XI--BRAZIL

Brazil is a land a.s.sociated with romance; one of great rivers and mighty forests, of wealth, of slavery, of misery and of progress. It is larger than the United States (not including Alaska), and its future must be of immense importance. Its history includes that of its empire, which should make the topic of one meeting, for it is of great interest. The early struggles of the republic, the abolishment of slavery, and the establishment of a government founded on our own, may all be studied.

The influence of the Portuguese in Brazil has been marked, especially in its literature, music and art. Notice how beautiful the situation is of the city of Rio Janeiro, and show pictures of its streets and great buildings, with their over-ornamentation.

Study the River Amazon in one meeting; the coffee plantations, and the cotton and rubber industries in another.

Follow these meetings with one on the Guianas, another on the various islands which lie along the coast, especially the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego.

XII--LATIN AMERICA

Among the many topics which will suggest themselves for discussion are these: What can be said of education in Latin America? What is the percentage of those who can read and write, and why is it so low? What of higher education? What is the relation between church and state and what has the church done for education? What can be said of the morals of the Latin Americans? What is the position of woman? How is she educated and trained? What is her home efficiency? Compare South American cities with those of France, England and America and point out the great differences.

What can be said of literature, art, music and science? Where does South America show her strength, and where her weakness?

Among the many excellent reference books these are suggested: "The Republics of Central and South America," by C. Reginald Enock (Scribner). "Panama, the Creation, Destruction and Resurrection," by Philippe Bunau-Varilla (Constable and Sons, London). "Panama and the Ca.n.a.l To-day," by Forbes Lindsay (The Page Company). "The Panama Ca.n.a.l,"

by J. Saxon Mills (Thomas Nelson, London and New York). "South America,"

by James Bryce (Macmillan). "Conquest of Peru," by W. H. Prescott (Lippincott).

CHAPTER XI

THE WORK OF THE RURAL CLUB

I--A CLUB FAR FROM LIBRARIES

Letters have come from the Far West, from Nova Scotia, from remote districts in the South, and from ranches in Canada asking much the same question: "Is it possible to carry on a women's club when we are far away from any public library and have few books, if any, in the community?"

If any group of women need a club it is the women on farms and ranches and in little villages, whose lives are monotonous, who have no lectures or concerts to attend and few magazines or new books to read. They, above all the rest of us, need intellectual stimulus. And their question may be answered with a positive affirmative: Yes; it is perfectly possible to have a club, one doing excellent work, with no library at hand. Many examples of what can be done might be given, but one will stand for them all: In a singularly isolated spot in New England a club was began ten years ago with a handful of farmers' wives and daughters living within an area of a dozen miles. They used what material they had at hand; they added to it; they studied simple things at first, and later took up more difficult subjects; and then they did practical work for their community. To-day that club is made up of many well-read women of all ages who have acquired what may truly be called a liberal education, and the whole neighborhood has been raised and enlightened by what they have done for it in a hundred ways. And they had nothing more to begin with than any group of women has under similar conditions. Any woman who feels the need of a club can start one, and once started it will grow of its own volition and justify its existence.

II--HOW TO START A RURAL CLUB

Let us suppose that some country woman decides to start a club. She is not quite sure what steps to take, but she invites some of her neighbors to meet with her and talk it over. Probably they will agree to begin very simply, merely meeting once a week or so and reading aloud--feeling their way to other things. This is the right sort of a beginning, for in a very short time they will have gained sufficient confidence in themselves to plan something better. At this point some one may suggest that at the next meeting each woman shall bring in a written list of the books she owns. When this is done it will probably be found that there are many good ones to use. There will probably be a set of d.i.c.kens, volumes of Longfellow, Tennyson, and Whittier, a few biographies, including one of General Grant, a book or two of travel and scattered volumes of all kinds, novels, histories, and school books, and possibly an encyclopedia.

This list has great possibilities for club study, especially if there is the encyclopedia, so essential for reference. With a very small membership fee, perhaps five cents a month, one new book may be bought every three months; with ten club members this can be done.

