The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-18
FOR FEMININE READERS
A NEWSPAPER REPORTER GIVES
HER OPINION OF woMEN's CLUBS.
Some Hints to the Buyers of Holiday
Gifts-Useful and Unique Scrap
BoOEs--CIass in Cookery.

The address given by 7frs. Josephine
Woodward before the Ohio Federation of
Woman's Clubs has been much discussed in
club circles in that State. Mrs. Woodward
is on the staff of the Cincinnati CONNER
cial Tribune, and her subject was WON
ems Clubs from a Reporters Standpoint"
She said, among other things: '"The club is
like the church; there is no room in it for
those who most need its benefits. If man
sins he must be cast out of the church; if
woman needs to know lot of nice women
she must be blackballed by them. Women's
clubs have claimed to be democratic and
have built up aristocraeies. They imagine
themselves reformers, and satisfy them
selves with the magination. They pose be-
fore the world as seeking the accomplish
ment of great good, and when they see
themselves in print, with all their theories
aired and expounded, they are willing to
believe that the good has been accom-
plished. They have acquired a reputation
for activity at the expense of truth, and it
is not fair or honest. The lying done by
club reporters at the instigaton-nay, not
only the solicitation, but the entreaties and
commands Of club women, is not altogether
a laughing matter by any means. 1t in
wolves more than you think. 1t involves a
lack of honest purpose, and it involves the
growth of the club. not to mention the de-
moralization of the club reporter, which
first referred to.
at is a curious fact that the same women
who say that the newspapers ought to be
honest and who decry untruths and shams,
who are fiercest in their denunciation of
misleading statements in print, do not hest
tate to dictate misleading statements in re-
gard to their clubs They are not willing
TO grant the newspaper the privilege of
judgment, and yet this is the same judg-
ment which they insist should be brought
into public. service on other subjects. =
II sometimes think that the minds eye
of the average reporter may be near
sighted, and that many things that appear
of ample proportions to other eyes seem
small to it at the same distance; or it may
be that the eye itself is too small like the
eye of the canary bird or the butterfly
the picture thrown upon it is too minute to
seem important. 1t may be that such peo-
ple-people with such eyes-take naturally
to reporting, and it may be that the use of
the minds eye for reportorial purposes pro-
duces, in time, condition which borders on
astigmatism and may be accountable for
the pangS we Suffer-the sort of pangS |
suffer, for instance when | am called up
by telephone after midnight by some club
woman, who begS me to mention in glow
ing terms an address that has seemed
maudln to me, to speak of a singer
whose voice has really caused me pain,
having contributed in no small measure to
the pleasure of the afternoon or when she
implores me, if | love her and wish ever to
be admitted to the club again, to say not a
word about the differences of opinion that
have taken place that afternoon at the
club, when it has been the only really in
teresting meeting of the year. the only
time when there has been opportunity
n
q difference in the point or view.
BY the way, If any of you have ever at
other subject than that of her own paper,
you can more readily understand my incli-
nation to doubt the general good of clubs.
THE club reporter is apt to incline to the
belief that women's clubs take themselves
too seriously. The difference between wom-
ems clubs and mems clubs is that mems
clubs were never intended to be serious,
but have always been taken seriously by
women, while women's clubs are serious,
but have never been taken seriously by men.
Most womens club meetings like most
American dinners and afternoon teas and
the other set pieces of our social system
absolutely lacking in a certain quality Of
gay, gOod-humored daring and full of a con-
ventionalism that is both material and dull.
You find chairrnen of departments of sociol-
ogy and municipal government presiding as
if they were serving little cakes and weak
tea. The club reporter has to do something
every single day of her life, and so she
must be excused if it sometimes seems to
nothings-that they miss opportunities, that
the members fritter conversation, and stare
superciliously at all expressions Of original
thought The club circle doesn't always
seem to her so broad and volumnouS as it
does to you: but, as said before, there may
be something wrong with her eyes
ITO confess the whole truth, the objects
of Women's clubs bewilder me, and their
solemnity appalS me, and don't know why
they want me to tell so many flbs about
them. i have been reporting club meetings
for four years. and l am tired of hearing
reviews of books 1 brought up on. l
am tired of amateur performers at occa-
sions announced to be for purposes either of
enjoyment or Improvement am tired of
suffering under the pretence of acquiring
culture. / am tired of hearing the word
culture used so laViShly. Culture seems to
me like the nut which sheds it's burr. I
am tired of the essays that let no guilty
author escape quotation. ! have been un-
happy over the spectacle of celebritieS-men
of geniuS-cOnverted into club women while
being entertained as guests of honor. You
n'ust pardon club reporter if she hasn't
much sympathy with theories: she has to
practice so much, and she is often tired
that she cannot understand how anybody
can even contemplate the doing of anything
that involves labor not absolutely necessary
to the support of life. She may be pardoned
if she sometimes wonders why you haven't
learned the restfulness of silence. and para
doXlcal though 1t may seem. why you don't
more quickly learn the value of open dis
cussion; if she wonders why you are afraid
OF each other and why you are so seldom
gay; if she sometimes thinks that you glory
in achievement without any regard to the
value of the achievement.
But whether | have been able to discover
women happier, honester or more content,
or better cooks or more agreeable compan-
ions to their families and friends, T will
concede that / have watched the evolution
of the timid. shrinking woman, who had
been snubbed first by her father and broth
ers and later by her husband, and have re-
ioiced to see her spread her wings and soar
in the sky of appreciation: and / have
watched the involution of the woman ac-
customed to the fiattery of~~an overload
mother and foolish sisters. and have re-
joiced to see her get the dust rubbed off
her wings-for it artificial dust: not the
real black and gold and pink. But / have
not been permitted to tell about her."
Duying Christmas Gifts.
New York Post.
The eVer-debatahle question as 10 Nhether