In awakening their own latent powers they will assist in developing those which lie dormant in other women. It will only be by this personal contact, education and experience that the judgment will become regulated and balanced in a proper and legitimate direction.

No club of womanly women will be conspicuous by blatant aggressiveness, but woman's tact and persistent endurance will be the policy by which great results are to be accomplished. A standard of pure morality will be felt and recognized, which, as a regenerating force, will enter our social conditions, to elevate them to their highest possibilities.

INFLUENCE OF THE CLUB.

The influence of the club is at first one toward personal education, and is a training which will inspire self-confidence, direct mental activities, concentrate thought and improve expression. These results finally touch upon different home circles, creating influences, which gradually extend to the whole social body, until we may confidently hope that the majority of its members may be elevated toward intellectual growth. It is a selfish feeling, which confines all of our energies and self-culture, without thus giving forth a little of our store of wisdom and knowledge for the benefit of others. There must be a harvest from the seeds, judiciously sown, by which the mental hunger of others, craving knowledge, can be satisfied.

a woman is educated, the better fitted she is to solve these practical problems.

Allow a woman the largest liberty in thought and action, increase her self-respect by making her realize the fact that she is an individual, not a chattel, and it is along these lines of intellectual action that a woman, in all her grand personality, can be developed; but it is a personality that cannot be developed from within; it needs the experience, the judgment, the social and intellectual influences, which lift her out of her own environment to the larger plane of other lives-those influences which eradicate provincial prejudice and unite heart to heart in high aspiration and earnest ambition. Women also have a spiritual insight, which will sanctify these efforts and make them the power to work for righteousness in the human heart and mind.

Nor does the Woman's Club necessarily imply the technical culture which comes from books alone. In its practical relation to society it reaches out to every avenue, where charity and instruction can alleviate the necessities of the human race. There are still a few who regard these progressive movements on the part of women as abnormal and unnatural, and as inconsistent with an interest in the practical duties of life. These people ignore the fact that the more

It is those who have been awakened to a clear and defined sense of personal duty,

eager to work for the general good, that constitute a club's necessary element. Clever writers, practical mothers and housekeepers, self-supporting business women, social leaders, with brains, money and enthusiasm, willing and ready to use all for progress and advancement. I remember once listening to a sermon by the late David Swing on the slow growth of new and progressive ideas. He said: "These new thoughts come as strangers to us. We are not prepared to receive them without credentials. We ask, 'Has Plato or the Bible mentioned them? ere we adopt them. But let them remain with us until we become accustomed to them, and then we are ready to accept them as truths. We receive to-day as truths the doctrines which fifty years ago would have been regarded as rank heresy." So it is with many of the ideas regarding women which mark our social evolution, and these enlightened ideas are destined to remain with us, so that to popular opinion they will finally become self-evident truths.

A SILENT PROCESS.

The existence of the majority of woman's clubs is independent of a political significance; but if their influence leavens and purifies the political situation, it will be by silent process, unconnected with extreme and radical views. In wielding this power over the political body, women will neither be unsexed nor drawn from their natural vocations, but with loyal patriotism they will sympathize with and encourage all movements which will build up the moral strength of our political interests. This moral force, concentrated in the club, will finally be incorporated in our national personality, directing it in its official capacity and elevating it to a higher line of action. Many clubs embrace in their organization the several departments of industrial, domestic, social, economic and literary. From these departments of the club proper issue the philanthropic work that aids the destitute, helps the erring and sympathizes with the afflicted and distressed. In many districts are distinct organizations of Art Clubs, Current Event Clubs, Women's Business Clubs and Children's Culture Clubs. It is in these latter clubs where intelligent mothers assemble in counsel, to determine and dis

cuss upon the best means for the intellectual growth of the young generation. The nature and development of children requires, more than any other subject, the attention and consideration of intelligent women. Many women, from want of early education themselves, cannot realize the earnest need for efficient and sensible government in their own family. Ignorant mothers ignore the intellectual demands and spiritual necessities of their children. In providing for physical wants, they compass, they think, the sum and substance of maternal duty.

CHILD CULTURE.

But a few weeks ago there was held in Chicago a convocation of women interested in these practical questions of the day. This is a movement that will effect radical changes by the concerted action of all women interested in child culture. What is involved in an intelligent mother, thus educated by the discipline of this club? What were harassing problems to her once, in regard to her child's welfare, will be elucidated; and as the most interesting study of mankind is man, so to a woman will be the absorbing study of the nature and inherent characte of her own child, and on her will devolvr the responsibility of either making or mare ring a human being given into her care fordevelopment or destruction in mental, moral and spiritual growth.

The study of current events enlarges the mental horizon, and makes a woman an intelligent companion for her husband and grown children, and frequently enables her to give sound and substantial counsel in regard to finance, business movements and political situations. This knowledge of contemporary events aids as much as that of books in the regulation of opinion and judicious decision.

The executive ability which women derive from the direction of purely social or charitable organizations can be utilized in club management. Women can be elevated from a narrow existence by the impetus of intellectual strength. In religion and in philanthropy we see women to-day breaking down the sectarian and conventional barriers, to come forth with the freedom and personal judgment which has been fortified by experience and education.