The Club Monthly - a handmade magazine lovingly made in 1920.
February's edition of The Club Monthly sees a return of some familiar authors.Â
Excitingly, we also get our first reference to readers sending in letters - and competition winners! Our belated congratulations to Mollie Cook, Ms Scott and Ms Hobart.Â
The first of February is the traditional start to spring in the Irish agricultural calendar.Â
In this edition, a song and a poem herald the changing of the seasons, and some advice - seemingly written by an aunt with a green thumb - for how to start one's garden so early in the year. The handy tips include sowing seeds indoors or in a greenhouse until the weather is fine enough for planting. If there are any 'old soft half grown onions left over from last year', planting them in a sunny place now will see the planter reap 'a nice bed of hard onions about June'.Â
The pretty green and tender leavesÂ
Are having such fine funÂ
For Mr Wind has just come outÂ
To kiss them every one
-
The branches play at hide and seek
The twigs are bending low
The elms and the oaks + silver birch
Rejoice to have a blow.
-
They always welcome Mr Wind
For Time, they say, is slow
To stand quite still for many hoursÂ
Is trying you must know
-
And so they all are very glad
When breezes soft do blow -Â
Oh! Merry are the leaves when theyÂ
Can rustle to and fro.Â
These three pages are just some of the cartoons included in this month's edition. They appear to be cut out and glued in from a publication - perhaps a newspaper. If anyone is familiar with the origin of the cartoons, please do let us know.Â
New riddles add to the fun of this month's publication.Â
Unlike January's edition of The Club Monthly, which had 12 stories and multiple poems and rhymes, February's edition has only six stories.
The stories are typical of the sort that would occupy younger readers. They often concern small adventures or events, taking place in the home or at school, and have a moral about the importance of honesty, obedience, and kindness. Good behaviour is rewarded, while bad behaviour is punished.
Mary Turner was a very disobedient girl what ever she was told she always said no. At last her mother and father decided to send her to a boarding school to learn better manners. Mary did not at all like this so she felt very sorry having to leave home to go to school, above all these.Â
At last it came the day Mary was to go, she had got new dresses gloves nightdresses etc etc.Â
It was her first night at school she was told she would have to share rooms with Marie Tompson, No immediately snapped Mary. "Mary" snapped the headmistress, you will have to do what you are told. Oh snapped Mary again and that was all about it.
Mary soon stopped being cheeky to people and when she went home she was greatly improved and she got a beautiful prize.
In February's The Club Monthly, the model page allows readers to set up some animals in a classroom.
Unfortunately, the cut-out characters are on the back side of the scene. It may have been a mistake on the part of the creator, or may suggest that the magazine was not intended for distribution. Indeed, at 52 pages long, it would have been quite the feat to handmake multiple copies. Perhaps readers were asked to trace the model, and ignore cutting out instructions.Â
One interesting detail that hints at the age of the creator - or creators - is this interjection in the middle of one of the stories. Perhaps an author was up past her bedtime, trying to finish her story?
To the readers,
The book was snatched away from me before I had time to finish this part.Â
One detail that tells us the creator(s) were in their pre-teens or teenage years is the inclusion of this illustration of a cook and a maid sharing a kiss. Perhaps it was included in recognition of St. Valentine's Day!
Â
