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diff --git a/old/12099-8.txt b/old/12099-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c4d6e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12099-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5766 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny +June", by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny June" + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12099] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JANE CUNNINGHAM *** + + + + +Produced by Ari J Joki and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +Caroline M. Morse, editor + + JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY + "JENNY JUNE" + + +1904 + + + +[Illustration: Portrait] + +[Illustration: Facsimile of signature + "With sincere affection + yours-ever + J.C. Croly"] + + + + Memories of + Jane Cunningham Croly + "Jenny June" + + + + TO THE + GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS + IN AMERICA + THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED + + BY + + THE WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB + + OF + NEW YORK CITY + +Foreword + + +On January 6, 1902, a Memorial Meeting was called by Sorosis jointly +with the Woman's Press Club of New York City, and a month later the +Press Club formally authorized the preparation of a Memorial Book to +its Founder and continuous President to the day of her death, Jane +Cunningham Croly. + +In addition to a biographical sketch to be prepared by her brother, +the Rev. John Cunningham, this book, so it was planned, should contain +such letters, or excerpts from letters, as would illustrate her +lovable personality and her life philosophy. + +A Committee of Publication was appointed, consisting of Mrs. Caroline +M. Morse, Chairman, Mrs. Mary Coffin Johnson, Mrs. Haryot Holt Dey, +Mrs. Miriam Mason Greeley, Miss Anna Warren Story and Mrs. Margaret W. +Ravenhill. These began their work by sending a printed slip to club +members and to Mrs. Croly's known intimates, asking for her letters. +But the response came almost without variation: "My letters from Mrs. +Croly are of too personal a nature for publication." A few, however, +were freely offered, and these it was decided should be used, +depending for the bulk of the Memorial upon copious extracts from +Mrs. Croly's "History of the Woman's Club Movement in America," from +her editorial work on _The Cycle_, and from her miscellaneous +writings. To this characteristic material her long cherished friends, +Mr. and Mrs. Thaddeus B. Wakeman, added an account of the "Positivist +Episode," that objective point in her career, with which her husband +was closely identified. + +With these are: Mrs. Croly's Club Life, a sketch by Mrs. Haryot Holt +Dey; the Sorosis-Press Club Memorial Meeting; the Resolutions of the +Woman's Press Club of New York City, the General Federation of Clubs, +and the Society of American Women in London; tributes from London +clubwomen; Essays and Addresses; Letters and Stray Leaves and Notes, +written by Mrs. Croly; tributes from many of her friends, and my own +recollections. + + CAROLINE M. MORSE, + Chairman. + + + + +Contents + + + "JENNY JUNE."--Ethel Morse + + A BROTHER'S MEMORIES.--John Cunningham, D.D. + + SOROSIS-PRESS CLUB MEMORIAL MEETING ADDRESSES: + Dimies T.S. Denison + Charlotte B. Wilbour + Phebe A. Hanaford + Orlena A. Zabriskie + Carrie Louise Griffin + Cynthia Westover Alden + May Riley Smith + Fanny Hallock Carpenter + + RESOLUTIONS AND TRIBUTES FROM CLUBS: + Resolutions of the New York State Federation + From the Croly Memorial Fund of the Pioneer Club of London + + THE POSITIVIST EPISODE.--Thaddeus B. Wakeman + + MRS. CROLY'S CLUB LIFE.--Haryot Holt Dey + + ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES BY JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY: + Beginnings of Organization + The Moral Awakening + The Advantages of a General Federation of Women's Clubs + The Clubwoman + The New Life + The Days That Are + A People's Church + + NOTES, LETTERS, AND STRAY LEAVES.--Jane Cunningham Croly + + THE TRIBUTES OF FRIENDS: + Miriam Mason Greeley + Marie Etienne Burns + Izora Chandler + Janie C.P. Jones + Catherine Weed Barnes Ward + Sara J. Lippincott--"Grace Greenwood" + Jennie de la M. Lozier + Genie H. Rosenfeld + S.A. Lattimore + Ellen M. Staples + Margaret W. Ravenhill + T.C. Evans + St. Clair McKelway + Laura Sedgwick Collins + Mary Coffin Johnson + Caroline M. Morse + Ella Wheeler Wilcox + + + + +Illustrations + + + JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY (JENNY JUNE) AT THE AGE OF 61 + + MRS. CROLY AT THE AGE OF 40 (ABOUT THE TIME + SOROSIS WAS INAUGURATED) + + FACSIMILE OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE + WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB OF NEW YORK, JANUARY + 11, 1902 + + FACSIMILE OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE + SOCIETY OF AMERICAN WOMEN IN LONDON, + MARCH 24, 1902 + + DAVID GOODMAN CROLY + + FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF A LETTER WRITTEN + BY MRS. CROLY, OCTOBER, 1900 + + MRS. CROLY AT THE AGE OF 18 + + + + +Jenny June + + + The South Wind blows across the harrowed fields, + And lo! the young grain springs to happy birth; + His warm breath lingers where the granite shields + Intruding flowers, and the responsive Earth + Impartially her varied harvest yields. + Through long ensuing months with tender mirth + The South Wind laughs, rejoicing in the worth + Of the impellent energies he wields. + + Within our minds the memory of a Name + Will move, and fires of inspiration that burned low + Among dead embers break in quickening flame; + Flowers of the soul, grain of the heart shall grow, + And burgeoned promises shall bravely blow + Beneath the sunny influence of Her fame. + +ETHEL MORSE. + + + + +A Brother's Memories + +_By John Cunningham, D.D._ + + +The most interesting and potent fact within the range of human +knowledge is personality, and in the person of Jane Cunningham Croly +(Jenny June) a potency was apparent which has affected the social life +of more women, perhaps, than any other single controlling factor of +the same period. + +Jane Cunningham was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, +England, December 19, 1829. She was the fourth child of Joseph H. and +Jane Cunningham, and though small in stature and delicate in organism, +was full of vivacity, and abounding in natural intelligence. Her rich +brown hair, blue eyes and clear complexion proclaimed her of +Anglo-Saxon origin. She was the idol of her parents and the admiration +of her school teachers. Her comradeship with her father began early in +life and was continued to the time of his death. The family came to +the United States in 1841, making their home at first in Poughkeepsie, +and afterwards in or near Wappinger's Falls, where the father bought a +large building-lot and erected a neat and commodious house, which +remained in the possession of the family until sold by Mrs. +Cunningham after the death of her husband. The lot was soon converted +into a garden by its owner who tilled it with the spade and allowed no +plough to be used in his little Eden. It was characteristic of his +generous spirit, too, that none of the surplus product was ever sold, +but was freely given to less favored neighbors. Happy years were spent +by Mr. Cunningham in his shop, in his garden, with his books, and in +visiting his daughter Jennie in New York after her marriage when she +became established there. It was as nearly an ideal life as a modest +man could desire. He lived respected by the best people in the +community, and died in peace, with his children around him. + +As I remember my sister in early life, the sunniness of her nature +is the first and prevailing characteristic that I call to mind; +occasional moods of reverie bordering on melancholy only made brighter +the habitual radiance and buoyancy of a nature that diffused happiness +all around her. She was a perfectly healthy girl in mind and body. A +sound mind in a sound body was her noble heritage. She was always +extremely temperate in food and drink, fastidious in all her tastes +and personal habits, indulgent never beyond the dictates of perfect +simplicity and sobriety. Proficient in all branches of housekeeping, +her apparel was mostly of her own making. Good literature was a +passion with her, and while never an omnivorous reader, she had a +natural instinct for the best in language. A spirit of indomitable +independence, courage and persistence in purpose characterized her +from childhood. She must think her own thoughts, and mark out and +follow her own path. Suffering from a degree of physical timidity that +at times caused her much pain, she possessed a spirit that sometimes +seemed to border on audacity in the assertion and maintenance of her +own convictions. From childhood she developed a personality which +charmed all with whom she came in contact. Persons of both sexes, +young and old, the sober and the gay, alike fell under the influence +of her magnetic power. Living for a time in the family of her brother, +to whom she proffered her services as housekeeper when he was pastor +of a Union church in Worcester County, Mass., she drew to her all +sorts of people by the brightness and charm of her personality. +Self-forgetful and genuine, interested in all about her, she lived +only to serve others, valuing lightly all that she did. Here it was +that her remarkable capacity for journalism first developed itself. +One of the means by which she interested the community was the public +reading of a semi-monthly paper, every line of which was written by +herself and a fellow worker. The reading of that paper every +fortnight, to an audience that crowded the church, was an event in her +history. + +Jennie was no dreamer. She was no speculative theorist spinning +impossible things out of the cobwebs of her brain. She was no Hypatia +striving to restore the gods of the past, revelling in a brilliant +cloudland of symbolisms and affinities. If she was caught in the mist +at any time, she soon came out of it and found her footing in the +practical realities of daily life. Never over-reverential, she never +called in question the deeper realities of soul-life. She was no +ascetic: she would have made a poor nun. But she was a born preacher +if by preaching is meant the annunciation of a gospel to those who +need it. Jennie was always an ardent devotee of her sex, and whatever +else she believed in, she certainly believed in women, their instincts +and capacities. + +In the year 1856, on February 14th, St. Valentine's Day, my sister +Jennie was married to David G. Croly, a reporter for the New York +_Herald,_ and they began life in the city on his meagre salary of +fourteen dollars a week. The gifted young wife, however, soon found +work for herself on the _World_, the _Tribune_, the _Times_, _Noah's +Sunday Times_ and the _Messenger_. The first money she received for +writing was in return for an article published in the New York +_Tribune_. Their joint career in metropolitan journalism was +interrupted however by a short term of residence in Rockford, +Illinois, where Mr. Croly was invited to become editor of the Rockford +_Register_, then owned by William Gore King, the husband of our +sister Mary A. Cunningham. Mr. Croly was aided in the editorial +management by his wife, and while the work was agreeable and +successful, it was due to Mrs. Croly's ardent desire for a larger +field, that at the end of a year they decided to return to New York. +The results for both abundantly justified the change. As managing +editor of the daily _World_ for a number of years, afterwards of the +New York _Graphic_, and later of the _Real Estate Record and Guide_, +Mr. Croly won an honorable position in New York journalism. He was a +conservative democrat of the strictest sort, a radical in religion, +and had but little appreciation of the deeper forces at work in +society and in national life. But he was able and honest, and enjoyed +the respect of his fellow-craftsmen. + +"Jenny June" was a person of very different mental and moral mould. +Her work soon revealed a new, fresh, vigorous force in journalism. An +examination of her editorial contributions to the _Sunday Times_ from +March to December, 1861, suggests her mental vivacity, vigor, breadth +of view, and uniform clearness and power of expression. The title +of the whole series is unpretentious enough: "Parlor and Sidewalk +Gossip." All through her journalistic career similar qualities of +originality characterized her pen. She was editor of _Demorest's_ +magazine for twenty-seven years, and was both editor and owner of +_Godey's_ magazine and _The Home-Maker_. _The Cycle_ was her own +creation and property. In each of these publications the dominating +thoughts are those which make for social elevation, the honor of +womanhood and home comfort and happiness. In addition to this +editorial work she was a regular contributor to several leading +newspapers in Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore and other +cities. She inaugurated the system of syndicate correspondence, and +was the author of several books--"For Better, For Worse"; "Talks on +Women's Topics"; "Thrown on Her Own Resources"; three manuals; and +"The History of the Woman's Club Movement," a large volume of nearly +twelve hundred pages. + +During the most active years of my sister's literary life, she had +also the care of a large household, and her home was always bright and +hospitable. The Croly Sunday evening receptions were one of the social +features of New York City. + +Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Croly. Minnie, the eldest, was +happily married to Lieutenant Roper of the U. S. Navy; her early death +was a grief hard to bear. The second child, a boy, died in infancy. +The surviving children are: Herbert G. Croly, a man of letters in New +York City; Vida Croly Sidney, the wife of the English playwright, +Frederick Sidney, lives in London; and Alice Gary Mathot, the wife of +a New York lawyer, William F. Mathot, resides in Brooklyn Hills, Long +Island. + +Mrs. Croly, one of the founders of Sorosis, perhaps the most noted +woman's club in existence, was its President for many years, and its +Honorary President at the time of her death. The cause which led to +the founding of Sorosis is an open secret. Women were ignored at the +Charles Dickens reception; this was not to be tolerated, and in +consequence of this affront Sorosis came into being, an effectual +protest against any similar indifference in all time to come. Of the +growth of the club movement in the United States, in Great Britain, +France, Russia, and in far-off India, I do not propose to enter into +detail. Suffice it to say that it is one of the marvels of the modern +social and intellectual life of women. + +What was the secret of Jenny June's charm and power? Not +scholarship--let this be said in all sincerity. How greatly she +appreciated the scholar's advantages was well known to her intimate +friends. But these advantages did not belong to her. Nor did it +consist in inherited social rank or wealth; her earnings by her pen +were large, but her patrimony was small. It should have been said +before, that she received the degree of Doctor of Literature from +Rutgers Women's College, and was appointed to a new chair of +Journalism and Literature in that institution. She was also a +lecturer in other women's schools of the first rank. + +Nor did Jenny June pattern her work according to the advice or after +the example of any one man or woman. There was no example by which she +could be guided. Woman was a new factor in journalism, and Jenny June +was a new woman, a new creation, if I may so speak, fashioned after +the type of woman in the beginning, when God created man and woman in +His own image. I cannot too fully emphasize the fact that she was a +new and original personality in journalism. No one understood this +better than her husband. In matters of detail his counsel was of value +to her, but the spirit and character of her work were her own; and +happily for her and for womankind she could never be diverted from her +chosen path. This, indeed, was one chief secret of her success. She +was unalterably true to her divine womanly ideals of woman's nature, +place in society and redemptive work. I say redemptive work, for it +was one of her deepest convictions that woman's function, was to be +the saving salt of all life. Sorosis was founded upon this idea;--not +a literary club merely or mainly; not a political, social or religious +club; but one founded on womanhood, on the divine nature of women of +every class and degree. + +Jenny June's recognition of this vital truth brought her into sympathy +with a world-wide movement. The new woman is no monstrosity, no +sporadic creature born of intellectual fermentation and unrest, but +the rise and development of a better, nobler type of womanhood the +world over. Jenny June's eminent distinction was that she was a leader +in this movement. It made her what her husband once said in my +hearing: "a wonderful woman." Of course there was the capacity for +bursts of feeling on occasion, which those who knew her best seldom +cared to provoke. "I am not an amiable woman," she once said to the +writer. Radiant as she was, there was a volcanic force in her nature +which could be terrific against folly, frivolity and wrong. + +Thousands of gifted women are now making themselves heard in poetry, +dissertation, fiction and journalism because Jenny June opened the +path for them. Womanhood was her watchword, and God, duty, faith and +hope the springs of her life. It may surprise even those who knew her +well to learn that her physical timidity was great, and at times +painful. But her moral and intellectual courage impelled her at times +almost to the verge of audacity, and was held under restraint only by +conscience and good sense. Humor and wit can hardly be said to have +been marked traits in her mentality. There was something delphic and +oracular often in her familiar conversation. Sentimentalism had no +place in her nature, her reading or literary work. A soul full of +healthy and noble sentiment left no room for sentimentalism. + +Was Jenny June a genius? Well, if a boundless capacity for good +original work is genius, then she was a genius. Magnanimity was a +marked trait in her character. Envy or jealousy of the gifts of +another were foreign to her. Love of nature, and especially of fine +trees, was one of her most noticeable characteristics. "There will be +trees in my heaven," she once said to the writer. But works of art, of +the chisel, the brush, the pencil and the loom were her delight. She +loved the city, its crowding humanity, its stores and its galleries. +She loved London even more than New York. Continental travel was her +chief pleasure and diversion. A long period of physical suffering, +caused by an accident, cast a cloud over the last years of my sister's +honorable life. She sought relief from pain and weakness, at Ambleside +in Derbyshire, England, and at a celebrated cure in Switzerland, but +was only partially successful. The final release came on December 23, +1901, and her remains were laid by the side of her husband in the +cemetery at Lakewood, New Jersey. + +Noble Jenny June! Shall we ever see her like again! + + + + +Sorosis-Press Club Memorial Meeting + + +A memorial meeting, called by Sorosis jointly with the Woman's Press +Club, was held at the Waldorf-Astoria on January 6, 1902, a fortnight +after the death of Mrs. Croly. It was attended not alone by the +members of these two clubs but also by representatives from every +woman's club in New York and the vicinity. Letters from many clubs +belonging to the General Federation were read, and from the +secretary's report of the meeting have been gathered the following +tributes of notable clubwomen to the beloved founder of both clubs. + + + + +Address by Dimies T.S. Denison, President of Sorosis + + +We have met this afternoon to pay a loving tribute to one of the +departed of Sorosis, who was for many years its President, and for +years its Honorary President. + +The loss is not ours alone, for our sorrow is shared by all clubwomen, +from Australia around the world to Alaska. Her position will always +remain unique. Whenever there comes a time for a great movement there +has always been a leader. The Revolution had its Washington; the +abolition of slavery its Lincoln; and so, when the time came for such +a movement among women, there were also leaders. Mrs. Croly remained, +throughout her life, an advocate of everything which was for the +betterment of women, and she died in the heart of the movement. + +Her perception of the value of unity, of the advantage of organized +effort, was remarkable. Perhaps the generations beyond ours will think +of her most in that quality, but the women of our time will remember +her, as they loved her, for her ready sympathy and her unfailing +helpfulness to all women. Though departed, she is still with us, and +the beauty of her life remains, in that its influence is imperative. + +Mrs. Croly had that particular sense of fellowship among women most +unusual. If you will stop to think, in our language you will find that +there are no words to express that thought, except those that are +masculine--fellowship, brotherhood, fraternity. Mrs. Croly, perhaps +more than any other woman in the world, had the sense of what +fellowship or fraternity meant in women, and although she sometimes +may have been called an idealist or sentimentalist, it is recognized +by many women that this thought must be abiding, for in a federation +it is the spirit that is current through it that keeps the federation +alive. + +The last afternoon it was my privilege to be with Mrs. Croly we had a +long talk, and it seems to me, in looking back, that Mrs. Croly was +then leaving a message with me for all clubwomen. I never heard her +speak so eloquently. We talked of some of the problems of the General +Federation--its possible disruption. Mrs. Croly said: "It does not +matter; if anything happens that the General Federation should be +disrupted, another will be formed at once." She had absolute faith, if +not in a Divine Providence, that there was a possibility it was part +of the human scheme of development that must be carried on through the +Divine Will. So, if she left any message for the General Federation, +it was this: that whatever our personal opinions are, whatever we +think of any question, we are to think first of the life of the +General Federation; because in it is the great thought of the +fellowship and fraternity among women that is to bring us closer and +closer to the millennium. + + + + +[Illustration: MRS. CROLY at the age of 40. (About the time Sorosis +was inaugurated)] + + + + +Address by Charlotte B. Wilbour + + +When a soul that has worn out its frail body in the work of the world +crosses the threshold of eternity, the darkness that gathers around +our hearts has in it a relief of light. Nature has suffered no +violence; the power of the body has been exhausted in good service, +and the tired spirit is set free from the encasement that can no +longer serve it. A fond look backward, a hopeful look forward, and the +portals close with our benediction. + + "A life that dares send + A challenge to the end, + And, when it comes, say + 'Welcome, friend,'" + +inspires the wish that we may so fill the measure of our days with +usefulness. + +The departure of such a spirit would be fittingly commemorated by the +grand marches of Chopin and Beethoven, or the majestic requiems of +Mozart, rather than by our simple words. And yet they are our hearts' +testimony to her in whose name we are assembled and, let us hope, made +worthy. To us who believe that life reels not back from the white +charger of Death towards the gulf of inanity and oblivion, there is a +vivid realization that our words may be spoken to the conscious +spirit; and we desire that, in the sacred name of truth, and with the +love that comprehends and overcomes, we may speak simply as "soul to +soul." + +One of the most beautiful lessons I have learned of death is that +after the departure of a friend, or even of an acquaintance, our +memories retain and cherish their best and noblest qualities and +deeds. We repeat their finest words and recount their generous works. +The sunshine falls clear on their virtues, and the shadow lies kindly +on their faults. It exalts our nature that our minds elect only the +lovely and beautiful characteristics of the lost friend. This sublime +power in us breaks the force of the bitter criticism of the obituary, +the eulogy, and the epitaph--that they are false notes in a hymn of +praise. And to us yet living, there is sweet comfort in the thought +that our best and higher selves shall remain with those we love and +honor. And so shall the good we do live after us. These purified +remembrances are links of the chain that binds the humblest to the +highest. + +In my early womanhood I knew our honored president, a fair, happy, +healthy, active English woman; and she appeared to me (sobered by the +loss of most of my family) to rejoice in a fulness of life. We were +maidens, and her interests and activities were in domestic and social +life. I have not lost the fresh memory of her in those days. + +She was our president for ten years, and afterwards our honorary +president. The activity of her life has made the deepest impression +upon me. Every member of our association and of sister associations +will agree with me, that never a woman brought a more cheerful and +willing spirit to her official duties than did she. She rejoiced in +her place, delighted in her privilege, and fully enjoyed the +recognition and good fellowship of other clubs. This cheerful service, +rendered for years, made her widely known in the club world. She +responded to personal influence and suggestions made directly to her. +She was most receptive to practical ideas, and adopted methods +readily, and her liberal service brought to her just recompense. + +For years it required sacrifice on her part to attend the regular +meetings of Sorosis, for she had daily occupation, and a lost day must +be redeemed. But when an officer she made the sacrifice cheerfully. +She was social and hospitable. Freely her house was given to us for +lectures, receptions to distinguished guests and business meetings. +For years the Positivists held their meetings at her home. She found +her pleasure in pleasing, and in helping others gave herself joy. She +loved her work for clubs, and you will remember that she had several +business enterprises connected with them, during the years that she +was an active clubwoman. + +I was in this country while she was preparing her history of clubs +(not the history of Sorosis), and she brought the interest and +enthusiasm of a young woman to the work; with a satisfied pride she +showed me the material she had collected for the history. Nothing else +to her mind was more important, or to be thought of until that was +accomplished. I believe that her usefulness to clubs has been +commensurate with the interest and gratification she had in the +service. + +During the years of our acquaintance our intercourse was genial and +concordant, and the results of our early work in Sorosis cannot equal +the sweet satisfaction that came with its performance. + +In the early life of the club many of us were young mothers, and our +domestic duties had strong claims upon us, and one prominent thought +in connection with the formation of Sorosis was that the attention of +a large class of thinking women, directed in concert towards important +domestic and social questions, could be secured; and, while the +character of the club should be pre-eminently social, we hoped to +quietly bring in important reforms, or at least some effective action +on these questions, and, above all, to secure an intelligent social +intercourse without increasing our domestic duties and responsibilities. +Have we not accomplished this? + +As the smallest consoling thought is greater than the most eloquent +expression of sorrow, so do we find some consolation in the fact that +fate was kind to our friend, and led her away when she could no longer +enjoy life, and that she went while with us whose hearts were warm +with an active sympathy and tender helpfulness. + +Our kind purpose to her name lifts our acts above criticism, and +fortifies them by our love and worthiness of intention. Let us live to +live forever--so shall we never fear death; let our warm human love be +the prophet of a union for greater benefits; and let us have faith in +the love that lives in human bosoms still: + + "Lives to renovate our earth + From the bondage of its birth, + And the long arrears of ill." + + + + +Address by the Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Vice-President of the Woman's +Press Club of New York City + + +I am requested to speak of the excellent work done by its departed +president, in and for the Woman's Press Club of New York City. To +others is assigned the testimony in reference to the career and work +of our departed president as a press woman, and her place in +literature. + +We are not here to analyze her character, or to chronicle her work. +Nor are we here to dwell on those biographical details which belong to +the pen rather than the voice; to the book and the reader rather than +the address and the hearer. We are here to testify our regard for one +whose busy pen is laid aside, but whose example of industry we may +well imitate; though in the journalistic field the women of to-day +will never have opportunity to emulate her perseverance and +fearlessness, since her entrance in times long gone by on this +untrodden path bore an important part in opening the way and obtaining +results for women with whom the pen to-day is a power. + +Mrs. Croly was the founder of this club in 1889, and for twelve years +and to the day of her death, its only president. It started (as she +tells us in the large quarto volume relating to clubs--which was the +closing, if not the crowning, effort of her busy pen) with an +invitation sent out by herself in November, 1889, to forty women, a +number of whom were then engaged upon the press in New York City, to +meet at her residence, and consider the advisability of forming a +Woman's Press Club. It was eminently fitting that one who had been +stirred in former years by the absence of social recognition in +journalism as within woman's province, on the part of the men of the +press, and moved to take a prominent part in the formation of Sorosis, +should organize a club of women writers--women journalists +especially--which should be known everywhere as distinctly a Woman's +Press Club. + +The response to her call was most gratifying. Her ability as an +organizer, and her social qualities which could attract and hold women +together in strong bonds of mutual esteem and fellowship, were again +evident, and on November 19, 1889, the organization was effected and a +provisional constitution adopted. + +At first the literary features of the new club were considered +secondary to the social and beneficiary, but gradually they grew to +their present importance. + +In its early days, like most clubs this one was migratory, and its +work incidental. Gradually it came to have a more permanent home, and +its monthly programmes which, as Mrs. Croly herself stated, "are more +in the form of a symposium than of a question for debate," came to be +so attractive and varied, and in every way so excellent, that they are +often declared to be unsurpassed in interest by any woman's club. This +was a matter of exceeding satisfaction to its founder, who saw the +club grow from its membership of fifty-two to two hundred. She was +never weary of recounting its successes, literary, musical, artistic +and social. The Press Club was her joy and pride from its organization +to the very day when she last met with its members, devoting on that +day her failing strength to a cause that was beyond expression dear to +her heart. I think I shall only be saying very feebly what the members +of the club, especially those who have been members from its +organization, now feel--that they regard her presence with them on the +recent day of installation of new officers as a benediction, though +they little knew that in her feebleness she was bidding them a loving +farewell. When the news of her departure reached them it was received +with surprise and deep sorrow. By prompt action the officers at once +came together, and immediate measures were taken for appropriate +expression of the Press Club's loyalty and love. + +Its members are here to-day not only to express their own high regard +for their departed founder and president, but also to unite with +Sorosis, the London Pioneer Club, and other clubs in the State +Federation, who, by their presence, speech, or song, indicate the +sympathy they have with those who will hold in fadeless remembrance +their ascended president, who has learned ere this, that + + "Life is ever Lord of Death, + And Love can never lose its own." + +As members of the club she, who has now passed into the eternal light, +founded may we seek earnestly to walk in the light of Truth, strenuous +for that more than royal liberty of conscience, which means liberty +under righteous law and seeking for the Unity which obeys the Golden +Rule, and thus binds heart to heart. So shall the Woman's Press Club +of New York City truly honor the memory of its founder and first +president, Jane Cunningham Croly. + + + + +Address by Orlena A. Zabriskie, President of the New York Federation + + +That the New York State Federation should be called upon to attest its +love, devotion, and admiration for Mrs. Croly and her wonderful work +among women, is a privilege we appreciate, and I shall try in a few +simple, honest words, to explain a little of what her influence has +been to the New York State Federation. We all know she was an +organizer and founder, but it is well to repeat those words, although +I think there is little danger that we shall ever forget them. From +all over the State have come messages to me from different members of +the federation, expressing their love and obligation to Mrs. Croly for +what she has done for them individually, and for the State. One letter +said: + + "I shall think of her always as that lovely, sweet-tempered + woman who, under the most trying circumstances, never lost + her temper, or felt she was at all aggrieved. She took it in + the right way, and was just as lovely and kind at the close + as at the beginning." + +I saw her at Friendship, a little town in the northwestern part of the +State, before the meeting at Buffalo, and there we had a long talk +about matters of Federation interest. She gave me some good advice in +her own gentle way, that I shall never forget, and I am only too glad +to have this opportunity of saying it helped me to carry through that +convention as I could not have done otherwise. + +What was the secret of her power as an organizer? I think this--she +saw the little spark of good in each woman, every woman she came in +contact with, and even in those she did not come in personal contact +with. She knew it was there and she had the ability to call it forth, +and that magnetic influence drew them together, so that they realized +that they could do more in large numbers than they could as +individuals. Knowing our power, she urged and encouraged us to do our +best. When with her we did not feel as though we had a "specked" side. +I think it was just that that gave her power and influence in the +clubs she founded, to make them live and be a greater power than ever +they could have been without her memory and example set before them. + +She has done good work, and started us on a task that she saw had +practical possibilities, and now we can carry out those ideas of hers, +and give them force in years to come. It may take a long time, but we +will keep on being patient, cheerful, kind-hearted, and considerate, +as she was. Let us therefore be grateful we had her as long as we did. +She was for us a grand inheritance, and let us appreciate it. + + + + +Address by Carrie Louise Griffin, President of the Society of American +Women in London + + +If I could only command that physical self as I would like to, I would +tell you how grateful I am to be privileged to speak, and how much I +think we have to be thankful for to-day, in the life of our dear one, +which was given us. + +I am new in this club, and, as most of you know, my friendship with +Mrs. Croly is not yet three years old, but I have been singularly +privileged and honored in loving her, and in the love which she gave +me. + +She came into my life (I must be just a little personal for a moment) +as our first luncheon, in our little Society of American Women in +London, was about to be given. The president of Sorosis had written to +London saying: "Do you know that Mrs. Croly and Mrs. Glynes are to be +in London, and I think they would help you?" Bless her, and Mrs. +Croly: she came as a benediction to the few of us who were then +novices in what we were doing. I can never tell you what a benefit she +was to us in the difficult work we had undertaken. You have given me +exceptional privileges in coming among you, and I am grateful for the +help you have been to me, but I would say to you--and you have given +me this privilege--I have never met a woman who seemed to have +recognized the birthright in women as the birthright in men, to create +that link which binds our powers to our intellect. It seems to me that +it was with Mrs. Croly as it was with our late Majesty, Queen +Victoria, that she was an influence, perhaps, rather than a power. She +conceived great ideas and passed them on for the executive work of +others to fulfil. I can assure you she was everything to us. Her +English birth gave her an instinctive insight into English character. +English women seemed to know and understand her, as she knew and +understood them, and there has been no finer link between the women of +America and the women of the Old World than Mrs. Croly. It was my +privilege to be with her personally a great deal while in London, not +only when she stayed in my own house, but when I have gone back and +forth with her as her guide to the many functions we attended +together. We can all be proud of her. Wherever she went she was not +only hailed as the pioneer woman, but also as one who did honor and +credit to the name of American womanhood, for, although born in +England, she still claimed that she was an American woman, as you +know. + +I shall never forget a little picture she gave of herself one day. +She told us of her life in her home in a little town in the north of +England. Her father was a Unitarian, and often had classes in his +house for teaching the working people. His views, as you may imagine, +were quite contrary to the views of the orthodox Church of England, +and the people there rebelled, stoned the house, and wanted to turn +them out of the town. The mother said to the father: "I wish you would +take little Jennie by the hand, in her white frock, and lead her out +to the people; perhaps when they see her they will not throw stones." +That was her earliest memory of that little English town. Later, I +believe, they left in the night and came to America, in order that +they might live out the courage of their faith. + +At our luncheon Mrs. Croly said: "I want English and American women to +love each other. I remember with pride and honor my English birth. I +can see my little room now--a small room with a lattice window over +which the roses grew, and as I stood at the window on tiptoe, I could +look into the old-fashioned garden below. I stood on an old chest. In +the winter my summer frocks were kept there, and in the summer my red +woollen dress. I loved it; it was beautiful, and it made me love +England. When I am in England and I hear anything not quite kind about +America, I am sorry and my heart aches, and if, when I am in America, +I hear something not quite kind about England, my heart aches again, +because I love it all." + +In talking with Mrs. Croly, she said to me, "I hope some day you will +come to a General Federation." Quoting Matthew Arnold, she said: "If +ever the world sees a time when women shall come together, purely and +simply for the benefit and good of mankind, it will be a power such as +the world has never known." And she said, "There you will find it." We +had talked about it and looked forward to seeing it together, but that +will never be. It was her hope and dream that there should be such a +General Federation of clubs as to bring in the women of the Old World +with the Federation of Clubs in the New, that we might stand hand in +hand together. She said to me, "I think you are narrow in your +society--its members are only Americans." We have often talked this +over, and have decided that in order to strengthen our centre we must +keep it, at present, to American woman; but it may be possible to have +an associate membership--the thin edge of the wedge looking toward the +realization of her dreams. + + + + +Address by Cynthia Westover Alden, Vice-President of the Women's Press +Club, and President of the International Sunshine Society + + +Mrs. Croly has left us. Yet I cannot think of her work as ended, of +her mission as closed. You may go over every line she ever wrote, you +may recall with, microscopic exactness every word she ever spoke, +without finding one single grain of bitterness towards any human +creature. Her active life was such as must find the ripe continuance +of its activity in the better country whither she has preceded us. I +feel that there is no hyperbole in applying to her memory the striking +words of Lowell's Elegy on Dr. Channing: + + "I do not come to weep above thy pall + And mourn the dying-out of noble powers; + The poet's clearer eye should see in all + Earth's seeming woe, seed of immortal flowers. + + "No power can die that ever wrought for truth; + Thereby a law of Nature it became, + And lives unwithered in its blithesome youth, + When he who called it forth is but a name. + + "Therefore I cannot think thee wholly gone; + The better part of thee is with us still; + Thy soul its hampering clay aside hath thrown, + And only freer wrestles with the ill. + + "Thou art not idle; in thy higher sphere + Thy spirit bends itself to loving tasks, + And strength to perfect what it dreamed of here + Is all the crown and glory that it asks." + +The women of America owe much to Jenny June. By example she showed +them that the career of letters was open to them. Her style, cheerful +and vivid, sometimes epigrammatic, always entertaining, was her own. +It could not be copied, it could not be imitated, it stood by itself; +her career, filled with a large measure of the courage of her success, +belonged in the broadest sense to women as women. How many worthy +ambitions that career has stimulated to fruition we know not, and +never shall know. One thing, however, is certain--that if you deduct +from the literature of America the names of women who have followed +Mrs. Croly's example and have been cheered by the fact that she did +not fall by the wayside, you leave a void that never could be filled. +How consciously they have been affected by Mrs. Croly's blazing path I +cannot tell; but the influence has been none the less real and none +the less powerful. + +Woman's battle for literary recognition will not have to be fought +over again: it belongs to the past. The old contempt of editors and +publishers, aye, and of readers as well, has gone to join slavery and +polygamy and human sacrifices in the chamber of horrors. But we can +never forget the woman who braved that contempt, and faced it down by +achievement that could not be ignored. Mrs. Croly belonged to the +period of that early struggle. In her sweetness of temper she lent to +its very asperities the charm of a tournament, overcoming evil with +good, and triumphing at last over prejudice which thousands of women +had feared to face. We loved her for herself. We are sad in spite of +ourselves that she has gone. But we shall only remember her as one of +the greatest benefactors of woman in literature; one of the most +delightful of all the delightful characters that we have ever known. + + "This laurel leaf I cast upon thy bier; + Let worthier hands than these thy wreath entwine; + Upon thy hearse I shed no useless tear-- + For us weep rather thou, in calm divine." + + + + +In the Silence + +_By May Riley Smith_ + + + They are out of the chaos of living, + The wreck and debris of the years; + They have passed from the struggle and striving, + They have drained their goblet of tears. + They have ceased one by one from their labors, + So we clothed them in garments of rest, + And they entered the chamber of silence;-- + God do for them now what is best! + + We saw not the lift of the curtain, + Nor heard the invisible door, + As they passed where life's problems uncertain + Will follow and burthen no more. + We lingered and wept on the threshold-- + The threshold each mortal must cross,-- + Then we laid a new wreath down upon it, + To mark a new sorrow and loss. + + Then back to our separate places + A little more lonely we creep, + A little more care in our faces, + The wrinkles a little more deep. + And we stagger, ah, God, how we stagger + As we lift the old load to our back! + A little more lonely to carry + Because of the comrade we lack. + + But into our lives whether chidden + Or welcome, God's comforters come; + His sunshine waits not to be bidden, + His stars,--they are always at home. + His mornings are faithful,--His evenings + Allay the day's fever and fret; + And night--kind physician--entreats us + To slumber and dream and forget. + + O Spirit of infinite kindness + And gentleness passing all speech! + Forgive when we miss in our blindness + The comforting hand them dost reach. + Thou sendest the Spring on Thine errand + To soften the grief of the world; + For us is the calm of the mountain, + For us is the rose-leaf uncurled. + + Thou art tenderer, too, than a mother, + In the wonderful Book it is said; + O Pillow of Comfort! What other + So softly could cradle my head? + And though Thou hast darkened the portal + That leads where our vanished ones be; + We lean on our faith in Thy goodness, + And leave them to silence and Thee. + + + + +Jenny June + +_By Fanny Hallock Carpenter_ + + + A beautiful soul has journeyed + Out from the Now into Then. + Her voice echoes back to us, waiting, + The sound of the great Amen. + + Her life was a song so winsome + It sung itself night and day + Into the hearts of the people + Who met her along the way. + + Her life was a flower so fragrant + That every one passing her, knew + By the perfume from it exhaling, + The love out of which it grew. + + Her life was a book so vivid + That all, though running, could read + The story of earnest endeavor + Written for woman's need. + + Her life was a light whose radiance + Brightened all woman-kind, + As sunshine wakens the flowers, + Or genius illumines the mind. + + Her life was a poem so tender + It thrilled with its cadence sweet + Many a life prosaic, + Which caught up the rhythmic beat. + + Her life was a bell whose ringing + Gave no uncertain sound, + Its chiming rang out to the nations + And girdled the world around. + + Her life was a deed so holy, + So noble, so brave, so true, + That it set all womanhood noting + The good one woman could do. + + Her life was a brook, that swelling + Grew to a river wide, + That freshened the souls of the many + Touched by its flowing tide. + + The song has trilled into silence, + The flower is faded and gone, + The book's strong story is ended, + The light is lost in the dawn. + + The poem's sweet rhythm is ended, + The chiming has ceased to be, + The deed is fully accomplished, + The river has joined the sea. + + She dropped the pebble whose ripples + To the shores of all time shall extend, + She has spoken the word into ether + Whose sound-waves never shall end. + + She has started a light on its journey + Out into limitless space, + She has written a thought for women + Eternity cannot erase. + + A wonderful soul has journeyed + Out from the Now into Then, + Her voice echoes back to us, waiting, + The sound of the great Amen. + + + + +Resolutions and Tributes From Clubs + + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of resolutions adopted by the Woman's Press +Club of New York, January 11, 1902.] + + +Resolutions of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs + + +In Memoriam + +_Mrs. Jane Cunningham Croly_ + + +We have tenderly laid away to rest our beloved honorary president, +Jane Cunningham Croly, to sleep the blessed sleep that knows no waking +in this toilsome, troublous world. + +Her gentle soul is at peace, her personal work is accomplished, her +useful life is ended. She has been taken from further pain and further +labor, to that existence where all is perfect peace, perfect rest, +perfect rhythm. + +We wish to place upon our records, therefore, our appreciation of the +fact, that this New York State Federation of Women's Clubs has +suffered such a loss as can come but once to any, a loss like that of +a loving mother to an affectionate child. + +We shall miss her at our meetings, at our larger gatherings, and at +our conventions. + +We shall hold her, and the desires of her heart in relation to us, in +loving and constant memory. + +And we purpose to take up her work, where she laid it down, and carry +it on with the same unselfish aims, high ideals, and unremitting +patience with which she labored, until we shall reach the goal upon +which her farseeing eyes were fastened, and her great heart was set. + + FANNY HALLOCK CARPENTER. + February 13, 1902. + + + + +[Illustration: Resolutions adopted by The Society of American Women in +London, March 24th, 1902.] + + + + +The Croly Memorial Fund of the Pioneer Club of London + +_First Annual Report_ + + +In July, 1900, a fund was raised by the exertions of Mrs. E.S. +Willard, to present a life membership of the Pioneer Club to Mrs. Jane +Cunningham Croly, known to all who are interested in woman's work as +"Jenny June." + +Mrs. Croly had a special claim to this distinction, for she was the +originator of women's clubs. The first woman's club was founded by her +in New York, March, 1868, under the name of "Sorosis." The example was +quickly followed elsewhere, and when, in 1889, Sorosis, to celebrate +its majority, called a convention of women's clubs, ninety-seven were +known to exist in the United States. This convention led to a +Federation with biennial meetings. In 1896, the Federation included +one thousand four hundred and twenty-five dubs. The Pioneer is the +only English woman's club which belongs to the Federation. + +Mrs. Croly's activities were not confined to clubs, although up to the +time of her death the movement owed much to her wisdom and energy. She +was a journalist, a writer, an admirable critic, and all her life a +devoted worker for every movement that could raise the position of +women. + +She was a dear and valued friend of Mrs. Marsingberd, the president +and founder of this club. It was a recognition of their unity of +spirit and purpose that made the response of this club so ready that +the only life-membership as yet presented, was offered to Mrs. Croly. +She was deeply gratified, but unfortunately did not live long enough +to enjoy a privilege which she highly esteemed. Her useful, loving, +laborious life ended in December, 1901. But she had been among us from +time to time. Her interest in us never flagged, and we prize some +tokens of her regard. Nor shall we soon forget the stirring words she +addressed to us on two occasions, pointing out the opportunities which +our association gave for useful work and sympathy. + +When the life-membership fee had been paid, some money still remained, +and when the question arose as to what should be done with it, Lady +Hamilton made the valuable suggestion that it should be used as the +foundation of a fund to be called "The Mrs. Croly Memorial Fund," to +be applied in sisterly loving kindness to such cases as might arise +within the club, where urgent material help was needed. This +suggestion was heartily welcomed by a small provisional meeting called +by Mrs. E.S. Willard, October 15, 1902, when preliminary steps were +taken. At a second meeting, November 25, a definite constitution was +formed for the administration of the fund. + +It is hoped that the members of the Pioneer Club will do all they can +to support this fund, for it is an effort to give some tangible +expression to the principles which governed the lives of both Mrs. +Croly and our own president. They always unselfishly tried to give +loving help to sister women. + +January 27, 1903. + + + + +The Positivist Episode + +_By Thaddeus B. Wakeman_ + + + "The Positivist Episode was a positive factor in my + life."--MRS. CROLY. + +Those were bright, sunny, happy, idyllic, and fruitful days of the +Positivist Episode, when the first of the two following letters which +my wife and I now contribute to the "Memories of Mrs. Croly," were +written. That episode, of which these letters represent the beginning, +and the end throws an explaining light not only over the life of her +whom this memorial is to honor, but over that of her husband, who +passed to the higher life in 1889; and largely also over the lives of +others more or less associated with, or affected by, the introduction +of the study and culture of Positivism into America, of which they may +be regarded as the chief promoters. + +Yes, as friends of Mrs. Croly and of those dear to her, we may well +recall, as she often did, this Positivist Episode as among the +pleasantest of her--and may we not also add of ours?