ay, and how difficult to say clearly and
concisely what is to be said.

It will be necessary, of course, to learn the accepted methods of
debating, and know how to present the points of the argument
progressively and with a climax, as well as to anticipate the points
likely to be made by the opponent. Each side must also be limited as to
time.

As to the subject of a debate, it is a safe rule to choose the concrete
rather than the abstract, a large subject rather than a limited one, and
one of general interest. There should also be two well defined sides,
rather than something accepted by everybody. Such things as the views of
some writer on socialism, or the permanency of the work of a well-known
novelist or poet, or political, but not partizan, questions are always
acceptable.

To make club work successful year after year it should be remembered
that a club is not a university; that it should not be scholastic, but
full of human interests. Tastes of members vary, and so the subjects
selected should be attractive, fresh, and stimulating. In a large club
there may be committees on different subjects, art, civics, child study
and the like, each one a little club in itself, meeting weekly, and the
whole club can gather once a month and the committees in turn present a
program on their special subjects, and so every member be satisfied. As
years go by it will be found that members grow to like subjects other
than those they began with, and more general work will be taken up.

Last of all, to have a successful club it is essential that there should
be no members who are mere listeners. Each woman actually has something
to contribute, if only in a very quiet way, and a good chairman of a
program can find out what this is; the little talent may take shape in a
paper, or a talk, or a part in a discussion, or some music, or only a
quotation or a reading. But a club is worth just as much to a member as
she puts into it, and no more. Any woman who is not willing to do
something in the way of real work should drop out and give some one else
the place which she occupies but does not fill.

Two methods are followed in the programs offered to clubs in this book.
First, a year's work is divided up into ten meetings with four or five
papers suggested for each meeting with readings and bibliography.
Second, the year's work is again divided into ten meetings, but it is
left to clubs to choose from the material furnished how many pap