436 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



The parish has five distinct means of bringing people together. 

 The first of these is the parish school. Children living in various 

 school districts meet daily in the school-room and thereby natu- 

 rally extend the horizon of their friendships along broader lines. 

 All school festivals bring in the parents of these children, thus 

 one common interest unites both parents and children. 



After the school years are over the boys and girls join the 

 junior divisions of the young people's societies. Once a month 

 they hold regular meetings, listen to conferences adapted to their 

 conditions of life, arrange little social affairs, and, when old 

 enough, are admitted into the young men's or young women's 

 sodalities. 



The church is tlie real social center for these young people. 

 They furnish the material for the choir and the dramatic club. 

 Once a month they meet for the purpose of mental and spiritual 

 culture ; the}^ have a circulating library of choice books. Every 

 Sunday after Mass the librarian is at hand to give out books, 

 and as the young people meet here they naturally speak of the 

 merits or shortcomings of the books they have read. 



Cinch parties and spreads are arranged at times, when the 

 young people practically all of them meet and spend an aft- 

 ernoon or evening in the most pleasant manner, without any other 

 thought than that of giving and enjoying what they call a " jolly 

 good time. ' ' 



The married people meet once a month for moral improvement, 

 and, at odd times during the year, for social pleasure. I remem- 

 ber one occasion on which the married ladies were the guests, and 

 the married men the hosts. It would have done your hearts good 

 to have seen these sedate men, decked in the uniforms of waiters 

 and cooks, receive their guests, seat them, and wait on them in 

 the most solemn manner. 



Once a year a picnic is held ; the whole congregation, neighbors 

 and friends meet in the forenoon and spend the whole day in any 

 way they choose. The men sit together, smoke, and talk politics 

 and farming ; the married women sit in groups with their babies 

 playing around them, exchanging views on every topic. The 

 young people play ball, tennis, bean bag, or any other game their 

 fancy suggests, till the declining day reminds them of the races. 

 Then old and young assemble to witness or to take part in the 