--earthly days. +The first letter shows the movement well under way, when meetings had +begun to be held, and visits to be made to the homes of those deeply +interested. Never shall we forget the first of those visits made by +Mrs. Croly to our then "almost out of town" home in 116th street, +where our house, pleasantly overlooking the East River, was clothed +with trees and vines. The Catawbas on a large trellis, trained in +stories with upright canes, excited her admiration, and she assured us +that she had "never seen nor eaten anybody's grapes with such +delight." Naturally, a basket or two of grapes soon followed to her +home away down and over to the other side of town at number 19 Bank +street. Thus the "vines" and "fruit" referred to in her letter are +explained; and with them was thus associated in holy sympathy her love +with ours of "the kindly fruits of the earth." Mr. Croly also referred +to gifts of this kind in the New York _World_--thirty varieties of +grapes raised under and in proof of the "law of correlation, expounded +by the raiser as the law which held us of the world together." + +But when our turn came as Positivist students to visit at their home, +we found the cosey parlors well filled with the higher samples and +fruits of human culture and intellect. Mrs. Croly's social position, +sustained by the ability of Mr. Croly and his prominence as managing +editor of the New York _World_, and afterwards of the _Graphic_, +enabled her to call together the leaders, and many interested in the +then (and now?) two leading schools of scientific and constructive +thought; the Positivist school of Augusta Comte, represented by Henry +Edgar and partly also by Mr. Croly and others; and also in contrast +therewith, the Synthetic Philosophy of Herbert Spencer, represented by +Edward L. Youmans, John Fiske and others. Nor were there wanting those +who, like the present writer, would combine those two schools, and +more, into the scientific and republican growth of our newer world and +life in America. + +The initiative of these meetings was a course of lectures procured by +Mr. Croly, to be delivered by Mr. Edgar at De Garmo Hall early in +1868. Out of the interest thus excited, Mr. and Mrs. Croly called +around them the elements above referred to, including, among +miscellaneous attendants, perhaps a hundred earnest students of +Positivism and of the higher religious and scientific philosophies. +The meetings were not always held at the homes mentioned, but at the +home of Mr. Courtlandt Palmer and of other participants. All the +parties named, and many others, took part in the discussions of this +unorganized circle, until its name and influence reached and +interested generally the thinkers of the city. This interest, as the +years rolled on, resulted in or influenced the forming of many +societies, among which were a Positivist Society, the Society of +Humanity, the New York and Manhattan Liberal Clubs, the Philosophic +Society of Brooklyn, the Nineteenth Century Club, the Goethe Society, +and indirectly a Dante Society and several others. All of the clubs +and societies of women with which Mrs. Croly and her work have been +associated may be thus included. Certain it is that this "positive +factor" in her life was the source from which the new, altruistic +inspiration originally came which made her finally recognized as the +"Mother of Women's Clubs" and of their beneficent influences--the new +life, light, and hope of women, of which they are the beginning. + +Nor less should be said for the literature that has sprung from the +same source. It began with the "Positivist's Calendar," by Mr. Edgar, +and Professor Youmans's admirable collection of articles, and the +introduction, on "Correlation" of the physical and other forces, +published by Appleton, and never to be outgrown. Then Professor Fiske +published in the New York _World_ his able series of lectures on the +"Positive Philosophy," which some think he weakened by turning into the +"Cosmic Philosophy." Then (for further details are not in place here) +Mr. and Mrs. Croly and Mr. Bell and most of us went into literature in +some way, to an extent that made quite a library, now mostly lost or +forgotten. Would that I could "lend continuance to the time" of those +disputants, and show why and how they drifted apart instead of +together! For the shadow of oblivion seems to be creeping over all; +and against that I, as the last survivor, seem to be their only and +yet their helpless protector. Yet we can now see, as they mostly did +not, that their divergence was really a "differentiation process," +leading each to a higher integration of truth. + +Thus, what I cannot do for each, the volunteer seeding of time is +doing silently for all, though they noticed not the good seed they +scattered. For instance, Mr. Croly wished these words to be placed +over his grave: "I meant well, tried a little, failed much." He saw +not that the sound seed of which he was a real and great sower, were +his well-meant and effective efforts to bring Positivism, as the sum +and synthesis of science and humanity, before all thoughtful American +people, as the real religion and basis of their modern life. That view +of life was then new, but now it is replacing or changing all dogmatic +or supernatural religions. In a word, modern scientific thought is +becoming practical, constructive, and positive in religion; directed +more and more toward advantages in the human future on this earth. The +real basis of sentiment is the new science of Sociology and the new +sense of altruism--first named by Auguste Comte and first brought to +the American people in and by this "Positivist Episode." + +It is by the up-coming of such seed as was then sown, that the old +issues and their old world have been replaced by the new; which we +should gratefully inherit from those sowers. It is said that they +seemed to look upon much of their life as failure because they did not +see the harvest in their day as the direct result of their hands. How +strange that the faith of evolution did not give them the "after +sight" which is the crown and reward of those who "mean well," and who +"work and hope!" + +To Mrs. Croly did come not only the well-wishing and the patient +labor, but also a foretaste of her reward. Her days were extended +until her purposes fulfilled met the gratitude of her successors. Even +"the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," referred to in her last +letter to us, were warded off by the human providence which, in her +own words, "realizes the eternal goodness of the perfection of the +order which governs the universe." + +Thus her friendships with the many she loved and served have closed +with unalloyed satisfaction--to me and mine a sincere friend for more +than thirty years! And no words come that I might wish unsaid unless +these: "Be careful now, for I have told more than one that you are my +god-father!" + + + + +From Mrs. Croly to Mr. Wakeman + + + 19 BANK STREET, NEW YORK, + Sept. 26, 1870. + +My dear Mr. Wakeman: + +Thank you very much for allowing us to share so largely in the +luxuries of your pleasant home, and in the rewards of your labor. The +grapes were a great treat to us, and we have enjoyed them exceedingly. +The variety is wonderful; and the difference in the flavors, each one +being perfect in itself, constantly excited our admiration. + +I hope by this time your term of bachelorhood is at an end, and that +Mrs. Wakeman and the children are with you. If she has arrived, please +convey to her my acknowledgments for the card she left for me, and say +how much I regretted not seeing her. Please also to remind her that +next Monday (first Monday in October) is the meeting of Sorosis, and +that I shall expect to find her at Delmonico's, corner of 14th Street +and Fifth Avenue, at 1 P.M., as my guest. She can walk straight +upstairs, and a waiter will send in her name to me, so that she need +not enter alone; or she can arrive a little earlier (I am always there +early) and see the ladies as they come. + +As I have not many occasions for writing notes to you, Mr. Wakeman, I +desire to say to you, with the deliberation with which one puts pen to +paper, that I am thankful for having known so true a man, and happy +that my husband can count him friend. One thing done is worth many +words spoken, yet I am doubly glad when words and acts walk +harmoniously together. + + Always your obliged friend, + J.C. CROLY. + + + +From Mrs. Croly to Mrs. Wakeman + + + 7 BENTRICT TERRACE, REGENT'S PARK, N.W., + LONDON, December 24, 1900. + +MY DEAR OLD FRIEND: + +I am sure that you have thought many times that I was forgetful and +ungrateful, but indeed the first part of the indictment cannot be laid +to my charge. I never forget you, and if I have not written, it is +because I have suffered and enjoyed many things during the past two +years, and have permanently lost the power of rapid movement, or of +doing anything under great stress and pressure. + +But now that this wonderful year is ending, this Sabbath of the +centuries, I feel that I must at least send my love and unforgetness +to you; also my hope that you are finding on the other side of the +continent of North America, compensation for all that you left behind +in the east, and greater promise for the future. + +For all that I have gained for some years past I have to thank my +losses. Chief among my gains is, I hope, a little realization of +eternal goodness; of the perfection of the order which governs the +universe, and the relation of every separate atom to the Divine Unity +of the whole. I know Goethe proclaimed it a hundred years ago; but +every separate part has to grow to its knowledge for itself. + +I wonder how you are spending Christmas. This year seems to me so +remarkable that it is a privilege to live in it. I am trying to use +its last days as if they were mine, in doing the things I should be +most sorry to leave undone. + +I expect to return home soon--that is, in a few months. Or rather, as +I have no home now, and a trustee has lost the money I had saved and +entrusted to him in making provision for my old age, I shall only try +to find a corner to rest in. + +I hope you have been dealt with more kindly in body and estate. Please +remember that I never forget the union of the spirit we once +enjoyed--that the Positivist Episode was a positive factor in my life, +and that I shall always recall Mr. Wakeman as my chief helper in it. + + With love to you and yours, I am unforgettingly, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + (It has seemed pertinent and interesting as bearing upon the + "Positivist Episode" to here insert extracts from + testimonials to Mr. Croly published in the memorial issued + at the time of his death in May, 1889.) + + +[Illustration: DAVID GOODMAN CROLY.] + + + + +From a Testimonial to Mr. Croly, by T.B. Wakeman + + +David G. Croly must not be forgotten. He rendered our country an +invaluable service, not yet recognized. He was the man who _planted +Positivism in America_. The many who have felt, the thousands who +hereafter will feel its influence for good, should learn to bless, and +to teach others to bless and continue his memory and influence. + +In 1867-68 he began his great work. Henry Edgar had the seed from +Comte direct, and then tried to sow it in a course of lectures given +in a hall chiefly paid for by Mr. Croly. But the seed would not take. +After Edgar had gone, the sturdy brain and hand of D.G. Croly took the +matter in charge and actually made the growth start. Then the _World_, +with him at its head, evoked and published John Fiske's "Lectures on +Positivism," far better in their first shape than when pared and +cooked over into the "Cosmic Philosophy." Then came the "Modern +Thinker" and "Positive Primer." Then Dr. McCosh came out, in reply, +with his volume on "Positivism and Christianity." Then Positivist +Societies and Liberal Clubs, one after another, were formed and some +continue, whence John Elderkin, Henry Evans, James D. Bell, the writer +of these lines, and not a few others commenced to ray out the new +light, which never has been, and never will be extinguished. By the +aid of that light let a distant posterity read with gratitude the +names of _David G. and Jane Cunningham Croly_, for without them I know +it would not have been. + + T.B. WAKEMAN. + + + + +From a Testimonial by Herbert D. Croly + + +... I should like to relate one incident in the history of my father's +relations with myself--an incident which was eminently characteristic +of certain aspects of his nature. + +From my earliest years it was his endeavor to teach me to understand +and believe in the religion of Auguste Comte. One of my first +recollections is that of an excursion to Central Park on one bright +Sunday afternoon in the spring; there, sitting under the trees, he +talked to me on the theme which lay always nearest his heart--that of +the solidarity of mankind. There never, indeed, was a time throughout +my whole youth, when we were alone together, that he did not return to +the same text and impress upon me that a selfish life was no life at +all, that "no man liveth for himself, that no man dieth for himself." +His teachings were as largely negative as positive. While never, +perhaps, understanding the Christian religion as a man with a weaker +faith in the truth of his own convictions might have understood it, +his attitude was one, I judge, of sympathetic scepticism. He was +always endeavoring to impress upon me that, while there must +necessarily have been something great and good in a faith that had +been the inspiration of so many souls, and comfort of mankind through +so many centuries, yet at the same time it was incomplete; that very +often the followers of Christ gave more to the doctrine than they +received from it; and that the teaching of Auguste Comte supplied what +was lacking in the teaching of Jesus Christ. His desire to impress +upon me a belief which he held himself with all the force of religious +conviction led him to attempt explanations which the mind of a child +could neither grasp nor retain. He even discussed, for my benefit, +theoretical questions as to the existence and nature of the Supreme +Being; discussions, of course, that I could so little understand that +it was like pouring water on a flat board. It was simply the fulness +of his belief that led him to do this. His desire was that, surrounded +as I was by people who burnt their candles at the altars of the +Christian faith, I should have full opportunity to compare the +Positivist _Grand Être_ with the Christian Cross. Under such +instruction it was not strange that in time I dropped insensibly into +his mode of thinking, or, more correctly, into his mode of believing. + +While I was at college I was surrounded by other influences, and while +retaining everything that was positive and constructive in his +teaching, I dropped the negative cloth in which it was shrouded. My +change in opinion was a bitter disappointment to him, as several +letters which he wrote at the time testify. But intense as was his +disappointment, it never took the form of a reproach. This is very +remarkable when we consider what an essential part of his character +his beliefs constituted. Here was an end, for which he had striven +through many years, failing at the very time when it should have +become most fruitful. And his disappointment must have been all the +more severe because he exaggerated the differences that existed +between us. It was his opinion that his negative opinions were +necessarily connected with those which were positive; and that it was +impossible truly to hold the one without the other. Yet, as I said, +his disappointment never took the form of a reproach. "It is your +right; nay, it is even your duty," he used continually to say, "to +work your own salvation. It has turned out to be different from mine. +Well, then, mine is the loss." + +From an abstract point of view it may not seem to be so much of a +virtue that a father should consider his son's intellectual honesty to +be of more importance than his own opinions. But I am not writing from +an abstract point of view. We are all but children of the earth; not +good, but simply better than the bad. So it was with David G. Croly. +His opinions, crystallized by the opposition which they met on every +side, were so very much the truth to him that he wished his son to +perceive them clearly and cherish them as devoutly as he did. That +wish became impossible of fulfilment. Part of his life-work had +failed. "Mine is the loss." + + H.D. CROLY. + + + + +From Mr. Croly to His Son Herbert at College + + + LOTOS CLUB, Oct. 31, 1886. + +My Dear Boy--You said something about the divergence between my ideas +and those of the philosophers whose works you are reading at college. +Let me beg of you to form your own judgment on all the higher +themes--religion included--without any reference to what I may have +said. All I ask is that you keep your mind open and unpredisposed. In +the language of the Scripture, "prove all things and hold fast to that +which is good." Be careful and do not allow first impressions to +influence your maturer judgment. You say you are reading the +controversy between Spencer and Harrison on religion. In doing so keep +in mind the fact that Spencer's matter was revised, while that of +Harrison was not; and that upon the latter's protest the work was +withdrawn in England. + +I wish during your college year that you would read: + +(1) Miss Martineau's translation of Comte's "Positive Philosophy." +(2) Mill's Estimate of Comte's Life and Works. +(3) Bridges's Reply to Mill. +(4) All of Frederic Harrison's writings that you can find. +(5) All of Herbert Spencer's works that are not technical. +(6) John Fiske's works. +(7) The works of the English Positivists, such as Congreve, Bridges +and Beasley. + +By noticing the dates I think you will find that Spencer appropriates +a great deal from Comte and that he tries to shirk the obligation. It +would be well to read the latter's "General View of Positivism" +further along. + +My dear son, I shall die happy if I know that you are an earnest +student of philosophic themes. + +Do cultivate all the religious emotions, reverence, awe, and +aspiration, if for no better reason than as a means of self-culture. +Educate, train every side of your mental and emotional nature. Read +poetry and learn the secret of tears and ecstacy. Go to Catholic and +Episcopal churches and surrender yourself to the inspiration of +soul-inspiring religious music. + + Ever your affectionate + FATHER. + + + + +From a Testimonial by Edmund Clarence Stedman + + +My intimacy with Mr. Croly began in 1860, when we were together upon +the editorial staff of the New York _World_. We had many notions, +socialistic and otherwise, in common. With these, however, we did not +venture to imperil the circulation of that conservative newspaper. He +was City Editor, and knew his business. I was struck by the activity +of his mind, and his combination of shrewd executive ability with +inventive skill. I found him a staunch friend, loyal to his +allies, helpful to his subordinates; moreover, a man of strong +convictions--which he asserted with a fine dogmatism; an idealist +withal, quite unhampered by reverence for conventional usage and +opinion. Absolute mental honesty was his chief characteristic. + +He was a humanitarian, in the Positivist sense of the word. All his +aspirations were for the future glory and happiness of the human race. +Faith in the reign of law, and a prophetic certainty of man's +elevation--these were his religion. As a thinker and talker he +certainly was of the same breed with Tennyson's poet, who + + "Sings of what the world will be + When the years have died away." + +He bore good fortune and adversity with an equal mind, and he +displayed stoical courage throughout prolonged illness of a most +depressing type. + +Others will add to your own feeling statement of his varied labors. +But let me say that, whether our paths came together or diverged, I +always thought of him as in every sense a comrade. His loss makes the +lessening roll of those with whom I touched elbows in the old +newspaper days seem ominously faded. + + EDMUND C. STEDMAN. + + + + +From a Testimonial by J.D. Bell + + +Mr. Croly was a great journalist. He was not a great editorial writer, +but he was a great editor. He had the true executive temper and +power--that is, the ability to obtain from others the work that was in +them. He never made the mistake of endeavoring to do everything +himself. He was just, as well as generous to his subordinates, and +many of the younger journalists have reason to remember his kindness +to them. In any company in which he was thrown he was sure to attract +attention, and there were very few companies in which he did not take +the leading part by virtue of his ability and not of his +self-assertion. He never used tobacco in any form, and was otherwise a +strictly temperate man. In his utterances he was often very radical, +but in practice he was always thoroughly conservative. + +His social predilections led him to study the writings of Auguste +Comte. He accepted his doctrines and endeavored to popularize them in +writings and meetings, but with very limited success. Indeed, he often +said that while intellectually Positivism was in the air, as a social +doctrine it was too far in advance of the present age to become +popular. + +He was essentially a family man and loved his home and household. +During the greater part of his married life, however, the exacting +editorial duties and literary labors of himself and his wife prevented +them from enjoying the society of the home circle to the extent that +each desired. Here, as in so many other cases, the individual was +sacrificed for the benefit of the public. + + + + +From a Testimonial by St. Clair McKelway + + +... David G. Croly's personality was always healthy and hopeful. He +commended with justice, he censured with consideration, he changed or +cut out your copy with regard exclusively to the increased value of +the article for newspaper purposes. The staff was like a large family +under him. Every one's equal rights were regarded, every one's special +talents were stimulated, every one's peculiar fads or foibles were +genially borne with. Officially he had no favorites. Personally he +chose his friends among the staff as freely as he would do among +outsiders. The unrecorded kindnesses of the man were fragrant and not +few. To newcomers he would intimate what were the prejudices or +susceptibilities or limitations of those among whom they were cast. He +would be just as careful to see that the old standbys did not make +things rough or unfair for the newcomers. He had little respect for +the gifts or views that could not be made interconvertible with +newspaper results. He took a public view of party questions and rarely +a personal view of any questions. Between what he thought and wished +as an iconoclast, a reformer, or a reconstructor of foundations and +what he was intrusted to say as an editor, he drew the line sharp and +clear. While, as I have remarked, he was rarely a writer with his own +hand, the articles which he suggested or poured into or pulled out of +others were made so eminently characteristic of himself that they were +stamped with his quality as truly as if he had written them himself. +He was very proud of the success of the men in after life who started +on their newspaper careers under him. He followed them with good +wishes always, he spoke strong words for them when, where, and to whom +they little suspected, and he rightly regarded their success as a +vindication of his own prescience in having set them on their way, and +also as a gratification not merely to his confidence in his own +opinion concerning them, but to the wishes of his unselfish heart in +desiring that they should take the pinnacles of achievement in +whatsoever field of newspaper work inclination, necessity, opportunity +or destiny marked out before them. + + ST. CLAIR MCKELWAY. + The _Eagle_ Office, Brooklyn, May 14, 1889. + + + + +From a Testimonial by John Elderkin + + +David G. Croly was a strong man. He was strong in his convictions, his +honesty, and his capacity to meet all the requirements of life in the +most populous, enterprising, and brilliant city of the continent. His +strength begot independence, and he was before all else independent in +the formation and expression of his views, both on public affairs and +those which are more personal and philosophical. He never apologized +for his opinions, and his life needs no apology. His mind dwelt on +that side of every question which involved the interest and welfare of +the whole mass of mankind, and his religious philosophy was pure +Humanitarianism. His reverence for Comte was the result of his +intellectual conviction that in his altruistic teaching was to be +found the only remedy for the wrongs and sufferings of the world. + +In personal intercourse Mr. Croly was suggestive, inspiring and +encouraging. It was always with a slight shock to preconceived +notions and prejudices that one listened to his comments on any +current movement or event, for he was sure to take an original and +characteristic view which could not be calculated. + + + + +From Mrs. Croly's Contribution to Her Husband's Memorial + + +Mr. Croly was in his twenty-seventh year when I first knew him, but as +yet had made no mark in journalism. He had not found his place in it. +He was employed as City Editor of the New York _Herald_--a position +which had not then developed the importance which attaches to it +to-day--and his duties consisted mainly of making out the "slate" for +the staff of reporters, and doing such reportorial work as it was the +province and habit of the City Editor to perform. This afforded little +scope for a man of Mr. Croly's latent power; and his dissatisfaction +and desire to find a new field was the cause of our going West within +three years after our marriage and starting a daily paper in a Western +town. Had the town been larger the story would have been different. As +it was, we spent our money, not without result; for Mr. Croly +discovered that his forte was not execution, but direction, and that +his fertility of brain only needed a sufficiently wide field to +develop powers capable of greater expansion. + +He was the most utterly destitute of the mechanical or "doing" faculty +of any man I ever saw, and never used his own hands if he could +possibly help it. But ideas flowed freely upon all subjects in which +he was interested, and he distributed them as freely, knowing that the +reservoir though forever emptied was always full. This amazing +fertility was in some respects a detriment, for it led him into too +many projects, and made him careless whom he enriched, while his +dislike of the mechanism of his work made profit for others at his +expense. I know no other journalist in New York City, during my own +journalistic career of thirty-three years, who has made so many and +such diverse publications, or put so much originality and force into +the detail of his work. The _World_, and particularly the Sunday +_World_, which was the foundation of the Sunday newspaper, the New +York illustrated _Graphic_, the _Round Table_, and other journals were +built up by his energy, and owed their most striking and successful +features to his suggestiveness. He was particularly unselfish in his +estimate of other men and his appreciation of their work. He was as +proud of discovering the good qualities of a man on his staff as a +miner of finding a nugget, and never wearied of expatiating upon them. +Indeed, he did this more than once to his own disadvantage, thus +furnishing an instrument to treachery. + +I am sure the "boys" of the old _World_ staff, St. Clair McKelway, +A.C. Wheeler ("Nym Crinkle"), T.E. Wilson, H.G. Crickmore, Montgomery +Schuyler, E.C. Stedman, and others, will look back with a little sigh +for the "old times," and for the generous recognition they received +from one who was never at a loss for a subject, or for the treatment +of a topic, and was always a good comrade and heart and soul +sympathizer in their work, its trials and its achievements. + +A chief quality with Mr. Croly was faithfulness to the interests he +served. This was put to some severe tests; but they could not be +called temptations, for disloyalty did not present itself as a +possibility to him. His faults were those of a nervous temperament, +combined with great intellectual force and a strength of feeling which +in some directions and under certain circumstances became prejudice. +He could never, in any case, be made to run a machine. He hated the +obvious way of saying or doing a thing. He cultivated the "unexpected" +almost to a fault, and always gave a touch of originality even to the +commonplace. His pessimistic and unhopeful temperament was doubtless +due to inherent and hereditary bodily weakness, and to the lack of +muscular cultivation in his youth, which might have modified inherent +tendencies. His mental lack was form not force; and he had enough +original elemental ideas to have supplied a dozen men. In that respect +he was superior to every other journalist I have ever known--not +excepting Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond and Frederick Hudson. + +But the time has gone by for ideas. It is not that they are a drug in +the market, but that there is no market for them. To-day is the +apotheosis of the commonplace, the iteration of the cries of the +street, the gabble of the sidewalk, and the gossip of the tea-table; +neither originality nor force is needed for such journalism as this, +and they may therefore well rest to the music of the pines. + +One of the strongest influences in Mr. Croly's life was his +acquaintance with the Positivist movement in England, and his interest +in the works of Auguste Comte. Up to this time he had experienced none +of the undoubted benefit which accrues to every man and woman from the +possession of an ideal standard, and settled convictions which inspire +or take the place of religious aspiration. Positivism did all this for +Mr. Croly, so far as anything could, and he became one of its most +eager and devoted adherents. + +Mr. T.B. Wakeman, himself one of the earliest and most able leaders, +credits Mr. Croly with being the "father" of the movement in this +country, and in fact he was the first to make known that any +representative of Positivist ideas existed in America. He invited and +paid for the first lecture ever delivered in New York City upon the +subject; it was given by Mr. Edgar, an unknown "apostle," in a little +hall (De Garmo) on the corner of 14th street and Fifth avenue, on a +certain Sunday some twenty or more years ago. The result of the +lecture was that a dozen people formed a little society and engaged +Mr. Edgar to give them a series of Sunday talks on the practical +bearings of the religion of humanity. Mr. Edgar was not in himself an +interesting exponent of his ideas, but his message inculcated duty, +love to man, a life open and free from concealments, the possession of +personal gifts or acquired property as trusts to be used for the good +of others, and the recognition of value in all that has been and is. + +These ideas became more or less an actuating principle. They brought +together a circle of men and women of the best quality, who endeavored +to live up to their standard, and by work and daily life, rather than +by active propagandism, to crystallize opinions into a vital force. +For several years the regular meetings were held at our house, the +"festivals" of the year being often given at the residences of other +members of the society--Mr. T.B. Wakeman, or Mr. Courtlandt Palmer. +There is still an "old guard" left, of as good, brave, and unselfish +men and women as ever walked on this earth, and though some differed +from. Mr. Croly, and from each other on some points, yet they all knew +and acknowledged that he brought to them the beginning of the best +inspiration of their lives. + +Mr. Croly's latest expressed wish was that all the usual forms should +be disregarded in the event of his death, except the simplest service +and the presence of flowers. "If any one thinks enough of me," he +said, "to bring me flowers, let them; but have no elaborate mourning, +and bury me close to the earth, near the pines, and facing the sea." +The legend he left for his grave-stone was: "I meant well, tried a +little, failed much." But this will not be the verdict of those who +came under the influence of his strong and many-sided personality. + + + + +Mrs. Croly's Club Life + +_By Haryot Holt Dey_ + + +There is a pleasant and not irrational fancy in the mind of the writer +that somewhere in space there exists the abiding-place of ideas, and +that as fast as earth-dwellers are ready for them they are released. +Like a bird the idea takes flight and seeks a home in the brain of +some one who is singled out to forward and exploit it for the benefit +of humanity. Thenceforward, that person becomes the apostle of the +idea. "We are not in the possession of our ideas," says Heine, "but +are possessed by them; they master us and force us into the arena +where like gladiators we must fight for them." But it is only to the +elect that great ideas are assigned, one who either through heredity +or by special development is qualified to carry the message. This +fanciful reasoning applies admirably to the idea for women's +clubs--organizations for women--and in its selection of Jenny June it +made no mistake in the character of its agent. + +The first woman's club was organized in March, 1868, and was the +outcome of feminine protest, because women were barred from the +reception and banquet tendered to Charles Dickens by the Press Club of +New York City. Among those who applied for tickets on equal grounds +with men was Mrs. Croly, then an active, recognized force in +journalism, and when the idea of a woman's club took possession of her +she had become the most indignant and spirited woman ever locked out +of a banquet hall. + +Forty years ago it required courage for a woman to step aside from the +ranks of conservatism and organize a woman's club; it was regarded as +a side issue of "woman's rights," a movement then in grave disrepute. +But Mrs. Croly had dared untrodden paths once before when she stepped +into the field of journalism, and her experience there had developed +self-confidence. She had been writing for women for many years, and +through her mission had acquired instinctive knowledge of their needs; +and so when the affront was put upon her by her male colleagues of the +press she conceived the idea of a club for women. It should be one +that would manage its own affairs, represent as far as possible the +active interests of women, and create a bond of fellowship between +them, which many women as well as men thought at that time would be +impossible of accomplishment. Mrs. Croly wrote in her "History of +Clubs" thirty years later: "At this period no one of those connected +with the undertaking had ever heard of a woman's club, or of any +secular organization composed entirely of women for the purpose of +bringing all kinds of women together to work out their objects in +their own way." And then again: "When the history of the nineteenth +century comes to be written women will appear as organizers and +leaders of great organized movements among their own sex for the first +time in the history of the world." + +"The originator specially disavowed any specific object, only asking +for a representative woman's organization based on perfectly equal +terms in which women might acquire methods, learn how to work together +for general objects, not for charity or a propaganda." + +"This declaration of principles was the cause of much abusive +criticism, as well as failure to obtain aid and sympathy. Had Sorosis +started to _do_ any one thing, from building an asylum for aged and +indigent 'females' to supplying the natives of Timbuctoo with pocket +handkerchiefs, it would have found a public already made. But its +attitude was frankly ignorant and inquiring. It laid no claims to +wisdom or knowledge that could be of any use to anybody. It simply +felt the stirring of an intense desire that women should come +together--all together, not from one church, or one neighborhood, or +one walk of life, but from all quarters, and take counsel together, +find the cause of separations and failures, of ignorance and +wrong-doing, and try to discover better ways, more intelligent +methods." + +Under this banner Sorosis was launched. Alice Cary was its first +president. The story of Sorosis from the beginning is a very +interesting one; from the view-point of the press its doings and +sayings and business affairs generally have always afforded +subject-matter for comment and conjecture. Of its early days Mrs. +Croly wrote: "The social events of the first year were memorable, for +they were the first of their kind, and practically changed the custom +of confining public dinner-giving to men. The first was offered as an +_amende honorable_ on the part of the New York Press Club, and +consisted of a 'breakfast' to which the Press Club invited Sorosis, +but did not invite it to speak or do anything but sit still and eat, +and be talked and sung to. The second was a 'tea' given by Sorosis to +the Press Club at which it reversed the order, furnishing all the +speakers and allowing the men no chance, not even to respond to their +own toast. The third was a 'dinner,'--the brightest and best of the +whole--at which the ladies and gentlemen each paid their own way and +shared equally the honors and responsibilities." This is said to be +the first public dinner at which men and women ever sat down on equal +terms. A report of it in a daily newspaper closed as follows: "The +entire affair was one of the most delightful events of the season, and +will long be held in pleasantest memory by all who had the honor to +participate in it. We believe we violate no secret when we say that +the gentlemen were most agreeably surprised to find their rival club +composed of charming women, representing the best aristocracy of the +metropolis, an aristocracy of sterling good sense, earnest thought, +aspiration and progressive intellect, with no perceptible taint of +strong-mindedness." + +The growth and expansion of Sorosis were watched by Mrs. Croly with +the same eager interest with which a mother contemplates the +development of a child, not knowing just how its character will shape, +guarding it always with love, for a potential force in its directing. +It was her spirit that steered it over rough places; that brought +harmony out of discord; that inspired, soothed, provided wise counsel, +and that many times sacrificed personal feelings for the good of the +whole. To do this required mental qualities of a high order--courage, +foresight, judgment, and not a little of the martyr spirit. Women had +never organized before, and the conditions to be met and the problems +to be solved stood absolutely alone, with no precedent to build upon +or decide even the simplest question. What firmness was required in +the leader at that time, when, for example, women who had been her +staunchest allies deserted the ranks because they could not select the +club name! It was a firm hand that kept the unorganized body from +going to pieces on the rocks of dissension, and it was at that time +that the leader proved her inalienable right to her title. She had led +women into the field of journalism, and now she was leading them into +organization. Clubs began to form in all parts of the country, and +when Sorosis arrived at its twenty-first birthday, it was Mrs. Croly's +idea that they should all come together, and when the invitation was +issued they came. Thus was formed the General Federation of Women's +Clubs. At present there are 800,000 women belonging to that +federation; each State has its own federation, New York forming first, +at Mrs. Croly's suggestion, and now containing 32,000 enrolled +members. The General Federation was formed in 1889. The writer recalls +the triumph in Mrs. Croly's tone when she replied to the appeal of a +man who came to her to beg to be given the names of the women +belonging to the federation. "If you choose to send a woman to copy +the names," she said, "you may do so, but it will take her more than a +week." And the General Federation was less than three years old at the +time. + +Mrs. Croly organized the Woman's Press Club of New York in 1889. It is +due to her wisdom that it was carried through many crises. She was its +president from the day it was founded to the day of her death; always +its loving teacher, her enthusiasm regarding its development never +flagged. She lived to see it firmly established, a harmonious and +delightful organization, and she was satisfied. + +Mrs. Croly was neither parliamentarian, orator, nor politician, but +she had a fund of good sense, wise judgment, and a power of expression +which, could clarify an atmosphere when mere knowledge of the "Rules +of Order" would have failed. She had spiritual vision, and by it she +knew the soul of the club; no amount of dissension could shake her +faith in its ultimate good, and in times of crisis she presided with a +serenity only accountable in the fact that she viewed from the +mountain summit what her associates saw only from the housetop. What +years of development she enjoyed long before the club idea possessed +her, endowing her with wisdom and mental breadth, and what +associations that urged and demanded that she become a student of +sociology! The seeds of thought planted in those early days of +journalistic experience, inclusive of what she terms the "Positivist +Episode," blossomed in her later, more mature years, and all the +harvest she brought and applied to the organization of women. To the +casual observer an organized body of women differed in no particular +form from any ordinary assembly of women. What it was to her one can +only realize by a careful perusal of her writings on club formation, +and the moral awakening that sounded the bugle note of progress when +women began to organize. + +Once it came to the hearing of this gentle apostle of development, +that she had been said to represent a cult. The occasion was a +reception given in her honor by one of her clubs on her seventieth +birthday. There had been speeches and congratulations, and the scene +was one of general rejoicing. "Oh, she is the leader of a cult," +whispered a guest, and the remark was repeated to Mrs. Croly. She +received it with a sorry smile of regret that any one should so +misinterpret the significance of the scene. As if the narrow and +exclusive word "cult" could be applied to an assembly that stood for +organization and human development, which, in her prophetic vision, +only needed time to unite races, and ultimately to extend around the +globe. To her it signified "the opening of the door, the stepping out +into the freedom of the outer air, and the sweet sense of fellowship +with the whole universe, that comes with liberty and light." + +Few women carry their enthusiasm till past three-score-and-ten, as +Mrs. Croly did. With the failing of physical strength the wand of +power passed into the hands of younger women whom she hailed as her +successors, and whose growth and development were the blossoms +springing from the seed she herself had planted; and in the last years +of her noble life, when the glow of sunset was on the garden of her +activities, the love she bore her fellow-women was her unfailing joy +and inspiration. + +At the time of life when people recognize the fact that their forces +are waning, and that a well-earned period of rest has arrived, Mrs. +Croly set for herself the last task of her busy life. She felt she had +something to tell about the success of her great idea, her message to +women, and she wrote the "History of the Woman's Club Movement in +America," a volume containing eleven hundred and eighty pages, which +told the story of nearly all the clubs in the General Federation. This +book will remain a monument to the founder of women's clubs. Into it +she put the skill and experience of her long years of editorship, +urging every faculty to the work, and applying herself with a degree +of industry that characterized the zeal of her best working years. And +it testifies to the martyr-like nature of her spirit, that she even +rallied from the disappointment consequent upon the financial failure +of the book. The dedication of the work reads as follows: "This book +has been a labor of love, and it is lovingly dedicated to the +Twentieth Century Woman by one who has seen and shared in the +struggles of the Woman of the Nineteenth Century." But nothing that is +good is lost, and the book testifies to the illimitable ideas, the +trust in eternal goodness, and the strength of purpose of one who had +a glorified estimate of latent feminine forces that require to be +developed. + + + + +Essays and Addresses by Jane Cunningham Croly + + + + +Beginnings of Organization[1] + +Women in Religious Organization + + +When the history of the Nineteenth Century comes to be written, women +will appear for the first time in the history of the world as +organizers, and leaders of great organized movements among their own +sex. + +[Footnote 1: _History of the Woman's Club Movement in America._] + +The world of to-day, both for men and women, is a different world from +that which furnished the outlook for the men and women of a hundred +years ago. Science, invention, have changed its material aspects; and +while retiring some individual activities and occupations, they have +created new fields of industry that are rapidly changing the face of +the world, and making new demands upon strength and energy. + +The world which man has conquered, and is still conquering, is no +longer the purely physical. He is working now toward the discovery and +control of the powers of the air, and has already harnessed some of +them to do his bidding. The succession of great events and discoveries +will mark this century as an epoch in the world's history, and is +responsible for economic changes which create social disturbance, and +to which both men and women must adjust themselves, often without +knowing the why or wherefore of that which is so different from what +has been. It is one of the paradoxes in human nature that women, while +being made responsible for human conditions, have been condemned to +individual isolation. It has been largely the result of general +physical differentiation and the dependence that grew out of it, and, +secondarily, the long ages required to produce settled social +conditions and a reversal of that great unwritten law of kings and +men--that might made right. + +It is true that there was a time, some traditions of which are still +preserved among the Indian tribes of North America, when the woman +possessed controlling influence and power. This matriarchal or mother +age passed with the primitive period in which the energies of men were +absorbed in hunting and fighting. It was a tribal effort through +tribal women to formulate and give importance to family life, and it +must have been accepted and more or less sanctioned by the men. This +tribal leadership, at first domestic and social, disappeared with the +development of military leaders, the acquisition of military powers, +and the centralization of property in lands, houses, and personal +belongings, that required constant and effective methods of protection +and defence. + +Instances are not wanting of heroic women of those early days who were +capable of holding and defending person and property against +aggression and warfare. But the logic of events was strong then, as +now, and the destiny of the woman was not that of military supremacy. + +The first step in associated life taken by women was a simple protest +against the use and abuse of power on the part of men, wrought up by +fear or loathing to the point of desperation. Women, usually of rank, +fled to the desert with one or two companions, and encountered +unheard-of hardships rather than submit to the fate to which they had +been condemned by father, brother, or some other man who could +exercise authority over them. The first Church-sisterhood grew out of +such beginnings, and gradually obtained the sanction of the Church. A +recent remarkable work, "Women in Monasticism," shows how wide and +powerful the system of religious sisterhoods had become as early as +the fifth century, and traces its growing strength and enlargement +until its decline, which was coeval with the Reformation. + +The strength of this extraordinary development lay in the fact that it +furnished women with a vocation; it gave employment to faculty. The +sisterhoods of the convents and monasteries were the nurses, the +teachers, the students, the caretakers of the poor, and the guardians +of the orphaned rich. The Fathers of the Church--St. Jerome, St. +Chrysostom, St. Augustine--all bear witness to the high character of +these sisterhoods and to their individual members, to their virtues +and lives of self-sacrificing devotion. Many of these women became +learned by the exercise of memory alone, for they had no books. Many +enriched their convents with manuscript books--the result of lives of +painstaking labor. The Beguines, who founded hospitals and schools, +were the best educated women of their day--the eleventh century. They +read Tacitus and Virgil in the original, and were skilled in medicine. +Disease often took loathsome forms, and only women whose lives were +consecrated to self-denying labor could have been the patient +ministers to the diseased poor. + +This is all the more noteworthy because the idea of vocation was not +the early incentive to monastic life. It was sought as a refuge; it +developed into a vocation; and it is a matter of interest to women +to-day that these spontaneous vocations, growing out of an enforced +life, were inspired by love of well-doing, desire for study, the +acquisition of knowledge, its distribution, and the ever-ready spirit +of helpfulness at the sacrifice of every personal indulgence. + +Naturally the monastic life of women was controlled by the Church, and +could have continued to exist only by permission. A Spanish lady of +rank who had befriended Ignatius Loyola as a young student of +Barcelona, attracted by the odor of sanctity and scholarship which +attached itself to the Order which he founded, gained reluctant +permission to establish (1545) an Order of Jesuitesses, subject to the +same strict rules and discipline. This was the beginning of a strictly +woman's Jesuit "college," which flourished notwithstanding all the +efforts Loyola himself made to get rid of it, and the restrictions put +upon it. Many noble ladies joined it, and it became the foundation of +a number of houses of the same name and character, extending into +Flanders and England, when, without cause, except fear perhaps of +their extent and influence, they were finally suppressed by a bull of +Pope Urban VIII, bearing date, January 13, 1630. This Order of +Jesuitesses existed for nearly a century. Their colleges were +scholastic, and had given rise to preparatory schools, when they were +summarily suppressed because of their independent life. + +Had this Order continued to exist it might have gained an educational +ascendency throughout Europe which even the strong wave of the +Reformation would have found it hard to overcome. But the convents and +monasteries generally suffered at this time from the abuses which had +crept into the Church, and the rage for power which possessed its +prelates. + +The influence was mischievous also from a social and domestic point +of view; from the sanctity and superiority attached to those who +ignored natural ties and duties, thus lowering the social and domestic +standard, and setting the nun's habit above the woman, the wife and +the mother. Yet nature had asserted itself even in the convent. The +motherhood in the monastic woman made her the mother, the caretaker, +the nurse, the teacher, and the helper of all those who needed +maternal care, while condemning and ignoring its common aspects and +place in everyday life. + +This absence of domestic ties was not, however, obligatory upon all +sisterhoods. An interesting story of the "First Council of Women," +told by Madame Lendier at the Congress of Women in Paris in 1889, +bears upon this point. + +The monastic school out of which the Council grew, was founded in the +early part of the seventh century, by Iduberge, wife of Pepin, mayor +under the Frankish kings. + +Iduberge cleared a space in the forest, and built a house for the +education and religious consecration (if they desired it) of the +daughters of nobles, her daughter Gertrude becoming the abbess. No vow +of celibacy was imposed. As long as they remained in the abbey they +were to conform to the rules of the house, but if they desired to +marry they were free to leave. The _chanoinesses_ of Nivelle spent +their morning in religious duties, but the rest of the day they were +at liberty to mix with the outer world. The abbess alone took upon +herself the vow of perpetual virginity. A hundred and seventy passed +away after the death of Gertrude. The abbey had grown in power, had +gathered around itself a town with gates and towers and +fortifications, but was independent of the French Government, being +under the sole rule of the abbess, who was called the "Princess." + +This independence excited the jealousy of the Church, and in May, 820, +Nivelle received a visit from Valcand, the reigning bishop of Liège. +He was received by the lady abbess in the habit of her order, a cross +of gold in her hand; mounted on a white horse she rode at the head of +the procession that marched to meet him. Young girls of noble birth, +clad in long white gowns trimmed with ermine, and mounted on palfreys, +followed their abbess, and behind them the town authorities, feudal +lords and administrators of justice. + +At the same time Valcand entered the town with every honor and +courtesy due to his rank. He held a solemn service, and having given +the benediction, he rose again and addressed the _chanoinesses_. He +declared that it had been decided by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle +that he should be sent to Nivelle to enforce the rules of St. Benoit, +which must be followed by all religious bodies; this rule being that +all the devotees of Nivelle were required to take upon themselves the +vow of perpetual virginity, to acknowledge themselves dependent upon +their bishop in all secular matters, and finally to yield up to +Valcand all temporal power at Nivelle. + +This solemn declaration was received in silence. For some moments no +one moved or spoke, but a low murmur swept over the young sisters of +Nivelle Abbey. The lady abbess, followed by her _chanoinesses_, rose +and advanced to the rails of the choir stand. The abbess Hiltrude, +daughter of Lyderic II, sovereign of Flanders under the emperor, then +between thirty-five and forty years of age, was beautiful; of that +calm, grave type which speaks of a quiet, well-regulated life. + +"In the name of the Cloister of St. Gertrude," she said, "we protest +against any interference in the temporal power of this government. We +claim the right of taking to ourselves husbands when it seems right to +us so to do. We are therefore resolved to follow the rules of our +patron saint, as we always have done heretofore, and if this protest +is insufficient we will present our appeal to our Holy Father, the +Pope." + +The bishop declared that he would maintain the rule given by the +Council at Aix, and then descending from the pulpit, he ordered his +people to follow him at once out of Nivelle, refusing to join in any +of the