The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-01-26
BY MARGARET 4. sANGsTER

PAoS0bAAALJ L1Ak YOU I'LL uC
and others may one day combine t.
awaken conscience in the particular
corporation that processes to serve you.
And really picks your pocket. Wheth-
er this happens to be a gas monopoly,
Z water board, a street car system, or
whatever else, is of no consequence.
You will never vanquish that resource
1nl ice. But it is a slight alienation
OF suffering to fancy that eventually
you may succeed. Your neighbor re-.
lates his experience. you relate yours,
~ the mutual disclosures do good to
both. Misery loves company, in SUCH
phases as this.
II your wife has no near neighboYs,
nobody to gossip with, nobody with
WAom to exchange dress patterns and
cook receipts, nobody from whom to
borrow a cupful of sugar or a spoon
ful OF lard in time Of need. and no
body to chat with in the cleaning
she is badly off. There Is danger OF
drifting into melancholy from
sheer loneliness. A woman with no
neigl1bors is pitiably forlorn, unless
she has a whole houssful Of children.
The fundamental basis, the deep root
OF the club idea is contained in the
one word, fellowship.
Men and women have clubs, and
enjoy them, because clubs epitomize
the spirit of reciprocity which is the
essence Of neighborliness. A man goes
to his club, that he may drop his r
forget his business ~perplexities and put
q new set of faculties at work. A
woman who is rusting out and losing
her freshness in a routine of neces-
sary, but monotonous duties, is brigAt-
ened up and made younger by he;
mornings or afternoons spent in tho
pleasant intercourse of her particular
club.
The disadvantage of most clubs iE
village life is that they segregate men
and women; the men go TO theirs
apart, and the women to theirs. The
Ideal club is one in which husbands
and wives meet together, Informally at
each others houses, having light re-
freshments and little organization,
the minimum of expense, and an utter
absence of red tape. If a h%alf-dozen
families whose incomes approximate
the same amount, and who are on a
Similar social plane, combine to form
q neighborhood club, they can have
enjoyable times4n their meetings. and
they will be bound by ties of friend
ship almost invisible, but strong as
silken cords.
To make such a club a success, there
must be some occasion for it's exist
ence. This occasion Is sometimes
found in a diversion such us cards,
or an intellectual game, such as chess,
or it may be found in music, which
has a subtle way of uniting those who
love it.. "
When frankly the object of a club
is mental improvement, and the mem
bers make out a programme for study,
and pursue it through the successive
months Of autumn or winter, there is
great profit in the end. Possibly in
the first week or two or three. only q
slight Improvement may be dtscernei,
but as time goes on all are aware of
that keen delight which is the crown
ing JOY of a students life, in school
or college. The people in the neigh
borhood study club have left school
days behind them, and they sometimes
find it a little hard to help the chill
dren with the home work that goes on
around the evening lamp. Unused
tools grow dull. 1t is only because
we let u memories and our reasoning
powers lie dormant that they refuse
to do for us what once they did. Tn
to old age people might retain great
freshness and vigor of thought, and
the gift of assimilation, if only they
kept on taking in stores. -
A club for ~neighborhood study NAV
choose it's own subject. This NAV be.
Tor instance, the Social Life of An
cient Rome, or the Social Life of Eng
land Under the Stuarts, or the STRUGGLE
for Religious Liberty in the Fifteenth
Century, or the Italian Renaissance
or it may be some aspect. of natural
science. Nature study has a fascina-
ton that quite equals historical study
What is imperative is that something
be selected which can be pursued i'm
personally without awakening parti-
san sentiments, or arousing those We
hement passions that belong to issues
Oh the hour. Yet, at times, a neigh
borhood study club cannot do much
better than take up some branch OF
civtcs, look into good government, ard
enlarge It's knowledge of what is go.
ing en- in the country and the world
to-day. It is proper to write naners