Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/654

638 dramatic clubs, the gymnasium with its games and basketball, claim a share of all.

Each club, no matter how lightly social, has its own sober meeting once a month, when it listens to some lecture or informal talk. The club names range from the purely ornamental through the descriptive to the utilitarian. There is "The Violet," "The Study," and "The Fourth of July Mandolin." A favorite custom is to enshrine the name of some hero or heroine, local or general, whereby Henry Clay and Clara Barton appear in friendly competition.

The Penny Provident Bank, which opens at night from seven to eight, is an importation from New York. Supplies of bank-books and stamps come from the parent institution, and there the deposits are finally redeemed. The system is one of great simplicity. The child exchanges his coin for a stout manilla book ruled in squares suitable for the stamp. This he signs with his name and address, receiving a stamp of the value of his coin. The money may be withdrawn at any time after it reaches the sum of fifty cents. Any impulse to reckless spending of a lesser sum is discouraged by the mulcting of five cents from the amount drawn. Visitors to the house find the bank, with its eager tangible depositors, full of vital interest; even more so, however, are the weekly meetings of the Social Science Club. These have gone on steadily for seven years and represent in an astonishing manner the "American spirit"

Speakers of every opinion and circumstance have come before this body, have said their say—not always undisputed, not always courteously received—until now the test of all real love of knowing can be put to it—for it seeks to make welcome not opinion but knowledge.

The lights linger in the gymnasium, which is also the theater and assembly room, but at midnight the kindly "special officer" sees them going out until all is dark. If some restless resident sits up with a problem, or wakens at every clanging car bell, he