The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-07
THE FLEErING sHoT.
Some of Its Fac, and Fancles

Written for the JOURNAL AND c uRIER.l
TWO CLUBS. l. THE LEND-A-
HAND BOOK CLUB,
Is there branch of the Lend-a Hand
Book Club in the good City of Elms?
IL not, why would it not be a kind and
helpful and sensible thing to organize
such branch?
OF this club, or mission, as it might
be called Rev. Edward Everett Hale Is
the originator and promoter. Head
quarters of the organization are at the
Lend-a- Hand office, 8 Hamilton Place,
Boston. Its object is to collect and dis
tribute books, magazines. papers, pic
torials, picture cards, anything, in
short, that has been read and laid
aside as of no use to the owner, yet
that might, If set in circulation, carry
information, enjoyment and help into
many poor home where reading mat
ter is an almost unknown luxury
Last year this club sent out, to the
South alone, more than two hundred
pdETeIS anu DUNES VI bOob5 dild iliiSoS1-
zines and over one thousand mail pack
ages of literature. They went to re-
mote and solitary homes, to prisons and
hospitals; to rural pastors and circles
of Kings Daughters, and Temperance
unions, these distributing them to peo-
pie who were unable to buy and to
whom they brought delight which can
hardly be imagined by those who all
their lives have been blessed with an
abundance of books. Some Of them
went to homes where the children had
never even seen picture book or a
picture card, they had never owned
anything so bright and pretty in all
their little lives, and their wonderment
and delight was almost beyond express
sion.
Clergymen and teachers, especially in
poor and thinly settled districts, soon
| find out where reading matter is need
ed and where it will do most good.
Their letters of application and of ac-
acknowledgement are of intense and pa
thetic interest. 1t is fact that though
| books are cheap, magazines to be had
for trife, and papers for still less,
there are thousands of people, capable
want of them. And yet there are 9TH
ers who complain that their houses are
"cluttered'' with books, and that they
are tired of the sight of papers and
| periodicals. They tuck them away,
therefore, under the attic caves, where
| they gather dust and dampness, and
pass at last their mission unaccom-
plished. into the hands of the junkman.
In truth, there's very little We hoard
away, or throw away, that might not
| do good service to some one else, If
| only we knew just where that some one
was to be found. In respect to reading
matter the Lend-a-EIand Club aims to
relieve the people who have too much
and bestow it upon those who have too
| little. 1t should have branch in every
| large city. Its committee, which need
not be large one, should have a room
where on certain days, at certain hours,
| they should receive donations and at
| tend to personal applications. Two
| hours a day on two days of the week
gives time enough usually to transact
| this part of the business. In Boston
| some wealthy people take sufficient in
/ terest in the work to pay its necessary
| expenses, also the expenses of q mem
| Der of the club who was sent to other
cities to organize branches and place
/ them in good working order. 1t is only
! five years since this form of philanthro-
| pic work took shape, but already lis
results for good are incalcuIable.