1898-1899

MEETING MINUTES

1898-1899 Season

 

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Meeting of October 4th, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, October 4th, 1898, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was the first of the season of 1898 and 1899.

The President, Mrs. Wrenshall, called the meeting to order and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of June 7th/98. 

The President gave an appropriate greeting to her fellow members; and spoke of the very great pleasure of having by her side, on this evening, our loved and honored former President, Mrs. Turnbull.  She said that she looked for the cooperation of all the members in working for the maintenance, development and growth of the good and pure literature which we love and hold in honor.  For this noble work we are willing to make some sacrifice of personal ease and comfort.

Mrs. Wrenshall spoke too of the factor for good our Club can be not only in our own day, and generation, but in the lives of those who are to come after us, and to take up our work. In conclusion she thanked her fellow members for the honor they had conferred upon her in electing her to preside over their work in the Club for the coming year.

The first article of the programme was by Miss Maria Middleton, and was called “Three Months across the Water.”  Miss Middleton told of having been one of a party of seven, who personally conducted

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themselves in taking a glance over Europe, for three months, in the past summer.  She described in vivid colors their first sight of land in those “Isles of the Blest,” the Azores, with their cultivated gardens and mountain peaks.  She told of Cape Tarifa on the European side of the Strait of Gibraltar, then of a glimpse of Africa, and then of sailing into the blue Mediterranean,—as blue as the sky.  She told of Naples, and of a drive from that city of forty-six miles of picturesque beauty. She spoke of Amalfi, and of swarms of hopeless beggars, and of Florence,—which we must all see for ourselves. She did not dwell very long upon Rome, as no doubt that city too we must see for ourselves.  She spoke of old Ravenna, and of Venice, with all its beauty of nature and of art.  She told of Tintoretto’s picture of “The Crucifixion,” which makes one feel personally present on Mount Calvary.  She went on to Switzerland, with its Alpine scenery, and the look of happiness in its people.  She spoke of the Cologne Cathedral—”that most true house of prayer and praise;” and of the house in Belgium’s capital where the Duchess of Richmond’s famous ball was broken up by the sound of “the cannon’s opening roar.”[1]   She went on to the wonders of Paris, to old St. Denis, and Versailles.  In our mother country she was struck with the humanity and the civility of the English people in their intercourse with travellers [travelers] through their land.  She touched upon Canterbury, Westminster Abbey, Windsor, Oxford, Cambridge, and upon Stratford upon Avon “the place that

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lives to-day upon Shakespeare’s memory.”  From ancient York with its many attractions she went on to Edinburgh, to Abbottsford and to Melrose Abbey and Dryburgh Abbey.  She came on to the English Lakes, to Liverpool, Queenstown, and home once more. Miss Middleton gave us a series of word pictures or many things all worth seeing and reproducing.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. John F. Goucher, and was called “A Few Words on the Mountain Lake Park, Chatauqua.”  Mrs. Goucher told us that from June 1st to October 1st, railroad trains stop at the station of Mountain Lake Park [Garrett County, MD], where some two hundred home-like cottages on eight hundred acres of land make a summer resort for the invigoration of mind and body.  There are no Sunday trains, there are safe guards against dissipation, but while there is much to enjoy, it is more than a place of recreation; it is a place of rest,—not inactivity but change of methods in culture and progress.  There is provision for mental growth in following literature, art and science.  There are courses of study in the Germanic languages, and in the Romance languages, by competent professors.  She spoke of one course in French, conducted by a lady, comprising children’s games and nursery rhymes.  There were courses in Physics, there was a Paradise of flowers of Botany and opportunities for lovers of Art.  There were concerts, and lectures for those not

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regular students. There were games and excursions and invigorating pleasures, good to look back to, and to dwell upon in the winter days at home.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Sidney Turner, and was called “A Birthday Festival.”  In the absence of the writer it was read by the President.  We were told that our fellow member had been invited to speak before the John G. Whittier Club on the occasion of the festival held at the birth place of their poet in Haverhill, Massachusetts; and that her speech was the article then read before us.  Mrs. Turner spoke of the honor done her by the invitation to speak of a poet at the house where he lived, to his neighbors and friends assembled to commemorate his works and character.  The space in front of his door of his house was filled with spectators, and his memory is so much alive still, that she said it seemed to make the whole neighborhood, Whittier’s country, as part of the lake region of England is called Wordsworth’s country.  Mrs. Turner spoke of the chief characteristic of Whittier’s poetry and life as the power of character.  She recalled an incident of her own early life at Amherst.  She was very doubtful whether the sale of a travelling bookseller which she wished to attend, was of the highest respectability, because it combined a gift enterprise with it; but her mind was set at rest by seeing on the list of books for sale the works of John G. Whittier.  She went to the sale, bought “Snow Bound”

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gave away the gift accompanying it, but saved the book, and has it still.  She learned “Snow Bound” by heart, and blessed its author for his power of character.  Mrs. Turner went on to speak of knowing persons and things by heart,—and of learning the heart of the poet through the medium of the brain.  She closed her article with an appropriate poem of her own recently printed.

The meeting adjourned, to give the members the opportunity for conversation and refreshment.

 

Meeting of October 11th, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, October 11th, 1898, 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 4th.

The President announced the reception of the Year Book of the Literary Club of Little Rock, Arkansas, an association for aesthetic culture, devoted to the study of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.  It meets fortnightly through the year, and aims to make itself not only ornamental, but useful in different lines of literary work.

The President then read a notice of our own Club, which has appeared in the New York Times,—in the Saturday Review of

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books and authors of that paper.  This article calls the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore “an inspiring Club of women,” tells of its eight years of good work and of its sensible aims and ambitions, quotes its Pledge, and that part of its Constitution relating to qualifications of members—closing by wishing “long life to it.”

Mrs. Bullock spoke of having had her attention called to this article by a Northern Lady, who said she would be delighted to belong to such a Club, herself.

The President said that testimony from outside sources was not quite so gratifying as testimony from those in our own ranks.  She then read a letter from our member of long standing, Mrs. Sloan [Sloane,] now in Huntingdon, West Virginia.  Mrs. Sloan tells of her great regret for not being able to be with us in the coming season. She says that our weekly meetings have been an influence and a stimulus for her greater than she can express, and that they have helped her to bear great sorrow.

Miss Middleton proposed that the President should inform Mrs. Sloan [Sloane] of the regret of her fellow members for the loss of her presence in our meetings of the coming season.

The President announced the privilege of the Club to send in the names of proposed new members.  Any names sent

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to the Recording Secretary before next Tuesday, would receive the action of the Board of Management in time for admission to membership at the beginning of next month. She read the Article of the Constitution relating to the admission of members.

The President also spoke of the desirability of attendance on our regular meetings at the hour appointed for their beginning,—half past three.  It was announced that the New Century Club of Utica, and other Northern Clubs had asked for copies of our Year Book.

The first article of the programme was given by Miss Emily E. Lantz, and was called: “How We imitated Van Bibber.”  Miss Lantz told of a little summer house of rustic tranquility not far from Trenton, New Jersey.  Therein, one gentleman—a member of the staff of a Philadelphia newspaper—evolved the idea of doing a little philanthropy after the fascinating fashion of Van Biber in the stories of Richard Harding Davis.  He therefore invited two newsboys to share his comfort and happiness from Saturday to Monday.  They came, with no joy beaming in their eyes, and immediately remarked that the pavement before the little summer home was the worst they had ever seen.  At dinner they did not take kindly to the use of knife and fork; Jimmie passed bread with his fingers, and Tommie dropped his fork on the floor instead of eating [with] it.  Tommie condescended to

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describe his financial success to the extent of a dollar and fifty cents a week, and described the advantage of fifteen cent seats at the theatre; advising his entertainer to try them. Once he had seen a fire and a storm and a wreck,—all for fifteen cents.  He evidently thought other boys might mean well, but were not equal to himself in knowledge of the world.  The boys did find enjoyment in robbing cherry trees—to the indignation of the neighbors,—but plainly longed to go back to their selling papers around the City Hall at home.  The only sign of gratitude marking their departure was Jimmie’s pressing on one lady a handful of stolen cherries.  The benevolent entertainers had interrupted the vocation of two financiers, who did not love green pastures and still waters.

The next article of the programme was called: “Glimpses through Memory’s Door of Life in Chestertown, Fifty Years Ago,” and was read by Mrs. Thomas Hill.  She told us she would deal with realities, but not such entirely up-to-date realities as Miss Lantz had given us.  Mrs. Hill spoke of the light that is thrown through memory’s open door as revealing very many things that have passed away.  Fifty years ago in her native place, Chestertown, the bell of the Episcopal Church—the only such bell there rang at ten o’clock for the people to retire within doors,—a survival of the old English curfew. Before

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ten o’clock there was visiting, and in summer there [were] walks on the long bridge.  There were excursions from Baltimore sixty miles off. A brass band would announce the arrival of the excursion boat at the wharf; and then as an old colored woman expressed it “the tea kettle biled over.”  But after a while the excursionists became of a disorderly character; and the sound of the brass band was the signal for the generally open front doors to be shut.  Trips to Baltimore were made for shopping or pleasure.  There was no public hall in the place; but large gatherings were held in the Court House.  Mrs. Hill spoke of the highly respectable and respected colored people of this old Maryland town, and of their loyalty to their white people.  Children were taught to address elderly colored persons as uncle or aunt; and the old-fashioned deference of the domestic servants was a lesson in politeness to all observers.  The old colored women with their kersey or linsey woolsey dresses, their bright head handkerchiefs, and clean white aprons made pictures with grace and dignity of their own.  Water was brought in tubs and buckets and in heavy stone pitchers, from the spring. The fine old open wood fire held its own in parlor and kitchen.  Cooking was done in Dutch ovens and iron pots, and in the old tin kitchen.  There was no granulated sugar to be bought then, the best kinds of brown sugar were used, and the well-remembered pyramids of white loaf sugar with their well-remembered dark blue papers.  These solid pyramids were broken and cut with hammer and knife, which were followed sometimes

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by mortar and roller. Fifty years ago there were no canned fruits, but ladies made preserves and genuine calf’s foot jelly.  People did not use blotting paper to dry their writing, but fine black sand, and the sand box was part of the inkstand.  We had small silver coins of the value of six and a quarter cents, and twelve and a half cents, commonly called fips and lines—five penny and eleven penny bits,—which not long ago went out of circulation.  At night we had candles, oil lamps or lard oil.  Mrs. Hill said there certainly seemed to be more cold weather in the old winters than there is now in the new ones.  Christmas was always the great holiday of the year,—the joy of children and servants, and none could be more happy and free than they were.  The colored race is naturally musical, their songs and dances were led by the not unskillful performers of their own race. These self-taught children of Nature can never have such holidays again.  Mrs. Hill spoke earnestly of the many bright memories that come back to her in these days of electric lights and modern enlightenment.

The President asked if any members would like further reminiscences.  Mrs. Stevens spoke of the singular and single-hearted devotion of some old colored servants.  Miss Middleton spoke of the survival of the curfew bell in her native city of Charleston.

The last article of the programme

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was by Miss Lizette Woodworth Reese, and was called simply “A Story.”  Miss Reese’s story suggested a converse of Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden.” It was a woman’s story of a woman’s love and sacrifice.  But the story of an heroic self effacement for love’s sake has its own truth and beauty, and lends itself always to the telling of the poet.

A visitor said a few words expressing her enjoyment of the afternoon, and especially her appreciation of the recollections of Chestertown.

The meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of October 18th, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, October 18th, 1898, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Lizette W. 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 October 11th.

The President announced the gift to the Club, by Miss Virginia W. Cloud, the author, of the book just published, “Down Durley Lane and other Ballads” with illustrations by Reginald B. Birch.  The President spoke of the very favorable criticisms this book has called forth; in one of which it is said that “both artists are now first in their lines.” The

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President also announced the receipt of the Year Book of the Woman’s Club of Orange, New Jersey.

Announcement was also made of the election of new members, to be held on November 1st, proposed names being sent to the Recording Secretary.

The first article of the programme was “Two Poems,” by Miss Lizette W. Reese.  “The Wedding Gown” and “The Ghosts of the Ships,” the latter being a Colonial legend.

The next article of the programme was by Miss Ellen Duvall, and was on “Shakespeare’s Songs,” or as she told us on some of the songs of Shakespeare.  Literature, she said is the most comprehensive of all arts; and of all literature, poetry is the best.  Tradition finds its best expression in poetry.  She referred to love songs, patriotic songs, and songs of faith. Songs are genuine literature.  She spoke of the sonnet as a gem, giving expression with one face or with all.  Miss Duvall dwelt on poetry in its relation to taste, culture and knowledge, and on the power of one thing finely done to be the incitement and model for others. Poetry might be called the sense of beauty in man’s soul embodied in words.  The lyrical song was the first form of poetry.  All songs must have four chief elements, spontaneity, universality, unity, and versification.  Some poets cannot write lyrics.  She spoke of Browning’s “Pippa Passes,” as a great poem; but Pippa’s songs are not lyrics, and are not to be separated from

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their context.  She spoke of Shakespeare’s lyrics, sonnets and blank verse; and particularly of the songs in the three romantic plays,—these alone being enough to make the reputation of a poet.  Miss Duvall spoke of the “Serenade” in Cymbeline, saying that Phoebus waters his steeds from the springs on chaliced flowers is Shakespeare’s thought alone.  She next took up the Requiem in the same play, and noticed how Sir Walter Scott and Sir Walter Raleigh have expressed similar ideas.  In the “Winter’s Tale” we do not take the songs away from the context, they are all sung by Autolycus, who is half quack, and all rogue.  They bring the old English merry and careless country life before us, and are full of a melody of their own.  She then took up Ariel’s songs, in the Tempest.  In the first he is not present,—except in his voice; it is highly imaginative and suggestive.  The second addressed to Ferdinand: “Full fathom five thy father lies” etc. is full of Shakespeare’s music.  In Act V Scene 1st, in the prospect of gaining his liberty, Ariel sings almost the last of Shakespeare’s songs, those smaller creations in which shines the perfect beauty that lights up the mightier whole.

The programme next called for two poems by Miss Virginia W. Cloud.  A motion was made that Miss Cloud should first read us something from her newly published book—which she consented to do, and read to us “Down Durley Lane” and “The Piper of Durley Fair.”

