The grounds for these Folk-Meets or Play Festivals at New Paltz are portioned off into several play areas. In one place there are courts for prisoner's base, captain's ball, bean-bag toss, basket-ball throw, and so on; another area is set aside for baseball or playground ball; still another is devoted to giant strides, playground slides, merry-go-rounds, and swings; nets are also stretched for volley ball and badminton, pits are dug for jumping, courses marked for running and racing, a range laid out for archery, and many an interesting game or contrivance for testing skill or otherwise affording amusement is at hand here and there to attract little groups of children, who wander about all day long in perfect delight from one fascinating occupation to another.

These arrangements call for much planning and work, but there is much more to be done. Thus provision has to be made for checking the lunches and other packages of the thousands of guests, and, of course, this has to be done expeditiously. and accurately; toilet accommodations must be carefully thought out, and so must the care of the crowd in case a thunder-storm comes up; a number of tents must be set up for the "concessionaires" who want to sell ice-cream, frankfurters, sandwiches, and soft drinks.

Then the problem of "watering" the little animals; each child will surely want to drink from five to ten times during the day, so some way must be contrived for dispensing water rapidly. Think of having to furnish twenty thousand drinks in one day! A convenient New Paltz device is to solder a number of tin funnels at eighteen-inch intervals into a long iron gas-pipe and attach the contrivance to the water main or to some other adequate source of supply. The water fills the funnels and constantly overflows, thus providing sanitary drinking fountains at small expense yet easily sufficient for the needs of the day.

One of the most important features of the occasion is the Day Nursery, consisting of one or more roomy tents, furnished with cots, kindergarten tables and play materials, a sand-pile just outside the door, and appropriate eatables which may well include sterilized milk in bottles for the infants. Here mothers may check their

babies free of charge, leaving them all day in competent care, while they themselves spend the hours in joyous freedom. When there is a Day Nursery at hand, there are no peevish babies crying and fretting because they are hungry, hot, and tired, and no worn-out mothers wishing they had never come.

It is well worth while to stand at a place of vantage and watch these thousands assemble from every direction intent upon play, some by train, many on foot and horseback, and hundreds by wagon, caravans of which wind their way from neighboring villages and farms. Sometimes an entire district school comes to town on a hay-wagon, with flags and banners flying and with its school cheer in frequent evidence. Just think for a moment what this means to that school. It shows that co-operation, fellow-feeling, school spirit, community loyalty, and kindred virtues have been born into their lives, and that perhaps for the first time in their experience the social forces of country life have become centripetal and attractive instead of centrifugal and expulsive.

Following the lead of New Paltz, Play Festivals for country people have been held in a number of places, and it is certain that this idea will spread over the entire country, for it has already cropped out in such widely different sections as Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Vermont. But of the several agencies which are interesting themselves in behalf of adequate and supervised play for country children, the work of none is so thorough and comprehensive as that which is being done by the County Work Secretaries of the Young Men's Christian Associations. These men have rendered invaluable aid at New Paltz and elsewhere; indeed, they seem to be indispensable to the movement, for it is difficult to see how a Play Festival on a large scale can be carried on in the country without them.

It should be emphasized that a Play Festival is not just for fun; it is not merely to while away leisure time; it is not a mere picnic. The latter has its value and is not to be decried, but it usually grows out of no special purpose other than to have a pleasing outing, and it exercises no permanent influence. The Play Festival, on the other hand, like the

bition! The real leaders in each community become known, be they boys or girls, men or women, and these may be brought together thereafter for organized effort in worthy enterprises for the common good. And all the time the isolation of country life is being lessened.

Again, how easily may new and desir.able features be introduced into a school or a community by these Festivals, and what an opportunity they afford for get ting children to do the old things in the spirit of a new comprehension and from a broader point of view. For instance, if Play Festivals become a permanent institution in a county and it is known that there will always be competitive athletics and games, then running and jumping, prisoner's base, relay races, and so on will become permanent features in the physical lives of the children who are within the radius of the Festival's influence. If on such days there are events which may be participated in only by Boys' Clubs, then Boys' Clubs can thereafter be easily organized and maintained with incalculable benefit throughout the year. If there is to be a competitive exhibit of home-made bread and cake in one of the booths on the Festival grounds, then will it be easy to get the girls to give

attention to the art of baking. If an exhibit of photographs, programmes, and printed matter showing the operation of Men's Clubs, Women's Clubs, Bible Study Circles, or literary soci

eties should be made, with an intelligent person at hand to answer questions and give explanations, then will such organizations be likely to make their appearance in one community after another throughout the county. If there is to be an exhibit of school work in one of the tents, then all through the year the children will give more attention to the three R's, while sewing, gardening, bench-work, carving, basketry, and art will find a deservedly prominent place in an increasing number of schools and homes.

Perhaps it is not too much to say that through a series of properly conceived and well-conducted Festivals the civic and institutional life of an entire county or district, and the lives of many individuals of all ages, may be permanently quickened and inspired, the play movement thus making surely for greater contentment, cleaner morals, and more intense patriotism and righteousness on the farm lands and in the village populations of our country. Such, indeed, are the socializing effects of organized and supervised play.

M

ENTAL healing-or psychotherapy, to give it its technical name is to-day practiced on a most extensive scale and under several forms, some primarily religious in character, others based wholly on the results of scientific investigation. Each particular system, whether religious or scientific, possesses characteristics peculiar to itself and marking it off more or less sharply from every other system. But all have this in common, that they rest at bottom on two general principles-the power of the mind over the body, and the importance of suggestion as a factor in the cure of disease. Moreover, all have a common ancestry, dating back directly to the closing years of the eighteenth century, and indirectly to the dim ages of antiquity.

Psychotherapy, indeed, might well be cited in support of the old adage that there is nothing new but what has been forgotten. Traces of it are to be found almost as far back as authentic history extends, and even allusions to methods which bear a strong resemblance to those of modern times. The literature and monumental remains of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia, India, and China reveal a widespread knowledge of hypnotism and its therapeutic value. There is in the British Museum a bas-relief from Thebes which has been interpreted as representing a physician hypnotizing a patient by making 66 passes over him. According to the Ebers papyrus, the "laying on of hands" formed a prominent feature of Egyptian medical practice as