The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-07-15
WHAT AMERICAN WOMEN MUST
 DO TO CATCH UP.

the Women's club house, we wonder
 what ills may not befall a community
 whose women so boldly initiate the
 club ways of men. Those of us, that is
 those of us who are men, give voice to
 this wonder, and some of us who are
 women But all who really know any
 thing about the subject believe that
 even when handsomely housed the aver
 age womens club will continue to be as innocuous as in the past. Hearthstones
 need not tremble, nor will the domestic
 tea-tabele be overthrown because the
 mother of the family may at her club find some of the creature comforts that
 the head of the family finds at his Instead, indeed, of being radical, in- stead of standing at the head of the
 club world, we in Boston are little
 behind our English cousins, whom in general we consider less progressive.
 Certainly a recently published account of the ladies' clubs of London opens up 1 depths of radicalism which we shall
 be slow to reach. Notice in the first
 place the term ladies club" It is said
 that if circulars shold be sent out in England announcing the founding of q
 'Womans club" most of them would be returned with the word 'woman's
 crossed out with the fiercest of pen
 strokes, and ''ladies'" written in It's | stead. Many of these ladies clubs are, 1 however, also mems clubs, like the AL
 bemarle, which, starting in 1874 with an
 equal number of men and women, now
 has 600 women and 200 men, and its lists
 are full for five years ahead. In the Bath Club, whose fees are higher than
 any other, there are 1,200 men and 300 women. Its aim is to provide light ex- | erclses for its members at all seasons especially swimming. The Sesame too, | is a mixed club, including many of the | beet-known men and women in the edu
 cational and literary world
 Among the clubs for women alone the
 Someville concerns itself with women's
 work and rational dress, while the Pio-
 neer, birding itself on it's progressive
 ness, takes up such classic subjects as vegetarianism, vaccination, and others upon which the British public loves to divide it's opinions. The Grosvenor
 Crescent Club also is not aehamed to have serious aims, while those of the Green Park Club are social and musical
 The Writers Club and the University Club in their names indicate their req son for existence; while the Alexandria,
 the Empress, and the Victoria are the most aimlessof the list membership in the first of these lady must prove herself eligible to attend her Majesty's ,al 1t,.ec that its members shall be 'gentlewo- men" Of no profession or calling, and the third has a purely social standard. The Victoria Commemorative Club is for nurses, and with thie we may close our list of the most important of the ladies' clubs in London, of which at last accounts there were twenty-four in ex- istence.
 Now it is worth nothing that the most of these clubs rest their existence on a basis of creature comforts and an ideal or mission is not their motive for being. Literary evenings and debates on vital topics do not make their mem bers forgetful of the fact that In joining this, that, or the other club their first desire was to have place to which they might escape from the turmoil of busl- ness or the jars of the household. The out-of-town members demand in addi- tion to house giving them a perma nent city address, a pleasant drawing room where they ipay receive visitors, bedrooms where they may stay over night if detained in town and all mem | bers require a comfortable restaurant | where they may have wel-served | meals.
 Now in Bosom the Mayfower Club off, fers some of the advantages of the Lon- don clubs, the Twentieth Century has | the characteristics of some of the mixed | clubs in the British metropolis, and the College Club with it's permanent rooms | resembles faintly come of the London | ladies clubs Yet with all her clubbish | tendencies the Boston woman Is still | far from the degree of emancipation | enjoyed by her British cousin. Even | should each individual club possess a house of its own, we cannot imagine one | bold enough to demand that | a room be set aside for smoklng-as in some London clubs for ladies. Nor does it seem likely that she will make it a vital issue whether or not she may bring her children to the club to be cared for in her temporary absence by the club attendants. Moreover, in spite of the vaunted wealth of this country, the average woman thinks ten dollars the utmost that she is justified in spending as a club fee, while half that sum Is really more pleasing amount In London, on the contrary, twenty-five dollars is nearer the usual fee, with a few fees at fifteen and some as high as thirty-five dollars.
 Notwithstanding the attractiveness of the clubs that provide ladies with all the material comforts of life, there is demand in England for more organiza- lions that will be social-educational, or, Is some one has said, that will provide For "the higher secondary education of he adult rich" Nowhere has woman succeeded better with clubs of this kind than in America, and if she should ini- fate Englishwomen into the secret, 1t night be only fair exchange to demand some instruction into the methods of . ,arying on a ladies' club fhough we night call it womans) on the London ,lan.-Boston Transcript,