The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-01-09
THE CLUB HUSBAND.

THE CLUB HUSBAND.
The Making Of Homes and the Cherishing
Of Those in Them IS Not Going
~ Out Of Fashion. .ss IS s; Is.
i or course it may be taken for granted
that every club woman is in love with
this subject, at least specifically. ~
Not long ago little Boston girl, a
fesh-and-blood 1O-year-old, alive at this
minute, was sitting at the family dinner
table while her father and his friends
carried on a serious discussion as to the
child Of nowadays. They were lament
Ing the fact that the children today seem
so*s blase,. so little affected by things
grave or gay. "Why," said the father,
t,my children read without tear, books
tha t, used to make me weep! It seems
as If all emotion has gone out Of them"
Whereupon our little friend looked up
and remarked, with overpowering dig
nifty, "Oh, papa, it is not that emotion
has gone out, but self-control has come
Wasn't the child right? This is an
thing to hide our emotions and, like e0 most
correct things, it is often carried too far.
propose that for a little while we
divest ourselves of our usual self-control
and indulge in candid recognition Of
one of the deep acts of our hearts.
How often we hear people, especially
Ruohc speakers, wax eloquent, even to
the point of tears, over the help they
have received from the mother. or sonic
friend who is no longer with them ON
quiet, unseen personality,
whose power over their lives they now
fully realize. Are We not sometimes
tempted to wonder, in listening to such
tributes, how often in her lifetime that
pgnition?
he used sometimes to put his arm around
Are to me?' But how sad sadly true + ifj is
that the glowing tribute, the costly
monument, the piled-up. roses, are often
atMsempts TO atone for lost opportunities.
eyer, for we have. with us quiet un-
obtruslve personality seldom or never
seen at our meetings, but whose Influence
ana helpfulness among us it is our glad
privilege to recognize-and we NAV
proudly cast the roses of our apprecia-
club husband. WI
mat was a wise man who said. .Giye
ne little taffy now rather than a lot
CT epltaphy later on.'' Not "taffv." hnt
honest appreciation is due the man who
goes day after day to business or his pro-
f ' duties, rejoicing to give us
leisure on5 he,t thereby for improving ourselves
much OF the good, subjective and oh.
]ectlve, done by our clubs is not hus fully
shared by the club husband? He is in.
deed onr silent partner.
what varied forms his usefulness
taxes! Sometimes before we can % to
me club ne has to hook US into our
gowns; and how deity he does it! Some
!imes ne mas to pay our annual fee-and
II ne forgets and carries it in his pocket
for while it is with the airy grace Of
one WHO knows that he can hide under
the broad mantle of our charity and
i near us say, in the words of the APOSTLE
There hath no temptation taken Won hnt
isuch as is common to man, Sometimes
yet me Whisper it among ourselves) how
very useful he is in Strengthening out the
tangled skein of our ideas! When we
come home from the club, with Beers and
ghlnamen, Filipinos and Cubans playing
guss-in-the-corner in the recesses of our
hrain, tripping their feet in the meshes Of
me Battenhurg we have been working as
we listened, and befogged by a mist of
economic problems and Twentieth CEN
fury conditions-ho his magic touch re-
stores order and shows us at once the
right relation of things! His many
thoughtfulnesses, his keenness Of iudg-
ment, his cheerful attitude of sympa thy
with club doings. we have ali expert
enced. 1 believe it would be an insnira-
ton if each club could place upon it's wall
genuine composite picture of it's club
husband
But let US turn to the other side of
the picture, and 10, we find that it is q
mirror in which we may catch q glimpse.
without undue egotism, Of one reason
why the club husband is so satisfactory.
Amiel. in his famous journal, has said
that the test Of any religious or educa-
tlonal institution is the man which it
forms. Surely one test of women's
club is the moral and physical condition
Of its club husband. The unwritten law
Of the ideal women's club is: This club
exists for the happiness of the whole fam
lily. When that ceases, the clubs reason
for existence will cease. So long as we
are thus considerable, never allowing our
club life to absorb the attention that be-
longs to our home life. just so long may
people who try to pity him. Let the crit
les carp! They are like the young girl
who walked through her uncle's chair
factory, and gazed at the rows upon rows
Of chairs, saying, "Why, uncle, what can
you ever do with all these chairs?'
Don't you fret, Maria, settin' down
amt goin' out o. fashion,
The making Of homes and cherishing
those in them is not going out of fashion,
and the club husband would be the first
to agree to it. l believe that I am voic-
ing the thought of every true-hearted club
woman when I exclaim: The club hus-
band, God bless him!-Nellie Brakeman
Donavan in the Club Woman.