Club Minutes: Mutual Improvement Association, 1912-1916

Mt. Airy, con. 149 Sunnyside 12-2-15

expected to hold its monthly sessions at Sherwood School for some months to come.

The Sec’y said she wished to notify the friends of her husband and self that the 30th of the present month would be the 50th anniversary of their wedding day, and that they had hoped to ask informally, all their friends in S. S. to call to see them during the day and evening. Owing to the serious illness of their nephew she feared the plan would have to be abandoned, which proved to be the case. So far as known only one other Golden Wedding has ever occurred in the Asso., that of Benj. H and Sarah T Miller in 1912 (?). see correction below Adjourned to Norwood on 12-2-1915, afterwards changed to Sunnyside.

Mary Bentley Thomas, Sec’y

Sunnyside 12-2-1915.

12-2-1915, the Asso. held forth at Sunnyside, this being the 719th meeting. A reference to the Golden Wedding of Edward P. and Mary B. Thomas on 11-30-1915 brought out the information that several of our members had achieved this distinction, - Wm. H and Margaret B. Farquhar, Samuel P. and Eliz. G. Thomas, Chas. G. and Jane T. Porter, Charles & Sarah E. Stabler, Benj. H and Sarah T. Miller. Deborah Lea and Sophia Peirce did not belong to the Asso. at the time of their 50th Anniversaries.

Guests of the day were Hannah B., Mary H., Emma T., Lillie and Alice B. Stabler, Isabel and Janet Miller, Helen Shoemaker, Mariana S. Miller, Emma E. Bond and Mrs. Hartridge.

Before proceeding with routine business the Sec’y gave the society a chance to elect someone else to the office she had held for about 19 yrs., but again no one seemed to crave the honor, so she will try to perform her duties another year, with the hope her friends may have patience with her short-comings in future as in the past.

The sentiment of our hostess was next in order, – “This truth comes to us more and more the

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longer we live, that on what field or in what uniform, or with what aims we do our duty, matters very little, or even what our duty is, great or small, splendid or obscure. Only to find our duty, certainly, and somehow. somewhere do it faithfully, makes us strong, happy and useful, and tunes our lives into some feeble echo of the life of God.”

Elma P. Chandlee related an incident that had happened recently in Brooklyn, N. Y. Robert B. Lea, son of Helen B. Lea, applied for board and was asked for a reference. He replied that he had no acquaintances in the city and was about to leave when he added, “I suppose it will make no difference to say that I was raised among Friends.” The lady addressed answered, “come back and tell me where thee is from.” “My parents were Harry and Helen B. Lea of Sandy Spring, Maryland.” She said, “That was my birthplace and my name was Annie L. Stone, a school mate of thy mother’s!”

Mary E. Gilpin’s selection advanced a new idea in declaring that many people lack the ability to think sufficiently of themselves. We ask what chance has the individual who lives in obscurity? but small stones fitted into large ones made the strong wall. It is not only great things done that makes success, but small things done greatly is not less noble.

A question in regard to trimming roses brought the information that the swaying of long shoots in the winter winds was apt to injure the roots, and pruning had best be done before this season.

India Downey read of “The Life-struggle of Trees in the Timberland” – half of them unmolested may live to be 500 yrs. old

A member wished to know “where broomcorn could be turned into brooms” – and it developed that the industry is pursued at Sharp St. School. The Treas. reported payment of Federation dues. Sarah T. Miller gave an amusing rhyme, - “What Jane Jones Said” – a verse well

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furnish the key-note of her complaint, -

“The people who lived in Shakespeare’s days Must have found it easy to write good plays, But now that everything has been done I cannot think of a single one!”

Alice G. Stabler, a guest, quoted from a diary, kept during a trip to Calif., of her visit to an ostrich farm, which has to be enclosed in two fences lest these unamiable bipeds take vicious pecks at the unwary strangers. The birds mate at 4 yrs. of age, and are faithful to the first love for as long as 70 yrs. The female makes her nest in the sand, scooping out a hole, and lays from 12 to 37 eggs. The male sits at night and one hr. in the day. The largest specimen weighed 324 lbs. and was very fierce. The young birds are fed on alfalfa, they are tremendous eaters, - a dozen oranges will be swallowed whole and the fruit can be observed making its way slowly down the long necks of the victims of the doubtful kindness of heart evinced by a tourist.

