The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-22
WOMEN BOUND TO GET IN.
IFrom the Chicago Chronicle. I

[From the Chicago Chronicle.l
In not few leading American cities
( the plan of ''the ladies' annex" has been
tried with considerable success in clubs
hitherto sacred to the tread of male
feet. It most cases the change has been
voted an Improvement which affords
previously unObtainable opportunity for
exchange of social cOuTtesies. When
such has been the case the innovation
has come to stay, but it can hardly be
said that the mixed club has as vet
become a fixed institution of social life.
Almost invariably the older members
are opposed to the plan. This is the
case in much more marked degree in
England, fact easily accounted for on
the score that women there are not by
any means on the same plane as their
American sisters. The latter are ac-
cordingly much the more companiona-
bic and therefore ''clubable," and
American men consequently do not feel
the need of a safe retreat from their So
ciety. A pungent article from the pen
of L. F. Austin recently appeared in the
London Sketch, called forth by a circu-
lar issued by the reorganized Pioneer
club, the leading wOman's club of the
British capital The circular says:
Within another generation all the
great clubs may be open to women as
well as to men, and, in view of the en-
larged and broad spirit which is uniting
men and women, it would be unWise to
make a binding legal agreement that
the club should never be permitted to
have men, as we'll as women, as its
cular Mr.. Austin says:
viii the spirit which is uniting
men and women go so far as to close to
the clubman all the avenues of escape
from woman? Will desperate men seek
the north or south pole, because, in
civilization, they cannot take a meal
or smoke cigar except under feminine
supervisory In this aspect, the union
of men and women is a fearsOme de-
velOpment, which must make the Brit
ish clubman set his face with greater
a tool
attempt to introduce women into his
sanctuary. Now and then a very young
man Will suggest the charm of ladies'
dining room at the club, an apartment
which would be hallowed by wives, and
saved from too domestic conventions by
cousins The proposal is frOWned down
by the elders, but who can say what
VIII happen a generation hence, when
these cOnScript fathers are sleeping I'M
der veracious epitaphs and the Pioneer
club has planted emissarieS within the
cita del?
Between man and woman there can
be no absolute community of interests.
Aman who was always in a dTa wing
room would be voted bore by his wO-
mankind; woman who took to hunt
ing the great clubs would be set down
as nuisance. Don't tell me she would
use the privilege in moderation, there is
no moderation. in emancipated curiOSi-
ty. Half the domestic trouble of this
island springs from the sentiment that
a Wife'S place is by her husbands side
In the average hOuSehOId this Talacy IS
often made an Unsuitable idol, to which
are sacrificed peace, love and rational
intercourse. A man must have a place
where he can discuss with his fellows
subjects which he cannot discuss with
women, and this is one significati ton of
that rooted inequalityof the sexes which
can never be eradica ted. It is true that
there are already clubs where men and
women meet but no clubman takes
them seriously. He will drink tea and
occasionally dine at such resorts; these
are social duties which have nothing to
do with his club life; they employ his
superficial accomplishments. Once with
in the mOnastic portals Of his club, you
see the real clUbman, not always an i'm
posing creature, but stripped of the
minor arts which are well enough for
the tea table, and prompt to speak the
thought a the back of ones mind. Abb
solute candor from man to woman is an
una ttainable ideal, but 'twixt man and
man the truth is not infrequently con-
spicuOuSs especially in the smoking
TOOna.P