When the club is fairly going it may decide to select d.i.c.kens's novels to study, as a sort of popular beginning; a simple plan of work would be as follows:

Divide the club into committees of two, and to each give one novel to read and thoroughly master. Meanwhile the president may study the life of d.i.c.kens. If she has no book to use she should write to the State Librarian and try to secure a traveling library with this and other needed books in it; or at least she may get, if not a library, one or two volumes, sent by mail. At the first regular meeting she should give a sketch of d.i.c.kens's life and show any pictures of the author in the book. She should also try to find in an English history pictures of Canterbury, London, and other places a.s.sociated with his life, and Westminster Abbey, where he is buried.

By the next meeting the first committee should be ready to give an afternoon program on one novel, say "David Copperfield." One member may tell the story of the book, mentioning the various characters; another may take these up in part and describe them. Then there should be readings, not only by these two members but by others to whom they have been given, ill.u.s.trating the main points of the story. After the meeting the book should be loaned to some one who will read it and pa.s.s it on to the rest. And so with each novel in turn. There should be a discussion at each meeting, and members should tell why they admire or dislike this character or that, and what great moral lesson d.i.c.kens points out in each book, and so on. Such a study might well occupy an entire year and be extremely interesting.

Or suppose the club decided to study Longfellow's poems. Again the first meeting is to be on the life of the poet; the second will take up the first of the group of American poems, "Hiawatha," and have it read aloud; the discussion following may be on the types of Indians drawn by Longfellow and inquire: Are they true to life? The next meeting will be on "Miles Standish," with a paper or talk on the Puritans in England and America, and a description of the first winter in the colony.

The third meeting will take "Evangeline," with a paper on the Acadians.

Later should come other poems of our own country, on slavery, and on village life, with readings from these, and from "The Wayside Inn."

Later still, his translations should be read and discussed, and his little dramas. The season should close with an afternoon in which each club member should read her favorite poem. If clubs can buy one book it will be found delightful at this point to read aloud "A Sister to Evangeline," by Chas. G. D. Roberts (The Page Company).

Or, if the autobiography of General Grant were to be studied, a committee should go over the table of contents and divide it up into several parts; his early life; his experiences at West Point; the years between that and the Civil War; the great campaigns and battles in which he took part, and the great men on both sides with whom he came in contact, especially Lincoln and Lee; his Presidency; his trip around the world; his business venture, its ending; the writing of his book; his death and burial. All of these points should be ill.u.s.trated with pictures where that is possible, and each meeting should have a discussion on the period presented. The one copy of the book must of course be loaned in turn to the different committees, but each one is not to read it all but only the part a.s.signed, so there would be plenty of time for preparation. Such a study would open many different topics, especially those bearing on the war and on Grant's trip, and would be of a definitely educational nature.

Of course every magazine the club can get should be searched for articles of value for reference. One member might make it her work to go over them each month and make out a list, copying the t.i.tles on a large sheet of paper, which could be hung up on a door at each club meeting; or a card catalogue might be kept. In a short time this would make a real, if small, reference library. History, essays, articles on science, sketches of travel, and poems would all be of some use sooner or later.

Other subjects may be treated in the same way as those suggested.

History, especially different periods in English history, makes delightful study, and books on nature, and travel, and phases of woman's life and work are easy to get and interesting. Nature study, gardening, bee raising, the care of poultry and other practical subjects may be introduced with the other work.

III--VALUE OF COMMUNITY WORK

And then, aside from working for their own development, there is the other work a club can undertake, that for the community, which is of immense value. The newly coined phrase one hears to-day in connection with farm life is: Better farming, better business, better living. How to help bring about these three great ends is one of the best things a club can study.

The first subject which will come up will be: What are the princ.i.p.al difficulties we have to meet in our homes, and how can we overcome them?