Elma Chandlee told us of a village in New. Eng. where the people are so kind and gentle to birds, there are seven different specimens of feathered friends who will eat right out of one’s hand fearlessly.

Fanny B. Snowden brought an acct. of a wonderful town in Oklahoma, established by Charles Page to benefit widows and their children. His mother had been left with 7 little ones, and his recollections of her toil at the wash tub to support her family made his resolve to inaugurate this beautiful work. After he became a rich manufacturer, he built a number of small houses, as well as larger dormitories, and the population now numbers several thousand selfsupporting people. They find employment in various factories established near. There are care-takers for the small children while the mothers are at work. and a resident physician is paid by Mr. Page. Gas, rent, and fuel are free, also

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car-tickets to the widows and their offspring.

Eliz. T. Stabler told a funny story of a colored boy who on being asked what text a minister had preached from replied, “It was, ‘be not scared I will send you a quilt.’” She then exhibited a remarkable bed-cover of antique design which she had just finished quilting most beautifully for a lady in Ohio.

We were advised to cut off geranium leaves as soon as they turn yellow; to have our fireextinguishers re-charged annually; to use brown paper and a warm iron upon candle grease that had dropped in many places on a long table-cloth, from the 50 candles around the cake at the recent Golden Wedding.

“Lest we forget” we were reminded of opportunities to help the Polish sufferers, the Hollywood children, the Social Service League, the Sherwood Tea, and other charities at home and abroad.

Louisa T. Brooke read lines upon Christmas, by Margaret E. Sangster.

Eliz. C. Davis gave a thoughtful article on the desirability of cultivating moderation in all things. Even praise of another may be so excessive as to cause a reaction in the mind of the listener.

Ellen Farquhar had a poem upon the exchange of a German helmet and a Scotch bonnet, instead of “a life for a life,” in the cruel war now waging across the Atlantic Ocean, and never were we so thankful for the latter’s extent and depth as in this year of disgrace, 1915.

Adjourned to Norwood on 1st mo. 6th, 1916.

Mary Bentley Thomas, Sec’y.

Norwood 1-6-1916 153

On 1st Mo. 6th, 1916 The Asso. was cordially received at Norwood by Eliza N. Moore and Margaret C. Bancroft. Several members were absent, but the following guests were added to the pleasure of the occasion, - Cornelia H. Bentley, Rebecca T., Elsie Elbrey, and Alice G. Stabler, - Florence M. Bentley, Elizabeth Moore, Beatrix and Dorothy Moore. By request of Martha T. Farquhar, Sarah T. Adams is accepted as her representative for the present, and Eliz. T. Stabler asked that Mariana S. Miller be her substitute during a visit to Wilmington.

The sentiment of our hostess contained much in little, - “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, by all the means you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” E. N. Moore then read a note from Mary G. Colt, which expressed her great desire to meet us once more, and conveying her love, and good wished for the New Year. A second contribution was termed

A Recipe for a Christmas Pudding”, -

“Take some human nature, as you find it, The commonest variety will do; Put a little graciousness behind it, Add a lump of charity, or two. --------------------------------------------- Flavor it with children’s merry chatter Frost it with snow of wintry dells, Place it on a holly-garnished platter And serve it with a song of Christmas bells.”

Eliz C. Davis read the pretty conceit of a child whose stories always ended with, - “And he went home to his mother, and then he made a lot of candy, and got sick, and went home to his mother.” The writer said that a return to his birth-place, especially in the springtime, had invariably recalled the restful, happy feeling of being in the company of his mother again, a boy once more!

We were urged to purchase tickets for a course of three lectures, to be given at the Lyceum, which news had a sort of pre-historic flavor to those of us who found such a