Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-17
But Nobody Seems to Have Founddt
Out Until the Sex Began Organ
izing Their Clubs.
A PERIOD OF GREAT PROGRESS.
Fhe EeH Form Of Social and Eentslsfffe
Has Been of Inestimable sAdya1-
tage to the Homes
CRADLE AND KITCHEN BETTER OFF.
The Country Vow Boasts Of $50 Clubs and Pittsburgs
Stands Wei Up Front
rwRrrrrS FOR THE prsrArcH.,

WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,
Until within the last 25 years 'rwoman's 8
Club was unknown in this country. Wo-
men had their ''Dorcas" and missionary
societies, their benevolent and charitable
associations snd prayer meetings. At this
last, in conformance with other ideas, a man
had to be hunted up to preside. For wo-
man to take the chair at religious meet
Eng, or TO lead in prayer, would have been
an untolerable breach of the proprieties
Many will remember how-not many
years ago-in the Third Church, Miss
Smiley, the noted Bible reader, was not
permitted to even stand upon the platform
Of the chapel for fear of its being construed
as stepping upon orthodox toes or sticking
pin into the prejudices of good Presby-
teriaus. Many, too, will remember the DR..
See trial, which tore up the whole Presby-
terian Synod of New Jersey and so pro-
foundlv shocked and agitsted the General
Assembly, because DR.. See allowed two
ladies to speak from his pulpit upon the
subject of temperance.
Some will recall the picture as pre-
scented upon the occasion of this famous
trial-of Dr.. Crsven pounding the cushions
end shaking his fists, as he pronounced the
remarks Of Mrs. Whitney and Mrs. Robin
Bon from the pulpit of DR.. See as an GIN
decency in the sight of Jehovah, and with
what fiery eloquence he said that the hand
Eerchiefs on the heads ofthe peasant women
of Narles, and the bonnets of the women
sitting before him, were worn in token of
the subordination of women. 1t will be re-
memhered, too that Rev. DR. Cox, of Cliff
ton Springs, few years ago, refused to ad-
minister the sacrament to some of the
patients without bannets on their heads,
and that Jane G. Swisshelm always removed
her bonnet in church in token that she re-
fused acceptance OF all such balderdash.
Wearing Bonnets in Church.
But while women still wear their bonnets
IL church, it is, i'll these DAYS, very much
more as a measure of convenience than q
token of subordination. If they chose to
take them off, he would be bold bishop or
rash clergyman who should demand they
rus them on again, as any such token.
Fashion would be much more powerful than
anT dogma or decree upon such matter-to
gay nothing of common sense 1t is true
there are some fanatics and weak-ninded
women who would submit. A prominent
PitEsburg woman of wealth once told the
writer that she would crawl from the Union
station to ''the Point on her hands ard
knees, if her Bishop commanded her to do
60, but such women are scarce among those
who possess any degree of enlightenment
Times are changed. a union of women
calling themselves club would have
shocked the good old grandmothers-to say
nothing of the grandfathers But clubs
organized BY intelligent women to cultivate
their powers of thinking and reasoning-to
increase in knowledge and wisdom-to con-
slider the great problems of lite, and the
Dc0notion of the highest good now excite
more interest than opposition, command
more respect than reproscb, and inspire
more praise than censure. The lessons of
history, the discussions Of principles and
systems, the study of character, the knowl-
edge of the world, the interchange of views
on the great questions of the day in these
clubs make women wiser. They redeem
them from insignifcance and ignorance;
they strike out the idle gossip and Stiffness
that mark the weak and empty mind; they
enable women TO manage all of their affairs
with greater capacity and skill
What Clubs Do for Women.
These woman's clubs give to women an in
terest in society, an intelligent comprehen-
sion Of affairs of state, an insight into science
which tends to the better education of chill
dren. 10 improved housekeeping, and to
better Judgment in the organization and
maintenance of benevolent enterprises and
charities in which SO many now take so
large part. Many of the members of the
Woman's Clubs throughout the country are
engaged in church work, in kindergartens
and working-girls guilds, in sisterhoods and
mite societies, in aged women's homes and
hospitals, in associations for the protection
ard education of the Indians, in temper
snce unions, in missionary societies and all
manner Of philanthropic enterprises, but |
the clubs are committed, as general thing,
10 no hobby, or pet scheme for reform They
furnish the wide field for discussion, for
criticism, for investigation that serve the |
purpose of separating the chaff from the |
wheat, that call for the consideration of a |
subject without bias or prejudice, that tend /
20 break down superstition, and to substi- |
5ute cool, sober Judgment for the rash en- !
thusjasm BY which so many are led to do |
evil that good may come.
Women are said to be more emotional and |
sentimental than men. They are more ready |
20 be imposed upon by frauds and tramps |
than men. They are more liable to be led |
away bv impulse and extravaganza in feel |
in- than are men, who exercise their brains
snd are thought to steep their sentiments in
Enaw and ice. But the discussions in the |
Noman's Clubs are playing havoc with
these criticisms
Grave Mistakes In Charity.
day that she never had the heart to turn
away beggar from her door. AS conse-
quence she was besieged by beggars, and
there was hardly night in the year that
her barn was free from tramps. If this
good lady had possessed knowledge of
political economy, or had given her brains
fair play rather than her preiudices, she
would have known she was doing harm
rather than good. She would have realized
she was encouraging men to be
idle rather than industrious, and that
by such encouragement she was
doing an injury to the community in
which she lived by supporting set of lazy
loafers whose moral sense was weakened
and perhaps wholly destroyed by such mis-,
taken charity. Much of the poverty and
evil of to-day has been produced-not by
misfortune or visitation Of God-but alto
gether by the charity of the misiudging of
the good people in days gone by. This will
seem hard hearted to the sentimental. but
It is the teaching of common sense-of a
oA l