1899-1900 Meeting Minutes
OCT 3, 1899-MAY 29, 1900
MS988.iii Book 5
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Meeting of October 3rd, 1899.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, October 3rd, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This was the first Salon, and also the opening meeting of the season of 1899 and 1900.
The President called the meeting to order; and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of June 6th, 1899.
The first article of the programme was the President’s “Opening Address of the year 1899 and 1900.” In this, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall] spoke of gladness with which we meet once more, refreshed and strengthened for the work before us. She spoke of the many very busy women among us, but believed that we all meet in the tenth year of our Club to put forth our best efforts, and use our highest intelligence for the benefit of all of us. The meeting for enjoyment or relaxation is only one phase of our Club experience. We feel here the value of suggestiveness, and still more the value of definite aims. There are responses to individual needs, and evidence of usefulness. Mrs. Wrenshall then reminded
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us that the Club was originally intended to be only for professionally literary women, and, though the first plan was intended to include women of high intelligence who had not written for publication, it has since seemed to be reverting in some measure to its first intention, at least the number of members whose writings have been published seems in these nine years to have steadily grown greater. In listening to many of the papers read she thought them too good to be lost or to end in the Club, and had wished that such articles might not only be preserved in our library, and so continue to the records of our work; but that the separate Committees might form out of the best of their work volumes for publication.
The President then spoke of those occasions when owing to unavoidable failures she had been obliged--on short notice--to make up programmes. She asked that those members who have written articles, not placed on regular programmes, will notify her of their willingness to give them to us on emergencies. We have heard of the clergymen who possess barrels
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of sermons,--to be turned upside down once a year. We do not wish for a barrel of articles in reserve, a small bundle will suffice. Our President then reminded us that we enter upon the New Year upholding the same standards of literary taste and criticism under which we have long held together; and in adherence to our purposes as first enunciated when the life of our Club began,--which adherence has made our success. We strive for peace and elevating literature, and we will allow no lower aim to intrude into our future. We will ask of our work: “Is this our best?”--and doing our best, will hold up our banner still unchanged. In the New Year she asked for our continued confidence and support in the position it is her pride and joy to fill.
The next article of the programme was: “The Return of the Bells,” from the French of Jean Aicard; translated and read to us by Miss Marie Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins]. The story was founded on the old legend, believed in by some of the rural inhabitants of France, that every year, in the last days of the lenten season, the church bells are carried miraculously to Rome to be blessed and brought
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back again to be ready to ring joyous peals on the morning of Easter Day. It told of five little children, close friends--very sad about the sickness of one whom they all loved, who assembled in the open air to see the return of the bells. They felt sure that if they could catch a glimpse of that blessed sight their loved companion would certainly grow well again. That one or two of their fathers might be decidedly skeptical about the miracle could not prevent their persuasion that their hopes would be fulfilled. At last they saw--at least believed they saw--the return of the bells through the air, and afterwards, they knew that the girl they all loved was growing well again. It was all in good faith--the simple faith of innocent childhood. We could certainly thank Miss Perkins for her excellent and appreciative translation.
The President announced that we had with us our former member, still a corresponding member, Mrs. Asger Hamerik, whom we would all be glad to greet again.
The rest of the afternoon was passed in conversation, refreshment and in pleasant greetings.
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Meeting of October 10th, 1899.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, October 10th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral streets. The President called the meeting to order; and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of October 3rd. The President called attention to a misapprehension--which had occurred--or a portion of her opening address at the former meeting. In speaking of the systemization and preservation of our literary work, she had expressed her desire that the different Committees should prepare from the best of their articles carefully considered volumes for publication. Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock], Vice President, suggested that such volumes could be published by subscription--or otherwise if desired. Mrs. Tyson [Florence Tyson], Chairman of the Committee on Translations, said that but for unavoidable delay, her Committee would now have a volume already prepared.
The President then spoke of the beautiful flowers that were sent to the Club for the first meeting of the season, by our dear Ex-President, Mrs. Turnbull [Francese Litchfield Turnbull], and of the note accompanying them, in which our former President told of her regret for being physically unable
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to meet us then, and her hope that she was not forgotten;--which it is hardly necessary to say met the answer that we cannot forget her. The President next announced the programmes for the month; which have as usual been placed on the mantelpiece. The programme for this meeting had been prepared by the President.
The first article was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley] and was called: “My Gentleman.” In Mrs. Cautley’s absence it was read, with great interest and appreciation, by our President. Mrs. Cautley described a very little girl in Richmond, Virginia, who had formed a proprietary attachment to a friend and contemporary of her father, and to whom she gave the name of “My Gentleman.” She was a [? petted], only daughter and gave her friendships to very few, but did not mind being laughed at about them. But “her gentleman” did not laugh at her,--indeed, she thought, he did not laugh at all. He was, her father said, the leading lawyer in Richmond; which assertion her mother met with some contempt, as the assertion,--her husband--was a lawyer himself also. She went on to describe his life in an old house with a large garden, in which she was allowed to gather all the flowers except
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the white lilacs, and also his black servant, Solomon Bonaparte. She told of the unselfishness of this true gentleman as he always was to her, and to her father also. As time went on the little girl began to be told that she was too large a girl to be kissed by any gentleman but her father and uncle. The indignation thereupon expressed by her aunt was a great surprise to her; but a greater surprise followed when she heard “her gentleman” called “a heartless jilt.” She afterwards learned of an old love affair and of a broken engagement,--never explained. After his death his little jewel box came into her possession, containing a ring, a lock of hair, and some faded white lilacs. And later on, at her old friend’s grave, she received the assurance that he was indeed the true, ideal gentleman her heart had believed him to be.
The next article was a story by Miss Annie W. Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney], and was called “Dixie.” It was the story of a little colored boy who calls himself ‘Dixie.’ His friendship for a mule--and the mule’s friendship for him,--his natural wit, agility and endurance, and his loyalty to his old
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grandmother gain him higher friendship and lead to good fortune. When the long-lost mule is restored to Dixie’s possession, he gratefully takes it home suggesting that his “Granny” will sing the Doxology over it. In Miss Whitney’s absence her story was read appreciatively by Mrs. Percy Reese [Elizabeth Reese].
The next article of the programme was by Miss Ellen Duvall, and was called “A Forgotten Worthy.” Miss Duvall gave an extremely interesting account of the great Albanian chief and how, known as Scanderbeg, as George Castrosta, or more properly as Iskander Beg. She told how, at the head of his people, the untamed rather than free, Albanians, he fought the Turks, and was afterwards greatly instrumental in breaking up the victorious progress of Mohammedanism in the 15th century. Mohammed the second, she reminded us, conquered Constantinople, and overthrew the Greek Empire,--but he could not conquer Iskander. She traced the career of this Prince Alexander of Epirus, until his death in 1467. She described his early Turkish education, as a hostage at the Sultan’s court, his return to his own people, gaining for them a short independence, but by his heroic valor and rare genius virtually saving
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Eastern Europe to Christianity and civilization. We can thank Miss Duvall for reminding us of this forgotten worthy who was worthy to be remembered, but seems now almost forgotten, except in such allusions as that of Mr. Hood, who describes “Miss Kilmansegg’s ’Splendid brilliant ‘golden leg’ as fit for the court of Skander Beg.”
Miss Duvall’s article showed much research and study, and that interest in her subject that engaged the interest of those who listened to her. The meeting adjourned.
Meeting of October 17th, 1899.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, October 17th, 1899 at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral streets. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Ellen Duvall, Chairman of the Committee on Current Criticism.
The President announced the gift to the Club of a new book called “The Tiernan Family in Maryland,” presented by the author Mr. Charles B. Tiernan. It was, she said, particularly interesting to us as it contains a sketch of our valued former member, Mrs. Mary Spear Nicholas Tiernan [Mary Spear Tiernan].
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The President then spoke of our library, from which our members can borrow the books one at a time--from the librarian, Mrs. Percy Reese.
The first article from the programme was given by Mrs. Thomas J. Morris, and was called “Book Notes.” Mrs. Morris said she did not prepare to treat very serious books, but novels and light literature and her article might have been called “Foot Notes.” The first work she reviewed was “A Double Thread,” by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler. She compared this with the author’s earlier book “Concerning Isabel Carnaby” with full appreciation of both works. The next book noticed by Mrs. Morris was “The Fowler,” by Beatrice Harraden. She spoke of Miss Harraden’s strong points and also of her want of a due sense of proportion. She spoke of the type of man described in it, one possessing and influence not hypnotic, nor arising from sympathy of souls, but an influence psychic, insidious, and to be resisted. The next novel reviewed was “The Children of the Mist,” by Eden Phillpotts, which takes us, she said, into the country of Lorna Doone, and has been highly praised by Blackmore himself. Mrs. Morris next took up “No. 5 John Street,” the story of a rich baronet going to live
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in a London “slum,”--making a book of strange contrasts and dealing with many problems. The author loves the poor far better than he loves the rich. She gave some striking quotations from the characters of the story. Mrs. Morris spoke next of Mrs. Oliphant’s Life, saying that she loved the womanliness of the writer, who did write for money, but for money needed by her loved ones. And yet she reminded us of Sir Walter Scott,--sometimes in her heroines showing insights superior to his. The next “notes” were on two admirable short magazine stories, one by [Francis] Hopkinson Smith, and the other by Mrs. Peartie. Mrs. Morris said that Mrs. Peartie’s description of Western life makes us feel how true it is though we have never seen it. We feel for the exquisite literary quality of her stories.
The President asked for further “Book Notes"; and Miss Duvall gave notices of two new books. The first was the “Life of Danton,” by A. H. Beesly. She spoke of this work as one of great interest, though it presupposes a wide knowledge of the details of the great French Revolution. The second review by Miss Duvall was of Edmonde Desmoulin’s book on “What Constitutes the Superiority of the Anglo Saxon Race”? The treatment of this question in this book from a
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French point of view, is, she said, something almost miraculous,--and there is a sweet reasonableness in it also.
The next article of the programme was given by Mrs. Charles Hamilton Beebe [Mary H. Beebe], and was on the late novel “Richard Carvel,” by Winston Churchill. Mrs. Beebe gave a very interesting account of the author of “Richard Carvel,” and also of the circumstances attending the writing and publication of his first book, “The Celebrity,” as well as those connected with “Richard Carvel.” Of this later book she gave a review of much interest and critical appreciation. Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock] spoke of thee account in Richard Carvel of Annapolis as a centre of culture and polite society in the last century; and told of the confirmation given to this account by an English writer who had, at that time, an excellent opportunity of observation on the spot. The President spoke of the high tone of the book, and quoted its tribute to Maryland hospitality in the assertion that there, the worldly goods and position of a guest gained him no warmer welcome than was given to one of fewer advantages.
The next article was by Miss Louise Malloy, and was on “The Making
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of a Play.” The President called attention to the fact that Miss Malloy spoke on a subject she was well qualified to treat, being not only a dramatic critic, but a writer of plays herself. Miss Malloy told of the plays which, when offered to the manager of a theatre, “appeal at once to his business experience and judgment as likely to be successful or otherwise.” She spoke of some plays whose plot alone is submitted for approval, the dialogue to be added afterwards. She warned young writers against using old and hackneyed situations and phrases, which have long ago earned their pensioned retirement. At the close of the article the meeting was declared adjourned.
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Meeting of October 24th, 1899.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, October 24th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. The Recording Secretary being absent, the following is the only record attainable.
Reading of the Minutes.
Announcements.
An Austrian Painting, Mrs. Francis P. Stevens.
A Few Words about Hands, Miss Maria H. Middleton.
The Necessity of Contrast, Mrs. Percy M. Reese. [Elizabeth Reese]
Among the Connecticut Hills, Miss Emma F. Brent. [Emma Fenwick Brent]
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Meeting of October 31st, 1899.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore held its regular meeting on October 31st, 1899, in its Assembly Room, at 3:30 PM
The Secretary being absent, Miss Could [Virginia Woodward Cloud], acting secretary the previous week[,] read the minutes of that meeting and Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney] was asked to act as Secretary for the remainder of the afternoon.
An announcement was made of the admission of two new members, Miss Laura De Valin [Laura V. DeValin] and Mrs. Gorge Dame. It was announced that arrangements were being made for the decoration of the graves of the Authors and Artists of Maryland, under the direction of Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], Chairman of the Committee on Decoration.
The afternoon was arranged by Mrs. Wylie [Elizabeth J. Wylie], Chairman of the Committee on Art. She herself presented the first paper changing the one on the programme which had for its title The Alexander Sarcophagus, Constantinople, for another on the Mosque of Santa Sophia, giving a most interesting account of this the most beautiful Church ever erected by a Christian people. She not only spoke of its architectural beauty, but of its history
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as a Christian church, and as a Mohammedan Mosque, interspersing this from time to time with some of the quaint legends that have clustered around it.
Mrs. Philip R. Uhler [Pearl D. Uhler] then gave a paper which she called “A Work of Art in Book Making[.]” She described a very valuable Japanese work in the Peabody Library, prepared and arranged by the Japanese, with a view of giving Americans a true idea of Japan and its people.
Miss Cloud then read one of her inimitable stories “The Child of a Thousand Years,” after which the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of November 7th, 1899.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, November 7th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Frederick Tyson [Florence McIntyre Tyson], Chairman of the Committee on Translations.
The President, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall], called the meeting to order. Miss Whitney having kindly acted as Recording Secretary at the meeting of October 31st, read her minutes of that
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meeting which were unanimously adopted. The President expressed our regret for the absence of Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], Chairman of the Committee on Decoration of the Graves of the Authors and Artists of Maryland. Miss Brent however sent a letter describing the work done by herself and by her able assistants of this Committee on All Souls’ Day, in the different cemeteries known as the resting places of authors and artists of our own state. The President also read two letters, giving the thanks of Miss Ruth Johnston, and of Miss Rabillon, for the remembrance by the Club of their loved ones. By request, Miss Mullin [Elizabeth Lester Mullin], Miss Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese], Miss Nicholas [Elizabeth Cary Nicholas], and Mrs. Tyson gave some details of the work of the Committee on Memorial Decorations.
The President then read the Prospectus giving particulars of the School Teacher’s Educational Courses of Lectures to be given this season at McCoy Hall, Johns Hopkins University. Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall] also gave notice of the lecture to be delivered before the Audubon Society of Baltimore by Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, on November 17th at Levering Hall, J. H. U., for which tickets had been sent to be given to our members. The President
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spoke of Mrs. Miller as an able lecturer, and also as one of the honorary members of our Club.
Mrs. Tyson then said a few words with regard to the authors of the articles to be presented to us--in translations--at this meeting. Of the first she said she had met Mr. Edward Rod , but did not find him specially entertaining in conversation, which is generally the case with French authors, and still more so with German ones. She made an exception with Max O’Rell, who had lived in England, and had married an English woman. But Mr. Rod’s writings were different from his conversation. Of the second author to be presented to our consideration, Mathilde Serao, she as, we were told the first Italian woman to take the prominent place she holds among Italian novelists. She represents the reaction from the materialistic school of literature of which [Emile] Zola in France and D’Annunzio in Italy are the chief expositors. This reaction recognizes that there are a hundred things we see in life, for which there is no need to put them into novels. Mathilde Serao--it has been said--has “cut out D’Annunzio in Italian Fiction.”
The first article of the programme
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was then given by Miss Elizabeth Lester Mullin, and was Atlanta, translated from the French of Edward [Edouard] Rod. The author professes to be not at all frightened by the advent of the “new woman,” nor by her demands for female suffrage, equality and independence;--being sure that the “eternal womanliness” will always assert itself in good women. He gives the story of an American girl in Europe, who, at fourteen, dresses--so far as she can--acts and talks like a boy, and at eighteen is frank, outspoken, strong and self reliant. But at the touch of all conquering love, she becomes the true, self-sacrificing, loving woman--and wife,--the story that has been telling itself from century to century.
The next article was given by Miss Marie Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins],--a translation from the Italian of Mathilde Serao--being “Select Passages and a Sketch of the Author.” Miss Perkins told us that Mathilde Serao is a native of Naples, and shows that mingling of the Greek and Italian types much seen in the southern part of Italy. Her father was a partisan of that King, Francis[,] from whom Zola took the hero of his “Kings in Exile.” Her father was also an editor, and she was educated with journalistic surroundings. She has travelled in Europe,
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is married to a writer, and has four sons who adore their mother. She is opposed to the absence of morality in Art. Miss Perkins then gave us two chapters from Mathilde Serao’s novel, “The Conquest of Rome.” The first one described a ball at the Quirinal. It was an exquisite description of the lovely queen, and of the three hundred ladies, who wait like statues of grace and beauty, all with the same ball room smile for their faces, for the few special words of queenly courtesy that each is to receive. Then we were given a description of Rome asleep, or of the Eternal City seeming to sleep, with the strong, watchful, adverse focus of humanity--perhaps--biding their time to awaken; or to show that they have never slept. Rome, it was said, gives herself to no one--but some one must conquer her. And then followed a heroic description of the young hero who will conquer Rome.
Mrs. Tyson called attention to the excellence of the translations made by the two young ladies of her Committee, which met the immediate response of their fellow members.
The meeting adjourned.
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Meeting of November 14th, 1899.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, November 14th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], Chairman of the Committee on Essayists.
The President called the meeting to order; and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of November 7th. The President gave notice of the Musical Recital by Miss Florence Giesy to be given on November 28th, at the Arundell Club. The notice of Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller’s Lecture before the Audubon Society was updated.
The President announced that she had some connected lists of the Officers with their Chairmen to furnish to those members who did not already possess them.
Mrs. Cautley, Chairman of the Committee on Essays and Essayists[,] then gave a few “Notes” on the books she had read during the past summer. The first was, she said, “The Etchingham Letters,” a literary essay; and the second, “Mrs. Oliphant’s Life.” It was a moral
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essay. She spoke too of articles in the magazines, especially of one in the November “McClure’s” called “A Child’s Letters, to her Husband” which had given her exquisite pleasure.
We next had an article called “The Shirra,” given by Miss Evelyn [Eveline] Rieman Early,--the Shirra being the great magician of the Tweed, Sir Walter Scott. Miss Early had collected some pleasant stories told by Scott’s friends and neighbors. They related his talk by the wayside to the drovers, or to the strangers he met. We were told of his favorite dog, Maida, who one day successfully robbed him of a fine piece of beef secured for a company dinner,--beef was a luxury in that part of Scotland. But when Maida had outrun his master, Sir Walter instead of cursing the dog, or scolding the cook, philosophically resigned himself to his daily mutton. Miss Early spoke of Walter Scott’s first love--the girl who had the fate to inspire his affection, but not respond to it. We were told too of one of his early associates, who long survived him; and who, at ninety years old,--remembering only the things of his youth,--one day
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believed that Scott had been paying him a visit: related his cheerful conversation and was surprised that his daughter had not also seen the illustrious visitor. Miss Early closed with Andrew Lang’s tribute to Scott, dwelling on the feeling with which his admirers regard him, as a still living friend.
The next article was by Mrs. Sidney Turner [Clara B. Newman Turner], and was called “Some Recent Notes on Music.” Mrs. Turner appropriately introduced her article with a short poem, referring to the ships that came to her in the summer time, and to the treasures of land and sea they brought her. She spoke of the best and truest music that comes to us in life, and that will turn at last into “the music of the spheres.” “Have we thought how much of life can be music?” She spoke of travelling through the State of Maine, and of hearing the echoes of music coming with the winds as she was driving through the woods. At first she thought it was the distant sounds from a country fair then in progress, but going too far for that, she asked the driver “if he heard the music too?”--and was told that it was the sound of the wind itself through the telegraph wires overhead; an
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exalted aeolian harp. Then she heard the song of the lark; and not even the impressive music of the Boston Symphony concerts nor that of the Kneisel Quartette could dispel the impression of the music of the woods.
Mrs. Turner then spoke of the American Guild of Organists,--with two hundred members--who are seeking to raise and en[n]oble our Church music with the approval of Bishop Potter and other distinguished clergymen, as well as of musicians. She then spoke of a book devoted to a new system of notation, by a graduate of Yale College,--which has the patronage of the University of Gostingen. She then spoke of the the death of Johan[n] Strauss, the Waltz King, and of his deserved popularity at home and abroad.
Mrs. Turner next gave a vivid description of the great German ovation of August 12th, 1899, given to Joseph Joachim, the eminent Hungarian violinist, after his sixty years of public performances. Again she spoke of her sojourn in Maine last summer. She had never before heard the bird’s music of Nature’s Orchestra as fully and melodiously given; but she remembered that she, in former years, had been there in August, when most of these musicians had engagements
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further South. She heard their Sabbath music,--then came the sound of a piano from a little cottage, and of a banjo playing “Nearer, my God, to Thee.” And then the Church bells began to ring. It was the symphony to which human hearts could give their “Amen,” and she could respond to the line of “Pippa Passes,” “God’s in His Heaven; all’s well with the world.”
