athletic associations. They are generally well supported, in the main 

 reporting "capacity houses." Rockville, Gaithersburg, Laytonsville and 

 Clarksburg seem the fondest of this form of diversion. Minstrel shows 

 are also occasionally given. The type of play usually employed is the 

 light comedy, clean and quite above reproach, but of al^solutely no 

 literary or dramatic merit. The investigators attended several of these 

 ])erformances and found them highly enjoyable, their chief regret being 

 that with such a wealth of dramatic material to draw from, plays of so 

 inconsequential a sort were invariably selected. 



Once or twice a year some traveling stock company will appear in one 

 of the public halls and present some inexpressibly poor "show" (one 

 could hardly call it drama). Rockville has a moving picture show, open 

 one or two nights a week. This presents a good quality of films, all 

 approved by the National Board of Censorship, and is reasonably well 

 patronized. 



Dancing and Card Playing. Laytonsville has a few private subscrip- 

 tion dances each year, but no public dances. Clarksburg district has a 

 dance a month, at Boyds, attended by about fifteen to twenty couples; 

 there are usually dances at the picnics attended by a hundred couples. 

 Poolesville town has a dance a week during the winter, at the hall, 

 attended by twenty-five to fifty couples; there is no charge except for 

 expenses. Rockville has private dances at the hall, and dances at the 

 club house for members; the latter are invitation dances. Colesville 

 district has an occasional dance given by the lodge. Few dances are 

 held in the Darnestown district, but 10% of the young people attend 

 those given at Boyds and Gaithersburg. In the Olney district a number 

 of dances are given in the course of the year at private homes and in the 

 Grange halls at Olney and Brighton. In Gaithersburg both public and 

 private dances are given at the Masonic Hall. Potomac has three or 

 four a year at the Great Falls Hotel, and several at the Knights of 

 Pythias Hall; there is also dancing at the Catholic picnic. In Barnes- 

 \\\\c there are public dances at the picnics; private dances are also given. 

 In Wheaton most of the towns along the railroad have frequent dances 

 during the winter; these are usually invitation affairs. There is less 

 dancing in Damascus district than elsewhere in the county. 



There are card clubs in the Laytonsville, Poolesville, Rockville and 

 Wheaton districts. Elsewhere there is considerable playing privately, 

 less in the Damascus district than anywhere else in the county. 



Lectures and Public Entertainments. Lectures are not very much in 

 N'ogue in the county. Washington Grove has a number in connection 

 with its summer Chautauqua. A number of towns in the W^heaton 

 district have frequent lectures, usually to restricted audiences in clubs. 

 Elsewhere they are very infrequent now, though in general they were 



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