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WINNETKA TALK : February 1R, 1928 News of the North Shore Clubs ne" lai Mrs. James Fentress Next Club Speaker Founder and Director of School for Unusual Children to Tell of Experiences (Contributed) Mrs. James Fentress of Winnetka, founder and present director of the Devereux Schools for Unusual Chil- aren, at Berwyn, Pa. will be the speaker at the next meeting of the 'Winnetka Woman's club, to be held Tuesday, February 21, at 2:30. This occasion has been eagerly awaited by many Winnetkans. It has gradually dawned upon us that we have in our very midst a national authority upon a most vital subject, namely, the educa- tion of what many call the sub-normal child, but whom Mrs. Fentress more understandingly terms the "unusual" child. "Adventures with Human Nature," Mrs. Fentress entitles her talk. It is a suggestive, heart-gripping subject, which will deal with her experience in teaching the unusual child, and the conception and growth of the school. It was about ten years ago that Mrs. Fentress opened the school. The enrollment was three. Now there are more than one hundred, all that can be cared for. The institution has become really a group of schools, as the vari- ous grades are separated and handled as distinct units. This necessitates several buildings and extensive grounds. Mrs. Fentress has become an au- thority in her subject not only in our own country, for, at the Educational conference at Locarno last summer, one of the most successful round tables of the session was that conducted by Mrs. Fentress, upon the education of the unusual child. The club feels greatly privileged in having secured Mrs. Fentress as the Speaker for the meeting of February Winnetka Woman's Club to Hear Poems Set to Music On February 28, the music commit- tee of the Winnetka Woman's club will present a program of compositions by Phyllis Fergus, a Chicago woman who has made a unique place for her- self among American composers, with her unusual musical settings for story poems. Miss Fergus will read her story poems to her own accompaniments as recorded on the Duo-Art. Her poems are culled from all types and varieties of literature, children's things, dialect, stories, poems, psalms, and she has created arrangements for the speaking voice, the singing voice, the violin, and ensembles for the speaking voice and violin. One of her greatest achievements is the beautiful setting which she has created for Alfred Noyes' "The High- wayman." This will be included in her program of February 28. ON MUSIC CLUB PROGRAM Six Winnetka musicians furnished the program at the Winnetka Music club on Monday. The meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Louis G. Schmid of 355 Linden avenue. The music, all of which was amodern, was given by the following artists: Mrs. William D. McAdams, Mrs. Frank Bailey, Mrs. Burton Atwood, Mrs. Harry L. Street, Mrs. Robert Kingery, and Mrs. Schmid. Membership Chairman Photo by Moffett Mrs. Austin Jenner, 1005 Hill road, Winnetka, as membership chairman for the Central branch, Y. W. C. A, re- ceived the membership of Mrs. Thomas Wiffen, distinguished actress, when she joined Thursday of last week. Mrs. Whiffen, who is in her eighties, has played in Chicago three times within the last few years. She took the part of the charming grandmother in "The Goose Hangs High," was in the all- star revival of "Trelawny of the Welles," with John Drew, and is in playing now with Joseph Santley in "Just Fancy." Winnetkans Urged To Meet Increased Welfare Allotment When the Winnetka board of the Infant Welfare society holds its first meeting for reporting on the initial results of the annual campaign for funds, all its members will be urged to redouble their efforts. Word has been received from the Chicago headquar- ters that more money is needed for this year, setting Winnetka's goal at $10,000 instead of $7,900 as was an- nounced in the WINNETKA TALK of last week. 5 The reason for the need of addition- al funds .is due to the fact that the salaries of the nurses at the various welfare stations must be increased in order to retain their regular nursing staff. Nurses of all other charitable organizations in Chicago have been receiving higher salaries than are paid to the Infant Welfare nurses. The Infant Welfare must, therefore, meet the higher scale in order to maintain its recognized high standard of nurs- ing. With this plea before the public, the members of the board, relying on the generosity of Winnetkans, as shown in former years, are hopeful of success in raising the increased quota asked for this year. The first meeting of the board in this drive for subscriptions will be held on Monday, February 20, at the home of the president, Mrs. A. Ballard Bradley, 808 Willow road. Luncheon will be served at 12 o'clock. It is hoped that every member of the board will do her utmost to be present. State Garden Club Shows Marked Growth in Less Than Year One of the worth while results of the Chicago Flower and Garden show of last season was the organization of the Garden Club of Illinois, which, now, in less than a year of existence, has so grown that it includes fifty-one garden clubs of the state, with more applying for membership right along. At the time of the first annual ex- hibit at the Hotel Sherman twenty- eight tables were set by garden clubs, a club representation from which the present state garden club sprang. Its increase in size speaks for itself. Now, for the members of this large family of clubs, and their guests, the Garden Club of Illinois is arranging a delightful all-day program