The next article of the programme was

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given by Miss Goessman, and was on Johanna Ambrosius.  Miss Goessman told us that the writings of this German peasant woman are another proof that “the poet is born, not made.”  Her poems have been compared to those of Walther von der Vogeneide [Volgelweide], of Heine, of Goethe and Schiller, and to combine some of the characteristics of all of them.  Her father was an artisan, her cradle was so placed as to be rocked by running water while her mother was employed in carrying soil to high and poor land, that something to eat might be raised on it.  The village pastor was her first teacher; but she soon became a household drudge, and married a peasant of her own rank, but had two children; and is now forty-two years old.  In youth she had little opportunity to read more than a German paper and her Bible. A volume of a good poet would have been a great blessing to what she has called the “twelve dumb years of her life,”—those from twenty to thirty-two.  She said it was hard to be poor, and hard to be ill, and she was both poor and ill.  In speaking of her love for children Miss Goessman read two poems of beauty and pathos, and one called “My Boy,” and the other addressed to her daughter.  She lives in a thatched cottage; and writes of her home with womanly and poetic appreciation.  The magnetism of her poetry has reached many hearts who have—or have not burdens like her own.  In one poem she says “Lock what moves thee in thy heart, and give to God the key.”  Her writings gave the key note

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to her religion and her nature.  Two or three years ago she fell seriously ill, and some one brought her name and works before the German Empress, who sent help, and gave her an annuity,—which relieves her worst troubles, but does not enable her to take a better environment than has always been hers.  She says that death is the best introduction for a German poet: but her writings have had seventeen editions and have been widely admired, even in translation. Miss Goessman read several of Johanna Ambrosius poems including the “Last Son,” and the one called “To My Readers,” in which she asks that instead of the laurel bough, she might be given the little flower forget-me-not.

The President then spoke of our great appreciation of the programme just given, and regretted that the inclement weather had prevented many of our members from enjoying it.

The meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of October 25th, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, October 25th, 1898, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This being the last meeting of the month, was a Salon, preceded by literary exercises.

The President called the meeting to order and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of October 18th.  The President

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gave the notice of the Memorial Committee of the Club, who are accustomed to decorate with flowers the graves of the authors and artists of Maryland, on All Souls’ Day the second of November, which notice was to be repeated at the next meeting.

The first article of the programme was, “Domhegan,” by Miss Zacharias.  In her absence it was read for her by Mrs. Dammann.  Miss Zacarias described a journey to the Coast of Maine; in which leaving the route to Kennybunk Port [Kennebunkport], Bar Harbor and other fashionable resorts, she went to Simpson’s Point and Domhegan, choosing the simple lyric instead of the grander epic.  She described the beauty of Simpson’s Point—not the crown, but the bonnet (an old-fashioned one) of Casco Bay.  She told of the ocean and the fine forests; and lastly of Domhegan, the house which had once been a church, and over which there still seemed to rest a benediction, with its restful life and surrounding pure scenes of nature. The snowy linen, dainty table service, fresh tea cake and wild roses, with strawberries at the end of July, could reconcile one even to the inevitable doughnuts.  She told of a sweet-faced old resident, who had come to the place as a bride sixty years before, and who still talked of the trial of leaving her mother.  She owned, appropriately, an old Chippendale writing desk, brought by her father from Scotland, which tempted one to break the truth [illegible].  Domhegan had been named

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for an Indian chief, and the scenes of this region were said to have given inspiration to Longfellow and Whittier.  And she found its pure unheroic life of last summer far more inspiring than the glare and variety of the crowed haunts of pleasure seekers.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Sidney Turner, and was on “Current Events in Nature.” Mrs. Turner said that in the last article she had given to the Club, she had neglected to mention the interesting fact, mentioned by one of the speakers at the Whittier Memorial meeting, that Whittier had been first inspired to write by reading Burns, and that Whittier’s first poems were written in the Scotch dialect.

Mrs. Turner then spoke of the “Current Events in Nature,” giving us a poetical embodiment of her own communing with Nature in the autumn days.  She saw the smiles with which the roses greeted the morning, and bowed her head to “the Angelus” of the Winds in the evening, and watched the robins coming for berries to the tree at her window, and gave heed to a conversation of crows in which every sort of “caws” under the sun seemed to be discussed. She told of a storm in which man grew pale and helpless, as the elements, who seem to do his bidding on peaceful days, asserted themselves in their might and power.  But, when it was over, Nature herself came forward, gaily dressed, and unfolded her love stories, revealing herself now as the bride of Winter coming to meet her lover.

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The Winds were singing “The Last Rose of Summer,” and “Auld Lang Syne,” and Nature told of the seed that falls into the ground to live again, an ampler life;—of winter that brings the spring,—of death that brings the resurrection.  “Believe,” she said “in the sun, the sky, the storm, the flower, and the tree; believe in Nature; believe in the Finite—that advances into the Infinite.”

The President announced the end of the programme; after which the Club enjoyed the conversation and refreshments of the monthly Salon.

 

Meeting of November 1st, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, November 1st, 1898, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Wylie, Chairman of the Committee on Art.

The President called the meeting to order and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of October 25th.  The President repeated the notice of the Memorial Committee, of which Miss Emma Brent is Chairman, who every year decorate with flowers the graves of the Authors and Artists of Maryland, on All Soul’s Day.  The President paid a graceful tribute to some of these authors and artists of our own State, especially to our two former members, Mrs. Tiernan, and Mrs. Easter.

Notice was given of the programmes of the coming month.

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The first article of the programme was by Mrs. George K. McGaw and was called “The Relation of Nature to Art.”  Mrs. McGaw reminded us that Nature and Art have been called twin sisters.  But rather are they parent and child.  Nature is the suggestor of Art; the love of beauty finds in the stems of the stately pines and firs and in their overarching branches the types of the majestic cathedral’s pillars and roof.  Music begins with the murmur of the rippling stream, or the glad song of the bird, or the sounds of the winds and the waves. The living creatures of Nature can minister to Art; but man alone can transfer her beauties of form and color to his canvass or marble, can build the temples of his Creator, who made man in His own image.  It is the human soul that can show forth the worth of Nature;—can tell that Nature is divine.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. P. R. Uhler, and was on “Antiques in Sculpture.”  Mrs. Uhler said that the history of sculpture is parallel with the history of the human race, it extends backward to pre-historic times.  It comes down from the rude pottery of the early ages, it comes by successive steps to the portrait statues of Egypt, plainly recognizable as such though made some four thousand years before Christ, and so well done that the effect of a smile on the stone face does not degenerate into a grin.  The earlier statues are

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more life-like than the later ones there are often conventional differences.  There was not much marble in Egypt, but the labor on hard granite cost only man’s muscles and man’s tears.  Mrs. Uhler went on to speak of the Assyrian Art, and described as one of its finest examples a bas relief of a lioness pierced by darts.  She went on to speak of Greek art as it culminated at Athens under Pericles.  She reminded us of the collection in the sculpture department of the Peabody Institute of our own city,—of casts of the ancient Greek statues, made from the originals. She dwelt on the works of Phidias, of his ivory and gold statue of Athena in the Parthenon,—and gave interesting particulars of the copies of some of his great works that have come down to us, which were made before their loss or destruction.

After giving the history of the bringing of the Elgin marbles to England, she spoke of the works of Praxiteles, and described the Hermes discovered in 1877, which agreed with the description given of it by Pausanias.  She spoke of Lysippus, and of his statute of Alexander the Great, and of the later Greek artists.  She went on to Greek art in Rome.  The early Christians were, she said hostile to Greek art, they thought the Greek Gods demons or rivals of the true God.  We must descend into the Catacombs to see the rise of Christian Art, and its first ideas of truth and beauty.

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The next article of the programme was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley, and was on “Modern Sculpture.”  Mrs. Cautley spoke of the differences between ancient and modern sculpture in spontaneity and especially in their different points of view.  The ancient idea of woman, for instance was different from the modern one; the pure Greek type may not be the highest type of perfection to us now.  The Venus of Melos might not be considered most beautiful in life to day.  We love her very much as she is, but she might not suit with modern clothes.  Mrs. Cautley spoke of three kinds of modern sculptors;—the classical, the religious, and the mystic.

She went on to speak of the English and American sculptors of to day, and of the very creditable work they have done.  In America there seems to have been little or no appreciation of art before and soon after the Revolution.  Such a foremost man as President John Adams is said to have delcared that he would not give a penny for the finest work of Phidias or Praxiteles.  She told of one sculptor who lived in an attic on a crust a day in order to buy clay for his model; and having no room for an upright statue, fashioned his dead Abel, which brought him reputation at last.  She went on to tell of the Englishman Tinworth, who has done work of great power and expression.  She described his “Christ before Pilate,”

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and his “Prodigal Son.” In the latter, she said there was not only pathos but humor, such as the older artists took pains to represent, even with serious subjects.  Mrs. Cautley spoke with admiration of our own St. Gaudens [Saint-Gaudens], a mystic, who she told us is now looked upon in England as the representative American sculptor.  He was the son of a shoemaker in New York.  She told of a monument of his work in Rock Creek cemetery in Washington, which like the ghost in the story of Cecilia de Noel, comes as a different spiritual influence to the different men and women who behold it.

She closed with an anecdote illustrating the appreciation of art in the wilds of the mountains in west Virginia.  An engineer and a Harvard college student were travelling in that region; and being one night hospitably received by the occupants of a cabin, were struck with the unusual beauty of a young girl among these mountaineers.  One visitor regardless of her presence said to the other that a painter would take her as a classical beauty, and that a sculptor would rave over her.  The girl turned to her mother and asked “What do the sculp?”—receiving as a an answer, “Law child you ai’n’t got no sense.  Red Indians, of course; they’s nothing else to sculp.”

Mrs. Wilmer then spoke of the appreciation of art by some Baltimoreans

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about forty years ago, when the statues which were imported by Mr. Winans to adorn the grounds of his residence, met so many objections from his neighbors, that he built up a high brick wall to screen them, and the casts of some well-known classic statues in a public hall were adorned with paper muslin garments tied around their necks.

Mrs. Dammann then read the programme for the next meeting, and suggested that the members should come prepared to discuss the subjects to be then considered.

The meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of November, 8th, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, November 8th, 1898 at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. J. Francis Dammann, Chairman of the Committee on Current Criticism.

The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording secretary read the minutes of the meeting of November 1st.  The Recording Secretary also read from the report of Miss Emma Brent, Chairman of the Memorial Committee on Decorations, an account of the work done by herself and her Committee on All Souls’ Day.  She says that according to their custom,

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they visited the graves of the literary and artistic writers, musicians, actors and sculptors who have made fame for Baltimore and Maryland, and who have given substantial aid to those who have walked after them.  The graves especially remembered were those of Mrs. Mary Spear Tiernan and Mrs. Marguerite Easter,—our former members, and also those of Mrs. Anne Moncure Crane Seemuller, Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps, Sidney Lanier, Edgar Allan Poe, Severn Teackle Wallis, John P. Kennedy, Brantz Mayer, Junius Booth, Professor Crouch, and Richard Malcolm Johnstone [Johnston].  There were necessarily some omissions from the list prepared owing to the distance between some of our cemeteries.  The flowers were furnished by the Club, with the exception of the special donations of Miss Lizette Reese, Mrs. John Morris, and Mrs. Miller that of the last named being for the grave of Mrs. Easter.  Miss Brent said that this loving service is peculiarly the work of our Club, at once the stimulant to the studies and energies of its living members, and a holy trust to keep alive the reverence for those once among us who have joined the innumerable host passed into the thither world.

The President spoke of the working of our By Laws with regard to visitors, permitting members to bring non-resident visitors to any regular meeting, but restricting the visits of resident visitors to one invitation given through the Corresponding Secretary in each season.

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The first article of the progamme was by Miss Ellen Duvall, and was on “The Pagan Element in Literature.” It was read for her by Mrs. Dammann.  Miss Duvall spoke of the paganism of the past, of that of the far East and of the mythologies of Greece and Rome; dwelling on their influences and tendencies both for evil and for good. We are all born pagans, however we may rise to higher things.  She spoke of the development of faith and of prayers in the soul of man.  She said that a man can be judged and known by his prayers,—so can different forms of religion.  She then spoke of the oracle of Apollo in the temple at Delphi, and of the much discussed inscription over the door,—only two letters.  But scholars have interpreted the mysterious work indicated to mean a line of the Odyssey: “O that the Gods would empower me to gain my wishes.”  This is the prayer of paganism, calling on the gods to be partners and helpers in the accomplishment of earthly desires.  It is not, “Thy will be done,” it is no prayer of penitence or trust, only the grasping material petition of paganism, ancient and modern.  Miss Duvall went on to speak of the spectre of paganism that has arisen in modern literature—the critically reviewed books, such books as “Tess,” “What Mazie Knew,” “Bessie Cottrell,” and “Evelyn Inness.” Sometimes a book comes as an outrage upon our sympathies.  Such books, she said, are untrue to life.  Their plots are much the same—in the breaking of one commandment,—and we would not give

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their details in any ordinary company.  They make it possible for men and women to go very far astray to repent and turn to virtue, just when they please.  Miss Duvall turned to the old Greek stories with their truth for all time,—in the awful calamities that followed the faithlessness of Helen and Paris, and the final happy reunion of the faithful Ulysses and Penelope.  Blind old Homer saw more clearly than many modern writers. Shakespeare has only two stories of faithless love, but Anthony and Troilus are the kind of men who could be ruined by Cleopatra and Cressida.  Shakespeare saw clearly the law of fascination in not so much the power of the fascinator as the weakness of the fascinated.  Miss Duvall went on to speak of the danger of breaking down the law of self denial, of opening the door to literary, moral and political decadence.

An interesting discussion arose on the subjects treated in Miss Duvall’s paper.  Mrs. Dammann spoke of the flicker of light in the darkened conscience that the eye of God could see.  Mrs. Morris spoke of the teaching of the New Testament that the penitent thief could be found fit for Paradise.  The point was made that Cleopatra’s maids choose to die with her and the fascination of women for each other was commented upon.

The programme had promised a paper by Miss Goessman, but Mrs. Dammann informed us with great regret that a very bad cold had prevented Miss Goessman

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From coming to the meeting this afternoon.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley, and was on “The Agony Books of the Present Day.”  Mrs. Cautley spoke of a painting in an old Flemish Church of the Martyrdom of St. Paul with all its painful details; and of the representations of torture and of monstrosities that seemed to have been considered in the middle ages as a sort of bitter tonic to give people strength and endurance.  But we, who have passed the semi-barbarous state, do not take delight in torture, do not think to be disagreeable is to be strong.  Butter may be strong but we do not consider that its highest quality, nor a reason for giving it to children.  We find pain enough in ordinary affairs.  Mr. Dick, in David Copperfield, when told that in his new apartment there was not room to swing a cat, wisely answered that he did not want to swing a cat in them.  We look back to the works of Dickens and Thackeray and Charles Reade, which did good work and service for us.  In the stained glass window of a great artist, the glory of God is its chief meaning but in the cheaper imitations the name of some man is more conspicuous than the glory of God.

Mrs. Cautley spoke of the books of Miss Glasgow as perfectly unnecessary.  We want to get away from them, and seek the ozone of the free hills once more.  Some books are like literary lepers, with infection between the covers.  Strange too, that even people who

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decline to play a game of cards or to see a play will read such books. And leave them where they meet the eyes of children or servants.  The evil that they do lives after them,—after they are forgotten.  If they amuse a thousand readers, and lead astray one innocent soul, the evil is inexorable.  Mrs. Cautley reviewed such books as “The Gadfly,” which reminded us of seeing a crowd of people at a railway station, after an accident, standing gazing at the dead body of a fireman—not giving help, or clearing away the engines of fate, but gloating over the effects of human suffering.  As Shakespeare says in Cymbeline, “You shall from this practice but make hard your heart.”  One cannot feel the misery of a homeless child, when one is overcome with the sensation that Tess is being hanged.

