The second may present the early history of Japan; its feudal system, its religions, its varied government, down to the opening of the country in 1853. The third and fourth may study the development of the country under foreign ideas; the growth of the army and navy, the establishment of schools, the court life, the extension of commerce, the press, the new standards of government.
These should be followed by papers or talks on the late wars with China and Russia and their effects. Other meetings should be on Japanese architecture and art and on the different phases of the subject: The Japanese in America. Read from "Japan," by Lafcadio Hearn (Macmillan Co.), "Japanese Life in Town and Country," by George William Knox (Putnam), and "The Lady of the Decoration," and "The Lady and Sada San," by Frances Little (Century Company).
In studying the West Indies it is necessary to use a map at each meeting to keep clearly in mind the location of islands: the Bahamas, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, and the Caribbean or Leeward and Windward Islands. A brief study of Columbus should introduce the whole series. Follow with the story of the Spanish possession, and then take the coming of the English and the Dutch, their colonies, growth of power, and the wars which ensued.
This will bring in the romantic stories of the buccaneers; read of the extraordinary careers of Captain Henry Morgan, the notorious Blackbeard, and Captain Kidd, and have chapters from novels treating of that time, such as Charles Kingsley's "Westward Ho!" and "To Have and To Hold," by Mary Johnston.
Give the story of each important island: Jamaica, Santa Cruz, the two little republics of Haiti and Santo Domingo, Barbados, and Martinique, the last the birthplace of the Empress Josephine. The topic of slavery should have one paper. Read from the life of William Wilberforce.
Take next Cuba and Porto Rico. Study the war between Spain and the United States, and follow with the conditions to-day. Read from "The West Indies," in the Story of the Nations series (Putnam); "The English in the West Indies," by J. A. Froude (Longmans); and "On the Spanish Main," by John Masefield (Macmillan).
North of the West Indies lies a group of islands famous for their beauty – the Bermudas. Here Shakespeare placed the scene of "The Tempest." The English own the islands and maintain a military station there. Read from "The Tempest." Follow with a paper on the Azores, in mid-Atlantic.
Circling the North American Continent, clubs will find several separate islands full of interest. Little Staten Island, in New York Harbor, and Long Island are closely connected with our history. Cape Breton Island, on the northern coast of Nova Scotia, holds the old stronghold of Louisburg, and the beauty of the Bras d'Or Lakes is worthy of note. Read "Baddeck and that Sort of Thing," by Charles Dudley Warner (Houghton Mifflin Co.). Newfoundland, rugged and lonely, lies beyond. In spite of its great fisheries on the Banks, its people are poor. Read of the work of Grenfell among them. The Arctic islands farther north present little to study, if we except Iceland, well to the northeast. This is truly a wonderful little place, and clubs should give it one meeting. Its relation to literature is important. Read the little classic, "An Iceland Fisherman," by Pierre Loti (McClurg), and "Bound About the North Pole," by W. J. Gordon (Dutton).
Crossing to the west coast of British Columbia one meeting might be given to the Alaskan Island of Saint Lawrence and others of the Aleutian group; then, coming down the coast, Queen Charlotte's Island and Vancouver should be noted briefly. On the west coast of South America is the little island of Juan Fernandez, on which the sailor Alexander Selkirk spent five years alone, whose story suggested to Defoe his "Robinson Crusoe."
Just around Cape Horn lies the strange, wild land of Tierra del Fuego, of which little is known. Darwin, however, wrote of it in his "Voyage of a Naturalist," and scientists find in it much of interest.
CHAPTER VI
The Business of Being a Housekeeper
The following topics have been arranged in ten groups, but as many more may be added by dividing each main group into two, or even three or four. There may be readings at each meeting from the books given for reference, and discussion by club members.
The subject for the first meeting may be the Old Housekeeping and the New. One paper may take the comparison of housekeeping twenty years ago and more and that of to-day. Is there a real difference, or only a seeming one! Are rents, food, and clothing actually higher for the same things, or does life to-day demand that we add to what we then had? Assuming that prices have really gone up, and are to stay there, what can women do to adjust themselves to the fact?
The second paper should speak of the necessity of a woman's knowing exactly what she can have to spend; of knowledge of her husband's business; of an allowance; of the need of training in keeping within a fixed sum.
The third paper is to be on the budget. That is, on preparing a list of expenses, setting them down in a book, apportioning the income among the items, and then putting down each day and month the actual outgo, and so, year by year, altering and arranging the expenses to meet the income. The discussion should take the form of personal experiences in keeping household accounts.
The introductory paper on this subject may speak of the complex way in which our houses are furnished, and the superfluity of things in them. Also the fact that the day's work of caring for them is not always clearly defined and carried out.
The second paper may treat of the relief of a weekly schedule of work to be done.
The third paper may take the topic of the conservation of a woman's energy, and the carelessness with which she runs up and down stairs and does unnecessary and foolish things. Mention here the help to be found in vacuum cleaners, modern dusters, carpet sweepers, and other housekeeping helps.
Discuss the question: How shall we make our brains save our bodies?
By way of opening the meeting a brief paper may be read on What Is True Economy? This will point out the fallacy of buying poor foods because they are cheap, wilted vegetables, stale cereals, inferior canned goods, and the like. This may be followed by one on the question of buying. Where shall a housekeeper buy – at a large market or a small one? How can one learn how to buy good and still cheap meats? How can one do with less meat? And is buying in large quantities a good plan?
The third paper may take up markets, their cleanliness; the housewives' leagues of certain cities and their work; what can country women do whose market is limited?
The last paper should speak of the necessity of personal supervision by the housekeeper; of the imprudence of ordering by telephone, and of the system of giving orders at the door to the grocer.
The discussion may turn on the question of paying cash for everything or charging.
A good beginning is a review of the cooking of our grandmothers, cooking in various parts of the country, and cooking in foreign lands.
Scientific cooking is, first, a knowledge of food values, but it also includes the art of cooking, and both may be presented. Show how an expert cook will use whatever materials she has at hand and will avoid the use of costly ingredients. A good topic here is, How shall we have variety without increasing the expense?
The kitchen as a workshop is the subject of the next paper. Make it plain that one needs a clean, sanitary room, with everything to work with; suggest new utensils, fireless cookers, and so on, and describe the ideal kitchen.
Close with a discussion on the point: How can a woman learn to be a good cook? Mention cooking schools, demonstrations and lectures, the study of magazine articles and the pamphlets sent out by the Department of Agriculture. Clubs might form cooking classes as an outcome of this meeting.
This topic may be arranged in two parts: the work done at home and the work sent out. Under the first speak of the former methods and how washing and ironing days were dreaded,