The Complete Club Book for Women Part 14

One paper or talk may be on the usual hours of work, the kind of work done, the hours of overwork, the pay, the prospect of advancement. A second paper may be on the rest-room, the noon hour, the luncheon provided for pay, and especially on what is known as "welfare work,"

which many large shops do.

A third paper may discuss the relation of the girls to their employers, or to the floor walker; telling of care or tyranny, of fines, of the sanitary conditions of cloak rooms, of the effect on health of long standing.

This may be followed by a third paper on the cost of a shop girl's living; of room rent, food, clothing, car fares and recreation; how does the result compare with her pay? Discuss the minimum wage. Is it fair to pay alike the competent and incompetent? Is immorality due to a low living wage? Can a girl save for illness? Read "An Unfinished Story," by O. Henry, in "The Four Million." (Doubleday.)

Have different women suggest what can be done to help the shop girl.

Describe what is called "preventive work," done largely by girls from college in the evening, and the work of the Y. W. C. A., and settlements. What can club women do by way of personal acquaintance and interest? What of short shopping hours and early Christmas shopping?

Read from a paper called "The Club Worker," published by the National League of Women Workers; address, Hotel Savoy, New York; and from "Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores," by Elizabeth B. Butler, published at 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York.

VII--THE BUSINESS WOMAN

The problems of the business woman in a larger way will naturally follow this. One paper may speak of women who are managing farms and ranches, others who have become the heads of business houses or real estate offices; some who are chemists, or designers or decorators; those who have tea rooms, who buy for importing houses or engage in catering. The work of the great army of stenographers and private secretaries would also come under this topic.

Present the different fields of work, and ill.u.s.trate with examples as far as possible, and then discuss these and similar questions: Do women naturally incline to business? Is their home training at fault for the many mistakes of the average woman? Should fathers see that their daughters understand something of banking, of keeping accounts, of investments, of managing an income? How much should a girl know of business? Should every girl be able to earn a living?

VIII--THE PROFESSIONAL WOMAN AND HER DIFFICULTIES

The problems of a professional woman may be made the subject of several meetings. Present the lives of the doctor, the nurse, the lawyer, the professor, the school teacher, the writer, the artist, the musician, and discuss in each case the difficulties she has to contend with.

Such questions as these may follow: Should professional women marry? Are their home lives well developed? Are they fitted for the career of the law? Do writers and artists tend to become bohemians? What are the relations of men and women in the same profession?

IX--WOMAN AND THE STATE

The last subject for the year's study is the relation of women and the State. One paper may take up some of the laws which govern her, concerning property; a second may speak of divorce, and show the diversity of the laws of different States; a third may tell of the influence of women on legislation, of lobbying and appearing before committees. The desirability of placing women on certain state and munic.i.p.al boards such as health, sanitation, care of defectives, vice commissions, reformatories, and schools should be fully presented.

The subject of equal suffrage will develop from this last topic of the year and both sides should be taken up as fully or as slightly as the club desires. Reports of the progress of suffrage in different States, what has been accomplished where it is established, and kindred themes, will suggest themselves. Read from Olive Schreiner's "Woman and Labor"

(Stokes); Ellen Key's "The Woman Movement" (Putnam); and Ida Tarbell's "The Business of Being a Woman" (Macmillan).

CHAPTER XV

SOME GREAT MEN OF OUR TIME

I--RODIN--SCULPTOR

Ten club meetings are planned here, but as many more may be arranged by taking up the work of other men along the same lines as those mentioned.

The great sculptor of our day is Auguste Rodin. He was born in Paris in 1840, studied at the Pet.i.t ecole and later with Barye. From the latter he gained the double idea that statuary should suggest action and be literally life-like. Some of his statues are "St. John the Baptist,"

"The Hand of G.o.d," "The Thinker," "Adam and Eve." "The Bronze Age," now in the Luxembourg, caused a heated controversy, the charge being made that a plaster cast of the model had been used. Rodin is a p.r.o.nounced realist and his figures are filled with force. He has inspired this generation of sculptors with a new conception of their work.

Read from "The Life and Work of Rodin," by Frederick Lawton (Scribner).

For other meetings on modern sculpture study the work of St. Gaudens, Lorado Taft, MacMonnies, Niehaus, Mrs. Vonnoh, Miss Yandell, Mrs.

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and others.

