The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-20
WOMES'S CLUBS.
Miss Kate Field Evolves Some Novel Views
on the Subject.


on the Subject.
New York Graphic.
Well, some Of us were startled recently by
reading that certain New York women were
about to found a womans club I was very glad
to learn of the innovation, and have been fight
ing in its defense privately SINCE as the idea
seems to be particularly obnoxious to the aver
age intellect Such club, am told, is unnec-
essary. The world has gone on for 1885 years
without clubs for women, why cannot it go on
forever? This mental attitude forces me into
argument. Has the world always been blest
with steam and telegraph Will the opposition
go back to coaching days? The superior sex
smiles that superior smile peculiar to it, and re-
plies With air that seems to settle the uni
verso, graceful but illogical" If I cannot be
both graceful and logical, let me be the first
but why will men persistently turn upon wom
an, and. instead Of proving her wrong take ref
uge in the sweeping assertion that she is illog-
cals They seem to reason after this fashlon-all
women are illogical, you are woman, therefore
you are illogical. Given the premises, the con-
clusion is ndisputable, but l deny the premises
it is not self-evident proposition, though
some of critics actually believe it can be
found in Euclid. Were / asked what had done
and what is doing the world the greatest amount
of injury, / would reply prejudice. 1t will take
another century of proof and persuasion to con-
vince men that women are not born illogical
Besides being illogical l am insane. What
possible good can come from such an innova-
tionY answer once or twice year certain
New York clubs give receptions to which women
are invited. Every Saturday night the German
Club of New York opens its hospitable doors to
the wives, sisters, cousins cunts and children OF
its members, setting an example that puts to
blush our Wanted American chivalry These
potent facts show that contact with clubs does
not, III the eyes of their members, necessarily
render the sex unwomanly. Why should there
not be clubs, not for men only, nor for women
only, but for men and women, which could be-
al afN of..d hal of
New York? Only the very wealthy can now
afford to entertain Well to do intelligence
starveS for lack of natural interchange
of ideas and sympathes. Occasional theater
parties and Delmonico suppers, while sig
nifcantly expensive, more ncurish
healthy friendships than lightning nourishes
the growing grass Almost the greatest
danger to present society is the mental and
physical idleness of women. Wear and tear are
a thousand-fold better than rust and rot. Use
lessness is cumulative. Contine the healthy
ebuition Of social instinct, and explosion ensues.
If women are to be helpmeets to their husbands,
If they are to be wise mothers they must know
the real world by actual contact. Without free
dom there is no intelligent virtue Many man,
from inherited habits of thought, entertains
Oriental ideas without knowing it. His home is
harem whose solitary inmate has no need of
external entertainment or instruction.
All this is rank treason, I dare say. Hence, /
am prepared for many feminine shrek of dis
gust for the howl that will rend many manly
bosom, for the scorn that will sit upon many a
manly counteDance, for the anathemas against
the unsexing of the sex that will proceed from
many a manly tongue but howl, Scorn and
anathema are not argument, and argument is
what want. Women require relaxation as we'll
as men; women need the friction of intelligent
minds moro than men, for the reason that
their lives are more secluded; women,
especially those who live in the suburbs, need a
place of rendezvous where they can read the pa
pers magazines and encounter their friends I'm
tremendously More particularly do they need
q restaurant where they can obtain palatabe
meals for reasonable prices, where they can in
yite friends to breakfast, lunch or dine without
making great inroads upon their purses. Year
by year the army of professional women in
creases. All of these women are more or less
clever; few are blessed with fortunes All feel
the necessity of a club, but to start one is not
feasible. What is less impossible and more
natural is such an addition to the present sys
tenn will give women all they desire wthsuot
depriving mon of their naienable right to
smoke, drink and wear their heels higher than
their heads A vivid imagination can picture
club consisting of two or more houses, with
rooms exclusively for men, rooms exclusively
for women, a general reading room and restau
rant, private dining-rooms and general reception
who hate men need never encounter
one another, while men and women
who believe that two halves make
whole could exceed the Century in the brill
fancy of their Saturday nights. Society is be-
coming more and more complex and to-day
there is far less chance of clever men and women
meeting in big American towns than there is in
London, because people in this country rarely
have leisure. Unless they give themselves up
to dinner parties-never knowing beside whom
they are to sit, and generally longing to be at
the other end of tae table-they are frequently
doomed to go through an entire season without
an interchange of ideas with their best friends.
Suppose all this changed. Suppose women
IL 49,
almost certain to encounter not one but many
male friends, who are things of beauty and JOY
forever suppose men know that on this same
evening they are sure of seeing many women
who are never at home when they find time to
CALL how simplified society becomes. And whore
is the unwt manlness of this proposals. Where
is the immortality that prudish women
and vicious men conceived In this
club of the future both these human
species will be rigidly excluded. and only
such persons admitted as are in the habit Of
behaving like ladies and gentlemen. l fail to
perceive why men and women of acknowledged
position and intelligence, who conduct them.
selves properly in drawing-rooms and public
balls should become transformed by occasional
contact at clubs. especially when one black ball
car expel them from the circle they most covet
This wall of the highly immoral-for John Weiss
is right in calling prudery that most indicate
of all things"-proceeds from creature of straw,
Once dare to lay that straw low and Mumbo
Jumbo's "Fee! faugh! fum!' will cease to terrify
the conventional who fear to call their souls
their own, yet are ready to sell them to Mrs
Grundy at half price.
In all probability the club of the future will
not be born during the reign of the present gen.
GRAFTON.
The Woman's Club of New York may still be
creature of reportorial imagination, but that
society will eventually resort to some such de-
vice as / have suggested is as certain as that 5
o'clock teas are death to digestion and impossible
for workers