Mrs. Cautley went on to speak of the good literature that can make “agony books” impossible.  After some informal comment in agreement with Mrs. Cautley’s article mention was made that some of our members had come to the meeting after hearing the lecture given by Mr. Hall Caine.  It was suggested that we should have some account of it and Mrs. Morris was requested to give us her impressions of the lecture. She gave a very interesting account of the story told by Mr. Caine.  She spoke of the resemblance to Irving’s immortal Rip Van Winkle.  She told of the home coming of the sad exile, after twenty hopeless years, and of the unrecognizing spontaneous love of his little grandson,—a touch of

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aature that could make us feel akin to him, and went on to describe the passing away to an eternal home, and a diviner life.

The meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of November 15th, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday November 15th, 1898, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Zacharias, Chairman of the Committee on Music.

The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of November 8th.  The President announced the names of newly elected members of the Club.

The first article of the programme was by Mrs. Charles Stewart Beebe, and was called: “Something about Spain and her Music.”  Mrs. Beebe spoke of the necessity to know something about a nation itself before we can comprehend that nation’s music.  She referred to the effects of race and climate and environment on the musical productions of any people.  She spoke of the musical schools of Germany and France, and of their different characters. She went on to the Sclavonian [?] school of music, which has, especially in the last twenty years, gained recognition and advancement, and made its own impression on the musical world.  She showed how the peculiar characteristics

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of the Sclave, as we know him in history, literature and intercourse, assert themselves in his music. She then took up Spanish music in its relation to history.  She spoke of Spanish and Portuguese song and dance music as the kind best known to us. Span is rich in ballad poetry, and has been so for centuries.  The Spaniards are brave and heroic as we know; and the love of music is universal with them.  The influence of the wild and singular Moorish melodies is to be felt, even in modern Spanish music.  Many of the airs are Moorish, and also the names they perpetuate; and tell of the Moorish rule in Spain, and the contest of Christian and Saracen in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.  The airs are melodious, and the ballads breathe the spirit of chivalry and romance.  These ballads have been ingrafted into the life of the people, and are the precursors of much of the modern poetry of Europe.  Mrs. Beebe spoke of the guitar as the national instrument,—with no very great power of expression, and of more importance in its associations than in itself, but well fitted to its own uses.  The Spaniards are very sensitive to rhythm and metre.  She spoke of Carmen as the type of a Spanish opera, full of coral [choral] color.  The Spanish list of musical artists is not so full as the Italian, or the German, of course. She referred to Teresa Careno [Carreño] and to Adelina Patti,—the latter having been born in Madrid, though never having lived there,—and to others of individual talent.  Mrs. Beebe spoke of the great

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power and dominion of Spain under the Emperor Charles; and of nearly three and a half centuries of decline since that time, and reminded us that a great art can not advance in the midst of national decay.

The President gave notice of an interesting meeting of the Folk Lore Society.  We then had the pleasure of listening to a Spanish song given by our new member, Mrs. John T. Pleasants.  She was accompanied by Mrs. Gilpin.  This was followed by two piano solos—selections from Grieg, played by Miss Elizabeth Coulson.

The next article was by Miss Jane Zacharias, and was: “Thoughts from Interludes.”  Miss Zacharias spoke of the new book “Interludes,” by Henry C. Bannister, Professor of Harmony in the English Royal Academy. She spoke especially on one chapter out of Mr. Bannister’s seven,—the one on “The Uses of Musical Knowledge.” She gave us, she said, his words, and not her own in speaking of the pursuit of music for its own sake,—not for gain, but for the love of it.  She spoke of some young students who say they “go in” for Wagner; but are not acquainted with the symphonies of Haydn, nor the sonatas of Mozart.  They are ignorant of the classical school, and have but little comprehension of the modern ones,—nor of the advancement of the art of music.  A work is not great for having many notes int it.  Bach’s Fugues are closely pack with thought,—with the thoughts of the master,—having true height and

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depth.  The use of musical knowledge is to make, not pretenders, nor executors, but musicians.  We may follow St. Augustine in seeking not so much to understand that we may believe, as to believe that we may understand.  Miss Zacharias’s review was followed by interesting comments, made by the President and by Mrs. Bullock.  The latter also made some suggestions with regard to the work of the Educational Committee.

We were next favored with another piano solo, given by Miss Coulson, “The Flying Dutchman,” which was much enjoyed.  The last article of the programme was given by Mrs. Pleasants, and was “Remarks, Illustrated by Songs.”  Mrs. Pleasants spoke of three different kinds of songs; First, songs with no ideas in them, much in fashion twenty years ago; Second, “Agony Songs;” and Third, “Spiritual Songs,” or songs of the futures.  The first are successions of words; perhaps the name of “Marguerite” is screamed out, and some one is to be adored with six beats on the [?]. Mrs. Pleasants told the story of an old negro [Negro], who, when his mistress was very ill, and kept under the influence of ether, answered the inquiries of her neighbors,—”She ain’t no better; de doctor say she under de influence or.”  And “de influence or,” probably meant as much to the old darkey as some sentimental songs mean to those who hear or sing them.  Mrs. Pleasants said that in listening to Mrs. Cautley’s article on

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“Agony Books” she was reminded of some agony songs also.  They are hopeless, their agony does not reach that higher plane where we begin to see that all sorrow is meant to educate us into the knowledge that “God is Love.”  She spoke of Tosit’s “Good Bye,” as a grand song,—though it is pessimistic.  Mrs. Pleasants then sang this “Good Bye” to Hope doing full justice to its melodious despairing tones.  She said that she was optimistic; the hopeless songs may do incalculable injury to young minds.  The better kind of spiritual music can awaken to better life the heads and hearts of those to whom they come.  She spoke of the “Life Lesson,” of Ethelbert Nevin, with the words addressed to the little girl, and those afterwards said to the heart broken woman. “Heaven holds all for which you sigh.”  With the appropriate singing of this song also, Mrs. Pleasants closed her contributions to the programme.

The President spoke of our enjoyment of the entertainment given us; and the meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of November 22nd, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, November 22nd, 1898, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Brent, Chairman of the Committee on the Study of the English Language.

The President called the meeting to

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order; and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of November 15th.  The President announced that our newly elected members were especially requested to be present at the next meeting, to be greeted by their fellow members and to sign their names in the Club book.

The first article of the programme was by Mrs. John D. Early, and was on “The Modern Walter Raleigh.” It was read for her by Mrs. Morris. After reminding us of the career of Sir Walter Raleigh, the hero of history and romance in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; Mrs. Early went on to speak of a literary Walter Raleigh of our own time.  He is the professor of English Literature in University College, Liverpool and has also held the professorship in an Anglo-Indian college in Hindostan [Hindustan]. Like his great forerunner, he is a poet and humorist, and a prose writer of marked ability.  Mrs. Early then gave a review of Mr. Walter Raleigh’s book called “Style,” with quotations from it.  Mrs. Early then gave a review of Mr. Walter Raleigh’s book called “Style,” with quotations from it.  He tells us that in literature-- the most flexible and subtle of the arts—the style of the writing betrays the personality of the writer.  The charm of one devoted to his art is revealed in his workmanship; he transcribes himself,—his words, his creed.  The art of literature guards its votaries from the fate of mortality.  Aeschylus and Shelley, King David and Tennyson were all followers [remainder of page cut off]

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it addresses itself to both ear and eye.  He speaks too of the power of words.  We know that the word of God called the world out of chaos; and we cannot estimate rightly the power of human words.  There is the necessity to be true in the choice of words—the word of the author to his audience.  Mrs. Early then spoke of the words that come to us to give to those who hear us—our own, and their own—here in our Club.

The next article of the programme was a recitation by Mrs. Wilmer; “The Death of the Old Squire.” Mrs. Wilmer however, gave us first Longfellow’s beautiful poem, “Sandalphon,”--the angel of prayer.  She then recited “The Death of the Old Squire,”—who rode boldly out of the world, as he had ridden boldly through it.  Mrs. Wilmer received the applause of her fellow members.

The programmed had promised us an article by Mrs. Frederick Tyson on King Alfred and Boethius.  But Mrs. Tyson was obliged to disappoint us, by reason of having a bad cold.  Miss Brent, the Chairman of the Committee for the day, gave us instead an article written eighty years ago, by a student of Union College.  He was a sworn foe to tautology in writing, but seemed to be equally a lover of alliteration.  He had strung together a great many words alike in sound and termination, with little regard to likeness in sense.  He professed to have tied up the flowers and weeds of philosophy like a bundle of

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Brushwood,—and closed by wishing “bad luck to the man that first made the alphabet.”

The President spoke of the programme as having been unusually shortened, and invited impromptu additions to it, by telling of any curious and unusual English words or phrases heard in different localities.  A large number of provincialisms, Northern, Southern, English and Scotch were recounted by Miss Whitney, Miss Middleton, Miss Brent and other members, with humorous comments.  Miss Davis was asked to give the provincialisms of our own state; but responded that in Maryland, she thought, we generally speak perfectly correctly.  The President spoke of the use in the state of Georgia of the expression “hugger mugger,” with the same meaning that Shakespeare gives to it in Hamlet.  Miss Zacharias spoke of its use in Maryland, with a different meaning.  We were entertained with anecdotes and suggestions, until the meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of November 29th, 1898.

At the meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club on Tuesday, November 29th,1898, the minutes were omitted, the Secretary being unavoidably detained.  Announcements of meetings for the month were given.  The only paper of the afternoon was read

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by Mrs. Frederick Tyson, its title being “The Novel.”  In this Mrs. Tyson reviewed the history of the novel going back to the first that was ever written.  This, she told us, appeared in India 2000 years ago and proved such a success that its fame travelled to Persia, and the Persian monarch determined to possess it. After trying various fair means, he was obliged to resort to those that were foul, and even then found great difficulty in possessing himself of it.  Later the Persians became great novel writers themselves.

Mrs. Tyson then spoke of the novels of Greece, Rome and other countries, all of which lacked vitality. She said it was not until the seventeenth century that this was realized and then it was a woman who discovered the cause, and by utilizing what was close by, introduced a realism that has marked that period as a dividing line between the old and new.  For the last two centuries the novel has gone triumphantly forward.  Mrs. Tyson gave the three essentials to a successful novel as Realism, Perfection of form and Faithful portrayal of personal characteristics and surroundings.

After emphasizing these points, she spoke of the gift of story telling as much more rare than is generally supposed.  She compared the Novels of the time of Sir Walter Scott with those of today.  Scott wrote for those who had leisure to go with him where he might choose to wander.  The writings of today must be more dramatic.  This is the high day of the

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short story and Mrs. Tyson claimed that the best short story written in America is Rip Van Winkle. The American novel is still crude, the country not having produced a great one, though it may yet appear.  The novel of today, she said, deals with the problems of the times and closed by emphasizing the thought that we should approve only of the very best the art of novel writing can give.

The paper led to a discussion of the meaning of the terms Realism, Idealism and Romanticism which was closed by the President who gave a quotation from Sidney Lanier, who writing of the novel, said “we have the meeting, the reconciliation and the kiss of science and poetry.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent in discussion over the teacups, Mrs. Sidney Lanier being the honored guest of the day.

 

Meeting of December ^6th,1898.

The meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore on Tuesday, December 6th, was under the direction of Mrs. R. K. Cautley, Chairman of the Committee on Essays and Essayists. Short papers were read on “No Art without Work” by Mrs. Charles H. Beebe, Mrs. Sidney Turner and Miss Nicholas, followed by a discussion participated in by Mrs. W. Bullock, Miss Duvall, Mrs. Early, Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Tyson.

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Mrs. Sidney Lanier, an honorary member, who was present on this occasion, read extracts from a forthcoming volume of Essays by her late husband, the distinguished poet.  The subjects treated in this work are Music and Poetry.  The first Essay was on the Legend of St. Léonor which has for its motive the relation of science and affairs to the realm of poetry.  The second essay from which Mrs. Lanier read, was on Chaucer and Shakespeare.

After a very enjoyable meeting the Club adjourned.

 

Meeting of December 13th, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, December 13th, 1898, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. John M. Carter, Chairman of the Committee on Philanthropy.

The President called the meeting to order.  The minutes were omitted on this occasion.  The President read some lines handed to her by Mrs. Carter.  They were by Elizabeth H. Whittier, and were on the Charity practised by the Arabs of the desert, according to the teachings of their Prophet, and on the nobler Charity enjoined by the teachings of the compassionate Christ.

The first article of the programme was

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by Mrs. John D. Early, and was on “Our Real Interests.”  It was read for her by Mrs. Morris.  Mrs. Early spoke of Adam Smith, the first expounder of the science of Political Economy, and his book, “The Wealth of Nations.”  She referred to the asserted rule of human conduct that “Everyone works for his own interests—as he understands them.  She went on to examine what we understand by our own individual interests.  We may consider the attainment of happiness synonymous with our interests.  Some of us may find our happiness in a wide and varied range of sympathies.  We may find our real interests in benefitting and blessing others, in the sacrifice of self, in following and exemplifying the Golden Rule.  Some, as Watson says—”earn their own soul’s praise.” There is the power to choose; there must be the reward—but what and when, and where?  The Frati of Florence, when they carry the sick to the hospital, or the dead to the grave, say to each other “The Lord reward thee.”  Motives are apt to be mixed,—also, our interest in our fellow mortals does not teach us what is best for them.  We desire to elevate our poor neighbors,—but to what?—to make them like ourselves?—to give them the education for which they are intellectually unfit?—do they really want that?  We may strive to make them good citizens in this world, and fitted for life in the next one.  We are not required to give them our all; but to give them the Charity that “suffereth long, and

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in kind, [vaunteth?] not itself,”—”never faileth,” and all the rest of St. Paul’s noble definition of doing God’s service.  Our real interests are not material, but spiritual, yet how little spiritual life there is among us.  We are told in the book of Job, that there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Mrs. Early spoke of the modern pursuit of Philanthropy which exhausts us,—body and mind.  But the Master we follow said: “Come unto me—and I will give you rest,” and we ought not to be exhausted and overcome by our daily round of service, to the extent of making others avoid us.  We should meet each other as true travellers on the same road, engaged in a helpful and glorious ministry.

