The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-14

greater snare III the uIE6CllOtl Vi pun
lie affairs, could realize the everlasting
truth that the hand that rocks the
cradle is the hand that rules the
world
There is comfort. in the reflection
that. even though these extremists
may not be amenable to reformation,
there is a fair prospect that their
manifest radicalism and their blunt
avowal of subverting purposes viii
effectively warn against dangerous
ly wide Acceptance of their theories.
The real difficulty and delicacy of
our topic becomes most apparent when
we come TO speak of the less virulent
and differently directed club move
mentS that have crossed the even tenor
of the way of Womanhood. / do not
include those movements which
amount to nothing more than woman's
association or -co-oDeration in chart-
able, benevolent and religious work.
largely local in its activities and in
all its qualities and purposes entirely
fitted to a woman'S highest nature and
best impulses. ] speak more especial
ly of the woman's clubs of an entirely
different sort which have grown up
in all sections of our land, and which
have already become so numerous that
i'm the interests of their consolidated
management a National Federation
CLEVELAND-TW 6 %. XII =. 6
of Woman'S Clubs" has been created.
l speak also of the vast number of
asSocia tons less completely organized,
but not less eXacting of time and at
tention, whose professed purposes are
i'm many instances the intellectual inn
provement or entertainment of the wo-
men composing their membership.
Doubtless in numerous cases the OBJ
jects of these clubs and associations
are shown in such a light and are
made to appear so good, or at least
so harmless, that q conscientious Wo-
man, unless she makes a strong fight
against self-deluSion, may quite easily
persuade herself that utilization with
them would be certainly innocent and
perhaps even within the dictates of
duty. The danger of Self-deluSion lies
in her supposition that she is consult
ing the need of relaxation or the duty
of increased opportunity for inrellec-
tual improvement. when in point of
fact, and perhaps imperceptibly to her
self, she is taking counsel of her dis
content with the humdrum of her
home life.
Are Women RetaIiating on Men?
We certainly ought not to be too
swift i'm charging the tendency toward
club utilization on the art &C CIR Wo-
men to a deliberate Willingness to for
get or neglect their transcendent mis-
sion or homed uties. PROFESSIONALLY
this tendency is partly due to the wide
spread and contagious fever for change
or encouragement which seems to
leave no phase of our peoples life
untouched. / believe it has also been
largely provoked and intensified by
the increase of club life among the
husbands and fathers of our land. and
by their surrender to such business
preoccupation or the madness of inor-
dinate accumulation, as results in the
neglect of wives and those to whom,
under all rules of duty and decency,
they owe attention and companion
ship--thus creating condition of
mans guilt which tempts retaliation in
kind. So far as woman's club indul-
gences may be retaliatory they. might
challenge considerable liberation if
punishment were visited only upon the
guilty; for it may be safely assumed
that among those who are most dis
turbed by the growth of woman's
clubbism the sentiment is universal
that mans neglect of woman is a daS-
tardly offenSe, and that the whipping
post for wife-beaters would be a
wholesome feature of our criminal law.
They believe. however, not less uni
versaIly, that women who seek to
punish mans violation of duty by their
own home-neglectin- resort to club
pursuits or diversions may be said to
take the law in their own hands in q
most daring way AS in other cases
of like procedure, the guilty are not
always punished. but those who are
innocent and helpless are made to
suffer; and, Saddest of all. the saving
womnaly traits that distinguish us
above other nations, and the strength
and beauty of our domestic life, are
put in peril.
WOman's Danger of the Club Habit.
No woman who enters upon such a
retaliatory course can be sure that the
man she seeks to punish will be other
wise affected than to be made more in
different to home. and more deter
mined to enlarge the area of his selfish
pleasures. She can be sure. however.
that cheerlessneSs will invade her
home, and that if children are there
they will be irredeemably deprived of
the mysterious wholesomeness and de-
light of an atmosphere which can only
be created by a mothers loving pres
ence and absorbing care. She can also
be certain that. growing out of the in
fiuence which her behavior and eX-
ample are sure to have upon the con-
duct of the wives and mothers within
the range of her companionship. she
may be directly responsible for marred
happiness in other households, and
that as an alder and abettor of wo-
mans clubs she must bear her share
of liability for the injury they may
inflict upon the domestic life of our
land. 1t must be abundantly evident
that, as agencies for retaliation or
mans punishment woman's clubs are
horribly misplaced and miserably vic
ious.
To the honest-minded women who
are inclined to look with favor upon
such of these clubs as indicate bene-
fcent purposes or harmless relaxation
it is not amiss to suggest that these
purposes and characteristics are nat
urally not only of themselves eXpan-
sive, but that membership in one such
organization is apt to create a club
habit which, if it does not lead to other
similar affiliations. induces liberation
and defense of club ideas in general.
1t is in this way that many conscien-
tious women, devoted to their home
duties and resentful of any suspicion
to the contrary, through apparently
innocent club membership subordinate
their household interests and are lost
to the ranks of the defenders of home
against such club Influences and conse-
quences as the unbiased judgment of
true womanhood would unhesitatingly
condemn. The woman is fortunate
and we'll poised who. having yielded to
WlafaVpr q &c fhnTn ha in