HOME AND NEIGHBOR. N ANY social venture of a personal character, involving the good will and co-operation of others, the mental attitude is more important than mere manners, however charming or however awkward. Society Applied Neighbor is marvelously lenient to the ship. "ways" of those people whose hearts are in the right place. In what spirit ought it to be undertaken? What tacit understanding ought to govern the relation, especially in those clubs whose members strike hands for mutual uplift across the separate parallels which worldly circumstances prescribe? This paper refers especially to clubs of this sort. They are the most important. These are the clubs which bring together in wholesome contact people who would never meet except at opposite ends of a bargain. I say neighborship because I do not mean neighborhood clubs; the clubs I am writing about are most unlikely to draw their members from one neighborhood. They bring into close neighborliness, however, persons whom the ordinary forces of environment, education, and business interests tend to separate, and they bring about a better understanding between persons to whom the good things of this world do not seem equally distributed. As civilization develops, the interdependence of people of widely different circumstance increases, and considerations of mutual welfare are prompted as much by self-preservation as by benevolence. The interests of each would be better served if better understood by both. But how can they meet? They are not only strangers to each other, but strangers to each other's habits of life and thought. There are, nevertheless, as many grounds of meeting as there are different sorts of persons. The real question is, Which side shall pioneer into the undiscovered country that lies between? Plainly the duty of advance lies upon him who has the advantage; that is, with the one who has had sufficient leisure and means to give himself those things which are distinctly recognized as "advantages." His wider contact with men and books makes him readier of speech than the man who works silently amid the whir of machinery or the preoccupations of hard labor. Moreover, he has an ease of manner which comes of the consciousness of belonging to the class that sets the fashions in manners (however bad they may be), and he need not doubt his knowledge of the proprieties. If concessions are to be made in the matter of dress, vocabulary, or manner, in order that the approach may be more complete, these concessions should be made by the side that can make them most easily. It is absurd to ask the ignorant to step at once upon the plane which it has taken the educated years of painstaking labor and perhaps three generations" to acquire. 66 The difficulties of approach disappear before the actual attempt. Differences are often mainly superficial. They are not nearly so great as is generally supposed by people who know only one side. When they meet people of another sort, whether above or below their own rank, the similarities are more noticeable than the dissimilarities. Most of the blunders made by people in different circumstances in dealing with each other are the result of the slipshod habit of sorting all people TAIL PIECES. into one or two classes, and asserting as facts broad and unjust generalizations. All such classification is relative, and shifts according to the point of view. We hear a great deal about the "dangerous classes," and to many minds the phrase means the poor and uneducated. Have not the poor and uneducated quite as much reason to look upon the rich and educated as dangerous classes unless their education shall include that broader view of the responsibilities of wealth, which for tunately is increasing? The rich and the poor may be divided into separate classes on a property basis, but a classification on moral grounds may present an upper and a lower class, where millionaires and job-laborers stand shoulder to shoulder. 4I The mind which ignores superficial class distinctions and seeks conclusions of its own, based on inductions made from personal experience, is likely to become more and more removed from unwholesome caste prejudices. If to this mental attitude be added a cordial friendliness which is sympathetic, tender, and forbearing, the product is a man or woman who can find within walking distance of home a world of helpful, heartening work which awaits such and only such workers as he, work which cannot be done by any system of class treatment, however benevolent. It must be done by the individual for the individual. It is upon such neighborliness as this that society must largely depend for the solution of some of its gravest problems. Adelene Moffat. TAIL PIECES. NO VETERAN. 'Neath oblivion's mould they're resting Where the critic never roams, WHAT claim have you, sir, on our In the darkness of the sacred country's favor? When naught from war's calamity could save her, As her defender did you marching go? Oh son, my son, I answer for thee No! Yet would I mention as a bar to scorn, You wanted thirty years of being born. Lavinia S. Goodwin. LITERARY CATACOMBS. Wrapped in shrouds of little faults. Literary Catacombs. Charles Sloan Reid. CONCERNING PUBLISHERS. Finding with every added year of authorship an increasing distaste for the drudgery of the business, I have tried to relieve myself of all unnecessary burdens. The following printed form can be filled in at a moment's notice and will, I am sure, save the voluminous writer much toil and anxiety. I particularly pride myself on the coupon attachment, which shows an equal consideration for the careworn editor. This recipe I give to my fellow authors, hoping that they may reap as much benefit from it as I have. M. M. Aunt Charity: "Who is you, chile, and what you comin' here for wid dat big basket?" Strange child: lard, an' some 'east, 66 Mammy say she gwine to make bread, and will you lend her some salt, an' some an' some flour; she already got de water." One Dollar a Year The Symposium (Formerly THE LETTER, now enlarged and improved). An Illustrated Monthly Literary Magazine edited and published by GEORGE W. CABLE. Devoted to every form of knowledge, speculation and experiment designed to make homes better homes and neighbors better neighbors. The systematic conduct of Private and Club Reading is a special feature of THE SYMPOSIUM. Outlines of courses are published every month, with timely hints to readers, suggestions as to lines of reading, etc. A Plan for Lending Books. In regions where library facilities are few, THE SYMPOSIUM proposes to offset, in part at least, the absence of the circulating library. We will treat any subscription to THE SYMPOSIUM as a fee for membership in a library, and mail the books required, the cost to the subscriber being merely the postage one way. CORTICELLI DOILIES AND CENTERPIECES Fully described and practically iilustrated in "Florence Home Needlework" for 1896. A new book giving explicit illustrations for embroidering the most recent and popular art needlework designs. Tells just what shades of silk will give the best results, as well as the quantity required to work each piece. It is the best book published. No needleworker should be without it. 96 pages, over 60 illustrations. Sent by mail for 6 cents in stamps. Ask for "Florence Home Needlework" for 1896. Address NONOTUCK SILK CO. 93 Bridge Street, Florence, Mass. All enterprising merchants sell "Corticelli Silk." Are small fireside clubs, meeting once a week for unlaborious, systematic reading, or for any light pursuit that is at the same time entertaining and profitable. Their purpose is to combine the stimulations and pleasures of mutual improvement with the promotion of a kinder, fuller, and more active neighborliness than ordinarily results from merely drifting with the current of one's social preferences. Any Two or Three Persons may start one of these Home-Culture Clubs. They are with out red tape, without machinery, without dues or fees. Books are lent to them by THE SYMPOSIUM with only the expense of postage one way. They have been In Successful Operation And at the close of the last season numbered seventy-five clubs scattered through thirteen states. Mr. GEORGE W. CABLE is chairman of the movement, and Miss ADELENE MOFFAT, one of the assistant editors of THE SYMPOSIUM, is the general secretary. Letters inquiring for full particulars and addressed to MISS MOFFAT, HOME-CULTURE CLUB HOUSE, NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS, will receive cordial attention. Start a bome-Culture Club Now in Pour Reigbborbood. THE NORTHAMPTON At the Front for Lightness, Durability, Speed, Economy, YOU TAKE IT |