Club Minutes: Mutual Improvement Association, 1912-1916

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to be transferred to scrim, making it possible to have paper and curtains match exactly. She also told of whipped cream which comes from Switzerland in cans, and is quite as good, if not better, than that we prepare at home.

Ellen Stabler gave us several little articles each containing helpful thoughts, - “Build a little fence of trust around today, etc. and, - By loving whatever is lovable in those around us, love will flow back from them to us. Sarah T. Miller then read 2 short pieces, which we heard with much pleasure. I select a few lines, - “I wonder why it is we are not all kinder to each other than we are, how much the world needs it, how easily it is done!” “Live in the sunshine, don’t live in the gloom”, which I am sure, we should all endeavor to do to the best of our ability.

Mary Bond told of Mrs. Bryan, who is a woman of culture, a wife and mother in the fullest sense of the word, also a lawyer. She is a woman who is not afraid to advocate high principles and uphold them at all times and places, and under all circumstances.

Sarah Willson read us a poem, “A Merry Heart,” last 4 lines

“E’en now take a heart for further on There are hope and joy and the dawn of day. You shall find again what you thought was gone “Tis the merry heart goes all the way.”

Eliz. Stabler interested us very much by reading of the proposed pension for Mothers who have been deserted by their husbands, a test case to be made in Pa.

Ellen Farquhar’s selection of “Easter Island, the Mystery of the Pacific” was most interesting. This Island has long baffled scientists there are 200 persons there now, who know nothing of the lost language of their ancestors or who made the 550 carved images found there, 40 of which stand inside the crater of a volcano, - Tablets have also been found covered with hieroglyphics most skillfully executed. In 1864 several thousand persons lived on Easter Island, large numbers were taken to work

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in the guano diggings on Chincha Islands, among these it was thought were many who knew the written language on the tablets. The present inhabitants know nothing of them except in a vague way.

Mrs. Holtzman gave us her rules for being happy, - 1st. Following the Golden Rule 2nd, Do good to some one each day. 3rd, Whatever you do try to do well, do not be satisfied with mediocrity. 4th, Don’t cross a bridge until you reach it.

Mrs. Holtzman extended an invitation to have the Nov. Mtg. of the Asso. at her Apt. in Washington, lunch at 12 o’clock, - the invitation was accepted and Mrs. H. thanked for her kindness. She feels she has attended a number of our mtgs. with much pleasure, and wishes us to visit her.

Fanny Snowden read of the Montessori School for Children from 3 to 6 yrs. in The Casa de Bambini in the Franciscan Nunnery in Italy, the life there for the children seemed most advantageous, making them deeply interested by most ordinary every day things, putting buttons in their holes, tying ribbons in bows, etc. We were very sorry we could not have heard more of the children’s life there. Sarah Kirk had a beautiful poem “Twenty-One”, which she read most agreeably to all. Adjourned to meet at Martha Holland’s June 5th.

Alice Tyson, Secy pro tem

26. Pleasant View – 6-5-1913

The Asso. met at Pleasant View, the home of Martha Holland and brother on 6-5-13. Visitors were, Lillie C. Rumford, Ellen Stabler, Mrs. Taylor, Mary W. Bird, Mary Scott, Ida Iddings, Mrs. Palmer, Marjorie Snowden, and Edith B. Farquhar. The foreword was from the prose writings of Longfellow, we believe, - “Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again; wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.”

Ellen Farquhar made several selections from her well-beloved “Rural N. Yker”, - 1st an acct of the adoption by a farmer, of a blind boy, who soon developed an extraordinary talent for managing bees. There were pleasant comments upon the real charity of brightening the life of one so affected.

Albina O. Stabler’s article was on the subject of friendships. It was thought people make friends later in life than formerly and possibly the roots take deeper hold. “The best things are nearest, the breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, and the path of God lies just before you. Do not grasp at the stars, but accomplish life’s plain common work as it comes, certain that daily bread and daily duties are the sweetest things in the world.”

Edith B. Farquhar by request, gave extracts from letters written by her son Carol, now making an extended tour of the West with his grandfather Farquhar and aunt Anna. Told in school-boy fashion his experiences seemed to interest and amuse the whole company.

Lillie C. Rumford confirmed his estimate of the wonderful Grand Canyon of Arizona and spoke of the impossibility of estimating distances where everything was on such a gigantic scale.

Alice Tyson told of the work of the Red Cross Society as learned in an interview with Miss Mabel Boardman, successor to Clara Barton. The aid rendered recently to the

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flood swept regions of Ohio and Indiana was especially valuable and prompt. They first gave food and shelter to all who asked for it, then gradually sifted out the people willing to work, from the professional beggars. There are now 4000 nurses ready to respond to a call of the Red Cross, and the Society is absolutely neutral, pledged to remain so even in the event of a war between our country and another.

A question in regard to removing ink stains was answered by recommending “The H. H. Ink-Eradicator” procurable at Ashton.

Ellen Stabler read of a little girl who on running noisily down a staircase was sent back to “come like a lady”, which she did quietly by sliding the banisters! A 2nd, selection stated that some men who believe they have far too great a load of responsibility upon their shoulders are In reality bowed down by self-conceit alone.

Virginia Steer brought a good little verse entitled “Joy” – “Take joy home and make a place for her in thy great heart, And cherish her and give her time to grow. Then will she come, and oft will sing to thee When thou at working in the furrows, Aye, or weeding in the sacred hours of dawn, It is a comely fashion to be glad, Joy is the grace we say to God.”

Sallie R. Janney read a sketch of Wm. of Germany, known to some of his devoted subjects as “Wm the Sudden” from his precipitancy in Youth. He has been Kaiser for 25 yrs. and although considered, for all the earlier part of his reign, very warlike in nature, Germany has enjoyed a grateful rest from wars and rumors of wars.

Louisa T. Brooke’s offering lamented the sensational, sketchy, unconnected character of the contents of newspapers generally. Such reading, (it cannot be termed literature) is especially harmful to the Young student who finds the daily Press anything but an invigorating mental cold-water bath. A discussion of the

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recent ball at Olney showed that most parents in S. S. do not favor late hrs. and indiscriminate gatherings anywhere, nor questionable dances at all.

L. T. B. wanted to have our opinion of the English Suffragettes. They are rarely endorsed by American women who never have resorted to such ultra acts for any purpose: and it does not seem possible they will change their natures now, when better methods are taking firm hold in many states, even east of the Miss., long regarded as the “dead line” of woman’s political equality.

Our notes fail to record to whom we were indebted for the story of a dear old aunt, an invalid herself, who was made the dumping ground for all the woes of a community, until her energetic niece began the Indian dodge of fighting fire with fire. By giving one whiner a large dose of her own medicine, she worked a reform to the advantage of the gentle victim who would never have dreamed of defending herself in such wise. From the same source came a description of a curious bean in Africa that travelers should refrain from touching a it causes an intense irritation of the cuticle.

Eliz. T. Stabler brought us the following verse,

“Oh what is life without a friend To dissipate our gloom? A path where naught but briars grow, Where flowers never bloom. Tis friends who make this desert world To blossom as the rose, Strew flowers o’er our rugged path Pour sunshine o’er our woes.”

Anna G. Lea gave through S. R. J. two selections, first a just criticism upon the too scanty costumes of this day whose tight lines expose the form, often indecently, and when the short skirt falls, only partly, over gossamer hose, we can echo the remark recently made by a shocked elderly woman, “I have seen enough legs this season to last me a life time.”