Club Minutes: Mutual Improvement Association, 1912-1916

54. (Pen-y-Bryn, con.)

Where heat is fierce, as human hate The gloats o’er omens of the earth.

The reeling heat waves sear thine eyes, More ghastly make the mountains bare; The shimmering wastes of endless sands Seem hellish in their blinding glare.

Stay close upon thy chosen course Let not mirages cheat thy sight, Not turn aside, for hope of ease, - They perish who see not aright.

Even amid such scenes as these Thy fate but on thyself depends, Be constant, dare the desert’s rage And force its power to serve thy end.”

3rd “By the Trail of the Evening Star”

“Sunset amid lonely mountains, Tall cliffs in the desert light, Above the peaks in the heavens, The plums of approaching night.

I stand subdued in the Presence That rules in the realm of space, I seek to follow His guidance, I long to see His face.

For the soul turns to its Maker, When far from the haunts of men, It dreams of the realms whence it came, And it thinks to return again.

And a ray of hope, eternal! Burns bright in the human breast, As the star of evening kindles Its spark in the flaming West.” By Wm, Taylor Thom Jr. 1/4/1914

Helen R. Shoemaker interested us in the growing fellowship between this country and England as shown recently in placing a memorial to Benj. Franklin in “The Ladies Chapel”, London, where he once worked as

(Pen-y-Bryn) con! 55

a compositor.

Albina O. Stabler found much sympathy in her woes over unsatisfactory paper on her walls and the difficulty of removing the same. She advised paint as a substitute.

Margaret Bancroft gave a sketch of the Sioux Indians of South Dakota who are rapidly decreasing in numbers though their reservation measures 100 miles in every direction from its center.

Emilie T. Massey gave from the ready pen of Robert Steer, a plea for more kindness of feeling toward our adopted citizens who form a large percentage of our hard workers in many laborious vocations. Unassimilated and unevangelized immigration was thought to be one our greatest perils; our population increased ¼ more in 1913 from this source than ever before in its history. (Will the asso. pardon its scribe if she add from memory part of a speech once delivered by queenly Eliz Cady Stanton before a Cong. Com. in the Capitol. She said, “Gentlemen, I am old enough to be the mother of any one of you, and for 40 yrs. I have been coming here to ask Congress for the ballot. Is it right, is it seemly I should still plead for what you have freely granted the foreigner, the negro, and the Indian, many of whom can neither speak nor read our language?”)

Mary E. Gilpin told of a list published every Jan. of those who have given for charity during the past year in sums ranging from the dollar of poverty to the millions of the wealthy.

She also read, “The Man at the Wheel,” who advised a novice thus, “When you have a tow be sure to keep your boat and your tow both in line, and then power is not wasted.” The principle may be applied happily in managing a boy, it was stated.

Mary E. Thomas gave by request , her receipt for nut bread, - 2 ½ cups of flour, which sift 2 teaspoons Baking powder and 1/3 cup sugar, add ¾ cup nuts and (1 teaspoon) salt, then beat one egg light, stir in 2/3 cup milk add to dry ingredients. Put in well greased pan, allow to lighten 10 min. Bake 40 mins. in mod. oven.

We were also told how to make an excellent

56. (Pen-y-Bryn, con.)

pudding of, - 2 cups Graham flour mixed with a cup of raisins, ½ cup molasses, 1 cup milk, ½ teaspoon each of soda and salt, to be put in a baking-powder can, or two, and boiled in a saucepan of water for 2 hrs. Be careful not to fill the can to the top. Serve with a hot sauce or sugar and cream. This excellent boiled pudding can be made of dates or other fruits, raw or canned.

Margaret Bond asked how to make a mattress out of a feather-bed, - it is a difficult task at home but can be done very satisfactorily in the city. Mrs. Fussell and Sarah F. Willson can answer the question.

Mary Bond’s selection was upon the importance of courtesy in public vehicles and places by the employees thereof. If no more, it is good business policy to be polite. Anna M. Chandlee had a good short poem by Leonardo Di Vinci upon “Perseverance”, -

“In facile nature’s fancies quickly grow, But such quick fancies have but little root. Soon the narcissus flowers and dies, Not so the tree whose blossoms shall but slow mature to fruit.

Grace is a moment’s happy feeling, A life’s slow growth And we for power, must strain and toil and weep and Want for many an hour, if we The perfect fruit of all we are would see.”