The next article was by Mrs. Charles H. Beebe [Mary H. Beebe], and was called “A Brief Definition of Psychology.” Mrs. Beebe spoke of Psychology as a science which seems to be still in its infancy. She went on to speak of the great departments of human knowledge, such as Astronomy and Chemistry, which have grown out of error and superstition into science. The usual definition of Psychology is the science of mind. Mrs. Beebe then took up mind as we know it, as distinguished from matter, and as developed in thought and sentiments. She referred to the attempts made to localize thought and faculties, and to comprehend mental phenomena. She spoke of the speculative manner of treating the subject, and of the experimental methods in patient study of mental processes. She reviewed the work of Hudson, and also of the the works of Herbert Spencer, [Thomas Henry] Huxley, and [James Mark?] Baldwin. She spoke of the relation of
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Psychology to its kindred science Biology. She reviewed what has come to be known as thought transference or clairvoyance. The article was of much interest and research comments were made by Mrs. Bullock and others. The meeting adjourned.
Meeting of November 21st, 1899.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, November 21st, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Lizette Woodworth Reese, Chairman of the Committee on Modern Poetry.
The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of November 14th. Miss Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese], Chairman of the Committee, gave some “Notes” on the recent books of poetry published in England and America, including critical notices of the writings of Davidson, [William Butler] Yeats, Miss [Louise Imogen] Guiney, and others.
The first article of the programme was a poem written by our honorary member, Miss Grace Denio Litchfield, “In the Forum of Justice,” which was read by Miss Reese. It recalled vividly and picturesquely
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the inexorable law by which the victor’s laurel is the symbol of some aspirant’s defeat.
The next article was by Miss Ellen Duvall, and was on “The Revival of Byron.” Miss Duvall traced the career of this poet, who, as “the Byron of our grandmothers,” has received extreme praise and unqualified censure. He came from an honorable race, nevertheless he was the son of a profligate father, and a shrewish mother. He has been considered imbued with the spirit of the French Revolution. But, we were reminded, the French Revolution began one hundred years before the taking of the Bastille, with the “Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,” in 1685. The cauldron boiled and bubbled; but seemed only to boil over in 1789. Miss Duvall went on to describe the revolutionary spirit in France, and even in England, in the 18th century, and its effect on people in both countries,--most especially on authors and their works. Byron was the child of revolutionary times, and represented much that was the best and strongest in a revolt against all tyranny. He was shy, vain, and passionate, but generous and loving by nature. “He was the child crying for the moon, as perhaps we are--all of us--in some sort.” “His poetry was full of the idea of perfect freedom,”
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apparently, “a very pretty moon to cry for.” He was the brother of Marlowe, who dreamed of power; and of Shelley, who dreamed of a liberty “afar from the sphere of our sorrow.” Miss Duvall told of the great fame Byron gained from his poems, and of the great shocks his works gave to English Society. She spoke of his ill assorted marriage, to a bride who “hoped he would soon get over his bad habit of writing verses.” She went on to his self imposed exile, and his early death, while taking part in the Greek Revolution of 1824. Miss Duvall gave well balanced criticisms of Byron’s poems; saying that they are not perfect pictures, but only portions of them seem to take us off our feet. She spoke of his “Doge of Venice,” in which is, she told us, a woman who could stand by Browning’s Pompilia. She dwelt on the noble force of short poems like “The Destruction of Sennacherib.”
We were next given two poems by Miss Virginia Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud]. They were read by Mrs. T. J. Morris [Mrs. Thomas J. Morris]. The first was “An Autumn Song,” and seemed to give the true feeling of the fall of the year to all of us. The second was “A Sonnet,” and was so pleasing to Miss Cloud’s fellow members that it was read a second time. The President reminded us of a
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recent complimentary notice of Miss Cloud’s poems in a paper of our own city.
The next article was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], and was on “Henry Timrod.” Mrs. Cautley said there are but meagre materials for a biography of Timrod. He was born in South Carolina, and published his first poem in 1860, which received recognition and welcome from New York papers. He was a Confederate soldier, was afterwards an editor, failed in health, was much impoverished, and died in 1867. His writings again came into notice in 1877, and now in 1899 there is a revival of interest in them. It is pleasant to know that their worth was first recognized in the North, the section he fought against, and hated all his life. Mrs. Cautley remarked that if the South had known the North, she would not have hated her neighbors, and if the North had known the South, she would not have hated us. --”we of the South are so lovable.” We are older; we have rapid transit, and clearer vision, mental and physical, than we had thirty years ago. Then two different poets were admired in America,--Longfellow and Poe. Longfellow was imbued with the spirit of German poetry. The South was still too much dominated by the spirit
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of the English classics, and the rules of Mr. Pope. A pure poetic rill burst forth when Timrod wrote his “Spring in South Carolina.” Mrs. Cautley read this poem, and some others. One was called “Why Silent?” and was remarkable for expressing the poet’s idea that, when he had given up to speech the thought dear to himself, he could only feel that he had thrown it away. He wrote from a high plane and pure mind, and his early death was a great loss to good literature.
We were next given a poem by Miss Lizette Reese, called “The Present.” Miss Reese gave voice--clearly and finely--to our need of--not poetry, but the Poet of the Present, who shall sing the song, and speak the word of our own strong, living time.
The Programme called next for “The Man with the Hoe,”--”A Discussion by the Club.” Mrs. Wrenshall, our President, said that at the request of Miss Reese, she would read Edwin Markham’s Poem, “The Man with the Hoe,”--and announced that she would endeavor to do so from the point of view of the author. She gave due expression to the “dumb terror that shall reply to God, after the silence of the centuries.” Miss Reese said this piece of blank verse was not Greek, but Hebraic. The poem, she thought, gave a one sided view and left out the law of
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compensation. Many men, without hoes, have no appreciation of Plato, nor of the suing of the Pleiades. There must be two opinions on Markham’s geyser of words, and all were requested to give their views. Mrs. Cautley said that attention had been drawn to what was not plagiarism, but remarkable literary coincidence. She read an extract from Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus, giving some of the same sentiments and expressions in prose as those of Markham’s poem. Mr. Markham seems to have been reading the letters of Arthur Young, the Englishman, who travelled through France in 1777, and described the wretched French peasantry, in such wise, that we do not wonder over the revolution which culminated a dozen years afterwards. In France now, the peasant and the children can rise. The distinguished Louis Pasteur was the son of “a man with a hoe.”
Miss Reese read a poetical answer to Mr. Markham, written by Mrs. John D. Early [Maud Graham Early]. Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock], Vice President, spoke of the subject under discussion in its artistic, [? ettrowgraphic], and generally scientific aspects, treating all views with clearness and force. She acquitted Mr. Markham of plagiarism, although the poem of Miss Chase of California is very much like “The Man with the Hoe.” Her poem was written in 1893; and Mr.
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Markham was in California then also, he takes up the subject where she leaves off. A portion of Miss Chase’s poem was read, showing that her writing has not the rigor of Mr. Markham’s.
Mrs. Morris said “the man with the hoe” in Millet’s painting is not hopeless, he can listen to the Angelus and has some spiritual existence. By request, Miss Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese] read a letter written by Mr. Markham himself to her. In this he says the “funniest thing he has heard with regard to his poem,["] is, that he had “the American Farmer” in his mind when he wrote it, but that the American Farmer is as far from the man described as the North star is from the nethermost star. “It was not labor,” he said, against which he meant to protect, “but the degradation of labor.” The President said that Mr. Markham’s own career was a refutation of the hopelessness of poverty among us. His father died when he was five years old, he had a deaf and dumb brother, and a rather silent mother. He was sent to live on a ranch, and not well treated, but he is a poet now, and not “the man with the hoe.”
After a few remarks by Mrs. Franklin [Lizette Woodworth Reese], Miss Reese was requested to read her letter from Mr. Markham again, and the meeting adjourned.
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Meeting of November 28th, 1899.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held at the rooms of the Club, corner Cathedral & Franklin Streets, on Tuesday, November 28th. The meeting having been called to order by the President, in the absence of the Recording Secretary, the minutes of the preceding meeting were read by Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley]. As usual, the minutes were unanimously approved.
The President then made certain announcements. The various Committees which will meet during the month of Dec., together with the date of their appointed days, were given out.
The President also announced to the Club the presentation of a book “The Newsboy’s Christmas Party” by the author Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], who, the President said, made her gift “with loving greeting.” The President made some appreciative remarks, and called attention to the fact that Miss Zacharias’ book was published by the author and printed under her supervision by the Friedenwald Co. of this city.
The President also called attention to the paper of the “American Ramabai Association,” a paper which tells of the work done by the Pandita Ramabai and
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her helpers during the Summer of 1899. As the 28th was the last Tuesday of the month, it was a Salon, and the only paper given was by an Honorary Member, Miss Alice C. Fletcher, the paper was upon William Blake. As a piece of literary, critical, and biographical writing, the paper was so finely interwoven that it seems almost a pity to unravel it in order to give it in synopsis. However Miss Fletcher began by saying that ordinary standards to not apply to genius so elusive and rare as Blake. All his life long he was possessed by the sense of the need of character in all artwork; that it is not enough that the artists should be something but it must be some one particular Thing, determinate from all others. Hence Blake gave to a poem so simple in wording construction as ["]The Lamb["] a force, distinction, and character which make it unique (Let me say in passing that to perceive this, one has only to compare it with Wordsworth’s poem ["]The Pet Lamb.["]) Blake was born of poor parents,--petty tradespeople, in 1757, and died in 1827 at the age of 70. All his life long Blake struggled with poverty, but forced it to bless him before the break of death when he let it go. Nevertheless, poverty has its disadvantages. Owing to a scanty education,
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Blake was not many-sided and to the end he underrated schools and schoolmasters. And yet because of this very absence of scholarly tradition, Blake’s genius was left the freer to pursue and achieve its own purpose. For an artist he was singularly free form classic traditions and ideals, though he shows a Greek sense in beauty in his strength, delivery and directness of line. His imagination, far more spiritual than intellectual, was deeply impressed by Gothic Architecture which he believed to embody more completely and finely than any other the truth of man’s spiritual life. Like Charles Lamb, Blake was urban not rural, and hence his poems on Nature have all the charm and freshness of a personal discovery. With most men, the objective and subjective are clearly distinguishable, but with Blake imagination and reality were so transposed that they become well nigh interchangeable; every abstract thought took concrete form; ideas were regarded as men, and men as ideas. He began life as an ardent Revolutionist but his enthusiasm was checked and cooled by the excesses of the French Revolution. Once he was an involuntary member of a mob, and the experience was as unpleasing as salutary. Like real genius generally he was,
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when roused, a true judge of men and affairs, perceived that Paine ran political risk, and was instrumental in sending him off to France a few hours before the warrants were out for his arrest. A lover of liberty in its true sense, Blake had no sympathy with Napoleon’s militarism, and saw clearly the inadequacy and danger of militarism as a form of government. “Let us teach Napoleon” he said--and the lesson is as necessary today, “that empire follows upon the arts and not the acts upon empire.” For he saw that all the arts are based upon peace, and the general satisfaction of a people. Blake was non social, not from lack of sympathy but through power of absorption in ideas. Hence his poems are a [? dumbation] of his spiritual life; for he believed in spirit with a fullness and strength inconceivable by imaginative minds, and is one of the few geniuses who literally dreamed dreams and saw visions.
In personal appearance Blake was rather short, but strong and well made with a finely individual face, and wonderful eyes expressive of spiritual ecstasy and tenderness. His manner had that inherent dignity and elegance which mark the gentleman; a manner which may be worn by many, but is truly one only by a constant sculpture
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of the soul. Blake’s wife won him by her pity, he having fallen with the wiles of a coquette. This pitying maiden Blake educated, and taught her to read, write, draw, paint and engrave, so that she became eventually to him a second self. Blake, both in himself and in his work differ so diametrically from the 18th century, that he stands as a protest against its ideals and thoughts. Owing to his lack of scholarly training he was disinclined to work over his poetry, and so leaves it “wet” with the first spray of inspiration. Nature, he thought, should be learned by heart, and then should be remembered and reproduced like words. (This let me say in passing, is poor reasoning, and were it possible, would be a terrible and self-destructive feat. For memory is a kind of copy, and where there is too much memory, there is no creation. Blake himself is the best refutation of his own theory. Pure memory never creates.)
To Blake the idea was the one reality, and he said that “the world of the imagination is the world of eternity.” Double visioned, he would serve no Master but the ideal and believed himself to be under the guidance of heavenly messengers. The sea of space and color roared behind, and spiritual art impelled him forward even as Moses and the
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Israelites through the Red Sea. Indeed the waters of reality, like those of the Red Sea, stood in a heap on either hand and Blake’s imagination passed through dry-shod to the Promised Land. His imagination was so strong that he saw not the rising Sun for instance, but a company of Angels, crying “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.”
Blake excelled in three arts, engraving, painting, poetry,--yet as no matter how many languages a man may speak he thinks in but one, so Blake’s chief success was in engraving. By this is he best known, and by this he made his living. He had great skill in miniature painting, but would not undertake it lest copying should interfere with his creative power. For a like reason--he declined to paint hand screens for Lady Rathhurst, since he held his gift as a trust to be used for spiritual ends only. He never allowed worldly considerations to turn him from the ideal, and yet Palmer said of Blake that “among the intellectuals” he was the only happy man. Most of Blake’s works is the joint production of poet and artist, but no library contains a complete set of his works, not even the British Museums. “Songs of Innocence” produced at an outlay of 1 10 is the work of Blake and his wife, the beautiful, highly finished cloud plates
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are done by hand. From this work Mrs. Fletcher read a description of night. From “Songs of Experience,” thought out five years later, Miss Fletcher read “The Garden of Love.” Blake’s Cosmic Philosophy, if so dry a term may be applied to the singing thought, lacks critical restraint. Blake had read Swedenborg, and thought all restraint demoniacal. The Bible was to Blake the book of books, and was the source of his finest inspiration and strength. He disbelieved in the oriental idea of the duality of Nature and Spirit, of mind and matter; he believed that there was no enmity [between] them and that they were at bottom one. Miss Fletcher touched upon Blake’s vague idea of the difference between philosophic truth and historic truth, philosophic truth being permanent “States in Man,” while men themselves pass on. Miss Fletcher said she did not feel equal to the unravelling of Blake’s cosmogony. The artist never painted in oil, having a prejudice against it, but he excelled in watercolors, and knew the value of color quite as well as the value of line. Among his notable successes are the illustrations of the “Canterbury Tales,” while his illustrations of Job are not excelled, even by the work of the Italian Masters, for in Blake’s world there is the same direct naivete and
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pure faith. So gifted was Blake that he used sometimes to sing his verse in spontaneous melody. Blake is, said Miss Fletcher, to be compared to Nature herself rather than to other men, and to go through this work is like travelling through Nature’s wilds. He lived among men, yet was not of them, and dwelt apart in a world of imagination into which even with the aid of his threefold art, but few are permitted to enter. Throughout her paper Miss Fletcher illustrated and enforced her opinion by a remarkably fine reading of certain of Blake’s poems. At the close of the paper some appreciative remarks were made by Mrs. R. K. Cautley on behalf of the Club, the remainder of the afternoon was spent in social intercourse and the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of December 5th, 1899.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held at the rooms of the club, corner Cathedral and Franklin Streets, on Tuesday, Dec. 5th. The meeting was called to order by the President. In the absence of the Recording Secretary the minutes of the previous meeting were read by Miss Duvall.
The President called attention to the “Municipal Art Association,” and commended
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the work of this association to the consideration of the ladies present, not as members of the Literary Club, but as residents and citizens of Baltimore. Apropos of the educational value of works of art and of pictures, Mrs. Sidney Turner [Clara B. Newman Turner] told of a Bellboy in a Hotel who had noticed and spoken of, a copy of the Sistine Madonna.
The programme for the afternoon was then taken up. The papers presented were by members of the Committee on Philanthropy, Mrs. J. M. Carter [Florence Carter], Chairman.
The first paper, or discourse rather, was by Mrs. Waller Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock] and was upon “the recent recommendations of the ‘Joint Committee of Secondary and Higher Education,’” which has been at work the last four years. Mrs. Bullock called attention to the change in relative position and importance within the last decade, of the elementary schools, a reform in them, indeed, and spoke the two Commissions, one of ten members, the other of fifteen, appointed in the interest of education, at the time of the World’s Fair. The idea with regard to the Elementary Schools is, that they should be as “uniform” as possible and also as “flexible” as possible; not “uniform” in studies, but uniform in excellence, thorough, and flexible in their adaptability to various and varying needs. Mrs. Bullock
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quoted from articles and reports by President Eliot of Harvard and the President of the Leland Stanford University.
The second paper on Educational Reform was to have been given by Mrs. Thomas Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill]; but as Mrs. Hill was absent, her paper was withdrawn.
The next article on the programme was “The Novelist in Reform,” and was given by Mrs. Robert M. Wylie. Mrs. Wylie [Elizabeth J. Wylie] spoke of the great part good fiction has played in bringing grave social abuses to the attention and moral considerations of men. Mrs. Wylie spoke of Charles Kingsley, of Charles Read, and above all of Dickens, as having written novels with a purpose to some purpose. School reform, factory reform, sanitary reform, prison and labor reforms. All three were well treated upon, and Mrs. Wylie read very effectively from Dickens’ work in illustration of what she said.
The third article of the programme[,] “The Poet in Reform,” was by Mrs. J. D. Early [Maud Graham Early], and was read by Mrs. Thomas J. Morris. Mrs. Early spoke of the power poetry has to touch the heart long before even distressing facts affect the head, that men will grant to sympathy what they will withhold from both justice and reason. Mrs. Early spoke of Hood as one of the poets who has, by his
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“Song of the Shirt,” his “Bridge of Sighs,” and “The Lady’s Dream,” appealed most deeply and everlastingly to men’s sense of what is due his fellow man. Mrs. Morris read very effectively, Hood’s poem “The Lady’s Dream.” Mrs. Early spoke of the work Charles Kingsley had accomplished with regard to English Game Laws, and Mrs. Morris read the poem “The Merry Brown Rabbits are Leaping,” etc. Mrs. Early also spoke of Ebenezer Eliott and his poem (also read by Mrs. Morris) “The Artisan’s Outdoor Hymn,” and lastly Mrs. Morris closed Mrs. Early’s paper by reading the poem “Man,” by Mrs. Florence Earle Coates, one of our Honorary Members.
The programme of the afternoon being ended, the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of December 12th, 1899.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held at the rooms of the Club, corner Franklin and Cathedral Streets, Tuesday, December 12th. In the absence of the President, the First Vice President, Mrs. Waller Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock] presided.
Mrs. Bullock, after calling the meeting to order, and after the reading of the minutes of the preceding meeting, read a letter from
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Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull [Francese Litchfield Turnbull], a letter expressive of regret, that owing to frail health, she was not able to be present at the meetings.
Mrs. Bullock announced to the Club the bereavement of Miss Crane [Lydia Crane], the Corresponding Secretary, in the death of her brother. It was moved by Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney], seconded by Miss Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud], that resolutions of sympathy on behalf of the Club should be sent to Miss Crane, and Miss Cloud was appointed to draw up the resolutions. It was announced that a meeting of the Board would be held on Tuesday, Dec. 19th.
The programme for the afternoon was given by the Committee on Music, Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias] being the Chairman.
The first article on the programme was given by Miss Zacharias, and was on the “Song Form.” Miss Zacharias began by saying that the song as we now have it,is founded upon the primitive folk-song, and shows form that a development through the Troubadours, Minnesingers and Master singers down to our own day. Opera too, is founded upon the early songs, being simply verse set to music. Miss Zacharias said that songs might be divided into two great classes, “Songs of the Hour, and Songs for all Time.” Miss Zacharias spoke at some length and in detail of two
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songs, Beethoven’s Adelaide, and Schubert’s Serenade. Miss Zacharias called attention to the fact that in each of these fine songs, so different in words and music, it is nevertheless Nature which in each instance, seems to prompt the singer to call upon the Beloved. Schubert wrote in all 600, of which 100 were published before his death, and is a Master of Song. In his Serenade verse and music exactly correspond, for Schubert was a true “tone poet,” and so married music to immortal verse by the law of harmony, that, in the artistic perfection of [? unim] that law was forgotten.
Miss Zacharias spoke of Sidney Lanier’s poem “Sunset,” set to music by Dudley Buck. Miss Zacharias also spoke of ostensible 'songs' which nevertheless are not to be sung; and mentioned some of Field’s and some of Stevenson’s. While other “songs” almost seem to sing themselves, as Tennyson’s “Break, Break, Break,” “Tears, Idle Tears,” and Kingsley’s “Three Fishes.” Miss Zacharias finished her article by reading a “Legend on Tradition,” called “Holy Obedience,” in which it was shown that the spirit of true devotion constituted the worth and beauty of the music.
