brary
auditoriums as the foreign poor.

When there are public meetings at the Carondelet library, speakers from
other parts of the city invariably come late. They begin their addresses
with long apologies, saying that they have never been in the
neighborhood before, and did not know where to find the library. They
always seem amazed at the size and beauty of the building, and comment
particularly on the pleasant club-rooms. One West End woman could not
say enough in praise of everything, repeating continually, "and all this
down here!"

Practically this same comment is made again and again in the main
library, and in the other branches throughout the city. "All this down
here," is equally true of seven auditoriums, each with a seating
capacity of 200, and of club rooms and offices to the number of fifteen.
In these halls were held, during the past year, practically as large a
number of meetings as our equipment will permit. Omitting the meetings
at Crunden and Soulard, practically all are held by the average sort of
person--average financially, socially and intellectually. The very
absence of the feeling that the club must make money, or must at least
pay expenses, probably accounts for the long list of small clubs and
board meetings which could almost as easily meet in the homes of
members.

There are those who think that no one uses the auditoriums except very
wealthy club-women, who set up Christmas trees for the poor. There is no
more truth in this than there would be in saying that all the
inhabitants of St. Louis are either immigrants or millionaires. In the
total number of meetings at the library, what Ida Tarbell has termed
"the shirtwaist crowd," is far in the majority. At practically every
branch, the Simon-pure woman's clubs form at least fifteen per cent. of
all the meetings. At the Cabanne branch, about fifty per cent. are made
up of women. The Barr Branch Mothers' Circle, The Queen Hedwig Polish
Women, and the Carondelet Women's Club are three names out of a list
running almost to a hundred.

The masculine of "shirtwaist crowd" is "shirtsleeves crowd"; and this is
equally well represented upon the schedules of all the branches. Miss
Griggs, of the Barr Branch, writes:

"We seem now to have a number of new meetings that are held for
discussion--but not many for study--casual, one-meeting-only affairs.
For instance, the Royal Arcanum met to discuss what could be done about
the increased rates. All the