Show b ffi9 WbiE DLY CLUB 1 tr C X ALYd MALLARD r rR rF pt r e I L j = r r k4 4 3ZAURAy2 07 77x21 pt77I1C GZ CZ1lB kt to > 4 y N lq r H 7 4Yzzmrc v8 pq2uJ A great evolution Is taking place In France an evolution which has been working so slowly and so silently that until some six months ago scarcely any one realized all that It meant In AngloSaxon countries tho opening open-Ing of a fresh club for women Is considered con-sidered of about as much importance as the opening of a fresh newspaper shop There Is a certain analogy between the two and ono merely wonders Instinctively what kind of news will be circulated and what the tone of the new enterprise Is to be In England and America where homes aro apt to become the hotels of our numerous friends clubs are almost al-most a necessity If only to relieve the domestic service of the prlvate house They have now too become a fashIon fash-Ion so that many women pride themselves them-selves on belonging to several clubs In Paris the opening of a club for women and what Is more for Frenchwomen French-women came as a surprise and even as a shock to very many people in tho French capital This club for women Is unique in France In order to account for this fact It Is necessary to explain something of the position of tho French npman English and American Amer-ican women aro apt to consider that their French sisters are very much behind the times and to look upon them as domestic slaves because they have hitherto had no clubs of their own As a matter of fact the Frenchwoman French-woman actually needs such an institution insti-tution far less than her sisters of tho AngloSaxon race In consequence of tho extreme exclusiveness of the French their homo circle Is little known to foreigners This exclusiveness exclusive-ness Is not due to narrowness as the AngloSaxon so frequently declares It Is rather due to that science of selection selec-tion In social intercourse of which the French appear to have the secret and which has made tho French salon what It Is Outsiders therefore scarcely scarce-ly realize how great an Influence the French woman wields She has n realm which Is entirely her own a realm In which she reigns supreme Up to the time of the war of 1870 tho public service of women consisted consist-ed chiefly In visiting the sick and In providing tho few poor people of whom they heard with nourishment and clothes During the siege of Paris and the ommune the women of Franco wero needed by their country and with one accord mothers and daughters left their sheltered homes and answered their countrys call French women have always been extremely ex-tremely patriotic and In all etna genclos have given proof of their courage cour-age und devotion For very many years after the war there was much to be done by the women of France and tho more they plunged Into tho darker side of life the more they found to do Some 15 or 1C years ago a little band of women who wero all thus woiklng for the public welfare decided to have an annual conference In order to discuss tho problems they founjj and help each other to solve them This annual conference has now become one of the great Institutions Institu-tions of French women engaged In humanitarian schemes Fur three long years the French Lyceum Ly-ceum was engaged in slowly but surely sure-ly mustering Its forces All kinds of material obstacles appeared In Us way Mme IllancBentzon recommended recommend-ed patience We do not like to betaken be-taken by storm she said You must glvo this new Idea time We refuse to be rushed llko Americans and we are not Impulsive like time Germans Wo me eminently critical and before consoutlni to take up a new < thing ate must understand exactly Its alms and objects The following year Mine BlancBent zon died and some of the members of the new club began to got discouraged At the end of three years wo were a homeless club of 200 women without even as much as an office or a secretary secre-tary For tho sake of keeping up Interest In-terest In the new scheme a room was rented at the Hotel Bedford and literary lit-erary and musical matinees given the program of which was always composed com-posed of the work of members Finally one of the vicepresidents of the London Lyceum Miss Allco Williams Wil-liams camo to Paris on a visit On seeing the difficulties of the situation she volunteered to return to London and endeavor to raise money enough to establish the Lyceum In Paris and to try It for a yea At the end of that time we should see whether n club were really needed by Frenchwomen French-women and If so they could then take It over themselves She prom Ised to stay the whole year in Paris until the household arrangements were complete The Inauguration took place last December and Duchess Dre dUzes accepted the office of president Her name had been at the head of the list given by Mme Tame some four years previously but besieged by letters let-ters begging her to preside over all kinds of possible societies Duchess dUzes had preferred waiting to see whether this new scheme ended end-ed with Its first prospectus The inauguration in-auguration was a ery brilliant ceremony cere-mony Some 3000 guests came and tho International side was well represented rep-resented by ambassadors and their wives who had been unofficially invited In-vited by various members of the committee com-mittee So pleased were some of them with tho Idea that among the present mcnibers of the club are some of the ambassadresses With a president so eminently capable capa-ble and so universally beloved no doubts were felt for the future and day by day the number of adherents has steadily increased There are < now neatly 700 members so that within with-in a year it Is expected that the French Lyceum will be able to pay Its current expenses The president is herself a sculptress and a writer and she Is also the presIdent pres-Ident of the Society of Women Painters Paint-ers She has written a play which Is to bo given at tho Lyceum No presl dent could be mOle active and mOle Interested She is not only regular herself in attending all the meetings of the committee but she urges on every member the necessity of this regularity In the Interests of the club Two of the most Interesting sections of the Lyceum aro those of sociology and humanitarian work presided oven respectively by Mme Schmahl and Mile Chaptal At the monthly meetIngs meet-Ings the members who nearly all represent rep-resent some special scheme for the Improvement of the conditions of life expose their scheme and show In what way other members can help them Mme DeJeilneKlumpe will In time form the science and university HOC lions and Mme Alphonse Daudet Is I most active and energetic In collecting l col-lecting books for the library and read Ingroom Italian women wero Interested In tho London Lyceum but an Anglo Saxon movement did not appeal strongly to them When they saw what French women were doing they had more confidence so that when the founder of Lyceums Constance Smed ley was In Florence last winter she discovered that the Italians were ready for their club They were prepared pre-pared to go even farther than the French and find tho preliminary cap ital themselves They ale soon to open in Homo Tho greatest benefits of the system have already been seen In Paris Women have come from Australia and from America not knowing a single person In Paris and instead ol wandering about desolately and then returning to a strange hotel they have found a home and congenial compan lonshlp In an unknown land Tho general secretary of tho French Lyceum Is a distinguished writer Mme Marc Helys whose book on the women of Sweden attracted great attention recently It was 11 Seton Morrlmans opinion that French women were tho cleverest and most capable women In the world If this ho so It Is very probable that tho French Lyceum will soon take high rank among tho Lyceums of other countries and that It will become be-come a center of Immenso activity and usefulness the Influence tit which will bo Incnlrulable |