festivities prepared in his honor. + +Hiltrude now took things seriously into her own hands, leaving nothing +undone to secure the success of her appeal. She sent a courier to the +Pope, and another to Louis le Debonaire; but the wise abbess took yet +further precautions: she at once organized a council at Nivelle of all +the abbesses of the French Empire, requiring silence from them, and +assuring them of security in the town. The council could not be +brought together for a year, but on the 1st of May, 821, Hiltrude +inaugurated her "Concile de Femmes." + +She took advantage of the marriage of Count d'Albion with Regina, +which was to take place at the abbey. Regina was a _chanoinesse_, and +it was the custom when a member of the circle at the abbey married, +that the marriage should be solemnized at Nivelle. Fifteen titled +abbesses, all of aristocratic lineage, arrived with imposing suites. +The council was a short one. They approved of all that Hiltrude had +done, and signed the appeal. The document, written, signed, and sealed +by all the abbesses present, was immediately sent to Rome, and to +Valcand himself. Meantime the pope and the king, who were much +perplexed, and the bishop, who was completely baffled by the logic, +strength and force of appeal of the "Concile," were obliged to +withdraw the opposition, and the _chanoinesses_ were left in peace to +marry or not to marry, as they pleased. + +The ancient order of deaconesses imposed no vow, yet it was +co-existent with the early church, and accepted by many of the fathers +as part of the apostolic order. This position was strengthened by the +high character of the women, many of them widows, or unprotected +women, whom death or some other calamity had freed from natural ties. + +Ancient church history is full of the records of courage, devotion, +and self-sacrifice on the part of these women, who were generally of +high birth, but gave themselves to poverty and the most menial +offices, and left names which have perpetuated the sanctity of their +order, and come down to the present day as types of good women. + +The ceremonies used in the ordination of a deaconess were precisely +the same as those used for a deacon. The deaconesses were not +cloistered: they lived at home with children or relatives. But they +wore a distinctive dress, and had their place in the church with the +clergy. The "golden age" of the order is said to have been immediately +following the apostolic era, before the spirit of monasticism had +destroyed or limited activities, and shut off sympathy with the +outside world. + +The royal and imperial order of the Hadraschin in Prague, Germany, is +the most imposing relic remaining of the religious orders of women, +though not the most numerous. There are about forty chapters still in +existence of this ancient order, with a royal residence at Prague. The +abbess possessed the right to crown the queen at coronation +ceremonies, and exercised it as late as 1836, wearing all the +magnificent insignia of her rank in the order. + +A more numerous order of consecrated women, presided over and governed +by one "mother-general," is that of St. Joseph de Cluny. This was +founded by a woman, Madame Javonbey, in the beginning of the present +century, about ninety years ago. It has one hundred and twenty-eight +houses in France, and two in the United States. It has others in South +America, one in Italy, several in the West Indies and some in Africa. + +All its property is in community, and its membership--about six +thousand women--teach in its schools, and care for the sick poor in +hospitals and in their homes. Two hundred are assigned to the care of +the insane, by the French Government. + +The mother-general administers, from the mother-house _(maison mère)_ +at Paris. She has two assistants and a council of six sisters. Under +the mother-general there are mother-superiors, one to each estate, +administering and governing it, but under this mother-superior at +Paris. These lesser governing women send in weekly reports to the home +convent at Paris, giving brief accounts of transactions and events, +such as the entrance of pupils, the purchase of lands, and extra dole +of food to the poor, the death of a member and the like. They are a +prosperous, working sisterhood, and have preserved the integrity and +independence of their beginning. + +It was the spirit of protest against church and monastic abuses, +embodied in Martin Luther, which broke up the monastic system for both +men and women. Doubtless also it had outlived its usefulness in any +large or general sense. A more settled social and domestic life was +becoming possible through the development of trades and industries, +while the domestic virtues in women began to acquire a value, and +furnish guarantees to the State. + +The discovery of printing gave a tremendous impulse to the spread of +civilizing and educational influences, to the multiplication of +schools, and the desire for knowledge. It was the dawn of intellectual +freedom, and the school of the people was the open door for it. + +Spiritual freedom had to wait longer. It waited the unfolding of the +woman. At the beginning of this century she was still under the +dominion of the church and its leaders, and her efforts were +controlled by sects and doctrines. + +The first associated work of women in this country, and in this +century, was still religious and philanthropic. The "Sisters of +Charity" in America owes its origin to a young and beautiful New York +woman, Elizabeth Seton, who was born in 1774, married at twenty, but +lost her husband by death in a very few years. Obliged to support +herself, she opened a school in Baltimore. But her tendency was toward +the devoted life of a _religieuse_, and the gift of a foundation fund +enabled her to gratify this strong desire. She assumed the conventual +habit, and opened a convent school on July 30, 1809, in Emmetsburg, of +which she became mother-superior. The character of "Mother" Seton was +considered saintly by Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. She died +at her post in 1821, after a life the last half of which was entirely +spent in self-denying work. Mrs. Seton was exceedingly lovely as a +young woman; and her sweet, serene face and presence, as she grew +older, was said to exert a magical influence upon all who came in +contact with her. This was particularly seen in her care of the sick, +and in dealing with turbulent spirits: they came immediately under her +influence without any effort on her part. + +The first ten years of the present century saw the beginning of a +number of religious societies of women, organized to create funds, and +aid in church mission work. First among these were the "cent" +societies, 1801 and 1804, and later the Woman's Auxiliaries to the +Board of Foreign Missions. These grew in size and strength, until in +1839 there were six hundred and eighty-eight of these societies. But, +unfortunately, their limited and purely subjective character afforded +small basis for the wider growth necessary to perpetuity, and they +gradually declined, until in 1860 they had become nearly extinct. + +A little later, 1864, the first independent "Union" of women +missionary workers was formed in New York by Mrs. Doremus, and within +a few years every denomination, beginning with the Congregationalists, +had its organized Woman's Auxiliary to the American Board of Home and +Foreign Missions. The "Missionary Union" remains, however, the only +independent society of women workers in this field, managing its own +affairs, raising its own funds, and sending out its own missionaries, +both men and women. Its very existence has been a great strength to +the Woman's Auxiliaries, stimulating them to independent action, and +especially to the demand for a voice in the disposal of the large sums +they raise and turn over to the treasury of the American Board. + +The oldest purely women-societies in this country were also started +for missionary and church work. The first is the "Female Charitable +Society" of Baldwinsville, N.J., and is still existent. + +The object of the Baldwinsville society, as stated in the +constitution, was "to obtain a more perfect view on the infinite +excellence of the Christian religion in its own nature, the importance +of making this religion the chief concern of our hearts, the necessity +of promoting it in our families, and of diffusing it among our fellow +sinners." A further object is "to afford aid to religious +institutions, and for the carrying out of this purpose a contribution +of twelve and a half cents is required at every quarterly meeting." + +Mrs. Jane Hamill presided at its first meeting; the Rev. John +Davenport opened it with prayer. Mrs. Hamill was still the presiding +officer at its jubilee anniversary in 1867. At its seventy-eighth +annual meeting Mrs. Payn Bigelow was elected president. + +The "Piqua (Ohio) Female Bible Society" was founded in 1818. It +consisted at first of nine women. In those early days the country was +a wilderness. Other members were added later. It has had in all, over +nine hundred members. Mrs. Elizabeth Pettit was its presiding officer +from 1840 until 1881--forty-one years. The daughters and the +granddaughters are all made members by right of inheritance, and in +several instances four generations have been represented at one time. +It held its seventy-fifth anniversary in 1893, when all the +descendants of the early members were notified, and many were present. +It has held a meeting on the first Monday afternoon of each month for +seventy-eight years, and the records are preserved intact. The founder +was Mrs. Rachael Johnston, wife of the Indian agent. It has sent over +fifteen thousand dollars to the parent Bible Society in New York. + +It should be remembered that down to the last quarter of the present +century, there was little sympathy with organizations of women, not +expressly religious, charitable, or intended to promote charitable +objects. "What is the object?" was the first question asked of any +organization of women, and if it was not the making of garments, or +the collection of funds for a church or philanthropic purpose, it was +considered unworthy of attention, or injurious doubts were thrown upon +its motives. In Germany, even yet, societies of women are not +permitted, except such as have a distinctly religious, educational or +charitable object. + + + + +The Moral Awakening[1] + + +The life of the world is continuous, morally and spiritually as well +as materially. The individual sees it at short range and in fragments. +That is the reason why it so often seems dislocated and out of joint. +A thoughtful writer, Mrs. L.R. Zerbe, says: "When Goethe made his +discovery of the unity of structure in organic life, he gave to the +philosophers, who had long taught the value, the 'sovereignty' of the +individual, a physiological argument against oppression and tyranny, +and put the whole creation on an equal footing." + +[Footnote 1: _History of the Woman's Club Movement in America_.] + +The dignity of mind, and the right of the individual to its conscious +use and possession, had been already clearly enunciated by Fichte, +Herder, and others, who antedated Goethe. But Goethe went farther. He +carried the discovery of the rights of the individual to its logical +conclusion, which was, that the rights of every created thing should +be given a hearing. This was absolutely new doctrine. It brought women +and children within the pale of humanity. It moralized and humanized +nature itself; bringing birds, trees, flowers, all animate life, into +the "brotherhood" of creation. + +The writings of Rousseau and Châteaubriand extended the idea, and +Madame de Staël and Mary Wollstonecraft were the natural outgrowths of +it. It may be said indeed to have been the actuating principle of +modern literature, especially of modern English poetry, which +vitalizes and idealizes children and nature. Whatever credit may be +given to others, it should never be forgotten that to Goethe we owe +the discovery of structural unity, that the cell of all organic life +is the same. + +The ideas that grew out of this discovery reached the higher, thinking +class, and inspired the poets with a new enthusiasm for humanity long +before it reached the masses. The French nobility were satiated with +power. The "Little Trianon" was the only reaction possible to a queen, +from the wearisome magnificence of Versailles, the gilded slavery of +the court. The people recognized no sentiment of human sympathy in the +so-called "whims" and "caprices" of the luxurious occupants of +palaces; and maddened by countless wrongs, precipitated the French +Revolution, which, it has been said, turned back the tide of progress +for one hundred years. + +From this movement were developed all those reforms which have made +the nineteenth century glorious, monumental in the history of +progressive civilization. The abolition of slavery, the development +of a spirit of mercy towards dumb animals, the recognition of the +human rights of women and children--all these may be traced through +many a winding way, back to the German scientists and philosophers, +who rediscovered the inner life while working from its outer side. + +Yet, as in history there are no sporadic instances, no isolated facts, +so this flower of our century--the recognition of the rights of all +created things, with all that it involves--belongs to universal +history. It is the product of the Reformation and the Renaissance, +with roots only the records of Rome and Greece and Egypt may discover. + +The quickening of moral and spiritual life in our day, its accelerated +movement, is not to be claimed by or traced to any one set of +influences or propaganda. The awakening has been all along the line; +and it has resulted in a new mental attitude toward the human life of +the world, both as a whole and in its various parts. Its great outcome +is the learning to live with, rather than for, others. + +This new view, this great advance of the moral and spiritual forces, +addressed itself with singular significance to women. To those who +were prepared, it came not only as an awakening, but as +emancipation--emancipation of the soul, freedom from the tyranny of +tradition and prejudice, and the acquisition of an intellectual +outlook; a spiritual liberty achieved so quietly as to be unnoticed +except by those who watched the progress of this bloodless revolution, +and the falling away of the shackles that bind the spirit in its early +and often painful effort to reach the light. + +The broadening of human sympathy, the freedom of will, gave rise to a +thousand new forms of activity; some of these an expansion of those +which had previously existed; others opening new channels of +communication; all looking towards wider fields of effort, a larger +unity, a more complete realization of the eternal ideal, the +fatherhood of God, the motherhood of woman, the brotherhood of man. + +Realization of this ideal brought a new conception of duty to the mind +of woman, unlocked the strong gates of theological and social +tradition, and opened the windows of her soul to a new and more +glorious world. The sense of duty is always strong in the woman. If +she disregards it she never ceases to suffer. Her convictions of it +have made her the most willing and joyful of martyrs, the most +persistent and relentless of bigots, the most blind and devoted of +partisans, the most faithful and believing of friends, and the only +type out of which Nature could form the mother. This quality has made +women the constructive force they are in the world, and gives all the +more importance to the new departure, to the influences of the new +sources of enlargement that have come into their lives. + +Thus it became a necessity that the quickening of conscience, the +widening of sympathy, the influence of aggregations, the stimulus to +desire and ambitions, should be accompanied by corresponding growth in +knowledge and a love beyond the narrow confines of family and church. + +The cry of the woman emerging from a darkened past was "light, more +light," and light was breaking. Gradually came the demand and the +opportunity for education; for intellectual freedom for women as well +as men; for cultivation of gifts and faculties. The early half of the +century was marked by a crusade for the cause of the better education +of women, as significant as that for the physical emancipation of the +slave, and as devoted on the part of its leaders. + +Simultaneous with this were two other movements--the anti-slavery +agitation, inspired by the new enthusiasm for human rights and carried +on largely by the Quakers of both sexes. The woman's-rights movement +was the natural outgrowth of the individual-sovereignty idea which the +German philosophers had planted, and of which Mary Wollstonecraft was +the first great woman-exponent. + +The keynote of the educational advance was struck by Emma Willard in +1821. She was followed by Mary Lyon, Mary Mortimer, and other brave +women who dared to ask for women the cultivation of such faculties as +they possessed, without let or hindrance. This demand has taken the +century to develop and enforce. The work was so gradual that it is not +yet, by any means, accomplished. Schools and colleges exist, but not +yet equally, except here and there. They are, however, giving us an +army of trained women who are bringing the force of knowledge to bear +upon questions which have heretofore only enlisted sympathies. + +Simultaneously with this question of educational opportunity, has +arisen an eager seeking after knowledge on the part of women who have +been debarred from its enjoyment, or lacked opportunity for its +acquisition. The knowledge sought was not that of a limited, sectional +geography, or a mathematical quantity as taught in schools, but the +knowledge of the history and development of races and peoples, of the +laws and principles that underlie this development, and the place of +the woman in this grand march of the ages. + +The woman has been the one isolated fact in the universe. The outlook +upon the world, the means of education, the opportunities for +advancement, had all been denied her; and that "community of feeling +and sense of distributive justice which grows out of cooperative +interests in work and life, had found small opportunity for growth or +activity." + +The opportunity came with the awakening of the communal spirit, the +recognition of the law of the solidarity of interests, the +sociological advance which established a basis of equality among a +wide diversity of conditions and individuals, and opportunities for +all capable of using them. This great advance was not confined to a +society or a neighborhood; it did not require subscription to a tenet, +or the giving up of one's mode of life. It was simply a change of a +point of view, the opening of a door, the stepping out into the +freedom of the outer air, and the sweet sense of fellowship with the +whole universe that comes with liberty and light. + +The difference was only a point of view, but it changed the aspect of +the world. This new note, which meant for the woman liberty, breadth +and unity, was struck by the woman's club. + +To the term "club," as applied to and by women, may be fitly referred +the words in which John Addington Symonds defines Renaissance. "This," +he remarks, "is not explained by this or that characteristic, but as +an effort for which at length the time has come." It means the +attainment of the conscious freedom of the woman spirit, and has been +manifested first most strongly and most widely in this country, +because here that spirit has attained the largest measure of freedom. + +The woman's club was not an echo; it was not the mere banding together +for a social and economic purpose, like the clubs of men. It became +at once, without deliberate intention or concerted action, a +light-giving and seed-sowing centre of purely altruistic and +democratic activity. It had no leaders. It brought together qualities +rather than personages; and by a representation of all interests, +moral, intellectual, and social, a natural and equal division of work +and opportunity, created an ideal basis of organization, where every +one has an equal right to whatever comes to the common centre; where +the centre itself becomes a radiating medium for the diffusion of the +best of that which is brought to it, and where, all being freely +given, no material considerations enter. + +This is no ideal or imaginary picture. It is the simplest prose of +every woman's club and every clubwoman's experience during the past +thirty years. + +It has been in every sense an awakening to the full glory and meaning +of life. It is also a very narrow and self-absorbed mind that sees in +these openings only opportunities for its own pleasure, or chances for +its own advancement on its own narrow and exclusive lines. The lesson +of the hour is help for those that need it, in the shape in which they +need it, and kinship with all and everything that exists on the face +of God's earth. If we miss this we miss the spirit, the illuminating +light of the whole movement, and lose it in the mire of our own +selfishness. + +The tendency of association upon any broad human basis is to destroy +the caste spirit, and this the club has done for women more than any +other influence that as yet has come into existence. A club that is +narrowed to a clique, a class, or a single object, is a contradiction +in terms. It may be a society, or a congregation of societies, but it +is not a club. The essence of a club is its many-sided character, its +freedom in gathering together and expressing all shades of difference, +its equal and independent terms of membership, which puts every one +upon the same footing, and enables each one to find or make her own +place. The most opposite ideas find equal claims to respect. Women +widest apart in position and habits of life find much in common, and +acquaintance and contact mutually helpful and advantageous. Club life +teaches us that there are many kinds of wealth in the world--the +wealth of ideas, of knowledge, of sympathy, of readiness to be put in +any place and used in any way for the general good. These are given, +and no price is or can be put upon them, yet they ennoble and enrich +whatever comes within their influence. + +We are only at the threshold of a future that thrills us with its +wonderful possibilities--possibilities of fellowship where separation +was; of love where hatred was; of unity where division was; of peace +where war was; of light--physical, mental and spiritual--where +darkness was; of agreement and equality where differences and +traditions had built up walls of distinction and lines of caste. This +beautiful thing needs only to be realized in thought to become an +actual fact in life, and those who do realize it are enriched by it +beyond the power of words to express. + +Women have been God's own ministers everywhere and at all times. In +varied ways they have worked for others until the name of woman stands +for the spirit of self-sacrifice. Now He bids them bind their sheaves +and show a new and more glorious womanhood; a new unit--the completed +type of the mother-woman, working with all as well as for all. + + + + +The Advantages of a General Federation of Women's Clubs[1] + +_Address by Mrs. Croly to the First Meeting of the First Federation of +Women's Clubs, Held in Brooklyn, N.Y., April 23, 1890_ + + +The growth of the woman's club is one of the marvels of the last +twenty-five years, so fruitful in the development of mental and +material resources. What it was destined to become was, perhaps, far +from the minds of those who aided its inception, but all the +possibilities of the future lay in the germ that was thus planted, for +it was formed by the marriage of two great elements--freedom and +unity. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle._] + +The club has been called the "school of the middle-aged woman." It is +so in a very broad sense. It begins by gratifying her desire for +fellowship, her thirst for knowledge; by training her in business and +parliamentary methods; and gradually develops in her the power of +expressing her own ideas, of concentrating her faculties and focusing +them upon the object to be attained, the purpose to be accomplished. +At the same time she finds that a more subtle process has been going +on in her own mind. An insensible alchemy has been widening her +horizon, getting rid of prejudice, obliterating old, narrow lines, +leaving in their place a willingness to see the good in Nazareth as +well as in Galilee. + +This result shows that she is a clubable woman, for it is emphatically +the club spirit. It is in this respect that the club differs from +those societies that are devoted to a single purpose; which demand +subscription to an idea, an opinion, a dogma, a belief, a single basis +or principle, and do not admit of fellowship on any other terms. +Doubtless those have their uses--they are the necessary and often +powerful expression of an advancing public opinion; but they have +always existed, usually and in past times, under the leadership of +men, even when composed of women. But it remained for the nineteenth +century to develop a moral, social, and intellectual force, made up of +every shade of opinion and belief, of every degree of rank and +scholastic attainment, of every kind of disposition and habit of +thought, all moulded into form,--and though as yet only the promise of +what will be, furnishing an outline of that beautiful united womanhood +which was the dream with which the club was started, and has been the +guiding star to its development up to the present time. + +The union of clubs in a federation is the natural outgrowth of the +club idea. It is the recognition of the kinship of all women, of +whatever creed, opinion, nationality or degree; and it is a sign of a +bond that entitles every one to equal place;--not to charity or +toleration alone, but to consideration and respect. Inside of the club +we are equal sharers of each other's gifts. Each one brings her +knowledge, her sympathy, her special aptitude, her personal charm of +manner and disposition, and we are all enriched by this outflowing and +inflowing, by this equal part and share in a fountain made up of such +bountiful and diversified elements. + +But the tendency of a circle is to widen. This is natural and +necessary to healthful life. Stop its currents, dam up its inlets and +outlets, and it is reduced to stagnation, and soon becomes foul and +mischievous instead of healthy and life-giving. The tendency of narrow +ideas is to run to routine, to spend time and strength upon trivial +details, and allow them to block and hinder the consideration of +weightier matters. There is undoubtedly a use for practice in business +methods, particularly for those women who have had no previous +training in business life; but the club ought to be an evolution. Once +acquired, the knowledge of business ways, methods, and tactics can be +put to better use than to aid or hinder the transaction of routine +affairs, which it is the function of a committee to dispose of. + +The direction which the enlargement of club life takes must depend in +the first place upon local conditions and environment. Already in many +cities it has made itself, as in Philadelphia, the centre of the +active, moral and intellectual forces. In others, as in Milwaukee, by +cooperation in spirit and practice, it has provided a home for +literature and the arts. Whatever the woman's club does, is and ought +to be done on the broadest human principles; for if it forgets this it +ceases to be a club, and becomes merely a propaganda for the +advancement of certain fixed and unchangeable ideas. + +But its own life, no matter how broad, is not enough. Whatever is +vital is social. This is why a club when it comes to understand its +own powers and sources of life, wishes for the companionship, the +sympathy, the fellowship, the shaking hands with other clubs. It is +said that corporations have no soul: clubs have souls, and they call +loudly for the enlargement of club sympathies, the discussion of +knotty club questions, the affirmation by others of what have become +club convictions, and mutual congratulations on club successes. + +This is not all that a federation of clubs can accomplish, but it is +enough for a starting point. It is the kindly, providential, +sympathetic way in which we are always led from the smaller to the +larger field of work. Just before descending from a crest in the +Sierras into the valley of the Yosemite, you come suddenly upon a +wonderful view; it is called "Inspiration Point," and it is like an +open door, a revelation of the infinite, a promise in one gleam of +transcendent beauty, of all the separate and divisible splendors that +are to follow. + +This spirit of enlargement beckons us and leads us to the formation of +the Federated Union of Clubs, and we cannot do better than follow its +guidance. We all need, clubs as well as individuals, encouragement and +counsel; we need to enlarge our knowledge of what other clubs are +doing, of their extent, of their objects, of their ambitions. Above +all, we need to enlarge our sympathies, to cultivate sympathy by +knowledge; for our prejudices are born of ignorance, and we rarely +dislike what we intimately know. As Charles Lamb said: "How can I +dislike a man if I know him? Do we ever dislike anything if we know it +very well?" With the growth of clubs the purely personal +characteristics of them will disappear, or at least be subordinated to +larger aims; and it is in the prosecution of these larger aims that +the federation will find its reasons for existence. + +There is a vast work for clubs to do throughout the country in the +investigation of moral and social questions, in the reformation of +abuses, in the cultivation of best influences;--not the influence of +class or clique or party, but a wide, liberalizing, educational +influence which works for true goodness, for cleanliness, for order, +for equal opportunities, for the recognition of God in man and nature, +in whatever stage of unfolding the Divine in us may happen to be. It +is in the last twenty-five years that village-improvement societies, +first instigated by a woman--Miss Sallie Goodrich of Stockbridge, +Mass.--have created a transformation in whole townships, and so +enhanced the value of property as to drive out the original +inhabitants and change farming communities into fashionable summer +resorts. This result is of doubtful value. But every woman's club, +especially in the newer sections, has in its power, by wise and +careful action, to improve the conditions, elevate the tone, and +crystallize the moral force of its community in such a way as to make +it more desirable to live in, more beneficial to its own citizens, +more of an example to others. + +All these questions of club life and work would naturally come up +before a federated body, and these would as naturally lead to +governmental questions; to contrasts and records of activities in +different parts of the world, and to the investigation of the causes +which bring about certain results. + +Women are naturally both receptive and constructive. The affirmative +states of mind are those which, particularly belong to women; as +iconoclasts they are mere echoes. This affirmative condition is most +favorable to true development. Nothing good has ever come of mere +negation. But we must look for our truths and our basis of true +growth, in the light of the rising dawn--not, as heretofore, in the +waning glory of the setting sun. The union of clubs is the natural +outgrowth, of the planting of the true club idea. It was a little +seed, but it contained the germ of a mighty growth in the kinship of +all women--the women who differ as well as the women who agree; and +the federation of clubs is the forerunner of that unity of the race of +which philosophers have spoken, of which poets have dreamed, but which +only the constructive motherhood and womanhood of the race can +accomplish. + + + + +The Clubwoman[1] + + +The nineteenth century has been remarkable in many ways. It has +developed a new material and social order; but the fact is not as yet +fully recognized that it has developed a new woman--the woman who +works with, other women; the woman in clubs, in societies; the woman +who helps to form a body of women; who finds fellowship with her own +sex, outside of the church, outside of any ism, or hobby, but simply +on the ground of kinship and humanity. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle_.] + +It is not yet twenty-one years since a great daily in New York said +that if a society composed wholly of women could hold together one +year, a great many men would have to revise their opinion of women. +The remark was made apropos of the formation of the first women's +clubs in this country, and was echoed on all sides publicly and +privately. It is only significant now as showing the isolated position +of women, and the general impression which prevailed that they could +not and would not work together, except, perhaps, for some common +cause, religious or philanthropic, which for the time being absorbed +their energies and made them lose sight of their personal jealousies +and animosities. Why women should have been believed to be +antagonistic to women it is hard to say. This idea seems to have been +cultivated assiduously by men, and women have echoed it; for it cannot +be denied that the new fellowship that has come with the century and +with the awakening of women to the life which is theirs--the life of +friendship, of sympathy, of enlargement, of interest in affairs, of +common kinship with all that exists in a beautiful world--has in it +something of the nature of a surprise. Is it possible that women may +have a life of their own, may learn to know and honor each other, may +find solace in companionship, and lose sight of small troubles in +larger aims? + +These questions have been answered by thousands of women, answered +with tears, after the manner of women, but tears of joyful recognition +of the new day which has dawned for them;--a day of larger +opportunities, a day which comes after a night of ages; for the woman +is for the first time finding her own place in the world. Heretofore +she was only welcome if the man wanted her, and if he no longer wanted +her she was again cast out. But she is now learning that the world +exists for her also; that she is one half the human race; that life, +liberty, and the pursuit of whatever is good are as desirable for her +as for the man, and as necessary in order to put her in _rapport_ +with the eternal springs of all life and its varied forms of activity. + +The first impulse of the awakened woman is to unite herself with other +women; her next to learn that which she does not know in regard to +art, literature, peoples, races; the countries she has never visited, +the kinsmen and kinswomen she has never seen, and the degree in which +their progress has kept pace with or gone beyond her own. This +knowledge comes to her through her club or literary society. + +The woman's club has become the school of the middle-aged woman. It +has brought her up to the time. It has enabled her to keep pace with +the better advantages given to her sons and daughters. It has put an +interest into her life which it had never previously possessed, and +made her more humanly companionable because better able to judge and +more willing to suspend judgment. The clubs of women in America--the +growth mainly of the past twenty years--can now be counted by the +hundreds, and their membership by many thousands, and the history of +them all is practically the same. + +It is this woman, born of women's clubs, who is the woman of to-day. +She is the centre of the intellectual activity of townships and +neighborhoods all over the country. She forms stock companies, and +builds athenaeums; she is at the head of working guilds; she organizes +classes, teaches what she knows, while she is being taught what she +did not know; and in mental activity, and labor which is not routine, +has renewed her youth, and added to her attractions. She is at the +same time far removed from a lobbyist. She is able to look at +different sides; she is socially at home with the best people in every +sense of the word. She is a lady as well as a woman, and does not +adopt what is _outre_ in order to obtain notoriety. + + + + +The New Life[1] + + +It is a very dull mind, whether belonging to man or woman, that does +not feel stirred by recent movements--not here alone but all over the +world--into some quickening sense of the deeper life, the broader +human claims, the unifying and uniting influences which have sprung +into activity, and which address, not the visionary, but the +thoughtful and far-seeing, with prophetic gleams of a new heaven and a +new earth. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle_.] + +It is also a very narrow and self-absorbed mind which, only sees in +these openings opportunities for its own pleasure, or chances for its +own advancement on its own narrow and exclusive lines. The lesson of +the hour is help for those that need it, in the shape in which they +need it, and kinship with all and everything that exists on the face +of God's green earth. If we miss this, we miss the spirit, the +illuminating light of the whole movement, and lose it in the mire of +our own selfishness. To women this uplifting, these open doors, mean +more than to men. They have been hedged about with so many +restrictions, forced and held in such blind and narrow ways, that it +is little wonder if sight and steps are feeble, and that they find it +impossible to take it all in, or to recognize at once the full meaning +of the day that is dawning for them. + +For we are only at the threshold of a future that thrills us with its +wonderful possibilities;--possibilities of friendship where separation +was; of love where hatred was; of unity where division was; of peace +where war was; of light--physical, mental and spiritual--where +darkness was; of agreement and equality where differences and +traditions had built up walls of distinction and lines of caste. This +beautiful thing needs only to be realized in thought to become an +actual fact in life, and those who do realize it are enriched by it +beyond the power of words to express. "I should like to wake up rich +one morning just to see how it would feel," said one woman to another +not long since. "I do wake up rich every morning now," said the other, +"though I have still my living to earn, because my life is full of +prized opportunities, of cherished friendships, of chances for +acquiring knowledge that I had not in youth, and keeping myself in +touch with broad human facts and forces. Everything is interesting to +me, more interesting the closer my acquaintance with it, so that I am +fast getting rid of those ugly things we call prejudices, and laying +in a stock of appreciation instead, which is in itself enriching." + +The old feeling of patron and dependant--so irksome, so humiliating, +so feudal, yet containing for many the whole moral law--is done away +with, and in its place appears a spirit of true fellowship, a growing +sense of mutual respect and helpfulness. Club life teaches us that +there are many kinds of wealth in the world--the wealth of ideas, of +knowledge, of sympathy, of readiness to be put in any place and used +in any way for the general good. These are given, and no price is or +can be put upon them; yet they ennoble and enrich whatever comes +within their influence. + +Money is the only kind of wealth that is not common, that is not given +freely; and for that reason it has a deadening and demoralizing effect +upon the minds of those who cultivate and increase it for its own +sake, or fail to put it to its larger and more human uses. Wise +distribution is the only way in which money can be made valuable in +the world: it is only as a developing power, as an aid to the worker, +and a creator of instrumentalities by which good objects can be +accomplished, that it is desirable. In the light of this view, what +place do those men and women occupy who shut themselves up with their +money, and shut out the wide human interests which educate the mind +and heart to noble issues? Going to church does not help them, for it +must be an exclusive church and an exclusive pew, under an exclusive +pastor who patronizes Jesus Christ but does not sympathize with Him, +and who talks about the "dregs of society" as if it were something +far removed from the knowledge and consciousness of his hearers. + +The woman of the past has especially been cramped up, bound around, +and blindfolded by her special form of belief, by her tradition, by +her social customs, by her education, by her whole environment; and +the effect will remain stamped more or less upon her individuality +long after the predisposing causes have passed away and better +influences and circumstances have taken their place. + +But the present is full of encouragement. The new life has begun: the +woman is here;--not the martyred woman of the past; not the +self-absorbed woman of the present, but the awakened woman of the +future. That woman whose faculties have been cultivated, whose gifts +have been trained, whose mind has been enlarged, whose heartbeats +respond to the touch of the unseen human, and whose quickened insight +recognizes father, brother, sister, and friend beneath the strange as +well as the dilapidated robe. + +This woman whose face no artist has painted, who is not yet familiar, +is among us, and will remain. Her work humanizes and reconciles, and +the changes it will effect will come so noiselessly that the majority +will not be aware of them till they are accomplished, and then each +one will announce, and perhaps believe, that they themselves have +brought these things about. But this will not matter, for when the +work is done it is really of little consequence who did it, since all +who do any good work at all are simply agents and ministers, charged +with a task it is their business to perform, and happy only as they +are able to execute it. It is those who are "let alone," who live for +and in themselves, who are the unhappy ones; and for these, though +they possess fine houses, much gold, stocks and bonds, the poorest +worker may well fervently pray that the new life may come to these +also. + + + + +The Days That Are[1] + + +We live in an age of discontent. Discontent has been deified. It has +been called divine; and unrest, the seal as well as the sign of +progress. Doubtless there is a time and a place even for discontent, +for there is no faculty that has not its function. But discontent, +which is a sacred fire when it burns within and is kept for home use, +is a mischievous and destroying element when it is widely distributed +and unthinkingly-employed by ignorance and short-sightedness. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle_.] + +Then it is certain that if discontent is good, content is far better, +and thankfulness better yet. If time teaches us anything, it is to +work and wait and trust; to be thankful for what is--for the digging +and seeding time as well as for the harvest; for one must come before +the other. + +Time brings only one regret--that we had not more joy in the things +that were; more belief, more patience, more love; more knowledge of +the way things work out; more willingness to help toward the final +result. The preparation, the planting, the laying foundations, must be +done in the dark; usually done with blind eyes as well, which see not +what may or will be, but anticipate a harvest of pain from a +spring-time of rain. Yet these showers may have been indispensable to +the ground, and the seed may have expanded and sent its shoots up to +the surface in consequence of them. + +But why use symbols? The days that are;--the days that are with us are +the good days. Suppose it is hard work, and only the prospect of hard +work? Work is the best thing we have got: it is salvation. It is the +means by which we struggle up out of the darkness into the light. It +is the law of life. It is the ministry of all that is good in the +world; and the better it is the better for us, the better for every +one. It is only those who do not know how to work that do not love it; +to those who do, it is better than play--it is religion. + +But this is the mere influence of work itself. Suppose, besides your +work, you have the blessing of a family to be cared for, and your work +provides for them? This consecrates every part of it. It makes every +movement of the hand a benediction, every heart-throb an unuttered +prayer. Are not these days so full of labor best days? For about you +are those you love. They are under the roof you provide; their voices +furnish the music, their presence the sunshine of your life. Sometimes +that which your discontent craves will come to you. The freedom from +toil, the absence of "troubles" that now loom up so large to you; but +with your troubles your joys will have vanished, and you will sit in +the twilight waiting for the end, and wishing that you had cultivated +the sweetness instead of the bitterness of the beginning, that you had +not allowed the thorns to cover up your roses. + +Wisdom seems to have been the same always, but each one has to learn +its lessons for himself. That is the reason why there is so little +apparent progress in essential truths. There are always those who have +grown into their realization; there are always those who are at the +threshold, and who must travel over the same paths, for we can none of +us acquire true wisdom for another; it must become a part of +ourselves, of our own moral and spiritual consciousness. + +"It is all very well for you," says one; "you have never known the +pinch of poverty." How do you know that? We none of us know how and +where the shoe has pinched another person's foot. It is not our +business to know, but it is our business to prevent our soreness from +becoming sourness and bitterness. It is our business to make the +pathway of others as pleasant as we can, so that their unseen corns +shall irritate them as little as possible. All the wisdom of the days +that have been, and the days that are, will be found in the following +lines from Goethe's "Tasso": + + "Would'st thou fashion for thyself a seemly life? + Then fret not over what is past and gone; + And spite of all thou mayest have lost behind, + Yet act as if thy life were just begun. + What each day wills, enough for thee to know, + What each day wills, the day itself will tell. + Do thine own task, and therewith be content; + What others do that shall thou fairly judge. + Be sure that thou no mortal brother hate, + Then all beside leave to the Master Power." + + + + +A People's Church[1] + + +"What would you do if you were rich?" This is a question often asked, +and readily answered by those who have not wealth of their own to +dispose of, for there is nothing easier than to give away other +people's money. But it is more difficult to the conscientious, who +feel that their unearned millions ought to inure in some way to the +public benefit, yet do not always see the way to the reconciling of +their own conditions and circumstances with that use of money which +seems to them wisest and best. