pecially among women whose opportunities for training of any kind have been meager; have seen that creches and free kindergartens are provided for the children of the poor; that reading rooms are open for the use of boys and girls; have urged that women should serve upon all school boards and those of all prisons and reformatory institutions; have taken the city fathers to task wherever laws pertaining to the cleanliness and health of a community are not enforced; have called mass meetings once a month to discuss questions pertaining to the welfare of the child; by precept and example have set forth the advantages of simplicity of dress and entertainment, and have interested themselves in all kinds of humane work.
State Congresses have been formed in nine States, exact membership not known. Mrs. Theodore W. Birney was the founder of the organization and has been its president continuously.
The National Woman's Relief Society was organized March 17, 1842, at Nauvoo, Ills., being almost the oldest woman's society in existence. It became national in 1868 and was incorporated in 1892, to assist the needy, and to care for the afflicted, to lift up the fallen, to ameliorate the condition of suffering humanity, to encourage habits of industry and economy; to give special attention to those who have not had proper training for life, to sacredly care for the dying and the dead, to minister to the lonely, however lowly, in the spirit of grace and heavenly charity.
It has been a veritable school of instruction to thousands of women, and its organization is so perfect that it is comparatively easy to carry out any plan of work formed by the General Board. Donations are almost entirely by the members themselves, and they have working meetings, bazars and fairs occasionally to raise means for the needful purposes. Many of the branches have built houses for meetings and some also own houses for their poor instead of paying rent. Industries have been carried on to supply work to such as were able to do something for their own support. Of these the most notable is the silk industry in Utah. Over 100,000 bushels of wheat have been.stored in granaries against a day of famine or scarcity. Hundreds of nurses and many midwives have been trained under the fostering care of the society. At present money is being raised by donation to erect a commodious building in Salt Lake City opposite the Temple, suitable for headquarters.
The society has 659 branches and 30,000 members in this and other countries and upon the islands of the sea. Mrs. Eliza R. Snow and Mrs. Zina D. H. Young have been the only two presidents.
The International Sunshine Society had its origin in the early nineties in a department edited by Mrs. Cynthia Westover Alden in the New York Recorder, which she afterwards carried into the Tribune. It was first called the Shut-In Society, but the present name was adopted in 1896 and it was incorporated in 1900.
Its object is to incite its members to the performance of helpful deeds, and to thus bring happiness into the greatest possible number of hearts and homes. The membership fee consists of some act or
