The festival, with script by Fanny R. Buchanan in charge of the music program of the Extension Service, whose contribution to the development of music in rural districts is nationally known, was entitled "Epochs of American Girlhood." It was a natural climax to this year's Iowa music study"Marching Through History." It was a genuine tribute to the work of the Extension Service and, as the program announced, "to rural Iowa's interest in music, fine organization and longer time programs."

A men's chorus, 4-H girls' choruses, a women's chorus. and a festival chorus of 1,000 farm women and men sang in the festival, and 1,300 4-H girl delegates from 100 counties presented songs and folk games learned and enjoyed by the more than 13,000 4-H Club girls they represented. Ten thousand guests from all parts of the state and from neighboring states occupied the stadium and saw the festival.

That a festival on so gigantic a scale could be presented by thousands of people with but one joint rehearsal was a remarkable demonstration of efficiency in organization and of statewide cooperation.

Rural Women's Chorus Tournament

One of the most interesting of rural Iowa's singing groups is to be found in the rural women's county choruses. Forty-five county choruses with from twenty to thirty farm women in each took part in the tournament at the State Fair, and 1,102 women sang in the tournament.

The high rating group in the contest was the rural women's chorus from Worth County on the Minnesota line,

150 miles from Des Moines where the fair was held. The chorus chartered a bus and drove to the fair. Members of this group had come to weekly rehearsals through the winter months, some of them driving twenty miles through deep snow to the county seat where the rehearsals were held. When spring made side roads impassable they cut across fields, climbed fences and were "picked up" on the hard road.

Tournament Rules

In the tournament certain rules were strictly observed. Any group of from ten to sixty rural women above twenty-one years of age, threefourths of whom live on Iowa farms, was eligible to take part in the tournament. Each group, however, must be recommended by the judge of the local achievement day program and selected by the state fair women's chorus committee. Each chorus was required to sing "Bless This House" by Brahe and three other numbers. Another requirement was that the participating group must have appeared in public in its home county at least four times. Each chorus leader was asked to hand to the judge a written statement listing public appearances since January 1, 1937, and telling the number of women in the chorus and whether they met age and residence requirements. The statement also told the number of rehearsals held each month and the total number of rehearsals attended by all members of the chorus.

The

group as it assemb hearsal held the morni

stage is set off by a

"At the center and in and through the whole lowa agricultural extension program runs a golden thread of music," says Marjorie Patten in her book The Arts Workshop of Rural America. And anyone who has seen the festival presented each year at the 4-H Girls' Club Convention, or who has attended the Rural Women's Chorus Tournament at the State Fair, would heartily endorse this statement!

"Turn Ye to Me," by Pitcher; "Estrellita," by Arnold; "Won't You Set Us Free," by Dvorak; "An Old Violin," by Fisher; "A German Folk Song"; "My Shadow," by Hadley; "Hark, Hark, the Lark," by Schubert," and "Waltz of the Flowers," Tchaikowsky.

Preparing for the Music Program

Seventy-two women from forty-seven counties enrolled in the two-day training school for directors of rural music groups which was held at the Iowa State College September 16th and 17th, the first of this type of institute to be held. The women registering were directors of rural women's choruses and county and township music chairmen. The musical selections used for demonstrations were the songs to be sung by farm women's choruses next year and also music included in the 1937-38 music study for 4-H girls and farm women-"Little Studies in American Music."

"Folk dancing and folk music have been of outstanding importance among the rapidly-developing recreational activities of farm people in this country during these last years of agricultural adjustment. From the Agricultural Extension Division of every state college in the union have come reports of color and vitality added to one program or another by the country dances of America or folk dances of the old world. Leadership training schools, recreation institutes and the county and district councils growing out of them have all leaned heavily upon the sure enthusiasm among all sorts of people for learning folk tunes."Marjorie Patten.

T

'HESE ARE DAYS when we hear much about in

creased leisure, and many plans are being suggested for the employment of such leisure in a way which will lead to richer living.

With this objective in mind the Minneapolis Public Library, in cooperation with the public schools of that city, has inaugurated a plan known as Vacation Honor Reading designed to interest children in good reading during the summer vacation. Just before school closes for the summer vacation the plan is explained to all grade children from 5-B to 8-A inclusive and they are encouraged to enter into it.

The story of a magic mill which ground out wealth and power.

Brown. In the days of giants.

The Norse myths of Odin, Thor, Loki, Idun, Balder,
and others.

Carpenter. Tales of a Russian grandmother.
Colum. Children who followed the piper.
Crommelin. Famous legends.

