JUVENILE SECTION OF "NAPREDEK' CLEVELAND, OHIO, APRIL 20th, 1938 MY MOTHER I know a lot of mothers Who always are just fine; And yet I know no others Who are as niče as mine. She never fails to thank me For doing something good, And never fails to spank me When — voell, just when she should. So, precious to each other, We play life’s jolly game, And, hugs or slaps from mother I love her just the same. By:—James Rowe. MOTHER’S DAY CELE- BRATIONS The glorification of Mother- hood is not new in human his- tory for Mother Worship, with its rites and ceremonies, dates back to pagan times, when the people of Asia Minor vvorship- ped the great goddess, Rhea, as the mother of ali ancient gods. The reverence held for mother is as old as life itself, and through ali the centuries of man’s struggles for exist- ence, of sorrows and disap- pointments, of misery and fail- ures, the guiding light of mother love has lost none of its radiant brilliance. Mother’s Day, as most of you know, fails on the second Sun- day in May. It is a day set aside by national proclamation to pay tribute to Mother — to make those, who are not moth¬ ers, realize more fully the plače which motherhood holds in our civilization and the part it is destined to play ih molding its future. . . Nothing would be more fitting on that day than for our Vrtec members and their Administrators and Su- pervisors to meet at their reg- ular meeting plače and cele- brate the occasion with a pro¬ gram of mušic, recitations and a short skit or two. Of course, you must invite your mothers to your celebration. •— Your friends, too, should be includ- ed in your invitation. — And when the program is over, re- freshments for everyone will add just what is needed to make the event a perfect suc- cess. If you’d like to arrange a program, but don’t know where to look for the material, drop a line to your Director for any one of the following books — Each c o n t a i n s recitations, songs and short plays, enough to fill your needs several times over. . . 1. Joyous programs for Springtime Celebrations, 50c. With Our Juniors By MICHAEL VRHOVNIK, Director of Vrtec and English Speaking Lodges 2. Bright Ideas for Mother’s Day, Children’s Day, etc., 40c. 3. Little Folk’s Pieces and Plays, 40c. 4. In Honor of Mother, 35c. Resolve that this coming Mother’s Day will not go by un- honored and unsung by putting on a program that will be the “talk” of the community. If you wish to make your Mother happier on Mother’s Day, do something that will make her more proud of you and then keep right on making every day after that just as happy. LITERARY CONTEST WINNERS Here they are — the names of four girls and one boy, each of whom received a prize of ONE DOLLAR for their liter- ary contributions in the March issue of the Vrtec Section. . . Marie Ermence, Vrtec No. 33, Milwg,ukee. Helen Maren, Vrtec No. 23, Mt. Olive, 111. Andy Elersich, Vrtec No. 5, Cleveland. Julia Kosmach, Vrtec No. 103, White Valley, Pa. Valeria Artel, Vrtec No. 11, Cleveland. There was, I am glad to say, quite an improvement in the quality of contributions sub- mitted last month, but there is stili plenty of room for expan- sion in the QUANTITY depart- ment. This, I hope, will reach an ali time high-mark in June when the Vrtec Section will be twice its usual size and, con- sequently, have two times as much space to fill. This will, undoubtedly, be the most com- plete Vrtec Section ever issued by the SSPZ and, I’m sure, one that every boy and girl will treasure as a souvenir. Each page will be full of news and surprises and there will be eight pages in ali. In the mean- time, events are taking plače this month that should be re- ported in the May issue, so get busy you JUNIOR REPORT- ERS and dash off a few more lines of Vrtec history while it is stili “hot” and clear in your memories. When the 1938 Junior Liter¬ at Contest is over, beautiful “achievement” trophies shall be awarded for the year’s out- i ) m. # ® is* ® isi ® w is§>:is w, is®: is< ANNA P. KRASNA: Otrok je zabeležil Skozi mnogo zimo, ko ni bilo dovolj kurjave, nas je mati bodrila: Potrpite, otroci, na spomlad vas bom na deželo od- premila. Dolgo nam je ob večerih o široki prostosti zelenega sveta govorila — slednjo pomlad je solnčne nade za leto napiej po¬ maknila. Sama ni vedela kako je šel čas mimo nas — sama ni umela zakaj nismo nikdar dosegli zeleno- pisanih podeželskih jas. i i m I 1 Zvončki Kdove, li zdaj kot včasih beli zvončki ob potoku cveto; kdove, li zdaj kot nekdaj mala dekletca jih iščejo? i i In bogve, če zdaj tudi mali dečki k potoku hite, da dekletcom na uslugo skopujejo drobne čebulčice? <§> IS 9 IS • IS # IS•IS t>:IS §>:IS &Is i standing poem, short story, es- say, news article and any other type of literary production des- ignated by the Director. In ad- dition to them, a trophy shall be awarded to the boy or girl showing the greatest amount of “all-around” ability in the literary field — This shall re- present the highest literary honor of the year . . . But that isn’t ali, the best produc- tions shall be put up in booklei. form, a copy of which shall bo given to each contestant . . . And now, are you interested enough or must I offer you further inspiration?