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                         THE PLAYWORK BOOK




                                THE
                           PLAYWORK BOOK

                                BY
                            ANN MACBETH

                         WITH 114 DIAGRAMS

                          [Illustration]

                             NEW YORK
                    ROBERT M. MCBRIDE & COMPANY
                               1918




             _Printed in the United States of America_

                      Published October, 1918




CONTENTS


                                         PAGE

  INTRODUCTION                              1

  A WOOLEN BALL                            25

  ANOTHER WOOLEN BALL                      27

  A SPRIG OF FLOWERS                       30

  A SKIPPING ROPE                          33

  A SUCKER                                 37

  <DW57>s                                38

  THE MEAL SACK                            40

  AN EMERY CUSHION                         42

  RAT-TAIL KNITTING                        44

  A PEEP-SHOW PICTURE                      46

  CUP AND BALL                             48

  STORKS                                   50

  A CORK DOLL                              52

  A RABBIT                                 52

  A CORK HORSE                             54

  AN ENGINE AND TENDER                     55

  A CHEST OF DRAWERS                       56

  A CRADLE                                 57

  A DOLL'S TABLE                           58

  A DOLL'S BED                             58

  A DOLL'S CHAIR                           59

  ANOTHER DOLL'S CHAIR                     60

  NECKLACES                                61

  A HAT BAND                               64

  A FAN                                    65

  A PIN-WHEEL OR WHIRLIGIG                 65

  A TIN WHEEL OR BUZZER                    67

  A WOODEN MILL                            68

  A FEATHER WHEEL                          70

  AN AIR PROPELLER                         72

  A REVERSING PROPELLER                    73

  A WATERWHEEL AND SHUTE                   74

  A POP-GUN                                76

  A WHISTLE                                78

  A LONG WHISTLE                           79

  A SQUEAKER                               80

  A BUZZER                                 80

  A CLAPPER                                81

  A TELEPHONE                              82

  A DRUM                                   83

  A MEGAPHONE                              84

  RUSH FURNITURE                           85

  RUSH WHIP                                86

  RUSH RATTLE                              87

  PAPER BEADS                              88

  FISH BONE TEA-SET                        89

  A RUSH OR RAFFIA BAG                     90

  THE HARVEST PLAIT                        91

  DOLL'S FURNITURE                         92

  A WHEELBARROW                            94

  A FERN BASKET                            95

  A DOLL'S STOOL                           96

  A DOLL'S STOOL OF FEATHERS               97

  A PORTER'S HAND BARROW                   98

  A CRANE                                  99

  A TOP                                   101

  A TEETOTUM                              102

  BOW AND ARROW                           103

  A DART                                  105

  A CROSSBOW                              106

  A CATAPULT                              108

  A TARGET                                109

  A RAFT                                  110

  A CANOE                                  111

  A SHIP                                  114

  A PROPELLER                             118

  A DOLL                                  119

  A BROWNIE                               122

  KITES                                   124

  A MONKEY ON A STICK                     131

  A DANCING LADY                          134

  A MODEL AEROPLANE                       136

  A FARMYARD                              138

  A DOLL'S HOUSE                          140




THE PLAYWORK BOOK


Far enough below the surface, in every one of us there lives, very
often almost forgotten, the child, who, like Peter Pan, "never
grows up." It is this everlasting child in us that keeps the keys
which open for each his Kingdom of Heaven, and sad it is for
those of us who have lost sight of the keeper of the keys. The
sweetest and loveliest things in our lives are the simplest things.
They do not abide in the excitable enjoyment of luxuries and
entertainments to be bought with money; they lie in the living and
eternal interest of the homeliest things of daily life, wherever
people are simple, and sincere of heart, and full of loving, kindly
thought and care for the concerns of others; where people do things
themselves instead of paying for them to be done; where wealth
is counted in love, in thoughtfulness, and in interest in other
people, and not in many possessions. These things are the heritage
of all children, and we are happy if we can carry our heritage with
us through our life; for this indeed is to be of the Kingdom of
Heaven.

A child who is unspoiled by the false and ignorant estimates of
others with regard to the rank and standing of those among whom
he lives, is perhaps our truest socialist. He comes into the
world possessing nothing, so far as he is aware, save his own
identity; he knows no distinction of class; his ideas of rank are
based solely on the beauty, charm, and kindness which are in due
proportion the characters of those he lives with. He makes his own
little kingdom if he is encouraged to work it out, or play it out,
for himself; and happy is the child and happy is the parent of that
child who learns to play independently, and to gather together
his kingdom, without a continual cry for assistance from others.
Here is one of the first great landmarks in education, and a child
who is unspoiled by too many possessions in the way of toys will
be one well provided, for his mind should at once move to create
these possessions for himself. This power to create, this moving
of the spirit to make something out of chaos, is in all healthy
human beings, and it is the happiest faculty we have. It is, in
fact, one of the most vital sides of religion in us, and perhaps
the most important to us. It brings us into direct kinship with
the Great Creator of all things. This moving of the Holy Spirit
over the chaos of the world, in our businesses, in our workshops,
in our shipyards, in our buildings, in all craftsman's work in
our factories, is probably never realized by the churchmen among
us, and only vaguely apprehended by the educational authorities.
Yet does not this very power of creative thought amongst even the
humblest of us constitute religion of the most living vitality?
This Holy Spirit moving, and living, and creating anew in every
trade and craft, and in every place where men are busy, should
be better realized by us, and more respected; we should then be
better men and women. The inventive minds among us are indeed our
prophets, answering to the call of those whose labor is too long
and heavy, and producing what will lessen the burden. Answering
again the call for more light, more beauty, more music in the
world, and producing our arts and our playgrounds, our games, our
schools and colleges. Answering again the call for freedom from
pain, and we have our hospitals, and our great doctors, and all who
work for the betterment of the world. Here is the real and living
church of God on earth. They say we are leaving the churches behind
us. Say rather that the church is more with us, and all are its
ministers who are working for the world's welfare.