Some comments were made by the President, who called on Mrs. Hill, for some account of her experience in Charitable work; and also on Mrs. Graham for information of the work of the Lend-a-Hand Club.  Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Bullock also gave very interesting observations on other efforts of Philanthropy.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. John T. Graham, and was on “The George Junior Republic.”  Mrs. Graham said she wished to present a new departure in social science, a new principal [principle] in social reform.  She went on to describe with great spirit and interest the work of Mr. George, begun some ten years ago, which has been a great success, in gathering

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uncared for children into a community where they themselves are led to do the work of reformation for themselves and for each other.  They learn control, good citizenship and good government by actual practice and experience. Mrs. Graham told how Mr. George—after trying to benefit the children of the city slums, by taking them into the country and supplying their wants, with no remarkable success,—by a sudden inspiration, found the means to interest, animate and engage the children themselves in the work of their own earthly salvation.  He is a man of magnetic personality, and a thinking man also.  Instead of giving new clothes, he made the boys work to pay for them, then work for their board also.  Now they are self-supporting, maintaining a large community modeled after the constitution and laws of the State of New York.  Mrs. Graham spoke of the work we can all do for the children of those who are of the same nature as ourselves, divesting our mind of prejudices, recognizing the Divine image in all around us, and asking for others what we ask our Father in Heaven for ourselves.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Thomas Hill, and was on “Apostolic Giving and Practical Philanthropy.”  Mrs. Hill spoke of having witnessed, on a visit to New York in November, a remarkable manifestation of religious enthusiasm and large giving, which seemed like the movements of the

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old Apostolic days. It was during the convention of the National Christian Alliance at a meeting for the benefit of Foreign Missions. An eloquent appeal was answered by contributions which filled and refilled the baskets sent out, not only with money and cheques, but men gave their watches, and women their jewelry. More than a hundred thousand dollars was given in the meetings of that one day, chiefly from people in moderate circumstances,—one donation being from a poor washerwoman.  Mrs. Hill then took up our local charities, and spoke particularly of the Boy’s Home on Calvert Street.  She told of its small beginning, in a room over a blacksmith’s shop, and of its success, and its excellent management now.  The boys are made self-supporting so far as possible; and of the hundreds who have lived there not one has been known as a criminal.

Mrs. Hill then spoke of the Church Home, on Broadway, an institution founded in 1855, by the rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.  It began with a house on Exeter Street, and was under the care of deaconesses, with the gratuitous services of a physician.  The Washington Medical College afterwards sold to the Church Home and Infirmary the building that the institution now occupies.  The poet Edgar A. Poe died in that building while it was a Medical College; and his room is still shown intact.  After describing the success of this institution, Mrs. Hill went on to speak of the American

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men and women who have worked for the comfort and well-being of our soldiers and sailors in the late war. She spoke too of the playgrounds for poor children lately established, giving out door relief and open air blessings to the little ones in need.

Miss Zacharias gave some interesting facts regarding the efforts made for the benefit of the News Boys of Baltimore,—of whom she has, as we well know, been long the benefactress.

After some general comment, the meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of December 20th, 1898.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, December 20th, 1898 at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Virginia Cloud, Chairman of the Committee on Fiction.

In the absence of the President who as we regretted to learn—was not well, the meeting was called to order by Mrs. Bullock, Vice President, who presided.  The Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of December 13.

Miss Reese spoke of the advisability of the announcement at our meetings by each Committee Chairman of the different books which have engaged

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the attention of her Committee.  She spoke of the new book “Life is Life,” by Gwendoline Keats.  She ought perhaps to advise us not to read it; it treats of low life with terrible power.  Mrs. Morris said she was obliged to stop reading early in the book; the principal character was not only coarse, but atrocious, and could gain from her neither sympathy nor comprehension.

Mrs. Early spoke of another book—”The Journal of a Highland Lady,” which she said reads like a novel. She also spoke of the Christmas book “John Splendid,” by Neil Munro.

Mrs. Cautley spoke of “The Golden Age,” by Kenneth Grahame, as a beautiful study of style.

The first article of the programme was a story by Mrs. Percy Reese called: “A Double Duplicity.”  The heroine of Mrs. Reese’s story has planned to test her lover’s faith and constancy by giving him reason to believe her mercenary and worldly.  So she writes him a letter of farewell and renunciation, as if on the eve of a European trip with a rich aunt.  The lover has already carried out a scheme of his own for the proof of her loyalty and devotion also.  Just as he is about to take a special train to see her before her departure, the girl herself appears, with a penitent confession,—only to meet his equally humble pleas for her forgiveness.  Then the aunt, who

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understands the young people better than they have done themselves, or each other, appears at the right moment; and we are left to believe that in their future “the course of true love” does “run smooth.”

Miss Cloud, Chairman of the Committee on Fiction announced that the articles on the programme expected to be given by Miss Whitney and Mrs. Tyson were to be omitted on account of the illness of both of these members;—and that for a similar reason, the dramatic reading of Mrs. Wilmer would be denied to us this evening.  Miss Cloud said she would be the substitute for part of these omissions; but though she might try to be two persons, it was impossible to be three.

We were then favored with Miss Cloud’s story called, “A Lost Song.”  It was told by a shepherd boy, and was really a poem.  It brought before us the light and joy of the first Christmas night, when “the shepherds watched their flocks,” and earthly music was forgotten by those who heard “the heavenly host praising God.”

The next article given from the programme was by Miss Lilian Giffen, and was on “The Holy City of the Hindoos [Hindus].”  Miss Giffen described a visit to Benares the center of Hindooism. [Hinduism], the Brahmin capital,--”as Delhi is the Mohammedan, and Calcutta the British one.”  She described the city where Siva is worshipped,

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where different animals are venerated as divine; where the shops are full of idols, as well as of articles of brass, brocades, diamonds and shawls.  She gave an account of the many thousands of pilgrims, who come to bathe in the sacred Ganges, and to drink its foul water for the purification from their sins.  She told of the crowded and busy “Ghats,” or flights of stone steps going down to the river; of the awful wrecks of humanity, living, dying, and dead;—of the self-tortured devotees and of the beggars horrible and deformed, who cry and fight for the charity of visitors.  She closed by telling of an interview she and her friends were permitted to have with a Brahmin saint.  He was an old man brightly clad, of bland and courteous manners, who received them in a pretty garden, and expressed, through an interpreter his satisfaction with his visitors.  He gave them a copy of his works, regardless of their ignorance of Sanscrit [Sanskrit]. He seemed to take himself for the holy being he was reputed to be;—and at the close of the visit, unveiled and permitted his guests to gaze upon, in the shrine at the end of his gardens, a correct image of himself, apparently an object of worship; while he stood benignly smiling beside it.

The next article given to us was by Miss Virginia Cloud, and was called “The Widowhood of Mrs. Sallie Bunn.” It was an account given by an outspoken

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Meeting of January 3rd, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, January 3rd, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Lizette 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 December 20th.

The President gave an appropriate New Year’s Greeting to the Club,—to each and all of her fellow members. She reminded us of the good work and high aims of our Club, of its helpful influence in the past, and of the greater help and progress we can justly look for in the future. Announcement was made of the meetings of the month.

The first article of the programme was “Two Poems, by Miss Malloy,”—”Rosalind,” and “A Song.”  There were read by Miss Reese.  Miss Malloy’s first poem was addressed to Shakespeare’s sweetest daughter, Lovely laughing Rosalind,—”whose spirit answered every singing bird,” and “in every note was all human and all woman.”  The second poem was to the “Royal Rose, so soon to fade, as all lovely living things must do.”

The next article of the programme was “A Story,” by Miss Lizette Reese.  It was a story of a youthful love crossed by

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the vehement opposition of a mother whose unhappy experience has made her forbid that which she fears will bring to her daughter’s head and heart the trials that have made her own cold and hard.  Her own husband David Briton had studied for the ministry, and he had deserted her. Her daughter Isabelle must not marry a Brinton,—nor a preacher,—and the young lover was both of these.  She could not bear a preacher any more than she could swallow camomile [chamomile] tea, though it might be no more bitter than boneset [herbal tea] or everlasting [flower in daisy family], both of which she could take easily.  But as the story goes on we find that all conquering Love at last wins his way,—brings gladness to the young people, and even softens the mother’s heart unto receiving the returning wanderer who had been the lover of her own youth.

The next article of the programme was given by Miss Annie Weston Whitney, and was “A New Year’s Story.” Miss Whitney brought before us Miss Pricilla Wainwright, a maiden lady, sitting down on the first day of the year—apparently, a good while ago—in a thankful frame of mind for a past filled with duties done,—satisfactorily.  She cannot see clearly what further duties the future holds for her; when suddenly the duties and obligations come to her in the unexpected form of a little negro [Negro] girl.  She, a woman

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of Puritan and Northern ancestry and prejudices, finds herself a slave holder with all the responsibilities and accountabilities of the position.  The child was a legacy sent to her from a long estranged and now dead brother.  It was of no use to say: “I won’t own a slave.”  The little slave was there, hungry and homeless, with no notion of belonging “to low down” free negroes [Negroes] having ancestrally, always belonged “to quality.”  Miss Pricilla’s efforts to do her duty to this heiress of ignorance, superstition and racial impulses, were described with humor and pathos.  They were—we were told—like all the attempts of people and nations to solve the great problems of the world, while not knowing the simplest of their equations.

After pleasant comments, the meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of January 10th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, January 10th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Jordan Stabler, Chairman of the Committee on Unfamiliar Records.

The President, Mrs. Wrenshall, being unable to attend, the meeting was called to order by Mrs. Bullock, Vice President,

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presided.  The Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of January 3rd.  Mrs. Graham made announcement of a lecture to which our Club was invited by the courtesy of the Lend-a-Hand Club of Mt. Washington.

Miss Zacharias also presented some complimentary [complementary] tickets sent by Miss Coulson, whose performances have added much to the enjoyment of some of our musical meetings.  They were for a concert at which Miss Coulson was to play, and other fine music to be given. The thanks of the Club were given for these favors.

A communication from the New Century Club of Philadelphia gave us the calendar of that association, and the programme of its work for the year.

Mrs. Dammann read a letter from our former Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. John M. Miller, who is now in Denver, Colorado; expressing her interest and retention of membership in our Club.  She spoke of having attended the meetings of a much larger literary Club in Denver; but mentioned also her preference for our limited number.  At the Denver Club, she told us, one evening the subject was “Russia,” and some fine articles were given.  She noticed that the chief authority quoted was the late book of our honorary member, Mrs. R. W. Latimer, on “Russia

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in the Nineteenth Century.” When Mrs. Miller spoke of knowing Mrs. Latimer, and of belonging to the same Club with her, she suddenly found herself the most interesting person in the room.

The first article of our programme was by Mrs. Early, and was called, “A Day’s Ride.”  It was read by Mrs. Stabler.  Mrs. Early told of riding through the Blue Ridge mountains in the best time of the year for doing so, when the world looks more beautiful than useful, in the fine October days.  She described a visit to the old Pennsylvania settlement of the Dunkers or German Baptists, occupied by that society from the beginning of this century until 1872.  The Church, the farm and the large building in which these singular people lived all together, after the fashion of the early Christians, are now deserted by all except one man and two dogs, who guard the old walls alone, unless the traditional ghosts of the past are indeed their companions.

Mrs. Early then told of driving up the mountain road, and of meeting here, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, with an English house just like one she had seen in England,—the old Amesbury Inn,—five hundred years old.  She had been told of a man who owned a remarkable collection of Indian relics and petrifactions, discovered

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by himself.  She went to see this collection, and found in the supposed petrifactions the distinct forms of lemons, Brazil nuts—the bones of a man or monkey,—of palms and of other tropical productions—which had been found here, under the sand of Pennsylvania.  But these strange formations had been examined by scientific visitors, who had pronounced them not petrifactions and not fossils, but iron nodules, and pseudomorphs—which, as geologists say are often mistaken for fossils. Mrs. Early spoke of the deceptions of Nature herself, and of this old world’s pseudomorphs,—and apples of Sodom. But riding on through the serene October day, Nature turned her real, fair and peaceful face to her children, and peace was in their hearts.

The next article of the programme was by Miss Maria Middleton, and was called, “Pompeii in 1898.” Miss Middleton spoke first of the pictures she had brought to illustrate her article, especially of the one representing the “House of Pansa,” as it appeared in ancient Pompeii.  She told of the cloudless day in last June when she went into the excavated city.  It was, she thought as warm as was the 24th of August, Anno Domini, 79, when the awful catastrophe obliterated Pompeii for some sixteen centuries.  She spoke of the streets where the ruts left by the ancient chariots are plainly visible, and of the high stepping stones said to exists

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only in Pompeii and in Baltimore.  She told of an ancient well of white marble, with the depression worn into the stone of the rim by the hands of those who stood by it,—and into which many a modern hand will fit now.  She spoke of the temples and public buildings, of private houses with their furniture, reminding us of Bulwer’s novel; also of the skeletons and plaster casts of the victims that show us to day how they tried to escape, and suffered and died. She referred to the inscriptions of the dog who three times saved his master’s life, once from drowning,—once from robbers,—and once from wolves.  She spoke of the street of tombs,—in this city of tombs,—where the work of exhumation is still going on, and where Vesuvius, with the white cloud above it, seems in lofty beauty to mock the whole landscape, over which it spread devastation long centuries ago.

The next article of the programme was by Miss Emma Brent, and was on “Some Louisiana Traditions.” Miss Brent said there is an old proverb that tells us “Louisiana was left unfinished after the six days labor of the creation.”  She went on to describe the features of Nature in that state; the flat country, the river always threatening to overflow, the bayous, the brakes and swamps, hiding beasts of strange types, reptiles and hunted men—where the water is so close under the land that tombs

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must be built above ground. She gave some account of the early history of the state, and its unfamiliar records, told of cruel Spaniards and heroic Frenchmen.  She described the beautiful creoles, and the charm of their manners, and of the family life of high bred men and women;—and spoke of the old churches of New Orleans. She described the remarkable career of the free lance of former days, Lafitte, who was called buccaneer, privateer and pirate, sometimes, and sometimes gentleman and friend, by well-known and prominent citizens of Louisiana.  Miss Brent told remarkable anecdotes of Lafitte, learned from the traditions preserved by connections of her own family.  One of these was his revealing a dangerous conspiracy to the Governor of Louisiana under promise of amnesty for himself for the time being. Louisiana is full of traditions and superstitions abide there too, but life is gay there, and has its own grace and charm.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley, and was called “Little Folks in War Times.” Mrs. Cautley gave a natural, lively description of the great Civil War, from the point of view of two children, brother and sister in Richmond.  The picturesque sights of soldiers marching and drilling was followed by that of wounded and even dying friends

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and enemies.  She was taken by her nurse to the hospital to give flowers to the poor soldiers, and soon made the dreary discovery that war meant no more “goodies” for the children.  The children watched the Lexington Cadets going to the battle of Newmarket, where so many of them died.  The two went up on the roof and held by the chimney to see the smoke of battle, and imagined that they could distinguish by the sound which were their own guns, and which those of the enemy.  Their parents discussed the best substitutes for coffee; and soon there were no more fresh vegetables—nor even fresh meats.  In 1864, she had a birthday party, in which an important dish was dried apples cooked with molasses.  A little friend had a birthday party made illustrious by preserved apples, and a real plum cake,—the plums being dried cherries.  She has since wished to try again the virtues of a plum cake made with dried cherries; but is afraid none other could be so good as the one she remembers.

The Parents never complained, and the children comforted themselves with a copy of Mrs. Randolph’s cookery book; which, as everybody in Virginia knows, is filled with receipts for making the most delicious dishes.  The brother would read, and comment, as “Take a quart of cream,”—”can't you feel it going down your throat , Lucy.”

