Club Minutes: Mutual Improvement Association, 1883-1889

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Leawood. Jan 1st 1885

Prefatory.

It is with great trepidation that I feebly grasp the pen, wielded so long and so well, by my able predecessors - the term of the first holding for fifteen years, and of the latter for ten.

However, the feeling of gratitude which now impels me to do the bidding of this Society by acting as its Sec. also requires me to announce in the beginning that if you bear with me one year, I shall then most assuredly abdicate my post in favor of any one of the many well qualified members of our Association.

Minutes

The balmy air and bright sunshine which greets us this morning, suggests "May day", rather than the beginning of the New Year, and we were hardly prepared for the sudden blasts which met us on our way hither, nor the searching winds which accompanied us homeward. However the chilly outside was offset by the good cheer within, and when, after dinner we were finally established in the comfortable family living room, we could have listened without growing weary, to many more articles than those read by the few who were faithful in performing this duty. The absence of several members, Margaret S Hallowell, Mary W. Kirk, Sally Bond, Hadassah J. Moore, Edith D. Bentley, Lydia G

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Thomas and Sally Ellicott, was in a measure compensated for by the acceptable presence of the following guests - Mrs. Sophy Peirce, Mrs. Kate Ellicott, Miss Lansdale, Cornelia Stabler, Mary T. Bond, Carrie Bond, Martha Lea, Elenor Hough and Mary Gilpin.

The minutes of last meeting have been read and approved, and those of the previous meeting at this place - Anna F. Gilpin read two short articles which were worthy to be reported here, had not your blundering new SEc. lost them.

Mrs. Peirce's poem - Trees - by Helen Raines was unique describing how even inanimate things praise God.

The Account of Professor Fawcett's efforts to secure the higher education of the blind, read by Margaret Farquhar - suggests the importance of every form of organized charity, working towards making all classes of dependants cultivate greater independence.

Jane Porter and Elizabeth G. Thomas had nothing to contribute.

Sarah Stone gave the value of common salt as a preventative and curator of disease. 1/4 teaspoonful in a little water, will cure dyspepsia, and used as a gargle, is equal to potash for sore throat.

The account read by Mary L. Roberts of curious rock formations in Orange Co. N.J. reveals the interesting fact of their being almost identical

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in construction with those of Giants Causeway, Ireland

Sarah Stabler read - "Decreed" a poem - Into all lives some rain must fall - some sorrow creep - Over all pathways some clouds must lower - some rough winds blow - But God's dear sunshine comes streaming down, gilding the ruins of life's great plain - weaving for all a golden crown.

Rachel E. Gilpin, contributed nothing.

Mary M. Miller Nothing

Rebecca M Thomas read the "Mystics Christmas" by John G. Whittier, very appropriate, at this time.

A.E. Hartshorne read "Are all the Children in", portraying the mother love, in touchingly beautiful lines.

After discussing the several "best" ways of making coffee, and noting the value of various new styles of coffee pots - At an unusually early hour, we adjourned to meet at Plainfield, unless otherwise directed. Sarah J. Miller.

Alloway 1" - 27" - 85

Today we meet at Alloway - The weather clear and cold, and but for a brisk wind blowing, would be called a perfect winter day. And not less perfect were the roads, their frozen surface being worn smooth by many "wheels and horses feet". We gather awhile before dinner - and as we sit before the open

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fire we try to take in the situation. - First the home - where, as in many others, the moral effects of harmony and beauty are fully comprehended, as witnessed in their effects upon the sons and daughters now grown to be men and women - Next, the company - taking first the "Association" proper. The name itself is rather vague and indefinite, but, as applied to this organisation means a great deal, more than all the other titles, of all the other societies, belonging to our social fabric.

It means the fine motherhood of the community the ripened womanhood, which has borne unscathed, the varying griefs and cares of three generations, and today, crowned with whitened hairs, she sits, serene and beautiful, more lovely than when first assembled, a quarter of a century ago. It means too, intelligence and self culture, no less than self sacrifice and charity, for have not these blessed mothers gone on, adding to their faith, virtue, and to virtue knowledge, until as a consequence, temperance, patience, brotherly - kindness, and all the heavenly characteristics have found a lodgement in their magnanimous souls? Such as they mark the world's progress - making the passage of a 16th Amendment possible.

Oh for a loftier, purer, freer Motherhood throughout the land, that the children's inheritance may not be marked with blight,

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and bound with chains! Just here a welcome voice invites to dinner, so soliloquy ends and with alacrity, we sit down beside guests and members safely cornered at the well filled board & having done duty here we do not fail to discover later on that satisfying the demand of a keen appetite, conduces more to sleepiness than to mental activity, - and so the next hour witnesses the heroic efforts of many staunch friends to resist the insinuations of "Nature sweet restore" and be able to give due attention to the business of the meeting, which began shortly after the regulation hour. A Glance at the Roll, discloses the absence of seven members, Margaret S. Hallowell, Mary Willis Kirk, Rachel E. Gilpin Sarah E. Stabler, Ellizabeth G. Thomas, Hadassah J. Moore, and Sally Ellicott, - Pleasant notes from the last two were read, expressing their regret at not meeting with us, and the reasons for their absence. Visitors were not lacking, and as usual, were a pleasant feature of the meeting.

After reading the usual minutes, the story of "Polly and her mission to Town" was read by Jane T. Porter, showing the advantages of taking a back seat, in life, as well as in care, in other words of putting self in the background, and allowing the generous impulses to have sway.

Margaret Farquhar read a bright description called "The first ride on a Camel" arousing in the minds of some of us a desire to go and do likewise. She also told us of some of the medical