—Let yOur answer be a literary master - piece, original and interesting VRTEC CULTURAL FESTIVAL No other juveniie event hab stirred up so much interesi, and enthusiasm among Chica- go’s SSPZ members as has our FIRST INTER - SECTIONAI. VRTEC CULTURAL FESTI¬ VAL which is scheduled to take plače on May 29 . . . Never be- fore has such an array of Vr¬ tec talent been assembled for one program — never one so diversified. A group of Vrtec members from Indianapolis will present a Slovene play entitled “The Great Postal Mystery”. c ., Another group, representing the Spartan Juniors of Cleve¬ land, will present a one aci. comedy in English entitled ‘Tho Rat had it coming to him” . .«, Vrtec No. ll’s famous orches- tra, coming ali the way from Cleveland, will make itš initial appearance before a Chicago audience, both, during the pro ¬ gram and the dance which will follow . . . The Trail Blazer and Rožnik Juniors and, also. Vrtec No. 31, ali of Chicago, as well as Vrtec No. 33 of Mil- waukee will have a hand in. further elaborating the pro¬ gram with miscellaneous num- bers comprising of vocal and instrumental renditions, danc- ing (acrobatic and tap) and possibly, a recitation or two... The principal and only speaker will be brother Anton Zaitz, Assistant Supreme Secretar/ and organizer of the first Vr¬ tec. (Continued on page 2) ^uvea/fe Sec£/o« oJ' " -'V i>rii iJO tJi . THE ARTISTS WORLD The ancient bard would sing in praise Of battles of today, The scenes of glory, farne, renown, — Just these he would portray: - “Look ye! the conqu’ring hero comes, Heralded with fife and drum, His shield on arm, and on his lips A host of tales adventuresome.” However great, our bard forgets The bloody, ghastly fields; For every conqu’ring hero — there Come ten upon their shields, With crippled bodies, crippled minds, They stagger on towards home — No shields on their arms — they’ve lost their limbs, Their lips are ali afoam. II. The master artist picks the slums As subject of his art — He paints romance, which only he Discovers — in his heart. A steamboat sailing silently, A mist of silver gray — That’s ali the scene the artist sees, So that he will portray. But when I walk down to the slums, I find disease, decay, The mist — a stifling, smoth’ring smoke —. Claims humans for its prey. And there are other things there, too,— There’re hatred, death, and pain, That mold the children into rats — Inhuman and insane. Great God — who gives these artists Ufe ,— Inspire in them reality, For we must live, and cannot join Thern in ethereality. By Valeria Artel, Vrtec 11. Helen Maren Writes With Our Juniors Again CHALLENGER JUNIORS STRAEANE, Fa. — In behalf bf myself and the Challenger ‘Juniors I want to thank the Snembers of Vrtec 72 of Sygan for the enjoyable evening we ^pent at their dane. We hope to foe able to return you the same £ourtesy in the near future. ) ,The Challenger Juniors held $n Easter party on April 14. iThe evening was spent in play- ang games and luncheon was perved by our administratrices 'Josephine Ambrose and Fran- ces Vrhovnik. The next meeting of the Chal¬ lenger Juniors will be held on May 6 at the regular time and plače. Ali members are urged to ;attend as final plans will be imade for the mushball teams >vhich the Challenger Juniors £xpect to have this year. Lillian Kosmach, Sec’y of Vrtec 10 FAREWELL TO KINGSTERS! EXP0RT, Pa. — Hello every- body! Here I am back again. iThe time has come for me to say farewell to the Kingsters. I re- gretthis very much, but with the officers that have been in office Jthis year and \vith a newly- eiected president I’m sure the members will keep up the good špirit. There is one thing that I Ivould like to see them do and {that is to stick by this motto: *'Cooperation niakes success” r*.vhich they haven’t been doipg jately. So come on you Kingsters and show the other Vrtec units that you can get ahead in you want. We were very sorry that we could not attend the dance held at Sygan by Vrtec No. 72. The invitation was appreciated and many thanks! At a dance held at Sygan I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Julia Kramzer, thanks to Ernie Kvartich. As the evening went by I came to meet quite a few of their Vrtec members and my acquaintance with these ac- tive members was due to my new friend, Julia. I am sorry that I do not remember their names, but with the crowd that was there, a person could not help but have a good time, and