Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-03-26
BosToN's FEMALE CLUBS.
Chief Centres New England Intellect
uaiity aud Culture.
IRON tie Nel7 l0rt HeraId.

from TEE .ffin ? ffl aeFffft.
Boston. MASS, March 90. Boston has
often been dubbed The City of Clubs, but
asan modern towns are becoming more
or less rich in club life, this night more
ltly be differentiated as the City Of WO-
mems Clubs. To accurately count the
number of private coteries having some
thing OF general club tendencies inaugu-
rated or presided over by
women and particuag44e their
varying aims would take tar more
space than this letter affords and to at
tempt at all to measure their quality ana
values might entail some rather 100 me
critical gradatiOns. The leading feature
shat sets them apart from female Gather
tngs elsewhere is, OF COURSE, iheir dis
tinstiYely intellectual bias ana
the remote regions OF lhOught
upon which they prefer 20 iet TINS pay
Some curious people mere have been
trying OF late 10 trace the germ OF all this
mental activity 10 its source, but without
marked success. The grow TIA OF female
club life. or the numerous attempts 70
grow something like OLD salon life within
Boston. would form curioUsly interest
ing study, il only in showing how exotic
sRnd alien to the sod the thing really is.
THE OLDEST CLUB GROWN DRY.
Even the Oldest band OF women here
who have clubbea t0gether-the noted
New England Women's Club - have
NGered altogether OF from the things most
Interesting TO their sex to-day; or, it
would be better to say, they never drew
toward them, for the older leading MEM
bers of that club are now precisely where
they were as leading New England
women 80, 40 or 90 years ago, while q most
OF new thought, feelings, tastes, and in
tteresbs have grown apaee, through fusion
with new blood or Intimate contact
with the outside worlds MODE of thought
and conduct.
! 1t should not be inferred that the New
sEngland WOmen's Club is wholly for sut-
frage. Perhaps not more than One-half
lthe membeTs-e0mprising zoe or more
ARE really so, but the clubs directors are
really so, and the clubs whole policy is
lsnaped according TO their-mayit be saldl
l-idealized limitations. This club was
lstarted shortly after the war, IN 1868, by
the then younger portion OF the old anti
slavery party, who had done good service
Throughout the war, and found themselves
lost without some public work on hand at
its close. 1t started at the home OF Miss
ABBY w. May, who mas been its financial
manager and most controlling genius ever
since. 1t has been kept alive by
a yearly fee of membership and
extras when there is any extra
outlay. In its early years the club enter
ptained many nOtabiiities coming to this
lcouDtFy, bat its social features have
gradually dwindled away. The most So
cial feature OF this club at present is its
t'teas," which occur once month, and
are generally presided over by the clubs
President, Mrs. Julia w ard Howe, whose
woman Of the world wit and manner can
in itself redeem any assembly. But Mrs.
Howe, though nominally at the head, has
1lttle or no control of the management.
III she had the club might take on some
cosmopolitan features that would give It
a new lease Of lite.
A CLUB WITH A REPELLANT NAME.
The Metaphysical club was founded
some three years ago by Mrs Anagnos,
member OF the Women's Club and
daughter OF Mrs. Howe. II was meant to
cover wider range. and meet wants that
the other did not MI, and perhaps because
Mrs. Turner SsrgenPs Radical Club-the
most brilliant, versatile and able that
Boston has ever had-no longer existed,
having been quenched by that lady's re-
moval to New York. The Metaphysical
Club met periodically at the houses Of
the different members, and for a short
season had q sOmew hat brilliant run. but
even before the death of its founder,
which occurred the other day, 1t had be-
gun TO dwindle. 1t still drew in occasion
ally the talent Of a few local celebrities,
but whether from its name or something
else, these were mostly UnitaT IN clergy
men. Upon the young literary blOOds of
the day, whose efforts sprOut most into
Fiction, it seems to have made little i'm
preston, and was lett mostly in the hands
OF women, and these not even OF the ac-
tive workers in literature or art. Perhaps
its name was against il. Metaphysics
have been pretty we'll exhausted BY the
German adapts. Mrs. AnagnOs has been
dead scar cely week, and already an
effort is being made not to let this club
die. To effect this, perhaps, its name will
be changed.
THE ROUND TABLE.
Another club, The Round Table, was
started about the same time by Mrs Kate
Gannett Wells, daughter OF the late DR..
lGannett, Unitarian divine, and wife OF a
'Well-known Boston lawyer, and also an
ex-member of the WOmen's Club. 1t was
started much on the same plan as the
metaphysical, only, as it's name would i'm
ply, on more roundabout, versatile basis
OF subject-mOre practical and converse
tional. Its chief ann and hope was to
capture the interested attendance OF local
4stetrdtetTS ard leading artists; but,
though Holmes, HOwells, Aldrich, j. S. of
Dale, Arlo Botes, and some smaller lights
have been seen at its coteries, its con-
tinual success has not been a whit more
steady than that OF the Metaphysical.
Lady poetesses and esssyists make up
the bulk OF the audience.
bUPERLATIYELY CHOICE GIRLS AND
THEMES.
But there Is still another small and
purely feminine club OF some note,
started, or at least inspired, by Mrs. Julia
Ward Howe. IL is intended to supple
Enent the educational finish of Young
women, and is confined to members not
over 80, and Is called the Saturday Morn
ing Club. 1t is superlatiyey choice as to
membership and topics Of discussion, and
80 high ana serenely intellectual that no
young man, they say, who has had the
honor OF being invited to its discussions
has ever dared accept
Besides all these and others there is
scarce woman Of any social life at all,
even II she be confined TO only an apart
ment IN hotel, who does not throw her
room open occasionally and invite her
friends 10 hear another friend read a
''papero or "poem" on something or
other. II does not matter much what II
40 about, It Is de TigUcur TO listen, smile,
congratulate and go home cold and
hungry. wishing TO heaven that YOU could
lOrego the ordeal.
THE SUCCESSFUL TACT OF MRS. OTIS.
But the oldest thing about all this per.
1eryid attempt 70 found club aud salon
life Is that with the advance fu Thought