Show alave town clubhouse jerle pava UNION it is a place of comfort and convenience for country peopled who do their trading at seymour indiana similar enterprise would benefit any community in the nation the tolling plowmen and their wives have brought grain fruit vegetables butter eggs and poultry to the town that shields started and have taken home with them in the aggregate a mighty pile of supplies during threescore years such a pile you might say that the legitimate profits on it have helped lo 10 make a vigorous and pretty little but until the time that seymours leading business men decided to recognize the baue of farmer trade by putting up n clubhouse for the mar beters the country people certainly enjoy the hospitality that good steady customers in most lines of commerce may expect nowadays in fine weather chev brought lunch with them and ate t in their wagons parked in side streets and in tad weather they bought crackers and cheese and bologna and munched it as they stood around the stoves or hot air registers in the back of the stores where they sold butter and eggs that so bad for the genf aks but it was mighty inconvenient for the farm women especially it they brought the children along to town and often they did so Is it any wonder then that since the farmers club of jackson county has been receiving guests the merchants of surrounding towns within a reach of 12 and 15 allea in every direction are complaining that seymour Is getting the best of the country trade especially since the most prosperous farmers and therefore the most profitable customers own motorcars and can go long distances over the well raids the farmers club Is good to look at it la just as handsome in the face as the public library and the government building and better looking than the city hall and the newest railway station at seymour you step into a paneled vestibule from the street when you enter the club the vestibule gives into a large lounging room flanking the lounging room are two nurseries toilet rooms a lunchroom and kitchenette it you are a farmer who enjoys sliding down to the small of his back in a huge leather chier and toasting his shins before a great fireplace who likes breathing space and dark oak paneling and a pile of magazines and books and some potted plants who thinks it makes life more worth lining if he can meet people of his own kind for a chat now and then you would ride many miles to seymour tor halt or three quarters of an haur of loafing in that lounging room and it you are a farmers wife who knows the drudgery of dragging small children around for hours from store to store alio knows what it Is to seek in for a place of decent privacy where fretful toddlers can be cared for weary feet rested and an aching back relieved with a brief rest on a lounge who a place where n letter may be written in quiet where a telephone Is at hand where a crib waits to welcome baby for n nap who longs for an opportunity to talk with other country women you would bring pressure to bear on the husband to do his marketing at seymour for the nurseries offer these comforts of women reclining chairs lounges cribs iBS 88 7 AA jj yi y i y y sf M tomal A haa mir f v wv y A m i tf t t 1 C y 3 L y OW its a city clubhouse for farmers I 1 when they come to town to trade they may go to a well appointed building to meet their friends wash up have lunch write letters enjoy service and lounge around if they wish and their wives may besides having these privileges leave the children in the care of a corn detent nurse while shopping or calling upon friends quite a sensible long needed modern convenience dont sou think seymour n southern indiana city of about population has a farmers club with a membership of more than 1000 it has been in operation since october 1914 and Is n thorough success during 1916 the average dally number of visitors to the club was about the existence of the club Is due the plain truth must be told to the public spirit and generosity of two business men of seymour and not to any special enterprise on the part of either the farmers or the citizens of the town the belsh brothers own a large flour mill and grain elevators they are grandchildren of capt meedy W shields founder of seymour himself a farmer of energy and vision whose fortune it seems was the nest egg ot the belsh estate for many years the interests have dealt constantly and profitably with alie farmers of jackson county hy reasoned the flour millers wouldn t it be a fine thing to establish a club here in town for the farmers they thought it would be decidedly so and out of their estate came fund which made the fidei a fact in pleasing architecture and real convenience enot only that the maintenance of the club Is assured by a paid up income insurance policy so the farmers should worry 1 much of seymours prosperity depends on the farmers living radius of 12 or 15 miles of the city which Is the metropolis of a county that Is one of the most fertile in southern indiana for nearly three quarters of a century meals are not served at alie club guests are expected to bring their own food which they undoubtedly prefer to do in most instances but the pantry contains shelves where lunch packages day be checked in the kitchenette Is a multiple electric heater where food and drink may b warmed and hot and cold water faucets in the lunchroom are dinner tables and chairs with of course for the little ones and the comfort facilities offered at the cluba well surely nobody Is in a position really to appreciate preci ate this convenience more than the farm people there Is a matron in constant attendance the club has been incorporated under tho laws of the state and the organization Is self perpetuating the trustees charged with the management of the club are the presidents of the three leading banks of seymour hoover happens to be pros ident of either of these banks becomes one of the trustees the treasurer of the club Is chosen from among the three cashiers of these same banks preference being given to the cashier of the hank having the largest surplus fund and andl ald d profits at the last preceding report for the year there are no fees or costs attached to club membership any legal voter in the county who Is engaged in farming or who derives his support wholly or partly from the farm Is eligible to membership anyone thus lOed may apply for membership privileges at either of the trustee banks all one need do Is to take to ask for privileges then he and his family may participate in the club because it was an untried experiment something that been done before and all that the business men of seymour probably have put up the money for establishing ho club and maintaining it perpetually it the matter had been proposed to them ow if aliey were asked to reimburse the donors fully and make provisions for maintenance jointly jump at the proposition simply as a piece of first class civic in vestment what you might call a trade magnet they know that it Is drawing new farmer trade steadily and reaching out farther and farther toward rival markets as roads are improved and the price of those handy little buzz wagons comes down the secretary of alie seymour commercial club will tell ou for have to ut a squirt of the poetic and a liberal pinch of se into business talk th the farmers club Is progressive it Is a concrete expression of the ideal relationship which should exist between every town and the farming community adjacent and furthermore hell tell you it was certainly n happy conception a fitting recognition of the appreciation which the business men of seymour have for their farmer friends that led the brothers to do this thing for the farmers of jackson county and at that came time build a memorial in honor of the founder pt the city captain shields who waa a farmer and whose dealings ati the farmers around seymour created the basis of his fortune one of the indiana colleges which has an important agriculture deportment has shown much interest in the seymour enterprise this school sends out special trains and agents and emissaries and whatnot all over indiana in line with its policy of making a paradise of scientific farming and these agents don t often overlook the opportunity of telling about seymours I 1 armors club and what it Is doing to make the city and its rural customers real business associates the word Is going farther too than the farthest reaches of indiana grange organizations commercial clubs and agricultural colleges here and there all over the country are making inquiries of seymour about the club so besides making it easy for the rural neighbor to enjoy himself trading there seymour Is gathering to itself a stack of advertising valuable beyond computation what has been done in seymour can be done in any other agricultural community in the united states it necessary that the club should be a memorial to anybody nor that it should be a monument to the generosity and public spirit of one or two men nor that it should be housed in a specimen of classic architecture four or six rooms would acne the purpose nicely it converted properly to club uses these might be found in a detached residence or on the second or third boor of a business block the expenses might be prorated among the business men and the farmers themselves might pay a modest initiation fee and nominal dues where there s a hlll theres a way as the fellow anyhow it sounds pretty peppy and up to date doean doesn t it to overhear one farmer siy to hla neighbor on a saturday morning in town well fd lets run over to the club and have a talk |