2. Thou shalt not worship any false thing.
3. Remember thy club engagement.
4. Honor thy club sisters.
5. Thou shalt not murder the King"s English.
6. Thou shalt not covet office.
7. Thou shalt be prepared for roll call.
8. Thou shalt not at the eleventh hour begin to hunt material for thy paper.
9. Thou shalt not speak in meeting when thy sister has the floor.
10. Thou shalt diligently keep these commandments so that thy club days be lengthened, and thy fame spread unto the uttermost parts of clubdom.
CHAPTER XXI
WHAT CLUBS ARE STUDYING
II
From many club year books that have been examined the following programs are selected:
Here is the program of a Louisiana club which has studied the history of its own State--a very good thing to do: The Early Settlers in Louisiana; Founding of New Orleans; Spanish Dominion; Jackson Square and the Cabildo; Louisiana"s Part in the Revolution; The Great Purchase; The Battle of New Orleans; The Carnival and Mardi Gras; The French Quarter; Louisiana Folk Tales; The Evangeline Country; The State"s Resources; Forestry; Mines and Minerals; Products; The History of the Levees; Bird Life in Louisiana; Louisiana Law; The Code; Laws of the Home; Legal Status of Women, and Their Influence in Munic.i.p.alities. It is hoped that this program was ill.u.s.trated with the many delightful stories of life in New Orleans which have been written.
A club in Idaho has an interesting connection with the Commercial Club of the city made up of business men, and works with them by having occasional meetings together. Some of the topics studied this year are these:
Aids to the Public School System; Social Centers and Open Air Schools; Parent and Teacher a.s.sociations; Encouraging Home Industry; The Idaho Health Bill; What the Government Is Doing for Women and Children; City Sanitation; Market Inspection; Uniform Marriage and Divorce Laws; The Proposed Compensation Act for Criminals; Interstate Commerce; Property Rights of Women; Juvenile Courts; Conservation of Natural Resources; Civic Improvements; Pure Food.
A Vermont club which has existed for many years has in its year book a list of all the subjects studied for the past ten. Some of these are: Colonial America, Later American History, Short Studies on Great Subjects, Russia and j.a.pan.
In addition to these studies the club has had lectures on American Indians, The Moving Picture Show, Forestry, Humane Education, Travels in the Penal Settlements of Siberia, and The Land of Evangeline; most of these have been ill.u.s.trated. This club numbers a hundred members.
A Western club has taken up Shakespeare in a remarkably thorough way. It has had five plays for the year"s work, and one act of each play has been read at each meeting, followed by a paper relating to it, and a discussion. One part of their work is this: Antony and Cleopatra--Act I, The History of the Play and Its Setting; Act II, Paper on Egyptology; Act III, Paper on Cleopatra and Her Influence. Other plays are studied in the same way.
A Georgia club gave the first half of the year to the study of Shakespeare"s women, and the latter half to this program on American Painters: The Early Painters, to 1865; Whistler and LaFarge; Landscape and Marines; Figures; Miniature Painters; American Ill.u.s.trators; Stained Gla.s.s Designers. A noticeable feature of the year book is the printing at the back of an excellent bibliography, giving a list of all the books needed in the work.
From Ohio comes a program on Welfare Study and Vocations for Trained Women; The Boy Problem; The Girl Problem; Local Civics; Foods; Women in Business (three meetings); Women in Arts and Professions (three meetings), and Handicraft (three meetings).
An Alabama club has a year book on Spain of more than usual attractiveness. Each topic is unusually well developed: The Land of Spain; The Dawn of History in Spain; The Moors; The Age of Adventure; Kings; Spain in Its Glory; The Church; Cities; Social Life; Industries and Occupations; Spanish Women; Art and Literature; Spain To-day.
A New York club has this study in Conservation: Water Power, the History of Its Development; State Laws; Reclamation of Arid Lands; Government Dams; The Laws of Water Rights; Our Fisheries; Our Forests; Forestry Service; Our Mineral Wealth; Conditions in Mining Districts; Laws of Mining; Conservation of Human Energy; Labor Laws; Protection of Workers; Compensation; Abandoned Farms; Scientific Farming; Life Saving Service; Government Lands; Homestead Claims.
