The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-15
Girls Club of Paris
and it's Fine Work.
VICISSITUDES.
Mrs. Whitelaw Reid Shows
Her Interest.

Whatever may be the results to
America and the world at large of the
sitting in Paris of the peace commits
sion, certainly one immediate and prac-
teal benefit mas resulted from it here.
and that is that it brought Mrs. White
law Reid abroad, and that she inter-
ested herself once more in the Girls
Club in the Rue de Chevreuse.
During the last five years the Girls
Club has gone clopin- clopant, as the
French say. 1t always seemed to but
siders a nice, homely, picturesque
looking place, with it's old garden, its
quaint, low-ceiled rooms, full of odd
little hooks and corners, it's afternoon
tea, its celebrated Turkey frieze round
its big dining room. But one cannot
| live with comfort on either Turkey
friezes or afternoon tea, and the res
taurant of the Girls Club, to begin
WITH had a way of fluctuating that ]
am told was most wearing to the inner
woman. The inn in which one finds
| that most of comfort of which the
poet so engagingly wrote, must have
a good head to it, and the club had no
head at all. The incest girls, with
money enough, got to patronizing Du-
vals bouillons when they felt the need
/ of nourishing steaks and comforting
outlets. There was a committee on
| food, L believe, but there were cl1ques
and cabals, and when one set COM
planned, another said it was not true,
and nothing was bettered. Then the
incest girls got to leaving, and also, in
due course of time, the furniture began
to look down at the heels and the rooms
in general to look seedy, write.. the
Paris correspondent of Harpers Ba-
Ear. There seemed to be no money
to buy anything new, and nobody with
authority to eXpend it if there had been
money. AS nearly as 1 can find out
the place just ran itself, and ran itself
down. This is what 1 am told.
never lived in the Girls Club-mores
the pity! I have known such charm
ing girls there
The club was never intended in any
way to be charity; but, like anything
else that is established on an educa-
tional and not on a commercial basis
it needed friends and founders and a
head. Friends it had, and for some
time they had been trying to get Miss
Acly to take its direction. She is a
charming woman, who established St
Margaret's school, and this autumn she
decided to turn ST. Margarets into a
day school, and consented to go to the
club as its director.
Since then everything has been trans
formed. Mrs. Reid had always paie
the rent of the tea room and a maid tc
take care of it, and furnished after
noon tea that was open to every CIR
student in Paris Miss Acly wrote tt
her of the clubs needs, and feeling
perfectly certain of the response, went
to work Immediately. The entire house
was put in state or perfect repair
and cleanliness. New floors even were
laid down. In one of the rooms that
was repapered, under the cloth that
covered the walls six different wall
papers were found. Estimating that
each had lived a life or three years
only think what nest of microbes
they must have been!
Nothing could be more delightful
than the salon as it is at present. It's
walls are subdued buff, and it's curtains
warm rich brown. An open fire
burns; low chairs ana tables in soft
harmonious colors are scattered about
over screen is thrown a bit of Jap
anese embroidery of just the right
shade of blue. On one side. an oval
window forms a niche, in which is a
cast Of the lovely Femme inconnue,
from the Louvre. Below is a large
friendly looking divan, strewn with
cushions in charming shades. The pic
lures are all well chosen-etchings q
few water colors, and Braun photo
graphs of Puvis de ChaVannes, and
other beautiful things.
Opposite, on the other side of the
hall, is the cozy red sitting room. Be.