Club Minutes: The Home Interest Society, 1870-1876

to meet at the house of Alban G. & Susan L. Thomas, with their full consent 8th mo 26th 1876 Pattie R Stabler Sec. pro tem

68th Meeting

Agreeable to ajournment. The Home Interest met at the house of A.G. Thomas. 8th mo 26th 1876. All the members were present except Isaac & Annie Harkshorne. We had large number of guests. Philip T. Stabler was chosen foreman. The minutes of the last meeting here were called for & read. We then visited the spring house which was pronounced a success. The gardens are not as flourishing as usual, owing to the dry weather. On returning to the house the minutes of the last meeting were read. The secretary informed the meeting, that the time for which she was elected had expired, & Sarah T. Miller was chosen by a unanimous vote

for the next year.

1st Question How shall I manage so as to raise Canteloups? Lighten the soil with sand, manure, ridge up, and plant early. Mary B. Thomas, asked if any of the members would send articles, to the County Centennial

2nd What kind of shoes to get for boys aged, from six to ten & whether to have them made or buy store shoes? Get shoes from the store without copper toes. have shim large enough to wear, from two, to three pairs of stockings, and be sure to make the pants, to come to the top of the shoe. Some prefer boots, but most of the lady members object to the noise. Shellac varnish will keep out the water.

3rd Have any of the members had trouble with Bond's flour? Yes some have, and complain that it does not rise well, and is very dark.

4th Has any one experience in taking up

small roses, and keeping them dry in a cellar through the winter? No. But if old cloths, or bags, are wrapped around the bushes so as to prevent the water from running to the roots and freezing, they will be much benefited thereby. Annie L Moore & Pattie R Stabler, were appointed to read at our next meeting to be held at the house of Dr Frank Thomas, 9th mo 23rd 1876 Then adjourned Mary T Bond, Sec

69th Meeting. Magnolia 10/21/76. Drowning men, to save themselves from sinking, some times catch at straws. Likewise the Home Interest rather than become extinct, calls upon the least among the obscure of its members, to sift the sands of its proceedings, & preserve whatever of worth they may contain

Therefore, if the pearls, seem to have escaped, & the sands alone to have been sand, I pray You lay aside criticism, & extend all charity, when viewing the efforts of your much perplexed present

incumbent. The afternoon of our last meeting (held at W^m. S Bond's) oct 21st 1876. the weather was charming, the air soft & balmy as spring a delightful change from a week previous, when the Thermometer fell to 28^o, with high winds & snow on the 15th, a most unprecedented occurrence in our latitude, so early.

The meeting ws called to order punctually, one hour after the proper time, by W^m W Moore foreman. Three fifths of our members present & visitors R M Stabler & Wife, EP. & MB Thomas were acceptably with us. While we awaited the arrival of the guests, much pleasant chat ensued among the ladies, whose tongues vied with their fingers, so defly plying the knitting needles & whose numbers greatly exceeded that of the men, until nearly tea time, the signal usually for the gathering in of the lordly hosts, to whom as their actions from the bread of life is quite as attractive as words of wisdom.

Our foreman suggested the customary inspection

of outdoor surroundings & the [illegible] was most impressive. a deadsilence, so we missed our usual pleasant ramble to the Bone mill, & after visit to the garden of summer flowers, always so successfully tended by our hostess. Then the minutes were called for & the blundering new Sec read the wrong ones at the right time & vice versa.

Questions were asked & answered somewhat as follows

1st What should be done in the fall with crape myrtle? Leave in pot & remove within doors.

2nd. When is the time to transplant an asparagus bed? Leave the old bed & plant a new one in the spring.

3rd Are rags, preferable to leaves, to protect young Roses? Recommended to try both & report.

4th Who has substituted milk for soap in dish water? Try it.

5th Should Corporeal punishment be administered & at what age? We should enforce obedience in our children on all occasions, but in doing so we should be regulated by those principles of Justice truth & mercy, that in so admire in the laws governing