The Complete Club Book for Women Part 26

_Paper or Talk_: The City Child and the Country Child.

Should music be made a feature of these meetings, there are settings of Stevenson's, Eugene Field's and Riley's child verses which would be especially appropriate.

XI--AN AMERICAN POET AND HIS FRIENDS

_Paper_ on Longfellow's Early Home and Life.

_Talk_: His Married Life; His Children.

_Reading_: The Children's Hour.

_Paper_ on Longfellow as Harvard Professor.

_Readings_ from His American Poems: "Hiawatha," "Evangeline," "Courts.h.i.+p of Miles Standish."

_Paper_: Foreign Honors; Westminster Abbey.

_His Translations_: Norwegian, "The Saga of King Olaf"; Swedish, "King Christian"; German, "The Happiest Land"; French, "A Quiet Life"; Spanish, "Coplas de Marigue."

_Talk_: At Mount Auburn.

XII--AN EDUCATIONAL MEETING

Paper or talk on Froebel and the Kindergarten. The Kindergarten in the Public School. The Sanitation of Our Public Schools. Discipline in the School. The Relations of Teacher and Parent. Beautifying the School-Building and Grounds.

The discussion might also be on such topics as Social Life Versus School Life; The Health of High-School Girls; Athletics and Study, etc.

The topic in the program of "Froebel and His Work" might be taken up by a trained kindergartner; perhaps the head of a high school might come in and speak on the Health of the High-School Girl, and some teacher interested in art might tell what could be done to beautify the school-building with pictures, plaster casts and growing plants, the grounds outside with trees and vines. By dividing the subject into Primary Schools and High Schools, and arranging the topics under each and adding to them, two programs could easily be made out of this one.

Or, a meeting could be held, following this one, on college life, in its various aspects; college for girls; athletics; training for life in college and outside, and the relation of college boys and girls to their homes.

XIII--A MAGAZINE MEETING

Give to six members the names of four or five good magazines, and ask one to speak of some of the essays in them; another to take up the travel articles; a third the poetry; a fourth the popular science, and a fifth the short stories. Let each give a brief resume of the one which seems best of all to the speaker, and have a sixth read some of the lighter and more humorous bits of prose and verse from the various magazines.

The chairman of the day might also prepare a short discussion by four of the members, each one speaking for two minutes at the close of the program on such subjects as "Do We Read Too Many Magazines?" "Do They Affect Our More Serious Reading?" "The Growth of the Short Story" and "Which Magazine Seems on the Whole the One Best Worth Taking in a Family, and Why?"

Some one might also speak on the subject of "What Each Magazine Seems to Stand For"; one perhaps has most literary quality, one bright fiction, and so on. A very clever talk might be given also, comparing the magazines now with those published thirty years and more ago, with some idea of the writers of that time and the general character of the articles.

XIV--PROGRAM FOR A THANKSGIVING MEETING

_Business_; reports of secretary and treasurer.

_Paper or talk_ on The First Thanksgiving Day.

_Reading_ from "Old Town Folks," by Harriet Beecher Stowe; Getting Ready for Thanksgiving.

_Reading or recitation_ from "Miles Standish."

_Paper or talk_ on The New England Meeting-House.

_Personal reminiscences_ of childhood Thanksgiving Days.

_Recitation_ from Whittier's "Thanksgiving Day."

If possible hang up a large picture of the "Return of the _Mayflower_,"

or other appropriate picture in the room.

XV--AN AFTERNOON WITH OUR SOUTHERN WRITERS

Thomas Nelson Page: Readings from "The Old South," Chapter I; "An Old Virginia Sunday;" "The Old Gentleman of the Black Stock," Chapter V.

James Lane Allen: Readings from "A Home of the Silent Brotherhood," "Two Gentlemen of Kentucky."

Richard Malcolm Johnston: Readings from "Dukesborough Tales."

The Poet of the South, Sidney Lanier: Selections from his biography, by his wife. Short poems: "Life and Song," "The Stirrup Cup," "A Song of the Future," "A Ballad of the Trees and the Master."

George W. Cable: Reading from "'Sieur George."

Ruth McEnery Stuart: Readings from "Sonny," "The Second Wooing of Salina Sue," "Thanksgiving on Crawfish Bayou."

The program may be interspersed by plantation songs: "Old Black Joe,"

"The Suwanee River," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Camptown Races" and others.

XVI--THE CHILD IN THE HOME

I. _Music_: Ballad.

II. _Talk or paper_: The child's right to a welcome.

III. _Discussion_ by three members:

(1) Squabbling and how to deal with it.

(2) Unselfishness.

(3) Equal rights for boys and girls.

IV. _Music_: Child songs.

V. _Paper_: The family evenings: Parents and children.