The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-17

can be learned there are only three so ciaI clubs for women in Manhattan which even approximately represent club life as a man views it.
 One is the Woman's University Club, candidates for which must appear with college diploma In one hand and an in- itiation fee of $10 in the other. The di- ploma is imperative. Lacking it no amount of money will gain admissition to the club.
 No Liquors
 Besides the entrance fee there are an- nual dues of Sl0 No liquors of any kind are served in the club house, not even at dinner when men guests are enter tained. Nothing stronger than tea may be ordered, not even in a private room.
 Then there are regular and somewhat restricted meal hours, and outside Of them substantial dishes are not served.
 At all times, even over the teacups, the atmosphere of the club is learned and literary, rather than gay, trihing, convivial. Of the 500 members one-half are not residents In New York, and few belong to the very fashionable part of of the imagination can this club be made to fit in with the London woman's idea of a social club.
 The same thing Is true of the Town and Country Club, whose headquarters are in East Twenty-second street. which was established about eight years ago by one woman, with the idea of furnishing resting place in the shopping district for women who live uptown and in the suburbs.
 The club has continued to strictly to full fill this mission. Most of the members are out-of-town women, who find the building a convenience when they come to town to stay overnight or for the day. Annual dues are $10. There is no ini- tiation fee
 Three meals may be had every day at the usual hours and tea of an afternoon but no wine ever. There is neither a bar nor a cafe for meals at odd hours.
 No Officers.
 There are no officers connected with the club. One woman manages the es- tablishment something after the plan of a boarding house, with this difference that sleeping rooms may be retained for only a certain number of days, that, is if they are in demand by other members
 On the membership list of more than two hundred and fifty are the names of about thirty New Workers. For con venience and general utility the club un- doubtedly has it's uses. but as social meeting place in which to spend a spare hour it might well not exist, so far as New York women are concerned
 The third of the women's social clubs of New York is called simply the Wo- mans Club, and from the standpoint of smartness it undoubtedly has the lead.
 Like the town and country, it had it's origin in a. desire of a few women to have New York headquarters where they could on occasion stop overnight Most certainly it's inception was not at all due to desire on their part to have a club, primarily, for q meeting or lounging place during the day.
 The women most Interested were New Workers who close their city houses early in the season and betake themselves elsewhere and they joined hands with q few intimates who most of the year live out of New York and yet pay frequent visits here.
 It was three years ago that these wo- men got together, with not a little secre- cy and took the bold step of forming a club Evidently the fear of. having done something questionable, or at least some thing that might conflict with. some peo- ples ideas of good taste. haunts them still Even now members maintain sec recy.
 Private House Plan.
 Far from being patterned after the London models or the Union, the Metro polftan other mems clubs here. the Woman's Club is conducted rather on the private. house plap- The drawing room has nothing about it to suggest a club. unless indeed. 1t Is long array of magazines ranged in orderly rows on a table. People who visit the club often say the magazines are always arranged in orderly rows.
 Equally precise and stiff is the furni- 'fure. which seems to be very little used. That the club Is an undoubted conven- i~nce to suburban members is true. but that 1t Is used by New York members as resort to which to flock for social