CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1902-06-12
W0MEN's CLUBS

A learned gentleman of Los Angeles
said: Il believe in women's clubs
but | don't go much on mems clubs
they serve two such diverse purposes.
l encourage in every way / can my
wife TO go to the club e.tings, to
be an active member, to be awake to
the best things she can get within her
surroundings; it makes her a better
woman, more intelligent mother and
greatly enlarges her sphere of knowl-
edge and usefulness.
At once a comparison arose in my
mind of the days and years before the
era of women's clubs, and the present
day, which is emphatically the age of
clubs.
The possibilities and gains of club
life for women came as the Golden
Age in literature comes to a nation.
1t vibrated in the air, it echoed
across the valley and DER the plains,
from valleys TO mountain peaks, until
the Impulse reflected and crystalized,
became the need of the times: and
not because any one woman or set of
women, devised, sought out or dis
covered the plan. The time had ar
rived in the procession of events
Women felt the inextingushable long
ing to push open the door little
wider, to breathe little deeper OF the
self conscious possibilities of their
own individual life. Nothing could
stay it, no amount of irony or criti-
cism or opposition could have stopped
the overflow or damned the reservoir
against breakage. The age was ripe
for it, men tacitly acknowledged it,
and ACCEPTED it; women felt it, ac-
knowledged it and entered in 1t
lighted the way for intellectual COM
panionship and higher plane of SER
vice.
The need of intellectual growth be-
yond that embraced in churches,
schools and scant private libraries
was recognized, and the few resources
at hand We're of small value to the
many, and early in the sos the Canon
women We're aroused to this fact. In
unity of purpose they found strength;
what was of value TO one woman in
history, reading, education, was
multiplied when banded together in
a club. II proved the proverb true,
That giving doth not impoverish,
nor with holding enrich F"
As one looks backward to that
time, the two little Chautauqua circles
are recalled as the first organized club
work among women of Canon City.
Six of those members graduated at the
summer school at Chsutauqus Lake
about the year 1887 or lSSS. This,
however, did not satisfy the longing
TO widen still more the mental horizon
of our little frontier town, and some
thing more along the same line must
be undertaken. In definite and we'll
directed study the intellectual at
taiuments of earlier years would be
recalled: general atmosphere of
true and helpful fellowship would be
cultivated and the benefits bless the
family, the home and the town.
ont of this laudable ambition was
born the Friends in Council. the We'd
nesday Musical club, the Alliance
club, the Progress club, the Women's
club. The club membership in
Canon City Is between one and two
hundred. These have all been we'll
reported from time to time in our
newspapers and the different year
books.
The Women's club, the latest horn,
is department club, representing art
and literature, home and education
and domestic sceince 1t is unIimit-
ed in its membership; Its annual dues
are but one dollar. The work
last year included travelling libraries,
decoration of school rooms, bit of
manual training as a hopeful begin
ming TO its entry into the public
schools, domestic science applied iu
the home, the study of Motley's Dutch
Republic, aud twelve eminent artists
and their work, with many ably pre-
pared papers on different topics The
club is now preparing Its program for
the coming year. Determination and
enthusiasm pervade the different de-
partments and thoroughly profitable
and successful year is in store for the
Canon City Women's club.
NJ. NJ. 5