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle_.] + +As a rule it may safely be assumed that if all who are poor were +suddenly made rich, they would do as the majority of our rich men do +with their money--keep it. But it is at least pleasant to think how +generous one might be, and as the rich occasionally are; and I propose +to suggest one object that I hope will one day be realized in this +great city, where everything good is possible, as well as everything +evil, and which only needs to take vital root in some active mind to +become a living reality. + +Within a certain area New York may be called a city of churches, but +they are churches for the rich; solemn, imposing, cathedral-aisled, +glass-stained, costly, munificently beneficed, elegantly pastored--God +locked in, the poor locked out. I know there are "mothers'" meetings +and "mite" societies, and all the rest of it, but all the same the +poor woman in her old shawl and bonnet would not think of entering one +of those expensive pews, nor does the man in his working suit feel +that that is the place for him. Outside, the majority of churches take +no account of the necessity for the consolation, the comfort, the +upbuilding, the refreshment of religion, save and only for certain +hours on Sunday, and then it must be in full toggery, and in company +with, the eminently respectable. + +The most beautiful thing about the old churches abroad is not their +splendor of carving and painting, but that they stand with, open doors +week days and Sundays, for the people to enter; and they do enter. The +market woman with her basket drops in for a moment on her way home +from the labor of her weary day. The old woman totters in to say her +"Ave Maria," the young woman to pray away her perplexities. Even the +business man sometimes finds it a resource from his struggles and +temptations. The poor, with their crowded houses and narrow quarters, +have so little privacy as to make quiet, and even an opportunity for +self-communion, a luxury. Then how often in the perplexities which +fill their lives they desire for a little while a retreat, a refuge +where they can think, perhaps receive a word of counsel, at least find +an atmosphere of absolute peace and restfulness. + +The Monday prayer-meeting, the afternoon exhortation; the evening +conference of the Baptists, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, or the +Congregationalists, are not what is wanted; nor is it a cold and +barn-like edifice which makes one feel, if one goes to call upon God, +as though He were out, and could only be seen at stated times, and by +the will of the sexton and the trustees. + +A people's church is wanted, where the people can come and go as they +please; which asks no questions, which is always open, which has brief +singing and organ services that all and any people of any kind and +degree may attend and feel themselves welcome. A morning service of +praise, a mid-day song of rejoicing, a vesper hymn of thankfulness. No +word of condemnation, no word of controversy, no word of doubt, no +word of assertion or denial; only unceasing love, continued and +eternal recognition of human kinship and readiness to minister to any +soul's need as far as it may be reached and helped. + +No one minister could perform its offices; its servants would have to +be in a manner consecrated to its work, and they should be men and +women who have suffered, and therefore know, but who would find more +reason for rejoicing than lamentation; who would possess gifts of +music and oratory, and whose personal influence would be strong for +righteousness. + +There are great churches with scattered congregations, in Fifth +avenue; there are a few poor churches, and small, for which no one +cares, and which offer no attractions to the over-flowing population +of Mott street. The spring and summer will soon come, and then these +great churches will be closed, their pew-owners distributed over lake +and mountain in all the different parts of the wide world. But the +"people" will be here. People who work in foundries and shops, who +live in tenement-houses; people who earn a hand-to-mouth living as +clerks, book-keepers, seamstresses and petty store-keepers; people who +have to stay in such homes as they can support because they cannot +afford to break them up and go elsewhere. + +For these people and their children there is only the street. The +children occupy the street. For four or five months in the year they +make life hideous, especially on Sunday, by noise and exhibition of +vandalism that would disgrace the savages of any age or nation. The +police acknowledge themselves powerless to prevent it. It is simply +the exercise of undirected faculty which might be turned to account, +but which has only noise, confusion, and street warfare for its +opportunity for exercise. + +There are possibilities in these congregations of the highways and +byways, and when we have our people's church or churches, open all the +year, and all the night as well as all the day, and the voices of the +angels for sweetness, singing love and peace on earth, in an anthem +that pierces the roof, and with the tones of a mighty organ to +emphasize to all the world its message, and it is not a question of +clothes, many people will be glad to listen, and will find an +influence in the music, in the willingness, in the free-heartedness, +in the sympathy, in the kindness, in the spirit of brotherhood, that +they would not get out of preaching nor dogma. + +Whom are we waiting for to build this church? Is it a woman? Surely it +is an opportunity that carries the two-fold blessing. + + + + +Notes, Letters and Stray Leaves + + +A "free lance" is less free than the organs of a party. In one case it +means at least the opinions of a group; in the other, the dogmatism of +the one who wields the lance. Nothing is less free than the +self-styled freedom of the individual. + +Enthusiasm implies a certain narrowness of vision. When people can +take a broad view they can see the elements of goodness or beauty +everywhere, and they cease to be enthusiastic in regard to one. The +great popular preachers are not university men, or those who are quiet +and literary in style, but strong, dogmatic men. + +Perhaps the most noticeable difference between the so-called new woman +and the new man is this, that she is seizing every opportunity that +opens up new avenues of individual employment, while he is discovering +and storing energy to save himself from doing any work at all. The old +man made other men, and women too, work for him, the new man is making +the hitherto uncontrolled forces his servants, locking them up in such +small compass that a twist of the wrist will start the crash of +worlds. + +The notes of the great god Pan, so "piercingly sweet by the river"--a +far cry and a weary way from Pan to Handel and Beethoven; yet during +all that time music has been the joy and the consolation of +peoples,--all except the Quakers. + +If Poetry is the prophet of the future, music expresses all +emotions,--love, joy, fear, above all, aspiration. Music is +essentially religious, and has inspired the most perfect forms of +emotional composition we know. + +I take off my hat to the new man--that is, I would if I wore one, but +I wear a bonnet, and pin it on with long, sharp-pointed things which +if they were not used voluntarily would be considered instruments of +torture. Think of the man who is testing the force of dynamite--who is +holding lightning bolts in his hand and forcing them to do the work +which he has planned for them, who is taking the altitude of the +mountains in Mars in his observatory in the air at midnight,--think of +these men stopping to swear while they ran the murderous little weapon +through six thicknesses of buckram, lining, velvet, lace, feathers, +ribbon and hair--to fasten on their bonnets! + + + + +Letter to the New York Woman's Press Club + + + October, 1900. + +My dear Friends and Fellow-Members: + +It was really a grief to me not to be able to meet you individually +and collectively before leaving to be absent the entire season. The +accident which disabled me for the summer, threatens to cripple me for +the winter also, and in this condition of dependence and general +disability, it seemed best to go where I could have seclusion, and the +care of some member of my own family. + +I resign my place among you with less reluctance because the Woman's +Press Club is now strong and well able to guard its own interests, and +direct its own affairs. It will, I am sure, be all the better and +stronger from being thrown upon its own resources, and made to depend +wholly upon the potent efforts which have been evoked, and which may +be still further developed on the part of its membership. + +It will be a source of the deepest satisfaction to me in my retirement +to think of you in connection with the happy times we have had, and +the good work done during the past three years, and also of the spirit +of loving fellowship which has grown so strong and so deep. Nothing +can give greater pleasure than to hear of your continued growth and +prosperity, of continued endeavor to make the work effective, and the +life of the Woman's Press Club beautiful and useful. + +Remember that a well-rounded club is an epitome of the world; that it +never can and never ought to be perfect according to any one +individual's idea of perfection, for every one's ideal is different; +and it is the unity in this diversity which constitutes the spiritual +life of the club, as the soul animates and inspires the body. + +Exalt the club. Bring your best to the front. Extinguish personal +aims. Mind not at all the little picking and carping of human +gadflies, whose desire to extract blood is perhaps a survival of their +species, and an evidence of their unfitness for human companionship. + +I think of you at every gathering, and if you remember me, show it in +your determination to make the Woman's Press Club of Greater New York +an honor to the metropolis of the New World and to American womanhood. + + J.C. CROLY. + Hill Farm, Hersham, + Walton-on-Thames, England. + + + + +Letter to Sorosis + + + May, 1899. + +To my dear friends and fellow-members of Sorosis: + +On the eve of my departure from New York for a season, my heart turns +towards Sorosis with a depth of affection I find it difficult to put +into words. For thirty years it has held a large place in my life. It +has represented the closest companionship, the dearest friendships, +the most serious aspirations of my womanhood. The past is filled with +delightful memories, social and intellectual, of which it was the +happy instrument and inspiration. Its galleries are stored with living +pictures of noble women who were with us, who are always of us, who +have become a part of that eternal source of spiritual life from which +the best things spring. What is the secret of the strength of Sorosis? +What is its value to the community and the world at large? It is, as a +centre of unity. This is our Holy Grail,--and this we are bound never +to defame, or defile by thought, word or deed. + +We planted the seed not in Sorosis alone, but in the General +Federation; and it is our duty to see that it is preserved in its +integrity. Sorosis does not want place or power in the organization +she created, but it is hers to see that the great principle it +embodied is not lost sight of. That the limitless growth and +expansion provided for in its foundations are always from centre to +circumference, not in sections; and that as differences are not +recognized in the local organization, so there can be no north, south, +east, or west in the general organization, nor any separation or +division of interests. This is the aim of Sorosis:--to perfect within +its own membership that unity in diversity which is the basis of its +life, and the source of its growth; and, as far as its strength and +influence extend, preserve it as the foundation of a united womanhood. + +The consolation I feel in going away is that I shall find you here +when I return; not, I hope, crippled and disabled as now, but able to +be among you once more. I leave a monument of the woman's club in the +"Women's Club History," which carries marvellous testimony to the +ideals and aspirations of the woman of the home--for this is the woman +of the club. + +God bless and keep you all! I wish I could look into your kind faces +individually, and thank you for all that Sorosis past and present has +been to me. + + Faithfully yours, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letter to the Society of American Women in London + + + November, 1901. + +To the Society of American women in London: + +On the eve of my departure for America, I desire to express to the +Society of American Women something of what I feel sure I owe it +individually and collectively since its initial gathering in the +beginning of March. + +My visit to England has been made under extremely trying and painful +circumstances. I had expected no participation in any social +functions. I had communicated with only a very few near and dear +friends. Formal intercourse with comparative strangers seemed +impossible. + +But there was nothing strange in the atmosphere of the American +Society. It provided at once an atmosphere in which one could breathe +freely, so kindly and so cordial were its tone and spirit. + +It formed at once a social centre in which the best elements +contributed to the most varying attractions. It brought together many +of the most charming and progressive women in English as well as +American society, and also many of the brilliant women we read about, +but rarely meet. + +In addition, it performed a most useful office in extending the hand +of welcome from American women in London to the representative women +who attended the International Council; and has a future of +exceptional character in filling a social need which has never been +filled by the official representatives in republican America. + +It is not too much to say that it has put life in London in quite a +new and much more attractive aspect to American women, by focusing the +best elements and bringing them in touch with each other. With time +and development the highest results of the modern co-operative spirit +should be attained, and the fulness of a life that will enrich each +individual member, and reach out beyond to an ever widening sphere of +happy influence. + + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letter to the Pioneer Club of London + + + June, 1901. + +To the Finance Committee of the Pioneer Club: + +I hope I shall not be considered as taking a liberty in presenting a +subject of some importance for your consideration. + +There is a feeling in some clubs and among some clubwomen that the +time has arrived for expanding the club idea and at the same time +drawing closer the ties which unite women in the form of organized +fellowship, which the modern clubwoman recognizes as a potent and most +valued element of her club life. It is believed, in short, that the +time has come for the initial steps to be taken for the formation of a +European Federation of Women's Clubs. + +There are many reasons which seem to make it eminently proper that the +Pioneer Club should be the one to take these initial steps. It is the +oldest and best known woman's club in London. It was founded upon the +broadest human lines by a woman who possessed in the highest degree +that sixth sense which the nineteenth century contributes to the +twentieth--the sense of the Universal. This led her to affiliate the +Pioneer Club in the beginning with the General Federation of Women's +Clubs in the United States, and should inspire it to progressive life +and work. + +The initial step is not formidable. It is, if thought desirable, +simply to address a circular letter to women's clubs on record, +wherever they may be known to exist, proposing a basis of federated +affiliation, and inviting them to unite in forming a grand Federation +of organized bodies of women capable of realizing any purpose upon +which they might bring their united forces to bear. + +If it is said, "Of what use is such a Federation?" I might point to +many instances of educational and municipal progress, and social +reform in America effected by this combined effort. But details are +as nothing compared with the one great, glowing, ultimate aim of the +solidarity of thoughtful, high-minded, intelligent, progressive women. +It is written in the stars. It will surely become an accomplished +fact; and there are other clubs willing to take the initiative; but it +is fitting that the Pioneer Club should lead, and by its wisdom and +judgment lend an added dignity to noble endeavor. + + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letters to Mrs. Dimies T.S. Denison, President of Sorosis + + + 22 AVENUE ROAD, + LONDON, NW., January 27, 1899. + +My dear Mrs. Denison: + +Thank you very much for your delightful letter. It was so good and +heartening. Its spirit was so representative of the best that +club-life has given us that it made me feel more than ever thankful +for Sorosis and for that reserved strength and all-roundedness of +resource and character which makes it able to successfully tide over +any difficulties. + +I have not heard of any effort to form a London Sorosis, nor do I +think it could be done successfully on precisely the same lines. If we +were starting a club to-day it would differ considerably from the one +started thirty-one years ago. That had to be formed out of such +materials as were available at that time, and built as it knew and as +it grew. Its virtue lay in its breadth, in the true and scientific +character of its conception. It made a centre and worked from that to +the radiating points of an illimitable circle, not knowing precisely +where these would take it, but with all the faith of Columbus in +results founded upon essential principles. We had no idea at the time, +that at every one of these farther points other centres were being +formed that also, in their own time and way, struck out feelers and +shafts, and thus became part of that great system of creative force, +which, still acting on its central and original idea of a larger +unity, brought together the General Federation. This is the mother +idea which Sorosis represents, and which needs no legal enactment to +enforce. It stands for this as much in London as in New York, and in +its own way has become unique. It lacks some of the elements of the +newer clubs, but it contained the germ of them all, and is essentially +a true growth, an aggregation of all the qualities of a diverse and +unified womanhood;--not by making it something else, but by studying +its own spirit and life, and the genius it has developed. + +First, it stands for a wide hospitality and the generous recognition +of all other women; for high standards in literature, art, ethics, and +all the interests belonging to and growing out of them. Above all, it +stands for home duty; for honor, faithfulness, loyalty, courage and +truth. Finally, it stands for subjection;--that highest subjection of +the one will to the many; of that subordination of our own dominant +desire to the spirit and will of God, represented by the spirit and +will of the majority. For the voice of the people is in a real sense +the voice of God, whether we recognize it or not. + +O my beloved Sorosis, you are the core of my heart! What have I said +but that you represent an ideal of life and character, and that each +member should hold herself responsible for its preservation and its +increasing beauty and value? + + Faithfully yours, + J.C. CROLY, + Honorary President. + + +Dearest Mrs. Denison: When I began this letter it was intended for you +alone; as I went on it seemed as if it might find a little place at +the Breakfast. Use your own judgment in regard to having an extract +made for that purpose... + + Yours lovingly, J.C.C. + + + + + QUEEN'S ROAD, ST. JOHN'S WOOD, + LONDON, N.W., April 16, 1899. + +My dear President: + +What a lovely programme! I am so proud to show it, and so happy that +Sorosis is going on so beautifully. Have I congratulated you? If not, +let me do it now with all my heart. I always knew your time would +come, and that you would make a popular as well as a wise president. +You have a light touch, but a very appreciative one, and that good +thing--a fine sense of humor. You do not take yourself too seriously, +but you give the best of yourself unreservedly. God bless you for +carrying the banner of Sorosis up to its highest level, and +maintaining its dignity in a way worthy of its reputation. + +The London Club, or Society of American Women in London, is +flourishing. The president comes often to see me, and in her address +at the second luncheon, April 10th, said that she considered it a +special providence that I was in London at the beginning; that I had +been of the greatest help to her, and that she should always look upon +me as their "Club Mother." I began to wonder if that was what my leg +was broken for, and how many more times I might have to be cut to +pieces to make "Mother" enough to go around. + +Mrs. Henry Norman (Muriel Dowie, author of "A Girl in the +Carpathians") made a brilliant little speech. She is delightful, and +very anxious to visit America. Her husband is the Englishman who of +his own choice graduated from Harvard. He has written some very +appreciative articles about America... + +I hope I shall know when Mrs. F. and Mrs. L. are coming, and something +of their plans. At least how long they will stay in London. Won't you +be so good as to tell them this and give them my address? + +I am endeavoring now to put myself under treatment for the pain and +weakness I feel when I try to walk (with sticks) in the street... + + Really yours, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + 7 RUE D'ASSAS, PARIS, FRANCE, + October 3, 1900. + +My very dear President and Friend: + +Your letter was most welcome. I have been in a quiet little country +place since coming from Ober-Ammergau, and know no one. I thought much +of you in those quiet days, and wished to write, but waited to hear, +and the echoes did come in a way I understood, for I had letters +before leaving America which were an indication of the general trend +of thought and desire. Of course I never for a moment misunderstood +your attitude in the matter of the election... You could not help your +election. [Referring to the first vice-presidency of the General +Federation.] + +I am very, very sorry the color question has been raised again. It +almost made a split six years ago. It was, at the best, premature. It +was a sacrifice of the greater to the less, of the real good we had +attained and the ideal towards which we were working, to a theoretical +possibility which had not yet presented itself. We have yet a thousand +obstacles to overcome within ourselves; a thousand problems to solve; +an ideal to work towards capable of infinite expansion. But we should +not strain the limits while the centre still lacks order and form, and +depends upon the wisdom with which it is guided for permanence. + +We have made some dreadful blunders,... but ideals are not stones in +the street; they are stars in the sky. They are always beyond us; we +cannot wear them as breast-pins but we can work towards them... + + Yours faithfully, + J. C. CROLY. + + + + + 82 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, + LONDON, W.C., April 10, 1901. + +My very dear Friend and President: + +How good it was of you to send me the beautiful souvenirs of the +thirty-third Annual Breakfast. They took me straight back to you all +through a mist of tears that were half pleasure, half pain; pleasure +that I was not forgotten, pain that I was not there to see the loving +glance, and share the hand-clasp. It is true I have many friends here, +but none that seem quite like the old friends; and there is only one +Sorosis--God's blessing be upon it for evermore! Yet wherever I go, +God's blessing and His Spirit seem to me to have descended upon women. +They show the most wonderful goodness and insight. They seem each one +to be specially made; not the kind that are kept in stock, so to +speak. Oh, I feel sometimes as if all my life had been partly a test, +partly an experience of their goodness, and that it is a sufficient +blessing, for nothing else has been left me. + +A writer remarked the other day, in an article on the South African +war, that the best results of war were ties--the spirit of good +comradeship that it established among men. This is what we +preeminently get out of our club life, and without paying so fearful a +price for it. I hope to see you all when you come together in the +autumn. + + With loving remembrance, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letters to Mrs. Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (London) + + + 11 BARTON STREET, WEST KENSINGTON, + Jan. 15, 1889. + +My Dear Mrs. Stopes: + +It is very kind of you to take this trouble to give us a pleasure, and +I would not miss it on any account. But it is a little difficult for +me to name the day. I am in the hands of the dentist this week; I +shall hardly get through to go to the Writers' Club on Friday. These +two circumstances have postponed my visit to Miss Genevieve Ward to +whom it is now arranged that I go a week from to-morrow. I could make +it any afternoon that week that would suit you. Mrs. Sidney will be +delighted also to accept your invitation; and perhaps Miss Ward also. +Please make the afternoon to suit yourself and Miss Blackburn. + + Really yours, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + Jan. 19. + +I go to Miss Ward's on Monday. It is her day at home, and therefore +will be more or less fatiguing. Tuesday I have promised to dine at the +Crescent Club with Mrs. Phillips and hear Mr. Felix Moscheles' lecture +afterwards. Miss Ward and her brother, Col. Albert Lee Ward, go also. +Three days of continuous going out would be too much for me, and +something would have to give way. I would rather it would be any event +than yours. Suppose you arrange it for the week following, and in the +meantime call for me at Miss Ward's on Monday. You will find Miss Ward +a very striking personality, and I particularly wish Col. Ward to +accompany me to your house. I will see you on Friday, and you can tell +me how you decide. + + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + Jan. 20. + +Friday the 27th will suit me very well. I have been out-of-doors so +little as yet, that I feared I might break down on the third day of +trying. I do know Lady Roberts Austen; have been to luncheon at her +house, but have not seen her since I came this time; I have +communicated as yet with so few. I heard from her the other day +however, and I know she will go to your house if she possibly can. I +have to drive wherever I go. I move too slowly for crowds and public +conveyances. I cannot risk weather. + + + + + Feb. 8. + +I want to thank you for the afternoon I spent at your house; I enjoyed +it so very much. You will not consider me "pushing" if I say I am only +half satisfied. There are so many sides to your house; I want to see +the Queen of Scots portrait again, and the Donatello, and some of your +rare cookery books. I expect to change my quarters in about three +weeks to the North West; then you will let me come and browse, won't +you. But first you must come and lunch with me. With kind regards to +your delightful family, + + I am, etc. + + + + + March 12. + +May I come up next Thursday afternoon and bring with me an American +friend, Mrs. Stockber of Silverton, Colorado, who has just arrived by +the _Umbria_. Mrs. Stockber is an unusually interesting woman. She is +equal owner with her husband, an intelligent and large-minded German, +of one of the largest silver mines in the States, and is one of the +only two honorary women members of the great Association of Mining +Engineers of the United States. Mrs. Griffin, the President of the new +Society of American Women in London, also wants to come. I don't want +to inundate you; and this is only to ask if you are better, and can +receive a trio safely. + + Yours, etc. + + + + + March 16. + +I am sorry to give you so much trouble. But I have a friend here just +now, a woman of unusual character and ability. I remember I told you +of her. The other is Mrs. Helen T. Richards of the Boston Institute of +Technology. The only moment I can get her is on Monday afternoon, and +I want her to see the collection of prints and your pictures. If it is +all right I will bring her with me on Monday at 3 P.M. We must go to +Miss Ward's at 4.30. Do not have tea at that primitive hour; for we +shall be obliged to have a cup at Miss Ward's. I wish we might have a +chance of seeing Mr. Stopes; but of course that is something that may +be prayed for, but not what common people are made for. Dear, take +care of yourself if you can. There is only one of you. + + Yours, + J.C.C. + + + + + March 17. + +We will postpone. I cannot reach my two troublesome friends, and next +week you will be busy and tired. "By-and-by" is coming with the sun +and flowers. We will come too. + + Yours lovingly and really, + J.C.C. + + + + + June 25, 1901, + 82 SOMERS' STREET, W.C. + +My very dear Friend: + +I have only time to thank you for your kind "welcome," and tell you +how sorry I am not to see you to-day, and your precious Winnie, who I +hope has really started on the road to recovery. Children are the +richest boon vouchsafed us in this world, and the parents are the +trustees of this wealth committed to their charge, but belonging to +the world at large, and of which time only tells the value. I shall be +very busy now for a few days, but will see you as soon as possible. + + Affectionately, + J.C.C. + + +[Illustration: Facsimile of a portion of a letter written by Mrs. +Croly in October, 1900.] + + + + + 222 WEST 23D STREET, + NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 1901. + +My dear Friend: + +Thank you very much for your letter and card. It was a great pleasure +to me to receive it, and to learn something about yourself and what +you are doing. The news was long belated. The letter was to have been +printed the week that I left, and I provided to have it sent to about +a dozen friends as a good-bye. But it was so long delayed by Transvaal +excitement and sad war news, that I did not expect it to appear at +all. + +I had a wonderful celebration on my seventieth birthday in December; +poems written, cakes with seventy candles sent, and a great +spontaneous gathering in my honor, which really bothered me not a +little, for I do not pose worth a cent, and do not know where to look +or what to do when people compliment me. + +However, one thing gratified me above all others. It was a "birthday +party" given me by the Daughters of 1812--the most exclusive of +patriotic societies that is restricted to lineal descendants. The +gathering was magnificent; the cake was brought in lighted by seventy +candles borne on the shoulders of four men. By unanimous vote they +conferred upon me honorary membership, and the insignia were +conferred. The president in seconding the motion said, this departure +from their rules (alluding to my English birth) was not in honor of +"the club," nor of the "literary women," but of the woman who knew no +line of separation, and whose work had been done for all women. Was +not that a beautiful thing to say? Only that I intend to be cremated, +I would have it put on my tombstone. + +We had a very bright and very beautiful beginning here to the "Holy +Year," so far as weather is concerned, and it is also very gay, though +my lameness prevents me from participating much in social doings. I am +also grieved by the unexpected effects of the Boer war, in England. +There must have been shocking blundering and mismanagement somewhere. +The pitying way in which "poor, stupid, decrepit old England" is +talked about is galling. Some military officers remarked recently that +England was hardly worth having a "scrap" with, she would be so easy +to beat. + +Our General Federation holds a Congress in Paris in June, and my +passage is taken for May 19th. If nothing untoward prevents, I shall +be in London for a week early in June, and then go to Paris and +Ober-Ammergau. If you could go it would be very pleasant. Give my love +to your daughters, and kind regards to Mr. Stopes. + + Yours ever, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letter to Mrs. Carrie Louise Griffin + + 82 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, W. C. + June 25, 1901. + +My dear Mrs. Griffin: + +Mr. Bell wants an article immediately, about the American Society, for +the Chicago _Recorder_; and I am glad to write it, because it enables +me to make it stand for what it does; and will, still more, in the +very heart of western clubdom; and will be a John the Baptist for you +if you should go over next summer. He wants some photographs, yours +particularly; which please send. He left his card with address of +_Recorder_ in Fleet Street, which I omitted to take up-stairs at the +moment, and afterwards it could not be found. I am hoping that you +have it and will give it to me, or that Mr. Griffin perhaps knows it. +If you can drop in on Monday, A.M., I should be glad to ask you in +regard to some members--what to say of them, etc. Would Mrs. Clarence +Burns allow her picture to be used, and have you one of Mrs. De +Friese? + + Always faithfully yours, + J. C. CROLY. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. May Riley Smith + +... I have never done anything that was not helpful to woman so far as +it lay in my power. (April 2, 1886.) + + + + +Letters to Miss Anna Warren Story (Chairman of Executive Committee of +the Woman's Press Club of New York) + + + HILL FARM COTTAGE, HERSHAM, + WALTON-ON-THAMES, ENGLAND, + Oct. 29, 1900. + +My dear Executive: + +Your letter giving me all the news to date was most kind and welcome. +It seems very strange to be away from you all in this secluded corner +of Surrey, with nothing in sight but woods, a meadow in which cows are +grazing, and one neighboring cottage. My morning walk, when the +weather will admit of walking, is along the old post road lined with +woods and at the foot of our little lane or entrance to farm. The +other morning one solemn old cow put her head through the fence, and +stared with amazement at my crutches. Four others walked over to see +what she was looking at; and they all stood in a row, looking and +making no sound as long as I could see them. It was very funny. + +It seems so odd after so many years of continuous and often hurried +work, to be using days for walking, and little things that since I was +a grown woman have been crowded into odds and ends of time, or omitted +for want of enough of it. I am gaining strength, however, and realize +how complete the prostration was, and how radical the reconstructive +processes had to be. The seclusion in which I live, surrounded by pine +woods, a mile and a half from the nearest post office (tho' a postman +brings our letters) and an equal distance from such supplies as a +village can afford, is a little trying in some ways, but a real boon +to me in my present condition. + +It would have been very easy to plunge into the activities of women in +London. Many invitations have reached me, but I have been nowhere but +to one little dinner given by our only neighbor, the wife of a London +editor, and herself a popular story writer. + +I can walk now with one crutch and a stick, and begin to hope for +complete restoration, which at one time seemed to me impossible. But, +oh, how tedious and wearing it is! We have an unusually fine October +for England, but gray skies and almost daily rains now. But the Surrey +country is beautiful, full of quaint old villages and objects of +picturesque interest. I am longing for the time and the weather to +explore it. I could write all day about my gradually growing desire to +be "up and doing." But time and space do not admit. Let me say in one +word how deeply I was touched by the action of the Executive +Committee, the Governing Board, and club. But I am also disappointed. +I wanted to leave the field clear, and have new energy put into the +club by bringing into active and central circulation the young, best +blood we possess. Thank you for your assurance that as far as possible +that will be done; and thank every officer and every member in my +behalf for the long and affectionate confidence they have reposed in +me, and for the many acts of personal kindness I have received from +them. + +I am sorry you have lost the Countess by removal, and other valuable +members by death... + + Yours faithfully and affectionately, + J.C. CROLY + + + + + NORFOLK VILLA, WEYBRIDGE, SURREY, + August 20, 1901. + +My dear Anna: + +Your letter came most opportunely. I had been thinking about you, the +Press Club, and my dear friends at home; for somehow I have not felt +the old pleasure in being in England, and if I had a home to come back +to, and my goods and chattels were not so far off, I should have come +back, I think, this autumn. + +For one thing, the weather has not been favorable. We had such warm +weather in July; but every month has had a week or more of very cold +and wet weather. In Ober-Ammergau on the 8th of July we perished with +the cold, and the rain almost caked in ice upon us. Still, even such +weather could not spoil Ober-Ammergau. It is the one thing of its kind +on earth, and the nearest to an absolutely perfect thing I ever saw. A +great charm is the unconsciousness of the performers. They do not play +to an audience. There are no footlights, nothing theatrical; only the +Great Tragedy wrought out as a living reality. I think of all the +scenes; the one that made the deepest impression upon me was the one +in which there were the fewest actors and least acting. That was the +Garden of Gethsemane. So intense was the agony of spirit, that it +seemed as if I myself should cry out if the disciples had not gone +away and left the Saviour alone to his mortal struggle. + +It is a great thing, Anna, that these people have done. They have +lived the Passion of Christ for nearly three hundred years. They are +born in it; they are fed upon it. They have made a cult of religion; +and they are absolutely religious, but not in the least sectarian. The +Christ they have lifted up draws all men unto him. + +I have been in a quiet country place for four weeks, and shall stay +two weeks longer... If I remain this winter we shall probably go back +to Paris by November and to Italy in the spring. Now that I am here I +might as well give myself this one more chance... I was very tired +when I came back from our hurried trip, and was very glad of rest and +quiet... + +Do not let my dear friends in the Press Club build upon me, or weaken +their force by re-electing me. Elect a young, strong, press woman. +Anna, do this without any reference to personal feeling or likes or +dislikes. You are capable of acting impersonally. Beg the club to do +this in my name, and to pick out their best for the chairmen of their +representative committees. + +My own dear friends and fellow members; how I wish I could make them +feel the strength of my desire for their growth in wisdom and honor. +God bless them all! + + Yours affectionately and faithfully, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + ASHOVER, DERBYSHIRE, + May 30, 1901. + +My dear Anna: + +Your kind letter arrived this morning, forwarded by Mrs. Sidney to +this remote village in Derbyshire. I left London ten days ago because +I had to get fresh air and quiet. Ashover is a quiet little village; a +paradise of meadows starred with flowers, and wooded and cultivated; +hills in which all the treasures of one of the richest counties in +England (in floral wealth) are to be found. When I came here there +were still primroses, cowslips, violets, forget-me-nots, and fields +white with small daisies and yellow with buttercups. Now there are +masses of yarrow, marguerites, rhododendrons, bluebells, and great +trees of white and purple lilacs. Roses, I am told, will cover +everything by and by, but development is a little late this year. I +wish you could spend a month here this summer: what a revelation of +English beauty it would be to you! + +Thank you for your sympathy with my personal troubles. I am not +unhappy... The goodness of women to me is always and everywhere +miraculous. This alone makes life worth living... + +I am rejoiced to hear of the Press Club's prosperity. Nothing could +give me greater pleasure than to know of its constant growth and +advancement. + + With love, ever yours, + J. C. CROLY. + + + + +Letters to Mrs. Caroline M. Morse + + + HILL FARM COTTAGE, WALTON-ON-THAMES, + SURREY, ENGLAND, Dec. 13, 1898. + +My dear friend: + +I was sorry to know from Ethel's note, received day before yesterday, +that you had been ill, and were still unable to the task of writing. I +wished above all things that I could in some way help and comfort you, +having always in mind the help and comfort you were to me during the +trying days last summer that followed my accident, and the consequent +long and tedious illness. There are many people who feel +sympathetically, but so few are capable and who are ready or are +permitted to apply the act of sympathy. It is the friend in need that +is the friend we remember with a grateful, lasting love... + +At this moment we are on the eve of removal to London where we are +taking rooms once occupied by the family of David Christie Murray. We +go to-morrow, and begin a new chapter in this most disastrous of +years. So many things seem to culminate toward the close of the +century--good fortune for some, evil fortune for others; hopes dashed +at the seeming moment of realization, as if all the forces in nature +were aiding to make an end of the century's efforts in any way that +would bring finality. + +For my part I feel as if I had been forcibly brought to a standstill. +In a few days (the 19th) I shall have reached the milestone: I shall +be seventy. Sorosis would have made an occasion of it if I had been in +New York. As it is, I feel a little tinge of regret that my +annihilation last June was not more complete; that I did not leave, +along with my dear friend, Mrs. Demorest. Not that I am wholly +unhappy; I only feel somehow brought to an unfinished close; left in a +state of animated suspension. I seem to see everything from a +distance; separated by my inability to participate in the goings and +comings, the doings and pleasures of others. I feel the wall that +stands between those who still live and those who have passed from +this world; but alas, I still retain consciousness, and desire for +sympathy, and can see and hear and feel, though my feet are chained. +It is just three months since I arrived. A part of the time we had +beautiful weather, and I could walk on the road a little on sunshiny +days, leaning upon my two sticks. But during the past five weeks, my +out-door exercise has been nil: the roads were too wet and rough. It +has been almost constant fog, rain, wind; and the drip, drip, drip, of +a mist that was wetter than rain. This, I think, has added a little +rheumatism to give name to the pain and stiffness of joints and newly +forming muscles. The change we are about to make will be a new +departure for me--I shall have to try stairs... But I shall have the +dear companionship of Marjorie,[1] who has lived an ideal out-of-door +life here. She will there begin to have regular lessons at home, or go +to kindergarten. I have been reading to her Mary Proctor's "Starland," +which by your thoughtful prompting she caused to be sent to me through +her London publishers. I am so much obliged to you and to her for +remembering the promise that I should have a copy. It is charming, and +ought to have a wide sale... + +[Footnote 1: Her grandchild.] + +I must stop; Vida has come for my mail, and is going to the +post-office on her bicycle. She and Mr. Sidney are never so happy as +when taking long bicycle rides on these fine English country roads. + +With warmest greetings to Colonel Morse and Ethel, and ever loving +remembrance to you, dear friend, I am, as always, + + Ever yours, + J.C.C. + + + + + 11 BARTON STREET, WEST KENSINGTON, + LONDON, January 29, 1899. + +My dear friend: + +I have been wondering these many days where you are and how it is with +you. How I have wished that you were near by, and that we could have +taken some of my lonely, painful "duty" walks upon crutches together. +I miss your sympathy and ever ready kindness... I suffer terribly now +with sore and swollen feet--the result of pain, stiffness, strain in +movement, and lack of exercise. But I am stronger. I can now lift my +arms and brush my own hair... + +We are having beautiful weather just now. We have had sunshine for a +week, and people go about announcing the fact with joy and surprise, +as if a new Saviour had arisen; all but the Americans, newly come, who +complain about everything, rain or shine... + + J.C.C. + + + + + + LONDON, Jan. 16, 1901. + +Dear friend: + +This letter is for the family. Poor as it will be, it will have to +tell of all I would like to say to you, and for the thousand and one +things I would like to tell of London and of the many kindnesses I +have received. I had not expected to be here this winter, as you know, +and ought not to be. The cold and the damp have developed rheumatism +of a very severe type in my lame leg, and I suffer from pain and +difficulty in walking... I could, of course, obtain some mitigation of +these conditions, but the same reason that compelled my return to +London, Mr. P.'s actual failure, has so encroached upon my +income--without a prospect of even partial recovery for a long time to +come--as to make it almost equally difficult to live either in +Switzerland, where, at Schinznach-les-Bains, I could receive so much +benefit; or in London, or New York. I wish, as I wished two years ago, +that my accident had ended it, and saved all the pain and difficulty +of solving a perpetual and insoluble problem... It seems sometimes as +if there were only two kinds of people in the world--those who ride +over others roughshod, and those who are ridden over. The cruel +accident that shattered me on that June day shattered my world. Life +since then seems in the nature of a resurrection; every day a special +gift, and every pleasant thing an act of Divine Providence. Love to +you all. This is about myself. Write soon and tell me all about +yourselves. + + Lovingly, + J.C.C. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. Christina J. Higley + + + LONDON, July--, 1899. + +My dear friend: + +... It seems as if everything had been taken from me but the +friendship, the affection of women; and that manifests itself here as +well as at home. God bless them! They have made all the brightness of +my life. + + Affectionately, + J.C.C. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. Catherine Young + + + LONDON, Sept. 3, 1895. + +Dearest Mrs. Young: + +Your letter has been before my eyes many times... + +Keep up your courage and your faith in women and in the _old flag_. I +came across it the first time after I arrived, in a moment of extreme +despondency. It did me a world of good... In three weeks, if all goes +well, I shall see you. We sail for New York on the 12th of this month. + + Affectionately, + J.C.C. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. Harriet Nourse + + +... Oh, yes, I have made my will many times; but some man always +spoils it and I am obliged to make it over, I am not at all +superstitious about making a will. My only trouble is having nothing +to leave. I am fond of superstitions--the little ones. They give +interest to life, if you have to spend it in one place. A little +unreason is less monotonous than the eternally reasonable, and if it +makes you happy for a minute to see the moon over your right shoulder, +why not see it, and be unreasonably happy? + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. Margaret W. Lemon + + + 222 WEST 23RD STREET, + NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 1900. + +My dear Mrs. Lemon: + +I am very glad you are to formulate the resolution of thanks and +appreciation of the work of the Reception Committees. Of course it +goes without saying that it will be spread upon the minutes. + +The work was altogether so fine and painstaking, and showed such +thought, care, taste and judgment, that, apart from my personal +pleasure in it, I felt exceedingly proud, and happy at the complete +and beautiful result... I am sorry you do not like "Current Events." +To me "Current Topics" means the fag end of everything we know and +have been obliged to read about in the papers. "Current Events" has a +broader significance, and leaves out the trivial and vulgar. + + Sincerely yours, + J. C. CROLY. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. E. S. Willard + + + BELLA-VISTA, BOSTON HARBOR, MASS., + August 28, 1901. + +... As yet I think I am still in London; or at least still in England. +Crossing the Atlantic is not so much of an undertaking; less than +taking a "trip" with "crossing" changes. Packing and unpacking, and +the harassing "customs" are the worst features. There were only +fifty-six passengers on the _Minneapolis_, but it took us from 8 A.M. +to 1 P.M., in a pouring rain, to pass the argus-eyes of one hundred +and eight inspectors, about two to each passenger. + +In my case it seemed a bit ironical,--one of Thomas Hardy's "Little +Ironies," for a _rapid_ American trustee had lost my whole capital +during my absence... The necessity for tying up the ragged ends and +applying a test brought me home. But it is a trial, though I seem to +have lost the power to be unhappy. Do you know what that means? Is +that unarmed neutrality the serenity of Heaven? + +I am as yet living in England. My thoughts are there, and my desire. I +see you and a few others whom I love come and go, and I exchange the +loving word, the kindly smile, the sympathetic look. + +I am waiting for an indication of where I am to end my days. If my +steps turn towards the isles of the sea, you will be a magnet to draw +me, you with your spiritual beauty, and your constant, unfailing +goodness. God bless you, and grant that I may see you again, and that +we may gain the love, as well as the peace, that passeth all +understanding. + + Yours always, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Resolutions of Protest Offered by Mrs. Croly Through the Woman's Press +Club + +(From the Recording Secretary's Report) + + +At a special meeting of the Governing Board, held in the club rooms, +126 East 23rd street, Dec. 26, 1892, the following resolution +proposed by the president was adopted. + +_Resolved_: That the Woman's Press Club has learned with deep regret +of the backward action of the Columbian University of Washington, in +deciding to exclude women from its Medical Department, after ten years +of co-education. + +_Resolved_: That we unite with Pro-Re-Nata of Washington, D. C., in +expressing an emphatic protest against this retrograde movement; that +we earnestly hope that better counsels will prevail; that, at a time +when so conservative an institution as the British Medical Association +has voted to open its doors to women, the stigma of retrogression will +not be allowed to rest upon the foremost school in the Capitol of the +Nation. + + + + +Tributes of Friends + + + +Jane Cunningham Croly + +An Appreciation from Miriam Mason Greeley + + +In the joyful Christmas-tide of 1829, into the sweet influence of an +English country home there came to life a blue-eyed, brown-haired +maiden, whose sunny nature was destined to laugh with gladness of +heart, or smile through falling tears, for more than seventy eventful +years. "Jenny June" while yet a child came with her family to New York +State, entering here an atmosphere well adapted to foster her +activities and her power to work for the good of others. Her breadth +of vision and her genial sympathy would have been evinced in any land +or clime, but in the stimulating freedom of American thought her +abilities developed to their best. + +She found opportunity to plant the seeds of earnest thought, of which +later she was to gather such a rich harvest in the confidence of her +fellow-women. Her eager mind was a rich soil for the growth of ideas +springing from her fertile brain; which led her to be both +conservative and impetuous, grave or vivacious, ever fearless and +versatile, all pervaded with the wholesome balance of quick +penetration. + +To her is due the tribute of praise for having borne the heat and +burden of the day in the early development of women's clubs. Friends +tried to persuade her to abandon her plans for organizing woman's +varied abilities, ridicule assailed her most cherished hope, and the +sarcasm of opponents barred the way. She lived to triumph in seeing +her aims successful, and after thirty-five years of club life to be +honored by one of the highest gifts in the power of the General +Federation to offer--the honorary vice-presidency. + +Mrs. Croly formulated in 1890 her well-matured plan for a general +federation of women's clubs, and with the cordial assistance of the +"Mother Club, Sorosis," issued the first call for representatives of +women's clubs of all the States to meet. + +Stimulated by the success of the General Federation, Mrs. Croly urged +the formation of the New York State Federation, and assisted by +Sorosis as the hostess, an invitation was issued to all the State +clubs to be the guests of Sorosis at Sherry's, November, 1894. + +[Illustration: MRS. CROLY at the age of 18.] + +Mrs. Croly's life-work as a writer had gone forward hand in hand with +her club interests, and, having finished the foundation work of the +two federations, she devoted her time to the preparation of her +massive volume on the "Growth of the Woman's Club Movement," which is +a monument to her patient industry, and the only permanent record of +the development of women's clubs in America. + +She sleeps--but each woman who to-day shares the benefit and the +responsive pleasure of club life, should place a leaf in the garland +for "Jenny June." + + + + +From Marie Etienne Burns + + + "Work is a true savior, and the not knowing how is more the + cause of idleness than the love of it."