The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-29
FOR FEMININE READERS
ONE club WOMAN WHO Is OPPOSED
TO MUCH ORGANIZATION.
Women in Convention Disposed of
net Worn Again-This and That.

IT declare" said Aspasia, as we slipped
our tea In her cozy library after the club
meeting, "I sometimes wish we could go
back to the old-fashioned Dorcas societies
where the women took their knitting and
talked things over without any chairman
from whom to ask the foor' says a
writer in the Boston Transcript
THE beauty Of that was that everybody
talked at once and nothing was decided" /
said.
Perhaps So" she yielded. but 1 feel
dubbed to death. The modern woman
can't read or write or drink tea she can
hardly even think except in platoons or
ganized into clubs"
Then it was that the two ladies from
Bunker's Corners were announced. They
had that intelligent and well-dressed air in
their two-year-old Jackets and last seasons
bonnets that bespeaks the woii-to-do wo-
man Of a country community They had
come to consult Aspasia as the president of
a widely known. womans club on organiza-
ing one of their own. Aspasia supplied
them with tea and then listened while they
talked, expanding under the fragrant in
fuence of the Oolong and her sympathetic
and courteous attention.
And So" said the stout one as she re-
Taxed her bonnet strings, ard ficked off a
cracker crumb, we've plodded along for
ten winters now studying those little brown
books, 'Epochs Of History (she called them
eepocks) and reading what we could find
We started in ut the beginning Of the world
and we've about got down TO this century"
She settled back with a look of Satisfac-
ton that couldn't have been Sweeter in the
mouth If she had just taken the degree of
d. A. Then the other woman took a turn,
as Aspasia held her cup with thoughtful at
There's just twelve of us, and we all
agree that now we've got down TO the pres
emit time we ought TO Kind of catch up the
modern progressive spirit and organize into
Il real club with constitution and bylaws
and all that. OF course, the president should
be Mrs. Barnes smilngly to her
companion.
oh, you're the one for president, Mrs.
Hayes deprecated the other tiattered IN
spite of herself. Human nature in Bun
ker'S Corners is much the same as in New
York. Aspasia began to have that alb
stracted look that always threatens some
thing sudden Presently she sat down her
cup.
organize at all. Why should twelve women,
ndghbOrs and friends, who have studied to-
gether many years with pleasure and
profit now adopt a set of hard-and-tast
rules that will destroy all the social char
acter of these weekly meetings and make
them formal and stiff? If you numbered
one hundred or even fifty you should organ
ize by ali means and conduct your meet
ings with form, in order to insure attention
to each speaker and to direct your eIIorts
effectively, but surely doZen Old friends
need no rules save those of courtesy and
good feeling 10 guide them, as long as your
work is steady and you have d plan oil
but we want to belong to the National
Amalgamation of Clubs exclaimed the
ladies from Bunker'S Corners almost in uni
well, I wouldn't" persisted Aspasia.
But you do already"
made a gesture Behind the broad backs
of Bunkers Corners to warn the president
Of the Metropolitan Womans Club not TO
put herself on record as opposed to all the
modern womans world. But you might as
we'll try to stop locomotive as to stop
Aspasia when She takes on a resolve to
sneak the truth as it Is in her to see it.
Yes, she said slowly our cup does pc
long to the national association. but were
q very large one, and even at that i some
times doubt If we get enough out of 1t to
pay for the trouble and expense. | am sure
a little study club like ours would accom-
plish little more than Tree trip TO WASH
Ington every year for one of its members,
and the rest of you would only participate
by paying d share OIL the expense and hear
ting the report of a vast amount Of bust
ness. The modern woman Is so filled with the
idea of conducting the business of meetings
on the most approved principles that the
real gist Of the matter often gets lost in the
red tape of the proceedings, l sometimes
think the craze of organizing clubs springs
from a desire to try on these new garments
of parliamentary procedure we have SO re-
Gently acquired from men,
The ladies from Bunkers Corners were
already moving toward the door with a Sc
we're and disappointed look, but Aspasia's
steed had taken his head and was running
away with her.
Il should think it great misfortune,
she went on, "if the club habit in men and
women accomplshes what 1t threatens, the
destruction CT social life as 1t is embodied
in the grace of hospitality. We city women
have but little time or strength left any
more to entertain, we are kept so busy with
club engagements. l trust that you, our
moro fortunate sisters in the country, Will
shun our example and cling to your tradi-
lions of hospitable welcome.
There" / said as the front door closed
behind them, now you have done 1t! And
you may or you may not have forgotten
but you are quite ten minutes overdue at
the Working Girls Afternoon Tea Society
where you have promised to speak on The
Power of Cooperation in Woman's Work. !"
Woman ar Convention.