The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-08

his wife one evening upon her return
from meeting of THE FOrInightly."
If you viii ask respectfully, 1 will
tell you the subject of the essays and
discussions. if that is what you mean,
she responded, with mock dignity.
"Oh, come nOwl You know that all
they do is TO exchange compliments and
look each other Overland talk a little
about Browning and the language Of
the stars. and all that sort of thing
isn't it?"
I'VE discussed the matter of ideals,
and there was nothing gushing about
il. IL was most practical"
Ideals, practical. Then what is the
difference between the real and the
ideal?" ne laughed
THAT is just what was explained TO
US today" she said, good-humoredly
And / want 10 tell you something
which you do not seem to knOw-that
your ideal is really the only practical
thing in your life"
The lady went on to elaborate the
startling theory which she had
broached-and il is actually the idea at
the root of every club which has for its
object mutual improvement" This Is
the main object of half, at least, OF the
clubs in the original movement and 1t
has never been fully understood by out
siders.
-
Few of Us comprehend the dimensions
of the business of pattern-maklng.
Enormous amounts of money are IN
vested in It, and as the circus posters
say, vast aggregations of talent
The Importance of the pattern IN the
matter of clothing is well understood
by US all. In the making of stoves, wall
paper and engines the pattern is no less
f4a
ton. religion. depend upon the pattern.
1t rules the universe.
The woman's club. even the club
which mOdestly announces itself as
meeting simply for mutual improve
ment," has been the great pattern
maker in its community ever since its
beginning.
Perhaps the subject of one meeting
is Child Training Ways of breaking
children of disobedience, of lying, of
an kinds of bad traits are discussed.
Every mother goes home with her as
sortment of patterns greatly enlarged.
Or the subject may be Hospitality.
The hostess of moderate means finds
the expression of her hOspitable in
stincts almost impossible, if she is to
keep within her income. After full
discussion of the matter by d num-
Der of women who have had an expert
enCe more or less like her own, she goes
home with a mind full of suggestions
and devices of which she had but dim
ly conceived before.
Or a modern novel is analysed by a
thoughtful member Her diagnosis is
cOurteOusly sometimes Otherwise) OBJ
jected to by another member. New con-
siderations are urged by a third. The
minds of all are stimulated. Clearer
ideas of what a novel should be prevail
among all. In spite of all the insincere
and uninteIligent remarks which are
often made, out of the whole is usually
evolved a higher state of civilization.
The ordinary culture club has done
more to set the women thinking, and to
clear their ideas, than any other single
agency i'm their several towns; and yet
many outsiders have remarked: What
good does that sort of thing do? Can't
you read at hOme2"
Such critics do not realize that What
the pattern is TO commerce the ideal is
20 the mind: and that the WOman's club
is constantly carving out the ideal.
Copyright. 1895, by Joseph B. Bowles)