A delightful year book has the t.i.tle "Studies in English History," with this program: Life Among the Early Saxons; Alfred the Great; The Norman Conquest and Its Influences; Edward the Third and Chivalry; Chaucer and His Tales; The Wars of the Roses; Henry the Eighth and the Reformation; The Glory of Elizabeth"s Reign; Puritans and Cavaliers; Oliver Cromwell and His Times; The Romance of the Stuarts; William of Orange, Queen Anne, and the Literature of the Times; Art of Reynolds and Gainsborough; The Romantic Movement in Literature; The Reform Bill of 1832 and the Rise of Democracy; The Age of Victoria; Life and Society; English Essayists and Novelists.
The charm of this study lay not only in the subjects given, but in the readings which illuminated each monthly program, chosen from the best literature bearing on the general subject.
A teachers" club has a program with no definite t.i.tle, but with a certain geographical and historic value, and at the same time deals with subjects in which the members take a professional interest. Each meeting begins with a roll call answered sometimes by description of unique customs in different countries, and sometimes by anecdotes of famous people, and often by epigrams, or selections from poems of the season.
Some of the subjects studied are: Changing China; The Possibilities of Labrador; Persia; The Pa.s.sing of Korea; Tripoli the Mysterious; Abyssinia of To-day, and The Balkan States. The topics of special interest to the teacher: The Montessori Method; The Binet Tests for the Feeble-Minded; The Status of the Teacher; Systematic Study in the Elementary Schools; The Teaching of Arithmetic.
One excellent program sent by an Ohio club is on a unique plan. There are seventeen members, and to each was given one current topic, on which she reported each month. Munic.i.p.al Affairs, Magazines, Our State, Literature, Hygienics, Suffrage, Art, Domestic Science, Politics, Foreign News, Science, Agriculture, Education, Religion and Philanthropy, the Drama, and Famous Men were those selected. The year"s program was wholly upon social and economic questions: The Dawning of Economic Consciousness; Economics in Relation to Citizenship; New Methods in Public Schools; Organized Charities; Cost of Living in Relation to Criminology; Prison Reform; The Tramp Question; United States Courts; History of Money; Panics; Munic.i.p.al Ownership. There were several papers under each of these heads, and the whole seems most practical and interesting.
In contrast with this well-constructed program comes one from an Illinois club which shows a certain confusion. There are committees on Parliamentary Law, Domestic Science, Dramatic Art, Travel, Music and Physical Culture. Meetings are held weekly and, among others, these subjects have been presented: Our Local Pioneers; Mexico; Home Environment; Mother and Child; The American Colonies; Domestic Science with Demonstration; American Art; and Travel in j.a.pan. This is by far too varied a program, and if only one main subject had been taken, say The American Colonies, members of the club would have found at the end of the year that they had gained more than they possibly could have from the casual treatment of so many.
A New York State club offers this unusual Musical Program. (The study meetings are ill.u.s.trated by musical numbers, and between such meetings are others on the latest events in the musical world. A large chorus is also sustained by the club, which gives concerts at intervals.)
_American Music_. Our Favorites; Folk Songs and Indian Music; Women Musicians; Nevins and MacDowell; Operas; Ballads.
_Foreign Music_. German and Austrian Music; Great Britain"s Music; Russian Music; Polish and Hungarian Music; Italian Music; French Music; Comparison of Foreign and American Music.
An Ohio club has an unusually good set of Current Topics, for study in connection with a year"s program on Nature:
Women"s Clubs; Inventions; Education; War; Music and Musicians; Famous Personalities; Our Cabinet; France; Commerce; Agriculture; The Religious World; Our Foreign Affairs; Germany; Mexico; South America; China; Canada; Immigration; Philanthropy; Munic.i.p.al Affairs; Art and Artists; Panama Exposition; Aviation; Panama Ca.n.a.l; Russia; Turkey and Italy; Scientific News; British Affairs; Current Literature.
One of these topics is taken up at the close of the study program at each meeting.