St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-22
ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF WOM-
EMS CLUBS.

been so long 1nSenSlDle.
ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF WOM-
EMS CLUBS.
The world moves SO rapidly nova
days that the unaided efforts of the
individual intellect to keep up with it
are futile. Hence tho great, and, to
some minds, alarming, multiplication
Of clubs. A club is a syndicate formed
to facilitate the distribution OF masses
of information too unwieldy to be han
oynic has intimated that this process
is usually accompanied in women's
clubs without much personal absorp-
ton of knowledge by anybody, but
he was evidently unacquainted with the
enthusiasm which most members of
such organizations bring to bear on
their work, Clubs and newspapers
play the part in the mental life of the
nation nowadays which was filed by
speakers from the lyceum platform
thirty years ago. They furnish infor-
nation of a sort, and a gentle intel
lectual stimulus.
AS far as womens clubs subserve the
end of the stimulation and enrichment
of the intellectual life of their men,
bers, it is to the women whose main
interests in life are domestic and social
that they appeal For the very few
women who live in and for the world Of
the mind, clubs have little use or
meaning. But they have been and are
a means of intellectual salvation to
many, keeping the mind awake and
alive to interests outside the some
what monotonous round of duties and
pleasures into which the existence of
the average woman in the higher walks
of life tends to fall.
There is, however, a regrettable tend
ency to argue that if one club is a
healthful and stimulating thing, ten
clubs must be a hundred times more
so. The error is common and one into
which many hapless women fall. A
multiplicity of organized interests So
licit the time and attention of a modern
woman, and all offer such tempting
subjective rewards that to neglect them
seems positively criminal. But when
you add to the usual demands of the
home society and the church the ex-
actions of study clubs, language les
sons, mothers meetings, patriotic So
cieties, charity organizations and
courses and classes in music, art, cur
rent events, cuneiform inscriptions and
every other subject under heaven, both
flesh and spirit fail. There was once
woman who belonged to thirteen
clubs. She was treasurer of four and
secretary Of seven. She carried her
enthusiasm and responsibilities to the
verge Of the grave, and laid them
down there. Her friends said thirteen
was always an unlucky number. 1t is
to be feared that there are only too
many who follow in her footsteps.
The ultimate test of the number of
such outside interests in which a wom-
an may safely indulge is the quality of
their reaction upon her home life. AS
long as they make her more inter
ing at the dinner table, it is safe to
assume that she is not INDUCING too
deeply. Some alarmists have pro-
claimed the club the enemy of the
home, whereas it's chief function is to
enrich domestic life by suitable cult
walton of the individual. But intel
lectual stimulants must be used with
the same caution that attends the use
OF other cordials. 1t is possible to wear
oneself out in the service of clubs with
out obtaining thereby any enduring
compensations Information is not
scholarship; writing papers will not
make a savant, and to sacrifice to the
accumulation Of miscellaneous knowl-
edge any least fraction of the life such
knowledge has no purpose but to serve
is pitiable perversion of the material
of life, and one which will speedily be
its own punishment.