The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-31
They Organize Kansas Day Club
of Their Own.
Many of Those Here in Ter
ritOrial Days.
MRS. ST. JOHN PRESENT
Tells of Exodus of Southern Ne.
grOes to Kansas.
Good Government Club Will
Plan Permanent Organization.

Governor Hoch gave the new Wom-
ems Kansas Day club, which had its
first meeting at the state house yester-
day, a boost in his speech at the real,
original, mems Young Republican, KAN
sas Day club dinner last night but he
didn't encourage it by his presence. In
fact although the men were invited
there was only one who came early and
staid the meeting out beside Secretary
George w. Martin of the Kansas state
historical society, who was, in a way,
the host of the new club since it had its
meeting in the corridor opposite the
historical society rooms. A few strag-
glers wandered in from time to time and
stood in the back ground long enough
to get an idea OF what it was all about
and then wandered out again in search
OF the house or the senate or the other
Kansas Day club or some Of the other
attractions with which the new wom-
ans organization had to compete yes
terday. But there was a good showing
of women, probably 300 in all, and the
audience may fairly be said to have
been representative. There were piO-
neer women, Kansas born women,
young women and older women, two
colored women who had probably heard
that all Kansas Day clubs are organized
without reference to race, color or pre-
VIous condition of servitude, and club
women And when Mrs. A. H. Horton,
president of the city federation of WOm-
en- clubs, who presided at the meeting
asked all the women who were in Kan
SaS in territorial days to rise, something
like % or 80 stood Mrs. J. P. st. John
and Mrs. J. K. Hudson came from
Versailles Mo. Mrs Kate Arlington
son from Marshall county, DR.. Tenny
from Independence, and Mrs. w. D. At
klnson from Parsons, especially for the
occasion and there were many other
visiting women, wives of the state Off
GERS who do not live here all the time
and of the members of the legislature
who are in town for the session.
At the close Of the meeting a motion
was made by Mrs. w. A. Johnston to
effect a. permanent rganization Of the
Woman's Kansas Day club, ''EOn-par-
tisan, nOn-sectarian and non-pOlitical,''
to meet annually on the birthday of
Kansas and celebrate the anniversary
along historical lines. The Good Gov
eminent club of Topeka is the mother
of the infant Kansas Day club organic
alton and to a committee to be ap-
pointed from its members will be en-
trusted the arrangements for permanent
organization.
Considering the inclemency of the
weather and the brief period of pre-
para ton, for the Woman's Kansas Day
club idea was only suggested two weeks
ago by the Good Government club, the
meeting was notably successful. The
program opened with an Introductory
q prominent member of the Good Gov
eminent club was asked to preside. She
explained the nature of the occasion,
which was not intended to rival the an
nual meeting and dinner of the politi
cal organization of the same name but
which was an experimental attempt to
create a general interest in Kansas his
tory especially in the part which wO-
men have played in it, to get the Kan
sas women and especially the pioneer
women together once a year to ex-
change "reminiscences and experiences
and possibly later to give the more
valuable and important of these, his
torically, 4 permanent form in the rec
ords of the Kansas State Historical so
ciety.
The Rev. Charles NJ. Sheldon followed
with a characteristic impromptu speech
on the Mothers of the State. He eulo-
gized the unsung and uncrowned
queens of Kansas, the pioneer women
who had worked beside the men of their
families to make the desert blossom as
the rose, and all the Kansas women
who live good lives, do good work, rear
good children and never get their names
in the papers and then remembering
himself and where he was and how
many of his listeners were prominent
women. he amended his eulogy to in
clude them, too. Concluding he read
some verses of his own, a toast to the
Uncrowned Queens of Kansas.
Mrs. Ellen LOOmis, a pioneer Kansas
woman and mother of n. n. Loomis,
one Of the speakers at the Kansas Day
club dinner, had a paper on Kansas
authors.
Mrs. Kate Arlington of Council
Grove read an original story, The Re
formation of Sandy
Mrs. ]. P. st. John of Versailles.
Mo, wife of a former governor of
Kansas, talked about the exodus of
the southern negroes after the war
and related anecdotes of those who
came to Kansas. This led up to Mrs.
J. x. Hudson's story of "Bijah and
Susan which was first published in a
Topeka paper at the time of the
exodus, a pathetic little tale, told with
an artistic touch, which Mrs. w. A
McCarter read sympathetically. after
a brief Introduction in which, speak
ing of the recent visit of Booker T.
Washington to Topeka, she dweIt
upon the progress made by the Afro
Americans since slavery. There were
a number of references throughout
the meeting to the part Kansas played
IN pro-slavery days for the freedom
Ct the cOlored race. In fact the in
dlcatlons of the two Kansas Day clubs
meetings yesterday were that the cele-
bration of Kansas birthday and of
Emancipation Day may soon be con-
sOlidated.
A very good feature of the program
was Miss Helen Morton's account of
the Battle of the Arickaree, one of
the most interesting battles in the
history of Kansas. Miss Morton is a
member of the Washburn faculty and