WOMEN'S CLUBS IN AMERICA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10825, 19 July 1913, Page 2

WOMEN'S CLUBS IN AMERICA.

(By MRS M. WOOD, in " Tho Ladies' Homo Journal.")

Library work has attracted club women for many years, with the result that many libraries have been established and an almost incredible number of books have been put in circirculatioii in travelling libraries; but it remained for tho Thursday Club of St Paul, Minnesota, to inaugurate a loan collection of ganiea in connection with the public library. One of the club members tells of it as follows:

Deploring the way the children of our city thronged the .streets at night seeking amusement, and knowing that many homes had no attraction to keep tiie children in them, the idea occurred to me that if games oonld be loaned to children and young people from the public library, just as books are, they would be a resource in many a cheerless homo. Brothers and sisters would find that they could enjoy each other's society, and overworked parents who have no taste for reading would learn to play with their children. We went to the Library Board with the request that they should circulate games, telling of the moral value and pleasure it would mean. They voted to circulate the games if we would be responsible for supplying them. We then bought eight hundred games of every kind we had heard of. Next we made denim pockets or envelopes to hold and protect the boxes, then wo pasted the rules on the lids, counted the cards or pieces in a game, and wrote the number on the box. The games were catalogued, game cards printed "and the announcement made m the morning paper that children could get games at the library. Two hundred and fifty children were on hand tho first morning; eleven hundred have taken out cards for games in two months, and many ft home has been made brighter, many a boy and girl better. Women's clubs are doing such an abundance of constructive work _ that one migjht easily outrun the limits of the eritiro space allotted to the club movement in the mere enumeration of their good deeds. Such a club is the Catholio Woman's League of Chicago, Illinois, whose day nurseries last year cared for nineteen thousand four hundred and four children of working mothers of all nationalities and creeds, who paid the small fee of five or ten cents a day for the best of care for their babies. For each of these little onea there were a warm dinner and a morning and aa afternoon luncheon. There are playgrounds, libraries, sewing classes, neighbourhood clubs and free dispensaries connected with these nurseries. The funds are raised by a great " tag day," by entertainments and by private charity.'

But by far the finest work of this league is the Protectorate for Girls, which was established to protect helpless girls from the white-slave traffic. It is affiliated with the Catholio International Association of Societies for the Protection of Young Girls, and it cooperates with the Travellers' Aid Society. Young girls are met at the_ railroad station at any hour of the night and arrangements are made to place them in Catholic Girls' Homes or in private families. An employment bureau •is maintained, and all places of employment to which girls are sent are investigated beforehand. Girls brought up before the Juvenile Court, and in need of assistance, are given aid The league is about to take up two new lines of work which will be of great help: the investigation of living and labour conditions among girls, and the establishment of a hospital for sick girls. Letters are received by the writer almost daily in which the statement is made that nothing can be done by the little club in the small community. Things that are easy to thfe large club with its many workers and its wide circle of acquaintances appear impossible of accomplishment to the handful of workers in the small club. Theoretically this may seem true, but I rejoice that practically it is not correct. Many towns and villages owe their physical, mental and moral regeneration to a tiny band of women working against great odds. Such a town is Harrison, Idaho, a mountain sawmill town of one thousand persons. Here the women's club, the Fortnightly, is only a little more than a year old, but it already has to its credit the foundation of a public library. A member tells how it did it: The club saw the need of such an institution, and started at once to see that the town got it. The School Board gave the use of an old abandoned schoolhouse. This the women had calcimsned, electric-lighted and shelved. Then they gave a reception, asking everyone who so wished to bring a book. The result was that more than one hundred volumes were donated. The State allows 1 per cent of the tax for public libraries; the club women asked the Council for this and got it. One school teacher gave a children's play, the proceeds being used to buy juvenile books. The people of the community responded generously by giving books. The members of the club take turns serving as librarian.

One of the most hopeful features of club activity is the fact that when the club women of a city or town determine upon its regeneration they not discouraged nor turned from their purpose if the results are not immediate. Many cities are just beginning to reap a harvest from seeds first sown by club women half a decade ago. Roanoke, Virginia, to-day presents an example of what has been accomplished by the persistent efforts of the Women's Civic Club. Here is the story:This body of womenj during the firstyear of tho dab's existence, realised

that their city was fur from being clean or healthful, and straightway they started n cmnpnign of public health. _ The first step was a weekly column in each of tlio two local papers, calculated to create public sentiment. Tho next stop was a eourso of lectures upon health and sanitation ; tho audiences who listened to these lectures woro brought there by tho direct solicitation of tho club women.

Then tho club sent to tho City Council, by a committee of representative citizens, an ordinance creating a Hoalth Department. Later it strengthened < its demand with ;i much-signed petition. It interviewed councilman, got editorials written, and talked and published health facts continually. After several defeated ordinances and many discouragements, at the end of a three years' .struggle tho women saw enacted the last, and best ordinance, and a well-planned Health Department was soon'launched under tho most favourable circumstances.

Results came faster than had been anticipated, and now, at the end of three more years. Roanoke is a clean city, a healthy city, with a carefullylmndled milk supply, a vastly improved system of inspecting and caring for its foodstuffs, and a death-rate steadily decreasing. It is practically free from epidemics; nuisances aro readily abated, and, best of all, the citizens aro beginning to pride themselves upon these facta.

Tho public hitching-rnck 1 "What a wealth of memories comes to tho coun-try-bred man or woman at thought of it! How many of us remember the long drive to tho village, on church or shopping bent, which terminated at tho public hitching-rack, just at the edge of tho churchyard or outlining tho public square! We knew, even in those days, that the hitching-rack detracted from tho beauty of tho village, but no one moveci to have it taken away; it seemed a part of the necessary evils of life. In these later days, when civic beauty is being added to civic righteousness as a thing needful, the club women have taken the initiative, and, among other things, the hitching-rack is doomed to tho background, and must occupy a less conspicuous position than of yore. The Civic League of Sherman, Texas, has to its credit many recent improvements, but none greater than the removal of the hitching-rack around the court-house square and the converting of that square into a little park. These women have by their own efforts provided for the farmers a public waggon yard; and for their wives and children a rest cottage with modern equipment and' conveniences, with a matron in charge. They have installed sanitary drinking fountains at each school building and equipped playgrounds for the children.

Working in unison with the City Council they have had back alleys cleaned up, and regular clean-up campaigns inaugurated. Parks have been secured and beautified, and the women are turning their attention to many other sanitary measures. Their interest in the success of the good-roads movement has counted for much also, and a twcnty-thousand-dollar Carnegie Library, soon to bo erected, is due to their efforts.