The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-13

were quite unprepared and gave am
pie proof that the Kansas newspaper
women can talk as well as they can
write. The ovation of the evening
was given to Mrs. Annie Diggs, who
was chosen for president at the cleo
! ton yesterday and whose reception at
| the banquet showed i'll what esteem
| the Press club women hold her. Her
subject was the Queens Highway,
and Mrs. Morgan in introducing her
/ told how they met in London last
Fourth of July quite unexpectedly and
| the satisfaction with which in a big
mob of aliens she caught sight of a
sister Kansan and exclaimed, Why's
there's little Annie Diggsl' Mrs.
Digs talk was extemporaneOus and
apparently unStud1ed and was an IN
teresting resume of some of her i'm
pressiOns on the Queens Highway
She gave a characteristic study of
British social conditions and contrasts,
confessed to the prejudices with which
she arrived in England and how her
sojourn there disabuSed her mind of
many of them and gave her a fairer
estimate of the true worth of the Brit
/ ish mind and heart. Everywhere,
and among all classes, said Mrs
| Diggs, one had evidence of the new
| feeling of kirRhi between the mother
/ country and America proof that
| blood is thicker than water" No
/ one would expect a speech by Mrs
! Diggs to reflect conventional ideas
/ throughout and after an almost dls-
appOintingly respectable regard for
current theories and prejudices in the
! first part of her speech she displayed
/ her usual courage and originality in
gentle and moderate but none the less
/ keen and convincing criticism of the
/ late Queen of England. whom it has
always been the fashion of American
speakers, and especially women
| speakers to laud and extol for her
/ strictly ladylike virtues. Victoria S
I reign, Mrs. Diggs thought, was great
not because but in spite of the
/ in which ALWAYS
/ for the preservation of aristocratic
/ tt additions and in opposition to the
constantly growing sentiment OF de
mOcracy among classes and masses
| in society in its largest and its most
| limited sense, with people and pariia-
ment and everywhere except at court
where the stEict conservatism OF the
ancient theory of the divine right of
kings was jealousy guarded by the
Mrs. Diggs' speech was the longest,
as it was the best received, of the
/ evening. The applause which follow
ed it and which obliged Mrs Diggs to
rise from her place and bow to the
company repeatedly waS~ a tribute
more to the woman than to the speak
er, because although Mrs DiggS IS al
ways a forcible and interesting talker,
her subject last night was not SO
popular as some OF the others ana neI
talk was quite extempOraneous
Mrs. L. A. King, of the Plainville
Gazette, was the first speaker and her
I
bright introduction to the other speak
ers and a pleasing Jolly to the Press
club. Miss NJ. l. Doran, of the Mack
vile Argus, who made a great hit at
the Press club dinner at the Copelal'd
two years ago, was to have read
paper but sent an excuse which the
president said in repeating it would |
appeal to all newspaperwomen; she
had lost her transportation In her
| place Mrs. NJ. L. Rupe, of Clyde, q
/ charter member of the association and
its treasurer since it's organization,
! read a paper, the subject of which
Mrs. Morgan announced was 'Radi- |
! UNI" The guests politely suppressed
| their signs and settled despairingly to
/ listen to a long and technical dfsqu1s1-
! ton of the new discovery Which every
| body has heard about but nobody un-
/ derstands or wants to understand. But
| they were agreeably surprised. Mrs
RUPEES paper was one of the brightest
of the evening and was nothing more
formidable intellectually than sat1ri- |
cal roast" of the president.
Miss Martha Kimbaps paper on |
Leap Year was a declaration of femin- |
inc prerogatives and especially the |
rights of newspaper women and was
well received.
Mrs. J. G. Wood administered the
shock of the evening in her i'm [
promptu talk on rs Speech an Unmix- /.
ed Blessing" which was the subject |
assigned to Mrs. Sallie F. Toler, Of
Wichita who could not be present. |
Mrs. Wood told a personal anecdote in
which it was necessary for her to
quote & "horrid man" and she said 1t /
right out, too, instead of .'d-n" as il /
is usually rendered in polite fiction and
society On the stage this is almost
as excruciatingly funny as pink wits
kers but it did not appeal to the Press
clubs sense of humor. Most of the
women turned pale and gasped all |
though they must have heard the word
I before some time.
Mrs. James NJ. Lewis, of Kinsley, !
president of the Kansas Social Science /
/ federation, was another speaker who |
was not on the programme and whose |
| talk was unprepaIed. Mrs. Lewis is /
a past president of the Press associa- /
ton and a strong favorite in the CT
ganizatien. She spoke very briefly 3nl I
for the most part in a light vein of
her seven years association with tn a
Kansas newspaper women. Mrs. Emr- u |
Z. Porter, of Marysville, talked about /
I the National Flag and following her /
speech Mrs. Lewis proposed a toast TO /
/ the retiring president. Mrs. Morgan, !
/ who in response toasted the new pres (.
ident. Mrs. Diggs. Mrs. Bailey was in
| trodueed and invited the newspaper |
women to attend an informal reception
at the Governors House this after /
noon.
At the annual election following the |
afternoon programme yesterday Mrs |