The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-16

| spring, but closed her remarks by the anti
climax that the whole she would rather have
city hst than farm.
| Mrs May B. Bedel injudiciously commented
| on farmhouse cooking, saying that she wondered
that the farmers had any health as they lived
| principally on potatoes. pie, and cake. She in
| dulged in some painful "reminiscences evidently,
! as she asserted that steak thing TO he
! dreaded in the country. This aroused the mem
| bers who were born farms, who en- mssse
TO protest. One remarked with tears in her voice
| that farmers wives were as much ladies as wo-
| men in the citv' which brought Mrs Bedell to
| her feet in Mortified disclaimer OF having in any
/ way referred TO their manners good breeding
Miss. America Phillips asserted that. as far as
health was concerned, people in the country take
| n great deal more medicine than in town she
gave instance in which a country cousin adj
vised her to take spring medicine. saying that
she could get six quart bottles for -. Just
think Of buying six quarts at time exclaim-
ed Miss Phillips in tones Of disInay. She then
'insinuated things about the farmers men
taity that aroused another storm Of wrath among
the rural members. Mrs. John Zeby retorted that
in wide acquaintance with country life she had
known only one crazy person. and that was man
who came TO New York and worked with d.
Psrkhurst.''
Apparently this mixture of trivialities,
personalities, and acrimonious retort is
what that club considers political study
II there arc many such clubs in the coun-
try, il might be good thing to establish
a mission TO bring the wandering sheep
back to the good old-fashioned Dorcas
Society. where nobody pretended to know
anything about politics, and the topics
of discussion were confined to the mys'
teries of herrngbone stitch and the af-
fairs of the neighbors. At these meetings
the housewives of the neighborhood eX-
changed, not only gossip, but recipes for
n nd fnr
result was often increased perfection in
housekeeping, which every woman in
those days considered her real trade, and
which must still be the trade of at least
seventy-ffve per cent of the women of to-
day. There is dignity in doing some one
thing well. If it is nothing but soap
boiling; there is none at all in neglecting
real work to play at political discussion
and get into hysterical fuses over fan
cied insults.
There are women here and there who
are really interested in studying politics
and other things, but they will seldom be
found in such clubs as these, any more
than genuine artist will waste his time
at studio tea where nobody knows any
thing about the principles of art. but
everybody wishes to make a pretence of
knowing. Unless people desire to know
a thing well, it is not only useless, but
utterly ridiculous, for them to study it
specifically, for the purpose of appear
ing intellectual. The tendency toward
sham knowledge thus fostered is consid-
erably worse, from any point of view,
than the densest ignorance, because it is
essentially dishonest. The plain old
countrywoman. honestly and rightly
proud Of her butter, her cheese. her
cakes, and her thriving poultry yard, de-
lighting in her daintily clean house with
its oldtime furniture. clinging with a
wholesome instinct to the quaint, pic
turesque speech and the half-poetic, half |
grotesque traditions of her great-grand- |
mother. is as much more dignified than |
these sham-intellectual clubwomen as an !
eight-day clock is more |
valuable and more beautiful than a nickel |
watch. The sooner the Selma Whites of |
this day and generation lind that out the |
more chsnce they will stand of making |
respectable out of themselves. |
their children, and the life of this coun- |