Quotes About Young People Over Time Quiz

Answer: Waltz

"The Times" newspaper was founded in 1785, at which time it was known as "The Daily Universal Register". Within three years it switched to the familiar name by which it was still known at the turn of the 21st century. Oh dear - today "The Times" is a subsidiary of another organisation, owned by yet another organisation, with Rupert Murdoch at its head. One presumes it gave an ever so romantic covering of his wedding to Mick Jagger's ex-girlfriend in 2016. A couple of other interesting facts about this paper is that it was the first to have war correspondence sent back from the fronts; the first editor spent over a year in jail for libel (history endlessly repeats itself); it hard-heartedly opposed the repeal of the Corn Laws (1816-1846) when people were starving to death, particularly in Ireland; and it only grudgingly backed aid for those starving families in the dreadful Potato Famine in the 1840s/50s.

It's not at all surprising then that the editorial staff of such a very conservative production frowned on the newly introduced waltz as a matter of course, thundering out its disapproval in the above quote. One of the things that most raised their far right eyebrows regarding the beautiful, gracious waltz - apart from the closeness of the partners' bodies to one another - was the fact that, every so often, most shockingly so, the man's foot would disappear under the hem of the woman's dress. Risqué stuff indeed.

NOTE: All quotes used in this quiz can be found at this web address: http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-complaints-about-young-people-ruining-everything

Answer: Thomas Sheridan

Perhaps Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788) was more in a position to judge the speech of the youth of his day than most people. Not only was he an actor, and a publisher of a corrected dictionary, he was also a teacher. And what teacher anywhere hasn't groaned in despair over the essays of his or her students? Sheridan had another connection to the world of literature and speech as well, in that he was the godson of the famous author and Dean of St Patrick's in Dublin, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745).

It would seem though that Sheridan's true love was education, and he wrote quite a few papers on that subject - including this comically titled one in 1756: "British Education: Or, The source of the Disorders of Great Britain. Being an Essay towards proving, that the Immorality, Ignorance, and false Taste, which so generally prevail, are the natural and necessary Consequences of the present to defective System of Education. With an attempt to shew, that a revival of the Art of Speaking, and the Study of Our Own Language, might contribute, in a great measure, to the Cure of those Evils". Perhaps, if he'd lived a little longer, he could also have written one called "Titles: The Art of Brevity".

Answer: Novels and plays of romance

The Reverend Doctor Enos Hitchcock, of Providence, Rhode Island, lived from 1744 until 1803. Not only was he a chaplain during the American Revolution, he was one of the best known preachers of his era - with a firm belief in the uplifting power of education. That uplifting education most definitely did not include the trashy novels and plays which were becoming more and more popular during his day, as evidenced in the above quote. It is to be wondered, in passing, how many of those same trashy novels and plays are considered American classics today.

Along with other prominent leaders of his era, Reverend Hitchcock hammered away, day after day, at maintaining the highest values in all that his parishioners - particularly the youth - read. Reading materials, he stressed, should elevate the mind and the soul and fill one with yearnings to achieve all that was nobly Christian. He was a fine and decent man, however, so one shouldn't pull faces behind the preacher's back. He worked to set up public schooling in the areas over which his influence stretched, and strived equally sincerely for the abolition of slavery. So you see, education and classical literature certainly worked for this good soul. On the Reverend's death in 1803, he left behind a wealth of papers, diaries, sermons and letters, all of which can today are in the care of the Rhode Island Historical Society.

Answer: Psychology

Dear me, what would he think of their lifestyle 100 years later? If he had any sense, he'd realise nothing has changed at all, and never has done. Apart from the fashions, that is - and they come and go. American born Granville Stanley Hall (1846-1924) was a pioneer in the burgeoning field of psychology, particularly on childhood development and the influence of education on the young. President of the first American Psychology Association, he was initially a teacher of English and philosopher at assorted colleges because of the lack of available work in his chosen field, but that would soon change. Interestingly, for one with such a conservative opinion of the youth of his time, Hall frowned upon the teaching of traditional classical subjects at high school, and pushed for subjects to be built more around the needs of adolescents. To that end, his later work had a strong focus on educational psychology.

