Club Minutes: The Home Interest Society, 1899-1902

20 318th Meeting Clifton

seems likely to become a necessity though not feasible at present. With sufficient care most of the down may be transferred in changing the ticking of a feather bed. Onions for early spring use may be set this month. It was suggested that overgrown kale might be mown.

Asa Stabler had the pleasure of attending the Farmers Congress held in Boston and gave a deeply interesting account of the many pleasures and priviliges in connection with it. This was the seventeenth meeting of the Congress, and was held in Texas last year.

Then adjourned to Clifton for November 20 L.W. Haviland, Secty.

The 318 meeting of the Home Interest met at Clifton on the 15 of Jan 1900 after an interval of three mon Dr. Farquhar was prevented, by the critical condition of a patient from being with us and our hostes invited Edward Bently to the chair which he filled most satisfactory. The minutes of the last meeting at this place were read and as usal at this season of the year the chip box took the place of a walk outdoors This adjunct of the Secretarys bag was found in a state of collapse from a lack of stores and the few chips remaining were quite consumed in the fun of entertainment before supper was announced Interested ones should keep knife and scissors on hand that this amusing and instructive feature

much interest. The Rockville and Washington pike claimed considerable attention with protest against granting it more funds by the Legislature.

Borax as a preventative agent in the keeping of weet, has been tried by several. Curiously slaked seeds of a new forage plant were exhibited. Mary Bently Thomas did not receive a definite answer to her questions about the size of a chicken yard for fifty hens with their progedy. Cream will not rise as well in a cooley creamer out of water, though kept at an equally low temperature. A small cup of soft yeast or 1/3 cake of compressed is sufficient for three quarts of flour. Grape vines and small fruit bushes may be moved any time during the month when frost is not of the ground. Leghorn chickens or their crosses with heavier fowls give the most eggs, No ventilation is necessary in a room where hens are kept. A.G. Thomas will secure some copies of mid laws and report at the next meeting in 1900, we were not unmindful of our loss in the "passing! of one of our number into the new life of the spirit world. One whose sweet face, and kindly presence was always missed when she could not be with us, and whose bright facetious questions and conversation always added to the enjoyment of the Home Interest. We grieve to know that Beulah Thomas will never again be with us in our homes while we rejoice that she is released from the suffering she so patiently endured. But we will not call her dead whom out of this world of strife invisible angel hands have led to the beautiful [re] of life.

Adjourned to Bloomfield Sep 5^th 1900

L.W. Haviland. Secy.

Jan. 15^th 1900

May not fail no when needed.

The chief business of the meeting this time was the election of officers for the year. And after readings The Minutes of the last meeting, this was accomplished. A hearty appreciation of the festive turkey with appetising accompaniments had put all on the best of humor so that the election ordeal was quickly passed.

19 voting members present. On the first ballot cast for each office. WalterBrooke's was made chairman and Martha T. Farquhar Secretary.

In answer to questions Kate Thomas was advised to paint the wall back of a stove where paper would not stick. The great heat of large lamps was thought to cause the untimely breaking of certain lamp chimneys.

A number of the men present manifested much enthusiasm in the cause of buckwheat cakes for breakfast; several would even have them every morning of the year, finding a soothing unction about them for summers heat as well as Winters cold.

A proposition to have Dr. Grammer speak in this neighborhood upon the temperance question was well received and R.H. Miller was encouraged to arrange for a meeting. The need of further effort in teaching the colored people was discussed with

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The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown, No traveller ever reached that blessed abode, Who found not thorns and briers in his road.

But ills of every shape and every name, Transformed to blessings, miss their cruel aim, And every moments calm that soothes the breast Is given as ernest of Eternal rest.

The removal by death of our dear friend and valued member (of the Home Interest) Beulah Thomas, causes us a deep sense of personal loss, and a blank not easily filled in the society she loved so well.

In her fertile brain originated the idea of this organization bringing together in this helpful relation both wives and husbands; And though in recent years she was often presented for months

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together, by absence from home, or ill health from attending the meetings, her interest in them never flagged. Even at the very end she asked with feeble breath, "Tell me about the Home Interest?") And the recollection of her face as it often lighted up with sparks of wit and humor, And of her clever repartee will remain with us, and we shall always miss the charm her presence added. (But though her place among us is vacant, And our hearts are sad because of it, hope bids us "look in, look on, look up," and the sweet consciousness that spirit is eternal, and death only transition, softens our grief, and helps us to realize the fulness