We rebuke far too often that habit of children of asking questions.
We say, "Be quiet," and "You will see some other day"! Yet it is by
questions that the child shows most his interest in life, and his
inclinations and desires and tendencies.

We instruct a child for years in the writings, doings, sayings,
and contrivings of others who have gone before us. How rarely
do we realize that in these little ones there may be as great,
or greater, light within, only needing care and encouragement to
develop and flame up, and show its creative strength? It is sad to
think how often these little lights are snuffed out in their first
flickerings by the thoughtless things we say, by the foolish way
we tease them at the slightest sign of independent thought, by our
ignorant habit of commending and praising those who give up their
independence, and conform to the commonplace habits and customs we
have adopted as convenient.

Many very young children show astonishingly developed faculties
in certain directions even before they can express themselves in
speech. I know a little boy who, in his second year, showed such
an interest in machinery that his elder relatives had to learn
the parts of a locomotive engine in order not to betray their own
ignorance; and over and over again we see the faculties of the
creative mind so strong in young children that it is difficult to
persuade ourselves that they have not some previous experience
to draw upon. Especially is this the case in music and the arts,
for here there is perhaps less dependence on tools and previous
technical training required, than in other constructive work.
But it is sad to see, and very common also, that these bright
beginnings too often flicker out, not because the spirit is
lacking, but because these children are only too often driven to
hide their lights, because they feel conspicuous, are teased, and
rebuked, and chidden for their non-conformity, and are made to feel
themselves outcasts if they pursue the way their spirit tends to
lead them; and they lose their light, these finer little spirits,
and subside into the twilight of mediocre minds.

It is indeed difficult, in these times of over-crowded schools and
over-worked teachers, to foster and develop the personalities of
these little ones, but we all look to a time when education may be
a stronger force among us, more respected and more desired, when
those who teach in our elementary schools may be the finest men
and women we have, those of the greatest hearts, and the widest
understanding (for into their hands we place the most precious
thing we have); a time, when, realizing that the laborer is worthy
of his hire, we must also be brought to realize that the hire must
be worthy of the laborer.

We become more and more socialistic in our community life in these
days, and a child is now so little left to the charge of his mother
that his life, almost from babyhood upwards, is just a passing on
from one trained hand to another till he is able to support himself
independently, and often long after that. His years of school
grow longer and busier, and now even his playtime is to be more
closely guarded and supervised. Yet it is to be hoped that here the
guarding and supervising will be specially directed to preserving
his independence and his choice of leisure occupation.

Games are good for all, yet playtime should emphatically not be
all games: this is where our public schools have failed us; they
have given too much importance to games, and almost none to private
enterprise in constructive play. In the little contrivances of
children lie the germs of vast mechanical and artistic enterprises.
The marvelous crafts passed on to us from ancient days in every
land were never the result of training in schools, they partook
more of the qualities of what I would call "constructive play,"
passed on from parent to child, each new thing a little different
from any other, changing and varying in every age, yet all through
a pleasure and a joy to their makers. Our trades and our crafts
have all their beginnings in the immature constructions we make as
children. We build houses, we furnish them, we make instruments of
music (and un-music), we make ships, we fashion vessels of clay,
and wood, and metal; we weave and we paint; we dimly foresaw the
days when men should fly like birds, and we made kites. All this
went on for countless generations, and then we laid captive the
steam and the electric current, and lo! a change; all things are
possible. Yet we have had a set back; we have forgotten awhile
that the spirit in all of us is greater than the machine. We
have allowed our machines to make our toys, and instead of being
toy-makers our children have to some extent become toy breakers,
not because they are really trying to destroy, but because they
have the right and natural desire to see how a thing is made. It
is not enough, however, to know this; it is very essential that a
child should make for himself, and the probability is that if the
thing is easily bought he will not take the trouble to make it. He
will be inclined to take it for granted that just because it is a
"commercial" article, a thing to be bought in a shop, he cannot
make it. Toys imported from abroad have been so plentiful and so
cheap of late years that the children of to-day rarely attempt
to make them for themselves, and they are immensely the poorer,
intellectually speaking, for the lack of this necessity to make
them. It is for this reason that I have gathered together a small
collection of the contrivances of past generations, and the present
generation too, not in order that