that is j ust exactly what I was do- ing. vVe hope that we can have you Syganers at one of our dances. * * *jr On Saturday, April 16, the Evening Starš of White Valley held an Easter dance at the Polish Hall in Export. We were certainly surprised to see the gang from Strabane and Bridge- ville. Ernie Kvartich (good old faithful) said it \vould have been better to have the dance at the White Valley Slovene Hall, so we’ll have to see the Evening Starš and see \vhat can be done. A stranger came from Stra¬ bane, at least that’s what a few people called “Ham” Sirca. Dear Vrtec Members:— Every time I sit down to \vrite my articles for the Vrtec Sec- tion, I feel that I have so many things I’d like to teli you, but yet, somehow, I j ust can’t find the right words to express my- self. I \vonder if you have the same trouble, or am I individual in this respect? One thing I can say is that I read the prize-win- ning articles in February and congratulate the members who won them. Gosh! Wouldn’t I be thrilled if I happened to be lucky enough to win something, too! The idea, proposed by our Su- preme Vrtec Director, about having the best articles of our 1938 Junior Literary Contest put up in booklet form, is a very good one and I know that we ali would feel quite honored and proud to have one of our writings in it. Besides, everyone has a good chance. Those of us, who aren’t successful in win- ning cash monthly prizes, may stili be lucky enough to have one of our contributions placed in this book. So what do you say, boys and girls, let’s go ahead with this grand idea. Again, I am submitting a few jokes, some that I thought might draw a laugh or two— Smart Guy Rufus—“How’s you gettin’ along with youah rithmetic?” Goofus—“Well, I done learn- ed to add up de oughts but de figgers stili bodder me.” Oh! Teacher—“Johnny, why does Missouri stand at the head in mule raising in the United States?” Johnny—“Well, cause the other end is dangerous.” Helen Maren, (Age: 15) Vrtec No. 23, Mt. Olive, 111. TED AND FRED THE EAST¬ ER RABBITS One day when it was night, Two bunnies had a fight, They fought with ali their might Till they were black, and white. Their mother came and said, ‘Tli put you both to bed.” Then Teddy said to Fred, “Let’s dye eggs, in the shed.” Olga Stampfel (Age: 8) Vrtec No. 33, Milwaukee, Wis. We hope that Johnny enjoys his short visit with his cousin in Export. Where was Pete Elish? We ali expected to see him, and we didn’t hear that “Au Revoir” from Marion. A last minute reminder to the Kingsters. Attend your next meeting May 15 and see you new president, and start some¬ thing. Build up your Vrtec; don’t let the people and other Vrtec units say that you are slip- ping. Remember: the way to success is cooperation. I’ll say, “So long” to the King- (Continued from page one) JUVENILE MONTH So close to the month of June is the above event, that one might easily, and without offense to anyone, associate it with and advertise it as an SSPZ Inter-Sectional Juvenile Month celebration. June, you will recall, is SSPZ Juvenile Month, the month of the year set aside to honor our boys and girls, to unite them in various celebrations with senior mem¬ bers of the Society and help them build a bigger and strong- er Vrtec. June is noted for numerous pleasantries, the most important of which is the BEGINNING of vacations after nine long months in school — picnics and sports — fishing, swimming, hikes, etc. . . Boy, oh, boy! What grand times are awaiting you! Do you remem¬ ber what took plače last June ■— my visit to your town, the movies that were shown and pictures taken? . . . Are you planning something special for this June? Start thinking about it now — There is no time to be lost. June is your month and we want everyone of you to do ali you can to boost activity in your own Vrtec by thought, word and deed. Take an active part in our new membership drive and win one of many at- tractive prizes offered by the SSPZ . . . But, by no means, celebrate SSPZ Juvenile Month in June! PRIZES FOR NEW MEMBERS The latest campaign plan for juvenile members, currently in effect, is intended, primarily, to induce our boys and girls to encourage their friends to be- come members of their Vrtec. Every boy and girl, old enough to understand the purpose of the Vrtec, is expected to take an active part in this 1938 drive for new members. As a special inducement to our Juniors, the Society is of- fering, in addition to cash prizes to Vrtec units, material prizes to the individual propos- ing members. Circulars, show- ing what articles are available and how many members must be enrolled to win them, are now in the hands of your Ad¬ ministrator. Ask him for one of these circulars. Have him explain the campaign to you and then go to work!