Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-12-11

KATE FIELDS IDEA. OF AN ORGAN
IZATION FOR BOTH SEXES.

The Necessity OF Such an Institution.
Reasons Why Women should EDjoy the
Benefits of Club Life as Wei Men.
Life viii Re PIeasanter for All.
Some of US were startled while ago
by reading that certain New York won-
en- had founded wOman's club. was
very glad to learn Of the innovation, and
have been fighting in its defense private
Is ever since, as the idea seems TO be par
ticularly obnoxious to the average intel
lect. Why should there not be clubs
not for men only nor for women only.
but for men and women, which could
become social centers in the elongated
babel of New York? Only the very
wealthy can now afford to entertain.
Well to do intelligence starves for lack
of "a natural interchange Of ideas and
sympathies. Occasional theatre parties
and suppers, while significantly expen-
siye, no more nourish healthy friend
ships than lightning nourishes the grow
ing grass.
Confne the healthy ebullition of social
instinct, and explosion ensues. If women
are to be helplnates to their husbands, if
they are to be wise mothers, they must
know the real world by actual contact.
Without freedom there is no intelligent
virtue. Many a man, from inherited
habits of thought, entertains oriental
ideas without knowing it.
FEATURES OF THE CLUB.
Rank treason, dare say. Hence am
prepared for many a feminine shrek of
disg1s5t, for the howl that will rend
many manly bosom, for the scorn that
viii sit upon many a manly counte-
nance, for the anathemas against the
unsexing of the sex that will proceed |
from many manly tongue; but howl,
scorn and anathema are not argument,
and argument is what l want.
Women require relaxation as well as
men; women need the friction of intel |
ligent minds more than men, for the |
reason that their lives are more secluded; |
women, especially those who live in the |
suburbs. need place of rendezvous
where they can read papers and maga
zines and encounter their friends un
ceremoniously More particularly do |
they need a restaurant where they can !
obtain palatable meals for reasonable |
prices, and where they can invite friends
to breakfast, lunch or dine without max
ing great inroads upon their purses.
Year by year the army Of professional
women increases All of these women
are more or less clever; few are blessed
with fortunes. All feel the necessity of |
club, but TO start one is not feasible
What is less impossible and more nat
ural is such an addition to the present |
system as will give women all they de-
sire without depriving men of their in
alienable right to smoke, drink and wear
their heels higher than their heads.
Aviyid imagination can picture a club,
consisting of two or more houses, with
rooms exclusively for men, rooms ex-
clusively for women, general reading
room and restaurant, private dining
rooms and general reception rooms.
IT IS COMING.
Men who hate women and women who
hate men need never encounter one an
other, while men and women who be-
lieve that two halves make a whole could
exceed the Century club of New York in
the brilliancy of their Saturday nights.
Society is becoming more and more COM
plex, and today 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 the ta-
ble-they are frequently doomed to go
through an entire season without an in
terchange of ideas with their best
friends.
Suppose all this changed. Suppose
women know that on a given night in
the week they are almost certain to en-
counter not one but many male friends,
who are things of beauty and joys for
ever; 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 simpli-
fed society becomesl And where is the
unwomanliness of this proposal?
In the club of the future only such
persons will be admitted as are in the
habit of behaving like ladies and gentle
men. fail to perceive why men and
women of acknowledged position and
intelligence, who conduct themselves
properly in drawing rooms and public
balls, should become transformed by
occasional contact at clubs.
In all probability the club of the fut-
ure will not be born during the reign of
the present generation, but that society
will eventually resort to some such de-
vice as have suggested is as certain as
that lunches and o'clock teas are death
to digestion and impossible for workers.
Kate Fields Washington.