At this point a book should be read aloud in the club, a chapter at a meeting, with discussion afterward; it is, "The Report of the Commission on Country Life," and is a presentation first, of the farm problems, and, second, of how to meet them. The chapters on the work of the farmer's wife, with its difficulties, will be of especial interest, but all of it is important to read, for hygiene in the home, gardening, the school and church, social life, and many other topics of practical interest are dealt with there and will suggest lines of study for the club.

The first topic to treat is that of home hygiene: discussion of how better ventilation of sleeping rooms, better protection from flies, better cooking, better sanitation can be secured. This will probably occupy several meetings. Then will come the topic of beautifying the home, and this will suggest the cleaning up of the farm yard as the first step to take. Later on, when community work is begun, this will lead to a house-to-house visitation with the request that all the neighborhood should make their premises more inviting in the same way.

IV--IMPROVING THE PUBLIC SCHOOL

After this the public school will be studied. The building may need repairs and modernizing, especially the outbuildings, the playground and the surroundings of the schoolhouse. A chapter in the Report will be of inestimable value next, for it points out the need of a redirected education, one which will give the child of the farm some study of nature, of agriculture, health, sanitation, domestic science and similar subjects which fit his life. It suggests that the school-teacher and district superintendent should be called to conferences on this subject and asked to help in carrying out plans for the betterment of the school.

The next thing for the club to do is to make a social center of the schoolhouse. The crying need of farmers' families is for social life.

True, the grange tries to supply this, but the women's club can also help by having lectures and concerts and addresses at the schoolhouse, with stereopticon shows, dances, tableaux, and whatever will make the community happier and better. They may also carry out the suggestion of the Commission that the school should be brought into direct contact with the State Agricultural College, and professors should come to give demonstrations on farms, and traveling lectures on orchards, dairies, farm pests and other topics should be given.

V--TALKS BY EXPERTS

When the time for the county fair comes the club may have, as one Illinois club did, a series of talks on all sorts of live topics, given by experts to all who would come, the men as well as the women. Farm Life in the Old World, The Farm Boy and the Farm Problem, Bringing Home and School Together, Home-Making for Men and Women, were given, and also practical demonstrations on preserving, bread and b.u.t.ter making, and other domestic subjects. Besides these there was a fruit and vegetable show with prizes, given by the children.

Then there is the beautifying of the little village. The club may clean it up, plant shade trees and shrubbery, freshen up the paint of the railroad station and make its driveway attractive, take charge of the cemetery lots which are neglected, make a common in the middle of the town if possible, and have flowers and trees there, and, most important of all, create a sentiment among the people which will lead to abolishing the loafing places about town.

The club may also help the village church or, rather, churches. These are a problem in every farming community, for there are usually too many for the population, and no one of them is well supported. It may be that some clubs may be successful in having a union church; but, if not that, at least they can frown on the spirit of jealousy between the churches and establish cooperation. The buildings may be freed from their mortgages, the interiors freshened, the choirs improved, the minister's house papered, the Sunday school modernized, the women's societies a.s.sisted. There is always plenty to be done to help a struggling country church.

A town library may be started by the gift of one book by each family, and club women may take turns in giving out the books one day a week and providing entertainments to raise money to buy more.

Clubs may also help the town celebrate fete days: Arbor Day, the Fourth of July, Harvest Home, and the birthdays of local celebrities or of Washington and Lincoln. The schoolhouse may be used for such meetings.

The motto of every rural club should be: Cooperation. As one kind of work is taken up after another it will soon be seen how much women can do if they work together for the good of all. The little club nucleus may draw to itself the men of the community, the young people, and even the children, and together they may build up something fine, something of substantial value. Country life has its problems, but far more, it has its great, glorious opportunities.

These are some of the helpful books to be bought, or borrowed from the State Library:

"The Report of the Commission on Country Life." (Sturges and Walton.) "Cooperation Among Farmers," John Lee Coulter. (Sturgis and Walton.) "The Rural Problem in the United States," Sir Horace Plunkett.