—Win for yourself one of the many at- tractive, worthwhile prizes of¬ fered by the Society! — Help your Vrtec win one of the four cash prizes to be aivarded for the quarterly period of April, May and June! — Boost your Vrtec ivherever you go! Michael Vrhovnik sters and, “Here I am,” to the Evening Starš. So next time come out and see the Evening Starš. U. R. welcome at any of their dances or meetings. Helen Previc •• T Keady For The Big Day In Chicago INDIANAPOLIS, I n d. — Flash! Another interesting meeting of Vrtec No. 9 vvas held on Sunday, April the 3rd. If anyone vvishes to argue the point, let’s hear from you at the next meeting. To start things off, the presi¬ dent appointed a presiding chairman for the meeting. AH eyes turned to Martin Dragan, our loud first-baseman on the softball team, vvho was picked unanimously. He conducted the meeting exceedingly well. The great issue was on our Corning play. A preview shovving of the play, to be staged in Chi¬ cago, will be shown on April 23, at the Slovene National Home. On this date vve vvill celebrate the third anniversary of the founding of our Vrtec No. 9. At the time we started off with Frank Mivec as president and forty-six members. We stili have Frank for president, but have in- creased the membership to al- most a hundred. A member suggested we have our own athletic meet. A com- mittee was appointed to formu- late plans to be submitted at the next meeting. Martin Dragon then turned over the chair to the president who adjourned the meeting. Re- freshments were then servad and the announcement of gigantic entertainment by that commit- tee. I-i Notes From the Publicily Dir ec tor’s Diary The SSPZ Jugoslav’s softball team opened their season vvith a thrilling 5-3 victory over the Drugstore Cowboys. Charles “Rusty” Komlanc, our new Ju- goslav pitcher, mowed down ten of the oposing batsmen. Gle- gor the opposing hurler made an impressive shovring. Al Ar- men and Adolph Flajs contri- buted greatly to the Jugoslav attack. Černe and Scott our new members made some spectacu- lar catches. The game was vvell attended. Coach Frosty Hvalitza an- nounced that ali members of the squad to be present at the team’s meeting, which will be held aft- er the next regular monthly meeting. Just found out that John Pra¬ potnik belongs to the Vrtec Hill- Billy Band. He has been seen pretty regularly carrying the “old Spanish guitar” to the “coach’s Office” for practice. “Mutt” Dragon and Frank Mi¬ vec also are members of this ardent musical group. Louis Snidersich taking Ma- cedonian language lessons. (Go- ing good Louis, from \vhat vve hear.) Dorothy Turk finally making the honor roli. (Who’s your pri- vate tutor, Dot?) Anthony Bajt must be drink- ing prohibtiOn stuff. He j ust an- nounced that he heard a cat EASTER WITH VRTEC NO. 33 It Was Great, Sa^s M*av\e Easter is a very happy day, The little Vrtec members so happy and gay. The three jolly Jerkich boys dress up in suits so bright, Just spend the day having fun while the sun shines bright. Now take Margie and Sally, these happy little girls Take right čare about their pretty little curls. And the older girls of course everyone knows, Would dress their best as far as that goes. Sure take the little tots on Easter morn, Their baskets they hunt until their dresses are almost torn. Now we come to the boys both tali and small, They wouldn’t even think of looking for their baskets at ali. I guess ali the Vrtec members have to say is: Happy Easter and ali a good day. Elsie Ohojak, (Age: 12) Vrtec No. 33 SSPZ sing. (What was she, Tony, so- prano or alto?) Frank “Crackerjack” Zakraj¬ šek hasn’t met his lovely blond on the trolly for some time. (Are you slipping Frankie?) “Smokey” Joe Lampert vvoe- fully trudging on his way to school on a rainy day. (It was a surprise.) “Lil Abner” swinging it at the V. F. W. Dance. (Wil 1 you teach us the Suzy Q?) Clara Naumsek finally chased the boys home at 2:30 a. m. from her party. (Bet she was relieved or wasn’t she?) (No they didn’t have hangovers the morning aft- er.) Clara Madley’s growing up. She wants to know how to dance. (Let. the “Preš.” teach her, or will she teach him?) Just found out that Dorothy Semenick has a čase of stage fright; she refuses a role in our forthcoming play. Bruno Canados, our dashing, handsome, romantic Romeo, is the current craze in these parts. Joe “Cadelac” Banich play- ing golf on the commons. About Diz. (Joe sure knovvs how to dress his Chicken.) (Some of “Mutt’s” brightness.) And again vve say, So long as B 4 Flash, Siam, Bang and Duck and one more. Flash—Dolores Ivančič Siam—Martin Dragon Bang—Bruno Canados Duck—Frank Mivec One more—John Propotnik EDITOR’S NOTE Vrtec Section of Napredek is publish- ed EVERY THIRD VVEDNESDAY IN THE MONTH. The editor’s wish is that every issue be as attractive as possible, in every respect. This, however, ran be accomplished