Reproduced by permission of Braun, Clément & Co., of 257 Fifth Avenue, New York.

dishonest to deny that they do, and foolish to struggle against this natural tendency, by dividing offices impartially and making them all elective; that our self-government is a sham in the first place, and even if it would be established, would be a mistake in the second. So with self-support. We are called dis· honest, for adopting as a principle what we can so seldom accomplish as a result, and then are told that it is a ridiculous and unnecessary fad of ours, as there is no humiliation in receiving aid for educational purposes, and that it would be better for the richer members of the club to bear the burden of its support than that it should weigh upon shoulders already too heavily loaded with responsibility. It is difficult to make the critics understand that these two matters, which to them seem details of organization, are of vital consequence to us, because we feel that by their help we approach our ideal -the upbuilding of character through opportunities for mutual comprehension and education-and that to give them up would be to exchange it for another standard. Our club life should be like the life of the individual, and we dare not take from it the necessity for independent thought and the stimulus to independent action.

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I return to the consideration of those different structures which have been placed upon similar foundations all over this country. In the convention lately held in Boston it was fully demonstrated that there were many differences of administration" in club affairs; and though we claim for New York, and for one devoted club member whose name we all honor, the distinction of having first clearly defined our ideal, we all rejoice that many who are separated from us by distance and by great diversity in method, are followers no less loyal than we. We enjoy recalling the fact that the first club was started with eleven members, meeting in a crowded part of the city of New York; we love the name of the woman to whose insight it owed its birth; but we turn with eager inter

est to other regions to learn of them what new forms our ideal can put on, and we listen attentively to those who. urge new departures upon us, lest we miss some great opportunity.

In the Eastern cities our clubs are conducted on much the same method. Rooms as large and as convenient as our funds will permit, generally two adjoining ones, are hired in some thicklysettled district, where the working part of the city's population finds its home, and are furnished in simple and attractive fashion by our combined efforts—often with the help of our friends, which serves as a crutch, to be used only till we can stand alone. These rooms at once become a centre around which different interests spring up, mingle, dissolve into other shapes, die out to be replaced by others; but the life of the club goes on. Members join, stay with us months or years, and often leave to our regret and theirs ; but to no woman who has been in a club long enough to catch its spirit, has the experience been anything but a blessing and an education; and feeling this, we watch the shifting of members. without feeling that anything is wrong if at the end of five years comparatively few of the same faces smile at one another each week. Circumstances force our members to leave our ranks, sometimes; but every "good club member" takes away with her more human sympathy, more appreciation of others, more desire to keep in touch with all womankind in some way, and to help on the progress of right and love.

The chief particular in which as a "method," so to speak, we almost all agree, is in the value of what we call "Practical Talks," or something equivalent. They are simply conversations on a topic chosen before, led by someone whose gift of talking herself is less conspicuous, perhaps, than her power of making others talk. A New-York club last winter decided, after eager discussion, that the two things it could least spare from its life were the payment of dues by the members and these same

weekly "talks ;" and this seems very fairly to indicate the craving for independence first, and for sympathy and expansion, second. These "talks" are naturally very interesting, as when they are well conducted, informal expressions of opinion on all kinds of subjects are drawn from young women whose diversity of circumstances, environment, and education is almost as great as the number present.

We are often asked, "What classes do you find best?" The question is diffi

cult to answer, as it arises from another misconception. We start classes not because they are profitable, but because they are desired; so that the work done differs greatly, even in the same club, in different years. It would hardly be honest to assert that the young women already somewhat acquainted with a subject never suggest such classes, but it is done more as a girl who has learned to love astronomy says to her friends"Let us have a class in astronomy, and to begin with I will tell you all I know about the stars,"-than a more formal suggestion to take up a neglected branch of culture as a duty. Sometimes a class in the study of Shakespeare fails, but sometimes a class in dressmaking does the same, and for the same cause—a lack of demand for that particular class, and an artificial effort to establish it where no desire for it existed. But a strong desire on the part of even one member for a certain class is often productive of an enthusiasm which is contagious, and a class goes" in a most unexpected manner.

