The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-10-15
ON GIRLS CLUBS
MRS. D. {. VIRTUE OF MlNNEAP-
OILS SPOKE ON SCOPE AND AD-
VANTAGES OF RECREATION
AND WELFARE WORK FOR
GIRLS,

At the recent meeting of the State
Federation of Women's Clubs, held
in OWatonna, Mimi, Mrs. d. E. Vir-
tue of Seton Guild, Minneapolis, spoke
in part as follows:
Seton Guild in Minneapolis has,
among it's activities, club rooms in the
business district with cafeteria, rest
and reading rooms adjoining and a
large modern club house or summer
home for girls at one of the most at
tractive points on the shores of Lake
Minnetonka. Seton Club is a mem
Der of the Minnesota Federation of
Women's Clubs, and has an individual
membership of nearly four thousand
business girls. A staff of secretaries
and twenty paid teachers carry the
recreational program to all parts of
the city
The function of club, primarily,
should be to furnish wholesome rec
reation. A girls club in either the
small town or the city, when properly
organized and directed, is a strong fac
tor in furnishing recreation for young
people and in this way counteracting
the influence of the cheap dance hall
and other perniciOus resorts, and also
satisfying the spirit of adventure that
enters into every normal mind.
Recreation is play in it's broadcast
sense, in contradiction to toll and rest;
it is of two kinds: wholesome and un-
wholesome. Wholesome recreation
makes for physical, moral and spirit
ual development for the individual,
just as the presence of vicious forms
of recreation make for dissipation and
| delinquency. The sense that life pos
sesses variety and color is realized
most easily in moments of recreation,
and it is the duty of the citizens in
every community to furnish every
means for wholesome recreation.
Allen IT, Burns reported results of
| the study of play grounds and delin-
quency in South Chicago, in which de-
| linquency decreased 20 per cent in
given time, and the only new factor
found on the South Side was play
grounds. ....s-.. ..
Cleveland recreation studies brought
out the fact that recreational habits
formed early in life are the habits on
which the later recreation in life de-
| ponds. a "
Among the principal causes for girls
| leaving home are loneliness caused
from lack of companionship, the spirit
| of adventure, the lure of the stage and
| opportunity for pleasure. All of these
aspirations may be satisfied in we'll
planned girls organization.
| Culture can be developed to huge
degree, through well directed pro-
| gram. Cultural classes are attractive
to the girl who is in school no longer.
Habits formed by a girl in small
town will continue with her when she
leaves home, either through the spirit
of adventure or a broader field of OPP
portunity. When a girl comes to the
city from the rural district, if she does
not know the value in a girls club
and visualizes it as a place for chap
erons, not pleasures and desirable
companions, she will be easily attract
ed by the bright lights and cheap
amusements. The community in which
this girl lived is responsible for the
dangers that may beset her if she has
not been given the opportunity for
wholesome recreation that might have
created taste for the better things in
| life.
A girls club is a delightful asset to
community. Girls have great deal
of initiative many are leaders. and
I they can make CLUB a live, enterpris-
| ing, self-determining association which
will keep the young people as well as
| those of maturer years at wholesome
play during their leisure hours.
| There are million and half
young women in the industrial world.
i They are there because of the industri-
al revolution and the change in our
economic system. The average time
for girl in industry is placed at five
years. There is field of opportunity
for the wide-awake club. Girls clubs,
even when working in entirely isolated
groups, have force and persistence,
and when working in unison will have
telling results in character building, in
health and happiness.