Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-10-16
Club Women Are
The Most Severe Critics.
Copyright, 1881

No after anguish ever compares with
that first time a woman reads a paper
or makes a speech in public. Though
she may have the eloquence of Hy
patia and the self confidence Of Mary
Ellen Lease, she is doomed on that de-
but to a torture which, if known to
Dante, would have inspired him to es
tablish an extra purgatorial circle.
Unfortunately neither Beatrice nor
Mrs. Dante had any experience with
women's clubs or societies, and so
Dante never heard of club stage fright,
and it has lost a deserved immortal
odium.
Thousands of women, with the aut
umn opening of the season, would like
to belong to the great club sisterhood,
but hesitate to enroll themselves in its
ranks because of the dreaded paper or
speech. Women who on ordinary oc-
casions might be strongly suspected of
an intimate acquaintance with the
blarney stone are silent as the sphinx
in the awesome presence of the club
president.
Club stage fright is different from
any other sort. Ladies who have Civ
en- serious lectures without a tremor
tremble and are dumb in the less for
NAL atmosphere of the club, because
they know that it is always ones
friends who are most critical. A doz-
en- embarrassments distress a club
speaker. She wonders if her hat is on
straight, if her hairpins are in place,
If her new gown is quite handsome
enough, if it is too rich for the occa-
sion, if it hangs well or if it is in the
fashion. She is positive every other
woman in the club is comparing the
paper with an individual and superior
effort. The victim is bewildered over
the pronunciation of the unusual
words and stumbles and shutters over
them and finally even mistakes the
pnes with which she is perfectly famil-
lar. In her confusion she has any idea
Of and all over the clubroom are heard
harassing calls of Louder, louder!"
People comment on what she says or
reads in subdued tones. Unable 10
make out whether the remarks are IA
vorable or unfavorable, the unaccus-
toned one loses her place, and while
the club sits silently waiting for her to
resume she bushes and shivers with
modification There is always some
misguided member of the club who
wants to ask questions during the pro-
gress of the paper. This lady has at
tanned a reputation for being well in
. formed and of good judgment owing to
her quizzical propensities. The repu-
tation is probably unmerited, as 1t is
considerably easier to ask questions
than to answer them. The feminine
Socrates, however, with her miserable
mania for information, entangles the
unaccustomed speaker in SO many
plumbers and admissions Of ignorance
that she is sometimes panic stricken
and retires from the platform. The
paper read, the club in general takes
up the discussion, or, more properly
perhaps, the dissection, of the effort.
After this operation no inexperi-
enced woman with the spirit of kit
ten ever thinks she can read a paper
or make a speech in public again.
She goes home with a headache and
tearfully seeks the sympathy of an
unappreciative family, as a rule in
clined to make sport of her sufferings
as an orator. Now and then she COM
pares notes with some other club
woman not as yet lost to all sense OF
stage fright, and the tyro is comforted
to learn that her experience has been
duplicated by that of some one else. IL
she has grit and is not too sensitive,
after this she goes on writing club
papers or making club speeches and
gradually becomes so hardened that
she can talk straight ahead without
notes.
Many women graduate from church
societies and missionary bands into
the literary or philanthropic organi-
cations. Now and then one makes her
debut against her better judgment, but
not often does she do so against her
will. A well known authoress recently
had her first experience of stage fright
as the result Of a too great willingness
to oblige one of her friends. The lit
erary lady lives in a large western
city and is young and pretty enough to
be popular in society. Her literary
efforts have been the amusement of
leisure hours or were turned out to
satisfy the demands of a long limbed
maiden of 10 who has an Unsuitable
appetite for stories and poems Ow-
ing to her Willingness to oblige,
friends less gifted in the use Of the
pent wereS not slow to cali upon her
when theirA clubs demanded their SER
vice. as speakers. Naturally she as
y u