--MRS. CROLY. + +The idea of a State Industrial School for Girls originated with Mrs. +Croly, and at a spring meeting of the Executive Committee of the New +York State Federation of Women's Clubs, held in 1898, she suggested +that the first work of the Philanthropic Committee for the year be an +endeavor to establish a State Industrial School for wayward, not +criminal, young girls of tenement-house neighborhoods. Soon after this +Mrs. Croly met with a serious accident and was obliged to give up all +active work. She decided to go to Europe, hoping to be benefited by a +stay abroad. Just before her departure Mrs. Croly wrote asking me to +present the proposed industrial-school plan to the Convention for its +endorsement. The next day I called upon her to discuss matters. I +found her confined to her sofa with, a crutch beside her, and +evidently suffering much pain; but she seemed to be thinking less +about herself than about the work that was so close to her heart. She +urged me to take up the work which, she was regretfully obliged to +abandon, and was most enthusiastic over it. + +Mrs. Croly said: "Those who have worked among the poor in large cities +are aware of the value of orderly and systematic industrial training +for girls of irresponsible parentage, between the years of twelve and +eighteen. These girls are often bright and attractive, but they are +usually self-willed, lacking in judgment, and ignorant of every useful +art, as well as of all social and domestic standards that lend +themselves to the development of a true womanhood. Their homes are +usually unworthy of the name, often scenes of disorder, not +infrequently of violence, from which their only escape is the street. +Their vanity and unbridled desire for low forms of pleasure expose +them to all kinds of evil influences, and the first steps in a +downward career are taken without at all knowing whither they lead. +The most dangerous element in the lives of such girls is their +ignorance. It bars all avenues to respectable employment and deprives +them of self-respect, which grows with ability to maintain oneself and +one's integrity in the face of adverse circumstances. In putting the +knowledge of the simplest art or industry in possession of the +untrained, unformed girl you supply an almost certain defence against +that which lurks to destroy." + +I fully agreed with Mrs. Croly. My many years of experience as a +worker among the poor of New York City had taught me the importance, +and indeed the necessity of just such a school, and I gladly promised +to carry forward the good work. + +Mrs. Croly said in parting: "I can truly say that during the whole of +my working life in New York, a period of more than forty years, my +heart has bled for these poor neglected, untrained girls, who yet have +the elements of a divine womanhood and motherhood within them, though +undeveloped and hidden by the rankest weeds and growth." + +At the Convention in New York City, held in 1901, I presented the +Industrial School project, and the plan received the unanimous +endorsement of all those present. It was, however, deemed wiser to +omit the word "wayward," as the school was to be preventive and in no +sense reformatory. A Committee was formed, of which Mrs. Croly was +made Honorary Chairman; and the work upon a State Industrial School +for Girls was begun. + +It was my desire as Acting Chairman of the Committee that the movement +should carry at all times the banner bearing the name of its inceptor, +a name that would always suggest not failure but success. While +seemingly insurmountable obstacles at once arose, they were more or +less overcome as the preparations and work of the Committee +progressed. And at the time of Mrs. Croly's death the project had +reached a point more hopeful than assured, resulting in the +establishment of at least one school which should stimulate the State +Legislature into a realization of the needs of the young girls of the +tenement-house neighborhoods, so that some time in the future there +might be provided through State legislation, on a broad plan, the +State Industrial or Trade School for Girls, the idea of which was +conceived by Jenny June. + + + + +From Mrs. Croly's Letter to Mrs. Burns, Relative to the Proposed +Industrial School for Girls + + + 222 WEST 23RD STREET, + Feb. 28, 1900. + +My dear Mrs. Burns: + +There is only one point that I would have emphasized, and that I do +not find included in your otherwise excellent statement. It is the +moral influence of a training for self-support. Ignorance and idleness +lead to vice and crime; and a Technical Training School would do more +to remedy the Social Evil and raise the standard of morals than all +other influences combined. The fact that work is the great purifier is +what I wish could have been embodied in the plan presented. + + Yours with real regard. + J.C.C. + + + + +From Izora Chandler + + +How can one picture all that this one woman was to the hundreds of +other women who loved her: the gentle demeanor, the thoughtful +conversation, the high thinking evidenced not less in her choice of +subject than in the fitness of word and phrase which gave a +distinctive charm to all her utterances, whether public or private? + +When first meeting Mrs. Croly one could hardly believe that so +gentle-voiced, slight a creature could have accomplished the +pioneering accredited to her in the enlargement of the mental life of +women. Drawn to her at the first greeting one was soon convinced of +the hidden forcefulness of her nature which could be likened to the +resistless, unyielding under-current, rather than to the wave which +visibly and noisily assails the shore. + +Present or absent, the thought of her was magnetic. While charming the +heart she convinced the mind with argument. Her power did not absorb +and minify; it enlarged, enlivened, and became a source of +inspiration. After talking with her, impossibilities became possible +to the timid, the diffident were encouraged to dare, and those who +were strong at coming went away valorous. Her dignity and ready +decision when presiding over a public assembly were noteworthy. She +became a stateswoman in whatever concerned her sex; an earnest soul +pleading for love among co-workers, and for more and yet more of love, +for only in that atmosphere can the heart of woman come into its +rightful sovereignty, urging that slights be forgotten, aggressions +overlooked, and that the fair mantle of love be spread tenderly over +all. + +An earnest devotee of the best and highest in art, she seemed to have +an insatiable desire after the beautiful; and was never more serene +and lucid of mind than when considering this scheme, and encouraging +with rich appreciation those who were in the field. + +Her store of knowledge was phenomenal. She was a constant learner, an +unwearied seeker after wisdom. When those who had given special study +to any subject addressed the house over which she presided, they +received her most flattering attention, and in the brief afterword of +the chairman she indicated intimate knowledge of the matter in hand, +often giving comprehensive data and suggesting fresh lines for +consideration. No wonder that the finest minds were attracted to her; +that thinkers desired her acceptance of their thoughts; that active +workers sought her coöperation and leadership. Quiet and forceful; +competent as a critic, but ready with encouragement; simple in manner, +easily approached; patient with those who appealed to her, seeking +rather than waiting to be sought; abundantly appreciative of others, +her memory becomes an abiding impulse towards high and generous +thought, towards simple, worthy living. + + + + +From Janie C.P. Jones + + +Before my friend's last trip to England I went to bid her good-bye, +and among her parting words were the following which I never can +forget: + +"I dislike going so far from my friends. To me they are the most +precious things on earth, the greatest gift the world can bestow; to +me they have been like flowers all along my path, and their sweet odor +of influence has made me better every day. I cannot prize them too +highly, for all I am I owe to them." + +To have known one who so highly appreciated the value of friendship, +who knew the true meaning of the word "friend," and who possessed the +rare gift of knowing how to retain friends, was an inspiration, and an +influence which added to the value of life. I think of her now as +having "gone into her garden to gather lilies for her Beloved." + + + + +From Catherine Weed Barnes Ward + + +My task is at once sad and pleasant: sad, because I speak of a dearly +loved and lost friend; pleasant, because I am asked to bear my +testimony as to her worth. + +Mrs. Croly's friendship and unselfish kindness began with my entrance +over twenty years ago into club life, and from then onward she was +continually urging and helping me towards increased intellectual +effort. Through her active inspiration I joined Sorosis, the Woman's +Press Club of New York, and other American organizations, as well as +the Society of American Women in London, the Women Journalists of +London, and various English organizations, besides taking part in the +International Congress of Women held in London three or four years +ago. + +Mrs. Croly lived constantly in two generations, her own and the next +one; her wonderful mental vitality setting the paces of many pulses, +besides those which stirred her own brain. I know much of the actual +labor she accomplished for her sex, both here and in England, but even +nobler than that was the high ideal she set them in her own life and +the inspiration of her personality to younger women. + +To those she called special friends her loyalty was unswerving, true +as the needle to the pole, and as one blest with such friendship I +feel the influence of her beautiful, unselfish living will be ever +with me, though something has gone out of my life, never to be +replaced. Her daughter, Mrs. Vida Croly Sidney, worthily carries on +the traditions and work of her noble mother, and her friends feel that +in her there is a living tie between the untiring spirit laboring now, +we may well believe, in another existence and the work so loved by +that spirit while on earth. + +A true heart, a generous nature, a broad mind, and keen mental acumen +are qualities that do not die with their possessor; they bless the +world to which she has gone and that she left behind. + +We can best honor her memory by carrying on her work and by leaving +the world better and happier for our having lived in it. + + + + +From a Letter to the Memorial Committee from Sara J. Lippincott (Grace +Greenwood) + + +I feel Mrs. Croly's death very deeply. The sacred holiday season, +dedicated from time immemorial to household joy and mirth, and calling +for Christian gratitude and hope, was already saddened by +bereavements, and her death--absolutely unlooked for by me--made it +melancholy and mournful. + +"She should have died hereafter." I did not dream when I saw her last +that she was to solve the great mystery before me. Though feeble, +there seemed so much of the old energetic, enthusiastic self about +her; and I parted from her hoping to see her soon in renewed health +and strength. + +She always had a peculiar fascination for me: her soft, sweet voice; +her strong though quiet will; her unfailing faith in all things good; +her loyalty to her sex. I think her pass-word to the realm of rest and +reward must have been, "I loved my fellow-woman." + + 35 Lockwood Avenue, New Rochelle, + January 6, 1902. + + + + +From a Letter to the Memorial Committee from Jennie de la M. Lozier + + +Mrs. Croly was a woman of uncommon intuition and sympathy. She took +wide and far-reaching views of woman's possible development and +usefulness. She believed in organization as a factor in this +development, and spared no effort to form and maintain, even at +personal sacrifice, the woman's club or federation. She was always +generous and warm-hearted, of boundless hospitality, never more +genially herself than when her friends gathered about her in her +attractive home and she could make them happy. I shall always recall +with pleasure the rare moments when she talked with me of her real +life, her hopes and her plans. I believe that she constantly exerted a +noble influence, and that she stood for all that makes for woman's +unselfish helpfulness, courage and independence. + +New York, February 10, 1902. + + + + +From Genie H. Rosenfeld + + +In the early days of the Woman's Press Club, when it was divided upon +the question of a suitable meeting place, and undisciplined members +were resigning in appreciable numbers, Mrs. Croly surprised me one day +by declaring that the club had never been stronger than it was at that +hour. + +"Why, Mrs. Croly!" I exclaimed, "we have only a handful of women +left." + +"My dear," she said, "we have lopped off all our dead wood. The +branches that remain may be few, but they are vigorous, and from them +will spring up a tree that will be a glory to us." + +This little saying of Mrs. Croly's has come back to me and been of use +many times, and it has often enabled me to understand the benefit of +lopping off dead wood and starting anew. + + + + +Contributed to the New York _Tribune_ by S. A. Lattimore + + +The sad announcement of the death of Mrs. Jane Cunningham Croly +recalls a delightful incident of several summers ago when I had the +pleasure of meeting her at Long Branch. + +In the course of a most interesting conversation I ventured to ask her +to give me the origin of her well-known _nom-de-plume_ of "Jenny +June." In her bright, sympathetic way, which all who knew her can +describe, she said: + +"Yes, I will tell you. In my early girlhood I knew a young clergyman +who was in the habit of occasionally visiting our house. One day he +came to bid us good-bye, saying that he was going to a Western city to +reside. As he bid me goodbye he gave me a little book. It was a volume +of B. F. Taylor's poems, called 'January and June.' The little book +opened of itself at a page containing verses entitled 'The Beautiful +River.' An introductory paragraph read thus: 'On such a night, in such +a June, who has not sat side by side with somebody for all the world +like Jenny June? Maybe it was years ago, but it was some time. Maybe +you had quite forgotten it, but you will be the better for +remembering. Maybe she has gone on before where it is June all the +year, and never January at all,--that God forbid. There it was, and +then it was, and thus it was.' This stanza was marked in pencil: + + 'Jenny June,' then I said, 'let us linger no more + On the banks of the beautiful river; + Let the boat be unmoored, and muffled the oar, + And we'll steal into heaven together. + If the angel on duty our coming descries + You have nothing to do but throw off the disguise + That you wore when you wandered with me; + And the sentry will say: "Welcome back to the skies, + We long have been waiting for thee!"' + +On the margin was written, 'You are the Juniest Jenny I know.' + +"The years of my girlhood passed on, and with their passing faded away +all memory of the young minister. Later there came to me, as I suppose +there comes to every young girl, the impulse to write, and when some +early efforts of mine were judged worthy to be published, I was +confronted for the first time with the question of a signature. +Shrinking from seeing my own name in print, by some witchery of memory +the words 'Jenny June' suddenly occurred to me, and that, as you know, +has been my name ever since." + +After a little pause Mrs. Croly said: "Now that I have answered your +question I must tell you something else. Thirty years after I had +assumed my _nom-de-plume_ a gray-haired stranger called at my house +one day and asked to see me. The name he gave recalled no one I had +ever known, and in meeting there was no recognition on either side. +But he proceeded in a straightforward way to explain the object of his +visit: 'For the last thirty years,' he said, 'since my removal from +this city, I have lived in the West; naturally, I have been a constant +reader of Eastern papers, and particularly have I read every article I +have ever seen bearing the signature of "Jenny June." I have made many +efforts, but always without success, to ascertain who she was, and +whether the name was real or fictitious. Somehow I have never +forgotten the little girl I knew before I went West, and to whom I +gave a little volume of poems with something written on a page that +contained a stanza that I greatly admired about "Jenny June." I have +wondered if she had become the famous writer, and upon my return to my +native city, after so long an absence, I have sought you simply to ask +if you are that little girl.'" + + + + +The Fairies' Gifts + +_By Ellen M. Staples_ + + + To an English home one bright Yuletide + While Christmas bells rang loud and wide + + Came a babe with the gentle eyes of a dove + And a face as fair as a thought of love. + + "Now, God be thanked," the old nurse cried, + "That the child is born at Christmas-tide; + + "For the blessed sake of Mary's Son + God's benison falls on lives begun + + "When Christmas music fills the air + And men are joyful everywhere. + + "And as to Him came Wise Men three + Offering gifts on bended knee + + "So to one born at the Holy Time + On land or sea, in every clime, + + "Come three Good Fairies, and each one bears + A gift to brighten the coming years." + + The pallid mother gently smiled + And looked upon her tender child. + + "Good nurse, the legend is full sweet; + And I lay my babe at His dear feet + + "Whose human Sonhood is aware + Of the painful bliss that mothers bear. + + "I can well believe that heaven may + Send gifts to the child of Christmas Day." + + Tired by her flight from Paradise + The baby shut her wondering eyes, + + Nor knew that 'round the cradle stood, + To bless the babe, three Fairies good. + + The First bent over the cradle head; + "These are my gifts to her," she said: + + "A sunny nature, a voice of song, + And may faithful friends uncounted throng!" + + The Second murmured in accents low: + "The path will be steep and rough, I know, + + "So I give her a heart that is brave and strong, + That will patiently work, though the way be long; + + "And though life may fill them with toil and care + Her hands shall weaker ones' burdens share." + + Then stood the Third for a moment's space + To thoughtfully gaze on the baby face, + + And over her own a radiance came + As she softly said: "My gift is a name. + + "Though born while the earth lies spread with + snow + The babe is a summer-child, and so + + "The sunny nature, the voice of song, + The helpful hands, true heart and strong + + "With Nature's self should be in tune, + Sweet child, I name thee Jenny June." + + + + +From Margaret Ravenhill + + +Jane Cunningham Croly left upon the last century an ineffaceable +record. For industrious and successful work in journalism she probably +had no peer. In a speech before the Woman's Press Club not long since, +she said: "When a woman has written enough to fill a room, she feels +like burning it instead of preserving it in scrap-books." Probably no +woman of her day and generation has done more or better work than our +"Jenny June." No woman had more diversity of gifts; she was equally at +home in the editorial chair, or the reportorial office; as a speaker +she excelled. In the old days we who knew her best would sometimes +notice a hesitancy of speech that would occasionally cloud a brilliant +idea; but if she hesitated she was never lost, and the idea was worth +waiting for. She was always clear, logical, forceful in expression, +and exhaustive in argument. Thoroughness seems the word to express the +character of Mrs. Croly. She was quick to catch the meaning of the +uttered thoughts of others, keen in analysis, and executive in all +work. Witness the many organizations which she helped originate. Her +long years of rule as president of Sorosis were of inestimable value +to that "mother of women's clubs." Her great "History of the Club +Movement" should be in the hands of every woman in the land. + +Of Mrs. Croly's personality it is a pleasure to speak. Every woman who +enjoyed the privilege of her friendship felt the magnetism and charm +of a rare nature; while, with all her force and power, there was a +childishness about her that impressed one with the idea that the +naïveté and innocence of childhood had never been wholly lost in the +woman. I think it was in some measure owing to the fact that she was +so near-sighted that there was a kind of appealing hesitancy about her +movements that impelled you to her aid. + +Mrs. Croly's home was one of refinement and good taste in every +detail, and there she was at her best. Always a charming hostess, she +made every guest feel that he or she was the one most eagerly +expected; there were the hearty greeting, the few low words of +welcome, the sunny smile that transformed her face into positive +beauty. Her Sunday evenings at home came nearer in character to the +French salon than any others in New York. There were the most +delightful people to be met: the gifted minds of our own land and +Europe were among her guests. But Mrs. Croly's proudest boast was that +she was a woman's woman. + + + + +From T. C. Evans, in the New York _Times_ + + +When I joined the _World_ staff of writers, in 1860, a few weeks after +the foundation of that journal, I found Jenny June already there. She +did not often appear in the office in person, the lady auxiliary in +journalism not being so familiar a figure as it now is, and she had +not yet adopted her pretty _nom-de-plume,_ but her husband, David G. +Croly, held an official post on the staff as city editor, and her +contributions, which were invariably well written and interesting, +appeared from the first in the _World_ columns, and as the years went +on while she and Mr. Croly remained associated with it, with +increasing frequency. They were written by a woman mainly for women, +and the maids and matrons of her country over all its area from ocean +to ocean and from "lands of sun to lands of snow" have never been +addressed by one of their sex whom they came to know better or to hold +in higher esteem. Her work assumed no pretentious or high importance, +but was sweet and wholesome, sensible, and a mirror of the nature out +of which it proceeded. The name Jenny June, which she adopted a few +years later, became a beloved household word throughout the land, +perhaps more widely known than that of any lady journalist who has +ever wrought in it. + +Mrs. Croly's social dispositions and her aptitude for gathering +interesting people around her were gracious endowments of nature's +bestowal, as strongly marked in her youth as in her maturer years, +when she gradually came to have a wider stage on which to display +them. Her pretty little drawing-rooms, somewhere on the west side near +Grove Street, are well remembered by me, and first and last I met in +them a goodly number of people well worthy to be remembered, some with +their trophies of success yet to win, but their merit divined by their +clever hostess, perhaps before it had obtained any full recognition +elsewhere. Many also came who had won their spurs and epaulets and +shone bravely in the bright glitter of both. In her little +unpretending salon of that day might be met the brilliant young Edmund +Clarence Stedman, in the morning glow of his poetic fame; Bayard +Taylor, risen into the mid-forenoon of his fame, with his Orient +lyrics published and his translation of "Faust" well begun; perhaps +Phoebe and Alice Cary, though on this point I cannot be certain, and +many another of note and distinction in that time, her hospitality +taking in all arts, and all the presentable workers in them, so that +poets, painters, sculptors, singers, actors were equally welcome, as +were those who brought to her only their bright young countenances +and winning smiles. Her later drawing-rooms, when she had removed up +town, nearer to the Mayfair of society, became widely celebrated, and +she founded something perhaps as near to a salon modeled after the +traditional Parisian standards as any that America has known. + +Mrs. Croly is recognized as the chief among the founders of Sorosis, +the most celebrated woman's club in the world, and parent of the +innumerable organizations of like sect which have sprung up since +their renowned progenitor became with fewer vicissitudes and trials +than might have been anticipated firmly planted on its feet and +attested its self-supporting and self-reliant character. No social +development of the modern period is more striking than the swift +multiplication of women's clubs, not in this country alone, but in +others, and they have shown a power of beneficent work most +advantageous to the community at large, which even the most sanguine +among their promoters could not have anticipated. They have also shown +that women can legislate and administrate and rise to the point of +order and lay things on the table in a manner as parliamentary and +self-restrained as men. For such testimony the world should be +thankful, as it never got anything of the kind before. Among the +founders of this now most impressive group of social organizations no +name stands out more brightly and conspicuously than that of Jane +Cunningham Croly. + +Her recent death, though a surprise and shock to her innumerable +friends, came when she had passed her seventy-second birthday, and it +cannot therefore be said that she passed away with her work +uncompleted. It was fully and most worthily performed, and was the +fruit of a systematic diligence never remitted, and in which few of +her sex in any period could have exceeded her. Her memory is fragrant +as the month from which she took her _nom-de-plume_, and will at least +be cherished by those whom her gentle discourse, continued for more +than a generation, has entertained and instructed. + + + + +From St. Clair McKelway, in the Brooklyn _Eagle_ + + +The death of Jane Cunningham Croly, noticed in Tuesday's _Eagle_, +involves the loss of a woman of leadership who put a good deal of help +into others' lives. Born in 1829, she began at seventeen to write for +newspapers. Her topics were, for a wonder, practical, the young too +generally beginning with abstract, academical or recondite subjects. +Hers were "fashions" in dress, fads in food, fancies and foibles in +decoration etc. From them she advanced to more philosophical or +general fields, but on all she wrote was the stamp of applicability to +contemporaneous life. + +In the middle, later, and more genial period of her life she did more +talking than writing. And her talking was always earnest, direct, +sincere, with a gleam of hope and a note of wisdom in it--the union of +experience and reflection. Had it been reported it would have made for +her a literary name: but she was content, or constrained, to limit her +work to the platform, or to the circle of existence affected by it. + +As a clubwoman Mrs. Croly achieved the eminence almost of a pioneer. +It can be shown that a club or two of women had a titular beginning +before "Sorosis," but that was the original society started by her on +the theory that there were opportunities and conditions in club life, +on an educational or literary basis, of which women could well avail +themselves. Mrs. Croly sympathized with the more earnest purposes +entering into her idea, and was in little related to any sensational, +spectacular, or faddish features that may here or there become +attached to it. She was a believer in seriousness, an exemplar of +industry, a devotee to system, and a very remarkably punctual, +effective and straightforward writer. Her flight was never very high, +but it was always progressive, and her regulation of her pen by the +precise rules that govern presswork was entitled to distinct praise. +She could always be trusted to keep within her topic and herself +behind it, and she understood the art of putting things to her public +in a way to discover to them their own thoughts as well as to denote +her own. + +To David G. Croly, her husband, long a newspaper man of admitted power +and executive force, Mrs. Croly was a constant help, as he too was to +her. From him she learned not a little of her topical discernment and +technical knack. He was never afraid of ability in whomever found, and +he rejoiced that the sex of his wife, and the novel fact that she was +the first woman in America to write daily for publication, gave to her +and her subjects a vogue he and his could not command in a world of +more and mainly personal work. She survived him twelve years. Their +union was not made any less congenial by marked dissimilarity of +convictions on cardinal subjects. + +Mrs. Croly was the recipient of many evidences of the honor and +affection in which her own sex held her, and beyond doubt the +organizations of which she was the inspiring force will pay to her +memory the tributes her disinterestedness and abilities deserved, +exercised as she always was for so long with projects nearly related +to the better equipment of effective womanhood for the conditions and +conduct of life. Her death at seventy-two, after not a little +suffering and not a few sorrows, was not unexpected, though it will be +sincerely and widely regretted. In her last years she was happily made +aware of the love and tenderness towards her which she had richly +earned by service, counsel, and example to the lives of others. + + + + +From Laura Sedgwick Collins + + + Dear Friend, dear Helper, passed from earth + To heaven, in earthly grace, I here + Would give to thee homage sincere + And memory sweet. Thy ever kindly word + Has oft the sad heart warmed, + The drooped head raised, and thy sustaining hand + A fainting purpose thrilled + To better courage, firmer aim. + + In that far realm where spirits meet + And greet with message mystic, there + Thou must, in sweet commune + Receive reward for earthly deeds. + Thy heart ne'er knew the unkind throb, + Was ever gentle, firm and true; + Whate'er the cause, if once espoused + Thou to thy watchword held thyself. + + Throughout our land, in city, town, + Thy name beloved remains alive; + Alive in hearts, alive in minds,-- + For thou hadst heart and brain as well + To touch the soul and win the thought. + Thy work for woman stands unspoiled; + Untouched by vanity or marred by pride, + Unsullied by a thought of self, + + A generous impulse toward thy sex-- + A woman's word for woman's need. + And so thy name in fragrance fine + Bespeaks again returning June,-- + The spring of promise, budding hope! + The cypress changes to the rose,-- + The rose of dawn, the rose of heaven; + And both are thine and thine the crown + All jewelled o'er with thy good deeds-- + Deeds of mercy, deeds of love, + Are with us still though thou art gone! + + + +From Mary Coffin Johnson + + +Many years before I personally knew Mrs. Croly she was at the height +of her useful public life; the imprint of her hand and mind in +contemporary literature was an evident fact, and she had become a +conspicuous figure in the ranks of well-known women. It is therefore +my privilege to speak of her last few years, when the golden light of +achievement gilded the eventide of her eventful life. + +Having had the peculiar advantage of sitting beside her for six years +as an officer of the Woman's Press Club I am thoroughly aware of her +sincerity, and of the singleness of heart which, actuated her motives +in behalf of women. She believed that every united effort that raises +the personal standard of thought and purpose is of the utmost +importance. It was her earnest desire that women should live lofty and +useful lives. She frequently laid stress upon this manner of life, and +at such times her temperament seemed charged with sympathetic interest +in young women journalists. "Unity in Diversity," the motto adopted by +the General Federation of Women's Clubs, is a fitting expression of +the broad conceptions she brought into club life; indeed, her success +in bringing women of unequal social position and essentially different +callings, into harmonious relationship and unity of purpose was +markedly characteristic. + +During her last years women's clubs became more than ever of absorbing +interest to her, claiming the complete devotion of her broad mind. The +untiring devotion she had already given to this part of her life's +activities had established her fame, and this fame will ever be +exceptionable, for her work can never be duplicated. + +The growing spirit of helpfulness and friendliness which inspires +women's organizations, the manifold opportunities of various kinds +which they afford, and the excellent results which follow could, she +thought, scarcely be estimated. "Club life for women," she would say, +"requires no justification. When we enter our club rooms we leave +behind us much of the rubbish of the world. The richest, fullest +development of life flows through the better social relations, and +from times of old has been uplifting." "It is not merely that we need +one another," she would declare, "but that the sense of kinship is +healthful; it inspires the larger love, and creates a stronger +relationship. It seems to be God's method of helping humankind to the +higher and more perfect life." + +On various occasions, when only members of the dub were present, she +would lay aside the formality of the presiding member, and, assuming +the familiar manner of addressing us, pour forth her lofty ideals for +women, unconsciously testifying that the secret spring of her actions +was her love for her own sex. Though the words were always spoken with +gentle calmness, and in a tone of womanly softness, something in her +passionate sincerity would, like the effect of a magnet, attract every +listener, and a spell of silence would fall upon us. In all that she +said we discerned the Divine Principle. + +There were those who, from their own viewpoints, carped at what they +heard and saw, but a person even of Mrs. Croly's temperament and +courage, placed amid the recurring action and reaction of a life of +much publicity, cannot, of course, please every one. It would be +surprising if in her long career she had not manifested human +imperfections, and had not sometimes made mistakes; she would have +been more than human had she not. + +It was no easy task for her to stem the tide of difficulties and +oppositions from without, for from first to last of her diligent life +she had many trials to endure. Both sunbeam and shadow crossed her +pathway; but her errors were not uncommon to humankind; moreover, she +was very patient under misconception. "It is always fair," said Henry +Ward Beecher, "to credit a man at his best,--let his enemies tell of +his worst." Another writer remarks: "To get a true idea of any +character we most seize upon its higher forming element, that to which +it naturally tends." + +Hers was far from an impulsive nature, yet there were times when Mrs. +Croly suddenly revealed in a marked way her true, deep instincts. +While on a visit to this country on one occasion, Madame Antoinette +Sterling, a concert singer in England, was a guest of the Woman's +Press Club. She was asked to sing for us, and responded with "The Lost +Chord." In answer to an encore she sang a ballad of her own +composition, called "The Sheepfold." Mrs. Croly was visibly affected +by the words; seldom had she ever manifested more feeling. When the +song was ended she quickly rose, and in a tremulous voice exclaimed: +"Does not this say to us that if even _one_ were outside, the whole +strength of the universe would be brought to bear upon it, to bring it +into the fold!" + +In 1897 Mrs. Croly was honored by the General Federation of Women's +Clubs by the appointment to write the "History of the Woman's Club +Movement in America," an undertaking that required exceptionable +ability. The vast amount of mental energy and wearing labor she put +into this work, added to the past years of constant application to +literary and other interests, told seriously upon her health. Her +nervous system had become exceedingly susceptible, and it was evident +that her good constitution was beginning to break down. + +However, the indomitable energy she possessed, and her trained +capacity for work enabled her to continue until the large volume was +finished and given to the public. + +Early in June, 1898, Mrs. Croly had a serious fall in which she +fractured her hip, and she was confined to her room for many weeks. +Though she possessed unusual power of endurance, her lessening +strength could no longer bear the strain upon the delicate frame, and +her rallying power was perceptibly diminished. As the fracture slowly +healed she but feebly met the physical exertion necessary to go about +on crutches. Even then it was impossible for her to take life +serenely; she was restlessly eager to be up and doing. When she could +be removed with safety, which was not until the third of September, +she went abroad with her daughter, Mrs. Vida Croly Sidney, who had +come over from England for her, and she spent a year in London and the +vicinity. In August, 1899, they were in Switzerland, and Mrs. Croly +took the baths at Schinznach-les-Bains. She returned to America the +following September, and remained in New York through the winter of +1899-1900. The change agreed with, her, but her health cannot be said +to have improved, and she was still very infirm. Her natural affection +and interest in the Woman's Press Club led her to attend its meetings, +whenever she was able, going there in the carriage sent for her. On +the 12th of May she was present at a club meeting, and gave us an +informal talk, which proved to be her parting address, though at the +time we knew it not. That day her words were full of significance. She +expressed herself with fervor, chiefly on the importance of clubwomen +bearing a large measure of love and good-will towards one another, and +of the cultivation of the tie of divine charity. With earnestness she +urged again that we should stand "hand to hand to exercise patience in +judgment, and to be slow in criticism." "It is God-like," she said, +"to forgive. Remember," she continued, "that all that is good in this +life emanates from love; that it is the very best thing that this life +affords, and that there is nothing on earth that can take the place of +its ministry. Love has no limitations, and if you give the best talent +you possess to your club it will give it back to you. Club life is +often misunderstood, it is true,--but," she slowly added, "there is +nothing in this world _entirely_ perfect." She spoke touchingly of the +personal sense of loneliness she felt; that although she was a woman +among many women she lived many a lonely hour; and she wished it well +understood that the love and friendship of clubwomen was to her the +most precious thing in her life. In closing she emphasized the counsel +she had given, to be "United and conciliatory in our relations with +each other; to be just; to suspend judgment; and to wait long and +trust God who knows all. He," she declared, "will not misunderstand +you." + +At the end of May she returned to England. Though nature had not +become victorious over her feebleness, and she was still almost +helpless from the effect of the accident of 1898, she heroically +overcame these physical conditions as far as she was able. Something +continually impelled her onward. She attended the International +Congress of Women held during the Paris Exposition of that year, and +then went on to Ober-Ammergau to the Passion Play, accompanied by Mrs. +Sidney; and then returned to England, where she stayed until the 27th +of July, 1901, when she again sailed for New York, business matters +requiring her presence in this country. + +On her arrival in August from the second visit abroad, the grave facts +that her health was not established, and that her time here was not to +be long, were soon evident to her friends. The struggle of nature not +only had begun, the shadow was even now sweeping near. She appeared at +the November business meeting of the Woman's Press Club, accompanied +by an attendant, and took the chair, but she was so much exhausted by +the effort that her nurse easily persuaded her to come away. During +the following four weeks her prostration and decline were steady. + +As the final day of her human infirmity approached, she expressed to +the close friend who sat beside her a timid shrinking, common to all +human nature, from the passage out of this life. It may be counted a +special mercy that, as it afterwards proved, she need not have had any +disquietude concerning the inevitable moment, for a few hours before +the closing scene she fell into a state of coma, and passed beyond so +quietly and tranquilly that she did not herself know when the moment +came. She entered the world of infinite repose in the forenoon of +December 23, 1901. + +The funeral service was held in the Church of the Transfiguration, +Mrs. Croly's friends gathering from far and near to pay their last +tributes of love and regard. The women's clubs and societies of +Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the suburbs, were represented in large +numbers, and every seat in the church was filled. + +Mrs. Croly lies at rest beside her husband, David G. Croly, in the +beautiful cemetery near Lakewood, New Jersey. + +"Yon's her step ... an' she's carryin' a licht in her hand; a see it +through the door." + + + + +From Caroline M. Morse + + +As Chairman of the Memorial Committee it is my privilege to add my +memories of Mrs. Croly to those which have preceded. Mine are not of +her club interests, nor of her identification with the woman's club +movement. So much has been written, and so well, regarding these +public phases of her life that it would seem almost officious for me +to add a stone to the already piled up cairn; I write rather of my +friend as my family knew her in her home, surrounded by husband and +children. + +It was in 1880 that we first knew Mr. and Mrs. Croly, and the +acquaintance soon became an intimacy that lasted for twenty-three +years. They were living in their own house in Seventy-first street, an +artistically furnished house, an ideal home full of a sweet +domesticity. + +Intimate as we were it was frequently our privilege to gather with the +family at their Sunday evening supper, when Mrs. Croly was as +completely the "house-mother" fulfilling the homely duties of the +table, as, an hour later, she was the gracious, though more formal +hostess receiving in her drawing-room the usual Sunday night throng of +old friends and the strangers of distinction who, chancing to be in +town, were fortunate enough to have letters of introduction to her. I +see her slight figure moving from group to group, and the low English +voice and sweet smile with which she encouraged her visitors to speak +of themselves, and, if they were foreigners, of their missions to this +country. A characteristic act of hers was to carry around a little +silver tray on which there might be several glasses of a dainty punch, +the base of which was a light, non-alcoholic wine. This she offered to +friends whom she desired particularly to honor, and the act had all +the significance of the Russian custom of breaking bread and eating +salt with the host. These Sunday evenings at home, which were a +feature of the society in which she moved, were continued until a +short time before her death, or until she was incapacitated by +illness. + +My friend had none of the usual failings of the traditionary +"emancipated woman"; she would sit down to her basket on an afternoon +and take up a bit of household sewing with the same spirit and +aptitude that had guided her in the forenoon in the writing of an +editorial article or the preparation of a paper to be read before a +club. + +I recall with especial joy the long walks we used to take together. +After a day of wearisome work, it was one of her great delights to +leave the piled-up desk and find herself in the street, her arm linked +in mine. At such times much of her talk was ravishing speculation upon +things seen and unseen. It was as if, released for the moment from +the pressure of work, her mind sprang into a world removed from the +practical and immediate, to revel in contemplation of the divine. Yet +she was no visionary, and the world of sight held her cheerful +allegiance. Hers was never "the dyer's hand subdued to what it works +in," and this is the more remarkable since she never relinquished +work, even for our beloved walks, without a mild protest at laying +aside her pen. One afternoon I called, intending to take her out for +one of our "play-hours," but I failed to find her in her apartment. +Next morning the post brought me this note: + + "MY DEAR FRIEND: + + "I was so glad to get your card, and so sorry to miss you. + It was just that hour out-of-doors with you that I was + longing for. I have been so long away, and since my return + have been so busy with much detail of correspondence that in + quantity is always more or less depressing, that I needed a + sight of you to tone me up and restore my standard. I have + also taken advantage of enforced quiet to brace up for an + heroic two weeks of dentistry, and have therefore been in + absolute retirement and upon baby diet of the most innocuous + description... + + "I am afraid this recapitulation will take away all desire + to repeat your effort in my direction. But I trust that + this may find you in a missionary humor, and that you will + see that I need 'looking after'--a far stronger motive with + most women than friendship, isn't it? Anyway, come again + soon, won't you? Afternoon is our gadding time, you know. + + "Really and lovingly your friend. + + "P.S.--This note will show that I truly have not command of + all my faculties and need a human tonic." + +All out-of-doors was dear to her. Trees were to her as men--rooted, +and she often naively talked to them as if to friends while we +strolled in the twilight. Her love of nature even seemed to affect her +choice of diet, for she preferred simply prepared dishes and the +natural foods. This was doubtless due in part to her unmixed Old World +nationality and to her early surroundings in rural England: as she was +in girlhood, so, in spite of the complex life of this distracting New +World, she remained to the last. + +My friend dwelt lovingly upon anniversaries; the true spirit of +Christmas entered her heart at every Yuletide season, and her gifts +showed generous care in selection and in the dainty wrappings in which +they were sent to us. She delighted in the Christmas and Thanksgiving +dinners, but St. Valentine's was the dearest, as it was the +anniversary of her marriage. This the Woman's Press Club of New York +has always observed as the date of its annual dinner. + +She had a keen sense of humor, yet never did she forget herself either +in posing or pranks, for hers was the unerring sense of the fitness of +things. An instance of her ready wit comes to me: Soon after her +return from her last visit to England she came to us to stay for a few +days. It was in September, three months before her death. On Sunday +evening several friends dropped in, and from general conversation we +drifted into singing some of the old songs. Now and then she would add +her own low tones to our untrained vocalizing, crooning or +cantillating the tune as if she were musing aloud. We had been singing +for a full hour, she, with crutch near at hand, sitting apart from us +at the open window. We had just sung one of her favorites, the old +ballad "Far Away," and were beginning another with all the energy of +amateurs when it occurred to me that Mrs. Croly might be tired and +ready to go to her room for the night. Bending over I whispered, +"Come, dear, you must be weary of all this." She turned slowly in her +chair, and looking up into my face, smiling whimsically, said: "Oh, +no, not yet! I am enjoying the music just as if it were good!" + +I have already intimated that the home life of the family was happy. +There existed between husband and wife a genuine congeniality in +tastes and pursuits; yet between any two minds when both are strong +and original there will generally be a divergence; and it has always +seemed to me that the origin of Sorosis might be traced by the +psychological analyst to some such divergence between Mrs. Croly's +lines of intellectual development and those of her equally gifted +husband, David G. Croly. The power of initiative was strong in each of +these two, and in each it produced excellent though differing results. + +It is cause for regret that Mrs. Croly did not write more in her +latter years, when her native wisdom had ripened in the soil of a rich +experience. + +Her philosophy was the fruit of a rightly-lived, useful life, and even +after the distressing accident which lamed her, her enthusiasm never +waned, but rather seemed intensified and glorified. Seldom do the +heart and brain work together as did hers. She will ever stand to +those who knew her as a fine specimen of a rare type. She had +convictions, and she had the courage to uphold them. She hated shams +and hypocrisy with the vigor of Carlyle. The bravery of her public +life was matched by the beauty of her private life. Good and Truth +were her watchwords. "Good has faculty," says Swedenborg, "but not +determinate except by truth. Determinate faculty is actual power." In +the dear friend whom we here commemorate, faculty was determinate. + +Brave and honest pleader for woman; true, tender, sincere friend, you +fought the good fight well; the world is better for your work, and +among your saddest survivors are those whom you smote with a deserved +pen-stroke, or with spoken words, who have long since given you +grateful thanks. + + C.M.M. + + + + +L'Envoi + + + She cut a path through tangled underwood + Of old traditions out to broader ways. + She lived to hear her work called brave and good, + But oh! the thorns, before the crown of bays. + The world gives lashes to its pioneers + Until the goal is reached--then deafening cheers. + +ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, +"Jenny June", by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JANE CUNNINGHAM *** + +***** This file should be named 12099-8.txt or 12099-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/0/9/12099/ + +Produced by Ari J Joki and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/12099-8.zip b/old/12099-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c004278 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12099-8.zip diff --git a/old/12099.txt b/old/12099.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be1266a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12099.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5766 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny +June", by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny June" + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12099] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JANE CUNNINGHAM *** + + + + +Produced by Ari J Joki and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +Caroline M. Morse, editor + + JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY + "JENNY JUNE" + + +1904 + + + +[Illustration: Portrait] + +[Illustration: Facsimile of signature + "With sincere affection + yours-ever + J.C. Croly"] + + + + Memories of + Jane Cunningham Croly + "Jenny June" + + + + TO THE + GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS + IN AMERICA + THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED + + BY + + THE WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB + + OF + NEW YORK CITY + +Foreword + + +On January 6, 1902, a Memorial Meeting was called by Sorosis jointly +with the Woman's Press Club of New York City, and a month later the +Press Club formally authorized the preparation of a Memorial Book to +its Founder and continuous President to the day of her death, Jane +Cunningham Croly. + +In addition to a biographical sketch to be prepared by her brother, +the Rev. John Cunningham, this book, so it was planned, should contain +such letters, or excerpts from letters, as would illustrate her +lovable personality and her life philosophy. + +A Committee of Publication was appointed, consisting of Mrs. Caroline +M. Morse, Chairman, Mrs. Mary Coffin Johnson, Mrs. Haryot Holt Dey, +Mrs. Miriam Mason Greeley, Miss Anna Warren Story and Mrs. Margaret W. +Ravenhill. These began their work by sending a printed slip to club +members and to Mrs. Croly's known intimates, asking for her letters. +But the response came almost without variation: "My letters from Mrs. +Croly are of too personal a nature for publication." A few, however, +were freely offered, and these it was decided should be used, +depending for the bulk of the Memorial upon copious extracts from +Mrs. Croly's "History of the Woman's Club Movement in America," from +her editorial work on _The Cycle_, and from her miscellaneous +writings. To this characteristic material her long cherished friends, +Mr. and Mrs. Thaddeus B. Wakeman, added an account of the "Positivist +Episode," that objective point in her career, with which her husband +was closely identified. + +With these are: Mrs. Croly's Club Life, a sketch by Mrs. Haryot Holt +Dey; the Sorosis-Press Club Memorial Meeting; the Resolutions of the +Woman's Press Club of New York City, the General Federation of Clubs, +and the Society of American Women in London; tributes from London +clubwomen; Essays and Addresses; Letters and Stray Leaves and Notes, +written by Mrs. Croly; tributes from many of her friends, and my own +recollections. + + CAROLINE M. MORSE, + Chairman. + + + + +Contents + + + "JENNY JUNE."--Ethel Morse + + A BROTHER'S MEMORIES.--John Cunningham, D.D. + + SOROSIS-PRESS CLUB MEMORIAL MEETING ADDRESSES: + Dimies T.S. Denison + Charlotte B. Wilbour + Phebe A. Hanaford + Orlena A. Zabriskie + Carrie Louise Griffin + Cynthia Westover Alden + May Riley Smith + Fanny Hallock Carpenter + + RESOLUTIONS AND TRIBUTES FROM CLUBS: + Resolutions of the New York State Federation + From the Croly Memorial Fund of the Pioneer Club of London + + THE POSITIVIST EPISODE.--Thaddeus B. Wakeman + + MRS. CROLY'S CLUB LIFE.--Haryot Holt Dey + + ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES BY JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY: + Beginnings of Organization + The Moral Awakening + The Advantages of a General Federation of Women's Clubs + The Clubwoman + The New Life + The Days That Are + A People's Church + + NOTES, LETTERS, AND STRAY LEAVES.--Jane Cunningham Croly + + THE TRIBUTES OF FRIENDS: + Miriam Mason Greeley + Marie Etienne Burns + Izora Chandler + Janie C.P. Jones + Catherine Weed Barnes Ward + Sara J. Lippincott--"Grace Greenwood" + Jennie de la M. Lozier + Genie H. Rosenfeld + S.A. Lattimore + Ellen M. Staples + Margaret W. Ravenhill + T.C. Evans + St. Clair McKelway + Laura Sedgwick Collins + Mary Coffin Johnson + Caroline M. Morse + Ella Wheeler Wilcox + + + + +Illustrations + + + JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY (JENNY JUNE) AT THE AGE OF 61 + + MRS. CROLY AT THE AGE OF 40 (ABOUT THE TIME + SOROSIS WAS INAUGURATED) + + FACSIMILE OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE + WOMAN'S PRESS CLUB OF NEW YORK, JANUARY + 11, 1902 + + FACSIMILE OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE + SOCIETY OF AMERICAN WOMEN IN LONDON, + MARCH 24, 1902 + + DAVID GOODMAN CROLY + + FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF A LETTER WRITTEN + BY MRS. CROLY, OCTOBER, 1900 + + MRS. CROLY AT THE AGE OF 18 + + + + +Jenny June + + + The South Wind blows across the harrowed fields, + And lo! the young grain springs to happy birth; + His warm breath lingers where the granite shields + Intruding flowers, and the responsive Earth + Impartially her varied harvest yields. + Through long ensuing months with tender mirth + The South Wind laughs, rejoicing in the worth + Of the impellent energies he wields. + + Within our minds the memory of a Name + Will move, and fires of inspiration that burned low + Among dead embers break in quickening flame; + Flowers of the soul, grain of the heart shall grow, + And burgeoned promises shall bravely blow + Beneath the sunny influence of Her fame. + +ETHEL MORSE. + + + + +A Brother's Memories + +_By John Cunningham, D.D._ + + +The most interesting and potent fact within the range of human +knowledge is personality, and in the person of Jane Cunningham Croly +(Jenny June) a potency was apparent which has affected the social life +of more women, perhaps, than any other single controlling factor of +the same period. + +Jane Cunningham was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, +England, December 19, 1829. She was the fourth child of Joseph H. and +Jane Cunningham, and though small in stature and delicate in organism, +was full of vivacity, and abounding in natural intelligence. Her rich +brown hair, blue eyes and clear complexion proclaimed her of +Anglo-Saxon origin. She was the idol of her parents and the admiration +of her school teachers. Her comradeship with her father began early in +life and was continued to the time of his death. The family came to +the United States in 1841, making their home at first in Poughkeepsie, +and afterwards in or near Wappinger's Falls, where the father bought a +large building-lot and erected a neat and commodious house, which +remained in the possession of the family until sold by Mrs. +Cunningham after the death of her husband. The lot was soon converted +into a garden by its owner who tilled it with the spade and allowed no +plough to be used in his little Eden. It was characteristic of his +generous spirit, too, that none of the surplus product was ever sold, +but was freely given to less favored neighbors. Happy years were spent +by Mr. Cunningham in his shop, in his garden, with his books, and in +visiting his daughter Jennie in New York after her marriage when she +became established there. It was as nearly an ideal life as a modest +man could desire. He lived respected by the best people in the +community, and died in peace, with his children around him. + +As I remember my sister in early life, the sunniness of her nature +is the first and prevailing characteristic that I call to mind; +occasional moods of reverie bordering on melancholy only made brighter +the habitual radiance and buoyancy of a nature that diffused happiness +all around her. She was a perfectly healthy girl in mind and body. A +sound mind in a sound body was her noble heritage. She was always +extremely temperate in food and drink, fastidious in all her tastes +and personal habits, indulgent never beyond the dictates of perfect +simplicity and sobriety. Proficient in all branches of housekeeping, +her apparel was mostly of her own making. Good literature was a +passion with her, and while never an omnivorous reader, she had a +natural instinct for the best in language. A spirit of indomitable +independence, courage and persistence in purpose characterized her +from childhood. She must think her own thoughts, and mark out and +follow her own path. Suffering from a degree of physical timidity that +at times caused her much pain, she possessed a spirit that sometimes +seemed to border on audacity in the assertion and maintenance of her +own convictions. From childhood she developed a personality which +charmed all with whom she came in contact. Persons of both sexes, +young and old, the sober and the gay, alike fell under the influence +of her magnetic power. Living for a time in the family of her brother, +to whom she proffered her services as housekeeper when he was pastor +of a Union church in Worcester County, Mass., she drew to her all +sorts of people by the brightness and charm of her personality. +Self-forgetful and genuine, interested in all about her, she lived +only to serve others, valuing lightly all that she did. Here it was +that her remarkable capacity for journalism first developed itself. +One of the means by which she interested the community was the public +reading of a semi-monthly paper, every line of which was written by +herself and a fellow worker. The reading of that paper every +fortnight, to an audience that crowded the church, was an event in her +history. + +Jennie was no dreamer. She was no speculative theorist spinning +impossible things out of the cobwebs of her brain. She was no Hypatia +striving to restore the gods of the past, revelling in a brilliant +cloudland of symbolisms and affinities. If she was caught in the mist +at any time, she soon came out of it and found her footing in the +practical realities of daily life. Never over-reverential, she never +called in question the deeper realities of soul-life. She was no +ascetic: she would have made a poor nun. But she was a born preacher +if by preaching is meant the annunciation of a gospel to those who +need it. Jennie was always an ardent devotee of her sex, and whatever +else she believed in, she certainly believed in women, their instincts +and capacities. + +In the year 1856, on February 14th, St. Valentine's Day, my sister +Jennie was married to David G. Croly, a reporter for the New York +_Herald,_ and they began life in the city on his meagre salary of +fourteen dollars a week. The gifted young wife, however, soon found +work for herself on the _World_, the _Tribune_, the _Times_, _Noah's +Sunday Times_ and the _Messenger_. The first money she received for +writing was in return for an article published in the New York +_Tribune_. Their joint career in metropolitan journalism was +interrupted however by a short term of residence in Rockford, +Illinois, where Mr. Croly was invited to become editor of the Rockford +_Register_, then owned by William Gore King, the husband of our +sister Mary A. Cunningham. Mr. Croly was aided in the editorial +management by his wife, and while the work was agreeable and +successful, it was due to Mrs. Croly's ardent desire for a larger +field, that at the end of a year they decided to return to New York. +The results for both abundantly justified the change. As managing +editor of the daily _World_ for a number of years, afterwards of the +New York _Graphic_, and later of the _Real Estate Record and Guide_, +Mr. Croly won an honorable position in New York journalism. He was a +conservative democrat of the strictest sort, a radical in religion, +and had but little appreciation of the deeper forces at work in +society and in national life. But he was able and honest, and enjoyed +the respect of his fellow-craftsmen. + +"Jenny June" was a person of very different mental and moral mould. +Her work soon revealed a new, fresh, vigorous force in journalism. An +examination of her editorial contributions to the _Sunday Times_ from +March to December, 1861, suggests her mental vivacity, vigor, breadth +of view, and