Club Minutes: Mutual Improvement Association, 1896-1900

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"Where eer a noble deed is wrought Where eer is spoken noble thought, Our hearts with glad surprise To higher levels rise", and she supplemented the verse with a plea that we make others happy while it is yet day, the kind words and the flowers bestowed freely on the dead would have been of tenfold value to the living. Mary E. Moore had an interesting account of a large settlement of Icelanders, on the Red River of the North, to reach which one may ride through 200 miles of wheat fields that 40 yrs. ago were a buffalo pasture. These people are said to be rapidly adapting themselves to their new country the children learning from the text books of Mass. schools and English is becoming the rule rather than the exception. Elizabeth C. Davis read from "The Atlantic Monthly" the "Historical American Novel", the writer thought it a difficult literary feat, types being easier to imagine than describe and in most cases either the facts are distorted to suit the characters or vice versa.

We were told that the Pretender had never visited England in disguise, as Thackeray made us all believe, and the legend of the Scarlet Letter was totally different from Hawthornes version. Mary Magruder said she did not "feel like making a selection from any one but Miss Millard today" and we regret not having copied entire the beautiful extract, with love as its theme, from the lips of a singularly gifted woman, sincerely mourned by thousands whose lives were blessed by her ministry.

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Sarah D. Bond's short but admirable clipping was headed "Neighbors thistles" an incident of a farmer who stopped to eradicate a thistle from a field adjoining his own with the remark that he had destroyed a personal enemy. The sages of old laid down the sound doctrine that "no sin was ever committed whose consequences rested on the head of the sinner alone". Margaret S. Hallowell had some rules for a long life a few of which were dissented from but as Carried S. Brooke had brought the same they shall be copied here. "Take 8 hrs. sleep. Lie on your right side. Keep a window open all night at all seasons. Have a mat at your bedroom door. Do not have your bedstead against the wall. Take your baths, daily in water the temperature of the body. Exercise before breakfast, eat little meat and see that it is well cooked. Adults should drink no milk but eat plenty of fat to feed the cells attacked by disease germs. Allow no pet animals in your living rooms, live in the country if you can. Watch the three Ds, drinking water, damp and drains. Make change of occupation, take frequent and short holidays, limit your ambition and keep your temper". Sarah E. Stabler read a pretty poem "Tired" containing the suggestion that we should rest our brains as a babe sleeps in its mothers arms.

Ellen Stabler gave an amusing story of an encounter between an educated Indian and a brainless fop who addressed the red man in the venacular of the dime novel and was answered

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with dignity in pure English. Martha Holland's piece advised the cultivation of a habit of cheerfulness closing with

"If you'll sing a song as you go along You'll see that the singing will make you strong"

Our youngest guest, Edith Warfield of Savannah had nothing for us but she was much interested in the Association and in Cherry Grove this being her first visit to the home of her great, great, great grandparents, Richard and Sarah Coale Thomas. Eliza N. Moore's article related to age which was declared to be in exact proportion, so far as interest was concerned, to the amount people had, the story was told of a young party who met one evening arranged in the costumes and with the manners and appearance they supposed would be theirs in old age. The result was so dispiriting they tore off their scanty gray wigs, wiped away lines and united in rejoicing over their youth. Ellen Farquhar said she had intended to bring " No question is ever settled until it is settled right", which she greatly admired, but as it had been left at home she gave a most entertaining account of the Century Club at Wilmington the mother Club of Delaware. She thought the result had been beneficial, socially, morally and mentally. They are active in charity and send out travelling librarys through the State.

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Carrie S. Brooke told us of the vast apartment store of Cooper, Siegal and Co. in New York, it includes a menagerie, a huge butcher shop and a fine collection of Dore's paintings, She read of a servant who said her mistress had "nervous prosperity" a disease which the busy house mother is not apt to contract. An article on the strange money used in the mountains of North Carolina was in a museum corroborated by Ellen Farquhar and Eliza N. Moore who had seen cabins nearly covered with skins of wild animals in the section referred to. Kate Bradley by request recounted the triumphant establishment of a Homeopathic Hospital in Washington, - an old brewery being put to this beneficent purpose; the institution is 16 yrs. old and has treated 1000 free patients in the past 12 months. We fancy its success may be traced partly to the fact that women have taken such an active interest in all its departments. Sarah T. Miller read a few paragraphs which explained the apparent difference of opinion between Lady Henry Somerset and Frances E. Willard with regard to the social evil and it was stated the former had acknowledged she was in error when she proposed to sacrifice principle in such a vital question. The secretary announced the time for holding an election had arrived. As it seemed to be a general wish that the present lamb

80 should continue to be sacrificial there was no opposing candidate and the salary! and the pencil were still at her disposal.

Adjourned to Knollton.

Mary Bentley Thomas Sec.

3/31 1898. The Association assembled for the first time in the bright and homelike parlour at Knollton with Elizabeth C. Davis, and although she seemed to think there was still an immense amount of work to be done around their new home, many expressed surprise at what had been accomplished in a few months.

The admirable sentiment for the day was " Good resolutions are like vines, a mass of beauty when supported on a frame of good deeds, but very poor things when allowed to lie untrained on the ground". Our guests were Caroline H. Miller, Sarah M. Hallowell, Louisa Nesbit, Louisa T. Brooke, Carrie L. Brooke, Sue L. Thomas, Ellen Stabler, Margaret B. Magruder, Edith Hallowell, Beatrice Tyson and Augusta N. Thomas. Eliza N. Moore kindly presided by request of the secretary.

There being no minutes of a previous meeting at this place the latter read those of a meeting held at Mt, Airy 40 yrs. since, Sarah A. Gilpin being hostess and Margaret Farquhar secretary.

Elizabeth G. Thomas read "Whatever is, is right" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox and asked how many believed with the writer. A number dissented