At last came the solemn Sunday

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dinner, when the mother said: “Is it all over?” and the father answered” “Yes, all over for us.”  Then came the fire, the explosions, and preparations for leaving the house.  She had packed up her own wax doll when the wind changed, and her home was saved. She had expected an implacable and bloody foe; but found with a sort of disappointment, that the Federal troops generally behaved well, and helped to put out the fire.  She told of a mild sentinel, who walked up and down in front of her door, entirely unconscious of one little girl’s indignation at his presence. One day her father sent him something to eat,—to her great anger.  But her father explained that he was now guarding their lives and property, and had not been relieved,—and “would she have him starve?”  And there the first concilation of one little rebel was begun.

A notice was given of the lectures at the Johns Hopkins University, and the meeting adjourned.

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Meeting of January 17th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, January 17th, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  The January Salon was held on this occasion, the only literary exercises being “A Talk on Italian Literature,” by Miss Florence Trail of Frederick, Maryland.

The President called the meeting to order; and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of January 10th.

The President then introduced our non-resident member, Miss Florence Trail, of Frederick, who would favor us with “A Talk on Italian Literature.”  Miss Trail spoke of the book she has in course of preparation on the literature of Italy, and explained her methods of criticism.  The first volume of this book is complete, and it was chiefly from this that she spoke to us.  The greatest names were, it seemed to be treated in Chapters by themselves. She referred to the history and the development of Italy, and spoke of the vast and varied literature of the country, and of the difficulties to be surmounted in any adequate treatment of it. She distinguished four literary periods in the life of the nation.  The first followed the Greek learning; the second which came down to the fourteenth century, was all Latin; the third came when Italian writers had learned

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to appreciate their own mellifluous Italian tongue, and made the golden age of their literature and manners. She spoke of Tasso and of those who with him made the sixteenth century glorious for all time.  The fourth period brought the later and more recent days of Italian literature.  She spoke of the early lyric poets, and of their perception of color in language,—quoting the poem of one of them, who seems first to have shown in literature the quality answering scarlet in colors.  She gave us her own translation of a little song on Love.  She told of D’Arezzo, of Guido Cavalcanti, and of Brunetto Latini, the preceptor of Danté [Dante].  She quoted from the well-known interview Dante describes between himself and his old preceptor in the infernal regions.  She spoke of the schoolmen, of Peter Lombard, and of Thomas Aquinas, called the angelic doctor, and their renowned pupils.  The earlier writers had been disposed to treat their language as a pretty plaything; and not as made for the intellect,—to give expression to its life and power.

Miss Trail then took up her sketch of Dante.  She spoke of his immortalization of his love or admiration for Beatrice, after she had been dead twenty-five years.  She reviewed his reading of the problems of the life and destiny of man,—of conscience and the choice of good and evil,—and the stern morals shown in the penalties of hell, the milder

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expiations of purgatory, and the gentle peace and the glories of paradise.  She told of Pistoia, who wrote to his fellow exile, Dante, after the death of Beatrice, “God has her, but her spirit is every hour with thee.”

Miss Trail spoke with great interest of Petrarch.  Her theory was that he had been gay and careless when a young man, but had lived long enough to fall into moral habits, and then Laura was a regeneration for him. No blame could ever be attached to her; and the sonnets written to her after her death, show the triumph of love over man,—of eternity over time.  The translations of two of Petrarch’s sonnets were then given, showing his refined and spiritual love for Laura.

Miss Trail said she was not an admirer of Boccaccio, she thought a woman could only read his works from a strong sense of allegiance to truth and duty.  No woman could enjoy his insults to women, especially after reading Dante or Petrarch,—and he is the author of a book too immoral to criticize. But Boccaccio was like Dante or Petrarch,—a leader in Italian literature, and a prolific writer.

Miss Trail then referred to the revival of learning in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, that magnificent movement generally ascribed to the fall of Constantinople and the dispersion

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of the Greek scholars from the Byzantine Empire.  She suggested however that to the Italian Petrarch, and to the influence of his ardent devotion to classic literature, and to his efforts to discover and preserve ancient manuscripts, much of this might movement may be traced.

Among the Greek scholars and exiles of whom Miss Trail spoke were Chysalorus, Cardinal Bessarion and Gaza,—who interpreted the text of Plato to the Italian scholars.  She told of Ticino, son of the physician of Cosmo de Medici,—a poet and philosopher in advance of his time.  She went on to speak of Angelo Poliziano, the friend and protegé of Lorenzo de Medici, and foremost among the brilliant scholars of his time.  An account of the age would not be complete without mention of the learned women who adorned it.  Women were doctors of civil and canon law, in several universities.  We were told of the mother of Lorenzo de Medici, to whom he was intellectually much indebted,—who was herself a writer of hymns and songs.

She spoke of Leoni Baptista Alberti,—perhaps the first artist in Literature; who imposed his comedy of an antique upon his intellectual confrèes.  We may be approaching the time when we shall confess that the intellectual athlete is an Italian.

Miss Trail next took up the

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career of Savonarola, his preaching, his reforms and his writings dwelling especially on his “Hymn to the Cross.”  She reviewed critically Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo de Medici, and his Life of Pope Leo the Tenth, and gave her own view of the great patrons of literature he celebrates.

She spoke of Ariosto, and then of Leonardo da Vinci and his great and varied manifestation of genius. She spoke of some historians of that time who did not dare to publish their histories while they were alive.

She considered Machiavelli,—though a cynic of course—a true lover of his country, a patriot, who believed it necessary to pursue the policy of his present time to the end.  Miss Trail gave charmind [charming] translations from the Italian literature of fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  She spoke of the beginning of novels and that of biographies and closed with a fine reference to the “after-glow” of Tasso and his contemporaries in the literature of Italy.

The President said that she voiced the thanks of the CLub to Miss Trail.

After further comments the President requested that the members of the Club would come to the platform and sign their names to the new [missing word] containing the Constitution, By Laws and Pledge of membership.  The members responded to the request, and the rest of the afternoon passed in tea and talk.

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Meeting of January 24th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, January 24th, 1899 at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. R. M. Wylie, Chairman of the Committee on Art.

The President called the meeting to order; and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of January 17th.  The President spoke of the new book containing the Constitution and By Laws, and also the Pledge of the Club; to which the signatures of the members are to be attached; and invited all who had not already signed their names to do so.

She then called attention to the lectures to be given in the Art Hall of the Peabody Institute on Greek sculpture, during the month of February.

She spoke too of the pleasure we have all taken in the honor conferred on our fellow member, Miss Whitney, who has been made a member of the Council of the National Folk Lore Association. The President also spoke of this society’s having grown out of the National Ethnological Association, and referred to some of its good work,—as did also Mrs. Bullock, Vice President.

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She read the names of the distinguished scientists who are Miss Whitney’s fellow members in the Council. A letter was afterwards read from Miss Whitney in which she expressed her gratitude for the stimulus, encouragement and help give her by the Woman’s Literary Club in her literary work, and in her work for the Folk Lore Society.

The first article of the programme was by Mrs. Alfred M. Belt, and was called “Recollections of the Pitti and Uffizi Galleries.”  Mrs. Belt told us, that to a lover of the fine arts, a sojourn in Florence is a real dream of delight.  She went on to speak of the great galleries, with their priceless treasures of ancient and modern art.  She spoke first of the Pitti Palace, with its thousands of rare volumes, its fifteen hundred manuscripts, and especially its pictures and statues.  She told of three Raphael’s Madonnas—of the Venus of Canova of Marsyas, and of the work from the hands of Michal Angelo [Michaelangelo], Titian and Murillo.  After telling of the statue of Urania called the “Aphrodite of ideal love,” Mrs. Belt read the beautiful poem of Matthew Arnold addressed to this goddess containing the well-known lines.

“And she could love, those eyes declare

Were men but nobler than they are.”

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She quoted Raphael’s tribute to his mother, attributing to the influence of her spirit spiritualizing of his work.

Mrs. Belt then went on to speak of the Uffizi Gallery in the official building of the city.  After mentioning its one hundred and fifty thousand volumes, and twelve thousand manuscripts, its gems and mosaics, she told of the Tribuna, with its cupola inlaid with mother of pearl and its rich marble pavement, and described the Venus de Medici, the Dancing Faun, and Raphael’s Fornarina.  She told of the works by Michael Angelo [Michaelangelo], Titian, Rubens and Murillo, and of the Niobe Hall, with the statue of the bereaved mother unable to protect her children. She touched upon the difficulty of expressing deep feeling in sculpture.  She spoke of the realization of knowledge that comes to us through travel abroad.  We learn to be critically appreciative, and to be satisfied only with that which is best.

The next article of the programme was by Miss Whitney, and was on “Body Painting.”  Miss Whitney spoke of a so-called “fad,” which has begun to invade the civilized world, apparently a revival of the custom of tattooing, a practice which was been supposed to be confined to savages and sailors it has not, among civilized people the

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raison d’etreof identification as in the case of the sailor or of religious or tribal symbolism as in that of the savage.  It has invaded palaces and is said to have been the occasion of exquisite artistic work.  One artist, in one instance of this body painting, is said to have made a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper,—reproducing even the expression of the faces.  Some years ago a Japanese painter began to cultivate this branch of his art; and it is said—few of the English and Americans, who visited his bungalow, left it without carrying away some specimens of his skill.  An Englishman has since—in London—rivaled or surpassed the skill of the Japanese artist.  It is said that Lady Randolph Churchill, and Queen Olga of Greece, have been patrons of this new form of art.  Among savages body painting and tattooing is dignified with religious ceremonies, and the pain of cutting is a test of courage and endurance.

Miss Whitney went on to describe the curious customs connected with these observances in Alaska, and among the different Indian tribes of our own country.  She reminded us that James Fennimore Cooper makes his Indian hero Uncas, wear as his totemthe turtle, which showed his rank as the son of a chief.  It represented the great tortoise on which the world was supposed to have rested at the creation.  She went on to speak of the system

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of the totems, and of their being the records of the brave deeds done by their wearers,—besides showing their caste and social position.  She described the colors used by the Indians in body painting, especially the red,—the color of war and love.  She spoke of the painting for the war dance and the ghost dance, and of the painting done by the medicine men,—among whom was the celebrated Sitting Bull.  She told of the Osage women who paint their faces to show that they are in love.  A lover paints his face balck when his love is hopeless, and he desires to be let alone.

Miss Whitney drew for us the combinations of lines which show the performance of great deeds; and those which the chiefs have represented on their canoes and blankets. The squaw who uses the canoe more than her husband does, glories in the symbols of his exploits, as the insignia of her high estate and position, with a pride like that of her civilized sister. Miss Whitney suggested that if the new “fad” is going to prevail among use, we may have to warn our missionaries not to denounce tattooing or body painting as vile or savage customs.

The programme called for “A Poem,” and “A Story” by Miss Virginia Cloud.  She gave us first her poem “Exile” which struck an answering chord in the heart of each one of us to whom

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“the best country ever is at home.”  Miss Cloud’s Story was a very entertaining piece of characterization, and conversation. The principal character was an old lady who “never had any luck,” according to her own account,—the fact being that she has always been well taken care of,—far better than any of her friends and companions.  When her long lost brother suddenly appears, and offers her a better home than she has ever had before, she intimates her hope that he may be forgiven for disturbing her peaceful life.  But she rides away from us in the long-lost brother’s carriage in the luxury of woe.”

Miss Zacharias gave notice of the musical lecture of Mr. Krehbriel of New York to be given at the Peabody Institute on the following Friday afternoon; and the meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of January 31st, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, January 31st 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Lizette Reese, Chairman of the Committee on Poetry.

The President called the meeting to order; and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of January 24th.

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The first article of the programme was “Two Poems,” by Mrs. R. K. Cautley.  They were read for her by the President, Mrs. Wrenshall.  They were “To Folly,” and “To Wisdom.”  Mrs. Cautley gracefully gave to Folly and to Wisdom both their due; but seemed to agree with Wordsworth that-

“He is oft the wisest man

Who is not wise at all.”

 The next article of the programme was on “Three Makers of the Lullaby,”—by Miss Goessman. “Lullaby” as world-wide and democratic, linking the peasant with the queen in the song of royal motherhood. She spoke of the lullaby that must have been sung by the first mother Eve, the lullaby of the despairing mother in the wilderness, and the lullaby sung in Bethlehem by Mary,—blessed among women—to the Holy Child.

Miss Goessman told of having heard the lullaby sung by a creole mother to her baby in the old French Market of New Orleans; and also that of an Indian squaw hushing her little papoose before her wigwam in Canada.  She described a visit to a penitentiary, where she saw the prisoner’s wife who had brought her baby to see its convict father, and who sat beside the heavy unmoved man with tears streaming

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down her cheeks, while she sang their child to sleep.  We were then told of another family party of husband, wife and child in the waiting room of a railway station in Ohio; and were given a humorous reproduction of the mother’s singing—all on one note—a lullaby beginning somewhat in this wise. “Your mother’s name was Sally Smith,—Your father’s name was Billy Jones, etc.; which though failing to put the child to sleep, soon sent Billy Jones Senior, off to his slumbers.

Miss Goessman went on to speak of the three makers of the Lullaby: James Whitcomb Riley,—Robert Louis Stevenson, and Eugene Field.  The child of Whitcomb Riley is somewhat crude, one open to the impressions of the daily life around him;—somewhat superstitious, as in “The goblins get you if you don’t look out,”—but with his own real interest for all of us.  Robert Louis Stevenson’s child is more spiritual, he seems to have the making of a poet in him; he may in some possibilities become a prig, but his gives us the charming, fanciful realizations of childhood. Of Eugene Field, Miss Goessman spoke from acquaintanceship as well as from reading.  She had found his manner and conversation as delightful as his writings. He said that he had

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learned much from children themselves; having a family of his own, and that they were his severest critics.  Miss Goessman read, with the spirit and understanding, selections from the poems of these three makers of the Lullaby, showing—as one of them has told us—”how words will come, when the true singer comes to sing them.”

The next article of the programme was “Two Poems,” by Miss Virginia Cloud.  The first was on “Love,” and the second was “Within the Gates.” The third article of the programme was by Miss Lizette Reese, and was read for her by Mrs. R. K. Cautley.  It was called “Lyrical Weather.”  It gave “Rambling Recollections of Poetical Impressions in Childhood,” and of “How the Poet came to the Child.”  Miss Reese told us that at an early age Nature did not make a very deep impression on the child, though she well knew the impression of the blades of grass on a little bare foot.  She was active, lean and adventurous; and perhaps—unconsciously—to her, as to Walter Scott.

“Yet was poetic impulse given

By the green hill, and clear blue heaven.”

 Her first remembered imaginative ideas seem to have come from the lines “Over the hills and far away,” suggesting a broad dusty highway, with multitudes going over it, and never

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coming back.  Then there was also Christina, who wore her hair high, and played on a small organ; and the sea captain who came to see Christina, and walked along the roads as if they were too narrow for him.  One day the child was startled by hearing him burst out with the quotation; “Had I served my God with half the zeal I served my King, He would not in mine age have left me.”  The next day by reason of an accident the child was in a hospital,—a sofa in the parlor,—and the sea captain coming in.  She in turn burst out with “Had I served my God with half the zeal”—”Hello!” said the sea captain.  Christina sometimes wrote letters, when she requested to be let alone,—which made the child stick closer than a brother.  But many thoughts came by many ways; and she found that there are many highways travelled; also that one road leads to the end of the world, and down this one Christina went one day.  But the poet had come to the child.

