The Portland daily press., 1897-11-15
w. Il. U.
now They Would Edit the News
papers.

papers.
Hirst Open Meeting of the Seasonal
oiever Little BurIesque-Some Charm
ing Music.
saturday afternoon at Pine street
cAurch the first open meeting Of the
"omen's Literary Union for the winter
Was lnaugurated most auspioiously.
Inc Programme of the afternoon, in
charge Of Mrs. S. A. Stevens, Mrs.
Charles Il. Webster and Miss Adelaide
Brock, was quite novel in character and
proved delightful in every way. AS the
broad subject was literature, specialized
In the growth and present condition
OF magazine, periodical and newspaper,
the rail back OF the platform was sug
gestiyely decorated with very artistic
posters of the Harper. Scribner and Gen.
fury magazines, making, with the fes-
toon of evergreen and yellow chryanthe-
NUNS and potted white chrysanthemums
on the front of the stage an extremely
pretty effect.
| Mrs. Clarke called the meeting to order
with few words of greeting toAthe.Inem-
bers of the Union assembled for the trst
open meeting, and after Miss Noyes had
given short account of the Federation
meeting at Bangor. the programme COM
lnlttee took possession of the platform.
| Mrs. Stevens said she felt that the es
sential quality of the presiding officer S
part must be brevity, SO with but few
| words of introduction, she called upon
Mrs. Charles f. Flagg for her paper on
| The Evolution of the Periodical Mrs.
| Flagg gave an extremely interesting &C.
count Of the development Of this form of
literature, from its earliest appearance
in France in 1865, to it's present fecun-
dity, making as 1t does now, the mirror
of today.
Mrs Flagg said that periodical litera-
| ture did not flourish in France, as in
| England, as in that country literary free
dom was no more allowed than political
| freedom.
very interesting point In the paper,
brought out by the reader was, that it
Gals developed in pairs, are gen
Grating another by competition and by
an opposite point of view.
| Mrs. Flagg's excellent review of this
| evolution" naturally led up to the
| Contrast between 1S50-1000, in Harpers
Magazine, which was personated in a
most enlivening and engaging way, by
Miss Adelaide Bonney and Miss Hussey
This clever little burlesque was written
| by Mrs. Stevens, and was full of excel
| lent hits on the conditions of today as
contrasted to those OF 1850. Miss Bon
ney personated the ''back number as
she called herself, and looked very quaint
and charming in the dainty old fashioned
green and white muslin, with lace scarf
about her throat, the black mantle, mits
| and bead bag.
| The ''back number explained that she
was taken down OFF library shelf, and
| left on table, instead Of being put back
in her customary corner. 1t so happened
that q meeting of club women took place
in that room next day and the poor
''back number" was appalled, at their
knowledge, SO when Miss Hussey as the
personifioation OF 1870, appeared in her
neat, short, tailor made bicycle costume
and close English walking hat--a per-
| feet embodiment OF modern woman
the contrast was an effective one. 1902
1 tried to explain about the conditions Of
I today, and when she said she was going
| for "a spin on her wheel, " the black
number" was much pleased, and said
she knew about spinning at wheel, they
did that in her day.
These two animated magazines left the
platform amid much applause, for the
W4tOl0 tAiASs War CASNOI1y SolColfCt dilSl
extremely well carried out
Mrs. De Garmo's paper was an express
sion of what she felt to be the Leading
Tendencies of journalism as shown in
the Great Dailies and Weeklies," and as
such showed the courage Of her conyic-
lions. Mrs. De Garmo said that news
papers make great part of our daily
| life, and in order to feel our kinship
with the life in the world, we must read
them. AS they are go much part of
our daily life, the good or evil intlu-
enees resulting from that reading can
hardly be estimated, so there can be no
more powerful teacher than great edi-
ter.
| Mrs. De Garmo deplored the amount of
space given to murder and suicide; the
| vulgar desire for notoriety 80 prevalent
in cur day; the fiippant sheer and scorn
| of some newspaper writers SO often mis-
taken for wit; as well as the annoying
device of inserting advertisements IN the
wrong place, and the space devoted to
by various remedies. Advertisements
should not be allowed to enoroaoh upon
the space one expects to find occupied
by legitimate reading matter.
Mrs. De Garlno felt that the Sunday
journal was not necessity, and In clos
ing she read beautiful sentiment of
Canon Farrar' 5, for keeping the quiet and
1
thing apart from secular affairs. Her
hope in the future was, that the demand
for better tone in the newspaper would
be brought about, and with 1t an i'm
provement in the journalistic English.
1.-THE Pubic as their Patrons the
paper given by Miss Louise l.. Edwards,
was extremely well written, and empha-
sized distinctly, that II the public did not
demand the sensational reports with
which some papers are full, they would
not b. published. There might be corrupt
editors and advertisers, but most of the
blame must be in the public themselves.
Miss Edwards felt there was SO much
public sentiment in opposition that the
outlook was not hopeless and cited as
an example the protest by certain clubs
and libraries in New York against the
Journal and World, and also the indig
nation of the women at the idea of the
New York Journal being the Legitimate
organ for the Federation news
Two charming duets by Misses knight
and Rice, and q solo by Miss Rice added
greatly to the afternoons enjoyment
A. No hr1oi .2oc