The next article on the programme was by Mrs. Percy Reese [Elizabeth Reese], and was called “Mendelsohn in Rome.” In this article, Mrs.
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Reese dwelt particularly upon Mendelsohn’s visit to Rome, and the effect which the Eternal City had upon him. Mendelsohn made a marked distinction between music of the intellect and music of the emotions, and found the emotional music of the Italians, on the whole, disappointing. He declared that nowhere in Rome was music so unmusical as at the Opera.
Mrs. Reese also spoke of the necessity of educating children properly in music, and said that it was quite possible so to train children musically as to make them to appreciate good music, and this at a comparatively early age.
The last article on the programme was called “The Sonata Form,” and was by Mrs. J. Elliott Gilpin. The subject was well wrought out, and traced clearly the historic development of that music form, known as the sonata. The Sonata form, Mrs. Gilpin said, first showed the effect of Ecclesiastical music, and the Sonata is the opposite of the Cantata. Mrs. Gilpin showed the relationship of the Sonata to the Canzones of the 15th century, to the music of the viols with voice accompaniment, to the suite which did not at first differ materially in outline form the Sonata, and spoke of the light which
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Corelli throws upon Sonata development. Mrs. Gilpin spoke of the work of Scarlatti, of Sebastian Bach, and particularly of Emanuel Bach, the most prominent composer of Sonatas of his day. Mrs. Gilpin rapidly reviewed the work of Clementi, and of Mozart and Haydn . The difference, she said, between Mozart and Haydn is one of temperament and expression. The Sonata form culminated with Beethoven whose style is peculiarly free, rich, and unaffected. Beethoven introduced a new element into the Sonata form, making it first, an unlimited field for the expression of human Emotion, and second, giving great expansion to the Idea. The treatment of Ideas in a musical manner found a full exponent in Schumann, but none who have come after Beethoven have really added anything to the Sonata form, the works of Beethoven’s successors have been more in the nature of commentary. Brahms, for instance, has not added to the list of Sonatas, for his quartettes and quintettes are as much Sonatas as those so named. Two hundred years were required for the structural development and full perfection of the Sonata. After the reading of Mrs. Gilpin’s paper, a brief discussion on “Song forms” was held, and shortly after, the meeting adjourned.
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Minutes of a Board Meeting
A meeting of the Board of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held on Tuesday, Dec. 19th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.
There were present nine members of the Board of Management, five officers and four ordinary members. The officers were the President, First Vice President, Second Vice President, Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer, Mrs. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney] and Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall].
After calling the meeting to order, the President laid before the Board a resignation, that of Mrs. Oliver Hoblitzell [Eliza W. Hoblitzell]. It was proposed that before accepting Mrs. Hoblitzell’s resignation, she be asked to reconsider the decision in the matter.
Two names of proposed new members were then laid for consideration before the Board. The names were those of Mrs. Gambill, and of Miss Starr. They are to be duly proposed and seconded at the next meeting.
The subject of the Christmas Salon was then introduced and discussed. It was proposed and agreed to unanimously that the salon should be held in the afternoon from 4 to 6 P. M., instead of in the
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evening. Expenses were not to exceed fifteen dollars $15.00. Members of the Club were to be permitted to bring or to have invited two guests each, one or both to be gentlemen if the Members inviting so desired.
After a general discussion of details, the cards of invitation, the younger members of the Club who will be asked to assist the Housekeeping Committee on this occasion of the Salon, the meeting adjourned.
Minutes of a Board Meeting
A meeting of the Board of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, was held on Tuesday, Oct. 24th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. There were present the President, First Vice President, Treasurer, and four members, Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], Mrs. Uhler [Pearl D. Uhler], Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall]. In the absence of the Recording Secretary, a member of the Board acted as Secretary.
The minutes of the previous meeting, that of October 10th, were first read and approved.
The name of Mrs. George Dame having been before the Board for consideration for the required time, the election of the lady to membership in the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was the first business
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acted upon. Mrs. Dame was proposed by Miss Thomas Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill], and the nomination was seconded by Mrs. Edward Stabler [Eliza Butler Stabler], and Mrs. Gilpin [Mrs. J. Elliott Gilpin]. Mrs. Dame having been, therefore, duly nominated and seconded and her qualifications for membership vouched for, she was unanimously elected.
The next matter laid before the Board was the resignation of a member, Mrs. Peary. In a note of resignation to the President, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall], Mrs. Peary expressed her regret at being obliged to sever her connection with the Club; her resignation, she said, was “for the present.” The resignation was accepted.
The next matter brought up for consideration was a question of ways and means, a question of an allowance to the Chairman of the Housekeeping Committee for current expenses. Mrs. Uhler [Pearl D. Uhler], member of the Housekeeping Committee was listened to; and after some discussion of the weekly expenses of the Club, payment of “Mary,” payment for flowers, etc. and the cost of the monthly salons, it was noted that Mrs. Easter [Marguerite E. Easter], Chairman of House Committee should receive $10.00 weekly (ten dollars) for the necessary expenses.
The President called attention to the need and for care and consideration in the expenditure of the Club’s money, and for prudence in the management of its finances, as it is proposed to meet all this year’s expenses by
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this year’s revenue, and to leave a fairly reasonable contingent sum in the Treasury as the nucleus of next year’s money.
The next matter calling for attention was the question of invitations to resident and non-resident guests. It was unanimously agreed that the privileges of the Club were cheapened and its prestige lessened, by indiscriminate and broadcast invitations. Attention was again called to By-laws, 4 and 5 (See By Laws) and the necessity for a strict adherence to them. Any abuse of the power of invitation lies on the side of resident guests. And to obviate the possibility of any one person being invited too often, it was decided that the Corresponding Secretary should keep a list of all persons invited within the limits of the Club year; so that if any invitation were inadvertently repeated, the person inviting might be notified that her friend had been already present. It was also decided that no one member ought to ask more than a reasonable number of people to any one meeting, or to any Special meeting; that what number should constitute this “reasonable number,” was not mentioned.
The next matter considered was that of decorating on All Soul’s Day the graves of the Authors and Artists of Maryland. The Chairman of this Committee is Miss Emma F. Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], and it was proposed to associate with
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the ladies of the Committee; Mrs. Thomas Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill] and Mrs. R. M. Wylie [Elizabeth J. Wylie]. It was proposed and agreed upon that the sum of $5.00, five dollars, should be placed at Mrs. Bret’s disposal for use in the purpose of this memorial decoration. The graves to be visited are those of
J. B. Booth.
E. A. Poe.
S. Teackle Wallis.
Col. R. M. Johnston.
Sidney Lanier.
Brantz Meyer.
Thomas Rinehart.
Francis Scott Key.
Adam Itzel.
Professor Crouch.
Professor Leonce Rabillion.
and
Mrs. Mary Spear Tiernan.
Mrs. Margaret Easter.
Mrs. Almina Lincoln Phelps.
The hour being late, the meeting adjourned.
N. B. Owing to some misapprehension, the Minutes of the Board Meeting of October 24th, 1899, were not written in order.
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Meeting of October 24th, 1899.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held on Tuesday, October 24th, 1899 at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.
In the absence of the Recording Secretary, the minutes of the preceding meeting were omitted. The President read from the Constitutions, the By-Laws concerning the inviting of guests, and asked that when invitations are requested, the Corresponding Secretary shall be given enough time to enable the House Committee to form an idea of the number of guests expected.
The President then announced that the Committee for the Decoration of the graves of Artists and Authors of Maryland would be at the Club, on All Souls’ Day, November 2nd at ten o’clock, to receive such flowers as might be sent for that purpose.
The first paper on the programme was by Mrs. Frances R. Stevens, “A Study of Some Austrian Paintings.” It was principally descriptive of two paintings in the Austrian Section of the Centennial of 1876;--the first entitled “Bereaved,” which was an exquisite color study of a dead child among flowers. The essential value of this picture was a group of angels, visible only when viewed from a certain angle, or direction, and being poetically
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suggestive of the blessing sometimes veiled by bereavement.
The second was Markart’s “Catarina Cornaro Receiving the Homage of Venice.” This interesting and celebrated picture represented Catarina Cornaro, the noble Venetian, who lived in the 15th century, who as we know was married to James II of Cypress, and who, after the death of her husband and son, relinquished the crown of Cypress in favor of Venice and retired to Asola--Browning’s Asola--where her palace may yet be seen.
The second paper, “A Word about Hands,” by Miss Maria Middleton [Maria H. Middleton], was a most discerning article on the physiognomy of the hands, the hand as the main organ of expression, being the support of the brain; also hands which have become historic;--hands whose beauty has made them immortal in sculpture; hands considered as types, such as the apathetic and gentle hand, with its grace of repose, and slight moral activity, with work that is god in mass and disappointing in detail. Again, the demonstrative hand expressing strength, determination, generosity and concealment. The hands which have been made significant through poetry and real and infinitive beauty of that hand which is best beloved, which has gotten no soil, and which belongs to one who ascends
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unto the holy hill, “because he hath clean hands and a pure heart.”
Miss Brent then read a descriptive article on Trees, their human suggestiveness, their poetic expressiveness, the mystic and emblematic usage of trees in the scriptures, also traditional and historic trees.
This paper closed with at tale of “Alladdin’s Rock,” a tragic love story of Indian life.
Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall] closed the programme with the reading of two poems by Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], entitled “Wages” and “The Tortoise.”
The meeting adjourned.
Meeting of December 19th, 1899.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held at the rooms of the Club, corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets, on Tuesday, December 19th, the President Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall] presided.
After calling the meeting to order, the President announced that the “Newsboy’s Christmas Festival” would be held on Saturday, December 23rd, at Mannechor Hall, Lombard and Eutaw Streets, and that through the kindness of our fellow member, Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], all who wished to attend this interesting festival were invited to do so,
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tickets of admission were also distributed. The President then announced that the Christmas Salon of the Club would be held on Tuesday, December 26th, in the afternoon from 4 to 6 P. M. Every member would be permitted to invite two guests to the Salon, and these guests might be either ladies or gentlemen, at the option of the member inviting. Postal notices would be sent to the absent members of the Club, announcing the Salon, and the number of guests every member might ask.
The programme for the afternoon was then taken up. The programme was given by members of the Fiction Committee, of which Miss Virginia Woodward Cloud is Chairman. Miss Davis [Mary Dorsey Davis], being absent, the first article on the programme[,] “A Character of Carlsbad,” was omitted.
The next article on the programme was “A Story,” by Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney], a story telling of the experiences at Christmas of some little children, “Leftovers in Whirligig Court,” who had been gathered together by a lady, “Miss May,” their faithful teacher and friend. The children were taught to pray for the Firemen in the neighboring “Engine House,” and the firemen gave the children their first true knowledge of what a “real Christmas” may be. The next story
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called “Her Referee” was by Miss Louise Malloy. The story was cleverly told of a young actress who, on her marriage has retired from the stage. She is to be persuaded to return to the footlights, as her former manager has a part exactly suited to the young actress’ beauty and talents. He goes to see the young wife. She seems to heed his arguments and persuasions, and tells him to call the next day. When he calls, she gently declines his offer, and declares that a friend whose voice is all powerful has decided against her returning to the stage. Ushered into the friend’s presence in the hope of overcoming any and all disapproval, the surprised manager finds a year old baby, whose first and paramount claim is incontestable.
The next story was a “Christmas Tale” by Miss Cloud, a tale touched with humor and tenderness, and having a motherly elder sister for its heroine and chief figure.
The next article was a short character sketch of an old negro. It was by Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall].
The last story was for children and was by Mrs. Percy M. Reese [Elizabeth Reese], and was about a little Filipino boy “Tillo.” This boy was brought to a Virginia home by a young newspaper correspondent in whose charge the
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little Malay had been placed. The boy, his manners, predilections, broken English, and gentleness were all described: also the disappointment of the two American children at not finding the little Filipino more of a savage.
At the close of the programme, Mrs. Hill, by permission of the President, made an announcement of Elocutionary Reading and Impersonating to be given for the benefit of the “Maryland Patriotic Fund,” by Miss Gielon at “Heptosophis Hall,” Cathedral and Biddle Streets, on December 29th.
The meeting was adjourned.
Meeting of December 26th, 1899.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held at the rooms of the Club, corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets on Tuesday, December 26th. As it was the last Tuesday of the month, it was a Salon, the Christmas Salon. Guests had been invited for this occasion, and the rooms were very pretty and appropriate to the season.
After a few words of greeting and welcome from the President, the programme was taken up. The programme had been specially prepared by Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], Chairman of the afternoon,
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and consisted chiefly of music. As arranged it would have consisted of both vocal and instrumental music, but four of the chorus singers failed at the last moment without either explanation or excuse, so that Miss Zacharias had to depend entirely upon the instrumental music, which was most enjoyably given by Miss Coulson.
Miss Zacharias gave a short paper called “The Christmas Pie,” a paper for which Little Jack Horner’s immortal “Christmas Pie” served as an appropriate text. After the music, refreshments were served, and the remainder of the afternoon was passed in social intercourse.
The meeting adjourned.
Minutes of a Board Meeting.
A meeting of the Board of Management of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held at the rooms of the Club, on Tuesday, January 2nd. The President, Corresponding Secretary, and six members were present. Mrs. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], Mrs. Uhler [Pearl D. Uhler], Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney], Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], and Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall].
The minutes of the last meeting were not read, as they had been sent to Miss Crane, the Recording Secretary. The President
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announced the death of Mrs. Wilmer, and it was proposed that resolutions of sympathy should be drawn up and sent to Mrs. Wilmer’s family.
The resignation of Mrs. Hoblitzell was then read, and was with great regret, accepted. The proposed members of the Club for the election of whom the Board Meeting had been called, could not be elected, as they were not as yet regularly proposed and seconded. A short Board Meeting was announced to be held on Tuesday, January 9th, at 3 P. M.
The meeting then adjourned.
Meeting of January 2nd, 1900.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held at the Club rooms on Tuesday, January 2nd, 1900--the first meeting of the New Year. The President Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall] presided. After calling the meeting to order, the President made a few pleasant, and appropriate remarks of greeting and good cheer to the Club, wishing it a Happy New Year and many long years of good work, good fellowship and enjoyment.
The President then announced a course of Lectures for the benefit of the
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“Free Lectures in Public Schools,” and read the titles and the dates of those proposed Lectures.
The President then read out the programme for the present month, the various Committees which will hold meetings during the month, and desired that the programme should, as usual, be posted.
The President then announced to the Club the death of Mrs. Sarah J. Wilmer, who died on Christmas Day, December 25th, 1899. After appropriate expressions of appreciation and of regret, it was proposed that resolutions of sympathy on behalf of the Club should be sent to Mrs. Wilmer’s family. Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent] and Miss Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud] were requested to draw up fitting resolutions and to convey them to Mrs. Wilmer’s family. Regret was expressed that, owing to the season, the Club should not have been represented at Mrs. Wilmer’s funeral.
In the death of Mrs. Wilmer, the Club has sustained a distinct loss. Despite her frail health, she was most ready to take her part in the Club proceedings and as a member of the Fiction Committee she will be greatly missed.
The President then made a few remarks as to where we do, or do not stand, with regard to the Burning question, “Is this the
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19th or 20th Century?” and read from the Sun of Jan. 2nd a short notice of Flammarion the astronomer’s decision, that we are in the closing year of the nineteenth century.
The programme for the afternoon was then taken up. The Committee having it in charger was that on Essays and Essayists, Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley] being Chairman.
The first article on the programme was called “Book Notes,” by Mrs. Cautley. She spoke in commendation of two Essays, “Sweetness and Light” by Matthew Arnold; and “Style” by Walter Pater, “Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson” “Women and Economics,” Mrs. Stilson. “The Evolution of Woman[”] by E. R. Gamble (Mrs.) and in lighter vein a little book called “How to Cook Husbands,” which holds a mingling of fun and pathos, and has a very delicate literary touch.
The next article was a reading by Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias] from her recently published book “The Newsboy’s Christmas Party,” and the selections read increased a desire for more. Miss Zacharias by way of introduction read “Sesame and Lilies,” that the only reason for a book’s existence is, that the author should have something to say. She had, she said, something to say, for she wished to tell of the beginning of the yearly festival now given to the Newsboys; and had embodied her own experience and observations
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in her book. Among other interesting remarks, Miss Zacharias said that the first experience of hers with the newsboys had upset every theory she had ever held with regard to a child.
The President then made a few appreciative remarks in connection with Miss Zacharias’ reading and Mrs. J. T. Graham [Elizabeth Turner Graham] expressed her personal thanks for the book.
The next article on the programme was on “Spiritual Life in Modern Poetry,” by Mrs. J. T. Early [Maud Graham Early], and was read by Mrs. J. T. Morris [Mrs. John T. Morris]. Mrs. Early spoke of the modern development of Individualism together with the ever increasing sense of spiritual life. She quoted aptly from Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning as the great teachers of the truth of a spiritual life, and spoke particularly of the two latter poets in their search after God and truth. Browning, Mrs. Early said, is the most cheerful as well as the most intellectual of the modern poets, full of kindly feeling for his fellows without exaggerated pity. Browning teaches that we may love and know now, and look for real and fuller life hereafter.
The fourth article was by Miss Nicholas [Elizabeth Cary Nicholas], and was called, “Souvenir of Neapolitan Music.” This was an article devoted to reminiscences of travel, and dwelt more particularly upon the author’s experiences in that land of charm, Italy, and of the impressions and associations called forth be the music heard at Naples.
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The fifth and last article “The Coming of the Wise Men” was by Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney]. This paper was a study in “Comparative Religions.” It went to show how the human mind in its struggle towards the Divine, has focused, as it were, upon one Ideal, one Hope, a Being Who was indeed the “Desire of all nations,” so that Christianity, in certain of its aspects is not so new and different from all else, as to be wholly incomprehensible.
The paper was very able. At its conclusion the meeting adjourned. After the reading of Miss Nicholas’ paper, the President, Mrs. Wrenshall, being obliged to leave in order to keep an engagement, she requested the ex-President, Miss Brent, a member of the Board, to act as President pro tempore.
“My dear Mr. Wilmer,
At the meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club on Tuesday, January 2nd, it was resolved that we should express to you our sorrow in the loss of our fellow member, Mrs. Sarah Wilmer, whom we held in affection and esteem.
The officers and members of the Club extend their deep sympathy to you, and to Mrs. Wilmer’s family, in this loss, which we mutually have sustained.
Very sincerely yours,
Emma F. Brent, Virginia Woodward Cloud.”
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Meeting of January 9th, 1900.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held on Tuesday, January 9th, in the rooms of the Club corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall], the President, presided. After calling the meeting to order, the President said that she had just received a note from Miss Crane, the Recording Secretary, in which Miss Crane [Lydia Crane] expressed her love for the Club, and her hope to be soon again with us.
As there were no announcements, the programme for the afternoon was then taken up. This programme was given by the Committee on “Unfamiliar Records,” Mrs. Jordan Stabler [Ellen Austin Walker Stabler] being the Chairman.
The first article on the programme was by Miss Maria Middleton [Maria H. Middleton], and was called “Some Workers in Unfamiliar Records,” and described a little journey through the coal region of Pennsylvania, and some of the crystals and slate formations to be found there. Several beautiful specimens of these crystals and slates Miss Middleton had brought with her to show the Club members.
“Mauch Chunk” or Bear Mountain as the name signifies, is a noticeable feature of the Anthracite region which forms a little chain of its own in the Appalachian system. Miss Middleton described the appearance of the
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county in this region, and dwelt upon its inhabitants. They might, she said, be divided into three classes, mine owners, office workers, and miners. The miners were composed of many nationalities, Scandinavians, Scotch, Irish, Hungarians, Poles and Italians, while the mine-owners and their office workers were Americans. Miss Middleton spoke of the culture in the homes of the wealthy and well-to-do, and of the interest taken by the rich in the welfare of their neighbors, the miners proper, of a cooking school, for instance, and similar philanthropic undertakings.
The next article was by Miss Mary Dorsey Davis, and was called “Fragments form the Past.” Miss Dorsey began by speaking of the pleasure and importance of the past, how we weave from it fragments lessons for the present, and pictures of the future. Miss Davis quoted largely from four Colonial Newspapers, the “County Gazette,” the “Boston Journal,” the “American Advertiser,” and “Independent Ledger.” Politics chiefly, but also fashion, news, and advertisements filled these columns. It was noticeable that all these papers spoke of England as the “Mother Country,” according to James Otis, “The Brave Virginians” was a fashionable toast in Boston among the best company; news having just been received of Virginia’s action with regard to Colonial masters. There was also a description taken from the Maryland Gazette of the funeral of
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the Stamp Act. There was also a notice of a proposition made in England to paint disloyal Americans black, and to sell them as “slaves” to other plantations. There was a notice read that desirable drapery could be purchased at “The Blue Glove,” and “The Bunch of Grapes.” There was also the first review of a book, “Dr. Gregory’s celebrated ‘Advice to his Daughters.’” An extract was also read from an article in an English Magazine of that time, an article called “Epidemical Madness,” in which everybody was accounted mad,--king and commons,--gentle and simple.