It's a wonder Hall wasn't run out of town on a book he later published in 1917 though. Called "Jesus the Christ in the Light of Psychology", this work attempted to analyse and dissect all the stories built around Jesus, and goes as far as to attempt to analyse the psychological motivations of the great man himself. Other controversial aspects of Hall's later working life were his emphasis on the inheritance of behaviour; developing racial eugenics (!); his belief that females should be educated to become mothers - with men as the heads of the family (oh please); and that boys and girls should be educated in separate schools because the influence of girls otherwise held back the development of the more masculine side of boys. Ultimately then, Granville Stanley Hall was an odd combination of startling clarity of thought on some aspects of psychology, way ahead of his time in many of his innovative theories - and a cross between a caveman, eugenist, and a text book chauvinist.

Answer: Chess

Chess, if you please. A two-person game that requires concentration, skill, cunning, strategy and the ability to think several moves ahead. Scandalous, sirrah! It seems peculiar that "Scientific American", a reputable magazine founded back in 1845, perceived this challenging and rewarding pastime in such a negative light in 1859. Perhaps the writer of the above quoted article had lost a game the evening before.

Did you know that chess, which originated in India circa AD 200, was based on strategy associated with warfare? By the Middle Ages, though, when it had made its way into Europe, it was quite often used in church sermons as "metaphors for different classes of people" and the roles and responsibilities all were expected to fulfil in life. When it eventually trotted over to the Americas, the early opinions about this game was that it was an excellent form of self-improvement. The tubby little Benjamin Franklin would write of it in 1779 that:

"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn...foresight...circumspection...and caution".

Answer: Umbrellas

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a rather bohemian but famous Scottish author of articles, novels and travel dialogues. His better known works are the 1883 "Treasure Island", a ripping good boys yarn about pirates, villains and buried treasure; and the 1886 horror tale of the "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" about a man's darker and evil side gradually taking over the finer and nobler instincts of a respected and admired doctor, who, alas, dabbled in the forbidden - a Darth Vader with an umbrella.

The quote in the question above was taken from one section of Stevenson's most interesting (posthumously published) work "Lay Morals" (1911) in which he likens the possessors of umbrellas to comfortably complacent and most respectable members of the ruling classes - and that their very personalities and characters are revealed in their choices of umbrella design and colour. In fact, Stevenson wasn't joking at all. It's a shame this fascinating work isn't better known. It's a kind of Jonathan Swift like attack/advice on the life, humanity, education, morals and society of his time.

Umbrellas have been known to man since at least the year 21 AD in China, when it was revealed in records there that Wang Mang, a Chinese official who founded the Xin Dynasty, had a large shade designed to go over the roof of his carriage. They were also known in Ancient Persia, India, Greece and Egypt as well, and even in the more masculine oriented Ancient Rome, where they were mostly used by women to hold back the heat of the sun. Yet, oddly enough, there is very scant evidence that they were used in the older days of European life. People relied more on heavy cloaks there for protection against the weather instead. By the 17th century, however, they were gradually making an appearance there at last.

Answer: The movies

"The Pentecostal Evangel", established in 1913, was a weekly magazine produced by the General Council of the Assemblies of God, with its headquarters in the USA. It was actually founded a year prior to the official formation of that fundamentalist church itself. In 2015, it became available online in place of the printed version, but continues to focus on issues of the day plus biblical studies and instructions, along the lines of most religious organisations. The quote used in the question above reflected the real alarm that the church felt about the ever increasing hold that the movies, still in their infancy, had on the minds of the general public. Though moving pictures had been around since the 1880s, these were still very much in their infancy, with only a few short minutes captured on their seductive reels. By the 1920s however, movies had improved to such an extent that audiences could be held mesmerised for 90 minutes of more with the thrilling tales unfolding before them.

We may laugh at these old films today, but those heroes, villains and seductresses up there on those flickering screens probably held more power over the masses than anything that has been invented since. People believed the stories, wished to look like their stars, dressed like them, spoke like them, and took on all their mannerisms in everyday life. I watched an old black and white silent movie on television two nights ago (a fascinating hobby - old movies reflect the values of the times in which they were produced) and its story line must have been shocking back in its day. It was the 1928 "A Woman of Affairs" starring the fascinating Greta Garbo as, literally, just that. She went through men at the speed of knots because of her broken heart. It dealt with so many other taboo subjects of the time that its a wonder it managed to slip past the censors. (But that was before The Code was adopted). And yes, though I initially laughed, by the end of the film, I was having a little cry. In 2016! Imagine then its influence back in 1928. No wonder "The Pentecostal Evangel" condemned the movies so heartily.