II--ROSTAND--DRAMATIST

Edmond Rostand, the dramatist, represents the literary playwright. He was born in 1869, and educated in Paris. His first play, "Les Romanesques," was staged in 1894. The next year came "La Princesse Lointaine," and two years later "La Samaritaine." But the height of Rostand's brilliant career was reached when he presented "Cyrano de Bergerac," a heroic comedy which took the artistic and literary world by storm. "L'Aiglon" followed this, and Rostand was then honored with an election to the French Academy.

"Chantecler" appeared in 1910; it was an attempt to imitate Aristophanes by putting birds and animals on the stage, but though largely advertised it was not a success.

Read from the study of Rostand in E. E. Hale's "Dramatists of To-day"

(Holt). Have a number of selections read from "Cyrano" and "L'Aiglon."

A meeting on Maeterlinck should follow this, and another on Ibsen, with criticism, comparisons, and readings.

III--JAMES--PSYCHOLOGIST

The man who has made philosophy popular to-day is William James. He was born in New York City, educated in London, Paris, Boulogne, and Geneva, and then in the scientific and medical schools of Harvard; he became professor of psychology and philosophy there. His chief books are "Principles of Psychology," "The Will to Believe," "Human Immortality,"

"Varieties of Religious Experience," "Pragmatism," and "A Pluralistic Universe." He died in 1910.

Professor James, like his brother, Henry James the novelist, was a man of letters. He dealt with the fundamental problems of human life in a distinctly fresh way and wrote of them in a style of singular clearness, vivacity, and humor. His philosophy is based on the idea that truth is that which has the value of truth to us.

Many clubs would enjoy a whole year of study of James's books. At least there should be several meetings for readings from "The Will to Believe," and "Pragmatism," and from the biography, "William James," by Emile Boutroux (Longmans).

Study also the work of the French philosopher, Bergson, and that of the German, Eucken, recent visitors to America.

IV--BOOTH--RELIGIOUS LEADER

Gen. William Booth was, religiously, one of the notable figures of our times; but aside from that he was one of the greatest organizers of his generation. Born in Nottingham, England, in 1829, he early became a Wesleyan Methodist, but later independent. He founded the society which developed into the great Salvation Army, modeled after the English Army, but involving a discipline even more strict.

At first Booth met bitter opposition: churches where he had preached formerly were closed to him; he was called a mountebank and accused of having brought religion into contempt; but he steadily won favor for obviously great good done. In 1890 he published his book, "In Darkest England and the Way Out," suggesting social and religious methods of helping the very poor. This book made his work respected by intelligent men everywhere. He died in 1912. Telegrams of sympathy were sent to his family by kings and emperors, presidents, governors, and great men of all nations. His funeral was a wonderful spectacle.

Read from the "Life of General William Booth," by G. S. Bailton, published by Doran, and have several papers written on different phases of the work of the Army. Read the poem: "General William Booth enters Heaven," by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (Mitch.e.l.l Kennerley).

Another great religious leader of the times was Dwight L. Moody; have a meeting on his evangelistic work and the Northfield schools.

V--TOYNBEE--SOCIAL WORKER

Clubs will be interested to follow this study with one of a man who inspired as great a work as Booth, and founded as important an inst.i.tution--Arnold Toynbee, the originator of the social settlement.

Toynbee was born in London in 1852. He spent ten years at Oxford as undergraduate, tutor and lecturer, and there came under the influence of Buskin's social teachings. He took a deep interest in trades unions, and worked for better hours, more sanitary homes, open s.p.a.ces in cities, and free libraries.

In 1875 he took lodgings in Whitechapel, one of London's worst slums, in order to live among the poor and help them in a neighborly way. On account of his delicate health he was unable to continue there long; but his example brought other Oxford men, and when he died in 1883 they organized a social university settlement and called it Toynbee Hall.

This was the first fully equipped inst.i.tution of the kind, and at once it attracted attention everywhere and was immediately followed by the establishment of others in England and America, and later in all lands.

To-day in the United States alone there are more than five hundred such settlements.

Read "Arnold Toynbee," by F. C. Montague, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, and see the "Handbook of Settlements," by R. A. Woods, published by the Sage Foundation, New York. Clubs may also have a meeting on Jane Addams and Hull House, and read chapters from the book, "Twenty Years at Hull House," by Miss Addams (Macmillan).