The Third article was by Mrs. Thos. Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill], and was called “Retrospects.” Mrs. Hill opened her paper by recalling the fact that Kent Island was settled by William Clairborne under a grant from the Governor of Virginia, and antedated the settlement of the Calverts on the western Shore. Mrs. Hill spoke of “Chester Town,” as it was then called on Chester River, and of its being a Port of Entry early in the last century. Mrs. Hill spoke of the grant to the Tilghmans in 1659, and of Dr. Richard Tilghman who became owner of “Tilghman and Foxley Grove,” and of the “Hermitage,” another Tilghman place near Queenstown. To Simon Wilmur in 1690 was made a grant of Stepnay, or the White House Farm, likewise near Chester Town, so that there grew up there a flourishing settlement some years before Baltimore was founded. This “White House” still remains a
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possession of the descendants of the original owners. Mrs. Hill also spoke of the “Mount” long a landmark of Chester Town, owned originally by the [? Chews]. The Mount was painted white and being surrounded by a wall, suggested feudal times. Mrs. Hill spoke of the pleasant society of this early settlement, of its hospitality for which it was justly famous.
Mrs. Hill then called attention to the Carroll estate, Doughoregan Manor, and described the Doughoregan place particularly. Doughoregan Manor is six miles from Ellicott City, in fair rolling country, well watered, well wooded. The sylvan drive from the Porter’s Lodge to the house is noticeably lovely. The house itself is the ordinary Colonial one painted yellow, and frequently added to. At the rear end is the Chapel. The main building is the usual two-story, square pillars in front, a wide hall running through the house, rooms and stairway on either side, family portraits in Dining-room and Drawing-room. In the Chapel lie the remains of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the Signer [of the Declaration of Independence], with appropriate memorial tablet to his life of work.
The last article on the programme was by Mrs. Jordan Stabler, and was called “A Summer Pilgrimage,” and dwelt particularly upon the beauty and interest of the Mohawk Valley, made famous by J. Fenimore Cooper. Mrs. Stabler spoke of the interesting records
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of the “Six Nations,” carefully preserved in the State House at Albany, of the specialization of labor among these Indians, which specialization always implies a comparatively high degree of civilization. Everywhere, Mrs. Stabler said is brought to mind Cooper’s works, the Statues of the “Pathfinder” and of the “Deerslayer” occupying prominent positions. Even the little steamer which plies upon Otsego Lake is called “Natty Bumpo.” In the burning of Cooper’s place Otsego Hall, the memorials which he had collected, for the most part, published. Mrs. Stabler read a letter from Mrs. Susan J. Cooper to S. Landlow Fry, Lays of Fry Place, in which Miss Cooper, who evidently inherited her father’s tastes and interests, speaks of M. S. S. books she had prepared, regarding the life, manners, and customs of the Mohawks. The work contained many early records, but not, at that time finding publishers, Miss Cooper most unfortunately and unwisely destroyed her work.
Mrs. Stabler ended her paper by a graceful allusion to J. Fennimore Cooper, as the “Sir Walter Scott of America.”
At the conclusion of the programme the meeting adjourned.
Miss Elizabeth Starr, Presented by Mrs. J. T. Graham, Mrs. Thos. Hill. Seconded by Miss Lanahan.
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Meeting of January 16th, 1900.
The weekly meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held at the rooms of the Club, corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets, on Tuesday, January 16th. Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall], the President presided. After calling the meeting to order, as there were no announcements, the programme for the afternoon was taken up. This programme was in charge of Mrs. R. M. Wylie [Elizabeth J. Wylie], Chairman of the Committee on Art.
The first article on the programme was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], and was called “The Makers of Florence.” Donatello and Luca della Robbia, Mrs. Cautley said, are the two strongest formative influences in Florence. Raphael is the glory, and Michael Angelo the grandeur of Italian art generally, but it is one thing to be a great painter, and quite another to found a great and lasting school, and Michael Angelo himself such a genius, in his influence had been rather destructive, for his imitators and followers were able to imitate his defects but failed to grasp his excellence. But none had ever followed Donatello with out profit. Donatello combined the Greek love of beauty and artistic perception, with the Christian qualities of faith, love, and pity. Hence his work is wonderfully spiritual. Mrs. Cautley then spoke of several of
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Donatello’s works, an “Infant Jesus” in the Bargello, an infant “St. John,” and the “Annunciation,” one of the most beautiful things in Florence, and of a little pulpit outside the Cathedral in Prato. OF all these works Mrs. Cautley had pictures, and these were shown to the Club, as well as pictures of the works of della Robbia. Luca della Robbia, Donatello’s contemporary, worked chiefly in Terra Cotta, modelling it upon a blue background, then painting with white enamel, the whole thing being twice baked. This produced a substance almost as hard as and as durable as marble. Mrs. Cautley said that much of this work was now placed under the cover of glass as a precaution, and she alluded to the fact that much of this beautiful art work was in byways and alleys, out-of-the-way places, not always easy to reach.
The next article on the programme was by Miss Anne Weston Whitney, and was called “Art in Doll-Making.” They who can tell when man began, said Miss Whitney, can also tell the beginnings of dolls, for dolls, like men, have a prehistoric story. The little African has her dolls; dolls have been known in India from earliest times, and dolls are found today in the most ancient Egyptian Tombs. Dolls would seem to exist in response to instinct; for a child in North Carolina who had probably never seen a doll, tied up an old
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stocking-leg and transformed it into a doll. Dolls were introduced into France in the 16th century during the time of the mad King Charles. An enterprising Italian brought into France several mules’ loads of dolls, to the accompaniment of jingling bells these being intended to drive away the Evil Eye. The dolls were supposed to represent historic Roman ladies, one of them being Poppaea, Nero’s wife. This doll was bought by King Charles, and hence the name given to dolls in France Poupée. Miss Whitney went on to speak of the manufacture of dolls, and of the trade in them. Rag dolls, Brownies and Indian dolls, are the only ones made here. Rag dolls we get from England, but they are poor in quality. The best dolls are of German make, and they are the ones preferred. French dolls not following the Anglo-Saxon type are not so popular. The Germans give to their dolls the Anglo-Saxon face. Children in Germany help in the manufacture of dolls. Miss Whitney asked the question, why most dolls are light-haired? And the answer seemed to be that it was a matter of tradition, of less expense and of general taste. Dark-haired dolls, it was said, were sent to Spain and South America. Miss Whitney spoke of her visits to two Doll’s Hospitals, and of what the Doll-mender had to say. Dolls now must be very realistic, must have “real hair,” silken lashes, and teeth that show. Miss Whitney spoke of “historic” dolls,
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one at Nantucket, brought over by a Whaling Captain many years ago, and said to represent the Lost Dauphin of France, the unhappy little Louis 17th. The Psychology of the Doll instinct was something into which, Miss Whitney said, she could not go, but Dr. Stanley Hall holds that dolls do not prove the maternal instinct. In Japan there is a day called the “Feast of Dolls,” for every girl has a doll given her at birth, and these are preserved from generation to generation, and have their day of commemoration. Certain Indian tribes introduce dolls into their worship or ritual, then give them to the children and they are then used to instruct the children in religious matters. Miss Brent spoke of dolls which had delighted childhood in Baltimore, and of the old Persian custom of cutting into the rock a little “Ego” which never changed and which was supposed to represent the divine idea of the man. Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias] spoke of a child who dressed her doll in mourning--for the doll’s husband, the child said, and Miss Zacharias also spoke of a store here where beautiful models and paper-dolls for Christmas Trees could be obtained.
The last article on the programme was by Mrs. Thos. J. Morris [Mrs. Thomas J. Morris], and was called “The Ancient Art of Illumination.” All peoples, Mrs. Morris said, had practiced this beautiful art, and it flourished down to the invention and spread of printing. The word “Illumination” comes from the Latin “Illuminare,” used in the mediaeval sense to “decorate,”
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specially with gold and color, and more rarely with silver. This use of illimare is similar to that of “miniare” from “minium,” a red pigment, early used to decorate M. S. S. Historically there is close connection between the Art of Illumination at its different periods, and the arts of architecture, decoration, glass staining and the art of the silver-smith. The earliest illuminated writings are Egyptian, in which the priests have written their directions in red. Rubricated and pictorial writing was also in use among the Romans. The earliest illuminated M. S. S. of European work date form the 4th and 5th century, and are very rare. One of the finest of these is a “Virgil” preserved in the Vatican, painted in the antique manner and copied from Pompeii. Another specimen is the “Codex Argentius” of Bishop Ulfila, written late in the 4th century (360) now preserved at Upsala. It is a Moeso-Gothic version of part of the Scriptures. It is written in gold and silver on a purple-red vellum. The art of staining vellum was afterwards lost, and in the 8th and 9th centuries the vellum was painted. In the 2nd century art declined but took refuge in Constantinople where, coming into contact with oriental ideas and processes, the style called “Byzantine,” was the result. This style is characterized by a lavish use of gold, and combines Eastern magnificence with Western variety and strength. Meanwhile the art of Illumination
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had found a congenial home in that far away corner of Western Europe, Ireland. In the 6th Century Ireland was already renowned for its learning and piety, and in its many monasteries there was growing up an Art of Illumination unlike any other. The Irish Type is distinguished by great ingenuity, a baffling intricacy of line and minuteness. This Anglo-Celtic style is seen to greatest perfection in the “Book of Kells,” presented in Trinity College, Dublin, and in the “Lindisfarne Gospels” in the British Museum. This Celtic or Anglo-Celtic style was taken by Irish Missionaries to Iona, Lindisfarne, and to the Continent, St. Gall, Rabbio, Wurzbing and other places where illuminated volumes in this style are carefully preserved. The Anglo-Celtic influence is very perceptible, in the “Carlovingian” style which grew up in France and Germany under the care of Charlemagne. An illuminated copy of the Gospels were found upon the Emperor’s Knees when his tomb was opened. At Aix la Chapelle, this and the Harleian Codex Aureus in the British Museum are splendid examples of the art. Contemporary with this a new style had risen in England called the “Opus Angelicum.” This style is characterized by greater freedom and spirit. Among its fine specimens are the Gospels of Canute, the book of St. Ethelwold, and two volumes in the library at Rowen which were probably done at Winchester. Lastly comes the 4th or Ivy-border
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period, where there is still greater freedom, the whole movement of the act having been away from conventional designs towards the reproduction of nature and natural forms. An interesting specimen of the Art was done by Mary of Aragon and Castile, who illumined in purple upon a black background, a purely Spanish style, since the universal background was either gold or blue. The 15th century saw the art at its height, beauty of ornamentation and of text being combined, but in the 16th century the art began to decline as in the “Hours of Ambre of Brittany,” where the ornamentational or illumination is most lavish and the text insignificant. The act of printing put an end virtually, to that of Illumination, and the making of books passed from the “Scriptorium” to the work-shop of the printer.
At the conclusion of the programme the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of January 23rd, 1900.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, January 23rd, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Anne W. Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney], Chairman of the Committee on “The Study of English.”
The President called the meeting to order; and Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall], as Recording Secretary,
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read the minutes of the meeting of January 16th. The President announced the reception of the Manuals of two other Literary Clubs, that of the Friday Club of Baltimore, and that of the Woman’s Club of Louisville, Kentucky.
The President also announced that the monthly Salon held on the next Tuesday would be a conversational meeting, and that it was hoped that all members would come prepared to contribute to the mental entertainment of the occasion, with some thought or quotation or item of interest.
The first article of the programme was by Mrs. Waller R. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock], and was called “Anglo-Saxon Character.” Mrs. Bullock began by a clean and comprehensive account called Indo-European languages in support of this theory. She also noticed the conditions of life and environment in the high table lands of Western Asia as favorable to an indigenous civilization, and
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to the evolution of a race of people destined to spread and conquer. She then described the later theory that the Aryans--and indeed the whole human race had its origin in the ancient pre-historic continent which has been given the name of Euro-Africa; comprising Western Europe and Northern Africa. There, it has been said, was the white race first found in its greatest purity; that is on the African shores south of the Mediterranean and the European shores south of the same old inland waters. Thence the race is supposed to have spread Eastward, and also North and South, and perhaps to have had some connection with America. She showed and explained a map of this ancient continent.
Mrs. Bullock then went on to describe the characteristics of the early Aryan emigrants, as revealed by the traces they have left on language and customs, and as found in tradition and history. She spoke of the Teutons, who opposed the Roman armies, and dwelt on the idea of individual freedom, which lived among them, and still survives in their descendants. She spoke of the Teutonic names of places and of families as suggesting and helping us to understand the conditions of life and the characteristics of our remote ancestors. She spoke of their love for living on their own land, rather than for town life,--then of the power and ability of individuals to rise from lower to higher social
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ranks. She dwelt on the Teutonic regard for women, on their presence in councils, on the laws for their protection, and their power to hold property. She showed the contract of the French laws of dowry, which a late French writer has declared to be the course of much evil. The strong points with our forefathers were love of freedom, religious feeling and the sense of duty. She illustrated these qualities by reference to the Anglo-Saxon literature from more than twelve hundred years ago to the present time, from Beowulf and Caedmon to Tennyson and Browning. She spoke too of the love of home and the power to make homes, which has built up English colonies all over the world. She reminded us of the restless spirit of the Anglo-Saxon, which is not altogether Teutonic, and is well marked in the Anglo-American, as is also the ancient regard for women.
Miss Reese gave some interesting anecdotes of foreign children, who, on entering the public schools, knew only their own languages; but in six weeks time insisted on talking English.
The next article of the programme was by Miss Maria H. Middleton, and was called “Is English Anglo Saxon.” Miss Middleton spoke of our speech as having come down to us from our Teutonic ancestors, but as seemingly a huge conglomerate of different proportions, showing the mixture of Keltic, Norse and Greek and Roman elements. There are also Anglo-Saxon modifications
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of Irish words, and words from other languages. She gave specimens of the language of Bede in the 7th century, of Alcuin and Aldhelm in the eighth, and read the Lord’s Prayer as recorded by King Alfred in the ninth century. Miss Middleton traced the loss of the old Saxon inflections, and gave specimens of those writings in which a few prepositions were creeping in. Many inflections were dropped when the Norman conquest introduced the French language into court and laws; but she noticed their survival in some of our terminations, syllables and plurals. Northern Saxon was modified by the Danish element, the Norse invaders remaining chiefly in the north of England.
After speaking of the dialect of ”Piers Plowman,” Miss Middleton said that in 1362, English again became the language of the law courts, and then Chaucer and Gower wrote the “King’s English.” Changes were noticed in the pronunciation and spelling of individual words, as when Alexander Hume in 1592, disputed whether words like where and when should begin with a w, or with wh, or whether the word who should not being with qu rather than with wh. Curious changes of form and meaning were noticed, also loss of words, and growth of suffixes. Miss Middleton then quoted nine lines from Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew,” in which all except nine words were Anglo-Saxon,--more than six sevenths. In conclusion she said that two thirds of the
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best and most expressive words in our language are Anglo-Saxon. Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent] proposed that the articles just read by Mrs. Bullock and Miss Middleton should be type-written and placed in our library. The President agreed that such articles should be preserved for us in some suitable form.
The next article of the programme was by Mrs. George K. McGaw [Margaret Ann Worden McGaw], and was called; “Old British and Saxon Songs.” Mrs. McGaw spoke of the Bard or Minstrel as the forerunner of the historian. His original work begins many centuries back in the past. She described the early singers who preserved the legends of the Hymn, the people who fought against Caesar, and of those who in later days kept up the remembrance of the wars of the Saxons. She told how in the feasts, the minstrel came in to tell of the sword of Poalen, or of spectres and dragons, and of the brave knights who conquered them. Mrs. McGaw spoke of Taliesin “the prophet bard,” “chief of British minstrels, beloved by all.” Some of his order have come down to us in the Black Book of Caermarthen, which she reviewed and quoted.
She then went on to tell of Llywarch Hen, who fought against the Saxons, lost his patrimony and his sons, and fled into Wales. She read his Lament over the desolate home “the Hall of Cynddylan,” Prince of Powys, in which the poet had at one time found an asylum. The ancient Welsh songs were reviewed for us
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in their poetical and literary aspects. Coming down to Saxon legends, Mrs. McGaw gave us descriptions of the first Saxon epic Beowulf and of the scriptural poem of Caedmon, the forerunner of Milton; then of the works of the truly venerable Bede, and of King Alfred, dwelling on the debt we owe these old miters in the department of history as well as in that of poetry.
Meeting of January 30th, 1900.
The regular meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was held on Tuesday, January 30th, 1900 in the rooms, corner of Cathedral and Franklin Streets. It being the date appointed for the Salon, no formal programme was arranged, the President having previously requested that each member present some thought, anecdote or question on Club development.
Owing to the absence of the Secretary, the minutes of the previous meeting were omitted, the President announcing the programme for the month of February. In a few graceful words, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall] explained the object of the afternoon, and gave as her contribution, the wish that the Club should be as “granite in its principle, as the mountains in its aspirations and as the river in its sympathy
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and far-reaching tendencies.” It was the desire of the President that the members should speak as the “spirit moved them,” and those present complied with the request, the subject varying from grave to gay, and included clippings, unwritten history and personal experiences.
Mrs. McGaw [Margaret Ann Worden McGaw] gave as her contribution an interesting rhyme attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, referring to certain peculiarities in the architecture of the old Associate Reformed Church on Fayette street near Liberty.
Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney] asked for the author of the opening quotation in Aylivin, and by so doing drew forth many beautiful thoughts and suggestions on the corresponding spiritual and physical effects of residence in mountain and sea-shore. This discussion was participated in by Mrs. Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill], Miss Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins], Miss Nicholas [Elizabeth Cary Nicholas], Mrs. Tyson [Florence McIntyre Tyson], Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock], Miss Middleton [Maria H. Middleton], Miss Shackelford [Fannie H. Shackleford], Miss Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese], Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias] and Miss Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud].
Miss [Laura] De Valin’s contribution was a beautiful thought, poetically expressed of the high ideal and aims of the Woman’s Literary Club.
After the reading of a poem written by Miss Guiney and read by Miss Cloud, the social part of the programme was taken up.
Adjournment followed the “chat over the tea-cups.”
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Meeting of February 6th, 1900.
The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, February 6th, 1900 at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of January 23rd. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Ellen Duvall, Chairman of the Committee on Current Criticism.
The first article given from the programme was by Mrs. Thomas J. Morris, and was announced as “Concerning Certain Letters.” Mrs. Morris reviewed first the letters of Mrs. Oliphant. She spoke of the autobiographical sketch which precedes the letters, recording the sad events of the life during which the letters were written. In all, she shows her wonderfully elastic spirit, and marvellous industry, and the joy she found in her loved ones, for whose benefit she did the good literary work by which she has been long and widely known. Her correspondence too, was with people themselves interesting,--it is said “there was scarcely a man or woman prominent in English letters whom she did not know well.” Mrs. Morris quoted from one of her letters to the “Blackwoods” a gem of criticism. She throws light on the lovely life of Jane Carlyle, and both the Carlyles showed their gentler side to her. Her criticisms are fresh
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and fine, and her true womanliness pervades her letters. Mrs. Morris next took up the letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. She made quotations from Mr. James’s review of these letters with high appreciation. She then went on to describe the different periods in which these letters were written, and the different circumstances, and phases of life--mental and physical--under which the sensitive nature of Stevenson was revealed by them. She told of his struggle for health, for the means of living, and for life itself, which these letters record perhaps both consciously and unconsciously. She spoke of his early married life, and of his living in California, in the Adirondacks, in Honolulu, and lastly in Samoa, where--in the climate and scenery he loved, and among a simple people who loved him, the brave struggle ended. She quoted a pathetic letter to Edmond Gorse, of thanks for a publication and a cheque when the was “dwelling already next door to heaven.” His last letter was to Edmond Gorse also, before stepping over “the precipice.”
Mrs. Morris then reviewed the letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, the love letters of these two of whom, it is said, “Nature made seers, and education made them to rank among the most cultured of their generations.” Of the question of their publication, she said, “Why should they not be published? They seem now almost impersonal, they come to us
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like the words of Romeo and Juliet,--like the letters of Michael
Angelo and Vittoria Colonna.” Why should we miss now the inspired sentences or all the great questions of life, from such souls as these? Mrs. Morris then told the story of this ideal love, how when Elizabeth Barrett thought Death her likeliest visitor, this strong inspiring devotion came instead, and beyond all obstacles, made the ideal married life. Mrs. Morris spoke of Mrs. Oliphant’s letters as personal, showing the individuality of a truly womanly intellectual woman; Stevenson’s letters how the spontaneous utterances of a literary artist--the Browning letters seem spontaneous too, but take us into the glory of the shechinah , on holy ground.
