Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1898 — WOMEN'S CLUBS. [ARTICLE]

WOMEN'S CLUBS.

They Have Done .Much to Boise the Average Standard of Intelliarence. In the Century there is the first of a series of articles on “Club and Salon,” by Mrs. Amelia Gere Mason,'author of “Women of the French Salon.” Mrs. Mason says: Of women’s clubs there Is literally no end, and they are yet in their vigorous youth. We have literary clubs, and art clubs, and musical clubs; clubs for science, and clubs for philanthropy; parliamentary clubs, and suffrage clubs, and anti-suffrage clubs—clubs of every variety and every grade, from the luncheon club, with its dilettante menu, and the more pretentious chartered club, that alms at mastering a scheme of the world, to the simple workinggirls’ club, which is content with something less; and all in the sacred name of culture. They multiply, federate, hold conventions, organize congresses, and really form a vast educational system that is fast changing old ideals and opening possibilities of which no prophetic eye can see the end. That they have marvelously raised the average standard of intelligence cannot be questioned, nor that they have brought out a large number of able and interesting women who have generously taken upon themselves not only their own share of the work of the world, but a great deal more. One can hardly overrate the value of an Institution which has given light and an upward impulse to so many lives, and changed the complexion of society so distinctly for the better. But It may be worth while to ask if the women of to-day, with their splendid initiative and boundless aspirations, are not going a little too fast, getting entangled in too much machinery, losing their Individuality in masses, assuming more responsibility than they can well carry. Why is it that lines too deep for harmonious thought are so early writing themselves on the strong, tense, mobile, and delicate faces of American women? Why is it that the pure joy of life seems to be lost In the restless and Insatiable passion for multitudes, so often thinly disguised as love for knowledge, which is not seldom little more than the shell and husk of things? Is the pursuit of culture degenerating into a pursuit of clubs, and are we taking for ourselves new taskmasters more pitiless than the old? “The emancipation of woman is fast becoming her slavery,” said one who was caught in the whirl of the social machinery and could find no point of repose. We pride ourselves on our llverty; but the true value of liberty is to leave people free from a pressure that prevents their fullest growth. What do we gain if we simply exchange one tryanny for another? Apart from the fact that the finest flowers of culture do not spring from a soil that Is constantly turned, any more than they do from a soil that Is not turned at ail, it is a question of human limitations, of living so as to continue to live, of growing so as to continue to grow. Nor is it simply a matter of individuals. Societies, too, exhaust themselves; and those which reach an exaggerated growth in a day are apt to perish in a day. It is not the first time in the history of the world that there has been a brilliant reign of intelligence among women, though perhaps there was never one so widely spread as now. Why have they ended in more or less violent reactions? We may not be able to answer the question satisfactority, but it gives us food for reflection.