Answer: Young women

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftsbury (1801-1885) was a politician, a philanthropist, and a social reformer. His childhood had been harsh, almost cruel, and devoid of all affection from his parents. To fill that void, his housekeeper and her sisters gave the small child the love and approval he so desperately needed, and it was their influence that would see his later philanthropic and social work spring to life. That work included a reform of the barbaric lunacy laws of his time, overseeing better treatment of the inmates, fighting to do away with the insufferable conditions under which children worked, factory reform, improving the condition of miners and chimney sweeps, and pushing for education reform and the provision of schools for the poor. All this and much more this remarkable man achieved in his lifetime. It's just a shame he held such distorted views about the young women of his day.

That aside, however, at the funeral of this "Poor Man's Earl" (as he was known) on 8th October, 1885, the streets were lined for miles with "poor people, costermongers, flower-girls, boot-blacks, crossing-sweepers, factory-hands and similar workers who waited for hours to see Shaftesbury's coffin as it passed by" in a wonderful tribute to all he had done for them.

Answer: Parties

It's proved difficult to find out when this ultra conservative journal was founded, but it can be stated with certainty that it was a popular American magazine of the day in 1848 at least, when it merged with its rival, the popular "Mother's Magazine". Consisting of 16 pages each edition, it was sold at the time for one dollar a year's subscription. With female editors of both publications, the Visitant's chief was one Mrs Mary C. Clarke. Most of its articles are written by women themselves, and it's astonishing to read the opinions that were held by them about children at this time. They're downright harsh, judgemental, very comical at times, but above all, historically fascinating. A few examples from their pages follow:

On clothing: The sorrowful tale of a child performer whose mother didn't dress her warmly and modestly enough. As a result, she died from pneumonia, dear readers: "Sweet little songster! The bright glimmerings of a life so precious are going out. Fever ensues, her brain is reeling, she sings, she laughs, she raves, she entreats her mother to cover her from the piercing cold. The physician hastens to her bed-side, but all is lost! no hope!"

More on clothing: "... a hundred little girls, on their way to school, dressed more like little actresses from a London or Paris stage, than the daughters of our Pilgrim mothers, who clad themselves in their own home-spun linen and wool, and were hale and vigorous both in body and mind. O! shade of Martha Washington! What would she think...?"

Children's parties: See quote in the question above. And: "...these children's parties, which I was thinking of when I began, are more objectionable on these grounds, than many other errors. These parties are, to the moral perverting of a childish nature....(as) a French boarding school is to the ordinary seminary."

Eating sweets and cakes: "Very many of our children are almost toothless, or better be, than to be suffering from the pain of decaying teeth, and fetid breath, occasioned by an extravagant use of these delicious poisons, which have come to be the accustomed reward to every little favorite...They are (becoming) feeble, sickly, susceptible to bowel complaints, nervous temperament, nausea, headache, dyspepsia, fevers, rheumatisms and gout..."

Answer: Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 BC), commonly known as Horace, was a Roman poet and philosopher, who was more than skilled at the art of satire to put across his many messages. He was particularly adept at side-stepping contentious issues that so abounded during the turbulent period when Rome evolved from an Empire to a Republic. From Horace's "Odes" in particular - a work filling four books - we are treated to a first-hand account of the life and times of those heady days of the new order. Those poems cover not only the momentous events taking place in his world, the political figures, the wars, the floods, but also the day to day issues that still concern mankind today (love, pleasure, wine, friendship etc) and all given to us through the fascinating perspective of history. With a dash of sly humour on the side.

This incredibly valuable glimpse into a past long gone gives us friends setting out on dangerous sea voyages, the brevity of life (from which the famous expression "Carpe Diem" springs), faithless lovers, happiness, politics, the disgraceful behaviour of some soldiers, the changing seasons, advice on how to drown one's sorrow in wine, his annoyance at how on Lydia transformed one hardy athlete into a simpering swain, music, religion and the gods, the falseness of astrologers, jealousy, the joyousness and sometime folly of youth, the tranquillity of the countryside, anger, more wine, the death of a friend, spending money wisely, the trees on his estate, a narrow escape from death, the value of the simple life, the scorn he felt for unnecessary luxury, vanity, banquets, rivals, the bustle of Rome, yet more wine, fleeting beauty, the inevitability of old age, the prospect of death, and the hope of immortality. A fascinating glimpse of history in verse.