The story of Robin Hood, King Arthur, The Cid,
Roland, and others.

Harris. Uncle Remus; his songs and his sayings.
Hawthorne. Wonder book for boys and girls.

Contains the best Greek myths.

Hodges. When the King came.

The life of Christ told with simplicity and tenderness. Jacobs. Celtic fairy tales.

Kingsley. Water babies.

A classic story of Little Tom and his journey to the "other end-of-nowhere."

Warren. King Arthur and his knights.
Warren. Robin Hood and his merry men.

Our Country and Other Countries

Best. Girls in Africa.

Brann. Nicolina, the story of a little girl in Italy.
Lomen and Fleck. Taktuk, an Arctic boy.
Means. Rainbow bridge.

Miller. Children of the mountain eagle.
Morley. Donkey John of the Toy Valley.
Mukerji. Hari the jungle lad.

Peck and Johnson. Wings over Holland.
Scott. Kari; story of Kari Supper from Linde-
land, Norway.

Stein. Little shepherd of Provence.

Sugimoto and Austen. With Taro and Hana in

Japan.

Upjohn. Friends in strange garments.

Washburne. Letters to Channey; a trip around the world.

People Worth Knowing

Baldwin. Fifty famous rides and riders.
Baldwin. Four great Americans.

Washington, Franklin, Webster, and Lincoln.
Brooks. True story of George Washington.
Cody. Adventures of Buffalo Bill.

Incidents of his life in the West among the Indians. Haaren and Poland. Famous men of Greece. Humphrey. Story of the Catherines. Moores. Story of Christopher Columbus. Power. Boys and girls of history. Tappan. American hero stories. Tappan. In the days of Queen Elizabeth. Wallace. Hands around the world.

Adventures in the Outdoor World
Baynes. Jimmie, the story of a black bear cub.
Brown. Green gate to the sea.
Chambers. Nature secrets.

Fontany. Other worlds than this.
Ghosh. The jungle folk. V. 1 or 2.
Hill. Fighting a fire.

Lie. Ekorn.

A simple narrative of the day-by-day life of a squirrel throughout the seasons.

Long. Wilderness ways.

Mukerji. Kari, the elephant.

Patch. Bird stories.

Patch. Holiday hill.

Patterson. The spinner family.

(Continued on page 508)

A

BOW AND ARROW, even in the modern setting of an up-todate archery contest at some

girls' school or college, suggest romance and the glamour of bygone centuries. The spectator may be looking at bobbed-haired girls in middies and shorts, but in his mind's eye he is fairly sure to catch a glimpse of brave yeomen in Lincoln green splitting willow wands at 100 paces.

Of all of the ancient peoples who used the bow, the Egyptians were the most skillful. They first employed it for war, and gained such skill with bows about five feet long and arrows a little over two feet that their archers struck terror to the souls of all their enemies.

In spite of their knowledge of Egyptian archery, there was a myth among the Greeks that Apollo, their sun god, had invented the bow, while Diana, graceful goddess of the chase, conceiving a fondness for Apollo's new plaything, appropriated it herself. .

Regardless of boasts about their gods, the Greeks were less skillful archers than any of the other ancients except the Romans, who found little use for the bow in battle and enjoyed in leisure moments more vigorous sport than shooting.

Great Britain Takes Up the Bow

It was the Romans who first brought the bow to Britain, although the English did not begin to use it to any great extent until after the Norman invasion under William the Conqueror in 1066. William himself, a colossus of a man, owned a bow so large that he alone could pull it, and his pride in his prowess was so contagious that his new subjects became inspired with enthusiasm for archery both for amusement and for defense. Tragically enough, this weapon of which the Conqueror was so fond caused the death of his son, William Rufus, who was killed by a stray arrow of one of his attendants while he and his retinue were indulging in their favorite sport, hunting.

Of William Rufus' immediate successors, that most romantic of rulers, Richard the Lion Hearted, was the most skillful archer. Many tales are told of

his exploits with the bow. At one time in the Crusades, leading three hundred archers and seventeen knights, he withstood the attack of the whole Saracen army. On another occasion, followed by ten men, he rushed headlong into a body of ten thousand Moslem bowmen and was pelted so hard that he bristled with arrows as a porcupine bristles with quills, yet miraculously he received not a single wound. Richard, too, met his death at the hand of an archer, a youth who sought to avenge the death of his father and brother, and whom the generous Richard forgave with his last breath and presented with a substantial purse.

