THE WORK OF THE RURAL CLUB
I--A CLUB FAR FROM LIBRARIES
Letters have come from the Far West, from Nova Scotia, from remote
districts in the South, and from ranches in Canada asking much the same
question: "Is it possible to carry on a women's club when we are far
away from any public library and have few books, if any, in the
community?"
If any group of women need a club it is the women on farms and ranches
and in little villages, whose lives are monotonous, who have no lectures
or concerts to attend and few magazines or new books to read. They,
above all the rest of us, need intellectual stimulus. And their question
may be answered with a positive affirmative: Yes; it is perfectly
possible to have a club, one doing excellent work, with no library at
hand. Many examples of what can be done might be given, but one will
stand for them all: In a singularly isolated spot in New England a club
was began ten years ago with a handful of farmers' wives and daughters
living within an area of a dozen miles. They used what material they had
at hand; they added to it; they studied simple things at first, and
later took up more difficult subjects; and then they did practical work
for their community. To-day that club is made up of many well-read women
of all ages who have acquired what may truly be called a liberal
education, and the whole neighborhood has been raised and enlightened by
what they have done for it in a hundred ways. And they had nothing more
to begin with than any group of women has under similar conditions. Any
woman who feels the need of a club can start one, and once started it
will grow of its own volition and justify its existence.
II--HOW TO START A RURAL CLUB
Let us suppose that some country woman decides to start a club. She is
not quite sure what steps to take, but she invites some of her neighbors
to meet with her and talk it over. Probably they will agree to begin
very simply, merely meeting once a week or so and reading aloud--feeling
their way to other things. This is the right sort of a beginning, for
in a very short time they will have gained sufficient confidence in
themselves to plan something better. At this point some one may suggest
that at the next meeting each woman shall bring in a written list of the
books she owns. When this is done it will probably be found that there
are many good ones to use. There will probably be a set of Dickens,
volumes of Longfellow, Tennyson, and Whittier, a few biographies,
including one of General Grant, a book or two of travel and scattered
volumes of all kinds, novels, histories, and school books, and possibly
an encyclopedia.
This list has great possibilities for club study, especially if there is
the encyclopedia, so essential for reference. With a very small
membership fee, perhaps five cents a month, one new book may be bought
every three months; with ten club members this can be done.
When the club is fairly going it may decide to select Dickens's novels
to study, as a sort of popular beginning; a simple plan of work would be
as follows:
Divide the club into committees of two, and to each give one novel to
read and thoroughly master. Meanwhile the president may study the life
of Dickens. If she has no book to use she should write to the State
Librarian and try to secure a traveling library with this and other
needed books in it; or at least she may get, if not a library, one or
two volumes, sent by mail. At the first regular meeting she should give
a sketch of Dickens's life and show any pictures of the author in the
book. She should also try to find in an English history pictures of
Canterbury, London, and other places associated with his life, and
Westminster Abbey, where he is buried.
By the next meeting the first committee should be ready to give an
afternoon program on one novel, say "David Copperfield." One member may
tell the story of the book, mentioning the various characters; another
may take these up in part and describe them. Then there should be
readings, not only by these two members but by others to whom they have
been given, illustrating the main points of the story. After the meeting
the book should be loaned to some one who will read it and pass it on to
the rest. And so with each novel in turn. There should be a discussion
at each meeting, and members should tell why they admire or dislike
this character or that, and what great moral lesson Dickens points out
in each book, and so on. Such a study might well occupy an entire year
and be extremely interesting.
Or suppose the club decided to study Longfellow's poems. Again the first
meeting is to be on the life of the poet; the second will take up the
first of the group of American poems, "Hiawatha," and have it read
aloud; the discussion following may be on the types of Indians drawn by
Longfellow and inquire: Are they true to life? The next meeting will be
on "Miles Standish," with a paper or talk on the Puritans in England and
America, and a description of the first winter in the colony.
The third meeting will take "Evangeline," with a paper on the Acadians.
Later should come other poems of our own country, on slavery, and on
village life, with readings from these, and from "The Wayside Inn."
Later still, his translations should be read and discussed, and his
little dramas. The season should close with an afternoon in which each
club member should read her favorite poem. If clubs can buy one book it
will be found delightful at this point to read aloud "A Sister to
Evangeline," by Chas. G. D. Roberts (The Page Company).
Or, if the autobiography of General Grant were to be studied, a
committee should go over the table of contents and divide it up into
several parts; his early life; his experiences at West Point; the years
between that and the Civil War; the great campaigns and battles in which
he took part, and the great men on both sides with whom he came in
contact, especially Lincoln and Lee; his Presidency; his trip around the
world; his business venture, its ending; the writing of his book; his
death and burial. All of these points should be illustrated with
pictures where that is possible, and each meeting should have a
discussion on the period presented. The one copy of the book must of
course be loaned in turn to the different committees, but each one is
not to read it all but only the part assigned, so there would be plenty
of time for preparation. Such a study would open many different topics,
especially those bearing on the war and on Grant's trip, and would be of
a definitely educational nature.
