The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-01-19
FEAST or FICTION.
Miss Gaines Lectures on
Women Novelists to,
Club Women.
SOCIAL EVENT IN CLUB WORLD
Followed by Chat, Chocolate
and Pink Connections
Many Guests Present
SOCIAL EVENT IN CLUB WORLD

"Women Novelists,. or Miss Gaines, or
both, brought the club women out in full
force yesterday afternoon. Hasbrouck
Hall was packed. All the literary clubs
Of the city of any social standing were
represented. as well as a few outside.
They began to arrive fully half an hour
before the appointed time and chartered
in the ante-rooms while the janitor
cleared away the debris left by No. IL
boys and girls. Then they all hocked into
the hall, rapidly filing the vacant chairs.
1t was an enthusiastic audience, that is
as far as it is permissible for ladies to be
| enthusiastic, and Miss Gaines apology for
delivering this lecture a second time
seemed somewhat superfiuous, as nearly
| everybody who had, about two years ago,
heard her deliver it under the title OF
Creators of Fiction had fiocked hither
to hear Women Novelists."
Mrs. John A. Walker. chairman of the
Literature Committee. under whose aus
pieces the lecture was given, introduced
| Miss Gaines with a few complimentary
words, and the speaker commenced.
women Novelists" practically consisted
of two lectures. not, as suggested by the
title, comprising a long list of the femin-
inc sex who had made themselves famous
by works of fiction, but of just two
writer's, Charlotte Bronte and Jane
Austin. One lecture was on the former.
the other on the latter.
1T has been said" began Miss Gaines
in answer to Mrs. Walkers compiimen-
tary remarks. .by one of the witty mem
bers of our club that Mrs. Walker is the
mother of the Literature Committee, ana
as l was her predecessor. l must besher
vrla, &c a nrafacR TO her
own address, Charlotte Bronte, as you
probably know, was born in 1916, and
Jane Austin died in 1871 Miss Gaines
gave a brief sketch of the ancestry and
early life of Charlotte Bronte, saying,
with one of her winsome smiles, 1t is
impossible to form an opinion OF her
(Charlotte Bronte'S) character without
going back to her Irish ancestry. They
were a wild set, very superstitlous ABOUT
ghosts but fearless of the devil. A giant
group. throughout the country
for their size" She then passed up TO the
history of Patrick Bronte, Charlotte
father. with 1--WE know the Bronte family
as though we were members of it, which.
thank goodness, we are not Patrick
Bronte, who was a eurate, she pictured
as a tyrant, citing instances as OF the
time when somebody had presented MS
wife with a black silk dress and a par
of slippers, all of which he put in the
fire. because such finery would give rise
to vanity.
some painter said the speaker, IN
presenting a picture of Bronte's mother
less children. "ought to make a likeness
of fine forlorn little Brontes, six OF them,
wandering hand in hand over the moor
The school life Of Charlotte, who seemed
to be the leader of the band, was graphl-
caly described, the death of two OF the
children and the "old-young life" OIL the
remaining four, who wrote stories ana
continued to wander over the moor, as
well as a magazine published monthly
nv Charlotte and her brother, ana printed
bv the sisters own hand, a few copies Oh
which are still in e~xistence-ot course
very valuable.
In 1916 Charlotte declared 1t now uihe
she and her sisters should publish some
thing. and a book of poems was the re-
suit. but it was neither a financial nor d
literary success. Charlotte fheh WROTE
..The Professor" which was sent 10 sew
eral publishers and returned. In speak-
ing of Jane Eyre" Miss Gaines sald' a
may be permitted to make a criticism on
such a well known character, she is decld-
edly Irish. Jane Ayre, in forty years mas
become a fixed object of literature d ihlie
stone. and in dealing with the heroine .
devotion to Rochester. There are irish
women who have a dogs fidelity for a
brutal man.
In sneaking of Charlotte's death, MISS
Gaines said, One by one the family joined
the little mother. Old Mr.. Bronte lived
to the ripe old age of eighty-four. AS
George Eliot says, 'Coarseness preserves
people as vinegar does pickles.
Al the conclusion of this the first half
Of Miss Gaines lecture, the club choir
sang ..Come rest thee on this messy pill
low and the speaker proceeded with part
sacond of the programme, "Jane Austin
she first read a couple OF chapters from
j. tbe authors we'll known work. Pride
and Prejudice, just to acquain't the aud
fence with James style.
Miss Gaines compared the early lives OF
+be two authors so widely different and
) described Jane as sitting at a mahogany
desk picturing her characters on scraps
of paper. while everybody round her was
! talking Speaking of the various society
events portrayed in Miss Austin's writ
ings. the speaker said: Balls. at given
, intervals where woman, dressed in hel
hest. waits for a partner, which, as the
r women are in the majority, does not az
: ways appear"
IA girl who wrote for girls" concluded
+ the speaker, "a woman who wrote fol
women. she has become today the critics
. novelist. So long as human idealism finds
: delight in its own portrayal Jane Austin's
z works will i've"
q About six hundred kid gloved hands
spoke their owners applause. and the
+ ladies adjourned for the social or par
= third of the programme, when pink ant
white refreshments were served from 8
] pretty beribboned pink and white table
! beneath pink and white candelabra
delicate with the mixed aroma OF no
? chocolate and the perfume of the car
: nation pink, a large bouquet OF Which
: adorned the centre Of the snowy cloth
: The feast was a pretty credit to thu
I Literature Committee. nearly every mem
Der Of which (thirty-three in alb bor'
d silver trays laden with CONNECTIONS, cake
and chocolate. to the guests who coult
not reach the tables.
The club entertained as guests, among
= others, Mrs. Muller of Elizabeth, Mis-
-