The herald., 1897-10-02
The Friday Morning Club
to Have One
PRESENTED YESTERDAY
BY PRESIDENT SARTORI IN HER
OPENING ADDRESS
A Separate Association to Own Stock,
Erect Building and Lease to
the Club

Inc FRIDAY MORNING CLUB helQ lis
| first meeting for the season yesterday,
and every seat in the auditorium was
| filled. Clusters of flowers were upon the
| readers desk and secretary's table and
seated on the platform with the presi-
dent, Mrs. j. f. Sartori were Vice Pres
dents Mesdames S. S. Salisbury and r.
C. Whiting, the president emeritus Mrs.
Caroline M. Severance and Mrs. Char
lotte A. Wills.
| After the reading of the secretary's
report, Mrs Sartori proceeded with her
address, which was particularly able
ard interesting. She spoke of the sum-
mer months in which the new board had
had time to become acquainted with
| the work Of the club, ard formulate their
plans for carrying it on, and then said:
"In determining our present position
a glance over the road by which We
have come and thought for the direc-
| ton toward which it may trend is al
ways necessary.
'It is not so long ago that the Friday
| Morning club was popularity supposed to
| be composed of women with particu-
larly short hair and equally aggressive
| ideas, who, anxious for notoriety, had
| determined to rid themselves of their
duties and responsibilities as wives and
mothers, and had banded themselves to-
gether for the purpose of inducing other
| women to do likewise.
| "It was supposed to contain two class
es-the strong minded with, all the
opprobrium usually attached to that
ykVav, al xr-6<1 ly q n
ard the members were treated by the
majority of people either with open dis
approval or plying condescension, de-
pending, of course upon how they hap"
pened to be classified.
To-day I think we may safely con-
gratulate ourselves upon occupying
very different position
"For this change there are two rea-
sons. First, foremost and always has
been the careful and dignified policy
consistently followed by the club.
| We have thus built up for ourselves a
strength and character, and instead OF
beir,g a doubtful advocate for any cause
we may become most powerful one.
Ir fact, what we may do will only be
| limited by our wisdom, our sincerity,
and our unity. The other and secondary
reason for this change in cur status is
| to be found in the greater consideration
| in which women's clubs are held all over
| the world.
| "This club movement which has mys-
teriously swept over the country, SEEM
ing to lack directior like the wind which
bloweth where 1t listeth, very naturally
met at first with suspicion and disap-
proval. But everywhere that is passing
away, and, while all are not yet ready
to admit it's usefulness we at least hear
no more about it's harmfulness.
"It is not information that we seek
| here so much as Developments de-
velopment that comes from actual con-
tact with varied individualities ard
| ideas. The average woman has little
opportunity for any vital association
with her kind. Outside Of her home, her
acquaintance and her knowledge is
usually hedged by her church and what
she considers her social position On
| both planes she meets only those who
are most like herself in belief in ira
dition, and in experience. Even when
| philanthropic work draws her somewhat
beyond these narrowing conditions her
rela tions with those she meets are not
normal. She then becomes Lady
Bourtiful. She cannot share, she can
only give.
"It is in that complicated organiza-
| ton which women are pleased to call
club that she finds the best means for
development on what is distinctly her
social side-social in the sense of socio-
| logical, or more broadly, human.
"It is there she finds her true relation
| to the world at large. In club whose
members are drawn from no one circle
she learns to form and express her own
opinion clearly and courteously and to
listen calmly to opinions widely differ
ent from her own, valuing them because
she recognizes that they are perhaps
based on a widely different experience.
"She learrS to consider herself of
| value to the commonwealth, and, un-
consciously it may be- is training her
self to take part in. the civic life of the
| future, for that she should and will take
such part is no longer gainsaid. Wheth-
er that part shall be an active and di
rect ore, or whether she may not bet
| ter attain the end desired by taking
more passive but no less influential role
| is yet to be determined. In any case
she must be prepared to enter into larger
| and more impersonal interests than she
| has heretofore DONE"
Continuing, Mrs. Sartori sketched in
! the plan of the club work, which has
| been placed. in the hands of efficient
| chairmen who will choose their own
committees, and whose work promises
to be valuable in every way. The fact