The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-01-27

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Has it not lost you friend on friend|
Do not delay; dash it away
Ere il shall compass its awful end!
-Edlcard 4. hid9eT.
NEICURORiE0OD orr FAMILY GUILDS.
Their Idea ana what They Hope 10 DO
for the Working Glasses.
With the many clubs and reading rooms
for boys and men, and all the friendly and
other societies for girls, there does not seem
to be anywhere, in any neighborhood,
place which offers to men and women, boys
and girls, the chance for recreation after
toll and the social intercourse they demand
and need. At present. the most comfort
able. best furnished, most amusing place in
a neighborhood is likely to be the tavern.
| And to what devices their keepers resort to
entice their guests the pool table, the dice
box, the Cried oyster with every drink, y
&C. is known to all.
Could VIC not, profitng by the sagacity
and experience of those whose business 1t
is to attract, offer what would combine,
without harm to our customers, the ease
of the whisky shop, the comfort of the
coffee house, the sociability of the German
Volks Garten and the amusements and
even excitement of the music hall?
| What does the tavern offer to its habi-
tues? Plenty flight; freedom to smoke; to
slip in and ont without formaity; to sit
with ones feet at whatever angle best
suits the tired body.
What the Folks Garten9 A large,
cheerful hall, with costly tables at which
sit the father, mother, children, sweet
heart; the custom of moving round ard
chatting with acquaintance, and stage
at the end OF the hall where now and then
a curtain rises; and one or more persons
come out with song or dance or other
light entertainment, while the visitors sip
their beer and applaud with their glasses.
For beer substitute tea, coffee, milk,
chocolate, beef tea, egg phosphate, Ne,
and there is nothing bere which we might
not adopt with advantage,
What do they offer in tho music halls?
In London they have one very attractive
feature. The songs consist largely of
chorus, in which it is the thing for the
whole audience to join. This is really
fascinating, and what can be more in
nocentlv hilarious than chance to roar,
if boy, or scream, if girl, at the top of
your lungs, senscless but catching
chorus?
NOT AIMING TOO HIGH.
But why, if our aim is TO elevate should
we not begin at once with something
rational? First, because lively amusc-
ment is what the people arc used to and
will have; second, because, in many eases.
amusement, not only light, but to some
degree exciting, is what they actually need.
If they are tired their recreation should be
something that will Of itself seize and hold
their attention without much effort on
their part. What they need at the end of
day of mouotonous labor is not more mo-
notony, even With comfort, but an outlet
| for as much as possible of that part of their
nature which has been held in leash all
day If | were a brickmaker, or a gold
beater, or the solitary man in an under
ground cell who tends the engine for his
establishment, | fear my first impulse on
release would not be to read nice book or
take a pretty walk, bat, rather, to rush
| for a dram, or look in at prize fight, or
90 home and punish my wife. If We're
girl and had all day tended a loom, or past
ed labels on bottles, or spent the sitting
hours in an uuventiated room making but
tonhoes, under an oversecr who believes
in the silent system, can well believe that
on getting free / should not be disposed to
sit down in my dingy cell of q lodging
room with kerosene lamp for company
and mend my stockings. No, | shonld
rather feel like roaming the streets with
another girl, in search Of adventures, or
accepting pretty much anybody's invita-
ton to some sensational theatre, with re
| freshments afterwarl. And it is to thous-
ands of such cases that we offer, not what
would be the best for them under ideal cir
cumstances, but what might be q suhsti-
tute for places dangerous, especially TO the
| Young, in body and soul.
A SOCIAL AND soCIABLE CLUB.
| To meet such need We propose to offer a
social centre for Tie use OF those who are
living away from home, or whose homes
are not fitted for amusement or social gath
erings; house attractive to father moth
er and children; to the grown up daughter,
and TO her young man; to the daughter out
at service in u house where followers
are not allowed; to the girl who, having
no appointed season for Coming out, is
often driven from the lack OF direct ways
of making acquaintances into Indirect
WAYS; To the young mechanic or laborer
who, boarding for cheapness among men
exclusively, sees no avenue open to BIN for
acquaintance with respectable young wo-
men, and to the boys and girls.
! To give such house its distinctive char
acter at the start, and to prevent its gragi