Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-10

/ OF the average woman : conversation,
+ and now sparse are the ideas that grow
( in the trodden soil? White clover-in-
sipid sweet-of graceful sfnalI-talk and
( the rank plantiau OF gossip represent
/ the fora OF dTawing-room chat 1t was
voted III Grundyan congress ages ago
( that TO talk above your interlocutor g
/ head Is bad form and moreover I'M
! kind. If your silly companion groyels,
! you must down in the dust, and, so far
] as general society goes, stay there, until
I when, in an occasional off hour, - you
/ would stand upright. The mental spine
/ and limbs are stiff.
80 cannot live without my club, said
| an up-riyeF clergyman = 1t is like iron
! sharpening iron for me TO hear other men
/ think. 60 down 70 the city every Non
| day morning empty, and come back
/ full
invited wife his last winter TO attend
the monthly meeting of certain. literary
club. The very name of Sorosis''
would have alarmed her conservative
| spouse, but this select gathering Of re-
fined women. where reporters are ia
| booed, was so hammered that he
graciously assented to the proposed
''Outing taking my personal bond that
! she should ''imbibe no unWomanly no.
tions while there
The gentle pastoress carried off the
hOnOrs Of her seminary at graduation,
and kept up her reading for two
years thereafter Then she married and
went to feed two hocks-the one of
lambs III the hOme-fOld the other, her
husband 5 promiscuous charge
what young America would style "a job
lot of sheep of ali ages. She has, at
the present date-ffteen years after mar
riage-six children, and has buried
three one servant is kept
in the parsonage to do
what the mistress cannot perform
for want Of two heads, four hands and
seven days, fOrty-eight hours long, per
week She visits nowhere except in = the
congregation Of a hiItown parish: is
president of the sewing society; leads the
women : prayer meeting; has the
infant class III Sunday school, and takes
tea ont once week, on an average-aI-
ways in the house of a ''member. - She
is an unofficial, unaccredited, unsalaried
general utility article, Il public pump
with heart and nerves, the latter worn
fine and sore by years of wear and jar.
The courteous Interchange of greetings
in the upper chamber graced by the
meetings of "'The High Noon Club and
the gentle cordially of welcome extended
TO her by those 10 whom she was intro
duced brought girIish flush to the faded
cheeks, sparkle that was the light of
other days 10 the eyes of the shy little
lady; her well-saved black silk was not
shamed by the quiet costumes Of the
habitues. She took her part well in the
pleasant chat that went on over the in
formal lunch, and looked five years
younger by the time the small tables
were removed, and those who had
grouped themselves about them set their
chairs back into rows facing the presiding
officers table at the tap Of the gavel
The essay was spicy, suggestive, slim
ulating: the debate that succeeded it was
lively, pertinent, sometimes brilliant.
and characterized, as always, by perfect
temper and breeding. Nobody "made
speech; - at least 4 dozen women
talked naturally and easily of the matter
in hand. My guest thrilled and glowed
as the minutes went on as Il FROST
touched rose opens TO the May sunshine.
Her eager glance, passing from speaker
to speaker, was unwilling inspiration TO
the debaters.
81 shall 90 in the strength of this meat
three times forty days and forty nights
she said at our parting, the dew OF feel
ing III her eyes, the delicate flush still on
her worn face. ''lt helps one TO live TO
know that other women can think and
say such things.
On behalf of such starvelngs as she
dumbly patient and meekiy resolute to
stand in their lot plead for the
maintenance of wOmen's clubs In
behalf of the great multitude of wives
and mothers who do not grow intelIectu-
ally from eighteen to eighty; who, when
their children are to be educated, are
less fit to undertake the work than when
they were themselves at school; who are
no mates for their husbands i'll general
intelligence, yet whose voiceless cry is,
II feel like a seed in the cold earth,
Quickening at heart, and longing for the air!''
OF the cheer and help these meetings
with kindred spirits afford to professional
BRAIN workers: Of the friendships ce-
mented there; of the hopes and designs
for the good of our sex and kind born and
nouriShed by them say little, for lack
of space, not from scarcity of material
They are landmarks i'll the progress OF
our best civilization as well rs resting
places for the climber.
MARION HARLAND.