The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1891-01-16
AN CLUB.

@|1ISA
club to which he belongs the substantial
business of which is expressed in this art
icle Of Its constitution: This club exists to
find out how other people live After
describing the original plan, which was
abandoned as impracticable for the end IL
view, Mr. Hale tells how the club was
finally brought into being.
Nv hat we did, " he says was to bling
together sixty young men pretty much by
accident, and then take our chances of add
ing other people who we're interested in the
life OF Boston and its social system al
ways glad if, IN making a good choice as
far as other qualities went, We got in a
new occupation.
But for the purpose of finding OFT how
other people lived We actually went to see.
That is, the first committee appointed,
and it was large one, was on emigrant
ships. We sent a lot of young fellows down
to quarantine to come up in an emigrant
vessel and see how that thing was done
In just the same lines, from that day 10
this day, We have let men volunteer to
form committees for the sake of seeing
that We did not know anything about.
"For instance, we had a committee on
the mormon worship in Boston. We had
a committee on the Italian section, one on
the Chinese section, one on the city sorphau
asylum, one on all the hospitals, one on
our Norwegian population. Aud we never
had a more interesting meeting than when
an intelligent Norwegian gentleman came
round and told us the peculi4rities of the
Scandinavian races amo-g Us, being
kind enough, as | remember, among other
things, to bring us some of the biscuit and
sardines which | think none OF US had ever
seen before.
"Now you cannot go as far as this in in.
dulging yonr curiosity without going fur
ther. If you are good for anything you begi4
to get into the same relationships that my
ideal John. ont in the territory of Franklin.
forms 81 a matter of course with the burro
driver or with the washerwoman. You not
only know by sight the people with whor
you are thrown, but you come into pers ~
al relationships with item.
IF there happens to be a bright boy liY-
ing within a quarter of a mile of your office
and you happen To make acquaintance with
him one day. that aequaintaneeship does
not drop off. You and he get on a more
cordial footing with each other; you have
gained a friend and he has gained another.
How clear it is that it is his sort of
give-and- take which is necessary for the
quiekeniug ofpublic life, for making the cir
c~ulation from organ to organ effective and
fot the health of the whole body polite. I do
not want to be carried awav by a metaphor
but really Menenius Agrippa's fable which
St. Paul borrowed to such advantage after
ward, tells perfectly. You have a healthy
body il each part is in close and intimate
relation with each other pa 1T, if the circu-
1ation is good aud if ths circulation is well
oxygenated.
The object of this present writing is to
show people who are discourage that their
business is to bring in that public spirit in.
to souls and organs where there is not
enough o. il, So that the life of that con-
munity may be more active, cheerful and
strong. Now this is lone not merely by
attending a ward meeting once a year. but
by genuine and cordial intimacy with all
sorts o fpeople.
Exactly as everybody in a countr VIII
lsge knows more or less of the ups and
downs of forty or fifty households around
him-exactiy as the life of a person quick
ems OF helps the life of another person in
such a community-is it in the power OF
man or woman living in Chicago or in
New York to be in such relationships with
forty households of every social condition
of life, enlarged, inspirited, and as Mr.. Ar.
mold says, sweetened by the intimacy.
inst as soon as the Christian church or
the ethical philosophers or any of the
disciples of altruism bring about this state
Of things, so soon will this country take
up again the line of march on which it be-
gan. This is the line of march which his
t~orically is called Teutonic, German or Eng
lsh plan. In it every one paddles his own
came, but is in friendly relations With the
rest of the feet. Everybody is his own mas
ter but is in friendly relations with people
who know more than he does.
And when the administrators Of the
government look for something TO do with
such a fleet they find that on the whole it
is taking care of itself. People who
doubt about such a state of things are ill.,
vited TO remember with how little action
of the president the country Jared while
dear Garfield lay dying. Or, if the me-
moirs run back to the year 1856, they are in
vited to remember how well the people Of
Kansas got OH twelve months when they
had no government that they would
Acknowledge
III Told The truth
-a.hfc5 NTH lear aarnpH.fpt f.r