Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-29


on those of sensitive physique are
a. tedious as the sequele of scarlet fever or
typhoid, from which patient cannot call him
self recovered under year. II will take many
days bssking in the warm sunshine, many days
breathing the deep free winds which stir the
blood and many nights Of sound sleep to restore
the tone to unstrung nerves. IL the work is
half done, rs it usually is, the penalty will be
visible in sallow faces, lackluster eyes and
dropping forms. Women must perforce learn
wisdom.
Not a few will find themselves forced to SIM
pity their social work and drop much Of the
routine, useless duty which has absorbed them.
Ihe woman who is a member OF eleven clubs.
political, literary and charitable. will be obliged
TO ignore them so long that il is possible she
may find existence more endurable without
than with them. For the mere routine of these
time-stealing womans clubs makes an enor-
nous waste Of time. So many letters of invi-
tation and notification, SO many explanatory
notes and circulars are indispensable and so
much polite figuring must be done TO make the
meetings interesting that no one with real aims
In art or study but finds herself obliged to choose
between her proper work and this formulating
and posturing mainly for the sake of giving
Mrs. Maneuverer credit for being president
over large society. That is the most any of
these women's clubs amounts to. 1t Is the end
and origin of their being, and keen-witted men
awake to the fact.
REQUIRED OF A FEW LADIES.
One Of the most effective officers in prom
inent association in a large city said lately in
my hearing, The ladies' auxiliaries want us to
fly round and do the work for them while they
eat cake and ice cream, send US on errands,
and then take all the credit. When they come
to our aid, it takes our available force 10 wait
on them. and a day to clear up after Them"
which confession could be echoed by many
hard-working officers of benevolent societies.
As to the glittering generality of Shakespeare
and literary clubs, their usefulness is summed
up by bright young member who writes that
"a set Of old hens get together and pick other
people to pieces" and another speaks of them
as gossip served on trays with Shakespeare or
Browning to float on the teacups." So if you
mourn that your privileges are cut off. dear
madam, by want of strength, rest consoled
that the loss is not irreparable. either to the
club or to You. The only work worth men,
tioning in the world, the only kind that lasts
and tells, is individual work, whether of brain
or hand One can't object to gossip on any
reasonable ground But gossip weakens litera-
ture past liberation. Perhaps this is the rea-
son why the most prominent woman's club in
the country makes the melancholy confession
In its yearly report that it has TO depend for
interest Oh the efforts of six of its members.
the rest being content with taking no part at
all in its discussions. Now. a mans club which
depended on half a dozen members would
turn up its toes and die, out of sheer decency.
If You want an excuse for having good time,
christen your gathering Gossip Club" or 1.-The
Scandalmongery" and try to live up to it.
There won't be any more harm for the admis-
sion.
CALLING THINGS BY THEIR RIGHT NAMES
lets flood of light upon their designs some
times, and a club known as the Old Cats or the
Backbiters' Own would probably have as little
Of their name-vices as is consistent with femi-
nine nature. A good lively club of this kind
might be a resource for tired house mothers
who need chat and fun, which nobody thinks
OF supplying them. People who work hard
and feel worn out don't want serious topics or
anything like study for a while. They may
learn just as much in a light way and remem-
Der it longer. But strike off the clubs and
coteries from your list as non-essentiai until
you recover the strength of three women
Buy spring dresses ready made, rather than
bother with dress makers, proverbialy the
most perfidious of their sex and the worst in
structed Of any craftswomen in the cities and
towns. Don't undertake to attend all the Lent
services or get up birthday parties or golden
weddings or anything which requires OUTLAY Of
nerve. Friends will be sure to say: II should
think she might be able to do Just this and
that" or they doubtless will go q step farther
and say: ''She might if she wanted to- But
you must not mind them. Life is too dear a
possession to be played with, and you only
spend ii.
SENSIBLE ADVICE.
Every woman who values her health this
chilly, stormy spring, true breeder of typhoid
pneumonia, should go into silk underwear
vests. chemiserie, skirts and night gowns if she
has to economic on her dresses to provide
them. Neuralgia and rheumatism are flying
around, fell brood of the winter scourge and
no cost can be reckoned dear which wards them
of. Flannel has not the same warmth or Cleo
trio action on the skin. A feather weight of q
silk garment has more warmth than a thick
wool one, with the advantage of lightncss.
The knickerbockers of black silk in fashion are
commendable when spring winds are abroad
At a sudden reel of wind at a street corner a
glimpse OF trim black silk stocking and rose
embroidered black silk ruffles has far less the
effect Of an expose than a ieeting show of
white garments. And the pink and blue slum-
Der robes of India silk do so kindly keen off
the pains in the shoulder next the crevice of
the bedclothes when the tan of a cyclone is
showing how full Of drafts "A ,000-a-year house
can be.
SILK UNDERWEAR
doesn't mean combination suits in this instance,
nor those nondescript attachments called 'leg-
lettes" by women with one lobe to their brain.
AS one brilliant woman says (whom You would
all know If gave her away, II wouldn't be
found dead with 'em on Kate Field tells a
witty ana WICKED story about an old woman up
IN Vermont whose only amusement was the vii
lage lecture course every season, which led off
with Col Ingersoll one week and Mrs Jenness
Miller the next, when the old lady came home
thunderstorm. mo hell and no chemiseI
What was the world coming to, For her part
it both were done away with she didn't want to
live In 1t any longer And that's the way
most nice women feel about their inner drap-
cries. They are just as pretty in pale blue
rose or white India silk ruffled with feathery.
firm thread lace as the white cambria in which
every woman ought to look like an angel that
has laid OF its wings.
DON'T STINT FIRES
If You love life and your families don't stint
fires this spring if you have to keen them
mornings till the middle of June. This season
will decide many families to go into homes of
their own where they can have a fire at pleas-
ure, when the hotels have shut off steam
and the boarding houses have put the furnace
out. They suffer, these poor rich people. in
their high-priced hotels for the simple COM
forts of life. 1t gives pang to think how an
ailing friend used to come languid and
blue into the Office down town for warmth
after shivering for hours in his rooms at the
expensive hotel, because the steam was turned
on for the season and no provision made for
fires in the room. He took his death blow then
Somehow, for want of care or from the stupid
provisions of snowy life, his many thousands
of income could not bring him the comfort of
an Irish womans tenement room.
II ia stern truth that ona\A IN iu.1Oa of fbo