The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-30

esty in such presence here to plead my
thoughts. Highly honored in being bid
den, and greatly grateful for your bid
! ding, my purpose, like to the errand of
PhilOstrates, no doubt should be to
stir up the Athenian youth to merri-
ments' and to awake the pert and nim-
BILE spirit of mirth.' Yet full of vexa-
tons come | with complaint and,
speaking for my unhappy sex, this, the
| glorious summer Of your festal day,
but marks the very winter of our dis
content What our grievances? Lee
sion. But first we of the prescribed
sex come here in the innocence of our
trusting hearts, unarmed; and how are
we met! Why. every one of you has
a club! This is treachery; more, it is
rank rebellion. | do not care if the
constitution does guarantee to citizens
! the right to bear arms; it was never
intended that women should be allowed
to have clubs. The very purpose of
the thing was to insure domestic tran
! quillity.'
..second-What have you against
Shakespeare? Simply that he was one
| of us, or@ do you resent his words CT
| warning to our sex? I see a dark.
suspicious threatening cloud These
| were prophetic words. No doubt across
| the wide sky of that,radiant mind there
| crept some dark fore boding of the ris-
| ing storm of woman's right, cloud
! indeed, threatening in time to obscure
| even the sun of our superiority. Time
| was, sirs, when this weak and puny
| creature claimed no other right than
| the right to our protection
| She ground our corn and carried our
wood and we sat in the shade of our
| tepees and smoked and protected her.
| We might have preserved these proper
relations had it not been for the soft
| ness of our masculine hearts. We have
| encouraged her in the notion that she
| "A % hDU taG har to
| enter our schools; we have allowed her
| time from her proper duties to invade
our sacred fields of literature and art.
| to enter our learned professions. and
| she has had the base ingratbtude to do
| most of these things better than we do
them ourselves. Still considered singly
| mot in the married state) we yet hoped
| to exercise over her some authority.
| But now she has robbed us of the last
| claim of a sovereign to the homage of
his subject. She no longer needs our
| protection, she has gotten clubs. In
| gratitude. more strong than traitors
| clubs, quite Vanquishes US And yet.
| oh excellent wretch! Perdition catch
our souls. but we do love her. and when
we love her not, chaos is come again."
Beware the day when she shall learn
the weight of her new weapon. If she
has so far overcome US unorganized,
how shall we face the music of her COM
| posite force? Why, when there was
only one of her, she befuddled poor old
Adams brain and got us all in for ev-
erlasting damages. Now there's a mil
lion of her What's to keep her from
winding the whole crew of us around
| her federated finger? What did she
| brew for Macbeth? Double, double,
toll and trouble Unfair to compare
her with the witches of Endor? No
sirs, woman is always bewitching; no,
| / mean WITCH and now that she has
| nOle1 her club in IN fhp of DESTINY
you may expect no end Of either tell
| or trouble. She may not choose just
now to force her way into the arena of
political affairs, the filth of which we
have urged as the only valid reason
why she shouldn't be there. But she
may order lis to cleanse it for her COM
ing. She may demand that the hands
entrusted with affairs of government
shall be clean hands. whether they
carry policeman's club or whether they
be upheld to take the oaths of new
made senators.
She may insist on all sorts Of i'm
practical reforms; impractical because
we don't want them: and when we ask
her for the reasons for all this, she may
answer, just because and by that
answer cast confusion On one whole.
long line of philosophers. She may
throw down the gauntlet to old Arch
imedes. make levers of her clubs, take
just because for a fulcurm, and
she may yet lift the world-and us
with it,
1t was well along after midnight when
the last guest had departed. The
Homer members We're guests in the
home of the Dillon club women. Mrs.
Moore al the home of Mrs Will Jones;
Mrs. Hammond and Miss Kate Ham
mond at Mrs. Thompson's: Miss Busch
enjoyed the hospitality Of Miss Miller:
Miss Grove, Mrs. Norris while Mrs
Atwater and Mrs. Christie were pleas
antly entertained by Miss Bishop. Mrs,
Chiefly, former member of the
Shakespeare club, was a guest in the
home of Mrs. Lorn Jones.
Saturday morning the storm clouds
lowered near and later in the forenoon,
burst into a binding snow storm; butt
storm was a very little thing to the
visiting club women after the cordiaE
welcome of the evening before. An in
vitaton had been given by the board
of trustees to visit the Normal school.
of which the people of Dillon are just
ly proud. Carriages were provided and
the drive to the school in the brisk
morning air fully enjoyed. Members
of the faculty, trustees and resident
club women made all things clear to
the visitors and were very cordial in
their welcome. Some of the most en-
thusiastc club women could not re-
frain from expressing opinions of how
much good a state federation might do
for the educational institutions or Mon
tana, additions to the libraries, moral
support to the teachers, financial aid.
etc. In the evening Mrs H. j. Thomp-
son gave an informal reception in honor
of the visiting members of the Homer
club. which added greatly to the pleas
ant memories of the delightful trip to
Dillon Miss Busch and Miss Kate
Hammond sang several songs. Mrs.
w j. Christie, by request, addressed
those present on the subject of state
Federation.
The visiting club women returned to