Show Ladies Literary Club An interesting programme was given at the meeting of the Ladies Literary club on Friday afternoon Besides the routine business a discussion took place upon the advisability of a change in the next years work I was decided de-cided to try the sectional plan as is generally followed by all large clubs The paper on Higher Education was well received I commenced with the importance of small colleges in the land as a means of inspiration to a greater end The large institutions of the growth and increase of the latter in the United States of the advantages of the university over the college and of the origin and development of university uni-versity extension in England and our own country The education of women I was made the particular feature their three marked stages of progress as coeducation as at Oberlin in 1833 separate sep-arate colleges as at Vassar in 1865 and recent admission to degree examinations examina-tions in large institutions of Great Britain and our own cQuntry Germany has done little for the advanced education ltte cation of women America England and France have done much to promote pro-mote her higher mental development and opened to her the examinations at Harvard Har-vard Cornell Cambridge Oxford and The Lorboune The good results of all this training is shown by the vast numbers of women earning independent incomes and by the varied employments engaged in by women college grauates The Womans congress at Chicago was her latest and greatest victory it entitled her to recognition by the civilized civi-lized world Only one step remains universal suffrage and then will be assured in the words of Miss Susan B Anthony that perfect condition when womanhood and not its attributes will be recognized first Then followed an able discourse on the comparison of modern and standard stand-ard novels The word novel is of the Eighteenth century while lyric and epic are 1000 years old The word I standard as here used will not be the dictionary definition a model of its kind but rather refers to works of old time writers while modern is used in reference to works of present day writers writ-ers Standard novels were not always of an elevating nature nor possessed of the high moral tone which should have characterized them Some critics held that novelists should be indifferent to their created characters Zolas works were considered superior because he was enamored of his creations he presents pre-sents wonderful pictures of life useful use-ful to mature minds but unfit for childish imagination Fiction partakes of history and the noveliest is in a sense a historian in his portrayal of life with its human weaknesses and passions Under classic fiction were cited Sternes Tristram Shandy Jane Austins elegant and refined books old but true to all that is good and Goldsmiths Gold-smiths Vicar of Wakefield Romantic Ro-mantic literature embraces the writings writ-ings of Dickens Thackeray Hugo and George Eliot English and American critics are accused ac-cused of prudishness in discussing the literary merits of certain books To the honor of American publishing firms be I said that they refuse to publish sentiment which appeals to low tastes Newspapers cannot make such fine dis tinctions as the people demand true facts and thus retribution follows the wrongdoer in public denunciation The Norwegian writer Bjornsons works are advanced and belong to a future time The present tendency is towards short stories the novel in a sugarcoated form for society In its development it may be compared to amateur music at first discordant but later producing a harmonious chord lfe and will prove a means of purifying |