The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-05-18
ANACONDA WOMAN'S CLUB


written by Mrs. L. J. Knapp, a member
of the "As You Like It," club of Mis-
soula, entitled Madame De Stael," which
| contained some valuable information re-
lating to the time of the French revolu-
ton and to the women of prominence in
Europe during those days.
Last Saturday Mrs. +. w. Peckover
| read paper on George Eliot and Mrs. E.
e. Lumbard another treating on William
Wadsworth, the founder of the so-called
Lake School of poetry, which proved to
be very interesting as we'll as instructive.
Extracts are herewith taken from the,
papers read by the two ladies first NAM
ed.
Madam De stae..
"The statement that God rules is de-
clared to be as true as any fact of ply
steal science. Nations come and go: king
doms are exalted and cast down: dynas-
ties pass away like tale that is told; yet
nothing is by chance though men in their
Ignorance of causes may think so. The
deeds of some are governed as well as
judged by the DEGREES of eternity.
But while we may go on firmly believ-
ing that eternal wisdom ever marshals
the great procession of the nations, work.
ing through ages upon ages to accomplish
its purposes still, when the thoughtful
its purposes still, when the thoughtful
side, the darkest horror since the Chris
tian era; that midnight darkness and
dispair denOminated the French Revolu-
tion.' may he not we'll exclaim, Does
eternal wisdom rule the world? Is there
such a thing as destiny?
1T is not our purpose to present to you
in all it's blackness of outline, that foul
est blot. not alone on the HISTORY Of
sunny France, but also on the pages Of
human progress. =.
Gazing back upon that period from
more than century's distance, we peri
ceive how that great overthrow of law
and order, that struggle for freedom by
a misguided nation, not only lacked ats
none of its important crises great men,}
r udc women W. u'eO ''@0 40 ''''' s''N ~ II
1--WE behold the old social regime conf
ing and going with it's female captives,
its virgin martyrs, glorycrowned in
dungeon and upon scaffold; but we.think,
it's truly said, that there is one single
fame which comprehends and unites all
these successive regulations illustrative
of the different phases of that periodA
sharing in their. every element of brill
liancy and power of sentiment, art and
Inspiration and yet rising superior to-
them all and adding to their array of
gifts, the consummate genius which con-
afers worth and Immortality; saitris 1.-THE
fame, spotless and pure of that rarest
woman the European world has ever
produced, Baroness De Stael- Holstein,
nee Anne Louise Germane Necker.
ut would take us far beyond our pres
ent limits to touch even lightly upon the
various phases of character SO COM
vo1ot off those
this woman. eminent, not aloneaas an
artist, but likewise as politician, a crit
ic. and a novelist.
Born at Paris, April 22nd, 1885, daugh-
ter of NJ. Jacques Necker. minister OF
finance to Louis the XVIth, we find her
cradle rocked amid the early storms and
tempests of the revolution. She makes
her advent into the socia and intellectual
world about her at a time when salon
life at the French capitol was at Its
height. Her father. by reason of his re-
markable financial ability and integrity,
occupied one of the highest positions in
the gift of the government and 1t was
thus, that in her mothers salon, the So
called curriculum of 18th century phil
osophy, we find her earliest ideas fos-
tered by such rare geniuses as Voltalre.
Rousseau, Condorcet and Diderot
liant circle, which had the entree of her
fathers mansion, manifesting an UNI
wonted degree of sprightliness and wit
that charmed the cleverest of men of her
time, what wonder that the fruits of her
genius mellowed early, and while yet
child she betakes herself to the compo-
sition of portraits and panegyrics.
But the happy years of early glrlhood
fit away; it was impossible that one so
eager, SO sympathetic. so full of intellect
and spirit should not have developed
rapidly in the atmosphere of her moth
er's salon. Surrounded continually by all
the appointments, as we'll as the talent
that made up the fascinating life of the
salon, inheriting the philosophic insight
of her father and the literary gifts OF
her mother, she became in the social
world, a queen by virtue of her position,
her gifts and heritage"
About George Elliot.
MARY Ann Evans was born November
%. 1919, and was known to many only
as George Eliot. Brief extracts OF Mrs.
Peckovers paper are here given:
"Our views are often shaped by our
own wishes and convenience, but to
large extent this woman's views shaped
her life. In her early youth. she was OPP
pressed by the poverty of her parents
and the mental duties which devolved
upon her. She was in many ways inferior
and yet on certain grounds took pride in
her family. /.
Her husband wrote of her: 1T is to
the circumstances of her early life and
to the companionship of her precise and
conservative father that great part Of
the quality of George Ehot's work is due
and that she holds the place she has att
tanned in English literature. She was
given a thorough education and thrown
among people of culture and refinement
but through her education she became
estranged from both brother and father;
.Cross says: One Of the keen sorrows
Of her life was the drifting apart OF her
brother and herself especially IN the matt