Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-19
CLARA BELLIES CHAT.
Women's Clubs Springing Up Like
Mushrooms at the Metropolis.
SOROSIS AND ITS SUCCESSORS.
How the Imitation AristOcrats Are Willing
the Hours Away.
DOINGS OF A BRILLIANT BARONESS

NEW 1Ohh. May To- w nat, my dear,
going out again?"
"And pray why not, sir? There is meet
ing of the home committee at the club. But
never mind, if you will stay at home this
afternoon, I'll take you with me next Thurs
day, which is gentlemen's day at the Blue
Stocking"
If New York society has not yet reached
this point, let no misogynist lay the fatter-
ing unction to his soul that such point
will not be reached, and that very speedily
too. Women's clubs in this big town are
increasing at the rate Of half dozen year,
and their scope covers every object that is
known in feminine society. There is the
social, literary, religious, musical, sewing,
charitable, athletic, industrial, cooking, art
and the directory man only knows what
others. There are over 80 such clubs for
women now established in New York. Some
like the Sorosis are hale, hearty and pros
porous, while many of the others are strug-
Cling through precarlous and rather un-
healthy babyhood, beset by many perils,
and weighted down by bewildering host
ofjuvenile tribulations, such as no real in
FAINT, outside of museum, even managed to
survive.
GROWTH OF soRosIs.
The Oldest woman's club in the world is
the Sorosis. 1t has grown stronger year by
year during the "a years of its existence.
Before Sorosis was. established the widest
dreams of the fair sex did not include club
for women. After it was born others soon
came to bear it company. To form a club
for women was found to be comparatively
easy matter after all, and pluck Joined with
money and social influence were enthusi-
astlcally enlisted in support of the moYe-
ment.
Mrs. D. G. Croly and IA other clever and
practical women who had already made
regulations in the fields usually given over
to men, formed the club partly as an expert
ment and partly to prove to the male jour
Dalists of New York that their sisters of the
pen had spirit and ability and fine inde-
pendence. Their success is a matter of his
tory. Soon after Sorosis came her sister,
the Boston Woman's Club, the second in
the world. After that the brood increased
with prodigious fruitfu1ness, and were all
of the progeny alive to-day there would be
more women's than mems clubs recorded on
the back pages of the city directory.
The Pot Luck Club is one of the best
known of the social sisterhoods. 1t is de-
signed to comfort and exton the virtues of
those housekeepers who have received un-
kind criticism from their lords and masters.
At the Pot Luck meetings certain members
contribute evidence of their culinary skill
for the delectation of their sisters, and woe
be it to the luckless husband whose sneers
have not been borne out by the judgment of
this somewhat captious jury.
SOME OTHER CLUBS.
There are both male and female Pot Luck
ers, and both sides of the controversies re-
ceive,impartial consideration. But happily
Pot Luckers as rule have kindly disposi-
tions, and disputes are rare. Among the
best known members are "Jennie june"
Richard Henry Stoddard, the poet; Ella
Wheeler Wilcox, Joaquin Miller, Edmund
Clarence Stedman, Mrs. John BigelOw and
Montague Marks. The meetings are de-
lightful treats, and the outsider who is for
tunate enough to be favored with an invita-
tion has different idea of Pot Luck than
he has ever had before.
Mrs. John Sherwood's Club" is the name
commonly given to the Causerie de Lundi.
1t would be difficult to classify this fashion,
able organization any more aptly. Mrs.
Sherwood is the President, and the club dis
cusses the same sort of topics that Mrs.
Sherwood has been kind enough to discuss
in the public press for these many years
back. Women and women's doings are
talked about, discursively, etiquette and
rules for department are laid down didacti-
cally and the great world of society is saved
regularly once fortnight, or oftener when
the club meets more frequently.
The Athletic Club, which is composed of
stalwart, healthy and wealthy young women
from Murray Hill, Staten Island and other
fashionable localities, is an outgrowth of
the Recreation Club. The latter organiza-
tion has<no permanent quarters. 1t meets
once a month for business in the drawing
room of one of the members and again on
every Wednesday morning for recreation.
The members take their recreation in walk
ing. Central Park, Harlem, Washington
Heights, and even New Jersey are tramped
over, laughed over and chatted over by the
prettiest, freshest faced, strongest limbed
lot of young Amazons that the town of the
Knickerboekers has ever seen.
LADIES AS ATHLETES.
The Athletic Club grows from the organi-
zation, and like all aftermaths is much
more pretentious than its predecessor. 1t is
building clubhouse with handsomely ap-
pointed gymnasium, and all tie belongings
of the gymnast's craft. There the members
will race and wrestle, swing on long ringed
ropes suspended from the ceiling, Skin the
cat on the horizontal bar, broaden their
shoulders between the parallels, raise great
Jumps on their arms in the dumb bell de-
partment, and polish off their circus course
of training by having round with soft
gloves and the sand, bag. and scientific
bout with the foils and the fencing master.
The modish young woman of the next gen.
Grafton will not be club woman, but she
will be able to settle her disputes much in
the same way that clubmen do theirs now
when the provocation and the occasion
seems to require it.
Besides these there are art and minor
literary clubs almost without number. The
history of many os these is too we'll known
to need even a passing mention. Among
the best known charitable and industrial
clubs are the Kindly, Mizpah and Emma
Lazarus. Each of these does a noble and
benevolent work. This partial list would
be grossly incomplete were some of the many
clubs left unmentioned There is
Hereditary, Clio, Meridian, Science Of Life,
Spiritualist, Germ of Reason, Struggle for
Truth, Socialist, Communist, Sociologic and
the Woman's True Friend. Queer names
Yes, and queer objects they have too. If
men may nave tnelr LAMBS, IhlrteenS ana
Growlers, why not women their Germs Of
Reason and Struggle for Truth?
IMITATION ARISToCRATS.
What are the Fifth avenue pretentials do
ing? Perhaps you don't know even what a
pretential is. Well, that is new name for
a New York imitation aristocrat It is be-
tween seasons now, and social dullness
reigns. The most notable commotion is for
Martha Washington tea sets, and SO de-
termined is Nine. Elite to have a replica
that orders are being made from magazine
cuts. Mrs. Alexander Hamilton has a