CHAPTER XXIII

Clubs of Today.

"Culture," says one of our modern American writers, "is not an accident of birth, although our surroundings advance or retard it; it is always a matter of individual education." The club is a natural growth wherever people live together in organized society. It springs up because of the spontaneous desire of individuals to profit by contact with other minds. The nature of the club depends somewhat upon the common interests. In any society there are likely to be as many clubs as there are related interests appealing to different groups. The club may be purely social, or it may be based on a mutual interest in history, art, literature or travel; or the object may lie in some particular form of activity, or may be to encourage patriotism in some form, or to commemorate an event.

It is natural to expect that in Genesee county, as in all counties, the greatest number and variety of interests should be found in the largest center of population; so it is that Flint has the most noteworthy of these organizations.