The next article of the programme was by Miss Mary Davis [Mary Dorsey Davis], and was a review of the late book by Rev. C. Ernest Smith of this city, called "Religion under the Barons of Baltimore." This book, she said, was given as a sketch of ecclesiastical affairs in Maryland from the founding of the colony to the establishment of the Church of England in 1692. It professes to represent careful research in Colonial records, and in recently discovered documents, scattered from Nebraska to the Vatican, from the British Museum to Spanish archives. Mr. Smith says that "he sought to make an exhaustive examination into the character and motives of the founders
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of our colony of Maryland, and of the source of our liberties political and ecclesiastical." He speaks of the work of Historical societies, and particularly of a collection of documents made by Mr. Philips, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, London; and quotes the opinion of Mr. Bancroft on the carelessness with which Colonial History has been written. Miss Davis then quoted Mr. Smith's saying that in the iconoclastic age no hero is safe, modern critics throw the search light of investigation on all the heroic deeds of history, and seem to refute or explain away what has been held up to reverence.
Miss Davis then reviewed Mr. Smith's account of the early history of Maryland, from the landing of the pilgrims of the Ark and Dove, to the change of the capital from St. Mary's to Annapolis.
The programme had promised us an article by Miss Shackelford [Fannie H. Shackleford], but it was announced that she was not present, having been unexpectedly called out of town.
The last article was by Miss Virginia Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud], and was called "The Literary Tide." Miss Cloud told us that there is a tide in the affair of literary men and women which taken at the flood, leads on to disappointment--or to complacency. The winners of complacency and enterprising publishers have good paying audiences, and the literary ebb and flow has us at
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its mercy. We have had Napoleon Bonapart[e] brought up to us in a series of Centuries, and also George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in other periodicals. We often hear the baffling question, "Who is your favorite author?" But, in this influx of American literature we can seize upon a few points that come to us as convictions. Miss Cloud gave us the belief that Mary Johnson's "Prisoners of Hope," will outlive Richard Carvel and Janice Meredith. She went on to speak of the works of Miss Glasgow and of the writer of "Tiverton Tales,"--and gave short reviews of some other books and authors in her own style of humor and variety. She then went on [to] speak of the unfailing joy in the books that have life after much reading. In them one swallow can make more than a summer, and in them we can eat our cake and have it still. It is good to seek the repose of the nobler order of books whose joy "age can not wither nor custom stale."
At the close of Miss Cloud's article, the meeting was declared adjourned.
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Meeting of February 13th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, February 13th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Lizette W. Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese], Chairman of the Committee on Modern Poetry. The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of January 31st.
The first article of the programme was called "Paderewski"--"A Poem." It was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], and was read for her by the President, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall]. It was a tribute to the performance of the artist who brought so truly before his audience the grand old and new masters in music, that "there seemed no Paderewski there."
The next article was by Miss Marie Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins], and was on "The East." Miss Perkins spoke of "The East," a word of mystical meaning which none can plainly spell, the land of ancient races, of deserts and caravans, of roses and nightingales, of great empires in the past, and the birthplace of all the great religions of the world. She painted the wonders of India, and the magical charms of Persia, the "garden of the gods." She brought before us Palestine, most interesting of all lands to Jew and Christian, and pictured the pathetic prayers and weeping
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of the Hebrew residents of Jerusalem before the remaining portion of the outer wall of their desecrated temple.
The next article was an "Interlude," "A Poem," by Miss Virginia W. Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud]. It was read for her by Miss Perkins.
The next article was by Mrs. Thomas J. Morris, and was called "The Poet Who Sang as He Chose." The poet commemorated by Mrs. Morris was the Persian Omar Khayyam, author of the "Rubaiyat." He lived, she said, in the latter part of our eleventh century, and into the first half of the twelfth century. He was by profession a mathematician and astronomer, besides being a poet. But his fame is not now of his work for astronomy and algebra--only of his great poem. He wished that his tomb might be where the winds would strew roses upon it; and one of his pupils records that he saw the tomb with the roses lying thick upon it, covering and concealing the stones. The poet has had his wish fulfilled. Mrs. Morris spoke of Fitzgerald's well known and much admired translation of the Rubaiyat, and also of a later prose translation. There was an earlier French translation, from which our own Ralph Waldo Emerson turned a few lines into his forcible English. Emerson highly appreciated Omar's Oriental system of Philosophy. Fitzgerald's translation,
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at first, were were told, did not sell, and for a time seemed not appreciated,--until Swinburne, Rosetti, Burton and Theophile Gautier published their admiration for it. Mrs. Morris showed that the system of the poem divides itself into two parts. The first is the Epicurean philosophy as we understand it;--the second deals with the work of the potter on the clay he moulds and fashions on his wheel. The first is not a new thing, but as old as the Old Testament; the second seems to find some expression in the new Testament. St. Paul uses the identical figures, but no divine voice came to Omar; he saw, but could not hear the interpretation, nor read clearly with out the light that now shines for us. There is a breath of sweetness in his wisdom, there are sad allusions to hypocrisy, and there are some of the rewards of knowledge. Of love--human or divine--he seems, we were told, to have known very little; but there seems not a trace of Eastern sensuality, and there is a sense of beauty and harmony in our brief life. He will fill the cup of today, tomorrow he may be with yesterday--with the past of seven thousand years. He knows the true and the false friend, he knows himself, his capacity for being "heaven and hell," and, perhaps, something of the Master too, who makes and does not destroy. But while he knows the inexorable laws of algebra, he has not comprehended those
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of Providence. Mrs. Morris gave quotations from the Persian poem, and from the tributes of its admirers. She also compared the Endymion of Keats--the love loveliest poem of our later English[,] with the poem of Omar.
The programme next called for a poem by Miss Lizette W. Reese. It was called: "Taps," and was read for her by Miss Brooks [Belle Brooks]. It told of the bugle call of fame, that so often dies away into the dirge of eternal rest.
The next article was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley, and was called: "The Poet who Sings as He Must." Mrs. Cautley quoted a newspaper article published in the year of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria--in 1897--which after describing the glorious celebration of that great event, spoke of that one strain that was cast into the chorus of rejoicing, which sounded like the voice of an old Hebrew prophet--warning, inspiring, uplifting. Mrs. Cautley said that the poets of the Hebrews were their prophets, a false prophet was not a true poet. The poet must speak what the people must hear; he must perceive that he has been forced to speak his message; he must look into the future and also into the heart of humanity. In the time of Charles the First, there arose in Milton a prophet of the old law, and of strict obedience to duty; which was followed by a reaction, and a
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revival of the pagan school of prophets. Afterwards, came the more artificial writers of Queen Anne's time, and later, Byron and Wordsworth. Byron did appeal to humanity's lowest nature,--but not always. Wordsworth, she thought, wanted to write "The Excursion," and poems like it, but was obliged to write the "Ode to Immortality,"--and to give his century a divine revelation. Again, when we needed our poets, there came Tennyson and Browning, Carlyle and Ruskin. If the last two are not generally called poets, we know that all poets do not make rhymes, any more than rhyming makes poets,--harmony is above melody.
Going back to the author of the "Recessional," Mrs. Cautley spoke of Rudyard Kipling as the poet prophet of today. To condemn him as coarse is, she said, like reading only the clown's part in Shakespeare, seeing only the grossness and not the genius in Falstaff, calling one character vulgar and another unspeakable. But is not the real Shakespeare a man to whom God gave the grandest genius. Kipling, she told us, was in full sympathy with all sorts and conditions of men. Perhaps it is not good for us, who are not geniuses to associate with lower orders of people, perhaps also to know all, is to forgive all. We do not love his Tommy Atkins nor East Indians as he does, perhaps we are not just to them, are we so to our own Indians, whom we
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have always with us? Mrs. Cautley spoke also of the pictorial quality of Kipling's writings, they lend themselves to, or suggest, pictures. Mrs. Cautley then read sort and striking extracts form Kipling's poems.
The President said for herself, she thought Kipling's love for animals interested her rather more than his love for men, and she had much enjoyed his "Jungle Stories."
We next had the pleasure of hearing Miss Brooks read "The Song of the Banjo."
The last article of the programme was the reading, by Miss Elizabeth C. Nicholas [Elizabeth Cary Nicholas], of "The Recessional." Miss Nicholas said this poem was an Ode, a Hymn and a Prayer. She could only read it as she felt capable of interpreting it. She then read this famous poem of Mr. Kipling.
Miss Reese, Chairman of the Committee of the meeting followed the programme with the reading of two letters from Mr. Kipling to a friend in this city. In these he described his life in Vermont, with lively wit and humor. He tells of a blizzard and a drought, and also of his receiving about two hundred letters a week, which he does not feel obliged to answer, the writers of these--no doubt--thinking him "all sorts and sizes a brute," ever thereafter.
The meeting was then declared adjourned.
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Meeting of February 20th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, February 20th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Thomas Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill], Chairman of the Committee on Colonial and Revolutionary History. The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of February 13th.
The first article of the programme was by Mrs. John M. Carter [Florence Carter], and was called "Two Colonial Sketches." Mrs. Carter described a visit made by herself and a friend to the British Dominions, north of our own country. At Halifax, Nova Scotia, they were shown a captured cannon, while according to an inscription had been taken from the French fortress of Louisburg, Cape Breton Island, the capture being accredited to English forces. English elder of the visitors received this statement with true American calm,--in silence--but the younger answered that she had always thought the Quakers captured Louisburg. Mrs. Carter went on to tell how Louisburg was twice captured, adding that she was not quite sure whether that gun was the prize of the first or the second exploit. In 1745, the English were engaged in what was called King George's [W]ar with France, and the supposed impregnable
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fortress of Louisburg was considered of great importance to the enemy. Mrs. Carter told of the daring enterprise planned by the Governor of Massachusetts, and carried out by William Pepperell, a respectable merchant, and the Colonial militia under his command,--which reads in the old histories like a tale of romance. Pepperell, we were reminded, as made a Baronet, but Louisburg was, by treaty, in 1748, given back to France, the mother-country considering Madras, in India, far more valuable as a compensation. Louisburg was re-taken under the British flag in 1758, and the fortress dismantled, and we were told, the label relating to the old gun at Halifax may be right.
Mrs. Carter's second sketch was on "The Royal Coat of Arms,[”] which she saw in Trinity Church, St. John, New Brunswick. The arms were brought probably in a little sailing vessel from Trinity Church in Briton, in 1783, by some of those American people who had taken the side of King George in the Revolution, and at its close, were given homes in the King's neighboring dominions. These loyalists founded the city of St. John. Certainly we can now acknowledge our relationship to them, and be proud of their fearless devotion and faithful allegiance to what from their point of view, was the right. The old church in which
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these American royal arms were first put up after the war, has suffered changes, but the arms, we were told, have been preserved like the relics of a patron saint, and Mrs. Carter hoped we might have the pleasure of seeing these and other memorials of our loyal kindred.
The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Thomas Hill, and was called "The Beginning of our War for Independence." Mrs. Hill spoke of the great importance of the discovery of America to the nations of the old world. The trade between western Europe and Asia--for the luxuries and treasures of the East--had been for ages carried on by caravans and by way of the Mediterranean Sea. The attempt of Columbus to reach India by water, which failed through no fault of his--made possible the western route of our own day across the new continent, revealed as the result of his discovery. Mrs. Hill took up the claims of England to that northern hemisphere which she afterwards colonized and possessed. She told of the early Colonists, the sentiments founded by them, and the trading they established and sustained. She spoke of the attempt to enforce taxation without representation, and the "intolerable acts," which caused the petition, the resistance, and finally the revolt of our forefathers. She told of the Boston disturbances, the Declaration of Rights, the
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so-called Tea Party, the Continental Congress, the brave deeds and heroism of the colonists, and closed by describing the battles--momentous in consequences--of Lexington and Bunker Hill.
The last article of the programme was by Miss Maria Middleton, and was on "Alexander Hamilton." Miss Middleton reviewed the whole career of Alexander Hamilton, as the student, the soldier, the statesman, as the staff officer and trusted friend of Washington, as the first Secretary of the Treasury, bringing order and prosperity to the ruined finances of our infant Republic, as the brilliant and wise writer of the Essays in "The Federalist," working for the adoption of the Federal Constitution; as the member of Congress, as the private citizen, and man of honor, down to his death, at the age of forty seven, in the duel with Aaron Burr. He fought against his convictions,--fearing that to refuse the challenge would injure his reputation, and his usefulness. He was supposed, we were told, to have fired in the air,--or not to have fired at all,--while Aaron Burr fired to kill. Miss Middleton's paper was an interesting and comprehensive account of one who has been called "second only to Washington, in his claims to the gratitude of Americans."
The President, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall], then told an interesting incident as related to her by he own grandmother, who, early in the nineteenth century, lived on the coast of Georgia. She had
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there for a neighbor and friend, Mrs. Miller, who had been the wife and widow of General Greene of the Revolutionary army. When Aaron Bur, after the killing of Hamilton, came to the South, he was kindly received and entertained by Mrs. Miller, though the popular feeling was strongly hostile to him. At the first dinner there, one of the guests arose and requested that the company should drink "to the company of Alexander Hamilton." The toast was solemnly drunk by all--in silence--including the man who had just come from taking Hamilton's life.
After further comment, the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of February 27th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore held its monthly Salon on February 27th, 1900.
The first number on the programme was "A Word of Rudyard Kipling," by Mrs. Sidney Turner [Clara B. Newman Turner], and consisted of various interesting anecdotes about Mr. Kipling, compiled by a lady who could vouch for their authenticity.
The second article was "Ghosts," by Miss Lizette Woodworth Reese, and was charmingly descriptive of the superstitions of childhood, which take the place of that which the more mature mind calls psychic phenomena. She told of the belief in the
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Robber's Night, the marching around the bed to the chanting of a strange formula handed down from some ancestor, the reassurance of which was more comforting than that of the catechism. The sunny days, and the mud-pies, the rainy days and the Demon of the dark hole,--how he had a squat body, horns, and a tail that reached to the other side of the world, and how he could be heard beating his wife. The going to bed by candlelight, the accompaniment of the fat clock, and also the pale creature called It, and firmly believed in. The cabin of Eli; the [? hut]-doctor, and his delightful fortune, to the effect that whatsoever might be their ultimate earthly portion, the children would surely be [? circumvigions].
Third upon the programme was an address by Miss Ellen Duvall, entitled "The Ghosts of Shakespeare." Miss Duvall [said] that ghosts have a history as far-reaching as that of the human race, that Herbert Spencer claims for them an origin in dreams, but that few scientific men have given scientific solutions of them. "With any adequate appreciation of an author" says Miss Duvall, "goes some knowledge of that author's time and history." Miss Duvall then explained that Shakespeare's treatment of the Ghost offers certain peculiarities. Whether he believed in them or not, is an open question, but he
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utilized them wonderfully for his artistic and dramatic effects. Those in Richard III, Hamlet, Macbeth and Cymbeline, fulfilled the universal idea of the purpose of a ghost,--namely for the punishment of evil or for the revelation of the truth, but that it is to be questioned whether this result was achieved. The ghost in Richard III, which appeared on the eve of battle to Richard and Richmond, was not original in appearance, nor did it utter that which was significant, other than its words of encouragement to Richard and of condemnation to Richmond. Hamlet's father is represented as a most substantial ghost, and to the audiences of Shakespeare's day was as regal as Hamlet himself. He remained in Purgatory for the revelation of the truth, and not for the punishment of evil, for while Hamlet sees the ghost, the real perpetrator of evil,--the Queen, does not see it. The third appearance, that of Banquo, in Macbeth, appears to no purpose, and is seen by no one saving Macbeth. In describing the fourth ghost in Cymbeline, Shakespeare returns to his original treatment. This treatment covers almost the entire ground. He used the apparition as no other writer has used it, but one is left in doubt as to whether h himself believed in ghosts, and this very indefiniteness on the part of
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Shakespeare, would tend to suggest that he relied mainly on the words of the prophet,--that they would not have heard through one rose from the dead.
The fourth number on the programme was "Ghosts in Sir Walter Scott's Novels," by Miss John D. Early [Maud Graham Early]. Mrs. Early gave a careful and close survey of the ghosts as they appear in the various novels of Scott, and threw in enjoyable side-lights upon the stories that serve as their settings. She spoke especially of the ghosts in The Betrothed and in Red Gauntlet. "Sir Walter Scott[,”] said Mrs. Early, "thought it possible that a spirit might commune with those of certain temperament, but that in order to see spirits, certain conditions are necessary," "not by effort will they come, nor by volition, but by special favor."
The last article was by Mrs. John C. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall], and was The Possibilities of Will Power, as suggested by Bulwer. Mrs. Wrenshall said that one of the most irksome bonds with which the speculative nature has to contend is its limitation to the compass of the five notes of the senses. All impressions having to be received through the medium of these five doors, which lead to the inner self. Instinct may be so strong as to seem as sense itself, imagination so powerful as to live almost of itself. But the material reasons which satisfy the senses, and the logic which appeals to many, cannot always
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prove sufficient to the more experimental mind. This hunger of the spiritual sense for the unsoiled is found among all men and condition. By the uneducated it is called Superstition, and sometimes in a higher sphere, Psychical research.
Mrs. Wrenshall gave a comprehensive resume of the greatest of ghost stories,--The Haunters and the Haunted by Bulwer, taking it as an example of how baffling to the imagination may become such conditions which through subtle contrivance seem possible only under supernatural agency, yet which are proven to emenate from a living influence. In quoting further from Bulwer, Mrs. Wrenshall spoke of an interesting ancient theory--that a certain power may extend to memories, which the so-called Dead never forgo. Mrs. Wrenshall quoted most interestingly from Bulwer, and in conclusion made a short summary of his view of the subject to the effect that so-called supernatural agency phenomena are the results of human agency--be it Will or not,--or another mind, and that the explanation of prolonged existence such as was claimed by more than one charlatan,--preeminently Joseph Belsamo, being phenomenal will-power, and absolute egotism or selfishness. In conclusion, remarks were made by Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock], Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], and Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney]. Tea was then served and the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of March 6th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, March 6th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Virginia Woodward Cloud, Chairman of the Committee on Fiction.
The President called the meeting to order and the minutes of two preceding meetings were read;--those of February 20th, by the Recording Secretary, and those of February 27th, by Miss Cloud from full notes taken by herself.
The first article of the programme was by Miss Mary Davis [Mary Dorsey Davis], and was called "A Character of Carlsbad." Miss Davis gave a vivid description of the impressions received by herself and her friends from the far-famed Springs of Carlsbad. She described the surrounding scenery, the great boiling cauldron, and the geysers spouting through the rocks;--and went on to tell of the variety of visitors,--the Greek Patriarch, and the representatives of France, Germany, and other nations. She told too of the discovery of these springs by the Emperor Karl IV; when on a hunting expedition, the deer he was pursuing led him to this "witches cauldron,"--near by which he afterwards built for himself a residence. We were told of the very friendly landlady, who took an early opportunity to inform her guests of the approach-
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ing visits of the doctor, "as everybody who came to Carlsbad must see the doctor." When he came, they found him a very polite German Jew; and as he came every day for six weeks, the question of his bill naturally grew to be a subject of consideration for his patients. On their approaching the question he answered that he was not a merchant, and continued to show so much disregard of the subject that these Americans could only surmise how far their bank account was to be depleted. On his last visit when they were all ready to leave the place, he said, "About fifty of your dollars." But he brought with him his little girl, who presented a bouquet of flowers to each of the ladies, after which they were inspired to add another bank note as a present for the child. They afterwards learned that this was the custom of the doctors patients,--and the inspiring motive of the child's visit.
The next article of the programme was "A Reading," by Miss Marie Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins]. It was a translation by Miss Perkins of an Eastern story called "The First Impulse." It told of [? Jouriri], a citizen of Bagdad, who controlled his temper, was always generous to the poor, and also, always kind and amiable to a very annoying wife,--a wife who was old and ugly. He was leading the life of a saint, but he had not the face of a saint,
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he looked disturbed and troubled. This caused the hermit Maitrega to ask of [? Qrmuzd] that for one day, all the first wishes that arose in the mind of [? Jouriri] might be granted. And [? Qrmuzd] agreed to the hermit's wish, thereby causing a smile under the beard of Maitrega. The next morning the first look of [? Jouriri] at his wife, was followed by the unfortunate woman's committing suicide. On his walk abroad he met a company of beggars to whom he was accustomed to give alms; but while he was fumbling in his bag, the beggars fell dead before him. At the end of the day [? Jouriri] was dead also, and Maitrega thought a false saint had been shown in his true colors. But then [? Qrmuzd] smiled and decreed that the good man should enter into rest. If he had wished for the deaths of his wife and the beggars, it was only by the first impulse, for which he was not accountable while he controlled it--virtue is begun and raised on second thoughts. The hermit too was judged for the good he had done, more than evil, because [? Qrmuzd] was good to him.
