The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1907-04-12
THE GOOD WORK WOMEN'S
CLUBS.

| LII Il GOOD "OnA WOM EN- =
CLUBS.
Among the fppant and ignorant it
has been a custom, and still is, even
unto this enlightened day, to sneer at
",he club women as one who despises
the Home" Those who have really
studied the matter, who have watched
the deep currents, and who have had
a part in the club movement, know
that a vast improvement in the Ameri-
can Home has taken place through the
light and the leading which our wives
and mothers have received in their
club life. Tue best wives and mothers
that any OF us have ever known, and
those who have the happiest homes,
have been club women. In fact, a
large proportion of our clubs have for
their professed jecL the culture of
the home. Even in SO called literary
clubs, many of the lectures and papers
are written upon home topics. One
of The general meetings Of nearly all
the great clubs is devoted each year
to the home 1t has sometimes seemed
10 many as though there were danger
that the matter might be overdone.
And yet such coarse wit is lavished
in the newspapers every year upon
those masculine" and "unsexed'
creature who frequent clubs, instead
Of staying at home washing, ironing,
sewing and child rearing, as all wo-
men ought to do.
1t appears as though these wouldhe
humorists had conceived the idea that
there is only one way in which to per-
form household and family duties, and
that all women know this way by in
stinct. They must learn that the
conduct of home, with its varied de-
partments, is fully as complicated as
the conduct of any other business
en,erprise-perhaps more complicated
than any other. Also, that as no two
great business managers carry on
their affairs in precisely the same
way, so there are many different
methods of conducting a household.
There is best way Of doing washing
ironing, cooking, cleaning, child-rear-
ing, purchasing, entertaining; in fact,
there ale many best ways. What is
best for the dweller in the city may
not equally suit the farmers wife;
what is best for the large country
establishment is utterly impracticable
in Il tiny city fiat. In our women g
clubs every possible phase of the sub.
jcct has been treated. Modes of
management on the same income
have been written out, to the infinite
benefit Of thousands Of other women
who have about the same means at
command. Devices which have been
employed by successful mothers in
training peculiar children have been
anal!z d and written out, and have
given hints 10 thousands of other
puzzled ard disLeartened parents.
There is nothing for helpfulness
like ''getting together" and compar
ing notes; it is not only mentally
Illuminating, but it is "good fun -
You may love your children to dis
traction, and adore your husband, but
if you have only their society from
weeks end 10 weeks end, you are
more than likely to become one oi
those patient, self-effacing drudges
and cipbers who were the saints of q
former generation. They were good
their self abnegation was heavenly
but they were not, to use the modern
phrase, "interesting;' too often they
became to their children, as they
grew older, mere objects of tender
compassien-"Poor mother pas
they might have said Poor Ponto ?''
The mother who has learned her
profession in the clubs wants no pity
from her children. She can discuss
with them their studies and debates
and can help them with both. She is
ever ready to help them in every way,
but they do not impose upon her, nor
look down upon her; she is their com
rade, fer she is learning how to keep
her health and youth and control her
NERVES she laughs with them, goes
with them, reads with them. She is
not told that her views are cold fash
ioned;' her ideals may be the old ones;
indeed, the ideals of club women,
whe. her hey live up to them or not,
ale, on the whole, the highest that
c vii 4 lion as evolved. But civilza-
tinn has evolved very few ideals that
are hisher than these of Plato, Aris-