Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-06-30
.W0MAN'S CLUBCONVENT|ON

At the first Convention of Wo-
mans Clubs, recently held ut Seneca,
the following admirable address Of
welcome was delivered by Mrs. M.
w. Coleman ~,
Representing tho "Oncc.a- w eek
Club" l extend welcome to you,
our sister club women, who, in an
swor to our call, are with us to-day.
It was not without great solicitude
that our littlo band assumed the re-
sponsibility of calling this convcn-
tion, but, buoyed up by an ardent
desire to sec the club women of our
loved State in step with our sister
States, we put into abeyance the
fact of tho narrow attractions offered
by 80 young city as ours, and
armed with determination to dare
and do, we propose to nurture in our
simple way the infant Federation,
striving to make up what is wanting
in attraction and elegance by gcner-
GUS welcome. AS we look into your
faces we are inspired with n glow of
glad pride at the result of our tcmcr-
ity, and VIC see possibility Of an
organization-which, not as Dickens
would put it, transparency with n
feeble light behind it, but vivid
panorama illumincd by a sunburst Of
earnest thought that will solve tho
riddle of mental and moral progress
of our day.
lMrELLED by CONSERVATISM.
We sec our club women falling
into line and keeping step with
others whose conservatism has i'm.
pcllcd them to engage in a work the
most helpful and inspiring of all
other work to those who arc seeking
a wholesome rs well as optimistic
philosophy of life.
When we know of hundreds, yea
thousands, of women all over the
land working earnestly and zcalously
for tho common good, we can feel
that the woman's club is potent
factor in the progress of our national
life. Our modern civilization, i'm
proved school systems and scientific
teaching have done much for hu-
manity, yet broad and fruitful fold
tcmpts us to its tilling.
We Of South Carolina have clung
to the prcjudiccs of the past some
what tenaciously, yet we feel and
know that the day is fast approach
ing when precedent will be thrown
TO the winds, and, catching the inspi-
ration, we move onward, clinging to
whatever is lovely, whatsoever is of
good report, above all, whatsoever is
womanly. We have our clubs, our
club workers, and tho oxigcncy arises
for organized effort. Can we shut
our eyes to the fact that the world
has less and less to say to the lag
gard? ale who wins must run the
race Wcll.'
We see and know that unless we
essay n contact with those whose
presence and words are an inspira-
ton, and arc thereby enabled to keep
in touch with life, we sec the world
spinning away, and the fact grows
emphatic that we are impotent to
check it.
INTELLECTUAL, CIVIC AND rHu.AN-
THROpIC.
To-day we arc gathered together
with common aim, the hclpfulness
and ben efits to be gained from
united efforts for common purpose.
That purpose is an organization-a
union for all kinds Of cooperation,
and to establish a neutral ground for
conference upon plans and problems,
intellectual, civic and phiIanthropic.
Two points arc essential to success.
70 secure the largo and varied NOM
bcrships, representative of all local
organizations Of women, and of
many social sets; nothing less than
this can secure the wholesome fric-
tion by which the mind warns to
the reception of new ideas and de-
vclops broadcncd powers.
Each member must be possessed
of democratic spirit; in other
words, let all petty jcalousics and
suspicious be forgotten in the desire
to make our organization one of
strength, and will prove a helpful
ally to every other educational and
charitable association in the State,
and direct stimulus to broader
culture and generous action.
Another idc' / would urge, that
we keep uppcrmcst the bottcring of
our educational system. Who'll k ows
what can be accomplished by an
earnest effort on this line ? Per-
haps we may bc able to forge the
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