The classes most generally desired, physical culture, dressmaking, millinery, cooking, and singing classes, are almost universally in demand. Teachers are almost always hired by the members of the class, each girl paying her share in the class she joins, besides her club dues (which are never more than twenty-five cents a month, and the same for every woman on the club list). Literary classes, and those in political economy, art, etc., are generally taught by volunteers among the members.

Our business methods are of the simplest, and may be briefly summed up. Each member has an equal share in the management of the society; financial and all other decisions are made by vote after open discussion; all offices are elective, and all business meetings carried on as correctly and formally as possible. That it would be easier in some cases for a few executive heads to manage all the affairs of the club is not to be denied; but this would make us false to our ideal.

It may be asked if we have no provision for recreation in our societies. Could we be true to our ideal without it? How can we best learn to like one another, and to enjoy one another's society, except by having a "good time" together? The club that omitted entertainments, parties, summer excursions, etc., from its plans would not hold together long, or have a very healthy existence at any time. The merry scrambling preparations for an evening of tableaux; the ice-cream parties when some of the members had only the fun of the work and none of the feast, because the guests enjoyed themselves too much; the jolly choruses sung as a tired party of flower-laden girls watched the moon rise, while sitting in a row on the wall waiting for the big wagon that was to take them home after a picnic—all these recollections are too dear to be laughed over, except in our club rooms among our own selves; so, gentle reader, you must become a club member yourself to know of them.

These methods" are common to us all; but of the different schemes for enlarging our scope, of adapting a club to its surroundings, I have not space to tell you. In some places young men are invited at stated intervals to take part in club festivities; in others, they have become members of inside organizations, meeting for definite purposes. In Chicago the Lunch Clubs have a most interesting and original organization, which combines with all the essentials of a * See article in Far and Near for June, 1894.

members with cheap and nourishing lunches and attractive rooms for the noon rest. Benefit funds, vacation houses, employment bureaus, trade classes-these and many more enterprises have sprung up under club control or in consequence of club influences.

What we may still find possible and wise to do, we cannot estimate. In some quarters industrial and social questions are studied; and although we do not aim to acquire a direct influence upon the conditions under which women labor, we should neglect a large part of our duty if we fail to educate our members in economic principles, and in knowledge of what has been and still remains to be done.

A working girls' club, then, differs from other organizations in its ideal. So far we have been true to that ideal, seeing it under different forms and approaching it more nearly in some cases than in others. But even in the most perfect club it is still an unattained ideal; and yet, though this thought nerves us to greater efforts in our desire to draw nearer to the vision before us, we rejoice to know that, as we approach it, it will show itself to us in other forms, still receding before us; that being what it is, it will constantly open to us new possibilities, and that the more faithfully we endeavor to rise to them, the more surely shall we avoid the day which would tell us no more could be done. That day will not come for us till the mirage leads to the land from which all our ideals are reflected. MARIA BOWEN CHAPIN.

Reflect, if art be in truth the higher life, You need the lower life to stand upon In order to reach up unto that higher.

-Mrs. Browning.

Of Teachers, Students, and Things."

AWAY from the whirling and wheeling,
And steaming above and below,
Where the heart has no leisure for feeling,
And the thought has no quiet to grow.
Away where the sky shines clear,

And the light breeze wanders at will,
And the dark pine-wood nods near
To the light-plumed birch on the hill.

-PROF. JOHN STUART BLACKIE.

MR. C. M. PRATT is one of the few

men who can go yachting all summer and can yet be found at his post at the Institute and at the Standard Oil Company's offices, and return at night to the bosom of his family. His yacht Allegra, plying between Dosoris and these his workshops, is the fairy who has made this possible.

MR. F. B. PRATT, having previously enjoyed a three-months' outing in Japan (wisely taken "befo' de wah"), has confined himself during the hot weather to the pleasures of supervising the Institute, attached to his office as secretary.

MR. HERBERT ADAMS has spent his vacation in his summer studio at Windsor, Vt., and has nothing to complain of save the fearful rapidity of the flight of time.