The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-28
. For the Momcn.

Time was" said the frivolous girl.
when a Grub woman rather impressed
me. 1 made fun of her and all her pre-
tensions. but her bluff was good, as
far as 1 was concerned and when 1
read a year book and the serious sub
jects of the papers read at the meet
ings 1 really thought that a club wo-
man was Just about the limit of in
tellectuality. 1 didn't know anything
about clubs. and 1 wasn't at all inter
ested in them. any more than I am
now, but reallya thought that the
women who go in for Movements as
George AIDE describes them, were seri-
Gus students and Wel1-informed about
most everything. In those days I had
an idea that a Chautauqua certificate
was indisputable evidence of high Gull
ture. and I imagined that if a woman
We're an officer in several clubs and
member of various federation commit
tees she necessarily knew about all
there was to know.
But I have learned a thing or two.
And the circumstances of my enlight-
best friends at school was Adelaide
Ross. You remember Adelaide, don't
you Ugly as sin and quite as fasci-
mating. She was a leader among the
girls at ST. Anne's, and equally pop
ular with the boys. Afterwards she
went to Bryn Mawr and she had more
men tagging after her than any girl L
ever knew 1t was marvel how she
could keep UP with her work. for she
was always running off for a hall
game or dance or a Junior prom or a
Senior week or something at one of the
mems colleges. But in spite of all her
social gayety and the number of love
aHalrs she managed, she was a good
student and graduated with honors.
ana she was more than a mere bone
she mad that rare combination of tall
ent ana Industry. and was girl of
real intellectual interests Therefore IL
1arTe0 not at all with -
club women when I heard few wears
after she left Bryn Mawr that she had
gone in for club work, was president of
one, and was taking a great interest in
the purchase of pictures for the nuh-
lie schools of her town and the other
things that club women do. OF course
l 1oshed her about it, and pretended
TO be aStOnished at her resnec+a l,ilitv
but I saw show it had happened. none
OF her love affairs had PANIED out
that is, there was nothing doing in the
Lohengrin professional line-and she
had gone back to that little old west
ern country town and was sinonlv he
ing bored to death. knew she had
taken uD club work as an outlet to her
restless energy-as the only available
object of intellectual effort in baf,
cramped environment
She used to send me the club year
DOCKS and programmes from time to
time and would read with awe of the
fearful and wonderful things that clTh
of the deep metaphysical and scientific
learning essential to the writing of pa
perS on those abstruse topics. / looked
at the list of members and wondered
that any one small town should include
In its population a high browed sister
hood of 10 or 20 individuals. But I con-
Tess that l wasn't very keen about Wis
lung in such town and although I was
tremendously fond of Adelaide L made
excuses several times when she asked
me up there for 1 realize my limitations
ana knew 7 should be numb with ter
ror in society where one was likely at
any moment to be asked ones opinion
OF the real extent of the influence of
Maeterlinck and the mystic school on
modern philosophy.
Finally, however. it occurred to me
that If all the girls in a town wore blue
stockings it didn't necessarily follow
that the men were and such a field
might offer excellent opportunities to
rattle Drained creature like me whose
thoughts never soar higher than the
bang OF a dress skirt. So me TO the Ade-
Jade center of culture and learning with
p trunk full of joyous apparel
= was somewhat surprised to ind