The next article was by Miss Anne Weston Whitney, and was a short story called "The Interrupted Marriage." Miss Whitney told of a Canadian "Gretna Green," where the Reverend Onesiums Brown called
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on his visitor and friend Paul to be the witness of a manifestly incongruous marriage, the man a rough lumberman, and the woman an almost queenly beauty, in a calico dress, but with jewels around her neck. At one point the Reverend Onesimus asked, according to the custom of some Methodist ministries, if the word obey was to be omitted, when the groom sharply answered, "Let it go," promising to attend to that matter for himself. But the girl said, "Are we married yet?" --and being answered "No," rejoined "Then we will not be," and rushed out into the night and storm. She had true friends amongst he Indians, who stood by her when the vengeance of the disappointed bridegroom took the form of an accusation of stealing jewelry from him. And the knowledge of history and tradition possessed by the young visitor Paul confirmed and cleared up her account of the jewels as her own, inherited from ancestral refugees from the court of Charles I, who had fled to the American wilderness after that unfortunate monarch's beheading. The story closes with the naive suggestion of an approaching marriage ceremony that will not be an interrupted one.
The next article was "A Story," by Miss Virginia Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud], and was called "A
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Blighted Life." Miss Cloud gave the opinion that "If work kills its thousands, worry kills its tens of thousands, and it is generally somebody else's worry and not our own that is fatal to us. She told of Rebekah Byng, whose weak spine and weak heart made her the object of constant solicitude, to her sister Mollie, and to her lover, whom she did not expect to marry, but to whom she only "stayed engaged." One physician who was called in wished to know if Mollie was the patient, and before long there was a funeral in the family but not Rebekah's. Her lover also died, and she acquired his life insurance, after which she married the undertaker, who said she had been a great encouragement to him in his business.
The next article was "A Story" by Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall], and was called "A Point of Honor." Miss Duvall presented a problem, the conflict of love with principle, duty, and above all--with honor. We were told that women have more principle than honor, and men more honor than principle. George Meredith's novels were reviewed, especially the women he draws, the two classes of women; those who pray to men, and those who prey on men. One girl in Miss Duvall's story sees the man she had believed to be her own lover drawn away from her by another girl,--a girl who,
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she feels sure is virtually engaged to an absent cousin. The question is whether she ought in any way to intervene, for her own sake, and for the sake of the man she loves. Her going away, and leaving the field to her rival, is the point of honor she makes, and her decision upon it.
The last article of the programme was "A Sketch," by Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], and was called "Spring in the Alleghanies." Mrs. Cautley described the Spring as the recovery of joy after the besieged garrisons like in doors life of winter in the mountains. One walks out on the soft ground, under the sky of deepest blue, and hears the crows conversing with scandalous cheerfulness, and sees the baby turkey buzzards, who she assured us, are beautiful. Two charming boarders of the last year--a pair of martins[--]consult whether the old nest will do for another season, and whether they like their hosts well enough to lodge with them again. Then come the red flowers like the first fire-rockets shooting up before us, and the blue flowers like kitten's eyes. The note of the blue jay is heard, and the cardinal bird comes back. The song and color are there that is not given to the city folks, who come in August to play cards and amuse themselves, until the "summer's farewells" are the late wild flowers that give promise of another spring.
The programme being finished, the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of March 13th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, March 13th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Jordan Stabler [Ellen Austin Walker Stabler], Chairman of the Committee on Unfamiliar Records.
The President called the meeting to order and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of March 6th.
The President read the list of new books recently added to the Peabody Institute Library. She drew attention especially to new works of Archaeology. She also announced that a book would be attached to our book-case to contain a list of names of the works suitable for reference and consultation by the members of our literary Committees.
The first article of the programme was by Mrs. Edward Stabler Jr. [Eliza Butler Stabler], and was on "An Unremembered American Industry." Mrs. Stabler spoke of the enthusiastic pursuit if "Silk Culture," in this country some sixty years ago; which seemed to inspire men, and particularly women, with high hopes of general prosperity. But ten or fifteen years later, the bubble burst, and left its inflaters and creditors with no realization of their dreams. She told of the use and culture
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of silk by the Chinese twenty three centuries before Christ, and also of the first knowledge of the material in the classic days of Greece and Rome, going on to its later cultivation in Italy, France, and even in England. In 1723 this industry was begun in Pennsylvania. In 1770 it was encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, and the Governor of Pennsylvania offered premiums for excellence in this work. Well known ladies engaged in it, including the mother of Francis Hopkinson, one of the New Jersey Signers of the Declaration of Independence, and Mrs. Anderson of Virginia. It is said that the English Queen wore a dress of American silk. But from 1790 to 1830 little was heard of industry, which had demanded difficult processes. Mrs. Stabler then told of its revival; and of the Convention in its interest held in this city--in the old Masonic Temple--in 1838; with one hundred and seventy five delegates, including well known men. Silk culture was urged as an agent in relieving poverty, in bringing leisure for intellectual improvement, and also as giving an additional employment to the women of our country. There were then, as Harriet Martineau said, but seven occupations open to women. Very soon there were very many investors in silk culture, of large and small capital, and
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mulberry trees, acquired a fictitious value. Some of us have heard echoes of the "morus multicaulis mania" of the 30s and 40s. Then overproduction and speculation brought disaster. The repeal of the Corn Laws of Great Britain in 1846, we were reminded, enabled the United States to increase the production and sale of her breadstuffs, and the great growth of her cotton exports and manufacture made silk culture a forgotten industry. Mrs. Stabler brought to illustrate her lecture specimens of silk in various stages of development.
The next article of the programme was by Miss Emma F. Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], and was called "Along Forgotten Lines." Miss Brent quoted the opinion of an old author on the use to be made of the lines of travel over sea and over land. "They ought to benefit the traveller's wit, to move his mind, and stir up his wisdom, to make him gentle and mild, and to cast out self love." To travel first in one's own country was commended, and then the effect of seeing widely,--to destroy the habit of gossip. Reference was made to the travels of Solon to Asia, and of Plato to Egypt, to gather laws out of the divers decrees under which nations had lived. Miss Brent went on to speak of the early knowledge of China and Japan brought back by travellers and missionaries. She spoke of the expedition of Commodore Perry to Japan
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in 1853, and its revelation of Western ideas to the inhabitants of "the land of the rising sun." She told of the subsequent change in the lines of government in Japan and dwelt on the progress of that nation in modern education and enlightenment until today Japan stands--in all except religion--side by side with the great powers of the world. She spoke of China, and of the hatred of her people for the Mantchu dynasty which has ruled over them since the middle of the 17th century.
Coming back to our own country Miss Brent reminded us of the attempted Mormon rebellion in 1857, and the action of our government in restoring peace in the territory of Utah at that time. She told anecdotes of life and of great men in the city of Washington during the administrations of the Presidents Pierce and Buchanan.
She then went on to speak of the Russian people whom a Roman writer has called "blonde Arabs," and such, she said they seem to be. She characterized the Servians as the most elegant and poetic of the Sclavonic races. She gave some fine specimens of Servian Love Songs, which she said reminded us of the style of Ossian's poems. Miss Brent then told of an ancient Bible kept in France before the Revolution, which Peter the Great recognized as a Sclavonic translation. It
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was lost during the "Reign of Terror," but afterwards recovered, and has been proved to have had a strange history.
The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Percy M. Reese [Elizabeth Reese], and was called "A Relic, A True Episode." Mrs. Reese described an elderly resident of a Church Home, styling himself Mr. Randolph Carter Fairfax Jones. On account of this name he received the admiration, homage and generous kindness of a neighboring elderly lady. In return, he presents to her a box, which he gives her to understand encloses the most precious possession, only to be unlocked after his death. When the box containing the relic is opened, and reveals nothing more valuable than a lock of yellow hair, and a scrawl attributing it not to the high sounding name, but to "Little Johnny," and to have been cut by his mother in his babyhood, the recipient['s] indignation is only softened by the womanly instinct which sympathizes with the mother's love for the little Johnny of long ago.
The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Thomas Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill], and was called "Retrospects." The first part was on "Home Incidents in the War of 1812." Mrs. Hill gave a vivid description of the burning of the village of Georgetown on Sassafras river by a party of British troops. She
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described the landing of the soldiers, after all the men of the village had gone away to fight, and told of the efforts of the women to save their household treasures. One lady harnessed her horse to her carriage, took her children into the woods, and leaving them with an old servant made [a] series of trips to and fro to save all she could of her property. The heroine of the day was Miss Kitty Knight, who resolutely refused to leave her house and let it be burned,--until the British officer in command finally gave orders to spare her home, and the house next to it. Two years after the war, an American gentleman travelling in Europe met the English officer, who inquired after Miss Knight, and sent his compliments to her.
Mrs. Hill's second retrospect was "A Visit to the Tomb of General Cadwallader." Mrs. Hill described the marble tomb in the graveyard of the Episcopal Church of Shrewsbury, Maryland, and gave an appreciative tribute to General Cadwallader. He was, she reminded us[,] born in Philadelphia in 1742. In our Revolutionary War he commanded a body of troops which was given the name of the silk stocking company--at a time when all creature comforts were scarce for the Colonial soldiers. But this company, and its commander proved its valor at Princeton, Monmouth and other battles, gaining high praise from
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General Washington. General Cadwallader was wounded in a duel fought with General Thomas Conway, whom he is said to have challenged on account of Conway's intrigues against Washington. Mrs. Hill read the epitaph on General Cadwallader's tomb, written by Thomas Paine, commemorating a gentleman, soldier and statesman. We had hoped for a third retrospect by Mrs. Hill; but she, on account of the late hour, postponed it.
The last article of the programme was by Miss Gertrude Lanahan [Gertrude M. Lanahan], and was on "Heinrich Hoffman's 'Warning Christ.'" Miss Lanahan said she recalled a red letter day in her life, the one on which she saw the picture of which she would speak to us. Most of the pictures of Hoffman are, she said, familiar to us as his "Christ in the Temple," and others. But his Warning Christ is less known. She saw this picture two years ago, on the easel in his studio. Though seventy years old he holds informal receptions and it is a custom for his admirers to go and see his pictures on Sunday after Church hours. She and her friends went without letters of introduction, but likes Americans, and they were admitted, received a pleasant greeting and his autograph. He then turned them over to his cousin and housekeeper, a middle-aged German lady, much in sympathy with
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his work. The picture of the Warning Christ was, she said, a revelation to her. It is the picture of a judge with no trace of sternness, but the judge still. In the other pictures you look into the eyes of the Christ, in this picture the Christ seems to look into your eyes,--into your soul--and to say "What have you done with your talent?" It reminds us not so much of the loving Christ as of the Risen Christ, who said "Touch me not."
At the close of the programme, the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of March 20th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, March 20th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Frederick Tyson [Florence McIntyre Tyson], Chairman of the Committee on Translation.
In the absence of the President, the First Vice President Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock] called the meeting to order. The Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of March 13th.
The presiding officer announced that the next meeting would celebrate the closing of the tenth year in the life of our Club.
The first article of the programme was
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by Miss Elizabeth Cary Nicholas, and was her translation of "A Story," by Joseph Montel. It told of a group of officers in the French army who are sitting around the whist table on the night of Christmas Eve. They are waiting for the strokes of twelve o'clock; when the church bells shall announce the birthday of our Lord. They are ready to drink the health of the commanding officer, and when the strokes have sounded, they do so loyally and heartily. But the general has his hands over his eyes, and keeps them so for a moment or two. Then with grateful acknowledgments to his comrades, he tells the meaning of his silent and reverent greeting of Christmas Day. He tells of Christmas Eves of long ago, in Alsace and Lorraine and of the old belief that the Christ Child comes then in person to his people, but, that if anyone dares to look at him, that one is struck blind. He tells of his childish audacity one Christmas night in the declaration that he will see the Christ Child, and of the loving young brother, whose hands were placed and kept firmly over his eyes, until the danger of irreverence--or of blindness was over. And now, he was a soldier, and his brother was a priest. And the soldier had owed his faith to the same loving guide, who always let him see enough to save and bless him; but veiled from his mortal sight the glory not yet
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to be revealed. The next article of the programme was a translation by Miss Gertrude Lanahan [Gertrude M. Lanahan], from the French of Octave Feuillet, of his Story; "La Veuve." It told of two French officers, one of the army and the other of the navy, a contrast to each other, in all things except the sense of honor to which each held allegiance. In childhood they had gone together to the foot of a wayside cross, and there swore eternal and inviolable friendship. The first, falling in love, inquired of his friend if he has met the lady who has inspired his affection, believing that if so, the friend must have loved her too. But being reassured on this point, he marries, and is perfectly happy. Miss Lanahan then read a striking and pathetic description of the death--from wounds in battle--of the happy bridegroom. His parting injunction to his friends is;--to tell his wife that he cannot endure the thought of her marrying again, he would rather she should die, and his ghost will haunt her if his wish is disregarded. And he requires his friend to promise solemnly to carry this message to her who will be his widow. But on the first meeting of the friend and the widow, in the presence of each other, the message is not given; and growing more difficult to give; with every meeting, it is never given. The apprehension of the first lover that
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his friend was liable to the same attraction as himself proves to have been prophetic; and one bright day comes when the widow and the friend are married. Late that evening the new bridegroom walks out with his cigar in the moonlight, with out regarding the direction of his steps, until he finds himself at the foot of toe old wayside cross. And now, when his perfidy is irrevocable, he sees once more the two children who swore eternal friendship, and again the dying friend to whom he made his vow--upon his honor. The next morning his dead body is found at the foot of the cross. No reason for this fact is discovered, except the possibility of the final result of a wound received in battle.
Mrs. John M. Carter [Florence Carter] then read an interesting letter from the Reverend Morgan Dix of New York, in regard to the King's Coat of Arms, which, as she told us some weeks ago, she had seen in the Trinity Church of St. John, New Brunswick. These Royal Arms had once adorned Trinity Church, New York City. They were carried away at the close of the Revolutionary War, by members of the congregation who were loyal to the King, and who preserved them in the new home given by the monarch to Americans who retained their
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allegiance to him. The letter of Mr. Dix to Mrs. Carter gave further particulars of the transfers and adventures of these Royal Arms, now resting in a loyal Colony.
The next article of the programme was by Mrs Thomas J. Morris, and was a translation from Francois Coppée's "Winter in Geneva" called "Above the Clouds." Monsieur Coppée described the contrast of the summer aspect of Geneva, its Lake, its hotels, and all the attractions that bring the crowd of tourists in the tourists' season, with the winter realities of the same place as he saw it through fog and mist. He spoke of the individualities of the place, of the associations of Calvin and his time, still so marked and impressive, that it would be no surprise to meet the old Protestant leader himself pressing his Bible to his heart, and perhaps, denouncing as heretics all who opposed him. You soberly dressed women, seemingly wishing to hide all beauty as a scandal! Bankers look like Doctors of Divinity discussing texts of Scripture.
M. Coppée goes on to say he likes the brave old city of Geneva, long a home for exiles, and is grateful for the reception it gave to him and to his works. He was there in a severe winter, when the fogs closed down upon him like masses of soot; and he was much surprised one morning
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when his landlord asked if he would not like to see the sun. And then, in a closed carriage, shutting out the world he went up through the mist, to where he saw the sun, rising in a beautiful rose tint, and around him was a tender and exquisite carpet of blue. His whole being was in the intoxication of joy. Up from Geneva and the lake came the tones of the bells, and the sounds of the life of the city. The birds plunged downward out of view; the Jura mountains rose before him clothed in white, and he recalled the mystic Atlantis, and the old fabled cities. His heart was in touch with the adoring Nature around him. And so, he said, had he in the winter of his life found himself overwhelmed with fogs and mist, at war with his early faith, but the loving hand a friend had led him up through the heavy clouds, to the purer air, to the visible sun, to the Christian religion, to the Church of his fathers.
The next article of the programme was the translation by Miss Marie Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins] of "The Dressmaker," "A Monologue." The lady who speaks says that her husband is not elected yet, but expects to be a deputy; consequently she has come up to Paris to order a dress suitable for a deputy's wife. The fashionable dressmaker, after commenting on the lady's figure, which she says "must be
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reduced to a thread, or our darts will be spoiled," reaches the important subject of sleeves, and asks if she will have a ministerial sleeve, which is not very distinctive--ministers are supposed to have no opinions,--or a senatorial sleeve, which has some ornamentation. The deputy's wife--by expectation--thinks she will have one ministerial sleeve, and one senatorial sleeve. Other points are arranged, and a surprising price is named for the dress, when the husband's message "Order nothing. Nomination failed--all off,--come home."
The last article of the programme was given by Mrs. Frederick Tyson [Florence McIntyre Tyson], and was her translation of a chapter from the new Italian novel of Mathilde Serao, "The Land of Delight." Mrs. Tyson explained that Mathilde Serao, who lives in Naples, is now the most famous novelist in Italy; she has surpassed in popularity the well-known D'Annunzio. This novel "The Land of Delight," is now being translated by two members of our Club. Madame Serao described the life of the city of Naples with wonderful power and vivacity. Like Mr. Dickens, she has generally in each of her novels the representation of some wrong to be set wright, or abuse to be remedied. In this case she describes the lotteries, which, in her country, are not only permitted, but patronized and assisted by the government.
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She tells how the three classes of people, the noble, the bourgeoisie, and the peasants are drawn into the hazards of the lottery. The extract given us by Mrs. Tyson tells of a young married couple, of the trading class, devoted to each other, and lately made perfectly happy by the possession of first born child, a little girl, in whose honor they give a party, regardless of expense; for the pastry cook shop of Fragella,--like those of his father and grandfather has prospered greatly, the Neapolitans having a passionate fondness for sweet things. The young couple in their "land of delight," wishing to delight others also, are charmingly depicted, although the husband wars a watch chain much too large and heavy, and the wife asks her hairdresser if he cannot put more diamond pins into her headdress. He answers "No Madame," and informs her that too many jewels in the hair spoil the face. The happy husband tells his wife that if he succeeds in his latest venture, she shall have still more jewels to wear. She immediately asks about the new venture, as he has always before told her of his business enterprises. He evades the question; and after thinking the matter over a moment, she believes she has discovered what the venture must be, and is pleased with his wishing to surprise her. They have captured for the godmother of their adored baby a noble lady, a real marchesa, who looks like a mummy, and is dressed in
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the style of thirty years ago. The godfather is a money lender, fabulously rich. The guests show different types of Neapolitans. The baby is shown around, and sets up its howl of remonstrance. The supper is so good that some of the guests sacrifice their dignity so far as to ask for a few dainties to take home with them. Consequently the obliging host is tying up a bundle, when his wife, who has been for some time annoyed with the presence just within the door--of a very forbidding figure, apparently a tramp, asks her husband who the unbidden guest can be? With hesitation he acknowledges that the seeming intruder is a medium, one on whom the superstitious Neapolitans look with awe, as well as curiosity. When invited to eat, he does so, as if he had never done so before. When he speaks his words are listened to with strange attention. His incidental mention of the number thirty three is taken up immediately as an intimation of the lucky number in the approaching drawing of the lottery. When the guests are gone and the lights are put out, the young wife and mother sits for a little while with tears rolling down her cheeks in silence and darkness.
The programme being finished, the meeting adjourned.
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Meeting of March 27th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, March 27th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was the Salon for March, and was also the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the organization of the Club. The room was decorated with flowers and the programme included musical selections, given under the direction of Miss Jane Zacharias.
The President, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall], called the meeting to order, and announced the first article of the programme. Music for the piano, given by Miss Elizabeth Coulson. The selections were Mendelssohn's Song of Spring, and a Waltz by Chopin, beautifully played and highly appreciated.
The Recording Secretary then read the minutes of the initial meeting of the Club, on March 19th, 1890,--as reported by Miss Hester Crawford Dorsey [Hester Crawford Dorsey Richardson], now Mrs. Richardson. Miss Dorsey is gratefully remembered as having, in connection with Miss Louise O. C. Haughton [Louisa Courtland Osburne Haughton], originated the movements to which our Club owes existence. Miss Haughton was with us in our anniversary meeting; but, to our great regret, Mrs. Richardson was unable to be present. In addition to the minutes of the first meeting of the Club, the Recording Secretary read an extract from Miss Ridgely's
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minutes of the second meeting in April 1890, giving the first President's statement of the aims and objects of the Club. This was followed by the present Recording Secretary's minutes of the latest meeting on March 20th, 1900.
By special request, Miss Marie Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins] then repeated a sketch read to the Club at a former meeting. It was her own translation from the French, and was called "The Dressmaker." It was highly humorous, and was much enjoyed.
The next article from the programme was the "Romanze" for the violin, by Svendson, played by Miss Amy Robie,--with accompaniment for the piano by Miss Coulson.