Of course every magazine the club can get should be searched for
articles of value for reference. One member might make it her work to go
over them each month and make out a list, copying the titles on a large
sheet of paper, which could be hung up on a door at each club meeting;
or a card catalogue might be kept. In a short time this would make a
real, if small, reference library. History, essays, articles on science,
sketches of travel, and poems would all be of some use sooner or later.
Other subjects may be treated in the same way as those suggested.
History, especially different periods in English history, makes
delightful study, and books on nature, and travel, and phases of woman's
life and work are easy to get and interesting. Nature study, gardening,
bee raising, the care of poultry and other practical subjects may be
introduced with the other work.
III--VALUE OF COMMUNITY WORK
And then, aside from working for their own development, there is the
other work a club can undertake, that for the community, which is of
immense value. The newly coined phrase one hears to-day in connection
with farm life is: Better farming, better business, better living. How
to help bring about these three great ends is one of the best things a
club can study.
The first subject which will come up will be: What are the principal
difficulties we have to meet in our homes, and how can we overcome them?
At this point a book should be read aloud in the club, a chapter at a
meeting, with discussion afterward; it is, "The Report of the Commission
on Country Life," and is a presentation first, of the farm problems,
and, second, of how to meet them. The chapters on the work of the
farmer's wife, with its difficulties, will be of especial interest, but
all of it is important to read, for hygiene in the home, gardening, the
school and church, social life, and many other topics of practical
interest are dealt with there and will suggest lines of study for the
club.
The first topic to treat is that of home hygiene: discussion of how
better ventilation of sleeping rooms, better protection from flies,
better cooking, better sanitation can be secured. This will probably
occupy several meetings. Then will come the topic of beautifying the
home, and this will suggest the cleaning up of the farm yard as the
first step to take. Later on, when community work is begun, this will
lead to a house-to-house visitation with the request that all the
neighborhood should make their premises more inviting in the same way.
IV--IMPROVING THE PUBLIC SCHOOL
After this the public school will be studied. The building may need
repairs and modernizing, especially the outbuildings, the playground and
the surroundings of the schoolhouse. A chapter in the Report will be of
inestimable value next, for it points out the need of a redirected
education, one which will give the child of the farm some study of
nature, of agriculture, health, sanitation, domestic science and similar
subjects which fit his life. It suggests that the school-teacher and
district superintendent should be called to conferences on this subject
and asked to help in carrying out plans for the betterment of the
school.
The next thing for the club to do is to make a social center of the
schoolhouse. The crying need of farmers' families is for social life.
True, the grange tries to supply this, but the women's club can also
help by having lectures and concerts and addresses at the schoolhouse,
with stereopticon shows, dances, tableaux, and whatever will make the
community happier and better. They may also carry out the suggestion of
the Commission that the school should be brought into direct contact
with the State Agricultural College, and professors should come to give
demonstrations on farms, and traveling lectures on orchards, dairies,
farm pests and other topics should be given.
V--TALKS BY EXPERTS
When the time for the county fair comes the club may have, as one
Illinois club did, a series of talks on all sorts of live topics, given
by experts to all who would come, the men as well as the women. Farm
Life in the Old World, The Farm Boy and the Farm Problem, Bringing Home
and School Together, Home-Making for Men and Women, were given, and also
practical demonstrations on preserving, bread and butter making, and
other domestic subjects. Besides these there was a fruit and vegetable
show with prizes, given by the children.
Then there is the beautifying of the little village. The club may clean
it up, plant shade trees and shrubbery, freshen up the paint of the
railroad station and make its driveway attractive, take charge of the
cemetery lots which are neglected, make a common in the middle of the
town if possible, and have flowers and trees there, and, most important
of all, create a sentiment among the people which will lead to
abolishing the loafing places about town.
The club may also help the village church or, rather, churches. These
are a problem in every farming community, for there are usually too many
for the population, and no one of them is well supported. It may be that
some clubs may be successful in having a union church; but, if not that,
at least they can frown on the spirit of jealousy between the churches
and establish cooeperation. The buildings may be freed from their
mortgages, the interiors freshened, the choirs improved, the minister's
house papered, the Sunday school modernized, the women's societies
assisted. There is always plenty to be done to help a struggling country
church.
A town library may be started by the gift of one book by each family,
and club women may take turns in giving out the books one day a week
and providing entertainments to raise money to buy more.
Clubs may also help the town celebrate fete days: Arbor Day, the Fourth
of July, Harvest Home, and the birthdays of local celebrities or of
Washington and Lincoln. The schoolhouse may be used for such meetings.
The motto of every rural club should be: Cooeperation. As one kind of
work is taken up after another it will soon be seen how much women can
do if they work together for the good of all. The little club nucleus
may draw to itself the men of the community, the young people, and even
the children, and together they may build up something fine, something
of substantial value. Country life has its problems, but far more, it
has its great, glorious opportunities.
These are some of the helpful books to be bought, or borrowed from the
State Library:
"The Report of the Commission on Country Life." (Sturges and Walton.)
"Cooeperation Among Farmers," John Lee Coulter. (Sturgis and Walton.)
"The Rural Problem in the United States," Sir Horace Plunkett.
(Macmillan.) "How to Live in the Country." E. P. Powell (Outing
Publishing Co.) "A Self-Supporting Home" and "The Earth's Bounty." Kate
V. St Maur. (Macmillan.)