Harriet I. Lea’s offering was upon, “Keeping in Circulation”, best things. “One good thought thus circulated among 100 people amounted to far more then 100 good thoughts in one brain.”

The Sec’y read an article written during the “sorrowful sixties” by our former member, Mary M. Miller, for the old, old Literary Society which met at the Lyceum for several years. Warwick P. Miller and wife had gone to the "Contraband Camp”, near Washington in search of help, and though they could not persuade the newly emancipated Negroes to come to them, the trip was not wasted since it furnished a graphic acct. of these grown children of color, who preferred to fall back on the Government and crowd in small hovels, rather than go to work in a new place. Adjourned to “Ingleside”.

Mary Bentley Thomas, Sec’y.

57 “Ingleside” 3.13.1914.

On 3-13-1914 the Asso. met for the first time with Fanny B. Snowden in the home-like living-room at Ingleside. We have all heard of “additions that were not improvements”, but such could never be thought when sunshine and space were doubled in an apartment used daily. Guests were, Ellen Stabler, Annie F. and Eliza Brooke, Margaret B. Magruder, Helen R. Shoemaker, Emma E. Bond, Mariana S. Miller, Miss Covington, and Estelle T. Moore, Jr. As there were no “previous minutes” to be read, the Sec. offered those of a meeting held at the home of Deborah A. Lea in 1859, which bear a strong family resemblance, in the character of subjects considered, to those of all the 55 springs between then and 1914.

The question of enlarging the list of members to 25 members was considered, at first favorably, and then, as there was objection on the part of four members, it was tabled for the present. The strongest argument in the affirmative side, seemed to be that in the past 17 yrs. there had only been one or two mtgs. When all the members were present. Those absent from “Ingleside” were, Eliz. C. Davis, Alice Tyson, Edith Hallowell, Sarah F. Willson, Eliz. T. Stabler, Ellen Farquhar, and Sallie R. Janney. By request the names of Hallie J. Bentley and Pattie T. Farquhar were added to the waiting list. The sentiment of our hostess was entitled “The Oil of Joy”. “Christianity wants nothing in the world so much as sunny people, and the old are hungrier for love than for bread. The oil of joy is very cheap and if you can help the poor with a garment of praise, it will be better for them than blankets.”

Margaret B. Magruder gave two simple, and she said excellent, methods of stopping holes made in walls by rats and mice, and in floors from shrinkage. – Take ½ " newspaper, soak in 3 qts. water for 3 days, - then add 1 tbsp. of pwd. alum and I qt. of wheat flour. Stir and boil until like cake dough. – When cool use for floor cracks. Add a liberal allowance of red pepper to what is needed for rat holes. Newspapers if crumpled and

58 (Ingleside, con.)

packed into wet shoes will dry them much better than any other way, and to clean mirrors and windows dip the paper in cold tea, wipe off the surface and polish with a dry piece. Eliza N. Moore read an interesting sketch of Mary Elizabeth Evans, of Syracuse, whose enormous candy business is now a wonder in N.Y City, where she has a store on 5th Ave., for which she pays $50,000 per yr. rent. The sign over the door is inscribed, “Mary Elizabeth” – and within is a most beautiful and tempting array of candy, (at $1.00 per lb. in most instances), also a tea room. Beginning while still a little girl, in the home kitchen with a small saucepan of her own, she was offered and has refused $100,000 for her outfit, and trade. E. N. M. said she had known of the young lady for yrs. through Syracuse relatives, and was sure the acct. was true.

Her second selection was a rhyming tale of the woes and dangers that beset a man who decided to eat and drink only pure articles, and he finally died from taking a glass of the water his wife had neglected to boil. Harriet I. Lea’s article was headed, “Better than Scouts” and, evidently, many present endorsed the wise suggestions contained therein. In former days boys in the country “scouted” after cattle and after weeds in the garden; the whole family not only “scouted” after work together, but in picking up chestnuts and gathering wild flowers. Boys were advised to “scout” about their homes and they would be astonished to find how much there is to learn and to do right there.

Mary E. Gilpin contributed a sketch, by an American girl, of the Young Princess May of England, who though hedged around by royal precedents, manages to enjoy some freedom of action, especially in horse-back exercise.

Helen Shoemaker said she had found something which she thought was a perennial interest to us all as it related to old people, and we surely are rapidly getting into that class. Just how the instances given had managed to keep body and soul together for 100 years is not always told, but one old lady did not use meat at all, and she did take a daily