Club Minutes: Mutual Improvement Association, 1912-1916

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old Ellicott City, where her ancestors lived. It was stated that only Quaker patience and determination could have hewn habitations for an entire colony, from so rocky and uncompromising a region; yet the wild beauty of the site was a lure, and the swift fall of the river’s course offered commercial advantages, utilized be mills and factories, erected much more than a hundred years ago, which made the small city important and even wealthy.

Mary E. Thomas brought us a few verses upon “Spring Cleaning”, a topic of general interest now, -

“I wish we could open our lives every year As we do our houses in spring, And clean them of sorrow and trouble and fear With the brush of a bird-like wing. I wish we could straighten the rooms afresh And air them and make them sweet – The pain from the heart, and the thorns from the flesh, And the stones from under the feet. Clear out the rubbish and throw it away, Leaving but this behind – A habit of practicing day by day The religion of being kind.”

Fanny B. Snowden told of the friendly restitution in 1914 by Russia to France, of a bell weighing 3 tons.

She also asked how many present expected to attend the coming conference of Friends at Cape May. Only a few appeared to be sure of going, though others expressed a desire to do so. No one knew just what entertainment was to be found at $8.00 per week but judging by experience, at former gatherings of this kind, accommodations will be satisfactory.

Elma Chandlee gave several short poems appropriate to the season, the first a fervent prayer to “Sweet June” to delay her departure, the second was the very original conceit of a little girl –

“A child stopped on her way to say – There’s something always seems to me To be the queerest thing – Why does the foolish tree put on Its warm clothes in the spring? And then when autumn weather comes, And chilly breezes blow, Why does it stand out there, all bare To shiver in the snow?”

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Sarah T. Miller’s offering was a thoughtful paper, by one of our members, read at Phila., Y. M. in 1909, upon “Education and the Religious Life”, from which we can only borrow a few paragraphs.

"According to the teachings of Jesus and his disciples, the supreme test of the religious life is what a man is and does, in his soul and with his body, not merely what he believes with his mind. Beliefs may be largely a matter of instruction, but being and doing, - character in short, must be the result of an all around education.

If it be solely a training of the intellect, leaving the moral qualities undeveloped; or if, being both of these, it fail to teach to inter-relation of man to man, the duty of man to his brother, and to God, then it fails to be education in any true sense.

In our country it is no longer the highest privilege of a privileged class, it is the birthright of the whole people. In fact our ideal has risen from intelligent citizenship to Christian Citizenship.: In a thousand ways the obligation to service, according to our opportunities, is taught, especially in higher schools and colleges.

The study of economics, political science, and kindred problems of every-day life, must give an impulse towards helpful living, as well as the equipment to make that impulse effective.”

Hallie J. Bentley read a clipping from “The Star” “Mother Goose in the Garden.” A grandmother’s effort to get the best of her small grandson, who frequently corrected the former’s rendering of the original “Mother Goose”, as being not exactly what another grand-parent taught him.

Eliz. T. Stabler’s selection was the story of the “curfew Bell” which is still rung in many Eng. towns to send the children home at 9 p.m. It originated in the time of Wm. the Conqueror and the word is a corruption of old French meaning “Cover-fire”.

Ellen Stabler brought a curious poem said to have been written in a bar-room by a penniless man as payment for a drink; - the subject being “The Birth of Christ”.

Eliz C. Davis gave an interesting sketch of -

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a Greek colony in Pa., of 1200 people, whose able-bodied members are all engaged in gathering sponges and preparing the same for sale. The divers go out in boats and equipped with a helmet through which air is forced down to them, they fearlessly explore the bed of the sea at a depth of from 50 to 100 ft., tearing off the sponges, placing them in nets, and signalling by means of a line, to the boatmen, to draw up the catch, and eventually themselves.

Emilie T. Massey told of an extraordinary wedding gift to a young woman clerk in the city of Toledo. Several hundred men began to build her a home at 2 a.m. upon her wedding day, and by 6 p.m. the pretty and convenient bungalow was complete even to water fixtures and electricity, all contributed by business firms and workmen to honor a much respected self-supporting girl.

