The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-11-17
WOMEN,S CLUBS.

them.
"Who'lI take care of the children,
should like to know ?" growls a sple-
netic old bachelor who frequently feels
called upon to give advice to msthers.
"Women's clubs My dear, you
shock me ~ answers a mother with a
little shudder, as she recalls the club
room odors that linger nightly about
her husbands garments and the thick
utterances that club-room potations fire.
quently give to his voice.
"But, mother" expostulates the SEN
sible girl, 'I have heen reading the pro-
ceedings of the Fourth Woman's Con-
gress, which you know was held in Phil
adelphia in October, and among the
many subjects discussed was this one.
Hear what Eliza Sproat Turner says
about it, won't you ?"
az don't know what she could say
that would reconcile me to smoke and
wine aud cards and such immoral
things"
"Well, first hear what she says of
gentlemen's clubs, then. This surely
is not too horrible to talk about. We
will come to the others afterward:"
"What is a gentIemen's club? So far as I
can gather it is a sort of exclusive restaurant
where they pay for what they eat, and enjoy
the freedom of that arrangement. Beside this,
they find the papers and magazines, materials
for writing, conveniences for games, easy
chairs to sit in, and freedom from all the
purely conventional restraints of society. Be
side this, the certainty of meeting cOngenial
acquaintances, the facility for making ap-
pointments, or for cooperation in matters OF
mutual interest. q There must be scores,
perhaps hundreds of women, who want, just
as men want, place in which 10 lunch, 10 rest,
to read, to enjoy the refreshment of social in
, tercourse, all in that accidental, informal way
, which is, l sincerely believe, the charm that
lures our husbands and brothers, and tempts
them to decline the straight-waistcoat rule of
! an evening party, in favor of the easy, cosy
? club-rooms 1t is not usually license they
want, but reasonable freedom. They want to
be social and comfortable, instead of social
and mufiied in manner and choked in ETH
j. quette, and obliged to smile when there is
l nothing TO smile at, and to speak when they
n have nothing to say. And I, for one, feel much
-. the same DESIRE"
, "Men's clubs mean much more than
: is here designated, or they sometimes
= very much overleap the bounds pro,
A scribed for their regulations and pur.
+ poses," was the quiet comment of the
: woman, as the girl ceased reading.
= "What now of women's clubs ? I will sa!
-, that my own idea of a women's club il
Philadelphia is that it shall be primarily al
' association for personal convenience; that is d
II say, would not start it for the furtherance o
n any ism, however interesting; nor yet of an,
charity, however laudable; but should aim 4
make it, with few notifications, like thos
already existing among gentlemen. "
have said that the club should be institutes
primarily for convenience; but in addition, tn
ls possibilities for mutual counsel, for co-opera
Dr ton, for the furtherance of all our women
" projects, seem to me worthy of very serious cor
sideration. If we could succeed in establish
ing a center to which would gravitate intellec
~ ual, gifted, and enterprising women, in the e.
h pectation of meeting other such, we shOul
a gain the advantage which men esteem 5
70 highly: namely the mental stimulus th3
comes from contact with active and varyin
e, the mental narrowness which is one of tn
N faults of our SEX"
C, "Iental narrowness ~ Who has nc
l. felt, and however reluctantly, bee
se compelled to acknowledge this as th
N great stumbling-block in the pathwa
ir of woman? And is not its great caus
j. the lack of mental stimulus that come
le from contact with active and varyin
er minds ? So long as women confir
o. themselves exclusively to the petit
le cares that narrow instead of wide
er their minds; so long as their chief mel
w tai recreation consists in rehearsing I'll
es 'poor scandal of the neighborhood,
al just so long will men regard them ;
nd inferior beings, albeit they may col
in tinue to make pretty and gallant lit
a speeches to them. Mental food is ne
is, essary for the expansion of a woman
re- mind; if her mind does not expand
,le contracts, for nothing remains station
Its ary. This food can be furnished and e
ar. joyed without hindrance to the usu
er- round of duties dubbed "womanly,"
ev innumerable instances have occurr,
ed where women of no more than ordina
powers have proved that "this al
could they do and not leave the 9th
undone." Woman's great need is o
portunity for self-culture, and if "woI
ems clubs' will be even one step in I'll
"a vital direction, by all means let us ha
them.
~ AS the extracts given above ga
80 voice to the air of the sitting-room, o
more woman was set to thinking up
=. the great problem that has been bus
- ing the brain and hands of hundreds
- Americas most intelligent and thougl
~ full daughters during the past quarter
-Lt a century-the problem for aiding t
>. progress of woman. And as she thoug
- and planned and soliloquized, the pat
- on Jamie,s trowsers was just as neat
49, and deftly inserted as though gOs!
~ about the affairs of her next-door neig
- Dor had occupied her thoughts; and W
e will dare assert that her mind was l
=, the better and stronger for the chang
leir ---=---==--
,cts We regret to learn that Mrs. H.
7 Tot10bayv Prosidarut of tho Cfota NNO