The next article was the "Anniversary Greeting," by the President, Mrs. John C. Wrenshall. The President spoke of her sincere gratification in giving the anniversary greeting to the officers, members and guests of the Woman's Literary Club, at the close of the tenth year of its life. Time, she said, is the crucial test of the vitality of all organizations, and we can claim that our Club has withstood this test successfully. For ten years we have followed the lines marked out at the formation of the Club, never making novelty our loadstone, never deserting our original aims--nor giving up our allegiance to them. It has been proved without a shadow of doubt that this is a working Club. All have contributed to the programmes. Since the
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first meeting of this Club year on October 3rd, there have been seventy six articles presented, including historical essays, sketches, poems, translations, and fiction. We have yet two months of work before us in this Club year. Our work is on literary lines exclusively, we have kept to womanly words and influences, and we hope to judge the future by the past. In conclusion, the President said she had ventured to place on the programme of this day "Consistency thou art a jewel," which we trust will apply to future anniversaries also.
The President then announced "Two Songs" sung by Miss Haughton, who was formerly the President of the Club, and to whom we owe much of its early success. Miss Haugton sang "Calm as the Night" by Bohm, and "Stride La Vampa," by Verdi. She was accompanied by Mrs. Manly [Lily Tyson Manly Elliott], formerly also an officer of the Club.
The President then said she had the very great pleasure of announcing that Mrs. Turnbull [Francese Litchfield Turnbull], our first President, who held that office for more than seven years, would give us an essay called, "Fiction as an Art." After a graceful greeting to the Club, Mrs. Turnbull read her article. She spoke of the relations of art with nature, and of its ennobling influences. She gave too some fine quotations from eminent critics on the subject she was treating. She dwelt on the need of culture to make broader
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the outlook of the artists, and clear away all dimness of vision. The artist owns his will, and says his message, and this is an argument for something better than "art for art's sake." There are those, we were reminded, who deny to Fiction the name of art, but a writer must be an artist for his literary creations. Fiction cannot be taught, there must be the indescribably something in tone and word. We have been told that the aim of Fiction is to please. Perhaps the function of all art is to please, but this does not place art in opposition to nobler and higher aims. The personal equation is to be considered also. Each thought is to have its own best form of expression; and all must have reference to the central thought in the author's own conception. The worth of self-criticism was dwelt upon, and the question recalled, "Why may not the artist be his own best critic?" The critic, we are told, sees the picture from his own point of view, and the power to create ought to give the power to criticize also. The artist holds his ear close to Nature's lips; and literature is the most comprehensive and varied of arts. After speaking of the need of accuracy, Mrs. Turnbull took up the subject of "realism," but it was the realism that even in fiction, is not--in its true sense--opposed to noble ideals. We may make the ideals more possible by showing the real. She gave a lovely
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description of a real woman whose life and character were made ideal by her gentle, loving intellectual nature, in an idyllic home, the outcome of three generations of true, high-thinking lives. Mrs. Turnbull gave interesting criticisms on different works of fiction. She spoke too of the power for good work, which lies in the longer moments that life holds for all of us.
Miss Mullin [Elizabeth Lester Mullin], then presented to Mrs. Turnbull, for and in the name of the Club, a beautiful bouquet of white roses,--with the love of the sender.
The last article of the programme was of Music for violin and piano, given by Miss Amy Robie, and Miss Elizabeth Coulson. The selection was "Beethoven's Sonata in A. Major." At its close, the President gave the thanks of the Club to the ladies who had given us the musical part of our programme.
Conversation and refreshment followed the adjournment of the meeting. A visitor, Miss Speers favored the company with dialect songs, which seemed much enjoyed.
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Meeting of April 3rd, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, April 3rd, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Emma Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], Chairman of the Committee on Archaeology. The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of March 27th.
The President spoke of the inquiries made by new members for copies of the Club manual, containing the Constitution and By Laws. She announced that applications could be made to her for these copies. Reference was made to our very pleasant anniversary meeting, and the beautiful flowers sent us on that occasion by Mrs. Charles Stuart Beebe [Mary H. Beebe].
The first article of the programme was by Mrs. R. M. Wylie [Elizabeth J. Wylie], and was on "The Lotus.” Mrs. Wylie described the lotus flower of ancient Egypt, the white or blue flower of the Nile, and also the red or white flower of India. She traced its marvellous symbolisms in the old religions, and their resemblances and varieties in different countries, and among different races. She traced the history of the flower,--its aesthetic and spiritual evolution, as an emblem of death and immortality. She spoke of its records on monuments, tombs
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and temples,--of its development in architecture and in decorative art. She reminded us of the old story of the "Lotus Eater" in the Odyssey, and the gift of their food to the sailors of Ulysses--making these mariners forget their native land, and their wish to return to it, till dragged away and tied to their ships. Mrs. Wylie read with full appreciation a portion of Tennyson's poem "The Lotus Eaters," a people who dwelt in "a land of dreams," in which "it seemed always afternoon."
Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock] spoke of the early culture of the lotus in New Jersey, before the Great American World's Fair, and of its more general culture since that time. Miss Zacharias spoke of the lotus decorative, traceable and made familiar in our wall papers and household ornaments. In connection with the lotus capitals of Egyptian columns, Mrs. Early [Maud Graham Early] spoke of the representations of some of the pillars of the temple of Karnak, to be seen in the "Halls of the Ancients" at Washington. Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall] spoke of the work of renovation the great temple of Karnak, being carried on by the Egyptian government. Many columns have fallen from their places. The work of raising a leaning column, and the [? architiare] resting upon it, has been accomplished in the same manner in which the work was done by the ancient Egyptians, thousands of years ago. These methods were described as used
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by the ancient architects and workmen, and now again by the modern ones.
The next article of the programme was by Mrs. P. R. Uhler [Pearl D. Uhler], and was on "Religious Beliefs in Magic, Among the Ancients." Mrs. Uhler spoke of the arts of magic among the Egyptians, as very close to the religious beliefs of the people. They had not the moral code of the Christianity of our day, and they connected the strange things they saw and experienced with sorcery and necromancy. She spoke of the system of embalming, and told of the idea that the soul of a dead Egyptian was believed to go to the place of departed spirits, but that its Kah, or double, sat in the tomb expecting the reunion of soul and body. The Egyptians believed in one Great God, omnipotent, the creator of all things, adored in silence. But they believed in the manifestations of divine attributes in various forms. She went on to speak of Ra, the Sun god, of Osiris, the god of resurrection, judge of the under world and of the souls of the dead, and of Isis, strong in speech. Recent investigation has found accounts of the turning of rods into serpents, as told in the book of Genesis, and even of the rolling back of the waves on the shores. Mrs. Uhler spoke of the meaning of amulets--many being found in the tombs, and spoke of the magic powers ascribed to them. Small statues were placed in the
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tombs, and were supposed to be animated by the spirits of their originals. In later years to overthrow or destroy the statues was supposed to make their spirits powerless. A kindred superstition has not yet entirely died out in Ireland and Scotland, as shown in the making of wax figures,--and slowly melting them. Mrs. Uhler spoke of the belief in dreams as of supernatural import,--as we know of those related in the history of Joseph. She gave us a remarkable ancient Egyptian formula for the production of dreams, to be repeated under peculiar conditions before going to bed. The request was made, that if any member of the Club should try its efficacy, she would report the result,--if result there should be.
Mrs. Wrenshall then told an ancient comic story, related by Westear, of a magician who lived one hundred and then years by the Nile, and who was reported to be able to cut off a man's head,--and return it to the man's shoulders unhurt again. The King having ordered him to exhibit his powers on a slave; the magician suggested that it should first be exercised on a goose. The goose being brought in and its head and body separated, the two parts wiggled their way to each other, and reunited, making a complete living goose again,--saving the
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magician's reputation, and we may suppose--saving his conscience also with regard to the slave.
The last article of the programme was by Mrs. Thomas J. Morris, and was on "The Status of Women in Ancient Egypt." Mrs. Morris spoke of the picture of social life of the old Egyptians given us by the stories of the German writer Ebers; and went on to tell of the excellent work of research done by a fellow countryman of his named Erman. In Eber's story of "The Egyptian Princess," he has shown the higher position of women in Egypt than in Greece and Rome. Erman speaks of the position of woman as having a strong similarity in all nations who have reached a certain stage of civilization; though this is subject to different variations from the influence and development of certain religious faiths, as in Mohammadism, and Christianity. We can know something of this position in Egypt thousands of years before Christ. We learn of the tender family life there, of the relations of parent and child; of the love of the son for the mother and of the daughter for the father. The Queen had a high position; though, for political reasons, she had rivals, and there were harems, recruited from the slaves and the women captives in war. But the custom was for the wife to sit side by side with her husband. The woman had rights before the law; she held property; the daughter could inherit from her father as well as the son. She had
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her part in the festivals; and--more honorable still--she took part in the service of the temple. Mrs. Morris spoke of the religion of the Egyptians, which taught the immortality of the soul of man and woman; which made man and woman both subject to a judgment after death, to the rewards of the deeds done in the bod. It was this faith, she said, that--in spite of some overshadowing clouds of polygamy and slavery--made the position of woman higher and nobler in Egypt than in other nations.
Comments were made on the articles presented; and the President called attention to the excellent collection of books on Egypt in the library of the Peabody Institute.
The meeting adjourned.
Meeting of April 10th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, April 10th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of April 3rd. The President announced that the meeting of May 1st would be devoted to the reports of the Chairmen of Committee.
The first article given from the programme was by Miss Shackelford [Fannie H. Shackelford]; and in her absence
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was read for her by Mrs. Morris. It was a criticism of "Red Rock," by Thomas Nelson Page. Miss Shackelford spoke of the interest this book has awakened, as telling the story of the so-called reconstruction period in the Southern States, following the great Civil War. It is told frankly, with humor and pathos. Miss Shackelford showed how Mr. Page takes us back to the time before the war, and pictures that charming graceful phase of Southern life never to be forgotten. She quoted the story of the old man who came back to his old home, possessed by strangers, who would have given much to own the nail on which is father "used to hang his coat."
The next article of the programme was "Two Poems," by Miss [Laura] de Valin, "In the Heyday," and "A Sonnet." The first was on the Love which surmounts time and place and environment, "ecstatic, yet dumb." The second called our thoughts to the new, more full and generous life that rises for us with the recollection of the Resurrection of our Lord.
The next article was by Miss Cooper [H. Frances Cooper], and was called "Book Suggestions." After speaking of discrimination in reading, Miss Cooper gave a glance backward over the books of the century that is closing, and to their influence and outcome. Some writers, she said, seem
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lost or forgotten, some appeal to us still, and some stand like milestones in our pathway. She quoted the sayings of Roger "When a new book comes out, read an old one," and suggested that it is well to compare the new books with the old ones. She went on to speak of a large number of books that had interested her. She thought "The Children of the Mist," rightly named; and criticised those books which are not wholesome, or possess no moral stimulant. From their authors she turned to Ruskin and Blackmore, and others of the fine writers who have lately gone from us. She referred to "The Jessamy Bride," which tells the love story of Oliver Goldsmith. Goldsmith, she said, may seem to us too rough for a lover, but his love was, it seems, returned, though he never married. She spoke of the translation of the Rig Veda, the Indian Bible, and of other great works of Professor Max Müller. With regard to literature--as to other things in life, she spoke of Life's great investments, the investment of talent, and the investment of influence,--of those who wish to be Great Hearts, and of the gentleness of true greatness.
The President expressed our interest in the articles of our two new members, and our hope to hear soon from them again.
After further comments on books,
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the next article of the programme was given, "A Poem," by Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], which was read by Mrs. Uhler. It was called "A Note in April," and told of the gladsome spring time, when the blue bird is proclaimed as King.
The last article was by Mrs. Sidney Turner [Clara B. Newman Turner], "Poems," selected from her book, "The Mail from Nowhere." She read from her Daily Mail; from her "Holiday Mail," and her "Sunday Mail." One poem was on the sleep of flower and bird, and of human souls, and the mystery of sleeping and waking--for soul and body. From "The Holiday Mail" she gave us our old friends "Jack and Jill," as they are now, "full of hurry, and full of worry,"--"and all for that pail of water."
Then there was the "Mother's Almanac," in which there is rain when baby cries, and sunshine when baby smiles, and time and weather answer to the mother's love. Then came a graceful "Love Song." From the "Sunday Mail," we had the Autumn Gospel, on the time of Nature's fading and dying, but with the glory that holds the promise of the coming Spring.
The meeting adjourned.
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Meeting of April 17th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, April 17th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Malloy [Louise Malloy], Chairman of the Committee on the Drama. The Recording Secretary being unavoidably detained, the minutes were not read. The President announced the musical programme of the next meeting, the Easter Salon.
The first article of the programe was given by Miss Malloy, and was called "Lost Illusions." Miss Malloy told the story of a little girl, who saw in a store a miniature model of a church, which so delighted her that she persuaded her father to buy it for her. But with the possession comes the discovery that it was only an empty shell, no longer beautiful when viewed from the inner side. So, we were told, the dramatic stage which has looked lovely form the front point of view, has from behind the scenes proved only an empty shell, with its mystery and beauty lost to sight. The lurid artillery of heaven is of very simple machinery, the show and rain are kept on call, and brought on in the most business like manner. Miss Malloy gave the charge of Polonius to his son, as it once sounded behind the scenes, its fine sentences and noble sentiments broken into by the stage directions and exclamations of the
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manager, till Laertes leaves the stage, and gives place to other illusions.
The next article of the programme was by Miss Lizette Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese], who gave us the pleasure of hearing her poem, "In the Fold."
The third article was "An Address," by Miss Ellen Duvall. Miss Duvall said that the Italian dramatic writer Gozzi, told Winckelmann, who told Goethe, who told Schiller, that there are only thirty six dramatic situations possible. One who has sought for these thirty six, could find only fourteen. The motive of these situations is ambition or love, or a blending of the two. Miss Duvall then examined Shakespeare's Dramas. The historical plays, of course, deal with ambition. In Hamlet we have the ambition of Claudius, and his love for his brother's wife. In Othello there is the ambition of Iago, and the turning of affection into hatred. In King Lear there is the ambition of the two daughters, and their love for Edgar, and the ambition of Edgar to supplant his brother. In Anthony and Cleopatra, we see the ambitious Roman leader of men led away by love. Miss Duvall dwelt on the closing scenes of the play, and on the nature of the woman Cleopatra revealed in them. Miss Duvall then took up the play of Troilus and Cressida, of which she spoke as a pessimistic work. She told of a cleaver man, who, while full of appreciation and admiration of the book of Job,
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could not see why it was in the Bible. To this she answered that the Bible deals with all of human life and thought, and does not leave out the pessimism of human souls. But, she thought, hardly more than two of the greatest souls, who have sounded the depths of pessimism have lived to rise again, and tell the tale in purer light and air, Schopenhauer and Leopardi could not rise again, but the author of the book of Ecclesiastes and Shakespeare could and live to come back from the dark gulf into which they had gone. She then gave a critical account of the play of Troilus and Cressida, as a book of types. There is, she reminded us, a lack of spirituality and a want of nobleness in the characters with the exception of that of Hector, but the high art of Shakespeare is shown in his presentation of them. Ulysses of course stands for worldly wisdom; and Hector's pleadings are met with the arguments for national honor and for national destiny, which read to us just like the same arguments that are made familiar to us in the present day.
The next article of the programme was Poems by Miss Virginia Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud]: a "Lyric," a "Sonnet," and an "Interlude." They were read by Mrs. Thomas J. Morris.
The next article was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], and was called "From a Celestial Point of View." Mrs. Cautley described a scene on the porch of
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a hotel at Narragansette, Hot Springs, or some other fashionable summer resort. There are present Mrs. Haut Ton, Miss Haut Ton, a widow, a lady not a widow, a semi-clerical gentleman, and others. The Chinese minister's wife comes out with her son, and her interpreter. The son arranges her chair, hands her a book and her fan, makes her a little bow, and retires. The gentleman essays serious conversation with the heathen lady, unsuccessfully. The conversation carried on among the group of ladies is characteristic and lively, and on general topics. Juleps are sent for, and the young lady calls her mother foolish. Gossip continues till attention is turned to the stranger within their gates. Her heathenism, her small feet are freely commented upon, and also the alleged Chinese custom of eating rats, drowning their girl babies, and of making marriage a slavery for women. The Chinese lady very soon--in the most artless English addresses her critics as "Good Ladies," and gives them the "celestial" point of view. Among other things she tells them, that she is reading a book in heir language, and has learned that they have had once a great teacher, but they seem not to follow well his instructions, for he said "Judge not, that ye may not be judged." We, she suggested follow our teacher, Confucius, who told us to "honor our parents." If my son had called me foolish, he would be called a dog, and no man. I no more eat rats
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than you do, but there are a great many poor people in China; it is possible,--where there are six with food only for one,--some may eat whatever they can find. We draw in our feet; and you draw in your bodies. As for the girl babies, there may be some very poor women in this country who would have preferred to have been drowned when they were babies. We think marriage is not slavery,--but freedom. We think of the husband we are to have; but you have love affairs, and come to marriage all tired out. The little lady ends with "I am perfectly happy with my husband, and he is perfectly happy with me. I hope you will all be the same. Good morning."
We next had the pleasure of hearing read "An Easter Poem," by Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias]. This poem had been published in a paper of Springfield, Massachusetts. Information had afterwards unexpectedly reached Miss Zacharias that in the Episcopal church of that city, her poem had been read from the pulpit on Easter Sunday.
The last article of the programme was "The Ring of Amasis," dramatized from Owen Meredith, by Miss Louise Malloy. This dramatization of Owen Meredith's poem has been done for Mr. Creston Clarke, and is to be played by him next winter. This is the second dramatization made by Miss Malloy for Mr. Clarke. A chapter from Miss Malloy's drama was read
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to us by Miss Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins]. It is the story of a signet ring brought from the tomb of an ancient Egyptian monarch, by a modern traveller. The discoverer had a mysterious or supernatural warning of its evil influence--some thousands of years ago--on the lives of two jealous brothers. The traveller brings it home, and the girl he loves laughingly puts it on. Then the evil omen seems to darken the story; and the jealous brother, like another apotheosis of Cain--lives before us in our own century and civilization.
The President after a few words of appreciation of the entertainment we had enjoyed, declared the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of April 24th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, April 24th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was the April Salon, for which a musical programme was presented under the direction of Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], Chairman of the Committee on Music.
The President called the meeting to order, and announced that the first number to be given from the programme would be the "Harp Solo," by Miss Cone [Selma B. Cone]. This was an Overture, and Miss Cone's playing was highly appreciated.
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Then followed an article by Miss Zacharias on "Hymnody," and the metrical Psalms in Divine Service "with organ illustrations." Miss Zacharias said that her subject had extended itself before her, but that she would not take us back further than the Christian Era. She quoted accounts of the hymns of the early Christians as given by their friends and enemies. In the first and second centuries there were records of the Chants and Songs of Praise sung in Alexandria, Rome and elsewhere. Later on we learn more of the Service of Singing instituted and carried on by St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and St. Gregory, each improving the work of those gone before. The Roman chants were introduced into England at an early day, and St. Dunstan is said to have constructed an organ in the tenth century. There followed a marked advance in the literary side of sacred vocal music. Miss Zacharias spoke of the hymn invoking the Holy Spirit, as ascribed to King Robert the Second of France, son of Hugh Capet. She spoke too of the early German Church service, and of the Italian accomplishment and influence in this part of Christian worship. She spoke of the introduction and progress in the first Protestant churches of what we now call congregational singing. She told of the English refugees who came back again in the reign of Elizabeth,
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bringing the Psalms and Hymns learned in Germany and Switzerland. Miss Zacharias read many historical, pathetic and humorous extracts from the writers of early and later times regarding the evolution of Hymnody, in the different Christian Churches. These suggested the great underlying resemblances, and the arising and advancing harmony in form and spirit of all Christian services of praise. The article of Miss Zacharias was ably illustrated by the singing--with her own organ accompaniment--by Miss [? Pangborn] and Miss Edith Stowe [Edith W. Stowe], of several of the hymns mentioned. These included the German hymn "Almighty Fortress is our God,"--the less known German hymn "I will love Thee, all my Treasure." Bishop Ken's evening hymn, "Glory to Thee, my God this night," and a portion of the "Jerusalem, the Golden" of Bernard of Cluny.
The next article of the programme was the singing by Miss Stowe of the old favorite Irish Song, "The Harp that once through Tara's Halls," etc. She was accompanied on the harp by Miss Cone.
