The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1905-07-21
American Women at Work and Play.

| Read by Agnes NJ. Wilkinson of Hartford at the
county federation of women's clubs at Lake Cora.
After all the good things we have
| heard and in the knowledge of more
to follow, il becomes my pleasure to
cast one more white rose of apprecia-
| ton and admiration before that grand
organization, the American women 5
club. Within the confines of our
great country, where titles are UNI
| known and nobility is the nobility of
the mind, there is one title granted
and honored which one should be
proud TO bear, that of an American
woman. There is none grander UNI
| less it is an American club woman.
Every country pays her homage, for
she stands pre-eHnent as the grand
est type of modern womanhood.
All over this broad land our chain
is lengthening and each new link
FORCES stronger the band that holds
us, in work or in play.
In this advancing century we are
recognized as a growing power in re-
form work. Only a few days ago the
mayor of our western metropolis APP
pealed to the women's clubs as the
organization whose support he most
desired in his struggle against the
social evils rampant then.
wonder if any of us would be sur
prised upon looking in the philan-
thropic directories of any city to dis
cover that nearly all the names re-
corded there are those of our own sex.
If the old maxim, Charity covereth
a multitude of sins, is true, then
wonens sins must be covered for
some generations to come.
The time when the work of an
American woman is entirely bounded
by the four walls of her dwelling place
is a thing Of the past. Not that she
loves her home the less, but she has
learned how its best interests are for
warded by broadened mind and
wider range of interest.
Most of the work which our women
are so energetically pushing has been
done in the last two decades. The
rapid economical and industrial
changes in the country have given
rise to a class of people, who, while
hard working, have little opportunity
for advancement or development and
often suffer for the very necessities
of life. 1t is to fill these gaps that
the great philanthropic tide has set in
so strongly among our American wo-
men.
AS is natural, the cities, when the
need is greatest, have been the CEN
tiers of activity, but in every way pos
sible the women of the country are
ready TO cooperate with their metro
politan sisters. Without their aid
many charities would be impossible.
The day schools and nurseries, free
clinics and dispensaries, industrial
schools and working girls clubs are
unnum bered, and they are all planned
and organized, officered and directed
by the clear visioned, broad minded,
strenuous (if you will women of our
country and age. The suppression of
child slavery and the tenement in
vestigations which have made it pos
sible for their inhabitants to live a.
most decently have been among the
III X HNCSI ICdNCS III NOLlldll = Idbil q
wreath.
One recent movement on the part
of New York club must surely be
commended by those who fear race
suicide This club claims that the
present condition, under which to own
a Boston terrier Is commendation
and to own a cradle a condemnation
when appearing before a landlord, is
insufferable. To remedy this evil they
are erecting large apartment houses.
where for a nominal rent any family
who are the happy possessors of
cradle and accessories may claim the
right to a happy fireside.
1t has long been conceded that love
is the only medicine for the greed and
sin which has long been the curse of
mankind, and it i this remedy which
the American woman, whether rich or
poor, native of mountain or sea coast,
is faithfully applying TO the disease
of our effete civilization.
In play our womankind is no less
energetic. The age when they find
no pleasure possible, when exertion is
demaned, is rapidly betaking itself to
the cobwebbed corners of memory.
Every year now finds women whose
manner of life will permit leaving the
city earlier and returning later in the
fall. Their retreats are eldorados
unspoiled by popularity and where
old Mother Nature is allowed unbro-
ken sway. They can sail a boat and
reef sail until they compel the adj
miration of the most unwilling. The
many hunting and fishing clubs of
our northern lakes will attest TO her
success with gun and rod.
Our tennis, golf and hockey cham
pions are not one bit afraid that Old
Sol will bring out a freckle or a coat
ing of tan. With muscles firm and
hard, without touch of dyspepsia.
we welcome the summer girl of 1905.
Occasionally the cry is raised that
the eternal feminine is lost in the ath-
lete. read Miss Appleby's answer
TO some such a remark recently.
When some old wisehead, who felt
called upon to settle the problems of
the world, declared the movement
was going foo far she of hockey "a mo