class distinctions, Mr. Cable proposed to call the home into immediate requisition, and he repeatedly said, "The private home is the public hope," and it was his idea to make the home the beginning and the end of his philosophy of popular education. In the autumn of 1887 he brought a few of his friends together and submitted for discussion a scheme for the organization of a Home Culture Club in every home that would consent, the club to consist of the members of the family and of such neighbors as would come to a weekly meeting in one home or another to read and talk together. From discussion, he went to action, and during the first year there were twenty of these clubs in successful operation in Northampton. A public reading room was opened at a central point to give men and boys habitually on the street a glimpse, at least, of a rudimentary home. Casual reading began to turn into serious study, and classes were formed under direction of the Smith College students, who have always been Mr. Cable's constant helpers. These clubs multiplied throughout the state, and in 1898 they numbered throughout the land ninety-one, and the membership was six hundred and fifty, with a total attendance of nearly fifteen thousand. Since then they have been rapidly increased. Some of them are self-supporting, and some have been the recipients of generous donations from philanthropic people.
Both in the business and educational conduct of the Northampton clubs, Mr. Cable has had almost from the first the valuable help of Mrs. Adelaide Moffatt, the general secretary. At least once a year she visits all the club members in their homes, takes a personal interest in their attendance and keeping up their interest in the work. She has been assisted by a great number of women from Smith College and a council of one hundred and twenty-five women residents of Northampton. Mr. Carnegie generously donated fifty thousand dollars
