I don’t know if you noticed, but this month we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first edition of The Rotarian, Rotary’s magazine. You can actually view online a copy of Volume 1, Number 1, of what was then called The National Rotarian.

    Take the opportunity to look at it. All twelve pages are interesting to read. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that Rotary’s founder and National President, Paul P. Harris, wrote the lead article. But the photograph of Harris that accompanied the article showed a much more youthful man – he was 42 at the time – than the depictions we are used to seeing.

    Harris’s opening sentence tells you a lot about him. Using words that sound a bit dated to our contemporary ears, he delivered a message that rings true today: “If by interposition of Providence I some day were to find myself standing on a platform in some great Coliseum looking into the eyes of every living Rotarian, and were to be told that I could have one word to say, without an instant’s hesitation and at the top of my voice, I would shout ‘Toleration!’”

    Other items in that first edition are also fascinating. The Rotary Club of Lincoln, Nebraska, claimed its spot as “having organized the first Rotary Club in a city of less than 100,000 population.” Another notice mentions the organization of “a live Rotary Club” – one wonders about the alternative – in Winnipeg, and, given that another club had just started in Hamilton, Ontario, “It is evident that this has got to be an International Association of Rotary Clubs.”

    Check out some of the advertisements. One, for pianos and player pianos, assumed that most will “have a piano manufacturer in your local Rotary club.”

    Another advertised the brand new Southern Hotel on Michigan Avenue and 13th Street in Chicago, with daily rates of $1.00 to $1.50 for rooms with hot and cold water, or $1.50 to $3.00 for rooms with private baths. By contrast, the Hotel Victoria in New York at Broadway, 5th and 27th, charged $1.50 and up for a room without bath and $2.50 and up for a room with bath.

    For travel to these destinations, another ad suggested, one should spend $1.50 for a garment hanger to use in the sleeper car: it “puts the suit entirely out of the way for the night and keeps it in wearable condition for the morning.” For those who were still uncertain, the company added that it was “Endorsed by the Pullman Company.”

    Our speaker this week, Holly Luke, has risen through the ranks at Wal-Mart, from temporary associate to its Director of Operations in Oklahoma. Please welcome her to the Rotary Club of Edmond.

    Andy