The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-12-09
The Civic League.

Just now, when the new OmcerS
of the league need to be encouraged
in their work for the coming year
by the enrolment of great number
of new members, large attendance
at each meeting and by a willingness
in all to help in any work which the
league may undertake, these ex-
tracts taken from an editorial in the
Delineator seem especially written
for the citizens of Bamberg. Let
everyone read these extracts and
they will surely see their duty to-
wards their town and be enthused to
new efforts in it's behalf thereby.
"Isn't there some small thing that
needs doing in your community, for
the good of the public in general,
for the good of civilization, which
you might do or get others to help
you do? Because to most of us "our
country means the community in
which we live. Our influence may
scarcely extend to Washington, hard
ly to our State capital. But there is
no one of brains and character who
may. not have influence in her own
community. e..'
"There are hundreds of thousands
of women who have maids in the
kitchen, whose children are no longer
small, who have leisure. They may
not think So, but they have. They
fhave leisure aside from the evening
hours when all are at leisure. There
are thousands of such women who
could give few hours every week
to work for the public good, with no
trouble to themselves. Leisure is
thing which millions can never have;
a thing which driven and hurried
toilers gasp for throughout their
lives. Does leisure class owe moth
ing to community which has given
it this rich gift?
'sIsn't there something in your
community that needs doing? Some
thing which will render it more civil
lized? Somthing which will increase
the general health, intelligence and
well-being? Is there library in
your town. If so, has it children's
room? .Aare your teachers decently
paid? In some parts of the country
a teachers wages are those of a
kitchen girl. That surely is not suit
able. Is there public bath in your
town.. Cleanliness is next to godll-
ness, you know, and it is really very
hard to keep clean without a bath
tub. Have you a child-labor law,
and is it enforced? Or are the chill
dren being put to work before they
have got their growth or the pitiful
smodicum Of education afforded by the
elementary schools? Are there any
children's Fairgrounds in your town?
Boys are arrested, you know, and sent
to jail, and started On criminal
career, just because they had no
place but crowded street to play in.
Are the saloon laws in your town en-
forced-the laws for Sunday closing,
for midnight closing, against selling
to minors? Such laws exist in most
places. Are they enforced? Half
of all the trouble comes because they
are open from midnight to morning.
'tDo you know anything about any
of these things? They are very much
more important than Shakespeare or
Browning or the Pre-Raphaelites, not
to speak of chenille embroidery or
bridge. Do you take any interest at
all in this great, struggling, boiling
melting-pot of the races, this America
of ours, which was to mean so much
to the world? If you do, crystalize
that interest into action in some way.
Don't let it remain merely sentiment.
Good citizenship, like charity,
ought to begin at home. But is
there any reason why it should end
there"