The next article was a poem by Miss Lizette Reese,—read by Mrs. Cautley.  It was called “In the Stooks.”  The Stooks, or gathered sheaves of grain, made the environment for aspiration and prayer, as they often did in the ancient days.

The last article of the programme

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was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley’ and was on “Lyrical Poetry.”  Mrs. Cautley spoke of lyric poetry as something to be sung—something that sings itself.  The origin of all verse was words set to music.  Since Homer chanted his Iliad, and the chorus accompanied the Greek tragedies, music has expressed our deepest emotions;—words only explain them to listeners. All poetry should suggest music, whether stately, gay, pathetic or fantastic, but lyric poetry should carry its music with it.  Often some ballad with little rhyme and less reason takes the popular fancy; and when some singer puts both music and meaning into his song, it is seized on as a new discovery.

Mrs. Cautley believed that the lack of music tells against the popularity of Robert Browning’s larger poems even more than his involution of thought.  But Mrs. Browning has the quality which makes us feel like crooning to ourselves “Cowper’s Grave,” and carried “The Cry of the Children,” straight into our hearts.  So too we can account for the survival of many good old hymns, that have little sense and less theology.  If we were to read them for the first time now, we might wonder how rational people could tolerate them; but for the associations and for the music in them which we loved in childhood, we go on singing them, and being moved by them. Everything Herrick wrote sings its own

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time to each one who reads it.  Milton makes musical combinations of words, even in his blank verse.  She could fancy him playing stately marches on his organ and composing line after line of “Paradise Lost.”  In his lyrics and in his “Hymn to the Nativity,” the wish of music through the words is overwhelming.  Shakespeare is full of this suggestive music.  Not only in intentional songs, but in the plays he seems to break into singing out of sheer light heartedness.  Mrs. Cautley spoke of seeing “As You Like It,” given at first with the songs left out, the play hanging only on the love story of Rosalind and Orlando,—seeming a thin thread for even great actors to carry it with. Again she saw and heard it, in all its original fullness and richness, with exquisite music; and the happy forest life away from courts and crowds came to her in the hunting songs, and Rosalind and Orland took their places among other phases of human life beside love at first sight.  She had the same experience with Cymbeline’s song and music softened it into fairy land full of morning and spring.

She would not say that lyric poetry could not be written by persons with no ear,—after the work done by Sir Walter Scott and Macauley.  But there are varieties in having an ear; there is an ear for melody, and ear for

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harmony, an ear for rhythm and an ear for rhyme.  Persons with no ear for music in voice or instrument may have keen sensibility to the underlying music in words,—and can write lyric poetry.  But a great lyric poet should feel the music of his words, and also the music they should be “set to.”  She thought many persons are born with the undeveloped ear, but very few with no ear at all.

Mrs. Cautley went on to say that more music in our homes would develop the musical ear of children who are supposed to have none, and would make us a more truly musical nation. Lyric poetry banishes morbid and unwholesome thoughts, and is the antagonist of moribund verse.  Lyrics are songs of peasants in Arcady; songs of birds when they build their nests; dirges when the faithful mourn their dead;—but never songs of mental or moral suicides, never the outcome of sloth or crime.

After pleasant comments, the meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of February 7th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, February 7th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Fabian Franklin, Chairman

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of the Committee on Science. The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of January 31st.

The President announced the reception of the programme giving the meetings and work of the Friday Club of Baltimore.  She also announced the presentation to the Woman’s Literary Club of the late book by Miss Kate Mason Rowland, “The Life and Letters of Charles Carroll of Carrollton.: She took occasion to speak of our library, as of value to our members, reminding us that we can enjoy the books by applying at any meeting to the Librarian.

The President also called attention to the proposals of names for membership in our Club,—to be sent in before the next meeting, and in accordance with the well-known regulations of our Constitution, Article IV: Sections 5, 6, and 7.

Mrs. Stabler then read a letter from Mrs. William Buckler, giving notice of a Lecture to be delivered at the rooms of the Young Women’s Christian Association.

The first article of the programme was by Mrs. Waller R. Bullock, and was “A Talk about Botany.” Mrs. Bullock said she wished to place the science of Botany before us in its right position.  She spoke of the point of view from

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which it is regarded in the present day.  She spoke to of its relations to Zoology,—that other branch of the great science which has gained wide and enthusiastic study in our modern days. Biology the science of Life.  Botany was presented in three aspects: First, Systematic Botany, the classification of plants, etc., Second, Physiological Botany; and Third, Morphological Botany. In the study of plants more attention is now given to all that relates to reproduction than ever before.  Mrs. Bullock went on to illustrate her subject with classifications, descriptions and examples.  She spoke of the different theories of some scientific Botanists; and then passed on to the general theories of Evolution and the Origin of Species, giving clear and comprehensive statements and arguments.  After speaking of the great advantages of the study of Botany, to men and women, she showed us very interesting specimens of plant life, from the spores and from the cells upward,—under powerful magnifying lenses.

The programme had promised us an article by the President, Mrs. Wrenshall, on “Crystals;” but she insisted on omitting it for the time; afterwards agreeing, in answer to remonstrance and requests to give it to another meeting.

The next article was by Mrs. Fabian Franklin, and was on “The Sense for Color and for Black and White.”

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Mrs. Franklin had brought to illustrate her article large diagrams and pictures, representation of the human eye from various points of view—also showing the retina, the fovea, the rods and cones, etc., very highly magnified.  She explained the structure of the eyes; the paths of the optic nerves, and their fibers.  She pointed out the spot in which the optic nerve enters the eyes,—that spot in which each one of us is blind.  She told of the reception of colors by the eye; and then brought out most interesting facts and discoveries with regard to the colors we see, to the colors of the spectrum, and to the combinations of colors in science and art.  A very interesting account of the two different theories on the sensation of color of Helmholz and Hering was given us.

Mrs. Franklin spoke of late discoveries, and especially dwelt on the debt which science now owes to a Spaniard, who has been working out problems of physiology in Toledo, and whose name she said, we ought to remember.  She wrote the name on the blackboard: “Ramon y Cajal.”  One of his discoveries was, she told us, that there is no complete continuity in the nerves of our bodies,—only contiguity. We were reminded of the great interest now taken in the study of Light and its relations to Sound and Electricity. Questions were asked Mrs. Franklin, who responded, and also explained her diagrams and pictures.

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Mrs. Stevens related an interesting experiment made in Paris to test the connection between light and sound. The President spoke of the interest with which we had listened to the entertaining expositions of the recent results of scientific study.

We next had the pleasure of listening to our former President, Mrs. Turnbull, who gave a scientific anecdote.  She told of an enthusiastic scientific investigator, a relation of her own,—who was engaged in the researches regarding an insect, a parasite of the wasp. The female of the insect, though known to exist, had never been seen.  The investigator, who was in Florida had discovered the moment when the creature should appear,—literary the moment,—for, as had been found out it comes into life, deposits its eggs, and dies all in one minute.  But being obliged to leave the state two days before looked for event,—the discoverer travelled with the wasps, near their swarming, in glass bottles.  On the railway car, the conductor wanted to throw the wasps out of the window; and their owner felt, for the instant, as if he could throw the conductor out of the window. But explanations were given, and the insect was seen and recognized in good time, to the vindication of intelligent scientific research.  Mrs. Bullock told an anecdote of a friend who discovered a flower of which there seemed to be no record; but who afterwards learned that it had been duly recorded some sixty years before, and had been forgotten and again re-discovered.  The meeting adjourned.

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On February 14th, 1899, stress of weather prevented the holding of any regular meeting.  Nine brave ladies met in the assembly room, and were agreeably entertained by the President with a reading of poems, and afterwards enjoyed conversation and tea by the pleasant fireside.

 

Meeting of February 21st, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, February 21st, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Virginia Cloud, Chairman of the Committee on Fiction.

The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of February 7th.

The President requested that any member who wished to have notices or announcements made to the Club would send them to her before the beginning of a meeting, either by mail, or by having them placed on her table.  She announced the election of two new members.  She also gave notice of a meeting of the Folk Lore Society,—which the Club and its guests were invited to attend.

The President also spoke of our regret for the absence of Miss Cloud, who had prepared the programme for this meeting, but was forced by sickness to remain at home.

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The first article of the programme was “A Story” by Miss Lizette Reese.  It told of a village, whose simple folks are stirred up in mind by the coming among them of an elegant, rich, and beautiful widow, in whom they discover the evolution of a girl who had lived in their midst years before. With bated breath they recalled the true lover whom she threw over,—for a rich suitor,—and who killed himself. And now they murmur that she is trying to take away the “beau” of her who had been the little sister of “the man she killed,”—so the villagers phrased it.  Then the widow encounters the reproaches of the lost one’s father;—to which she can only answer: “I was so young.”  Whether from these, or from the unsuspecting innocence of the young sister, or the power of old scenes and recollections,—or all combined,—the widow does find her conscience, or receive her sight,—her spiritual vision,—in good time to save another young life from another disaster.

The next article was “A Story,” by Mrs. Frederick Tyson.  She called it a “Vignette,” only.  It told of an incident in a hospital, to which a group of women had carried books and flowers for the patients, when a young Italian was brought in,—who had been run over in the street.  He was followed by his young wife, in the dress of the Roman peasants, and having the black eyes and hair of her race,—also possessing the superb movements and carriage of the head, which have been

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said to show the half-defined consciousness that the Romans were once the conquerors of the world. She could not give way to her dreadful grief in any language but her own, and when one of the visitors spoke to her in Italian, it found words of simple eloquence to tell her tale of young love, self-sacrifice, faith and devotion.  They must not let her Beppo die, just when they had come to America, and were going to be perfectly happy at last.  But even as she spoke with tears and prayers, poor Beppo’s destiny was fulfilled, and she was left to wait singly for her own.

The next article was by Miss Annie Weston Whitney, and was on “One Phase of Popular Criticism.” Miss Whitney reminded us that we live in an age of popular criticism,—all things receive comments in the newspapers.  But there is one phase of criticism that does not always reach the outside world.  She then spoke of the comments received on an article she had published in a Philadelphia journal on “Life in an American Desert.”  She first read the notice itself.  It referred to our general idea that life in the Desert of Sahara is an impossibility,—away from its oases.  But it went on to tell of our American desert in Nevada, where life,—or what we think life—might seem an impossibility also.  Nevada, larger than the New England States, has a population of forty-five thousand—not enough for a large city, and is practically a vast

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desert, with great want of water, domestic animals and the vegetation we are accustomed to see.  A boy, after taking a journey of two hundred miles, announced: “I saw a tree,” and it was not a naturally grown tree either. Common things to us are fairy tales to some of the children there, who have never seen grass nor a dog nor a horse. The iron horse can traverse the state, but often with water trains for passengers and engines.  What has been done to establish waterworks and introduce irrigation was described,—also the resources of gold and silver.  But the sudden early prosperity of Nevada did not continue, the state presents the anomaly—in our country—of decreasing instead of growing in population.

Miss Whitney said after the publication of her article, she received communications from indignant residents of Nevada,—some of which she read to us as curiosities of criticism. One was from a newspaper, one from a young lady, another from a missionary.  In former days to charge anybody with lying suggested a call for pistols; but now she could only return the lie circumstantial; and quote the statistics of the United States Government to prove her assertions,—and to make more striking ones.  She then went on to remind us that there are possibilities for the state of Nevada, in prosperity, in science and even in literature.

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The next article of the programme was “A Story,” by Miss Ellen Duvall.  She called it a piece of characterization, and she characterized for us one type of the American woman who is encountered at home and abroad. Miss Duvall described Mrs. Foam, who first appears as one of the passengers on a snowbound railway train, blockaded far from a station, and far from their dinners.  She first regales her fellow suffers with unsuspected and opportune hot coffee, and second, with most of her own affairs and opinions. She tells of having delivered a lecture on “Following the Flag,”—and the compliments it has received from her friend Senator Ratcher.  On the strength of this chance adventure, Mrs. Foam long afterwards claims the acquaintance and good offices of a fellow traveller [traveler]; a young naval officer, and on the strength of this chance acquaintance she invites herself and her travelling companions to a lunch on a “Man of War,” and to a reception at the palace of the Sultan of Turkey.  The embarrassments of the young officer were as remarkable as the perfectly cheerful self-satisfaction of Mrs. Foam, who invites all whom she meets to visit her at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, or at her home on one of the Middle Western States.

After some interesting remarks by Miss Whitney, the meeting adjourned.

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Meeting of February 28th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore met on Tuesday, February 28th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Frederick Tyson, Chairman of the Committee on Translations.

The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of February 21st.  The President gave notice of the meetings of the Botanical Section of the Academy of Sciences.  She also gave the list of the meetings of the Club for the month of March.

The first article of the programme was given by Miss Marie Perkins, and was her translation from the Italian of Salvatore Farina of a story called “The Tyrant at the Seashore.” It told of one of the entertainments to be given at a seaside resort,—a puppet show, or the performances of a company of marionettes direct by Bartolomeo Profumo, Comedian.  The comedy to be given is “All for Laughter, or The Thirty-six Misfortunes and Thirty-six Fortunes of Tomaso, the barber in Love.” Bartolomeo shows in the hotel kitchen, to mine[?] host of the Crawfish, his leading lady, his notary, and his other actors, some of whom need repairing with hammer and nails, with great pains to be taken that loose heads

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shall not be fastened looking backward, as had once been the case.  But it is revealed to us that this exhibitor of puppets is an actor—a real artist—in the winter time.  This his daughter Cornelia artlessly discloses, also that he has now assumed the lower profession because sea bathing and sea air are necessary for the poor sick child of the family Leonie.  Cornelia aged fifteen, is, she says, the child of the father, Leonie, who is twelve, is the child of the mother, and Diogenes, who is four, is the child of both parents.  But the watchful and loyal devotion of the girl of fifteen to her father, and all connected with him is made known and felt through all she says and does.  The play proves a great success,—from the exhibitor’s point of view,—and the leading actor is brought out, and made to bow with his little hand pinned over his heart, to show his gratitude to the audience.  And we can but rejoice when some good fortune—with a little aroma of romance in it comes to bless the simple affectionate folk in the end.

At the close of Miss Perkin’s translation, Mrs. Tyson was requested to tell the Club something about the author of the story.  Mrs. Tyson said that Salvatore Farina is now the most popular Italian writer of Fiction. He is the editor of a musical journal in Milan,—that city being a literary center in Italy, as Leipzig is in Germany.  He is also interested in the translation into Italian of standard English

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works; and any translation receiving the mark of his approval is accepted in Italy, as of the highest order.  His novel called “My Son,”—a domestic Idyl [idyll], reminding one somewhat of the “Vicar of Wakefield,”—is much read and loved.  She thought that Miss Perkins had succeeded well in preserving the style of the author.