Monday, February 27, at the Hotel Sherman. Commencing at 11 in the morning, a group of interesting speakers will ad- dress the assemblage. The first of these is to be A. H. Conrad, whose lecture on the conservation of wild flowers will be illustrated. At 1 o'clock, Mrs. Frederick Fisher, president of the club, will conduct a round robin discussion of the problems relative to the Chicago Garden and Flower show to be held this season. At 1:30 o'clock, Christine Mogle, reader, with her accompanist, Lillian Reid Cameron, will give original com- positions in music and garden verse, and an hour later, Mrs. V. K. Spicer of Kenilworth will talk on "Gardens, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." It is announced that each member of the club may bring one guest. Choose All Delegates for D. A. R. Conferences Mrs. Melville C. Chatten of Win- netka, regent of the Kaskaskia chapter of the D.A.R., will represent' her chapter at both the state and national conferences this spring. Other dele- gates were appointed at a meeting held Tuesday with Mrs. William L. Eaton of Chicago. Mrs. William E. Sparrow, Jr. of Evanston, and ten alternates, will be delegates at the state convention, to be held March 28, 29, and 30, in Bloomington. A feature of this meet- ing will be a performance of the passion play, to be given especially for the D.A.R. conference. At the national conference, to be held in Washington the week of April 16, Mrs. Frank F. Whetzel of Chicago, and ten alternates, will represent Kaskaskia chapter. Besides the appointment of delegates at the meeting on Tuesday, the chapter heard a talk by Captain B. C. Hopkins, a member of the Military Intelligence association. He spoke on "Why De- fend America." Winnetka Garden Club Changes Meeting Plans The Winnetka Garden club has been forced to change its plans for the annual meeting which was to have been held Thursday. The meeting will be held next Monday at 3, at the home of Mrs. Richard W. Walsh, 1170 Scott avenue, Hubbard Woods. The mem- bers will vote on a slate of officers suggested by the nominating commit- tee. Mrs. Warren Shoemaker heads this committee and has working with her, Mrs. Harold De Lay, Mrs. Ru- dolph Matz, Mrs. Ballard Bradley, and Mrs. George Parker. The club has completed plans for the landscaping of the grounds around the library and hopes to be able to assist with the planting this spring. ) Garden Club Reads of Chicago Flora Wilmette Garden Club Surprised at Floral Growth Native to Chicago Area (Contributed by Wilmette Garden Club) When you are planning a trip to one of the wild flower regions around Chi- cago "that can be explored in a half day's outing," you will find a valuable aid to your trip in Dr. H. S. Pepoon's book, "Flora of the Chicago Region," recently published by the Chicago Academy of Sciences. The Wilmette Garden club has found this publica- tion so useful a reference book that it has added it to the club's library. If you are going to the Waukegan moorlands, you will want to go when the flats are in bloom. "Through June and July," writes Dr. Pepoon, "the meadow strips are almost a solid and glorious mass of variegated colors." If you are going to the dunes of Indiana, you will be interested to know what plants you will find there and gauge your trip according to the time when the flowers you most wish to see will be in bloom. Four other regions of great interest to nature lovers in the Chicago area, that he describes, are the north shore region, including the Skokie, the ra- vines, and the upper course of the Chi- cago river; the Des Plaines River val- ley and drainage basin; the Western morainal ridge and slope; and the South morainal area. One likes to read how these different regions were formed and to learn the: names of flowers that formerly grew in these places. One likes more, how- ever, to find that many of the. flowers that we think are flowers of the past in these regions, still are growing here. In the chapter on the Des Plaines valley and Western morainal uplands, one reads that mertensia, green tril- lium, vetony, and gentians still are to be found in these parts today. In the Waukegan moorlands, where over five hundred named species have been found, one still may find shooting stars, cactus, blue gentians, painted cup, grass of Parnassus, paint brush, bird- foot violets, butterfly weeds, and many varieties of orchids. In the dune re- gion of Indiana, grow among many other plants, ferns, gentians, lupine, wild ginger, great mallow, trailing ar- butus, columbine, unusual violets, are- thusa bulbosa, blood root, forget-me- not, phlox, feverwort, some of the flaxes, meadow rue, and wintergreen. Dr. Pepoon tells how a "miniature forest of conifers" came to be growing in the Waukegan moorlands. Not na- ture, but man, scattered the seeds. Sixty years ago Mr. Douglass rode through on horseback, scattering a bag of mixed pine seeds wholesale over the area. Not all men, however, brought such gifts. Many brought destruction. A part of this "botanist's paradise" has been turned into factory sites, places where the gentian grew have become pasture land. Careless campers burned parts. Numberless picnickers have destroyed rare plants by gathering them in quantities, only to throw them away a half hour later, wilted. Florists have taken the flowers away by the hundreds to sell. "Determined effort is being made by plant lovers, in Wau- kegan and elsewhere," writes Dr. Pepoon, "to have the moorland set .aside as a plant and bird refuge." Part II of the book is a complete catalogue of all of the plants found in the Chicago area. One is surprised at the quantity,