uniform clearness and power of expression. The title +of the whole series is unpretentious enough: "Parlor and Sidewalk +Gossip." All through her journalistic career similar qualities of +originality characterized her pen. She was editor of _Demorest's_ +magazine for twenty-seven years, and was both editor and owner of +_Godey's_ magazine and _The Home-Maker_. _The Cycle_ was her own +creation and property. In each of these publications the dominating +thoughts are those which make for social elevation, the honor of +womanhood and home comfort and happiness. In addition to this +editorial work she was a regular contributor to several leading +newspapers in Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore and other +cities. She inaugurated the system of syndicate correspondence, and +was the author of several books--"For Better, For Worse"; "Talks on +Women's Topics"; "Thrown on Her Own Resources"; three manuals; and +"The History of the Woman's Club Movement," a large volume of nearly +twelve hundred pages. + +During the most active years of my sister's literary life, she had +also the care of a large household, and her home was always bright and +hospitable. The Croly Sunday evening receptions were one of the social +features of New York City. + +Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Croly. Minnie, the eldest, was +happily married to Lieutenant Roper of the U. S. Navy; her early death +was a grief hard to bear. The second child, a boy, died in infancy. +The surviving children are: Herbert G. Croly, a man of letters in New +York City; Vida Croly Sidney, the wife of the English playwright, +Frederick Sidney, lives in London; and Alice Gary Mathot, the wife of +a New York lawyer, William F. Mathot, resides in Brooklyn Hills, Long +Island. + +Mrs. Croly, one of the founders of Sorosis, perhaps the most noted +woman's club in existence, was its President for many years, and its +Honorary President at the time of her death. The cause which led to +the founding of Sorosis is an open secret. Women were ignored at the +Charles Dickens reception; this was not to be tolerated, and in +consequence of this affront Sorosis came into being, an effectual +protest against any similar indifference in all time to come. Of the +growth of the club movement in the United States, in Great Britain, +France, Russia, and in far-off India, I do not propose to enter into +detail. Suffice it to say that it is one of the marvels of the modern +social and intellectual life of women. + +What was the secret of Jenny June's charm and power? Not +scholarship--let this be said in all sincerity. How greatly she +appreciated the scholar's advantages was well known to her intimate +friends. But these advantages did not belong to her. Nor did it +consist in inherited social rank or wealth; her earnings by her pen +were large, but her patrimony was small. It should have been said +before, that she received the degree of Doctor of Literature from +Rutgers Women's College, and was appointed to a new chair of +Journalism and Literature in that institution. She was also a +lecturer in other women's schools of the first rank. + +Nor did Jenny June pattern her work according to the advice or after +the example of any one man or woman. There was no example by which she +could be guided. Woman was a new factor in journalism, and Jenny June +was a new woman, a new creation, if I may so speak, fashioned after +the type of woman in the beginning, when God created man and woman in +His own image. I cannot too fully emphasize the fact that she was a +new and original personality in journalism. No one understood this +better than her husband. In matters of detail his counsel was of value +to her, but the spirit and character of her work were her own; and +happily for her and for womankind she could never be diverted from her +chosen path. This, indeed, was one chief secret of her success. She +was unalterably true to her divine womanly ideals of woman's nature, +place in society and redemptive work. I say redemptive work, for it +was one of her deepest convictions that woman's function, was to be +the saving salt of all life. Sorosis was founded upon this idea;--not +a literary club merely or mainly; not a political, social or religious +club; but one founded on womanhood, on the divine nature of women of +every class and degree. + +Jenny June's recognition of this vital truth brought her into sympathy +with a world-wide movement. The new woman is no monstrosity, no +sporadic creature born of intellectual fermentation and unrest, but +the rise and development of a better, nobler type of womanhood the +world over. Jenny June's eminent distinction was that she was a leader +in this movement. It made her what her husband once said in my +hearing: "a wonderful woman." Of course there was the capacity for +bursts of feeling on occasion, which those who knew her best seldom +cared to provoke. "I am not an amiable woman," she once said to the +writer. Radiant as she was, there was a volcanic force in her nature +which could be terrific against folly, frivolity and wrong. + +Thousands of gifted women are now making themselves heard in poetry, +dissertation, fiction and journalism because Jenny June opened the +path for them. Womanhood was her watchword, and God, duty, faith and +hope the springs of her life. It may surprise even those who knew her +well to learn that her physical timidity was great, and at times +painful. But her moral and intellectual courage impelled her at times +almost to the verge of audacity, and was held under restraint only by +conscience and good sense. Humor and wit can hardly be said to have +been marked traits in her mentality. There was something delphic and +oracular often in her familiar conversation. Sentimentalism had no +place in her nature, her reading or literary work. A soul full of +healthy and noble sentiment left no room for sentimentalism. + +Was Jenny June a genius? Well, if a boundless capacity for good +original work is genius, then she was a genius. Magnanimity was a +marked trait in her character. Envy or jealousy of the gifts of +another were foreign to her. Love of nature, and especially of fine +trees, was one of her most noticeable characteristics. "There will be +trees in my heaven," she once said to the writer. But works of art, of +the chisel, the brush, the pencil and the loom were her delight. She +loved the city, its crowding humanity, its stores and its galleries. +She loved London even more than New York. Continental travel was her +chief pleasure and diversion. A long period of physical suffering, +caused by an accident, cast a cloud over the last years of my sister's +honorable life. She sought relief from pain and weakness, at Ambleside +in Derbyshire, England, and at a celebrated cure in Switzerland, but +was only partially successful. The final release came on December 23, +1901, and her remains were laid by the side of her husband in the +cemetery at Lakewood, New Jersey. + +Noble Jenny June! Shall we ever see her like again! + + + + +Sorosis-Press Club Memorial Meeting + + +A memorial meeting, called by Sorosis jointly with the Woman's Press +Club, was held at the Waldorf-Astoria on January 6, 1902, a fortnight +after the death of Mrs. Croly. It was attended not alone by the +members of these two clubs but also by representatives from every +woman's club in New York and the vicinity. Letters from many clubs +belonging to the General Federation were read, and from the +secretary's report of the meeting have been gathered the following +tributes of notable clubwomen to the beloved founder of both clubs. + + + + +Address by Dimies T.S. Denison, President of Sorosis + + +We have met this afternoon to pay a loving tribute to one of the +departed of Sorosis, who was for many years its President, and for +years its Honorary President. + +The loss is not ours alone, for our sorrow is shared by all clubwomen, +from Australia around the world to Alaska. Her position will always +remain unique. Whenever there comes a time for a great movement there +has always been a leader. The Revolution had its Washington; the +abolition of slavery its Lincoln; and so, when the time came for such +a movement among women, there were also leaders. Mrs. Croly remained, +throughout her life, an advocate of everything which was for the +betterment of women, and she died in the heart of the movement. + +Her perception of the value of unity, of the advantage of organized +effort, was remarkable. Perhaps the generations beyond ours will think +of her most in that quality, but the women of our time will remember +her, as they loved her, for her ready sympathy and her unfailing +helpfulness to all women. Though departed, she is still with us, and +the beauty of her life remains, in that its influence is imperative. + +Mrs. Croly had that particular sense of fellowship among women most +unusual. If you will stop to think, in our language you will find that +there are no words to express that thought, except those that are +masculine--fellowship, brotherhood, fraternity. Mrs. Croly, perhaps +more than any other woman in the world, had the sense of what +fellowship or fraternity meant in women, and although she sometimes +may have been called an idealist or sentimentalist, it is recognized +by many women that this thought must be abiding, for in a federation +it is the spirit that is current through it that keeps the federation +alive. + +The last afternoon it was my privilege to be with Mrs. Croly we had a +long talk, and it seems to me, in looking back, that Mrs. Croly was +then leaving a message with me for all clubwomen. I never heard her +speak so eloquently. We talked of some of the problems of the General +Federation--its possible disruption. Mrs. Croly said: "It does not +matter; if anything happens that the General Federation should be +disrupted, another will be formed at once." She had absolute faith, if +not in a Divine Providence, that there was a possibility it was part +of the human scheme of development that must be carried on through the +Divine Will. So, if she left any message for the General Federation, +it was this: that whatever our personal opinions are, whatever we +think of any question, we are to think first of the life of the +General Federation; because in it is the great thought of the +fellowship and fraternity among women that is to bring us closer and +closer to the millennium. + + + + +[Illustration: MRS. CROLY at the age of 40. (About the time Sorosis +was inaugurated)] + + + + +Address by Charlotte B. Wilbour + + +When a soul that has worn out its frail body in the work of the world +crosses the threshold of eternity, the darkness that gathers around +our hearts has in it a relief of light. Nature has suffered no +violence; the power of the body has been exhausted in good service, +and the tired spirit is set free from the encasement that can no +longer serve it. A fond look backward, a hopeful look forward, and the +portals close with our benediction. + + "A life that dares send + A challenge to the end, + And, when it comes, say + 'Welcome, friend,'" + +inspires the wish that we may so fill the measure of our days with +usefulness. + +The departure of such a spirit would be fittingly commemorated by the +grand marches of Chopin and Beethoven, or the majestic requiems of +Mozart, rather than by our simple words. And yet they are our hearts' +testimony to her in whose name we are assembled and, let us hope, made +worthy. To us who believe that life reels not back from the white +charger of Death towards the gulf of inanity and oblivion, there is a +vivid realization that our words may be spoken to the conscious +spirit; and we desire that, in the sacred name of truth, and with the +love that comprehends and overcomes, we may speak simply as "soul to +soul." + +One of the most beautiful lessons I have learned of death is that +after the departure of a friend, or even of an acquaintance, our +memories retain and cherish their best and noblest qualities and +deeds. We repeat their finest words and recount their generous works. +The sunshine falls clear on their virtues, and the shadow lies kindly +on their faults. It exalts our nature that our minds elect only the +lovely and beautiful characteristics of the lost friend. This sublime +power in us breaks the force of the bitter criticism of the obituary, +the eulogy, and the epitaph--that they are false notes in a hymn of +praise. And to us yet living, there is sweet comfort in the thought +that our best and higher selves shall remain with those we love and +honor. And so shall the good we do live after us. These purified +remembrances are links of the chain that binds the humblest to the +highest. + +In my early womanhood I knew our honored president, a fair, happy, +healthy, active English woman; and she appeared to me (sobered by the +loss of most of my family) to rejoice in a fulness of life. We were +maidens, and her interests and activities were in domestic and social +life. I have not lost the fresh memory of her in those days. + +She was our president for ten years, and afterwards our honorary +president. The activity of her life has made the deepest impression +upon me. Every member of our association and of sister associations +will agree with me, that never a woman brought a more cheerful and +willing spirit to her official duties than did she. She rejoiced in +her place, delighted in her privilege, and fully enjoyed the +recognition and good fellowship of other clubs. This cheerful service, +rendered for years, made her widely known in the club world. She +responded to personal influence and suggestions made directly to her. +She was most receptive to practical ideas, and adopted methods +readily, and her liberal service brought to her just recompense. + +For years it required sacrifice on her part to attend the regular +meetings of Sorosis, for she had daily occupation, and a lost day must +be redeemed. But when an officer she made the sacrifice cheerfully. +She was social and hospitable. Freely her house was given to us for +lectures, receptions to distinguished guests and business meetings. +For years the Positivists held their meetings at her home. She found +her pleasure in pleasing, and in helping others gave herself joy. She +loved her work for clubs, and you will remember that she had several +business enterprises connected with them, during the years that she +was an active clubwoman. + +I was in this country while she was preparing her history of clubs +(not the history of Sorosis), and she brought the interest and +enthusiasm of a young woman to the work; with a satisfied pride she +showed me the material she had collected for the history. Nothing else +to her mind was more important, or to be thought of until that was +accomplished. I believe that her usefulness to clubs has been +commensurate with the interest and gratification she had in the +service. + +During the years of our acquaintance our intercourse was genial and +concordant, and the results of our early work in Sorosis cannot equal +the sweet satisfaction that came with its performance. + +In the early life of the club many of us were young mothers, and our +domestic duties had strong claims upon us, and one prominent thought +in connection with the formation of Sorosis was that the attention of +a large class of thinking women, directed in concert towards important +domestic and social questions, could be secured; and, while the +character of the club should be pre-eminently social, we hoped to +quietly bring in important reforms, or at least some effective action +on these questions, and, above all, to secure an intelligent social +intercourse without increasing our domestic duties and responsibilities. +Have we not accomplished this? + +As the smallest consoling thought is greater than the most eloquent +expression of sorrow, so do we find some consolation in the fact that +fate was kind to our friend, and led her away when she could no longer +enjoy life, and that she went while with us whose hearts were warm +with an active sympathy and tender helpfulness. + +Our kind purpose to her name lifts our acts above criticism, and +fortifies them by our love and worthiness of intention. Let us live to +live forever--so shall we never fear death; let our warm human love be +the prophet of a union for greater benefits; and let us have faith in +the love that lives in human bosoms still: + + "Lives to renovate our earth + From the bondage of its birth, + And the long arrears of ill." + + + + +Address by the Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Vice-President of the Woman's +Press Club of New York City + + +I am requested to speak of the excellent work done by its departed +president, in and for the Woman's Press Club of New York City. To +others is assigned the testimony in reference to the career and work +of our departed president as a press woman, and her place in +literature. + +We are not here to analyze her character, or to chronicle her work. +Nor are we here to dwell on those biographical details which belong to +the pen rather than the voice; to the book and the reader rather than +the address and the hearer. We are here to testify our regard for one +whose busy pen is laid aside, but whose example of industry we may +well imitate; though in the journalistic field the women of to-day +will never have opportunity to emulate her perseverance and +fearlessness, since her entrance in times long gone by on this +untrodden path bore an important part in opening the way and obtaining +results for women with whom the pen to-day is a power. + +Mrs. Croly was the founder of this club in 1889, and for twelve years +and to the day of her death, its only president. It started (as she +tells us in the large quarto volume relating to clubs--which was the +closing, if not the crowning, effort of her busy pen) with an +invitation sent out by herself in November, 1889, to forty women, a +number of whom were then engaged upon the press in New York City, to +meet at her residence, and consider the advisability of forming a +Woman's Press Club. It was eminently fitting that one who had been +stirred in former years by the absence of social recognition in +journalism as within woman's province, on the part of the men of the +press, and moved to take a prominent part in the formation of Sorosis, +should organize a club of women writers--women journalists +especially--which should be known everywhere as distinctly a Woman's +Press Club. + +The response to her call was most gratifying. Her ability as an +organizer, and her social qualities which could attract and hold women +together in strong bonds of mutual esteem and fellowship, were again +evident, and on November 19, 1889, the organization was effected and a +provisional constitution adopted. + +At first the literary features of the new club were considered +secondary to the social and beneficiary, but gradually they grew to +their present importance. + +In its early days, like most clubs this one was migratory, and its +work incidental. Gradually it came to have a more permanent home, and +its monthly programmes which, as Mrs. Croly herself stated, "are more +in the form of a symposium than of a question for debate," came to be +so attractive and varied, and in every way so excellent, that they are +often declared to be unsurpassed in interest by any woman's club. This +was a matter of exceeding satisfaction to its founder, who saw the +club grow from its membership of fifty-two to two hundred. She was +never weary of recounting its successes, literary, musical, artistic +and social. The Press Club was her joy and pride from its organization +to the very day when she last met with its members, devoting on that +day her failing strength to a cause that was beyond expression dear to +her heart. I think I shall only be saying very feebly what the members +of the club, especially those who have been members from its +organization, now feel--that they regard her presence with them on the +recent day of installation of new officers as a benediction, though +they little knew that in her feebleness she was bidding them a loving +farewell. When the news of her departure reached them it was received +with surprise and deep sorrow. By prompt action the officers at once +came together, and immediate measures were taken for appropriate +expression of the Press Club's loyalty and love. + +Its members are here to-day not only to express their own high regard +for their departed founder and president, but also to unite with +Sorosis, the London Pioneer Club, and other clubs in the State +Federation, who, by their presence, speech, or song, indicate the +sympathy they have with those who will hold in fadeless remembrance +their ascended president, who has learned ere this, that + + "Life is ever Lord of Death, + And Love can never lose its own." + +As members of the club she, who has now passed into the eternal light, +founded may we seek earnestly to walk in the light of Truth, strenuous +for that more than royal liberty of conscience, which means liberty +under righteous law and seeking for the Unity which obeys the Golden +Rule, and thus binds heart to heart. So shall the Woman's Press Club +of New York City truly honor the memory of its founder and first +president, Jane Cunningham Croly. + + + + +Address by Orlena A. Zabriskie, President of the New York Federation + + +That the New York State Federation should be called upon to attest its +love, devotion, and admiration for Mrs. Croly and her wonderful work +among women, is a privilege we appreciate, and I shall try in a few +simple, honest words, to explain a little of what her influence has +been to the New York State Federation. We all know she was an +organizer and founder, but it is well to repeat those words, although +I think there is little danger that we shall ever forget them. From +all over the State have come messages to me from different members of +the federation, expressing their love and obligation to Mrs. Croly for +what she has done for them individually, and for the State. One letter +said: + + "I shall think of her always as that lovely, sweet-tempered + woman who, under the most trying circumstances, never lost + her temper, or felt she was at all aggrieved. She took it in + the right way, and was just as lovely and kind at the close + as at the beginning." + +I saw her at Friendship, a little town in the northwestern part of the +State, before the meeting at Buffalo, and there we had a long talk +about matters of Federation interest. She gave me some good advice in +her own gentle way, that I shall never forget, and I am only too glad +to have this opportunity of saying it helped me to carry through that +convention as I could not have done otherwise. + +What was the secret of her power as an organizer? I think this--she +saw the little spark of good in each woman, every woman she came in +contact with, and even in those she did not come in personal contact +with. She knew it was there and she had the ability to call it forth, +and that magnetic influence drew them together, so that they realized +that they could do more in large numbers than they could as +individuals. Knowing our power, she urged and encouraged us to do our +best. When with her we did not feel as though we had a "specked" side. +I think it was just that that gave her power and influence in the +clubs she founded, to make them live and be a greater power than ever +they could have been without her memory and example set before them. + +She has done good work, and started us on a task that she saw had +practical possibilities, and now we can carry out those ideas of hers, +and give them force in years to come. It may take a long time, but we +will keep on being patient, cheerful, kind-hearted, and considerate, +as she was. Let us therefore be grateful we had her as long as we did. +She was for us a grand inheritance, and let us appreciate it. + + + + +Address by Carrie Louise Griffin, President of the Society of American +Women in London + + +If I could only command that physical self as I would like to, I would +tell you how grateful I am to be privileged to speak, and how much I +think we have to be thankful for to-day, in the life of our dear one, +which was given us. + +I am new in this club, and, as most of you know, my friendship with +Mrs. Croly is not yet three years old, but I have been singularly +privileged and honored in loving her, and in the love which she gave +me. + +She came into my life (I must be just a little personal for a moment) +as our first luncheon, in our little Society of American Women in +London, was about to be given. The president of Sorosis had written to +London saying: "Do you know that Mrs. Croly and Mrs. Glynes are to be +in London, and I think they would help you?" Bless her, and Mrs. +Croly: she came as a benediction to the few of us who were then +novices in what we were doing. I can never tell you what a benefit she +was to us in the difficult work we had undertaken. You have given me +exceptional privileges in coming among you, and I am grateful for the +help you have been to me, but I would say to you--and you have given +me this privilege--I have never met a woman who seemed to have +recognized the birthright in women as the birthright in men, to create +that link which binds our powers to our intellect. It seems to me that +it was with Mrs. Croly as it was with our late Majesty, Queen +Victoria, that she was an influence, perhaps, rather than a power. She +conceived great ideas and passed them on for the executive work of +others to fulfil. I can assure you she was everything to us. Her +English birth gave her an instinctive insight into English character. +English women seemed to know and understand her, as she knew and +understood them, and there has been no finer link between the women of +America and the women of the Old World than Mrs. Croly. It was my +privilege to be with her personally a great deal while in London, not +only when she stayed in my own house, but when I have gone back and +forth with her as her guide to the many functions we attended +together. We can all be proud of her. Wherever she went she was not +only hailed as the pioneer woman, but also as one who did honor and +credit to the name of American womanhood, for, although born in +England, she still claimed that she was an American woman, as you +know. + +I shall never forget a little picture she gave of herself one day. +She told us of her life in her home in a little town in the north of +England. Her father was a Unitarian, and often had classes in his +house for teaching the working people. His views, as you may imagine, +were quite contrary to the views of the orthodox Church of England, +and the people there rebelled, stoned the house, and wanted to turn +them out of the town. The mother said to the father: "I wish you would +take little Jennie by the hand, in her white frock, and lead her out +to the people; perhaps when they see her they will not throw stones." +That was her earliest memory of that little English town. Later, I +believe, they left in the night and came to America, in order that +they might live out the courage of their faith. + +At our luncheon Mrs. Croly said: "I want English and American women to +love each other. I remember with pride and honor my English birth. I +can see my little room now--a small room with a lattice window over +which the roses grew, and as I stood at the window on tiptoe, I could +look into the old-fashioned garden below. I stood on an old chest. In +the winter my summer frocks were kept there, and in the summer my red +woollen dress. I loved it; it was beautiful, and it made me love +England. When I am in England and I hear anything not quite kind about +America, I am sorry and my heart aches, and if, when I am in America, +I hear something not quite kind about England, my heart aches again, +because I love it all." + +In talking with Mrs. Croly, she said to me, "I hope some day you will +come to a General Federation." Quoting Matthew Arnold, she said: "If +ever the world sees a time when women shall come together, purely and +simply for the benefit and good of mankind, it will be a power such as +the world has never known." And she said, "There you will find it." We +had talked about it and looked forward to seeing it together, but that +will never be. It was her hope and dream that there should be such a +General Federation of clubs as to bring in the women of the Old World +with the Federation of Clubs in the New, that we might stand hand in +hand together. She said to me, "I think you are narrow in your +society--its members are only Americans." We have often talked this +over, and have decided that in order to strengthen our centre we must +keep it, at present, to American woman; but it may be possible to have +an associate membership--the thin edge of the wedge looking toward the +realization of her dreams. + + + + +Address by Cynthia Westover Alden, Vice-President of the Women's Press +Club, and President of the International Sunshine Society + + +Mrs. Croly has left us. Yet I cannot think of her work as ended, of +her mission as closed. You may go over every line she ever wrote, you +may recall with, microscopic exactness every word she ever spoke, +without finding one single grain of bitterness towards any human +creature. Her active life was such as must find the ripe continuance +of its activity in the better country whither she has preceded us. I +feel that there is no hyperbole in applying to her memory the striking +words of Lowell's Elegy on Dr. Channing: + + "I do not come to weep above thy pall + And mourn the dying-out of noble powers; + The poet's clearer eye should see in all + Earth's seeming woe, seed of immortal flowers. + + "No power can die that ever wrought for truth; + Thereby a law of Nature it became, + And lives unwithered in its blithesome youth, + When he who called it forth is but a name. + + "Therefore I cannot think thee wholly gone; + The better part of thee is with us still; + Thy soul its hampering clay aside hath thrown, + And only freer wrestles with the ill. + + "Thou art not idle; in thy higher sphere + Thy spirit bends itself to loving tasks, + And strength to perfect what it dreamed of here + Is all the crown and glory that it asks." + +The women of America owe much to Jenny June. By example she showed +them that the career of letters was open to them. Her style, cheerful +and vivid, sometimes epigrammatic, always entertaining, was her own. +It could not be copied, it could not be imitated, it stood by itself; +her career, filled with a large measure of the courage of her success, +belonged in the broadest sense to women as women. How many worthy +ambitions that career has stimulated to fruition we know not, and +never shall know. One thing, however, is certain--that if you deduct +from the literature of America the names of women who have followed +Mrs. Croly's example and have been cheered by the fact that she did +not fall by the wayside, you leave a void that never could be filled. +How consciously they have been affected by Mrs. Croly's blazing path I +cannot tell; but the influence has been none the less real and none +the less powerful. + +Woman's battle for literary recognition will not have to be fought +over again: it belongs to the past. The old contempt of editors and +publishers, aye, and of readers as well, has gone to join slavery and +polygamy and human sacrifices in the chamber of horrors. But we can +never forget the woman who braved that contempt, and faced it down by +achievement that could not be ignored. Mrs. Croly belonged to the +period of that early struggle. In her sweetness of temper she lent to +its very asperities the charm of a tournament, overcoming evil with +good, and triumphing at last over prejudice which thousands of women +had feared to face. We loved her for herself. We are sad in spite of +ourselves that she has gone. But we shall only remember her as one of +the greatest benefactors of woman in literature; one of the most +delightful of all the delightful characters that we have ever known. + + "This laurel leaf I cast upon thy bier; + Let worthier hands than these thy wreath entwine; + Upon thy hearse I shed no useless tear-- + For us weep rather thou, in calm divine." + + + + +In the Silence + +_By May Riley Smith_ + + + They are out of the chaos of living, + The wreck and debris of the years; + They have passed from the struggle and striving, + They have drained their goblet of tears. + They have ceased one by one from their labors, + So we clothed them in garments of rest, + And they entered the chamber of silence;-- + God do for them now what is best! + + We saw not the lift of the curtain, + Nor heard the invisible door, + As they passed where life's problems uncertain + Will follow and burthen no more. + We lingered and wept on the threshold-- + The threshold each mortal must cross,-- + Then we laid a new wreath down upon it, + To mark a new sorrow and loss. + + Then back to our separate places + A little more lonely we creep, + A little more care in our faces, + The wrinkles a little more deep. + And we stagger, ah, God, how we stagger + As we lift the old load to our back! + A little more lonely to carry + Because of the comrade we lack. + + But into our lives whether chidden + Or welcome, God's comforters come; + His sunshine waits not to be bidden, + His stars,--they are always at home. + His mornings are faithful,--His evenings + Allay the day's fever and fret; + And night--kind physician--entreats us + To slumber and dream and forget. + + O Spirit of infinite kindness + And gentleness passing all speech! + Forgive when we miss in our blindness + The comforting hand them dost reach. + Thou sendest the Spring on Thine errand + To soften the grief of the world; + For us is the calm of the mountain, + For us is the rose-leaf uncurled. + + Thou art tenderer, too, than a mother, + In the wonderful Book it is said; + O Pillow of Comfort! What other + So softly could cradle my head? + And though Thou hast darkened the portal + That leads where our vanished ones be; + We lean on our faith in Thy goodness, + And leave them to silence and Thee. + + + + +Jenny June + +_By Fanny Hallock Carpenter_ + + + A beautiful soul has journeyed + Out from the Now into Then. + Her voice echoes back to us, waiting, + The sound of the great Amen. + + Her life was a song so winsome + It sung itself night and day + Into the hearts of the people + Who met her along the way. + + Her life was a flower so fragrant + That every one passing her, knew + By the perfume from it exhaling, + The love out of which it grew. + + Her life was a book so vivid + That all, though running, could read + The story of earnest endeavor + Written for woman's need. + + Her life was a light whose radiance + Brightened all woman-kind, + As sunshine wakens the flowers, + Or genius illumines the mind. + + Her life was a poem so tender + It thrilled with its cadence sweet + Many a life prosaic, + Which caught up the rhythmic beat. + + Her life was a bell whose ringing + Gave no uncertain sound, + Its chiming rang out to the nations + And girdled the world around. + + Her life was a deed so holy, + So noble, so brave, so true, + That it set all womanhood noting + The good one woman could do. + + Her life was a brook, that swelling + Grew to a river wide, + That freshened the souls of the many + Touched by its flowing tide. + + The song has trilled into silence, + The flower is faded and gone, + The book's strong story is ended, + The light is lost in the dawn. + + The poem's sweet rhythm is ended, + The chiming has ceased to be, + The deed is fully accomplished, + The river has joined the sea. + + She dropped the pebble whose ripples + To the shores of all time shall extend, + She has spoken the word into ether + Whose sound-waves never shall end. + + She has started a light on its journey + Out into limitless space, + She has written a thought for women + Eternity cannot erase. + + A wonderful soul has journeyed + Out from the Now into Then, + Her voice echoes back to us, waiting, + The sound of the great Amen. + + + + +Resolutions and Tributes From Clubs + + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of resolutions adopted by the Woman's Press +Club of New York, January 11, 1902.] + + +Resolutions of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs + + +In Memoriam + +_Mrs. Jane Cunningham Croly_ + + +We have tenderly laid away to rest our beloved honorary president, +Jane Cunningham Croly, to sleep the blessed sleep that knows no waking +in this toilsome, troublous world. + +Her gentle soul is at peace, her personal work is accomplished, her +useful life is ended. She has been taken from further pain and further +labor, to that existence where all is perfect peace, perfect rest, +perfect rhythm. + +We wish to place upon our records, therefore, our appreciation of the +fact, that this New York State Federation of Women's Clubs has +suffered such a loss as can come but once to any, a loss like that of +a loving mother to an affectionate child. + +We shall miss her at our meetings, at our larger gatherings, and at +our conventions. + +We shall hold her, and the desires of her heart in relation to us, in +loving and constant memory. + +And we purpose to take up her work, where she laid it down, and carry +it on with the same unselfish aims, high ideals, and unremitting +patience with which she labored, until we shall reach the goal upon +which her farseeing eyes were fastened, and her great heart was set. + + FANNY HALLOCK CARPENTER. + February 13, 1902. + + + + +[Illustration: Resolutions adopted by The Society of American Women in +London, March 24th, 1902.] + + + + +The Croly Memorial Fund of the Pioneer Club of London + +_First Annual Report_ + + +In July, 1900, a fund was raised by the exertions of Mrs. E.S. +Willard, to present a life membership of the Pioneer Club to Mrs. Jane +Cunningham Croly, known to all who are interested in woman's work as +"Jenny June." + +Mrs. Croly had a special claim to this distinction, for she was the +originator of women's clubs. The first woman's club was founded by her +in New York, March, 1868, under the name of "Sorosis." The example was +quickly followed elsewhere, and when, in 1889, Sorosis, to celebrate +its majority, called a convention of women's clubs, ninety-seven were +known to exist in the United States. This convention led to a +Federation with biennial meetings. In 1896, the Federation included +one thousand four hundred and twenty-five dubs. The Pioneer is the +only English woman's club which belongs to the Federation. + +Mrs. Croly's activities were not confined to clubs, although up to the +time of her death the movement owed much to her wisdom and energy. She +was a journalist, a writer, an admirable critic, and all her life a +devoted worker for every movement that could raise the position of +women. + +She was a dear and valued friend of Mrs. Marsingberd, the president +and founder of this club. It was a recognition of their unity of +spirit and purpose that made the response of this club so ready that +the only life-membership as yet presented, was offered to Mrs. Croly. +She was deeply gratified, but unfortunately did not live long enough +to enjoy a privilege which she highly esteemed. Her useful, loving, +laborious life ended in December, 1901. But she had been among us from +time to time. Her interest in us never flagged, and we prize some +tokens of her regard. Nor shall we soon forget the stirring words she +addressed to us on two occasions, pointing out the opportunities which +our association gave for useful work and sympathy. + +When the life-membership fee had been paid, some money still remained, +and when the question arose as to what should be done with it, Lady +Hamilton made the valuable suggestion that it should be used as the +foundation of a fund to be called "The Mrs. Croly Memorial Fund," to +be applied in sisterly loving kindness to such cases as might arise +within the club, where urgent material help was needed. This +suggestion was heartily welcomed by a small provisional meeting called +by Mrs. E.S. Willard, October 15, 1902, when preliminary steps were +taken. At a second meeting, November 25, a definite constitution was +formed for the administration of the fund. + +It is hoped that the members of the Pioneer Club will do all they can +to support this fund, for it is an effort to give some tangible +expression to the principles which governed the lives of both Mrs. +Croly and our own president. They always unselfishly tried to give +loving help to sister women. + +January 27, 1903. + + + + +The Positivist Episode + +_By Thaddeus B. Wakeman_ + + + "The Positivist Episode was a positive factor in my + life."--MRS. CROLY. + +Those were bright, sunny, happy, idyllic, and fruitful days of the +Positivist Episode, when the first of the two following letters which +my wife and I now contribute to the "Memories of Mrs. Croly," were +written. That episode, of which these letters represent the beginning, +and the end throws an explaining light not only over the life of her +whom this memorial is to honor, but over that of her husband, who +passed to the higher life in 1889; and largely also over the lives of +others more or less associated with, or affected by, the introduction +of the study and culture of Positivism into America, of which they may +be regarded as the chief promoters. + +Yes, as friends of Mrs. Croly and of those dear to her, we may well +recall, as she often did, this Positivist Episode as among the +pleasantest of her--and may we not also add of ours?--earthly days. +The first letter shows the movement well under way, when meetings had +begun to be held, and visits to be made to the homes of those deeply +interested. Never shall we forget the first of those visits made by +Mrs. Croly to our then "almost out of town" home in 116th street, +where our house, pleasantly overlooking the East River, was clothed +with trees and vines. The Catawbas on a large trellis, trained in +stories with upright canes, excited her admiration, and she assured us +that she had "never seen nor eaten anybody's grapes with such +delight." Naturally, a basket or two of grapes soon followed to her +home away down and over to the other side of town at number 19 Bank +street. Thus the "vines" and "fruit" referred to in her letter are +explained; and with them was thus associated in holy sympathy her love +with ours of "the kindly fruits of the earth." Mr. Croly also referred +to gifts of this kind in the New York _World_--thirty varieties of +grapes raised under and in proof of the "law of correlation, expounded +by the raiser as the law which held us of the world together." + +But when our turn came as Positivist students to visit at their home, +we found the cosey parlors well filled with the higher samples and +fruits of human culture and intellect. Mrs. Croly's social position, +sustained by the ability of Mr. Croly and his prominence as managing +editor of the New York _World_, and afterwards of the _Graphic_, +enabled her to call together the leaders, and many interested in the +then (and now?) two leading schools of scientific and constructive +thought; the Positivist school of Augusta Comte, represented by Henry +Edgar and partly also by Mr. Croly and others; and also in contrast +therewith, the Synthetic Philosophy of Herbert Spencer, represented by +Edward L. Youmans, John Fiske and others. Nor were there wanting those +who, like the present writer, would combine those two schools, and +more, into the scientific and republican growth of our newer world and +life in America. + +The initiative of these meetings was a course of lectures procured by +Mr. Croly, to be delivered by Mr. Edgar at De Garmo Hall early in +1868. Out of the interest thus excited, Mr. and Mrs. Croly called +around them the elements above referred to, including, among +miscellaneous attendants, perhaps a hundred earnest students of +Positivism and of the higher religious and scientific philosophies. +The meetings were not always held at the homes mentioned, but at the +home of Mr. Courtlandt Palmer and of other participants. All the +parties named, and many others, took part in the discussions of this +unorganized circle, until its name and influence reached and +interested generally the thinkers of the city. This interest, as the +years rolled on, resulted in or influenced the forming of many +societies, among which were a Positivist Society, the Society of +Humanity, the New York and Manhattan Liberal Clubs, the Philosophic +Society of Brooklyn, the Nineteenth Century Club, the Goethe Society, +and indirectly a Dante Society and several others. All of the clubs +and societies of women with which Mrs. Croly and her work have been +associated may be thus included. Certain it is that this "positive +factor" in her life was the source from which the new, altruistic +inspiration originally came which made her finally recognized as the +"Mother of Women's Clubs" and of their beneficent influences--the new +life, light, and hope of women, of which they are the beginning. + +Nor less should be said for the literature that has sprung from the +same source. It began with the "Positivist's Calendar," by Mr. Edgar, +and Professor Youmans's admirable collection of articles, and the +introduction, on "Correlation" of the physical and other forces, +published by Appleton, and never to be outgrown. Then Professor Fiske +published in the New York _World_ his able series of lectures on the +"Positive Philosophy," which some think he weakened by turning into the +"Cosmic Philosophy." Then (for further details are not in place here) +Mr. and Mrs. Croly and Mr. Bell and most of us went into literature in +some way, to an extent that made quite a library, now mostly lost or +forgotten. Would that I could "lend continuance to the time" of those +disputants, and show why and how they drifted apart instead of +together! For the shadow of oblivion seems to be creeping over all; +and against that I, as the last survivor, seem to be their only and +yet their helpless protector. Yet we can now see, as they mostly did +not, that their divergence was really a "differentiation process," +leading each to a higher integration of truth. + +Thus, what I cannot do for each, the volunteer seeding of time is +doing silently for all, though they noticed not the good seed they +scattered. For instance, Mr. Croly wished these words to be placed +over his grave: "I meant well, tried a little, failed much." He saw +not that the sound seed of which he was a real and great sower, were +his well-meant and effective efforts to bring Positivism, as the sum +and synthesis of science and humanity, before all thoughtful American +people, as the real religion and basis of their modern life. That view +of life was then new, but now it is replacing or changing all dogmatic +or supernatural religions. In a word, modern scientific thought is +becoming practical, constructive, and positive in religion; directed +more and more toward advantages in the human future on this earth. The +real basis of sentiment is the new science of Sociology and the new +sense of altruism--first named by Auguste Comte and first brought to +the American people in and by this "Positivist Episode." + +It is by the up-coming of such seed as was then sown, that the old +issues and their old world have been replaced by the new; which we +should gratefully inherit from those sowers. It is said that they +seemed to look upon much of their life as failure because they did not +see the harvest in their day as the direct result of their hands. How +strange that the faith of evolution did not give them the "after +sight" which is the crown and reward of those who "mean well," and who +"work and hope!" + +To Mrs. Croly did come not only the well-wishing and the patient +labor, but also a foretaste of her reward. Her days were extended +until her purposes fulfilled met the gratitude of her successors. Even +"the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," referred to in her last +letter to us, were warded off by the human providence which, in her +own words, "realizes the eternal goodness of the perfection of the +order which governs the universe." + +Thus her friendships with the many she loved and served have closed +with unalloyed satisfaction--to me and mine a sincere friend for more +than thirty years! And no words come that I might wish unsaid unless +these: "Be careful now, for I have told more than one that you are my +god-father!" + + + + +From Mrs. Croly to Mr. Wakeman + + + 19 BANK STREET, NEW YORK, + Sept. 26, 1870. + +My dear Mr. Wakeman: + +Thank you very much for allowing us to share so largely in the +luxuries of your pleasant home, and in the rewards of your labor. The +grapes were a great treat to us, and we have enjoyed them exceedingly. +The variety is wonderful; and the difference in the flavors, each one +being perfect in itself, constantly excited our admiration. + +I hope by this time your term of bachelorhood is at an end, and that +Mrs. Wakeman and the children are with you. If she has arrived, please +convey to her my acknowledgments for the card she left for me, and say +how much I regretted not seeing her. Please also to remind her that +next Monday (first Monday in October) is the meeting of Sorosis, and +that I shall expect to find her at Delmonico's, corner of 14th Street +and Fifth Avenue, at 1 P.M., as my guest. She can walk straight +upstairs, and a waiter will send in her name to me, so that she need +not enter alone; or she can arrive a little earlier (I am always there +early) and see the ladies as they come. + +As I have not many occasions for writing notes to you, Mr. Wakeman, I +desire to say to you, with the deliberation with which one puts pen to +paper, that I am thankful for having known so true a man, and happy +that my husband can count him friend. One thing done is worth many +words spoken, yet I am doubly glad when words and acts walk +harmoniously together. + + Always your obliged friend, + J.C. CROLY. + + + +From Mrs. Croly to Mrs. Wakeman + + + 7 BENTRICT TERRACE, REGENT'S PARK, N.W., + LONDON, December 24, 1900. + +MY DEAR OLD FRIEND: + +I am sure that you have thought many times that I was forgetful and +ungrateful, but indeed the first part of the indictment cannot be laid +to my charge. I never forget you, and if I have not written, it is +because I have suffered and enjoyed many things during the past two +years, and have permanently lost the power of rapid movement, or of +doing anything under great stress and pressure. + +But now that this wonderful year is ending, this Sabbath of the +centuries, I feel that I must at least send my love and unforgetness +to you; also my hope that you are finding on the other side of the +continent of North America, compensation for all that you left behind +in the east, and greater promise for the future. + +For all that I have gained for some years past I have to thank my +losses. Chief among my gains is, I hope, a little realization of +eternal goodness; of the perfection of the order which governs the +universe, and the relation of every separate atom to the Divine Unity +of the whole. I know Goethe proclaimed it a hundred years ago; but +every separate part has to grow to its knowledge for itself. + +I wonder how you are spending Christmas. This year seems to me so +remarkable that it is a privilege to live in it. I am trying to use +its last days as if they were mine, in doing the things I should be +most sorry to leave undone. + +I expect to return home soon--that is, in a few months. Or rather, as +I have no home now, and a trustee has lost the money I had saved and +entrusted to him in making provision for my old age, I shall only try +to find a corner to rest in. + +I hope you have been dealt with more kindly in body and estate. Please +remember that I never forget the union of the spirit we once +enjoyed--that the Positivist Episode was a positive factor in my life, +and that I shall always recall Mr. Wakeman as my chief helper in it. + + With love to you and yours, I am unforgettingly, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + (It has seemed pertinent and interesting as bearing upon the + "Positivist Episode" to here insert extracts from + testimonials to Mr. Croly published in the memorial issued + at the time of his death in May, 1889.) + + +[Illustration: DAVID GOODMAN CROLY.] + + + + +From a Testimonial to Mr. Croly, by T.B. Wakeman + + +David G. Croly must not be forgotten. He rendered our country an +invaluable service, not yet recognized. He was the man who _planted +Positivism in America_. The many who have felt, the thousands who +hereafter will feel its influence for good, should learn to bless, and +to teach others to bless and continue his memory and influence. + +In 1867-68 he began his great work. Henry Edgar had the seed from +Comte direct, and then tried to sow it in a course of lectures given +in a hall chiefly paid for by Mr. Croly. But the seed would not take. +After Edgar had gone, the sturdy brain and hand of D.G. Croly took the +matter in charge and actually made the growth start. Then the _World_, +with him at its head, evoked and published John Fiske's "Lectures on +Positivism," far better in their first shape than when pared and +cooked over into the "Cosmic Philosophy." Then came the "Modern +Thinker" and "Positive Primer." Then Dr. McCosh came out, in reply, +with his volume on "Positivism and Christianity." Then Positivist +Societies and Liberal Clubs, one after another, were formed and some +continue, whence John Elderkin, Henry Evans, James D. Bell, the writer +of these lines, and not a few others commenced to ray out the new +light, which never has been, and never will be extinguished. By the +aid of that light let a distant posterity read with gratitude the +names of _David G. and Jane Cunningham Croly_, for without them I know +it would not have been. + + T.B. WAKEMAN. + + + + +From a Testimonial by Herbert D. Croly + + +... I should like to relate one incident in the history of my father's +relations with myself--an incident which was eminently characteristic +of certain aspects of his nature. + +From my earliest years it was his endeavor to teach me to understand +and believe in the religion of Auguste Comte. One of my first +recollections is that of an excursion to Central Park on one bright +Sunday afternoon in the spring; there, sitting under the trees, he +talked to me on the theme which lay always nearest his heart--that of +the solidarity of mankind. There never, indeed, was a time throughout +my whole youth, when we were alone together, that he did not return to +the same text and impress upon me that a selfish life was no life at +all, that "no man liveth for himself, that no man dieth for himself." +His teachings were as largely negative as positive. While never, +perhaps, understanding the Christian religion as a man with a weaker +faith in the truth of his own