Several programs might easily be made from this outline; one, on Peasant Dress, with illustrations from all countries; another on Colonial Dress; a third on Quaker Dress. By using the dress of all nations and all times, an entire year might be delightfully spent on the subject of Women's Costumes.
II—EMERSON AND HIS TIMES
Clubs which prefer literary study will find this subject most interesting, and like the previous one, capable of expansion into many programs.
Begin with a roll-call, the responses being selections from Emerson's prose and verse.
The first paper would be on his boyhood, his parents, his home life and education, his marriage, his ministry, his quiet life in Concord.
The second paper would take up the friends so closely associated with him, especially Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Thoreau, Longfellow and Whittier. The story of Brook Farm may come in here, or have a special paper by itself; close with his travels in England.
The last paper would be on Emerson's work as author and lecturer; of his place in his own day; of what Englishmen thought of him, especially Carlyle; of the influence of his essays on young men.
Have readings from prose and verse; read also from some estimates of him by great writers. See A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by James Eliot Cabot. Discuss, Is Emerson's place among philosophers what it was a generation ago? Does the modern idea of social service find encouragement in him? What was his attitude in regard to individualism?
III—CHILDREN AND BOOKS
This is one of the topics on which it would be interesting to have the club invite some speaker, perhaps a librarian, to speak. She would probably take up some of the following topics. The effect of the public library for children of the poor, of their interest in it, their delight in the warm, charming reading-room, their growth in personal cleanliness as they learn to care for the books entrusted to them. Of what books children draw from a library; of the reading of history, of fairy stories, of poetry, of books of adventure. Definite and helpful suggestions will be given for children who have books at home, of what parents should give them to read, and how to interest them in good literature.