The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-01-21
qHE NINETEENTH CENTURY CLUB.
The Personnel Of Some Of It's
Well Known Members.
Its Founder, It's Platform and Its Object
A Resume Of q Famous Club About
Which Much Has Been Said.
NEW YORK, December 80, 1885,

NEW 1Ohhs IL ~ Q
The Art rooms at 6 East Twenty-third street
are very familiar to ali picture lovers, but they
| have taken on a new character this season by
| having been selected for the meetings of the
! Nineteenth Century Club. Exactly what the
| Nineteenth Century Club is few outside the
| ciety has ever existed that hes occasioned so
much speculation or individual desire and
heart burning. Come with me to the club
rooms, for the meetings are no longer held in
Mr.. Palmer's elegant parlors, and we will see
| what the Nineteenth Century Club is like.
1t is easy to see at the start that it is not an
! exclusively male club. The social air is too
well defined. There is too much refinement;
just the touch of formality necessary to save
from undue familiarity, and that subtle charm
of odor from delicate perfumes and flowers
| which would indicate to a blind man the pres
| ence of cultivated women. Crossing the first
gallery we ascend the red carpeted stairs which
lead to the upper floor. At the top Of these,
and at the entrance to the west gallery, which
is filled with seats facing a platform, members
and guests are received by a committee of
ladies, first of whom is Mrs. Cortlandt Palmer,
whose willingness to sacrifice for a time the
quiet of her beautiful home made the club
possible, and whose grace and courtesy as
hostess, aided by the constant presence and
cooperation of ladies whose names are a social
power, preserve its character intact.
One of these, perhaps the one whose infu-
ence has been most potently felt, is a slight,
delicate woman, of great refinement and dis
tinction of appearance and manner. Seeing
simply her air of thorough breeding, one would
not give her credit for the energy she possesses,
the amount of excellent work she has done in
her plays, her bric-a-brac stories and other
works, not to speak of constant efforts in be-
half Of societies and public and charitable en-
t~erprises. For this is Mrs. Burton N. Harrison,
author of ga Russian Honeymoon "Weeping
Wives" 'Old-fashioned Fairybook," "Wo,
mans Work in Modern Homes,'' "Bric-a-brac
Tales" illustrated by Walter Crane, 'Crow's
Nest" ga Little Centennial Lady," and other
plays and stories whose names l do not remem-
Der now. Mrs. Harrison comes quite naturally
by her genius for literary work, for her grand
mother, Virginia Randolph, was the kins-
woman and pupil of Thomas jefferson; early
trained by him at Monticello to habits of in
tellectual exercise, and in her day a very well
known writer on old-fashioned themes Of doc
trine and romance. From the book-loving and
literary Fairfaxes of English descent on the
paternal side Mrs. Harrison inherits the same
taste, and her early life in the old Fairfax fam
lily homestead in Virginia, under the careful
guardianship OF a mother who was a rare
specimen of intellectual womanhood, was well
adapted to foster and stimulate her last gifts.
Pursuing her literary works in a somewhat de-
sultory fashion and merely for the love Of it,
Mrs. Harrison is less known as a writer of books
than as a social leader and the author of q
brilliant little play, based upon a comedy of
i L D, uII lAOusn hllUkCu lOl duldICui
production, was performed at the Madison
Square Theatre for nearly a hundred nights.
1t is true that quite recently she was made a
member of the Executive Committee of the
Copyright League, but it was probably more
out of gratitude for her strong and successful
effort in getting up the series of "Author's
Readings last spring than knowledge or recog-
milton of her work.
The third of the trio is a lady also well
known in the best social and literary circles;
more widely known indeed than perhaps any
other woman of her standing, for her work has
been diversified, and her relations intimate
with representative people in society, as well
as art and literature. 1t is some years ago
since a series of clever Conversations" on lit
erary and social topics in Appleton's Journal
attracted the attention of literary circles in
New York. They were signed IN. E. w. S."
and it soon became an open secret that the au-
thor was Mrs. Sherwood, a well known leader
in society, and a woman of singular breadth of
mind, added to a various experience and Guilt
waited intelligence. Mrs. Sherwood has only
recently returned from an extended visit
abroad, but she was one of the ladies whose
names gave strength to the infant phenomenon,
represented by the Nineteenth Century Club,
and every one is glad to see her back and re-
ceive her cordial welcome
The Rubicon passed-and it does not take at
all SO long as l have employed in writing about
tive soon find ourselves seated In the long
gallery among 400 or 500 other waiting and ex-
ppectant persons of both sexes. They are not
all fashionable Or even wealthy people by any
means, but they are largely representative,
and they generally include visitors of distinc-
ton from abroad who may happen to be in
New York at the time. Mr.. Felix Moscheles,
the English artist and godson of Mendelssohn, |
with his beautiful and charming wife have
been frequent guests since professional en-
gagements have kept them in New York City
during the past two winters. Mr.. Edgar
Fawcett and of late Mr.. and Mrs. Moncure
Conway are also prominent ~fgures-but hush
here comes the President.