only with YOER co- operation. Send in your eontribuUons early, the earlier the better, and heip to make our Vrtec Section more ap- pealing with each issue. MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Dear brother and sister Vrtec mem- eers: I think it is my duty to ex* press my most sincere apprecia- tion to the judges for awarding me with $1.00 prize as one of the vvinners in February’s literary contest of Juvenile Section of SSPZ. I am very very grateful and proud too. To be so fortu- nate in winning the prize and promise to do ali I can tovvards boosting our Vrtec No. 33 and the SSPZ. A few lines to let you know about impressions that the lst National Bovvling Tournament of the SSPZ left with me. I went to watch the boys and girls bowl. I have \vatched other people bowl before but the.y vvere strangers to me, vvhile in these young men and women I was in- terested so much more because they were our own members of one family, brothers and sisters of our SSPZ. I stayed at the bowling alleys ali afternoon and enjoyed the fascinating games, and how they rolled those heavy balls down the alleys with such škili and did they knock ’em down; I’ll say they did. It takes some muscle strength and good aiming too. To me they seemed like heroes and knight from the storybooks. Great work boys and girls, come back someday again, so: Auf wiedersehen! We children can be proud, for vre were given a chance to show ourselves on the stage Sunday, March the 20th, that was at the 30 year celebration. I vvill j ust give you a brief description of the things that took plače. The supreme officers from Chicago were present here too at our celebrations. Supreme Secretary Bro. Rus spoke, and Supreme Vice-President, Bro. Lisch, also made a speech. We Vrtec members, ali together, sang lovely Slovene songs at the beginning of the program and also at the end of the program. Then a quartet of girls, two Stampfel sisters and two Oha- jak sisters sang Slovene songs very nicely. Bro. Joe Maley, an adult member sang, and he is a real singer, has a rich mellovv voice. We have good many mu¬ sical talents in our Vrtec lodge and they ali came forward and entertained the audience and showed their talent in mušic on the stage. Two young Vrtec members did their part well too vvhen presenting bouquets to the two charter members and su¬ preme officers and the two girls made short Slovene speeches complimenting them on their great work for the lodge and SSPZ. Of ali the little actors I think the best was Betty Bernik vvho did acrobatic tricks and tap dancing vvhich startled every- one. Betty, ali I can say is: keep up the fine work! In the evening we had a hu- morous sketch vvhereupon mov- ing pictures about different peo¬ ple and lodge activities vvere shovvn by Bro. Vrhovnik and en- joyed very much by alt present Then the dancing and feastinj began, and ended the two day of joy and fun for ali partici pants. Well, I hope that our Vrte No. 33 and the adult lodge an< the SSPZ gained a lot of goo< results and respect from ali Slo vene people here through thes< great events. I hope you had lots of fun boys and girls on April fools’ day. Let’s ali do our best and get some new members for our Vr¬ tec lodges in the coming season. Seeding the Garden It is Springtime in the land, And our garden we shall plant, With fresh seeds that will bear Flowers just as they did every year. This reminds us of our Garden or Vrtec and too That some real attention it needs from you. If vre want to be good farmers Seed it vvith some more new members. Let it show some real pep and energy Of course it ali depends on vou and me. No matter what kind be the vveather Our Vrtec shall grow bigger and better. Three cheers for Vrtec No. 33 And also for dear old SSPZ! ■ Fraternal greetings from Marie Ermenc, Vrtec No. 33, Milwaukee, Wis. MOUNTAINEERS HI- LIGHTS PIERCE, W. Va. — Another well attended meeting passed by, and once more I say to tlfe members vvho were .absent to come to our lodge meetings for they are very interesting. Our next meeting will be held on May lst. Don’t forget to come for a prize vvill be given to someone and that someone may be you. Our administratri'x, sister Lovie Panther, enjoys vvorking vvith us and if ali the members cooperate I am sure vve vvill be as successful as vve were in the past. I would like to see more mem¬ bers contribute articles for the paper. In the next isSue of the Vrtec page I vvant to see some articles from the Mountaineers. Coming to the end'of this ar- ticle I vvould like to add that the senior lodge is going-to "have a dance on May 14. The mušic vvill be furnished by the Ber¬ gant sisters. Come and spend the evening vvith them and I am sure it vvill be an enjoyable one. J ennievKlevisher, Preš v Vrtec 140 When the big bell-rings, the little beliš are not hehfd. uA/e