Result-ditto. Then the club resolved to be its own caterer. Result-excellent food, good service, financial prosperity. Recreation Hall. In the east wing, at a right angle to the dining-hall and connecting therewith, is the recreation hall, 182 x 26 x 16 feet, furnished with a baby-grand piano and pianola, billiard and pool tables, chess, checkers, cribbage, dominoes and other games, fencing and boxing outfits, and the commencement of a gymnasium. Here entertainments are given fortnightly, care being taken that the regular monthly club meeting shall coincide with an entertainment. Frequently at noon there is an impromptu dance, the "baby-grand" and the pianola furnishing the music. Home Talent. The entertainments are music, vaudeville, legerdemain, stereopticon shows, etc., and, aside from the educational features, the performers are confined strictly to the employes. The writer asked a club member why outside players, singers, musicians, magicians, etc., were not invited. His reply was the condensed essence of the spirit of this whole social success. He said: "Yes, we could have many brilliant and famous men in our little theatre, and we would enjoy them, but we think it better for the club, better for ourselves, that we develop and utilize home talent; and among our four hundred members we find talent a plenty. You should have been at our musicale last Friday evening. Such singing! I assure you that you have many times paid a high price for music not a quarter as good. Yes, we believe in developing home talent in every department of the club-in its organization and administration, and in the literary and educational departments, as well as in our amusements, our games, our base-ball and foot-ball, our camera section, etc. It is this that interests everyone, develops everyone, gives each individual a chance to contribute to the success of the whole, places responsibility on all. Valuable Training. "This policy is training men and women to be more useful to themselves in their daily vocation, and, therefore, more valuable to their employers; it is making them more selfreliant and capable as citizens; it is educating them somewhat in administrative and executive work, and one thing we have learned from all our mistakes and failures, as well as our successes, in running this club is that the organizing, administrative chief of a great industrial organization is entitled to large reward. Yes, this club is a good school." The Natatorium. Directly under the dining hall is the natatorium, 160 feet by 35, with a 20-foot ceiling-light, bright and cheerful. The writer of this sketch labors under difficulties. He has been directed to say nothing laudatory of the company, nor to refer to its head, who is the moving spirit scientifically, mechanically and altruistically, nor is he permitted to indulge his bent in the use of adjectives; but he is compelled to say that his bath (or rather these baths) is a splendid affair. The tank, cement and enamelled brick, is 150 feet long, 18 feet wide, and from 41⁄2 to 9 feet deep. The flooring is a handsome white mosaic tiling tastefully bordered in green, with a couple of two-colored marble steps, about 75 feet long, leading up to the batteries of shower and needle and tub baths-six of each. A filtering plant is being installed. Certainly in New York city there is no bath, public, private, or club, so roomy or so finely housed and equipped as this bath of the Weston Employes' Club. Here, as in the lavatories, the plumbing is fine in quality and pleasing in style. Connecting on the north is a large room now being fitted as a dressing-room, and the arrangements are such that the men may go directly to or from bath and work. Bathers are required to take the shower before the plunge. Certain days and hours are set apart for the women. The club is considering the organization of water sports— polo, swimming matches, carnival, etc. |