convictions might have understood it, +his attitude was one, I judge, of sympathetic scepticism. He was +always endeavoring to impress upon me that, while there must +necessarily have been something great and good in a faith that had +been the inspiration of so many souls, and comfort of mankind through +so many centuries, yet at the same time it was incomplete; that very +often the followers of Christ gave more to the doctrine than they +received from it; and that the teaching of Auguste Comte supplied what +was lacking in the teaching of Jesus Christ. His desire to impress +upon me a belief which he held himself with all the force of religious +conviction led him to attempt explanations which the mind of a child +could neither grasp nor retain. He even discussed, for my benefit, +theoretical questions as to the existence and nature of the Supreme +Being; discussions, of course, that I could so little understand that +it was like pouring water on a flat board. It was simply the fulness +of his belief that led him to do this. His desire was that, surrounded +as I was by people who burnt their candles at the altars of the +Christian faith, I should have full opportunity to compare the +Positivist _Grand Etre_ with the Christian Cross. Under such +instruction it was not strange that in time I dropped insensibly into +his mode of thinking, or, more correctly, into his mode of believing. + +While I was at college I was surrounded by other influences, and while +retaining everything that was positive and constructive in his +teaching, I dropped the negative cloth in which it was shrouded. My +change in opinion was a bitter disappointment to him, as several +letters which he wrote at the time testify. But intense as was his +disappointment, it never took the form of a reproach. This is very +remarkable when we consider what an essential part of his character +his beliefs constituted. Here was an end, for which he had striven +through many years, failing at the very time when it should have +become most fruitful. And his disappointment must have been all the +more severe because he exaggerated the differences that existed +between us. It was his opinion that his negative opinions were +necessarily connected with those which were positive; and that it was +impossible truly to hold the one without the other. Yet, as I said, +his disappointment never took the form of a reproach. "It is your +right; nay, it is even your duty," he used continually to say, "to +work your own salvation. It has turned out to be different from mine. +Well, then, mine is the loss." + +From an abstract point of view it may not seem to be so much of a +virtue that a father should consider his son's intellectual honesty to +be of more importance than his own opinions. But I am not writing from +an abstract point of view. We are all but children of the earth; not +good, but simply better than the bad. So it was with David G. Croly. +His opinions, crystallized by the opposition which they met on every +side, were so very much the truth to him that he wished his son to +perceive them clearly and cherish them as devoutly as he did. That +wish became impossible of fulfilment. Part of his life-work had +failed. "Mine is the loss." + + H.D. CROLY. + + + + +From Mr. Croly to His Son Herbert at College + + + LOTOS CLUB, Oct. 31, 1886. + +My Dear Boy--You said something about the divergence between my ideas +and those of the philosophers whose works you are reading at college. +Let me beg of you to form your own judgment on all the higher +themes--religion included--without any reference to what I may have +said. All I ask is that you keep your mind open and unpredisposed. In +the language of the Scripture, "prove all things and hold fast to that +which is good." Be careful and do not allow first impressions to +influence your maturer judgment. You say you are reading the +controversy between Spencer and Harrison on religion. In doing so keep +in mind the fact that Spencer's matter was revised, while that of +Harrison was not; and that upon the latter's protest the work was +withdrawn in England. + +I wish during your college year that you would read: + +(1) Miss Martineau's translation of Comte's "Positive Philosophy." +(2) Mill's Estimate of Comte's Life and Works. +(3) Bridges's Reply to Mill. +(4) All of Frederic Harrison's writings that you can find. +(5) All of Herbert Spencer's works that are not technical. +(6) John Fiske's works. +(7) The works of the English Positivists, such as Congreve, Bridges +and Beasley. + +By noticing the dates I think you will find that Spencer appropriates +a great deal from Comte and that he tries to shirk the obligation. It +would be well to read the latter's "General View of Positivism" +further along. + +My dear son, I shall die happy if I know that you are an earnest +student of philosophic themes. + +Do cultivate all the religious emotions, reverence, awe, and +aspiration, if for no better reason than as a means of self-culture. +Educate, train every side of your mental and emotional nature. Read +poetry and learn the secret of tears and ecstacy. Go to Catholic and +Episcopal churches and surrender yourself to the inspiration of +soul-inspiring religious music. + + Ever your affectionate + FATHER. + + + + +From a Testimonial by Edmund Clarence Stedman + + +My intimacy with Mr. Croly began in 1860, when we were together upon +the editorial staff of the New York _World_. We had many notions, +socialistic and otherwise, in common. With these, however, we did not +venture to imperil the circulation of that conservative newspaper. He +was City Editor, and knew his business. I was struck by the activity +of his mind, and his combination of shrewd executive ability with +inventive skill. I found him a staunch friend, loyal to his +allies, helpful to his subordinates; moreover, a man of strong +convictions--which he asserted with a fine dogmatism; an idealist +withal, quite unhampered by reverence for conventional usage and +opinion. Absolute mental honesty was his chief characteristic. + +He was a humanitarian, in the Positivist sense of the word. All his +aspirations were for the future glory and happiness of the human race. +Faith in the reign of law, and a prophetic certainty of man's +elevation--these were his religion. As a thinker and talker he +certainly was of the same breed with Tennyson's poet, who + + "Sings of what the world will be + When the years have died away." + +He bore good fortune and adversity with an equal mind, and he +displayed stoical courage throughout prolonged illness of a most +depressing type. + +Others will add to your own feeling statement of his varied labors. +But let me say that, whether our paths came together or diverged, I +always thought of him as in every sense a comrade. His loss makes the +lessening roll of those with whom I touched elbows in the old +newspaper days seem ominously faded. + + EDMUND C. STEDMAN. + + + + +From a Testimonial by J.D. Bell + + +Mr. Croly was a great journalist. He was not a great editorial writer, +but he was a great editor. He had the true executive temper and +power--that is, the ability to obtain from others the work that was in +them. He never made the mistake of endeavoring to do everything +himself. He was just, as well as generous to his subordinates, and +many of the younger journalists have reason to remember his kindness +to them. In any company in which he was thrown he was sure to attract +attention, and there were very few companies in which he did not take +the leading part by virtue of his ability and not of his +self-assertion. He never used tobacco in any form, and was otherwise a +strictly temperate man. In his utterances he was often very radical, +but in practice he was always thoroughly conservative. + +His social predilections led him to study the writings of Auguste +Comte. He accepted his doctrines and endeavored to popularize them in +writings and meetings, but with very limited success. Indeed, he often +said that while intellectually Positivism was in the air, as a social +doctrine it was too far in advance of the present age to become +popular. + +He was essentially a family man and loved his home and household. +During the greater part of his married life, however, the exacting +editorial duties and literary labors of himself and his wife prevented +them from enjoying the society of the home circle to the extent that +each desired. Here, as in so many other cases, the individual was +sacrificed for the benefit of the public. + + + + +From a Testimonial by St. Clair McKelway + + +... David G. Croly's personality was always healthy and hopeful. He +commended with justice, he censured with consideration, he changed or +cut out your copy with regard exclusively to the increased value of +the article for newspaper purposes. The staff was like a large family +under him. Every one's equal rights were regarded, every one's special +talents were stimulated, every one's peculiar fads or foibles were +genially borne with. Officially he had no favorites. Personally he +chose his friends among the staff as freely as he would do among +outsiders. The unrecorded kindnesses of the man were fragrant and not +few. To newcomers he would intimate what were the prejudices or +susceptibilities or limitations of those among whom they were cast. He +would be just as careful to see that the old standbys did not make +things rough or unfair for the newcomers. He had little respect for +the gifts or views that could not be made interconvertible with +newspaper results. He took a public view of party questions and rarely +a personal view of any questions. Between what he thought and wished +as an iconoclast, a reformer, or a reconstructor of foundations and +what he was intrusted to say as an editor, he drew the line sharp and +clear. While, as I have remarked, he was rarely a writer with his own +hand, the articles which he suggested or poured into or pulled out of +others were made so eminently characteristic of himself that they were +stamped with his quality as truly as if he had written them himself. +He was very proud of the success of the men in after life who started +on their newspaper careers under him. He followed them with good +wishes always, he spoke strong words for them when, where, and to whom +they little suspected, and he rightly regarded their success as a +vindication of his own prescience in having set them on their way, and +also as a gratification not merely to his confidence in his own +opinion concerning them, but to the wishes of his unselfish heart in +desiring that they should take the pinnacles of achievement in +whatsoever field of newspaper work inclination, necessity, opportunity +or destiny marked out before them. + + ST. CLAIR MCKELWAY. + The _Eagle_ Office, Brooklyn, May 14, 1889. + + + + +From a Testimonial by John Elderkin + + +David G. Croly was a strong man. He was strong in his convictions, his +honesty, and his capacity to meet all the requirements of life in the +most populous, enterprising, and brilliant city of the continent. His +strength begot independence, and he was before all else independent in +the formation and expression of his views, both on public affairs and +those which are more personal and philosophical. He never apologized +for his opinions, and his life needs no apology. His mind dwelt on +that side of every question which involved the interest and welfare of +the whole mass of mankind, and his religious philosophy was pure +Humanitarianism. His reverence for Comte was the result of his +intellectual conviction that in his altruistic teaching was to be +found the only remedy for the wrongs and sufferings of the world. + +In personal intercourse Mr. Croly was suggestive, inspiring and +encouraging. It was always with a slight shock to preconceived +notions and prejudices that one listened to his comments on any +current movement or event, for he was sure to take an original and +characteristic view which could not be calculated. + + + + +From Mrs. Croly's Contribution to Her Husband's Memorial + + +Mr. Croly was in his twenty-seventh year when I first knew him, but as +yet had made no mark in journalism. He had not found his place in it. +He was employed as City Editor of the New York _Herald_--a position +which had not then developed the importance which attaches to it +to-day--and his duties consisted mainly of making out the "slate" for +the staff of reporters, and doing such reportorial work as it was the +province and habit of the City Editor to perform. This afforded little +scope for a man of Mr. Croly's latent power; and his dissatisfaction +and desire to find a new field was the cause of our going West within +three years after our marriage and starting a daily paper in a Western +town. Had the town been larger the story would have been different. As +it was, we spent our money, not without result; for Mr. Croly +discovered that his forte was not execution, but direction, and that +his fertility of brain only needed a sufficiently wide field to +develop powers capable of greater expansion. + +He was the most utterly destitute of the mechanical or "doing" faculty +of any man I ever saw, and never used his own hands if he could +possibly help it. But ideas flowed freely upon all subjects in which +he was interested, and he distributed them as freely, knowing that the +reservoir though forever emptied was always full. This amazing +fertility was in some respects a detriment, for it led him into too +many projects, and made him careless whom he enriched, while his +dislike of the mechanism of his work made profit for others at his +expense. I know no other journalist in New York City, during my own +journalistic career of thirty-three years, who has made so many and +such diverse publications, or put so much originality and force into +the detail of his work. The _World_, and particularly the Sunday +_World_, which was the foundation of the Sunday newspaper, the New +York illustrated _Graphic_, the _Round Table_, and other journals were +built up by his energy, and owed their most striking and successful +features to his suggestiveness. He was particularly unselfish in his +estimate of other men and his appreciation of their work. He was as +proud of discovering the good qualities of a man on his staff as a +miner of finding a nugget, and never wearied of expatiating upon them. +Indeed, he did this more than once to his own disadvantage, thus +furnishing an instrument to treachery. + +I am sure the "boys" of the old _World_ staff, St. Clair McKelway, +A.C. Wheeler ("Nym Crinkle"), T.E. Wilson, H.G. Crickmore, Montgomery +Schuyler, E.C. Stedman, and others, will look back with a little sigh +for the "old times," and for the generous recognition they received +from one who was never at a loss for a subject, or for the treatment +of a topic, and was always a good comrade and heart and soul +sympathizer in their work, its trials and its achievements. + +A chief quality with Mr. Croly was faithfulness to the interests he +served. This was put to some severe tests; but they could not be +called temptations, for disloyalty did not present itself as a +possibility to him. His faults were those of a nervous temperament, +combined with great intellectual force and a strength of feeling which +in some directions and under certain circumstances became prejudice. +He could never, in any case, be made to run a machine. He hated the +obvious way of saying or doing a thing. He cultivated the "unexpected" +almost to a fault, and always gave a touch of originality even to the +commonplace. His pessimistic and unhopeful temperament was doubtless +due to inherent and hereditary bodily weakness, and to the lack of +muscular cultivation in his youth, which might have modified inherent +tendencies. His mental lack was form not force; and he had enough +original elemental ideas to have supplied a dozen men. In that respect +he was superior to every other journalist I have ever known--not +excepting Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond and Frederick Hudson. + +But the time has gone by for ideas. It is not that they are a drug in +the market, but that there is no market for them. To-day is the +apotheosis of the commonplace, the iteration of the cries of the +street, the gabble of the sidewalk, and the gossip of the tea-table; +neither originality nor force is needed for such journalism as this, +and they may therefore well rest to the music of the pines. + +One of the strongest influences in Mr. Croly's life was his +acquaintance with the Positivist movement in England, and his interest +in the works of Auguste Comte. Up to this time he had experienced none +of the undoubted benefit which accrues to every man and woman from the +possession of an ideal standard, and settled convictions which inspire +or take the place of religious aspiration. Positivism did all this for +Mr. Croly, so far as anything could, and he became one of its most +eager and devoted adherents. + +Mr. T.B. Wakeman, himself one of the earliest and most able leaders, +credits Mr. Croly with being the "father" of the movement in this +country, and in fact he was the first to make known that any +representative of Positivist ideas existed in America. He invited and +paid for the first lecture ever delivered in New York City upon the +subject; it was given by Mr. Edgar, an unknown "apostle," in a little +hall (De Garmo) on the corner of 14th street and Fifth avenue, on a +certain Sunday some twenty or more years ago. The result of the +lecture was that a dozen people formed a little society and engaged +Mr. Edgar to give them a series of Sunday talks on the practical +bearings of the religion of humanity. Mr. Edgar was not in himself an +interesting exponent of his ideas, but his message inculcated duty, +love to man, a life open and free from concealments, the possession of +personal gifts or acquired property as trusts to be used for the good +of others, and the recognition of value in all that has been and is. + +These ideas became more or less an actuating principle. They brought +together a circle of men and women of the best quality, who endeavored +to live up to their standard, and by work and daily life, rather than +by active propagandism, to crystallize opinions into a vital force. +For several years the regular meetings were held at our house, the +"festivals" of the year being often given at the residences of other +members of the society--Mr. T.B. Wakeman, or Mr. Courtlandt Palmer. +There is still an "old guard" left, of as good, brave, and unselfish +men and women as ever walked on this earth, and though some differed +from. Mr. Croly, and from each other on some points, yet they all knew +and acknowledged that he brought to them the beginning of the best +inspiration of their lives. + +Mr. Croly's latest expressed wish was that all the usual forms should +be disregarded in the event of his death, except the simplest service +and the presence of flowers. "If any one thinks enough of me," he +said, "to bring me flowers, let them; but have no elaborate mourning, +and bury me close to the earth, near the pines, and facing the sea." +The legend he left for his grave-stone was: "I meant well, tried a +little, failed much." But this will not be the verdict of those who +came under the influence of his strong and many-sided personality. + + + + +Mrs. Croly's Club Life + +_By Haryot Holt Dey_ + + +There is a pleasant and not irrational fancy in the mind of the writer +that somewhere in space there exists the abiding-place of ideas, and +that as fast as earth-dwellers are ready for them they are released. +Like a bird the idea takes flight and seeks a home in the brain of +some one who is singled out to forward and exploit it for the benefit +of humanity. Thenceforward, that person becomes the apostle of the +idea. "We are not in the possession of our ideas," says Heine, "but +are possessed by them; they master us and force us into the arena +where like gladiators we must fight for them." But it is only to the +elect that great ideas are assigned, one who either through heredity +or by special development is qualified to carry the message. This +fanciful reasoning applies admirably to the idea for women's +clubs--organizations for women--and in its selection of Jenny June it +made no mistake in the character of its agent. + +The first woman's club was organized in March, 1868, and was the +outcome of feminine protest, because women were barred from the +reception and banquet tendered to Charles Dickens by the Press Club of +New York City. Among those who applied for tickets on equal grounds +with men was Mrs. Croly, then an active, recognized force in +journalism, and when the idea of a woman's club took possession of her +she had become the most indignant and spirited woman ever locked out +of a banquet hall. + +Forty years ago it required courage for a woman to step aside from the +ranks of conservatism and organize a woman's club; it was regarded as +a side issue of "woman's rights," a movement then in grave disrepute. +But Mrs. Croly had dared untrodden paths once before when she stepped +into the field of journalism, and her experience there had developed +self-confidence. She had been writing for women for many years, and +through her mission had acquired instinctive knowledge of their needs; +and so when the affront was put upon her by her male colleagues of the +press she conceived the idea of a club for women. It should be one +that would manage its own affairs, represent as far as possible the +active interests of women, and create a bond of fellowship between +them, which many women as well as men thought at that time would be +impossible of accomplishment. Mrs. Croly wrote in her "History of +Clubs" thirty years later: "At this period no one of those connected +with the undertaking had ever heard of a woman's club, or of any +secular organization composed entirely of women for the purpose of +bringing all kinds of women together to work out their objects in +their own way." And then again: "When the history of the nineteenth +century comes to be written women will appear as organizers and +leaders of great organized movements among their own sex for the first +time in the history of the world." + +"The originator specially disavowed any specific object, only asking +for a representative woman's organization based on perfectly equal +terms in which women might acquire methods, learn how to work together +for general objects, not for charity or a propaganda." + +"This declaration of principles was the cause of much abusive +criticism, as well as failure to obtain aid and sympathy. Had Sorosis +started to _do_ any one thing, from building an asylum for aged and +indigent 'females' to supplying the natives of Timbuctoo with pocket +handkerchiefs, it would have found a public already made. But its +attitude was frankly ignorant and inquiring. It laid no claims to +wisdom or knowledge that could be of any use to anybody. It simply +felt the stirring of an intense desire that women should come +together--all together, not from one church, or one neighborhood, or +one walk of life, but from all quarters, and take counsel together, +find the cause of separations and failures, of ignorance and +wrong-doing, and try to discover better ways, more intelligent +methods." + +Under this banner Sorosis was launched. Alice Cary was its first +president. The story of Sorosis from the beginning is a very +interesting one; from the view-point of the press its doings and +sayings and business affairs generally have always afforded +subject-matter for comment and conjecture. Of its early days Mrs. +Croly wrote: "The social events of the first year were memorable, for +they were the first of their kind, and practically changed the custom +of confining public dinner-giving to men. The first was offered as an +_amende honorable_ on the part of the New York Press Club, and +consisted of a 'breakfast' to which the Press Club invited Sorosis, +but did not invite it to speak or do anything but sit still and eat, +and be talked and sung to. The second was a 'tea' given by Sorosis to +the Press Club at which it reversed the order, furnishing all the +speakers and allowing the men no chance, not even to respond to their +own toast. The third was a 'dinner,'--the brightest and best of the +whole--at which the ladies and gentlemen each paid their own way and +shared equally the honors and responsibilities." This is said to be +the first public dinner at which men and women ever sat down on equal +terms. A report of it in a daily newspaper closed as follows: "The +entire affair was one of the most delightful events of the season, and +will long be held in pleasantest memory by all who had the honor to +participate in it. We believe we violate no secret when we say that +the gentlemen were most agreeably surprised to find their rival club +composed of charming women, representing the best aristocracy of the +metropolis, an aristocracy of sterling good sense, earnest thought, +aspiration and progressive intellect, with no perceptible taint of +strong-mindedness." + +The growth and expansion of Sorosis were watched by Mrs. Croly with +the same eager interest with which a mother contemplates the +development of a child, not knowing just how its character will shape, +guarding it always with love, for a potential force in its directing. +It was her spirit that steered it over rough places; that brought +harmony out of discord; that inspired, soothed, provided wise counsel, +and that many times sacrificed personal feelings for the good of the +whole. To do this required mental qualities of a high order--courage, +foresight, judgment, and not a little of the martyr spirit. Women had +never organized before, and the conditions to be met and the problems +to be solved stood absolutely alone, with no precedent to build upon +or decide even the simplest question. What firmness was required in +the leader at that time, when, for example, women who had been her +staunchest allies deserted the ranks because they could not select the +club name! It was a firm hand that kept the unorganized body from +going to pieces on the rocks of dissension, and it was at that time +that the leader proved her inalienable right to her title. She had led +women into the field of journalism, and now she was leading them into +organization. Clubs began to form in all parts of the country, and +when Sorosis arrived at its twenty-first birthday, it was Mrs. Croly's +idea that they should all come together, and when the invitation was +issued they came. Thus was formed the General Federation of Women's +Clubs. At present there are 800,000 women belonging to that +federation; each State has its own federation, New York forming first, +at Mrs. Croly's suggestion, and now containing 32,000 enrolled +members. The General Federation was formed in 1889. The writer recalls +the triumph in Mrs. Croly's tone when she replied to the appeal of a +man who came to her to beg to be given the names of the women +belonging to the federation. "If you choose to send a woman to copy +the names," she said, "you may do so, but it will take her more than a +week." And the General Federation was less than three years old at the +time. + +Mrs. Croly organized the Woman's Press Club of New York in 1889. It is +due to her wisdom that it was carried through many crises. She was its +president from the day it was founded to the day of her death; always +its loving teacher, her enthusiasm regarding its development never +flagged. She lived to see it firmly established, a harmonious and +delightful organization, and she was satisfied. + +Mrs. Croly was neither parliamentarian, orator, nor politician, but +she had a fund of good sense, wise judgment, and a power of expression +which, could clarify an atmosphere when mere knowledge of the "Rules +of Order" would have failed. She had spiritual vision, and by it she +knew the soul of the club; no amount of dissension could shake her +faith in its ultimate good, and in times of crisis she presided with a +serenity only accountable in the fact that she viewed from the +mountain summit what her associates saw only from the housetop. What +years of development she enjoyed long before the club idea possessed +her, endowing her with wisdom and mental breadth, and what +associations that urged and demanded that she become a student of +sociology! The seeds of thought planted in those early days of +journalistic experience, inclusive of what she terms the "Positivist +Episode," blossomed in her later, more mature years, and all the +harvest she brought and applied to the organization of women. To the +casual observer an organized body of women differed in no particular +form from any ordinary assembly of women. What it was to her one can +only realize by a careful perusal of her writings on club formation, +and the moral awakening that sounded the bugle note of progress when +women began to organize. + +Once it came to the hearing of this gentle apostle of development, +that she had been said to represent a cult. The occasion was a +reception given in her honor by one of her clubs on her seventieth +birthday. There had been speeches and congratulations, and the scene +was one of general rejoicing. "Oh, she is the leader of a cult," +whispered a guest, and the remark was repeated to Mrs. Croly. She +received it with a sorry smile of regret that any one should so +misinterpret the significance of the scene. As if the narrow and +exclusive word "cult" could be applied to an assembly that stood for +organization and human development, which, in her prophetic vision, +only needed time to unite races, and ultimately to extend around the +globe. To her it signified "the opening of the door, the stepping out +into the freedom of the outer air, and the sweet sense of fellowship +with the whole universe, that comes with liberty and light." + +Few women carry their enthusiasm till past three-score-and-ten, as +Mrs. Croly did. With the failing of physical strength the wand of +power passed into the hands of younger women whom she hailed as her +successors, and whose growth and development were the blossoms +springing from the seed she herself had planted; and in the last years +of her noble life, when the glow of sunset was on the garden of her +activities, the love she bore her fellow-women was her unfailing joy +and inspiration. + +At the time of life when people recognize the fact that their forces +are waning, and that a well-earned period of rest has arrived, Mrs. +Croly set for herself the last task of her busy life. She felt she had +something to tell about the success of her great idea, her message to +women, and she wrote the "History of the Woman's Club Movement in +America," a volume containing eleven hundred and eighty pages, which +told the story of nearly all the clubs in the General Federation. This +book will remain a monument to the founder of women's clubs. Into it +she put the skill and experience of her long years of editorship, +urging every faculty to the work, and applying herself with a degree +of industry that characterized the zeal of her best working years. And +it testifies to the martyr-like nature of her spirit, that she even +rallied from the disappointment consequent upon the financial failure +of the book. The dedication of the work reads as follows: "This book +has been a labor of love, and it is lovingly dedicated to the +Twentieth Century Woman by one who has seen and shared in the +struggles of the Woman of the Nineteenth Century." But nothing that is +good is lost, and the book testifies to the illimitable ideas, the +trust in eternal goodness, and the strength of purpose of one who had +a glorified estimate of latent feminine forces that require to be +developed. + + + + +Essays and Addresses by Jane Cunningham Croly + + + + +Beginnings of Organization[1] + +Women in Religious Organization + + +When the history of the Nineteenth Century comes to be written, women +will appear for the first time in the history of the world as +organizers, and leaders of great organized movements among their own +sex. + +[Footnote 1: _History of the Woman's Club Movement in America._] + +The world of to-day, both for men and women, is a different world from +that which furnished the outlook for the men and women of a hundred +years ago. Science, invention, have changed its material aspects; and +while retiring some individual activities and occupations, they have +created new fields of industry that are rapidly changing the face of +the world, and making new demands upon strength and energy. + +The world which man has conquered, and is still conquering, is no +longer the purely physical. He is working now toward the discovery and +control of the powers of the air, and has already harnessed some of +them to do his bidding. The succession of great events and discoveries +will mark this century as an epoch in the world's history, and is +responsible for economic changes which create social disturbance, and +to which both men and women must adjust themselves, often without +knowing the why or wherefore of that which is so different from what +has been. It is one of the paradoxes in human nature that women, while +being made responsible for human conditions, have been condemned to +individual isolation. It has been largely the result of general +physical differentiation and the dependence that grew out of it, and, +secondarily, the long ages required to produce settled social +conditions and a reversal of that great unwritten law of kings and +men--that might made right. + +It is true that there was a time, some traditions of which are still +preserved among the Indian tribes of North America, when the woman +possessed controlling influence and power. This matriarchal or mother +age passed with the primitive period in which the energies of men were +absorbed in hunting and fighting. It was a tribal effort through +tribal women to formulate and give importance to family life, and it +must have been accepted and more or less sanctioned by the men. This +tribal leadership, at first domestic and social, disappeared with the +development of military leaders, the acquisition of military powers, +and the centralization of property in lands, houses, and personal +belongings, that required constant and effective methods of protection +and defence. + +Instances are not wanting of heroic women of those early days who were +capable of holding and defending person and property against +aggression and warfare. But the logic of events was strong then, as +now, and the destiny of the woman was not that of military supremacy. + +The first step in associated life taken by women was a simple protest +against the use and abuse of power on the part of men, wrought up by +fear or loathing to the point of desperation. Women, usually of rank, +fled to the desert with one or two companions, and encountered +unheard-of hardships rather than submit to the fate to which they had +been condemned by father, brother, or some other man who could +exercise authority over them. The first Church-sisterhood grew out of +such beginnings, and gradually obtained the sanction of the Church. A +recent remarkable work, "Women in Monasticism," shows how wide and +powerful the system of religious sisterhoods had become as early as +the fifth century, and traces its growing strength and enlargement +until its decline, which was coeval with the Reformation. + +The strength of this extraordinary development lay in the fact that it +furnished women with a vocation; it gave employment to faculty. The +sisterhoods of the convents and monasteries were the nurses, the +teachers, the students, the caretakers of the poor, and the guardians +of the orphaned rich. The Fathers of the Church--St. Jerome, St. +Chrysostom, St. Augustine--all bear witness to the high character of +these sisterhoods and to their individual members, to their virtues +and lives of self-sacrificing devotion. Many of these women became +learned by the exercise of memory alone, for they had no books. Many +enriched their convents with manuscript books--the result of lives of +painstaking labor. The Beguines, who founded hospitals and schools, +were the best educated women of their day--the eleventh century. They +read Tacitus and Virgil in the original, and were skilled in medicine. +Disease often took loathsome forms, and only women whose lives were +consecrated to self-denying labor could have been the patient +ministers to the diseased poor. + +This is all the more noteworthy because the idea of vocation was not +the early incentive to monastic life. It was sought as a refuge; it +developed into a vocation; and it is a matter of interest to women +to-day that these spontaneous vocations, growing out of an enforced +life, were inspired by love of well-doing, desire for study, the +acquisition of knowledge, its distribution, and the ever-ready spirit +of helpfulness at the sacrifice of every personal indulgence. + +Naturally the monastic life of women was controlled by the Church, and +could have continued to exist only by permission. A Spanish lady of +rank who had befriended Ignatius Loyola as a young student of +Barcelona, attracted by the odor of sanctity and scholarship which +attached itself to the Order which he founded, gained reluctant +permission to establish (1545) an Order of Jesuitesses, subject to the +same strict rules and discipline. This was the beginning of a strictly +woman's Jesuit "college," which flourished notwithstanding all the +efforts Loyola himself made to get rid of it, and the restrictions put +upon it. Many noble ladies joined it, and it became the foundation of +a number of houses of the same name and character, extending into +Flanders and England, when, without cause, except fear perhaps of +their extent and influence, they were finally suppressed by a bull of +Pope Urban VIII, bearing date, January 13, 1630. This Order of +Jesuitesses existed for nearly a century. Their colleges were +scholastic, and had given rise to preparatory schools, when they were +summarily suppressed because of their independent life. + +Had this Order continued to exist it might have gained an educational +ascendency throughout Europe which even the strong wave of the +Reformation would have found it hard to overcome. But the convents and +monasteries generally suffered at this time from the abuses which had +crept into the Church, and the rage for power which possessed its +prelates. + +The influence was mischievous also from a social and domestic point +of view; from the sanctity and superiority attached to those who +ignored natural ties and duties, thus lowering the social and domestic +standard, and setting the nun's habit above the woman, the wife and +the mother. Yet nature had asserted itself even in the convent. The +motherhood in the monastic woman made her the mother, the caretaker, +the nurse, the teacher, and the helper of all those who needed +maternal care, while condemning and ignoring its common aspects and +place in everyday life. + +This absence of domestic ties was not, however, obligatory upon all +sisterhoods. An interesting story of the "First Council of Women," +told by Madame Lendier at the Congress of Women in Paris in 1889, +bears upon this point. + +The monastic school out of which the Council grew, was founded in the +early part of the seventh century, by Iduberge, wife of Pepin, mayor +under the Frankish kings. + +Iduberge cleared a space in the forest, and built a house for the +education and religious consecration (if they desired it) of the +daughters of nobles, her daughter Gertrude becoming the abbess. No vow +of celibacy was imposed. As long as they remained in the abbey they +were to conform to the rules of the house, but if they desired to +marry they were free to leave. The _chanoinesses_ of Nivelle spent +their morning in religious duties, but the rest of the day they were +at liberty to mix with the outer world. The abbess alone took upon +herself the vow of perpetual virginity. A hundred and seventy passed +away after the death of Gertrude. The abbey had grown in power, had +gathered around itself a town with gates and towers and +fortifications, but was independent of the French Government, being +under the sole rule of the abbess, who was called the "Princess." + +This independence excited the jealousy of the Church, and in May, 820, +Nivelle received a visit from Valcand, the reigning bishop of Liege. +He was received by the lady abbess in the habit of her order, a cross +of gold in her hand; mounted on a white horse she rode at the head of +the procession that marched to meet him. Young girls of noble birth, +clad in long white gowns trimmed with ermine, and mounted on palfreys, +followed their abbess, and behind them the town authorities, feudal +lords and administrators of justice. + +At the same time Valcand entered the town with every honor and +courtesy due to his rank. He held a solemn service, and having given +the benediction, he rose again and addressed the _chanoinesses_. He +declared that it had been decided by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle +that he should be sent to Nivelle to enforce the rules of St. Benoit, +which must be followed by all religious bodies; this rule being that +all the devotees of Nivelle were required to take upon themselves the +vow of perpetual virginity, to acknowledge themselves dependent upon +their bishop in all secular matters, and finally to yield up to +Valcand all temporal power at Nivelle. + +This solemn declaration was received in silence. For some moments no +one moved or spoke, but a low murmur swept over the young sisters of +Nivelle Abbey. The lady abbess, followed by her _chanoinesses_, rose +and advanced to the rails of the choir stand. The abbess Hiltrude, +daughter of Lyderic II, sovereign of Flanders under the emperor, then +between thirty-five and forty years of age, was beautiful; of that +calm, grave type which speaks of a quiet, well-regulated life. + +"In the name of the Cloister of St. Gertrude," she said, "we protest +against any interference in the temporal power of this government. We +claim the right of taking to ourselves husbands when it seems right to +us so to do. We are therefore resolved to follow the rules of our +patron saint, as we always have done heretofore, and if this protest +is insufficient we will present our appeal to our Holy Father, the +Pope." + +The bishop declared that he would maintain the rule given by the +Council at Aix, and then descending from the pulpit, he ordered his +people to follow him at once out of Nivelle, refusing to join in any +of the festivities prepared in his honor. + +Hiltrude now took things seriously into her own hands, leaving nothing +undone to secure the success of her appeal. She sent a courier to the +Pope, and another to Louis le Debonaire; but the wise abbess took yet +further precautions: she at once organized a council at Nivelle of all +the abbesses of the French Empire, requiring silence from them, and +assuring them of security in the town. The council could not be +brought together for a year, but on the 1st of May, 821, Hiltrude +inaugurated her "Concile de Femmes." + +She took advantage of the marriage of Count d'Albion with Regina, +which was to take place at the abbey. Regina was a _chanoinesse_, and +it was the custom when a member of the circle at the abbey married, +that the marriage should be solemnized at Nivelle. Fifteen titled +abbesses, all of aristocratic lineage, arrived with imposing suites. +The council was a short one. They approved of all that Hiltrude had +done, and signed the appeal. The document, written, signed, and sealed +by all the abbesses present, was immediately sent to Rome, and to +Valcand himself. Meantime the pope and the king, who were much +perplexed, and the bishop, who was completely baffled by the logic, +strength and force of appeal of the "Concile," were obliged to +withdraw the opposition, and the _chanoinesses_ were left in peace to +marry or not to marry, as they pleased. + +The ancient order of deaconesses imposed no vow, yet it was +co-existent with the early church, and accepted by many of the fathers +as part of the apostolic order. This position was strengthened by the +high character of the women, many of them widows, or unprotected +women, whom death or some other calamity had freed from natural ties. + +Ancient church history is full of the records of courage, devotion, +and self-sacrifice on the part of these women, who were generally of +high birth, but gave themselves to poverty and the most menial +offices, and left names which have perpetuated the sanctity of their +order, and come down to the present day as types of good women. + +The ceremonies used in the ordination of a deaconess were precisely +the same as those used for a deacon. The deaconesses were not +cloistered: they lived at home with children or relatives. But they +wore a distinctive dress, and had their place in the church with the +clergy. The "golden age" of the order is said to have been immediately +following the apostolic era, before the spirit of monasticism had +destroyed or limited activities, and shut off sympathy with the +outside world. + +The royal and imperial order of the Hadraschin in Prague, Germany, is +the most imposing relic remaining of the religious orders of women, +though not the most numerous. There are about forty chapters still in +existence of this ancient order, with a royal residence at Prague. The +abbess possessed the right to crown the queen at coronation +ceremonies, and exercised it as late as 1836, wearing all the +magnificent insignia of her rank in the order. + +A more numerous order of consecrated women, presided over and governed +by one "mother-general," is that of St. Joseph de Cluny. This was +founded by a woman, Madame Javonbey, in the beginning of the present +century, about ninety years ago. It has one hundred and twenty-eight +houses in France, and two in the United States. It has others in South +America, one in Italy, several in the West Indies and some in Africa. + +All its property is in community, and its membership--about six +thousand women--teach in its schools, and care for the sick poor in +hospitals and in their homes. Two hundred are assigned to the care of +the insane, by the French Government. + +The mother-general administers, from the mother-house _(maison mere)_ +at Paris. She has two assistants and a council of six sisters. Under +the mother-general there are mother-superiors, one to each estate, +administering and governing it, but under this mother-superior at +Paris. These lesser governing women send in weekly reports to the home +convent at Paris, giving brief accounts of transactions and events, +such as the entrance of pupils, the purchase of lands, and extra dole +of food to the poor, the death of a member and the like. They are a +prosperous, working sisterhood, and have preserved the integrity and +independence of their beginning. + +It was the spirit of protest against church and monastic abuses, +embodied in Martin Luther, which broke up the monastic system for both +men and women. Doubtless also it had outlived its usefulness in any +large or general sense. A more settled social and domestic life was +becoming possible through the development of trades and industries, +while the domestic virtues in women began to acquire a value, and +furnish guarantees to the State. + +The discovery of printing gave a tremendous impulse to the spread of +civilizing and educational influences, to the multiplication of +schools, and the desire for knowledge. It was the dawn of intellectual +freedom, and the school of the people was the open door for it. + +Spiritual freedom had to wait longer. It waited the unfolding of the +woman. At the beginning of this century she was still under the +dominion of the church and its leaders, and her efforts were +controlled by sects and doctrines. + +The first associated work of women in this country, and in this +century, was still religious and philanthropic. The "Sisters of +Charity" in America owes its origin to a young and beautiful New York +woman, Elizabeth Seton, who was born in 1774, married at twenty, but +lost her husband by death in a very few years. Obliged to support +herself, she opened a school in Baltimore. But her tendency was toward +the devoted life of a _religieuse_, and the gift of a foundation fund +enabled her to gratify this strong desire. She assumed the conventual +habit, and opened a convent school on July 30, 1809, in Emmetsburg, of +which she became mother-superior. The character of "Mother" Seton was +considered saintly by Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. She died +at her post in 1821, after a life the last half of which was entirely +spent in self-denying work. Mrs. Seton was exceedingly lovely as a +young woman; and her sweet, serene face and presence, as she grew +older, was said to exert a magical influence upon all who came in +contact with her. This was particularly seen in her care of the sick, +and in dealing with turbulent spirits: they came immediately under her +influence without any effort on her part. + +The first ten years of the present century saw the beginning of a +number of religious societies of women, organized to create funds, and +aid in church mission work. First among these were the "cent" +societies, 1801 and 1804, and later the Woman's Auxiliaries to the +Board of Foreign Missions. These grew in size and strength, until in +1839 there were six hundred and eighty-eight of these societies. But, +unfortunately, their limited and purely subjective character afforded +small basis for the wider growth necessary to perpetuity, and they +gradually declined, until in 1860 they had become nearly extinct. + +A little later, 1864, the first independent "Union" of women +missionary workers was formed in New York by Mrs. Doremus, and within +a few years every denomination, beginning with the Congregationalists, +had its organized Woman's Auxiliary to the American Board of Home and +Foreign Missions. The "Missionary Union" remains, however, the only +independent society of women workers in this field, managing its own +affairs, raising its own funds, and sending out its own missionaries, +both men and women. Its very existence has been a great strength to +the Woman's Auxiliaries, stimulating them to independent action, and +especially to the demand for a voice in the disposal of the large sums +they raise and turn over to the treasury of the American Board. + +The oldest purely women-societies in this country were also started +for missionary and church work. The first is the "Female Charitable +Society" of Baldwinsville, N.J., and is still existent. + +The object of the Baldwinsville society, as stated in the +constitution, was "to obtain a more perfect view on the infinite +excellence of the Christian religion in its own nature, the importance +of making this religion the chief concern of our hearts, the necessity +of promoting it in our families, and of diffusing it among our fellow +sinners." A further object is "to afford aid to religious +institutions, and for the carrying out of this purpose a contribution +of twelve and a half cents is required at every quarterly meeting." + +Mrs. Jane Hamill presided at its first meeting; the Rev. John +Davenport opened it with prayer. Mrs. Hamill was still the presiding +officer at its jubilee anniversary in 1867. At its seventy-eighth +annual meeting Mrs. Payn Bigelow was elected president. + +The "Piqua (Ohio) Female Bible Society" was founded in 1818. It +consisted at first of nine women. In those early days the country was +a wilderness. Other members were added later. It has had in all, over +nine hundred members. Mrs. Elizabeth Pettit was its presiding officer +from 1840 until 1881--forty-one years. The daughters and the +granddaughters are all made members by right of inheritance, and in +several instances four generations have been represented at one time. +It held its seventy-fifth anniversary in 1893, when all the +descendants of the early members were notified, and many were present. +It has held a meeting on the first Monday afternoon of each month for +seventy-eight years, and the records are preserved intact. The founder +was Mrs. Rachael Johnston, wife of the Indian agent. It has sent over +fifteen thousand dollars to the parent Bible Society in New York. + +It should be remembered that down to the last quarter of the present +century, there was little sympathy with organizations of women, not +expressly religious, charitable, or intended to promote charitable +objects. "What is the object?" was the first question asked of any +organization of women, and if it was not the making of garments, or +the collection of funds for a church or philanthropic purpose, it was +considered unworthy of attention, or injurious doubts were thrown upon +its motives. In Germany, even yet, societies of women are not +permitted, except such as have a distinctly religious, educational or +charitable object. + + + + +The Moral Awakening[1] + + +The life of the world is continuous, morally and spiritually as well +as materially. The individual sees it at short range and in fragments. +That is the reason why it so often seems dislocated and out of joint. +A thoughtful writer, Mrs. L.R. Zerbe, says: "When Goethe made his +discovery of the unity of structure in organic life, he gave to the +philosophers, who had long taught the value, the 'sovereignty' of the +individual, a physiological argument against oppression and tyranny, +and put the whole creation on an equal footing." + +[Footnote 1: _History of the Woman's Club Movement in America_.] + +The dignity of mind, and the right of the individual to its conscious +use and possession, had been already clearly enunciated by Fichte, +Herder, and others, who antedated Goethe. But Goethe went farther. He +carried the discovery of the rights of the individual to its logical +conclusion, which was, that the rights of every created thing should +be given a hearing. This was absolutely new doctrine. It brought women +and children within the pale of humanity. It moralized and humanized +nature itself; bringing birds, trees, flowers, all animate life, into +the "brotherhood" of creation. + +The writings of Rousseau and Chateaubriand extended the idea, and +Madame de Stael and Mary Wollstonecraft were the natural outgrowths of +it. It may be said indeed to have been the actuating principle of +modern literature, especially of modern English poetry, which +vitalizes and idealizes children and nature. Whatever credit may be +given to others, it should never be forgotten that to Goethe we owe +the discovery of structural unity, that the cell of all organic life +is the same. + +The ideas that grew out of this discovery reached the higher, thinking +class, and inspired the poets with a new enthusiasm for humanity long +before it reached the masses. The French nobility were satiated with +power. The "Little Trianon" was the only