The next article of the programme was given by Mrs. R. K. Cautley, and was called “Lyrics from the German.”  Mrs. Cautley said that her short contributions were not lyrics.  She could give only a little Intermezzo between the Overture and the Symphony.  She gave us first a few lines from Lessing, on a long nose.  She said she had supposed that Cyrano de Bergerac had said all there is to be said on this subject, but she had found herself mistaken. In this poem the owner of “a wondrous long nose” is told that “his ears could surely never hear his snoring.” Mrs. Cautley then read her translation of Rueckert’s “Um Mitternacht,”—”In Midnight Deep,” the beautiful poem said to have been recited by Goethe on his death bed; and known as having been loved by Baron Bunsen.

The next article of the programme was given by Miss Elizabeth Mullin, and was her translation from the French of Adolphe Ribaux, of the “Missa Solemnis.”  She told of an old Gothic Cathedral in Germany where, in the twilight, a young musician is playing on the organ for an old one,—for the old organist who

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has held his place there for more than fifty years.  The young man—who looks like the pictures of the young Schiller—plays a Sonata of Bach; and the old man says that Bach himself, on a visit to that place, had played the same Sonata there one hundred and fifty years before.  And now, when such music is again worthily performed, the old organist gives up his place to his young friend.  We were told of the life and heart history of the old musician; of his life work at this organ, and in writing compositions, which after giving expression to the aspirations of his soul, were thrown into a chest, and left there.  But one of these—a solemn mass—had been seen by his pupil, who had gained permission to copy it. When December comes the old man has been a long time weather bound; but promises, and is promised that he is to be present at the Cathedral services to hear the Christmas Mass, and the music of his pupil.  When the hour approaches he is taken in the carriage of the reigning princess, herself the daughter of one who as a lovely girl had been his pupil, and who had died long years before.  And then he hears the music of his own solemn mass most worthily and grandly given after his own heart.  And afterwards come the loving appreciation and gratitude of his friends and neighbors.  The princess thanks in behalf of the living and the dead, and he feels that, more blessed than his master Bach, he has entered into the promised land while

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here on earth.  It is perfect happiness, and like Simeon of old he can hope only to pass away from the joy of hope fulfilled on earth to the songs of angels in heaven.

At the close of Miss Mullin’s translation Miss Mary Grace said that she was proud of her pupil. The President said that she ought also to be proud of our Committee on Translations, which, as we all remember she began and built up in former years.

After further appreciative comments on the programme, the Club enjoyed conversation and refreshment for the rest of the afternoon.

 

Meeting of March 7th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, March 7th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. Jordan 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 February 28th.  The President gave a notice of the new periodical, the “Conservative Review,” a copy of which had been sent to the Club.  She read the table of contents in the first number, many of the articles having been written by well-known citizens of Baltimore.  Notice was also given that our

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March Salon would be held on the 21st of the month, as the 28th will fall in Holy Week, and also as the 21st will more nearly commemorate the Birthday of our Club, which occurred on March 19th, 1890.

The first article of the programme was given by Miss Mary D. Davis, and was on “The Sexcentenary of the Swiss Republic.”  Miss Davis said it had been her privilege to be in Switzerland on August 1st 1891. She and her party had crossed Lake Constance, and rested at Ragatz, noted for its baths, its scenery, and it old historic associations of wild barons and holy abbots.  While enjoying the beauties of the scene they were startled by the pealing of bells, and the booming of cannon reverberating among the hills.  They were told that this was for the six-hundredth anniversary of the Independence of Switzerland, and that all over the land joy bells and salutes were proclaiming the event.  The six-hundredth anniversary sounded strange to those who some fifteen years before had joined in the commemoration of the first century of our own American Independence. She went on to speak of old Switzerland—the land of unconquerable mountaineers, and of many heroes,—where William Tell and his companions still live as sources of inspiration among the people, notwithstanding the efforts of modern historians to relegate them to the realm of Fiction.  She spoke of the ancient Helvetian migration, which reads to us like the Exodus of the Israelites, before it was turned

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back by Julius Caesar. She spoke too of the monastic school founded in the seventh century by an Irish monk at St. Gall, which became one of the most famous seats of learning in Europe.  She told of the legends of Charlemagne and the German Emperors. She went on to the tyranny of the Counts of Hapsburg, against which forest cantons united in 1245 in a defensive league.  On August 1st, 1291 the three famous EidgenossenWalter Furst, Werner Stauffacher and Arnold von Melchthal met on the field of Rütli and formed a perpetual league to resist oppression.  Miss Davis went on to describe the founding and building up of the nation which claims to be the oldest free state in the world.  After describing the joyful sexcentenary of this brave people, Miss Davis said that we would not wish to shake their faith in William Tell, nor in the three heroes of Rütli--who—old tradition says—are always ready to rise again whenever their country needs them to defend her.

The next article of the programme was given by Mrs. Edward Stabler, and was on “Seals and Sealmakers.” Mrs. Stabler spoke of the engraving of seals as little known in this country before the year 1830,—and for some time later,—except as it was carried on in our own State, in Montgomery county, about eighteen miles from Washington.  The maker of seals in that day was the late Mr. Edward Stabler, who devoted himself to this work, and was employed by our

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National and State governments, besides receiving foreign orders.  He used brass and bell metal, and his process for preparing the materials for seals—his own invention—was copied by the United States Mint.  She told of his making the seals of the United States, of both houses of Congress, of the United States Treasury, and others of much interest;—his collection was said to be second only to that of the British Museum.  Mrs. Stabler spoke of seals in ancient and modern times.  She referred to the curious old fashion in the conveyance of land for the giver of a deed to bite the wax attached to it, the impression of his teeth making the document valid.  In speaking of stamps on important papers, she recalled a portion of the history of Maryland; when in1845 the credit and honor of our State was saved by the means of an enactment very much like that Stamp Act against which our forefathers fought when it was imposed on them by Great Britain.  At the close of her article, Mrs. Stabler showed to the Club a beautiful and interesting collection of engraved seals, old and new.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Elliott Gilpin, and was on “Moon Myths.”  It was read for her by Mrs. Jordan Stabler. Mrs. Gilpin spoke of the superstitions regarding the moon, which have prevailed from the earliest times, and of the moon myths that are still to be traced in Folk Lore—ancient and modern. She spoke of the so-called “Man

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in the Moon,” and of the old story that he is the man who was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, to make his fire, and for this offence was banished by Moses from the earth, and is now freezing in the moon.  Another version of the story relates that he carries his fagot of sticks with him.  She spoke of German myths, and also of the allusions of Chaucer and Dante to this celebrated character, going on to the familiar incident of his “coming down too soon to inquire the way to Norridge.”  She told too of the old Assyrian myths, and of the lovely Greek personification of the clear shining moon as the goddess Diana.  She told of the fables of our own aborigines, and then of those of the Indians of Hindoston [Hindustan].  These last have poetical myths, and think the animal sacred to the moon is the hare, whose form they can discern on its disk.  She went on to the old rural English and Scotch faiths in the influence of the increasing and the waning moon on the enterprises and events of human life, and on human intellects also,—superstitions which are still discoverable in our own time and country.  Mrs. Gilpin reminded us too of the frequent mentions in the Old Testament of the solemn celebrations, the feasts and sacrifices of the new moon.

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Percy Reese, and was called “Unhonored and Unsung.” Mrs. Reese told of a country neighborhood in Southern Maryland where she made a summer

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visit, and where she found that her membership in the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore had become known in some unexplained manner.  This gained her an invitation to the local literary association, which she discovered to have been in existence for half a century at least.  She gave a description of an excellent entertainment given by Friends who used the thee and thou with true friendliness and proved themselves truly literary also.  It was only at parting from the members who had called for her and taken her back to her temporary home that she discovered herself to have been receiving the kind attentions, and to have been conversing familiarilly [familiarly] with the writer of one of her favorite books, and to whom she had always supposed to be a man. The modest “Quaker lady” had published her book with an initial only before her family name, a more simple device than the assuming a masculine praenomen as had seemed to be the fashion for a time.  The meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of March 14th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, March 14th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Mrs. John M. Carter, Chairman of the Committee on Philanthropy.

The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of March 7th.

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The first article of the programme was given by Mrs. P. R. Uhler, and was called “A Home for London Waifs.”  Mrs. Uhler spoke of the Foundling Hospital in the heart of London,—a charitable institution, one hundred and sixty years old.   She told of its founder, Captain Thomas Coram; who in passing in and out of London found his honest sailor’s heart moved to compassion for the friendless children of the highways.  In 1739 he made the first establishment “for exposed and deserted children”.  He enlisted the help of good women, that of the Duke of Bedford of Parliament, and of the King, George the Third.  Mrs. Uhler described a visit to this institution, speaking especially of its chapel, with the fine organ given to it by the great musician, Handel, one of its chief benefactors, who performed here his own oratorio of the Messiah many times.

The next article of the programme was by Miss Gertrude Lanahan, and was on “The Blue Coat School of London.”  Miss Lanahan spoke of having seen in Newgate Street the robust “Blue Coat” boys playing around their home,—Christ's Hospital, as it is called.  The school was founded in 1553, by King Edward the Sixth. The figure of the King is over the door, but it has no dignity now, and receives no reverence from the boys.  We were told of the distinguished men who had been Blue Coat Boys,—as Coleridge, Lamb, Leigh Hunt, and others.  Miss Lanahan told of a visit when the

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boys were at dinner, and remarked on the plainness of the service and appointments, the bare dormitories, and also on the plain rules of living that—like the blue coats and yellow stockings—have been preserved unchanged from the days of King Edward the Sixth.  These, she told us are not steam heated,—nor electric lighted children.

The next article of the programme was given by Miss Helena T. Goessman, and was on “Some Phases of Charity, Old and New.”  Miss Goessman spoke of her wish to tell of the advantages of Institutional Life in Charity, as Mrs. Taylor, who was to follow her, was to speak of the disadvantages developed in Benevolent Institutions.  Miss Goessman spoke of the attitude of the ancient nations towards defective, and friendless children, who were often killed, or exposed in open places to die,—before the Christian religion brought solace and sympathy to these helpless ones.  She traced the early Christian efforts to save little children, the work of this kind done in the middle ages, and told of the good results of the same kind of Philanthropy now being developed in Europe and America.  She described a visit to Sister Irene’s Foundling Hospital in New York City.  She told of the environment of beauty and refinement which this gentle and true sister of charity has established to give high ideals and right standards to the poor little waifs that are gathered there.  Her work, we were told was undenominational and her heroic devotion to

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the poor and helpless has given a home and proper influences to thousands who were ready to perish. Miss Goessman made an eloquent appeal for the liberal Christian faith that is shown by works of love to humanity.

Mrs. Taylor, the Superintendent of the “Baltimore Orphan Asylum for Boys and Girls” was the next speaker.  Though Mrs. Taylor spoke forcibly of the disadvantages and discouragements to be discovered in conducting Orphan Asylums,—such as the making children too much like parts of a machine, inducing bad associations, etc.—she yet gave a very interesting account of the work that these institutions are doing in our midst.

Discussion was called for and some accounts of different institutions of charity were given to us. In speaking of the Indian School at Carlisle, Mrs. Cautley gave the testimony of Captain Pratt, the Superintendent, that no Indian girl educated there had ever gone back to savagery. Mrs. Hill called attention to the fact that if the results of orphan asylums are not altogether satisfactory, we seem as yet to have nothing else to substitute for them.

After brief remarks by Miss Zacharias, Mrs. Reese, Miss Duval and others, the meeting adjourned.

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Meeting of March 21^st, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, march 21st, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting celebrated the ninth anniversary of the Club—which—as we were glad to remember, was organized on the 19th of March 1890.  The monthly Salon was also appointed for the same afternoon,—this being the nearest regular meeting to the birthday of the Club.

The President, after calling the meeting to order, gave the announcement of the invitation to the Club to attend the reception of Mr. Joaquin Miller, the Californian poet, at the Rennert House, on the following Thursday afternoon.

The first exercise on the programme was “Two Songs” sung by a chorus of young ladies.  They were Mendelssohn’s “Greetings” and “Maid of Ganges,” and were given with fine spirit and execution.

The President, Mrs. Wrenshall, then said that it was her privilege to offer to her fellow members the best wishes for many happy returns of this anniversary.  We look back with great pleasure on the nine years that have passed; we have given thanks for the helpfulness of our Club to our daily lives; we have acknowledged the stimulus of free criticism; we have felt that we have been sowing seed for the future, while we have found, and still find

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refreshment and enjoyment in our meetings together.  The President then traced the first idea of our Club as formed the minds of two young girls.  In November 1889, Miss Hester Crawford Dorsey, and Miss Louise O. C. Haughton were reading the account of one of the dinners given by the “Sorosis” Club in New York. After commenting upon it, the question arose simultaneously in the aspiring young minds, “Why cannot we have such a Club in Baltimore?”  The President then read a sketch written by Miss Dorsey,—now Mrs. Richardson of New York,—giving the result of this sudden inspiration of herself and Miss Haughton. Early in the following Spring they sent requests to well-known literary women to meet for consultation at Miss Dorsey’s home.  This was the first meeting of the founders of the Club.  These were,—in addition to Miss Dorsey and Miss Haughton--

Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull,

Mrs. Mary Spear Tiernan,

Mrs. Henry P. Goddard,

Mrs. John T. Graham,

Mrs. C. W. Lord, and

Mrs. Fabian Franklin.

 

They called a meeting for the following Wednesday, March 19th, 1890, to be held at the Woman’s College, by permission of the President and Trustees of that institution.  Over thirty ladies—by invitation—attended this meeting.  They organized the Club, and elected unanimously

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Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull as its President.  Miss Dorsey and Miss Haughton were elected Vice Presidents, Mrs. Fabian Franklin as Treasurer, and Mrs. George Whitelock as Secretary.  Mrs. Whitelock afterwards declining, Miss ELiza Ridgely was elected in her place.  The first Executive consisted of 

Mrs. Henry Stockbridge Sr.

Mrs. Goddard,

Mrs. Tiernan

Mrs. Lord—and

Miss Bond.

 

The officers and Executive Committee were constituted the Board of Management.  Subsequently a Constitution and By Laws were adopted, containing a full and clear expression of our aims and objects in forming and supporting the “Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore.”

It may not be out of place to remind ourselves that these aims and objects are still unchanged. The minutes of the first meeting of the Club on March 19th, 1890—written by Miss Dorsey—were then read by the present Recording Secretary.

We then enjoyed hearing two Selections for the piano by Liszt, beautifully played or us by Miss Coulson.