Mariana S. Miller read of the new device for “saving light” in England by setting the time-pieces backward in the morning and forward in the afternoon, - This curious innovation will probably be sanctioned by Parliament as a bill has been introduced to make the custom lawful.

Ellen Farquhar, true to her well-established reputation for Peace, first, last and always, offered a strong plea for universal Brotherhood in place of universal war, - “When insane power and greed shall pass like sickness that is healed, When each for each shall labor And to Rightness all shall yield; We’re growing, learning, knowing More about the truth of life, And learning how we may unlearn The foolish hate and strife. And you and I and all of us – When we shall understand, Will welcome into Brotherhood Mankind of every land.”

This was followed by a few paragraphs in lighter vein; the story of the small girl who prayed to have Boston made the Capitol of Vt., because “she wanted her examination paper to be correct, - and Mary E. Gilpin’s comical leap-year proposal was

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along the same line, but we long ago decided that “all was grist” which came to the Asso. mill, and as usual, selections ranged “from grave to gay, from lively to severe”.

Rebecca T. Miller read from “The Survey” a touching poem by Annie Field, whose gentle ministrations for a year to an apparently lost soul in a diseased body, fairly transformed one of the worst convicts in Sing-Sing prison. This man, known as “Canada Blackie” was overcome by Mrs. Field’s resemblance to his mother and when he died in 1915, his fellow prisoners presented her with a “gold heart” as this was poor Blackie’s nickname for his good angel.

Our youngest visitor, Elizabeth Willson, gave very gracefully the little clipping appended, -

“A Modern Nursery Rhyme”, - “Sing a song of Europe, Highly civilized, Four and twenty nations, Wholly hypnotized.

When the battle opens, The bullets start to sing, Now, isn’t that a silly way To act for any King?

The King is in the background, Issuing commands; The Queen is in the parlor, As per etiquette demands.

The bankers in the banking house Are busy multiplying, And the Common People at the front are doing all the dying.”

The Sec’y read some extracts from a letter written 3 yrs. ago, when Edith N. Brubaker of Phila. was visiting peaceful Belgium, - and lastly a prayer by Prof. Rauschenbush, - “When our use of this world is over and we make room for others, may we not leave anything ravished by our greed or spoiled by our ignorance, but may we hand on our common heritage, finer and sweeter through our use of it, undiminished in fertility and joy, that so our bodies may return

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turn in peace to the great mother who nourished then and our spirits may round the circle of a perfect life in Thee.”

Adjourned to Belmont on 6-29-1916 -. Mary Bentley Thomas, Sec’y.

Belmont – 6-29-1916

The Asso. met at Belmont the beautiful home of Mrs. Edward Thomas, June 29th, 1916.

It was a perfect June day, and we had a full attendance of members, with a number of guests; among them being our old member Mrs. Mary Colt: - Mrs. Mills, Mrs. Rich’d Bentley, Mrs. B. D. Canby and her daughter Mrs. B. J. Canby, and Miss Allen.

Our hostess’ sentiment was, “Industry is neither religion nor morality; yet it is akin to both, as there is nothing more incompatible with true virtue than idleness.”

Mrs. Thomas read us a very interesting piece written by Dr. Francis Thomas in 1908 for a mtg. of “The Home Interest”, called “The Cradle of S.S. Lyceum”, which took a number of our members back to the days of their youth, and was enjoyed by all.

Mrs. Moore had a “Charming Journey” to read about, in a houseboat on the James River in Virginia. The interesting trip began at Jamestown Island, where excavations are bringing to view the brick foundations of many of the old houses. Only a few ruins are left of Capt. John Smith’s village, where Pocahontas and James Rolfe were married. On up the Colonial Water Way they visited the old mansions.

At “Brandon” the Harrisons still live, and guard the secret-panel room, and the little gold ring, which for many generations has hung from the chandelier in the drawing room.

They visited “Westover” the home of Evelyn Byrd “The Fair Maid of the James”, the most romantic girls’ figure in Colonial history. “Weyanoke” and “Shirley” also gave their tales of romance to the travelers.

Miss. Chandlee told us that Sir. Jas. Simpson an American, was the discover of Chloroform and the first to use it successfully. She also said that, “Independence is a valuable possession if not over-done”. Estelle Moore had