The next article was by Miss Elizabeth Lester Mullin, and was called also "The Harp that once through Tara's Hall." Miss Mullin quoted some lines from a ballad on "the Dear old Land where the shamrock grows." She went on to speak of the very ancient
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Irish music; the songs that live through the history and tradition of the Emerald Isle, and tell us of the days when Ireland gave scholars and culture and music to the rest of Europe with generous hands. She went back to the early colonists, to the old Greek mention of the people, and told of their civilization, their bards, their songs and stories. She spoke of their musical colleges, their instruments, especially of the Irish harps that were played before Kings, and the harps that little Irish children learned to play. The old songs appealed more to the heart than to the intellect. They told the deeds of the heroes of the land, but most of the old music is lost. Miss Mullin gave us songs of the fifth and the sixth centuries as well as those of the eighteenth and of our closing one. She spoke of the Keenes, or songs of lamenting--which seem to have come down from the customs of the ancient Hebrews. She traced the effect of misgovernment on the music as well as on the progress and prosperity of Ireland, and referred to political and revolutionary songs. One ballad quoted was on the "Coolin," referring to the opposition aroused by the edict prohibiting the wearing of long hair--which was an ancient custom. In it, the girl tells he lover that if he is not her have "coolin," she will not be his bride. She read the song "Aileen Aroon" of the air of which Hayden envied the authorship, and from which
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Robin Adair was derived, without improving upon it. She dwelt upon the adaptations, or rather translations--made by Thomas Moore from old Irish songs, which have become favorites almost all over the world. She spoke too of Lover's songs, especially his "Angel's Whisper," and his "Rory O'More." The air of the latter was played at the coronation of Queen Victoria. Miss Mullin reminded us that the songs of Ireland tell the story of the centuries, in which a people of many charms have borne their burdens and sorrows with uplifted eyes, and hearts attuned to undying melodies.
The next number of the programme was "Three Songs," sung by Miss Stowe, they were; "Oft in the Stilly Night,"--"My Gentle Harp," and "Kate Kearney."
Refreshments and conversation followed, and later Miss Stowe sang again by request and the meeting adjourned.
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Meeting of May 1st, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, May 1st, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This was a business meeting for the reception of the annual reports of the Chairmen of the Committees of the Club.
The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of three preceding meetings; those of April 10th, April 17th, and April 24th. The President announced the subjects of the succeeding meetings in the month of May,--two of these being for nominations and elections. She then called for the Reports of the Chairmen.
The first report given was that of Lizette W. Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese], Chairman of the Committee on Modern Poetry. She reported the two meetings given by her Committee. The first was on November 21st, 1899, when the Chairman gave a short review of "Recent English and American Poetry," and poems were read written by Miss Litchfield [Grace Denio Litchfield], and Miss Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud], and the Chairman, and also Reviews by Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall] and Mrs. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley]. These were followed by a lively discussion of Markhand's poem, "The Man with the Hoe." By request, the President read the poem, and Miss Reese read a letter written by Mr. Markham to herself, giving his own
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interpretation or intention with regard to his poem. The second of the Modern Poetry meetings was on February 13th, 1900, when poems were read, written by Mrs. Cautley, Miss Cloud and Miss Reese, a Review by Mrs. Thomas J. Morris, on the Poet "who sang as he chose"--Omar Khayyam--and an article on the Poet "who sings as he must"--Rudyard Kipling--by Mrs. Cautley;--a sketch by Miss Perkins [Marie Eulalie Perkins], and readings by Miss Brooke [Belle Brooks] and Miss Nicholas [Elizabeth Cary Nicholas].
The next report called for was that of Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney], Chairman of the Committee on the "Study of the English Language." In her absence it was given by Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock], the President. One meeting was reported, that of January 23rd, 1900, when were presented an article by Mrs. Bullock, on Anglo-Saxon Character; one by Miss Middleton, on "Is Anglo-Saxon English?"--and one by Mrs. McGaw on "British and Saxon Songs."
Miss Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud], Chairman of the Committee on Fiction, reported two meetings. The first was on December 19th, 1899, when stories by Miss Whitney, Mrs. Percy Reese [Elizabeth Reese], Miss Cloud and Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall] were presented. The second meeting was on March 6th, 1900, when a Character Sketch was given by Miss Mary Davis [Mary Dorsey Davis], and stories by Miss Duvall, Miss Cloud and Miss Whitney, a Translation
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by Miss Perkins, and a Sketch by Mrs. Cautley.
For the Committee on the Drama, one meeting was reported, that of April 17th, 1900. There were given an article by the Chairman, Miss Malloy [Louise Malloy], on the "Lost Illusions of the Stage," a sketch, by Mrs. Cautley, a Shakespearean Review by Miss Duvall, and poems by other members.
Mrs. Cautley, Chairman of the Committee on Essays and Essayists, reported two meetings. The first on November 14th, 1899, presented essays, biographical, musical, and psychological, by Miss Evelyn Early, Mrs. Sidney Turner [Clara B. Newman Turner], and Mrs. Charles H. Beebe [Mary H. Beebe]. Mrs. Cautley's second meeting was on January 2nd, 1900, when essays were read on subjects literary, narrative, and philosophical, by the Chairman, Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], and Miss Whitney. Mrs. Cautley spoke of her Committee as having room for all within its borders.
Miss Duvall, Chairman of the Committee on Current Criticism, reported two meetings. The first was on October 17h, 1899, and presented Reviews by the Chairman, and Mrs. Beebe, and an article by Miss Malloy. Her second meeting was on February 6th, 1900, and its programme included articles by Miss Davis, Miss Shackelford [Fannie H. Shackelford], Miss Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud] and Mrs. Morris. Those of us who are too busy for much general reading
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have certainly cause to thank Miss Duvall and her Committee for their work of literary investigation and its results.
Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], Chairman of the Committee on Music, reported the musical programmes of four meetings. The first was that of December 12th, 1899, when articles were read by Mrs. Reese, Mrs. Gilpin and the Chairman herself. The second was on December 26th, 1899,--the Christmas Salon--when music was given by Miss Coulson and an article by Miss Zacharias. The third programme, that of March 27th, 1900, the tenth anniversary of the Club, when in addition to addresses by the President, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall], and the former President, Mrs. Turnbull [Francese Litchfield Turnbull], we enjoyed instrumental music by Miss Coulson [Elizabeth Coulson] and Miss Robie [Amy Robie], and vocal music by Miss Haughton [Louisa Courtland Osburne Haughton],--one of the founders of the Club. The fourth musical meeting was the Salon of April 24th, when an article was given on Hymnody by Miss Zacharias with organ illustrations, and an article by Miss Mullin [Elizabeth Lester Mullin] on "Irish Songs," with Harp Solos by Miss Cone [Selma B. Cone], and singing by Miss Stowe [Edith W. Stowe] and Miss Pangborn. Another musical programme is expected before the year closes.
Mrs. Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill], Chairman of the Committee on Colonial and Revolutionary History, reported the meetings on February 20th, 1900, when there were articles by Mrs. Carter [Florence Carter], Miss Middleton [Maria H. Middleton],
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and the Chairman herself. Mrs. Tyson [Florence McIntyre Tyson], Chairman of the Committee on Translations, reported two meetings. At the first on November 7th, 1899, were given translations from the French and Italian by Miss Mullin and Miss Perkins, and critical accounts of the authors they introduced to us were given by the Chairman. Her second meeting was on March 20th, 1900, presenting translations by Miss Lanahan [Gertrude M. Lanahan], Mrs. Morris, and Miss Nicholas [Elizabeth Cary Nicholas], closing with a chapter from Mrs. Tyson's own translation of a new book by Mathilde Serrao of Naples.
Mrs. Stabler [Ellen Austin Walker Stabler], Chairman of the Committee on Unfamiliar Records, reported the two meetings of January 9th, 1900, and March 13th, 1900. The programme of the first was given by Mrs. Hill, Miss Middleton, and the Chairman, Mrs. Stabler. At the second meeting articles were given by Mrs. Edward Stabler [Eliza Butler Stabler], Mrs. Hill, Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent] and Miss Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese].
Miss Brent, Chairman of the Committee on Archaeology, reported the meeting of April 3rd, 1900, when articles were read by Mrs. Wylie [Elizabeth J. Wylie], Mrs. Uhler [Pearl D. Uhler], and Mrs. Morris. Another meeting by this Committee is to be given on May 8th.
With congratulations on the work of our different Committees, the Club adjourned.
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Meeting of May 8th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, May 8th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This meeting was under the direction of Miss Emma Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], Chairman of the Committee on Archaeology. The President called the meeting to order, and gave notice of the meetings nominations and elections on May 15th and May 22nd.
The first article of the programme was by Miss Emma Brent, and was called "New Light upon the Papyri." Miss Brent spoke of the discovery and study of the records of Ancient Egypt. She gave a review of a new book written by Mr. Wallis Budge, keeper of the Antiquities of the British Museum. From his account of the papyri found in ancient tombs, we learn much of the religion of the old Egyptian,--of their funeral ceremonies, of their hopes for life and for death, and for immortality,--as derived wholly from native religious writings. Miss Brent spoke too of the tombs at Abydos on the Hill, and the very ancient mummies found there, conjectured to be those of the predecessors of the Egyptians. She then spoke of the papyri that have given us the "Book of the Dead," which is also the "Book of the Living,"--of those by and for whom it was written. She
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described the funeral of a priest, the carrying the body across the river, the relations following it, with the wife as the first mourner, and the texts quoted, resembling those of the Bibles. She described the pictures of the judgment of the dead before Osiris, with the weighing of his heart, and the horrid hippopotamus--headed monster waiting to seize those who were weighed in the balance and found wanting. She spoke of the Phoenix rising from its funeral pyre, as an emblem of immortality. She dwelt on the attributes and offices of the Egyptian divinities, especially to have lived and to have suffered a cruel death, and to have risen again to be the judge of the spiritual world;--a strange--an even wonderful element in such an ancient faith.
The President called attention to the gift of Mrs. Hearst to found a chair of Archaeology in the University of California; and to other recent efforts for the advantage of this important study.
The next article was by Mrs. John D. Early [Maud Graham Early], and was called "Artemisia, and the Mausoleum." It was, in her absence read for her by Mrs. Thomas J. Morris. It told of the splendid tomb erected by Artemisia, Queen of Caria, for her husband King Mansolus,
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and gave a detailed and picturesque description of this one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It is supposed to have been destroyed by an earthquake; but its grandeur and perfection in all the beauties of the at of sculpture, as described by ancient writers, has been confirmed by modern excavation and research. We were told of the prize offered by Artemisia to the literary men of her day for the best elegiac poem on her adored husband; and we were given translations of old Greek elegies. Artemisia seems to have been a disciple of Plato, and to have sympathized with his ideas on the immortality of the soul. We were told of the remains of the Mausoleum now in the British Museum, which probe the splendor and beauty of the original building, and the devotion of the mourning widow of three hundred and fifty years before Christ. And now, it was said, more than two thousand years after her death, Artemisia has her wish,--she has made the fame of her husband immortal.
The next article of the programme was by Miss Elizabeth Cary Nicholas, and was on "The Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem." Miss Nicholas gave an historical account of the Knights of St. John, Knights Hospitallers, or Knights of Malta, the religious and military order around which lingers
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the light of old romance, chivalry and valor, with its undying charm, even for us in our modern realistic age. She told of the hospital built in 1048, the permission of a Mohammedan Caliph, for the reception of European pilgrims who visited the holy Sepulchre,--and where the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John--ministered to their fellow Christians. She told of persecutions and imprisonment and of restoration under the rule of Geoffrey de Bouillon. She described the power, glory and luxury of the order at Rhodes, where the Knights held rule form 1310 to 1522, fighting the Turks successfully, until finally overcome by Sultan Solyman the Magnificent. She told of their rule at Malta, and of their commanderies in different nations. She described their degeneracy and decline;--but dwelt on the marvelous valor and vitality, which, for nearly seven centuries made the order world famous and admired.
The last article of the programme was by Mrs. Percy M. Reese [Elizabeth Reese], and was called "A Damascus Mystery." Mrs. Reese told of two English artists who have lived in that Syrian city, of which Mohammed is reported to have said that, as no man can have more than one Paradise, he would not enter Damascus, but he should have no Paradise above. The artists have brought back the likeness of a
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beautiful woman, the original of the picture being as mysterious a person as if she had escaped from Paradise itself, or from the earthly Paradise of an elegant English home, to be buried in the household of a typical modern Turk. The revelation of the mystery was not given.
At the close of the article, the meeting adjourned.
Meeting of May 15th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, May 15th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This was a business meeting for the nominations of 6 officers and the directors of the Club, to be elected on the following Tuesday; and members only were present. The President called the meeting to order; and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of May 8th.
The President announced the Committee of Elections to be: Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall], Chairman and Judge of Elections, Mrs. Carter [Florence Carter], Mrs. Edward Stabler [Eliza Butler Stabler], Mrs. McGaw [Margaret Ann Worden McGaw], and Mrs. Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill].
The President announced a business quorum to be present, and the nominating blanks to be distributed to the members. The names of the directors who were to hold over their places form last year were announced, as Miss Duvall,
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Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent], and Miss Zacharias [Jane Zacharias], and those of whose who retire,--unless re-elected--as Mrs. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley], Mrs. Uhler [Pearl D. Uhler] and Miss Whitney [Anne Weston Whitney].
Mrs. Tyson [Florence McIntyre Tyson], Corresponding Secretary, then, in a few humorous words declined any candidacy for re-election to that office.
The nominating ballots were collected, and the Committee retired to count the votes.
The President read a letter from Mrs. John T. Pleasants, a former member of the Club, telling of her intention to hold a Song Recital for the Club, which she had been obliged to defer until the season was too late for it, also giving her thanks for courtesies extended to her.
The President then presented and read the annual prospectus of the Woman's Elected Club of Columbus, Ohio. She spoke of having known a member of this Club, and of having become interested in its work,--the work of a Club nineteen years old. She read the full notes of its proposed subjects of consideration in the coming season,--the critical and the comprehensive study of Dante's Inferno. It promised careful research into the great poet's immortal creation.
The President then spoke of a By Law to be proposed to the Club at the next meeting to the effect that: When--as in this year, there are five Tuesdays in the month of May,
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the Board of Management shall have the right--if it is deemed expedient--to make the closing Salon of the Season, take place on Tuesday in May, instead of the first Tuesday in June.
The Committee of Elections returned and announced the result of the nominating ballot, as:
Number of nominating votes: 17.
For President: Mrs. Wrenshall 16. [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall]
First Vice President: Mrs. Bullock, 16. [Caroline Canfield Bullock]
Second Vice President: Mrs. Carter, 14. [Florence Carter]
Recording Secretary: Miss Crane, 16. [Lydia Crane]
Corresponding Secretary: Miss Whitney, 12. [Anne Weston Whitney]
Treasurer: Miss Middleton, 16. [Maria H. Middleton]
For Directors
Mrs. McGaw, 12
Miss Cloud, 11 [Virginia Woodward Cloud]
Mrs. Tyson, 8
Mrs. Uhler, 7
Mrs. Cautley, 7
Mrs. P. M. Reese, 2 [Elizabeth Reese]
There were scattering votes for Miss Duvall, Miss Perkins [Mary Eulalie Perkins], Mrs. Hill, Mrs. Edward Stabler, Miss Mullin [Elizabeth Lester Mullin], and Mrs. Wylie [Elizabth J. Wylie].
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Notice of the new By Laws to be proposed at the next meeting was given to the members present, and the Club adjourned.
Meeting of May 22nd, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, May 22nd, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This was the annual business meeting for the election of six Officers and three Directors. The meeting was called to order by the President, Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall]. The minutes of the meeting of May 15th were omitted, as the results of the nominating ballots cast then, were posted in full on the platform.
The President announced that for the closing Salon of the season, each member would have thee privilege of inviting guest.
A quorum having assembled, the President announced that the Board of Management, acting under the Constitution, Act VII, Section 2nd, which was read, presented to the Club a new By Law, of which due notice had been given at the last previous meeting. The proposed By Law was read: "When in any year there shall
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be five Tuesdays in the month of May, the Board of Management shall have the right, if it is deemed expedient, to make the closing Salon of the season take place on the last Tuesday in May, instead of the first Tuesday in June."
By a standing vote the new By Law was adopted; without any opposition. It will stand as By Law No X.
The Committee of Election, Miss Duvall [Ellen Duvall], being Chairman and Judge, then took charge of the business on hand. All members present, having registered their names, received from the Committee their ballots; which they filled up and returned. The Committee retired to count the votes.
The President then called for the Annual Report of the Treasurer, Miss Middleton [Maria H. Middleton],--which had been audited by Miss Mullin [Elizabeth Lester Mullin] and Mrs. Cautley [Lucy Randolph Cautley]. It was read, and, proving highly satisfactory in results and details, was accepted with the thanks of the Club.
The President gave some clear and comprehensive explanation of our business affairs, and spoke of some desirable things to be done in the future; such as issuing a new manual, and keeping improved and accessible lists of the books proper for consultation
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by the literary Committees of the Club. Valuable suggestions were made on these subjects by Mrs. Bullock [Caroline Canfield Bullock], Mrs. Tyson [Florence McIntyre Tyson], Miss Brent [Emma Fenwick Brent] and Miss Reese [Lizette Woodworth Reese].
The special Committee now returned, and Miss Duvall, Judge of Election, announced the result of the votes. (16 cast)
Elected
For President, Mrs. J. C. Wrenshall, (16.)
First Vice President, Mrs. R. K. Cautley, (13.) [Lucy Randolph Cautley]
Second Vice President, Mrs. J. M. Carter. (14.) [Florence Carter]
Recording Secretary, Miss Lydia Crane. (16.)
Corresponding Secretary, Miss A. W. Whitney (16.) [Anne Weston Whitney]
Treasurer, Miss Maria Middleton (16.)
Directors.
Mrs. W. R. Bullock. (12.)
Mrs. Frederick Tyson. (10.)
Mrs. G. K. McGaw. (9.) [Margaret Ann Worden McGaw]
For directorship: Miss Cloud [Virginia Woodward Cloud] received 8 votes, and Mrs. Uhler [Pearl D. Uhler] four. For Vice Presidencies: Mrs. Bullock--who had retired as a candidate--received two votes, and Mrs. Hill [Harriet Louise Wescott Hill] one.
The President expressed the thanks of the Club to the Committee of Elections, and the meeting adjourned.
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Meeting of May 29th, 1900.
The Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, May 29th, 1900, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets. This was the May Salon, and also the concluding meeting of the season of 1899 and 1900.
The President called the meeting to order; and announced that the programme would begin with Instrumental Music,--given by Miss Elizabeth Coulson,--Beethoven's Sonata in D Minor, (1st Movement). Miss Coulson's playing was received with much applause by the Club.
The programme next called for "The President's Address." Mrs. Wrenshall [Letitia Humphreys Yonge Wrenshall] spoke of the harmonious echoes of the music just heard, as being in sympathy with the farewell she gave to her fellow members at the close of this season. She thanked them for the honor of still another election to their leadership; and for the confidence and support they had given her in the last two years of our harmonious work together. She reminded us that this was a working club; and that its work had gained recognition and appreciation in many quarters. She spoke of the Programmes of Topics,--with the List of Officers and Directors, for the coming season of 1900, and 1901, which were now ready
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for distribution to the members of the Club. She announced that in addition to our Committees on diversified literary subjects, two new Committees had been formed. The first is on "Letters and Autographs," with Mrs. John D. Early [Maud Graham Early] as Chairman, and the second on "Current Events" with two Chairmen, Mrs. Frederick Tyson [Florence McIntyre Tyson], and Mrs. Sidney Turner [Clara B. Newman Turner]. The care and superintendence of "Book Lists" has been given to Miss H. F. Cooper [H. Frances Cooper].
The President expressed her hope that all our members might have a happy and beneficial summer; with opportunities for thought and observation. She hoped also for our meeting again on October 2nd; to follow with strength and unity of purpose--on our well defined lines--the work which shall be generally and mutually helpful to all of us.
After a graceful allusion to the late election, the President closed with the announcement that we would now have "Songs," given by our former Vice President, "and always friend"--Miss Louise C. O. Haughton [Louisa Courtland Osburne Haughton], accompanied by Miss Lena Stiebler of the Peabody Conservatory. Miss Haughton sang first "My Heart Still Turns to Thee," and second "For oh my Love! I love but Thee." The music of both songs was by Mr. Edwin Aler, and the words of the second by
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Miss Corinne Jackson, a former member of the Club. Miss Haughton's signing was highly appreciated. We next enjoyed two songs, sung by Miss Reiba Thelin, a former member of the Cub. She was accompanied by Mrs. Foster. Miss Thelin sang first the Selection--by Lehman, from "The Persian Garden,"--"The Worldly Hope Men Set Their Hearts Upon." This was followed by Hawley's "Awakening of Spring." As an encore, Miss Thelin and Mrs. Foster sang together for us: "Far from Thee, my Own True Love," being accompanied by Miss Stiebler.
We heard next Liszt's Rhapsodie Hongroise, No 6, played by Miss Coulson in her own fine manner. Miss Haughton then favored us with two Songs. "Good Night," by Hawley, and the Italian song Stride la Fampa.
Refreshments were served; and the afternoon passed in the exchange of farewells, and hopes for a pleasant reunion in October.
[END OF SEASON]