The programme next called for an article by Mrs. Turnbull on “The Power and Responsibility of Words. Mrs. Turnbull gave this article by request.  It was the opening address she made as President to the Club

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on the first Tuesday in October 1890.  Mrs. Turnbull spoke of the prospect before the new Club; of its high purposes and expectations which were not vague nor undefined, but were resting on firm ground. It were [was] better to do what is small and true than what is large and uncertain.  She spoke of the individual work that shall be for the good of all; of the friendly discussion of differing views and opinions, which shall not weaken but strengthen the mental character, and give fuller knowledge to each one of us. She quoted the English critic Dr. Brown, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mrs. Browning and others.  We were to strive for those nobler views of life which do not admit of partizanship [partisanship], to avoid the indiscriminate praise that sometimes passes for criticism, to be brave and appreciative.  We remember that God blesses man—or woman—less for the fining than for the seeking.  She spoke of the advancement of literature by methods distinctly literary; of the development of thought by our united action; of seeking the best style and cultivating the best gifts of expression.  With animating sentiments our first President dwelt upon the good and pure work we may be able to do in words; work worthy of our motto—parole femine; we may hope worthy to take its place with the achievements of poets, artists and true writers, and aspiring to stand with those things whose inspiration is among the good and perfect gifts that come down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.

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Mrs. Turnbull then recalled to us the members of the Club who had contributed to its success in its early days.  Among these she spoke with loving appreciation of our valued member and founder, Mrs. Mary Spear Tiernan, telling of her death in January 1891, and of the meeting subsequently held by the Club as a tribute to her memory.  She spoke too of Mrs. Margaret E. Easter, of her poems, her deep interest in the Club, and the memorial meeting held after her death.

Mrs. Turnbull went on to speak of the earnest devotion of Miss Haughton, another founder of the Club; of the unselfish efforts and labors of Miss Emma Brent, both as President and as an indispensable member of the Club.  To our present President, Mrs. Turnbull gave an expression of the esteem and honor in which she is held by her fellow members.  To all these commendations given by our first President the Club responded with enthusiastic applause.

Miss Haughton then gave us the pleasure of hearing her sing two songs. “Drink to m only with thine eyes” and “A Song of the Heart.”

The programme next called for a “Poem,” by Miss Lizette W. Reese.  Miss Reese first presented to the Club, as the gift of Mrs. John D. Early, a picture of “Baby Stuart”—the “baby” being the unfortunate King James the Second of England.  The subject of Miss Reese’s poem was “Baby Stuart” also.  Miss Cloud being called for a recitation

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kindly gave us a fine original poem also.  The last article of the programme was “Songs” by Mendelssohn, given by Mrs. Mottu, Miss Crown, Miss Dunott and Miss Pitts.  The musical part of the programme was under the direction of Miss Zacharias.

The rest of the afternoon passed in tea and talk.

 

Meeting of March 28th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, March 28th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Virginia Cloud, Chairman of the Committee on Fiction.

The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of March 21st.

The first article of the programme was Book Notes, and was given by the Chairman of the Committee for the day, Miss Cloud.  She gave short and appreciative criticisms on Richard Burton’s “Literary Likings;” on Mrs. Jordan’s [Elizabeth Jordan] “Tales of a City Room,” on Miss Wilkin’s [Mary Eleanor Wilkins] “Silence, and Other Stories,” and also on Sarah Orne Jewett’s Story in the February Atlantic Monthly, “The Queen’s Twin.”

The next article of the programme was by Mrs. Sidney Turner, and was called “Fiction.”  Mrs. Turner said that when she was a child, she was punished once

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and once only—and it was for telling a lie.  What the lie was, she had forgotten; what the punishment was, she distinctly remembered. The result was a somewhat inconvenient devotion to the truth in speaking and writing.  She had often wondered how fiction was written by good and true men and women.  She concluded to join the Fiction Committee, and learn how this was done.  The separation between truth and not truth had seemed like a broad pathway, but on the sides are shelves, from which we may take down books that call themselves fiction, and may seem very much like truth.  She had joined the Committee, and she had since thought out a few plots; with three of which she proceeded to entertain her fellow members.

The first was an adventure in Germany, quite possible, with a climax full of the so-called “element of unexpectedness.”  The second introduced to us an eccentric heroine and her eight cats; there was also the suggestion of a long-lost sister.  Then there was the weird romance of a remembered song,—sung after twenty-five years of silence.  All of them, if not condensed novels, were pictorial stories; which like the Fiction Committee we could ask to have worked out.  But, Mrs. Turner said, we could believe them fiction or truth, just as we pleased.

The next article was “A Story,” by Miss Cloud.  It is unnecessary to dwell on

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the interest with which the Literary Club receives Miss Cloud’s stories; and this one, which introduced to us the intense individuality and enthusiastic aspirations of a woman of musical genius, was of even unusual suggestiveness.

The next article was “A Story,” by Miss Duvall.  In this Miss Betty explains why she was engaged to Giles Underwood for three months only—not being engaged to him now.  She did not trifle with his affections, she was not a flirt,—but a girl may fall in love,—and not stay in love.  Then he had views, he talked about standards, and intellectual attitudes, and tried to square her to his ideals.  He never took anything for granted, he took the taste out of every thing; when he shut his eyes to anything, he expected her to shut her eyes too. It was literature at last that broke the camel’s back.  He sent her awful books, and instead of reading them she went fishing,—after “going over them,”—by putting them on the floor, and skipping back and forth upon them a few times.  In the subsequent quarrel she said something that broke the engagement.  She told him he was so wedded to his own opinions, that it would be a kind of bigamy for him to marry any woman at all.

The next article was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley, and was on “Impressions of Impressionism.”  Mrs. Cautley spoke of impressionism as a revolt against some

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other schools of Art. In speaking of English painters, she referred to [Edwin Henry] Landseer, and said that he painted animals with human expressions on their faces, and painted human beings with similar resemblances to animals.  She recalled a picture representing the Royal Family, in which the Prince Consort looked like an amiable sheep; and while her respect for the Queen would prevent her from suggesting any such likeness with regard to her majesty, the other members of the group did show unexpected resemblances.  The impressionists, she said, were not charlatans, but some of them had run away with an idea.  She spoke of seeing a picture of some very impossible mermaids, in which the lights and shades of the bodies, hair, sea and sky seemed all represented in unnatural colors.  Afterwards she saw a very beautiful picture, full of romance and reality, by the same impressionist painter.  But still later, on the coast of St. Ives, she saw one day some children bathing and the same colors of the picture in bathers, sea and sky, were suddenly revealed to her eyes.  And yet she thought a true artist ought to strive most to give us, not what we see exceptionally, but what all human nature sees and all human nature feels.

The programme next called for “Reminiscences,” by Mrs. E. W. Latimer.  After referring to her connections with Virginia and with New England, and especially with Old England, Mrs. Latimer said she would

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give two recollections, one relating to Annapolis, and the other to the coronation of Queen Victoria.  In the first she spoke of her grandfather having received many attentions from Bishop Porteus, of the See of London, a favorite and friend of George the Third and Queen Charlotte.  She learned that he and his family were under great obligations to her great grandfather.  She took us back to the early colonial history, when indentured servants were went over the sea, and sold to the colonists,—sometimes to pay their passage to the new country, sometimes for offences against the laws, sometimes for political offences or insurrections.  In 1715, after the defeat of the First Pretender, James Stuart, the rebel prisoners, even gentlemen were among these unfortunate exiles. Certainly a Porteus was among them; who, as they were obliged to have some trades, called himself a blacksmith. Mrs. Latimer said he had probably seen horses shod in England.  Her great grandfather, she said interested himself in this young man; had him exchanged from Maryland to Virginia, entertained him at his own plantation, and at last gained his release, and sent him back to England, where all this kindness was not forgotten.

Of Queen Victoria’s Coronation, Mrs. Latimer said that she, being then about sixteen, had only an outside view, though her father, being a British Admiral, as admitted into Westminster Abbey.  She

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saw the procession, and had a fine view of the young Queen in her carriage, sitting with the Duchess Sutherland,—then called the most beautiful woman in England.  The Queen was, at that time she said, really a pretty girl, with her delicate complexion and charm of manners.

At the end of the progrmme, the President thanked Mrs. Latimer, and also Miss Cloud, and all who had contributed to our entertainment; and the meeting adjourned.

 

Meeting of April 4th, 1899.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, met on Tuesday, April 4th, 1899, at the corner of Franklin and Cathedral Streets.  This meeting was under the direction of Miss Malloy, Chairman of the Committee on the Drama.

The President called the meeting to order, and the Recording Secretary read the minutes of the meeting of March 28th.  The President announced that we had as our guest of honor Mrs. Albert L. Richardson of Pittsburg [Pittsburgh], formerly Miss Hester Crawford Dorsey, known to us as one of the first literary women to whom the founding of our Club is mainly due. Two weeks before this meeting we had celebrated the ninth birthday of our Club, and done honor to Miss Dorsey, Miss Haughton and to the half a dozen other ladies who held

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with them the preliminary meeting, and to the thirty who met on March 19th, 1890, when the Club was organized and began its work.  The President said that at the close of the programme an opportunity would be given to the members to meet and congratulate Mrs. Richardson on the result of the movement she had done much to originate.

The first article of the programme was by Miss Ellen Duvall, and was called “Shakespearean Notes.” Miss Duvall treated especially the play of “Measure for Measure.”  She spoke of this play as not of equal fame with Hamlet, and not so beautiful as Midsummer’s Night’s Dream; but she dwelt on its philosophy and truth to nature and life. She said the received chronology of Shakespeare’s plays is sometimes misleading.  She spoke of three periods in mental and spiritual growth, the unconscious, the semi-conscious and the conscious periods.  This play she thought the first written in Shakespeare’s fully conscious period; when after sight and experience, he had come to realize the world, or rather to realize himself.  There we see the leading ideas and the conception or plan of life he had accepted, the effects they had produced, and the act with which he represents them.  He knows what to leave out, and brings before us the power and worth of self-government, in the individual, in the ruler, in the state.  He brings too before use tragical events, epochs of life, which close by passing on

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to something better,—to rest, and to the hope for the higher activities of the soul of man.  Unlike the writers of modern novels and plays, he does not evolve his subjects by insinuation or suggestion, he always “calls a spade a spade.”  Miss Duvall made a fine analysis of the play, to the end, where the mask is torn from Angelo, and we feel that such a man could only desire death, and the unmasked Duke meets Isabella, and sets all the bells of the imagination ringing for the dawn of new love and joy.

The next article of the programme was by Miss Malloy, and was called “An Interview.”  Miss Malloy described an interview with Mr. Percy Winter, director of the Company of the Lyceum Theatre of Baltimore,—a critic as well as an actor, and also the son of William Winter, the leading dramatic critic in America.  Mr. Winter spoke of the power of the Press, and also of the hasty and often worthless criticism published on plays and actors by the inexperienced and narrow writers of the newspapers.  It seems impossible to exclude from them the commercial view.  Mr. Longfellow had talked with his father of the stage as an educational power, and had said that he considered the actor a Professor of Belles Lettres.  The Drama was early known in history as a teacher of religion in the miracle plays. There is much that all feel, but only the cultured few can at first understand.  If the criticism upon the stage is wise, its power for good increases. The actor stands

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as the interpreter between genius and the public.  The stage he thought is better now than ever before.  But there are some plays like “The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith”.  and “The Second Mrs. Tanqueray,” which it does one harm rather than good to see acted,—though often the art of the actor makes them admired.  Yet, in spite of “passing fads,” there is an advance towards better ideals, and there is hope for better [illegible]. 

The next article was by Mrs. Thomas Morris and was “A View of a Dramatic Poem.”  Mrs. Morris reviewed Robert Browning’s great poem “The Ring and the Book.”  She spoke of this work as an epic poem on human nature.  Browning’s face is set towards the light, the light of God.  He would have us believe in love, in the spiritual power of heavenly love, that might be, that was,—and is.  He would have us enjoy the good things of this life. “As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry ‘All good things are ours, [nor soul helps flesh?] more, now, than flesh helps soul.”  Mrs. Morris went over the twelve books of the poem in detail,—the story told ten times in monologue, not in soliloquy, but with the presence of a hearer understood. Each account is distance in itself, leading up as she showed us to the Pope’s final judgment; his vindication of the majesty of human nature, and the grandeur of Christianity,—with his tributes to the perfect whiteness of Pompilia’s soul and to the heroic spirit of the priest, Caponsacchi.  Mrs. Morris read some of the finest [?] from this poem, which, as she said finds its parallel only in the work of Shakespeare.  She closed with the lines of the poet to his wife, the “Lyric Love,” to whom he dedicated

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This Ring of Verse.  

The next article of the programme was “A Story,” by Miss Virginia Cloud.  It was a tale of “Second Sight,” and was one of a series, not unknown to Miss Cloud’s fellow members.  We were told of the second sight that a semi-lunatic belies herself to possess, and of the true sight, the unclouded vision possessed by a follower of duty and charity.  In the end, very [?] and mad delusions are made to bring safety out of the midst of danger,—as we sometimes find in life that the weakest one among us may have a place of her own.  All served, all serving: nothing stands alone.

The last article of the programme was by Mrs. R. K. Cautley, and was called “Two Hamlets.”  Mrs. Cautley said it had been her fortune to see two representations of Hamlet, strongly contrasted.  She was sojourning in a little Italian village on Lago Maggiore, which has of late years become a manufacturing community, full of operatives, who have their own railway, their own church, even their own theatre, managed by these workmen themselves.  She one day read that Signor Carlo Cola, the great actor was to give the great play of “Amleto” and she concluded to see it.  The hard seats and rude stage appointments were probably not unlike what the same things were in Shakespeare’s own time.  A conspicuous row of boots seemed to belong to the leaders of the [?] and the boots came down at the right moments.  Signor Carlo in [?] was perhaps in one sense [not?] an ideal Hamlet

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he was fat and scant of breath.  His Ophelia was still more fat, and old enough to be his mother.  Polonius was cheered by the boots, and the Ghost came forward in card board armor.  But as the play went on the Hamlet began to show the dumb agony of a mind on the rack, the incipient insanity began to appear, and she was surprised by a fine study of madness by a real actor.  Ophelia too, rose to the occasion, and sang her song with true music and pathos.  The genius of the play had taken its hold upon them.  Afterwards, in London, she saw Forbes Robertson play Hamlet, with perfect stage setting, and of course well supported.  He was the best of Hamlets,—the dark figure with quiet grace and dignity mastering the undercurrent of deep feeling.  When the great heart was broken, and the dying prince was led to the throne where Fortinbras knelt before him,—and then when “he lay like a warrior taking his rest,”—it was all the most nearly perfect death scene she could hope to look upon.  If this was not the Hamlet that Shakespeare saw,—or created, she thought it was what he would like to see,—if he could also see the present age and people who live in it.

The programme being ended, the President announced that Mrs. Richardson would say a few words to us. Mrs. Richardson said she was truly glad to come back and see the advancement and growth of the Club she had helped to found.  And she was especially glad that our aims and purposes were unchanged.  She had visited other Clubs of women: as the Sorosis of New York, the Brooklyn Club, and the Club in Pittsburg [Pittsburgh]

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where she lived, but the character or tendencies of all seem to be given over to departmental or general work.  The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, is still strictly literary,—and that she thought was best for us.  Mrs. Richardson then received the warm greetings and congratulations of the members, old and new.

The meeting adjourned.