Page:Women of the West.djvu/128

Rh of the group is as old as the race. The tribal unit has been recognized in all savage life and even insects, birds and beasts centralize for safety and efﬁciency, so the musical people of early America sought others of like talents and the ﬁrst result was the old-fashioned singing school, which began about 1717 in New England. A direct outgrowth of the singing school was the musical convention which ﬂourished through the last half of the nineteenth century and which ﬁnally gave place to the musical clubs.

The earliest women's musical clubs were: The St. Cecelia Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan; The Union Music Club of St. Louis; The Fortnightly Club of Cleveland; The Tuesday Musical Club of St. Paul; The Amateur Musicians of Chicago; The Tuesday Club of Akron, Ohio; The Matinee Musical of Indianapolis and The Mendelssohn Club of Rockford, Illinois. These clubs are all in existence at the present time.

The National Federation of Musical Clubs was effected in 1897 through the inﬂuence of Mrs. Russell Dorr, Miss Marion Ralston and Mrs. Chandler Starr of New York. Mrs. Edwin F. Uhl of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the ﬁrst president, with Mrs. Theodore Thomas, wife of the famous conductor, as honorary president.

To tell the work of these women is too lengthy a story, but we may touch brieﬂy upon their aims and accomplishments. Their slogan is: "Music in every state, city, town and home in America."

To this end they annually offer prizes for amateur compositions; they compile musical programs with phonograph records which may be had for the cost of express or mail only, for the use of clubs, schools and churches, in small communities. These programs always include an excellent and authentic paper on the music sent.

They award scholarships in conservatories as prizes in musical memory contests.

Through their efforts, the pupils of the accredited private music teacher of today receive credit for their work. And ﬁnally, they preached music, sang music, played and talked music, until the world was forced to listen.

Why should club women, in particular, sponsor its development?

It is a widely known fact that there is a section of every human brain devoted speciﬁcally to music. All of us try at some time to express ourselves musically, whether it be to play, sing, whistle, or even mark time. Have any of you ever tried to play any instrument while angry? It can't be