Show WOMEN IN CLUB LIFE I The word club used by women to designate the beginning of what was I really an educational and Intellectually Intellectual-ly I progressive movement was the occasion oc-casion of considerable misconception Men could only attach to It the meaning mean-ing It had for them In their own vocabulary I vo-cabulary viz a place In which to lounge drink smoke and piny cards This was far from the idea l of women To women it meant opportunity an tixpcrlment In cooperation which would enlarge their horizon open he dpor to the acquisition of knowledge and give to their social life a meaning and a purpose It meant also ax was Hinted In the first constitution of the first womans club to break down tho I walls of prejudice to bridge the chasms between women obliterate the I line of separation and bring women f together on the bngl of womanhood alone Meusurubl jraduallv and quit nat I urully this has boon accomplished No dlfltliulion of class or sect ru opinion IIIIH iMitprM lulu the foundniion principles I princi-ples of any womans club Bach one started al dlfiomit I times and under varying conditions by an apparently I I sllmultaneoiis Impulse became an em bodlinenl oi purely democratic and al J I I irulsilr Ideas Kach for nil and all I for each was the nuillvc which Inspired In-spired thHr workand action creating l I In lime a curiously fljrons and < l ylwl r sencc of fellowship and iintly of spirit I 1 and action Tho llrat efiort of thiSi clubs was to form u Ore Qr less I clas tic organlratlon lIqulre orderly thai parliamentary > methods of I procedure This alone to women whoso llvetf had previously been for the most I purl isolated and desultory though perhaps Illled with domestic cares was I a tremendous step In advance I I For It must be remembered that the I club life of women did not begin with i I women leaders and agitators It advocate I cate 110 propaganda It simply addressed i ad-dressed Itself to tho woman In tho I homo and endeavored to satisfy her desire to know and make herself more widely useful An informal census taken 1 ta-ken several years ago revealed the fact that out of about 600000 club women I I I men 9 Hi per dent were wives and moth t crs Jennie June Croly In Frank Les lies Popular Monthly for May t |