"Smile Club," the Latest in New York

1910

NEW YORK. — Miss Sara Carolyn Stright is the originator of the club which has just been started. In its few weeks of existence it has gained 75 members and they are widely scattered.

Florida is represented and California. There is a Wisconsin man who has joined and this is how his joining came about: A New York city man went to Buffalo on business and was asked by a stranger with whom he was talking: "What order are you?"

"Smile," returned the New Yorker, beaming on the questioner and pointing to the tiny gold pin with the words "The Smile Club" on it.

"I'd like to be a Smile myself," and so the Wisconsin man joined the ranks of the Smile club.

"There is a great demand for such a club and we are trying to fill it," said Miss Stright at her home, 241 Park place, Brooklyn, according to the New York Evening Telegram. "We appeal to the best in every one, and we appeal to all classes. The uneducated are seeking happiness as earnestly as the most highly developed persons. We are working out the ideal of innumerable people in the simplest way possible.

"It is somewhat misleading to call ourselves simply the Smile club. But if people would only realize the real meaning of 'smile' it wouldn't be misleading at all. We shall help people to forget themselves, to eliminate all destructive criticism and thoughts and to see good, and good only, in people. They must love life — animal life as well as human life — and God's out of doors above all things.

"One of the aims of the Smile club is to build a summer home for little city children who could not otherwise go to the country. The atmosphere will be entirely of sunshine, smiles and cheer on all sides. Nothing that is unhappy or unclean or unwholesome will be even mentioned."