The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-29

may be loss of moral enthusiasm. Milton
/ long agoecondemned fugitive and clustered
virtue. We should be seif-condemned did our
| intellectual striving lead us. to selfish enjoy
ment of what we gain Hence, we, as a
| federation, have endeavored, during the year,
| to lay stronger emphasis than ever upon the
truth that knowledge and. emotion WITHOUT
action are weakening to character. The presi-
dent or the general federation has recently
I expressed our working principe: Sell
culture for self cultures sake is just as i'm
| moral as art for1 arts sake. A knowledge
simply for ones OWN qualification hurts the
| individual rather tthan ennebles. "
This truth is the chemical test OF our MIN
nesota clubs Says a Boston paper he
Gently In Paris q fashionable audience as
sembled for a chemical lecture with expert
ments.s6When they came again into the open
air they greeted one another with exelama-
tons of disunay. The faces of most OF the
| women had BEEN Iudicrously transformed.
/ Their cheeks, lips and in some cases the en-
tire surface of exposed skin had turned blue
| yellow, violet blacks changing beauty INTO
| responsiveness. The chemical efforts OF the
4 gases, which has been set free during the
| lecture, had convicted every one who had
used any kind off paint or cosmetic to i'm
prove the natural complexion.
The rose-co,ored tints of our delightful as
ISOLATION and labor Greek beauty, Roman
system, Swiss grandeur. English order, the
dignity of artic research, the picturesque
ness OF ancient c5urts,S all the cory ana charm
winch we have seen in vision, are Dut artl,
| PAeNSSAN~~A
!. application.
A simple organization like ours permits
all outside work to be done by departments
or committees as help, and not hindrance
to study. No club is required to do altru-
lstlc work; all clubs are invited to share In
the three or four lines Of effort which we as
state have adopted. 1t is this work whlca
/ gives our federation it's cohesion and Its
| unity. A haH-hour once month IN club ses-
sion for reports of committees and discuss.on
| ana one or two programmes during the year
fOCn t:D,, v,,rifi with on a
| study CT Them and the entire state will feel
! our beneicent power
| We have sought, as federation, to mani
4 fest our desire to be helpful under the guild
4 ance of our four standing committees: The
1 committee on village and town improvement,
| On town and country clubs, on Libraries, and
on education.
! TOWN AND VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT.
The committee on town and village i'm
| provement has sought to give municipal scope
10 those housekeeping instincts which nave
/ been developed by the experience of genera
lions in batting with domestic dust, disorder
and dirt. Three principles have governed the
/ work in this line. The IDEAL housekeeping
| is prevention of the need of it. Reform
| must begin with the chi dren Cooperation
with municipal governments and all local
power, is the sure means of success.
The aim OF the comm ttee is to secure,
| through the aid of. the cubs, for all our Min
nesota towns and villages, the cleanliness and
beauty of which they are capable. To remove
|
| usless deh-ing of the streets, the children
have been enlisted For every school room
| In the towns where there are clubs the COM
mittee have sent gratuitously, piacards which
| give plain directions for securing cleanliness
and beauty in public and private places.
Such precepts as Bury al old tin cans, Z"
| Pick up and burn al waste paper and even
| Don't spit on noors and sidewalks" are
more pathetic than poeticai. There is no
! Barraboola Cha elemsnt in the oversight of
the use of these piacards in the inspection of
| the children's language exercises, based on
! them, and the publication of some of these
exercises in the slocal press nor in the
! speeches made by our women on Arbor day
in the schools, CT in the, distribution of flower
| seed. The deserts made to bloom like the
rose, however. praise their work in this and
+ similar directions at ortonyile, Lake City,
Dodge Center, Morris, Saltwater, and many
! other towns.
The marking of historic sites by monument
CT tablet is also an aim worthy of our local
! zeal
! The scientific study of forestry goes natur-
ally with improvement work The chief fire
| warden OF our state glad y offers h5lp to our
| clubs in this study and asks our cooperation.
!, Another advance step would be taken if
| the railways of our state were made lines o.
beauty as well as of commerce. We can at
least commend the action of the Chicago &
| northwestern railroad, which,, on its line
through Southern Minnesota has at every
station the beginning of a grass pot and
i. garden, cared for by the station agent and
! section men. Would a request from Us induce
the same attention to beauty from all the
railways as Is eXemplified in the Pennsyl-
vania railway? On that road, whose railway
| parks are delight to every traveer the
| superintendent of greenhouses has recently
been instructed to propagate 10000 vines for
use along the lines of that road in embel-
| fishing the rocky and other cuts. A net
/ work ofdlines dcf beauty throughout our state
would he a stimulating object lesson to every
| town and every homo. @.t9 i-i,e
i But beforS faeF. request to railway M IN
ayers we mustshrst 'enoxe the possibility of
such e 5replylsasswas ,gfNsen 20 asit1iiar re-
quest Just asesoon as" your federation
| will induce your town people to stop using
our our right Of way as a dumping ground we
! VIII certainly spend some money in beauti-
! ling our property. sE7'- o 9s
Carlyle has shown how Goethe represented
! IN his Maerchen the gloom and rudeness of a
hshermans hat changed insoS solid silver
| by the shining of the mystic lamp within ana
| even the form changed at-last into an ex-
4 qulsitely wrought temple. Who can tel. wha
shining amps our small efforts are lighting
TOWN AND COUNTRY CLUBS.
| The Rochester Town and Country club
! still holds the roll of honor in town and
country activity. Its rest room for country
women, with its retired corner for home
| lunches, its touches and easy chairs the
names of 634 visitors registered there during
! the month of August. and greeted each day
by two club hostesses, indicate wo-k Of rea
| value.
The literary programme of each month is
the chief feature in the Mortified Town and
| hay
| begun similar work.
LIBRARIES.
| Our library interests have not slumberod
during the year. We did not secure the bill
for travelling libraries, but we yielded no lot
OF faith or effort. Utmost courtesy and cor
dlallty met our committee at the legislature
but the final vote went against the interests
of our smaller towns and country districts
why were the wishes of Minnesota women
dicregarded? No private axes to grind and
nj n vol any in
| Tess hands, were told. We cannot he
| lleve 1t. campaign of education must he
| carried on so that before the next legislature
meets the need of these small special libraries
for each town and country district and the
great return they will give for the small in
vestment shall be impressed on every Iegis-
lator.
Minnesota needs not only the special tray
| cling libraries, but more free libraries
Only about twenty towns in Minnesota have
free libraries. Every town in Massachusetts
is supplied with good library. Fifteen or
sixteen of these Minnesota libraries were
started by women. Here is further work
for us.
A step towards more libraries was inaugu-
rated last winter when the state legislature
provided for an amendment to the state con-
stitution, making women eligible by election
as they were by appointment as members of
library boards. and emitting them to vote on
all school questions. Whether this amend
ment shall be carried at the next general
election depends largely upon the women Of
the state. They have here the opportunity n
make it possible to use their leisure their
literary taste. their judgment about books
for the benefit of the state. Our work in
this respect is plainly before U.S.
EDUCATIONAL WORK.
All the aItrustic work of our clubs IL In
lines suggested or fostered by the general
federation to which all of the state fedora
lions owe their organization. One phase of
our work brings us into closest touch with the