Shortly after the reign of Richard, the English began to take up the crossbow, which had meanwhile been invented and had been used to good purpose by soldiers on the continent. But by the time they became accustomed to it, the longbow, which was similar to the one we use now, developed in western England and so far outclassed the crossbow in accuracy and efficiency that it made English archers for the next two centuries the most dreaded fighters in Europe. This was the bow which served the English so well in those Titanic struggles of the One Hundred Years War, Crecy, Potiers, and Agincourt, and found its way into the heart of childhood and the realm of romance as the weapon of Robin Hood.

It seems a little pathetic that the high noon of archery's greatness was so soon passed, and that by the sixteenth century the invention of gunpowder had robbed war of the flavor of sportsmanship and the touch of glamour that the bow had always given it. Yet it was not, amazingly enough, until the nineteenth century that the bow was last used in battle, when in the Napoleonic wars an army of Polish archers was tragically matched against the peerless fighters of France. But even if gunpowder did replace the bow in war, the English refused to give it up, and began shooting at a target for sport. In the days of Henry VIII archery was very fashionable, and the King himself attended numerous meets. His son, Edward VI, a sickly lad who died young, found archery the one

488

sport which his health would permit him to enjoy. The young King's diary was full of conscientious recordings of the matches he lost as well as of those he won.

In the reigns of Elizabeth and of Charles II, there were many gala meets of which the rulers were enthusiastic patrons. Yet for a hundred years after the days of the "Merrie Monarch," Charles II, the noble tradition of the bow was completely ignored by the English, and archery was kept alive on the island only by a fine Scotch society, The Royal Company of Archers, which is still in existence and is honored throughout the land.

In 1781 a revival began in England, due to the efforts of Sir Ashton Lever who, afflicted with some ailment of the chest, discovered that archery was a healthful as well as an entertaining sport. Interest has continued in England from that day to this, so it is now fairly safe to assume that the English will not again forget to uphold the noble traditions of their "arching" ancestors.

In America

The history of archery in America follows the course of its history elsewhere, in that over here as well it was first used by primitive peoples for hunting and for protection. For centuries the Indian archers roamed the forests unmolested, and not until the early part of the last century did the white man become actively interested in the weapon of the redskin. In 1828, a Philadelphian, Titian R. Peale, sent on an exploring expedition through the West, became fascinated by the Indian bows and arrows, and on returning home organized an archery club among his friends called. the "United Bowmen," which prospered until the Civil War. After peace was made, a new chapter for archery opened when Will and Maurice Thompson, two penniless Georgians who as conquered people were denied the use of firearms, and through ill health needed to live out of doors, went into the woods with their bows and arrows and lived as primitive, exhilarating and healthful a life as any of our cave-dwelling ancestors. A little book of their adventures "The Witchery of Archery" by Maurice started a fad for archery which resulted in the formation of the National Archery Association, an organization that has

been in operation from that day to this.

Since the World War, archery has spread amazingly and particularly become such a popular sport in girls' schools. and colleges that it is estimated some 10,000 girls play annually.

Just what the future of archery will be it is hard to predict, for in this country as well as abroad it has gone through its cycle as a means of hunting, defense and sport, but whatever the future may hold, archery can always hold its head high among the sports, for there never has been one which could boast a braver history or a more glorious tradition.

Tennis and Its Romantic History

Back in 1424, if France had had newspapers, the headlines of the sport section would have read something like this--"New Woman Tennis Wonder Startles Sporting World. Ace of Paris Players Using Only Bare Hand Conquers Men Equipped with Double Glove."

This Amazon of the court, Margot by name, comes down to us through the musty pages of sporting books as the greatest tennis player of her time. Before the day of rackets she played with her hand unprotected and could beat any man in France, allowing him to wear a glove or bind his hand with gut. Margot's great skill is particularly interesting to us, for in all the long annals of tennis up to modern times no single champion but she is mentioned by name.

In Margot's day tennis was the great national game of France. Men, women and children, rich and poor alike, played constantly, but originally it was purely a sport of the nobility. As far as its beginnings are traceable, they seem to be linked with the pastimes of the feudal kings and barons of Italy and France during the Middle Ages. In Italy the game gradually lost its hold, but in France it maintained its popularity with the people. But in spite of widespread popularity, tennis continued to preserve an appeal for royalty and nobility which lends a touch of glamour to its history. Louis X, surnamed the "Quarreler" because of his unpleasant disposition, who reigned for two brief and unimportant years, is usually omitted from the pages of history books, but his name has come down to tennis fans full of inter