despises a Timid Church--Methodism has
Prospered--Our Laws strict--Folly to Come Down now--How the Worldly
Parson angled for an Accession and caught nothing--What Mr. B.
said--The exact Right is the strong Position--Hold it--Let others
Hive the Drones--Where other Churches Stand--Testimony of the
Presbyterians--The Methodist Episcopal Church South--Young Men's
Christian Association--The Roman Catholic Church--The End. Page 189