reaction possible to a queen, +from the wearisome magnificence of Versailles, the gilded slavery of +the court. The people recognized no sentiment of human sympathy in the +so-called "whims" and "caprices" of the luxurious occupants of +palaces; and maddened by countless wrongs, precipitated the French +Revolution, which, it has been said, turned back the tide of progress +for one hundred years. + +From this movement were developed all those reforms which have made +the nineteenth century glorious, monumental in the history of +progressive civilization. The abolition of slavery, the development +of a spirit of mercy towards dumb animals, the recognition of the +human rights of women and children--all these may be traced through +many a winding way, back to the German scientists and philosophers, +who rediscovered the inner life while working from its outer side. + +Yet, as in history there are no sporadic instances, no isolated facts, +so this flower of our century--the recognition of the rights of all +created things, with all that it involves--belongs to universal +history. It is the product of the Reformation and the Renaissance, +with roots only the records of Rome and Greece and Egypt may discover. + +The quickening of moral and spiritual life in our day, its accelerated +movement, is not to be claimed by or traced to any one set of +influences or propaganda. The awakening has been all along the line; +and it has resulted in a new mental attitude toward the human life of +the world, both as a whole and in its various parts. Its great outcome +is the learning to live with, rather than for, others. + +This new view, this great advance of the moral and spiritual forces, +addressed itself with singular significance to women. To those who +were prepared, it came not only as an awakening, but as +emancipation--emancipation of the soul, freedom from the tyranny of +tradition and prejudice, and the acquisition of an intellectual +outlook; a spiritual liberty achieved so quietly as to be unnoticed +except by those who watched the progress of this bloodless revolution, +and the falling away of the shackles that bind the spirit in its early +and often painful effort to reach the light. + +The broadening of human sympathy, the freedom of will, gave rise to a +thousand new forms of activity; some of these an expansion of those +which had previously existed; others opening new channels of +communication; all looking towards wider fields of effort, a larger +unity, a more complete realization of the eternal ideal, the +fatherhood of God, the motherhood of woman, the brotherhood of man. + +Realization of this ideal brought a new conception of duty to the mind +of woman, unlocked the strong gates of theological and social +tradition, and opened the windows of her soul to a new and more +glorious world. The sense of duty is always strong in the woman. If +she disregards it she never ceases to suffer. Her convictions of it +have made her the most willing and joyful of martyrs, the most +persistent and relentless of bigots, the most blind and devoted of +partisans, the most faithful and believing of friends, and the only +type out of which Nature could form the mother. This quality has made +women the constructive force they are in the world, and gives all the +more importance to the new departure, to the influences of the new +sources of enlargement that have come into their lives. + +Thus it became a necessity that the quickening of conscience, the +widening of sympathy, the influence of aggregations, the stimulus to +desire and ambitions, should be accompanied by corresponding growth in +knowledge and a love beyond the narrow confines of family and church. + +The cry of the woman emerging from a darkened past was "light, more +light," and light was breaking. Gradually came the demand and the +opportunity for education; for intellectual freedom for women as well +as men; for cultivation of gifts and faculties. The early half of the +century was marked by a crusade for the cause of the better education +of women, as significant as that for the physical emancipation of the +slave, and as devoted on the part of its leaders. + +Simultaneous with this were two other movements--the anti-slavery +agitation, inspired by the new enthusiasm for human rights and carried +on largely by the Quakers of both sexes. The woman's-rights movement +was the natural outgrowth of the individual-sovereignty idea which the +German philosophers had planted, and of which Mary Wollstonecraft was +the first great woman-exponent. + +The keynote of the educational advance was struck by Emma Willard in +1821. She was followed by Mary Lyon, Mary Mortimer, and other brave +women who dared to ask for women the cultivation of such faculties as +they possessed, without let or hindrance. This demand has taken the +century to develop and enforce. The work was so gradual that it is not +yet, by any means, accomplished. Schools and colleges exist, but not +yet equally, except here and there. They are, however, giving us an +army of trained women who are bringing the force of knowledge to bear +upon questions which have heretofore only enlisted sympathies. + +Simultaneously with this question of educational opportunity, has +arisen an eager seeking after knowledge on the part of women who have +been debarred from its enjoyment, or lacked opportunity for its +acquisition. The knowledge sought was not that of a limited, sectional +geography, or a mathematical quantity as taught in schools, but the +knowledge of the history and development of races and peoples, of the +laws and principles that underlie this development, and the place of +the woman in this grand march of the ages. + +The woman has been the one isolated fact in the universe. The outlook +upon the world, the means of education, the opportunities for +advancement, had all been denied her; and that "community of feeling +and sense of distributive justice which grows out of cooperative +interests in work and life, had found small opportunity for growth or +activity." + +The opportunity came with the awakening of the communal spirit, the +recognition of the law of the solidarity of interests, the +sociological advance which established a basis of equality among a +wide diversity of conditions and individuals, and opportunities for +all capable of using them. This great advance was not confined to a +society or a neighborhood; it did not require subscription to a tenet, +or the giving up of one's mode of life. It was simply a change of a +point of view, the opening of a door, the stepping out into the +freedom of the outer air, and the sweet sense of fellowship with the +whole universe that comes with liberty and light. + +The difference was only a point of view, but it changed the aspect of +the world. This new note, which meant for the woman liberty, breadth +and unity, was struck by the woman's club. + +To the term "club," as applied to and by women, may be fitly referred +the words in which John Addington Symonds defines Renaissance. "This," +he remarks, "is not explained by this or that characteristic, but as +an effort for which at length the time has come." It means the +attainment of the conscious freedom of the woman spirit, and has been +manifested first most strongly and most widely in this country, +because here that spirit has attained the largest measure of freedom. + +The woman's club was not an echo; it was not the mere banding together +for a social and economic purpose, like the clubs of men. It became +at once, without deliberate intention or concerted action, a +light-giving and seed-sowing centre of purely altruistic and +democratic activity. It had no leaders. It brought together qualities +rather than personages; and by a representation of all interests, +moral, intellectual, and social, a natural and equal division of work +and opportunity, created an ideal basis of organization, where every +one has an equal right to whatever comes to the common centre; where +the centre itself becomes a radiating medium for the diffusion of the +best of that which is brought to it, and where, all being freely +given, no material considerations enter. + +This is no ideal or imaginary picture. It is the simplest prose of +every woman's club and every clubwoman's experience during the past +thirty years. + +It has been in every sense an awakening to the full glory and meaning +of life. It is also a very narrow and self-absorbed mind that sees in +these openings only opportunities for its own pleasure, or chances for +its own advancement on its own narrow and exclusive lines. The lesson +of the hour is help for those that need it, in the shape in which they +need it, and kinship with all and everything that exists on the face +of God's earth. If we miss this we miss the spirit, the illuminating +light of the whole movement, and lose it in the mire of our own +selfishness. + +The tendency of association upon any broad human basis is to destroy +the caste spirit, and this the club has done for women more than any +other influence that as yet has come into existence. A club that is +narrowed to a clique, a class, or a single object, is a contradiction +in terms. It may be a society, or a congregation of societies, but it +is not a club. The essence of a club is its many-sided character, its +freedom in gathering together and expressing all shades of difference, +its equal and independent terms of membership, which puts every one +upon the same footing, and enables each one to find or make her own +place. The most opposite ideas find equal claims to respect. Women +widest apart in position and habits of life find much in common, and +acquaintance and contact mutually helpful and advantageous. Club life +teaches us that there are many kinds of wealth in the world--the +wealth of ideas, of knowledge, of sympathy, of readiness to be put in +any place and used in any way for the general good. These are given, +and no price is or can be put upon them, yet they ennoble and enrich +whatever comes within their influence. + +We are only at the threshold of a future that thrills us with its +wonderful possibilities--possibilities of fellowship where separation +was; of love where hatred was; of unity where division was; of peace +where war was; of light--physical, mental and spiritual--where +darkness was; of agreement and equality where differences and +traditions had built up walls of distinction and lines of caste. This +beautiful thing needs only to be realized in thought to become an +actual fact in life, and those who do realize it are enriched by it +beyond the power of words to express. + +Women have been God's own ministers everywhere and at all times. In +varied ways they have worked for others until the name of woman stands +for the spirit of self-sacrifice. Now He bids them bind their sheaves +and show a new and more glorious womanhood; a new unit--the completed +type of the mother-woman, working with all as well as for all. + + + + +The Advantages of a General Federation of Women's Clubs[1] + +_Address by Mrs. Croly to the First Meeting of the First Federation of +Women's Clubs, Held in Brooklyn, N.Y., April 23, 1890_ + + +The growth of the woman's club is one of the marvels of the last +twenty-five years, so fruitful in the development of mental and +material resources. What it was destined to become was, perhaps, far +from the minds of those who aided its inception, but all the +possibilities of the future lay in the germ that was thus planted, for +it was formed by the marriage of two great elements--freedom and +unity. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle._] + +The club has been called the "school of the middle-aged woman." It is +so in a very broad sense. It begins by gratifying her desire for +fellowship, her thirst for knowledge; by training her in business and +parliamentary methods; and gradually develops in her the power of +expressing her own ideas, of concentrating her faculties and focusing +them upon the object to be attained, the purpose to be accomplished. +At the same time she finds that a more subtle process has been going +on in her own mind. An insensible alchemy has been widening her +horizon, getting rid of prejudice, obliterating old, narrow lines, +leaving in their place a willingness to see the good in Nazareth as +well as in Galilee. + +This result shows that she is a clubable woman, for it is emphatically +the club spirit. It is in this respect that the club differs from +those societies that are devoted to a single purpose; which demand +subscription to an idea, an opinion, a dogma, a belief, a single basis +or principle, and do not admit of fellowship on any other terms. +Doubtless those have their uses--they are the necessary and often +powerful expression of an advancing public opinion; but they have +always existed, usually and in past times, under the leadership of +men, even when composed of women. But it remained for the nineteenth +century to develop a moral, social, and intellectual force, made up of +every shade of opinion and belief, of every degree of rank and +scholastic attainment, of every kind of disposition and habit of +thought, all moulded into form,--and though as yet only the promise of +what will be, furnishing an outline of that beautiful united womanhood +which was the dream with which the club was started, and has been the +guiding star to its development up to the present time. + +The union of clubs in a federation is the natural outgrowth of the +club idea. It is the recognition of the kinship of all women, of +whatever creed, opinion, nationality or degree; and it is a sign of a +bond that entitles every one to equal place;--not to charity or +toleration alone, but to consideration and respect. Inside of the club +we are equal sharers of each other's gifts. Each one brings her +knowledge, her sympathy, her special aptitude, her personal charm of +manner and disposition, and we are all enriched by this outflowing and +inflowing, by this equal part and share in a fountain made up of such +bountiful and diversified elements. + +But the tendency of a circle is to widen. This is natural and +necessary to healthful life. Stop its currents, dam up its inlets and +outlets, and it is reduced to stagnation, and soon becomes foul and +mischievous instead of healthy and life-giving. The tendency of narrow +ideas is to run to routine, to spend time and strength upon trivial +details, and allow them to block and hinder the consideration of +weightier matters. There is undoubtedly a use for practice in business +methods, particularly for those women who have had no previous +training in business life; but the club ought to be an evolution. Once +acquired, the knowledge of business ways, methods, and tactics can be +put to better use than to aid or hinder the transaction of routine +affairs, which it is the function of a committee to dispose of. + +The direction which the enlargement of club life takes must depend in +the first place upon local conditions and environment. Already in many +cities it has made itself, as in Philadelphia, the centre of the +active, moral and intellectual forces. In others, as in Milwaukee, by +cooperation in spirit and practice, it has provided a home for +literature and the arts. Whatever the woman's club does, is and ought +to be done on the broadest human principles; for if it forgets this it +ceases to be a club, and becomes merely a propaganda for the +advancement of certain fixed and unchangeable ideas. + +But its own life, no matter how broad, is not enough. Whatever is +vital is social. This is why a club when it comes to understand its +own powers and sources of life, wishes for the companionship, the +sympathy, the fellowship, the shaking hands with other clubs. It is +said that corporations have no soul: clubs have souls, and they call +loudly for the enlargement of club sympathies, the discussion of +knotty club questions, the affirmation by others of what have become +club convictions, and mutual congratulations on club successes. + +This is not all that a federation of clubs can accomplish, but it is +enough for a starting point. It is the kindly, providential, +sympathetic way in which we are always led from the smaller to the +larger field of work. Just before descending from a crest in the +Sierras into the valley of the Yosemite, you come suddenly upon a +wonderful view; it is called "Inspiration Point," and it is like an +open door, a revelation of the infinite, a promise in one gleam of +transcendent beauty, of all the separate and divisible splendors that +are to follow. + +This spirit of enlargement beckons us and leads us to the formation of +the Federated Union of Clubs, and we cannot do better than follow its +guidance. We all need, clubs as well as individuals, encouragement and +counsel; we need to enlarge our knowledge of what other clubs are +doing, of their extent, of their objects, of their ambitions. Above +all, we need to enlarge our sympathies, to cultivate sympathy by +knowledge; for our prejudices are born of ignorance, and we rarely +dislike what we intimately know. As Charles Lamb said: "How can I +dislike a man if I know him? Do we ever dislike anything if we know it +very well?" With the growth of clubs the purely personal +characteristics of them will disappear, or at least be subordinated to +larger aims; and it is in the prosecution of these larger aims that +the federation will find its reasons for existence. + +There is a vast work for clubs to do throughout the country in the +investigation of moral and social questions, in the reformation of +abuses, in the cultivation of best influences;--not the influence of +class or clique or party, but a wide, liberalizing, educational +influence which works for true goodness, for cleanliness, for order, +for equal opportunities, for the recognition of God in man and nature, +in whatever stage of unfolding the Divine in us may happen to be. It +is in the last twenty-five years that village-improvement societies, +first instigated by a woman--Miss Sallie Goodrich of Stockbridge, +Mass.--have created a transformation in whole townships, and so +enhanced the value of property as to drive out the original +inhabitants and change farming communities into fashionable summer +resorts. This result is of doubtful value. But every woman's club, +especially in the newer sections, has in its power, by wise and +careful action, to improve the conditions, elevate the tone, and +crystallize the moral force of its community in such a way as to make +it more desirable to live in, more beneficial to its own citizens, +more of an example to others. + +All these questions of club life and work would naturally come up +before a federated body, and these would as naturally lead to +governmental questions; to contrasts and records of activities in +different parts of the world, and to the investigation of the causes +which bring about certain results. + +Women are naturally both receptive and constructive. The affirmative +states of mind are those which, particularly belong to women; as +iconoclasts they are mere echoes. This affirmative condition is most +favorable to true development. Nothing good has ever come of mere +negation. But we must look for our truths and our basis of true +growth, in the light of the rising dawn--not, as heretofore, in the +waning glory of the setting sun. The union of clubs is the natural +outgrowth, of the planting of the true club idea. It was a little +seed, but it contained the germ of a mighty growth in the kinship of +all women--the women who differ as well as the women who agree; and +the federation of clubs is the forerunner of that unity of the race of +which philosophers have spoken, of which poets have dreamed, but which +only the constructive motherhood and womanhood of the race can +accomplish. + + + + +The Clubwoman[1] + + +The nineteenth century has been remarkable in many ways. It has +developed a new material and social order; but the fact is not as yet +fully recognized that it has developed a new woman--the woman who +works with, other women; the woman in clubs, in societies; the woman +who helps to form a body of women; who finds fellowship with her own +sex, outside of the church, outside of any ism, or hobby, but simply +on the ground of kinship and humanity. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle_.] + +It is not yet twenty-one years since a great daily in New York said +that if a society composed wholly of women could hold together one +year, a great many men would have to revise their opinion of women. +The remark was made apropos of the formation of the first women's +clubs in this country, and was echoed on all sides publicly and +privately. It is only significant now as showing the isolated position +of women, and the general impression which prevailed that they could +not and would not work together, except, perhaps, for some common +cause, religious or philanthropic, which for the time being absorbed +their energies and made them lose sight of their personal jealousies +and animosities. Why women should have been believed to be +antagonistic to women it is hard to say. This idea seems to have been +cultivated assiduously by men, and women have echoed it; for it cannot +be denied that the new fellowship that has come with the century and +with the awakening of women to the life which is theirs--the life of +friendship, of sympathy, of enlargement, of interest in affairs, of +common kinship with all that exists in a beautiful world--has in it +something of the nature of a surprise. Is it possible that women may +have a life of their own, may learn to know and honor each other, may +find solace in companionship, and lose sight of small troubles in +larger aims? + +These questions have been answered by thousands of women, answered +with tears, after the manner of women, but tears of joyful recognition +of the new day which has dawned for them;--a day of larger +opportunities, a day which comes after a night of ages; for the woman +is for the first time finding her own place in the world. Heretofore +she was only welcome if the man wanted her, and if he no longer wanted +her she was again cast out. But she is now learning that the world +exists for her also; that she is one half the human race; that life, +liberty, and the pursuit of whatever is good are as desirable for her +as for the man, and as necessary in order to put her in _rapport_ +with the eternal springs of all life and its varied forms of activity. + +The first impulse of the awakened woman is to unite herself with other +women; her next to learn that which she does not know in regard to +art, literature, peoples, races; the countries she has never visited, +the kinsmen and kinswomen she has never seen, and the degree in which +their progress has kept pace with or gone beyond her own. This +knowledge comes to her through her club or literary society. + +The woman's club has become the school of the middle-aged woman. It +has brought her up to the time. It has enabled her to keep pace with +the better advantages given to her sons and daughters. It has put an +interest into her life which it had never previously possessed, and +made her more humanly companionable because better able to judge and +more willing to suspend judgment. The clubs of women in America--the +growth mainly of the past twenty years--can now be counted by the +hundreds, and their membership by many thousands, and the history of +them all is practically the same. + +It is this woman, born of women's clubs, who is the woman of to-day. +She is the centre of the intellectual activity of townships and +neighborhoods all over the country. She forms stock companies, and +builds athenaeums; she is at the head of working guilds; she organizes +classes, teaches what she knows, while she is being taught what she +did not know; and in mental activity, and labor which is not routine, +has renewed her youth, and added to her attractions. She is at the +same time far removed from a lobbyist. She is able to look at +different sides; she is socially at home with the best people in every +sense of the word. She is a lady as well as a woman, and does not +adopt what is _outre_ in order to obtain notoriety. + + + + +The New Life[1] + + +It is a very dull mind, whether belonging to man or woman, that does +not feel stirred by recent movements--not here alone but all over the +world--into some quickening sense of the deeper life, the broader +human claims, the unifying and uniting influences which have sprung +into activity, and which address, not the visionary, but the +thoughtful and far-seeing, with prophetic gleams of a new heaven and a +new earth. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle_.] + +It is also a very narrow and self-absorbed mind which, only sees in +these openings opportunities for its own pleasure, or chances for its +own advancement on its own narrow and exclusive lines. The lesson of +the hour is help for those that need it, in the shape in which they +need it, and kinship with all and everything that exists on the face +of God's green earth. If we miss this, we miss the spirit, the +illuminating light of the whole movement, and lose it in the mire of +our own selfishness. To women this uplifting, these open doors, mean +more than to men. They have been hedged about with so many +restrictions, forced and held in such blind and narrow ways, that it +is little wonder if sight and steps are feeble, and that they find it +impossible to take it all in, or to recognize at once the full meaning +of the day that is dawning for them. + +For we are only at the threshold of a future that thrills us with its +wonderful possibilities;--possibilities of friendship where separation +was; of love where hatred was; of unity where division was; of peace +where war was; of light--physical, mental and spiritual--where +darkness was; of agreement and equality where differences and +traditions had built up walls of distinction and lines of caste. This +beautiful thing needs only to be realized in thought to become an +actual fact in life, and those who do realize it are enriched by it +beyond the power of words to express. "I should like to wake up rich +one morning just to see how it would feel," said one woman to another +not long since. "I do wake up rich every morning now," said the other, +"though I have still my living to earn, because my life is full of +prized opportunities, of cherished friendships, of chances for +acquiring knowledge that I had not in youth, and keeping myself in +touch with broad human facts and forces. Everything is interesting to +me, more interesting the closer my acquaintance with it, so that I am +fast getting rid of those ugly things we call prejudices, and laying +in a stock of appreciation instead, which is in itself enriching." + +The old feeling of patron and dependant--so irksome, so humiliating, +so feudal, yet containing for many the whole moral law--is done away +with, and in its place appears a spirit of true fellowship, a growing +sense of mutual respect and helpfulness. Club life teaches us that +there are many kinds of wealth in the world--the wealth of ideas, of +knowledge, of sympathy, of readiness to be put in any place and used +in any way for the general good. These are given, and no price is or +can be put upon them; yet they ennoble and enrich whatever comes +within their influence. + +Money is the only kind of wealth that is not common, that is not given +freely; and for that reason it has a deadening and demoralizing effect +upon the minds of those who cultivate and increase it for its own +sake, or fail to put it to its larger and more human uses. Wise +distribution is the only way in which money can be made valuable in +the world: it is only as a developing power, as an aid to the worker, +and a creator of instrumentalities by which good objects can be +accomplished, that it is desirable. In the light of this view, what +place do those men and women occupy who shut themselves up with their +money, and shut out the wide human interests which educate the mind +and heart to noble issues? Going to church does not help them, for it +must be an exclusive church and an exclusive pew, under an exclusive +pastor who patronizes Jesus Christ but does not sympathize with Him, +and who talks about the "dregs of society" as if it were something +far removed from the knowledge and consciousness of his hearers. + +The woman of the past has especially been cramped up, bound around, +and blindfolded by her special form of belief, by her tradition, by +her social customs, by her education, by her whole environment; and +the effect will remain stamped more or less upon her individuality +long after the predisposing causes have passed away and better +influences and circumstances have taken their place. + +But the present is full of encouragement. The new life has begun: the +woman is here;--not the martyred woman of the past; not the +self-absorbed woman of the present, but the awakened woman of the +future. That woman whose faculties have been cultivated, whose gifts +have been trained, whose mind has been enlarged, whose heartbeats +respond to the touch of the unseen human, and whose quickened insight +recognizes father, brother, sister, and friend beneath the strange as +well as the dilapidated robe. + +This woman whose face no artist has painted, who is not yet familiar, +is among us, and will remain. Her work humanizes and reconciles, and +the changes it will effect will come so noiselessly that the majority +will not be aware of them till they are accomplished, and then each +one will announce, and perhaps believe, that they themselves have +brought these things about. But this will not matter, for when the +work is done it is really of little consequence who did it, since all +who do any good work at all are simply agents and ministers, charged +with a task it is their business to perform, and happy only as they +are able to execute it. It is those who are "let alone," who live for +and in themselves, who are the unhappy ones; and for these, though +they possess fine houses, much gold, stocks and bonds, the poorest +worker may well fervently pray that the new life may come to these +also. + + + + +The Days That Are[1] + + +We live in an age of discontent. Discontent has been deified. It has +been called divine; and unrest, the seal as well as the sign of +progress. Doubtless there is a time and a place even for discontent, +for there is no faculty that has not its function. But discontent, +which is a sacred fire when it burns within and is kept for home use, +is a mischievous and destroying element when it is widely distributed +and unthinkingly-employed by ignorance and short-sightedness. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle_.] + +Then it is certain that if discontent is good, content is far better, +and thankfulness better yet. If time teaches us anything, it is to +work and wait and trust; to be thankful for what is--for the digging +and seeding time as well as for the harvest; for one must come before +the other. + +Time brings only one regret--that we had not more joy in the things +that were; more belief, more patience, more love; more knowledge of +the way things work out; more willingness to help toward the final +result. The preparation, the planting, the laying foundations, must be +done in the dark; usually done with blind eyes as well, which see not +what may or will be, but anticipate a harvest of pain from a +spring-time of rain. Yet these showers may have been indispensable to +the ground, and the seed may have expanded and sent its shoots up to +the surface in consequence of them. + +But why use symbols? The days that are;--the days that are with us are +the good days. Suppose it is hard work, and only the prospect of hard +work? Work is the best thing we have got: it is salvation. It is the +means by which we struggle up out of the darkness into the light. It +is the law of life. It is the ministry of all that is good in the +world; and the better it is the better for us, the better for every +one. It is only those who do not know how to work that do not love it; +to those who do, it is better than play--it is religion. + +But this is the mere influence of work itself. Suppose, besides your +work, you have the blessing of a family to be cared for, and your work +provides for them? This consecrates every part of it. It makes every +movement of the hand a benediction, every heart-throb an unuttered +prayer. Are not these days so full of labor best days? For about you +are those you love. They are under the roof you provide; their voices +furnish the music, their presence the sunshine of your life. Sometimes +that which your discontent craves will come to you. The freedom from +toil, the absence of "troubles" that now loom up so large to you; but +with your troubles your joys will have vanished, and you will sit in +the twilight waiting for the end, and wishing that you had cultivated +the sweetness instead of the bitterness of the beginning, that you had +not allowed the thorns to cover up your roses. + +Wisdom seems to have been the same always, but each one has to learn +its lessons for himself. That is the reason why there is so little +apparent progress in essential truths. There are always those who have +grown into their realization; there are always those who are at the +threshold, and who must travel over the same paths, for we can none of +us acquire true wisdom for another; it must become a part of +ourselves, of our own moral and spiritual consciousness. + +"It is all very well for you," says one; "you have never known the +pinch of poverty." How do you know that? We none of us know how and +where the shoe has pinched another person's foot. It is not our +business to know, but it is our business to prevent our soreness from +becoming sourness and bitterness. It is our business to make the +pathway of others as pleasant as we can, so that their unseen corns +shall irritate them as little as possible. All the wisdom of the days +that have been, and the days that are, will be found in the following +lines from Goethe's "Tasso": + + "Would'st thou fashion for thyself a seemly life? + Then fret not over what is past and gone; + And spite of all thou mayest have lost behind, + Yet act as if thy life were just begun. + What each day wills, enough for thee to know, + What each day wills, the day itself will tell. + Do thine own task, and therewith be content; + What others do that shall thou fairly judge. + Be sure that thou no mortal brother hate, + Then all beside leave to the Master Power." + + + + +A People's Church[1] + + +"What would you do if you were rich?" This is a question often asked, +and readily answered by those who have not wealth of their own to +dispose of, for there is nothing easier than to give away other +people's money. But it is more difficult to the conscientious, who +feel that their unearned millions ought to inure in some way to the +public benefit, yet do not always see the way to the reconciling of +their own conditions and circumstances with that use of money which +seems to them wisest and best. + +[Footnote 1: _The Cycle_.] + +As a rule it may safely be assumed that if all who are poor were +suddenly made rich, they would do as the majority of our rich men do +with their money--keep it. But it is at least pleasant to think how +generous one might be, and as the rich occasionally are; and I propose +to suggest one object that I hope will one day be realized in this +great city, where everything good is possible, as well as everything +evil, and which only needs to take vital root in some active mind to +become a living reality. + +Within a certain area New York may be called a city of churches, but +they are churches for the rich; solemn, imposing, cathedral-aisled, +glass-stained, costly, munificently beneficed, elegantly pastored--God +locked in, the poor locked out. I know there are "mothers'" meetings +and "mite" societies, and all the rest of it, but all the same the +poor woman in her old shawl and bonnet would not think of entering one +of those expensive pews, nor does the man in his working suit feel +that that is the place for him. Outside, the majority of churches take +no account of the necessity for the consolation, the comfort, the +upbuilding, the refreshment of religion, save and only for certain +hours on Sunday, and then it must be in full toggery, and in company +with, the eminently respectable. + +The most beautiful thing about the old churches abroad is not their +splendor of carving and painting, but that they stand with, open doors +week days and Sundays, for the people to enter; and they do enter. The +market woman with her basket drops in for a moment on her way home +from the labor of her weary day. The old woman totters in to say her +"Ave Maria," the young woman to pray away her perplexities. Even the +business man sometimes finds it a resource from his struggles and +temptations. The poor, with their crowded houses and narrow quarters, +have so little privacy as to make quiet, and even an opportunity for +self-communion, a luxury. Then how often in the perplexities which +fill their lives they desire for a little while a retreat, a refuge +where they can think, perhaps receive a word of counsel, at least find +an atmosphere of absolute peace and restfulness. + +The Monday prayer-meeting, the afternoon exhortation; the evening +conference of the Baptists, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, or the +Congregationalists, are not what is wanted; nor is it a cold and +barn-like edifice which makes one feel, if one goes to call upon God, +as though He were out, and could only be seen at stated times, and by +the will of the sexton and the trustees. + +A people's church is wanted, where the people can come and go as they +please; which asks no questions, which is always open, which has brief +singing and organ services that all and any people of any kind and +degree may attend and feel themselves welcome. A morning service of +praise, a mid-day song of rejoicing, a vesper hymn of thankfulness. No +word of condemnation, no word of controversy, no word of doubt, no +word of assertion or denial; only unceasing love, continued and +eternal recognition of human kinship and readiness to minister to any +soul's need as far as it may be reached and helped. + +No one minister could perform its offices; its servants would have to +be in a manner consecrated to its work, and they should be men and +women who have suffered, and therefore know, but who would find more +reason for rejoicing than lamentation; who would possess gifts of +music and oratory, and whose personal influence would be strong for +righteousness. + +There are great churches with scattered congregations, in Fifth +avenue; there are a few poor churches, and small, for which no one +cares, and which offer no attractions to the over-flowing population +of Mott street. The spring and summer will soon come, and then these +great churches will be closed, their pew-owners distributed over lake +and mountain in all the different parts of the wide world. But the +"people" will be here. People who work in foundries and shops, who +live in tenement-houses; people who earn a hand-to-mouth living as +clerks, book-keepers, seamstresses and petty store-keepers; people who +have to stay in such homes as they can support because they cannot +afford to break them up and go elsewhere. + +For these people and their children there is only the street. The +children occupy the street. For four or five months in the year they +make life hideous, especially on Sunday, by noise and exhibition of +vandalism that would disgrace the savages of any age or nation. The +police acknowledge themselves powerless to prevent it. It is simply +the exercise of undirected faculty which might be turned to account, +but which has only noise, confusion, and street warfare for its +opportunity for exercise. + +There are possibilities in these congregations of the highways and +byways, and when we have our people's church or churches, open all the +year, and all the night as well as all the day, and the voices of the +angels for sweetness, singing love and peace on earth, in an anthem +that pierces the roof, and with the tones of a mighty organ to +emphasize to all the world its message, and it is not a question of +clothes, many people will be glad to listen, and will find an +influence in the music, in the willingness, in the free-heartedness, +in the sympathy, in the kindness, in the spirit of brotherhood, that +they would not get out of preaching nor dogma. + +Whom are we waiting for to build this church? Is it a woman? Surely it +is an opportunity that carries the two-fold blessing. + + + + +Notes, Letters and Stray Leaves + + +A "free lance" is less free than the organs of a party. In one case it +means at least the opinions of a group; in the other, the dogmatism of +the one who wields the lance. Nothing is less free than the +self-styled freedom of the individual. + +Enthusiasm implies a certain narrowness of vision. When people can +take a broad view they can see the elements of goodness or beauty +everywhere, and they cease to be enthusiastic in regard to one. The +great popular preachers are not university men, or those who are quiet +and literary in style, but strong, dogmatic men. + +Perhaps the most noticeable difference between the so-called new woman +and the new man is this, that she is seizing every opportunity that +opens up new avenues of individual employment, while he is discovering +and storing energy to save himself from doing any work at all. The old +man made other men, and women too, work for him, the new man is making +the hitherto uncontrolled forces his servants, locking them up in such +small compass that a twist of the wrist will start the crash of +worlds. + +The notes of the great god Pan, so "piercingly sweet by the river"--a +far cry and a weary way from Pan to Handel and Beethoven; yet during +all that time music has been the joy and the consolation of +peoples,--all except the Quakers. + +If Poetry is the prophet of the future, music expresses all +emotions,--love, joy, fear, above all, aspiration. Music is +essentially religious, and has inspired the most perfect forms of +emotional composition we know. + +I take off my hat to the new man--that is, I would if I wore one, but +I wear a bonnet, and pin it on with long, sharp-pointed things which +if they were not used voluntarily would be considered instruments of +torture. Think of the man who is testing the force of dynamite--who is +holding lightning bolts in his hand and forcing them to do the work +which he has planned for them, who is taking the altitude of the +mountains in Mars in his observatory in the air at midnight,--think of +these men stopping to swear while they ran the murderous little weapon +through six thicknesses of buckram, lining, velvet, lace, feathers, +ribbon and hair--to fasten on their bonnets! + + + + +Letter to the New York Woman's Press Club + + + October, 1900. + +My dear Friends and Fellow-Members: + +It was really a grief to me not to be able to meet you individually +and collectively before leaving to be absent the entire season. The +accident which disabled me for the summer, threatens to cripple me for +the winter also, and in this condition of dependence and general +disability, it seemed best to go where I could have seclusion, and the +care of some member of my own family. + +I resign my place among you with less reluctance because the Woman's +Press Club is now strong and well able to guard its own interests, and +direct its own affairs. It will, I am sure, be all the better and +stronger from being thrown upon its own resources, and made to depend +wholly upon the potent efforts which have been evoked, and which may +be still further developed on the part of its membership. + +It will be a source of the deepest satisfaction to me in my retirement +to think of you in connection with the happy times we have had, and +the good work done during the past three years, and also of the spirit +of loving fellowship which has grown so strong and so deep. Nothing +can give greater pleasure than to hear of your continued growth and +prosperity, of continued endeavor to make the work effective, and the +life of the Woman's Press Club beautiful and useful. + +Remember that a well-rounded club is an epitome of the world; that it +never can and never ought to be perfect according to any one +individual's idea of perfection, for every one's ideal is different; +and it is the unity in this diversity which constitutes the spiritual +life of the club, as the soul animates and inspires the body. + +Exalt the club. Bring your best to the front. Extinguish personal +aims. Mind not at all the little picking and carping of human +gadflies, whose desire to extract blood is perhaps a survival of their +species, and an evidence of their unfitness for human companionship. + +I think of you at every gathering, and if you remember me, show it in +your determination to make the Woman's Press Club of Greater New York +an honor to the metropolis of the New World and to American womanhood. + + J.C. CROLY. + Hill Farm, Hersham, + Walton-on-Thames, England. + + + + +Letter to Sorosis + + + May, 1899. + +To my dear friends and fellow-members of Sorosis: + +On the eve of my departure from New York for a season, my heart turns +towards Sorosis with a depth of affection I find it difficult to put +into words. For thirty years it has held a large place in my life. It +has represented the closest companionship, the dearest friendships, +the most serious aspirations of my womanhood. The past is filled with +delightful memories, social and intellectual, of which it was the +happy instrument and inspiration. Its galleries are stored with living +pictures of noble women who were with us, who are always of us, who +have become a part of that eternal source of spiritual life from which +the best things spring. What is the secret of the strength of Sorosis? +What is its value to the community and the world at large? It is, as a +centre of unity. This is our Holy Grail,--and this we are bound never +to defame, or defile by thought, word or deed. + +We planted the seed not in Sorosis alone, but in the General +Federation; and it is our duty to see that it is preserved in its +integrity. Sorosis does not want place or power in the organization +she created, but it is hers to see that the great principle it +embodied is not lost sight of. That the limitless growth and +expansion provided for in its foundations are always from centre to +circumference, not in sections; and that as differences are not +recognized in the local organization, so there can be no north, south, +east, or west in the general organization, nor any separation or +division of interests. This is the aim of Sorosis:--to perfect within +its own membership that unity in diversity which is the basis of its +life, and the source of its growth; and, as far as its strength and +influence extend, preserve it as the foundation of a united womanhood. + +The consolation I feel in going away is that I shall find you here +when I return; not, I hope, crippled and disabled as now, but able to +be among you once more. I leave a monument of the woman's club in the +"Women's Club History," which carries marvellous testimony to the +ideals and aspirations of the woman of the home--for this is the woman +of the club. + +God bless and keep you all! I wish I could look into your kind faces +individually, and thank you for all that Sorosis past and present has +been to me. + + Faithfully yours, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letter to the Society of American Women in London + + + November, 1901. + +To the Society of American women in London: + +On the eve of my departure for America, I desire to express to the +Society of American Women something of what I feel sure I owe it +individually and collectively since its initial gathering in the +beginning of March. + +My visit to England has been made under extremely trying and painful +circumstances. I had expected no participation in any social +functions. I had communicated with only a very few near and dear +friends. Formal intercourse with comparative strangers seemed +impossible. + +But there was nothing strange in the atmosphere of the American +Society. It provided at once an atmosphere in which one could breathe +freely, so kindly and so cordial were its tone and spirit. + +It formed at once a social centre in which the best elements +contributed to the most varying attractions. It brought together many +of the most charming and progressive women in English as well as +American society, and also many of the brilliant women we read about, +but rarely meet. + +In addition, it performed a most useful office in extending the hand +of welcome from American women in London to the representative women +who attended the International Council; and has a future of +exceptional character in filling a social need which has never been +filled by the official representatives in republican America. + +It is not too much to say that it has put life in London in quite a +new and much more attractive aspect to American women, by focusing the +best elements and bringing them in touch with each other. With time +and development the highest results of the modern co-operative spirit +should be attained, and the fulness of a life that will enrich each +individual member, and reach out beyond to an ever widening sphere of +happy influence. + + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letter to the Pioneer Club of London + + + June, 1901. + +To the Finance Committee of the Pioneer Club: + +I hope I shall not be considered as taking a liberty in presenting a +subject of some importance for your consideration. + +There is a feeling in some clubs and among some clubwomen that the +time has arrived for expanding the club idea and at the same time +drawing closer the ties which unite women in the form of organized +fellowship, which the modern clubwoman recognizes as a potent and most +valued element of her club life. It is believed, in short, that the +time has come for the initial steps to be taken for the formation of a +European Federation of Women's Clubs. + +There are many reasons which seem to make it eminently proper that the +Pioneer Club should be the one to take these initial steps. It is the +oldest and best known woman's club in London. It was founded upon the +broadest human lines by a woman who possessed in the highest degree +that sixth sense which the nineteenth century contributes to the +twentieth--the sense of the Universal. This led her to affiliate the +Pioneer Club in the beginning with the General Federation of Women's +Clubs in the United States, and should inspire it to progressive life +and work. + +The initial step is not formidable. It is, if thought desirable, +simply to address a circular letter to women's clubs on record, +wherever they may be known to exist, proposing a basis of federated +affiliation, and inviting them to unite in forming a grand Federation +of organized bodies of women capable of realizing any purpose upon +which they might bring their united forces to bear. + +If it is said, "Of what use is such a Federation?" I might point to +many instances of educational and municipal progress, and social +reform in America effected by this combined effort. But details are +as nothing compared with the one great, glowing, ultimate aim of the +solidarity of thoughtful, high-minded, intelligent, progressive women. +It is written in the stars. It will surely become an accomplished +fact; and there are other clubs willing to take the initiative; but it +is fitting that the Pioneer Club should lead, and by its wisdom and +judgment lend an added dignity to noble endeavor. + + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letters to Mrs. Dimies T.S. Denison, President of Sorosis + + + 22 AVENUE ROAD, + LONDON, NW., January 27, 1899. + +My dear Mrs. Denison: + +Thank you very much for your delightful letter. It was so good and +heartening. Its spirit was so representative of the best that +club-life has given us that it made me feel more than ever thankful +for Sorosis and for that reserved strength and all-roundedness of +resource and character which makes it able to successfully tide over +any difficulties. + +I have not heard of any effort to form a London Sorosis, nor do I +think it could be done successfully on precisely the same lines. If we +were starting a club to-day it would differ considerably from the one +started thirty-one years ago. That had to be formed out of such +materials as were available at that time, and built as it knew and as +it grew. Its virtue lay in its breadth, in the true and scientific +character of its conception. It made a centre and worked from that to +the radiating points of an illimitable circle, not knowing precisely +where these would take it, but with all the faith of Columbus in +results founded upon essential principles. We had no idea at the time, +that at every one of these farther points other centres were being +formed that also, in their own time and way, struck out feelers and +shafts, and thus became part of that great system of creative force, +which, still acting on its central and original idea of a larger +unity, brought together the General Federation. This is the mother +idea which Sorosis represents, and which needs no legal enactment to +enforce. It stands for this as much in London as in New York, and in +its own way has become unique. It lacks some of the elements of the +newer clubs, but it contained the germ of them all, and is essentially +a true growth, an aggregation of all the qualities of a diverse and +unified womanhood;--not by making it something else, but by studying +its own spirit and life, and the genius it has developed. + +First, it stands for a wide hospitality and the generous recognition +of all other women; for high standards in literature, art, ethics, and +all the interests belonging to and growing out of them. Above all, it +stands for home duty; for honor, faithfulness, loyalty, courage and +truth. Finally, it stands for subjection;--that highest subjection of +the one will to the many; of that subordination of our own dominant +desire to the spirit and will of God, represented by the spirit and +will of the majority. For the voice of the people is in a real sense +the voice of God, whether we recognize it or not. + +O my beloved Sorosis, you are the core of my heart! What have I said +but that you represent an ideal of life and character, and that each +member should hold herself responsible for its preservation and its +increasing beauty and value? + + Faithfully yours, + J.C. CROLY, + Honorary President. + + +Dearest Mrs. Denison: When I began this letter it was intended for you +alone; as I went on it seemed as if it might find a little place at +the Breakfast. Use your own judgment in regard to having an extract +made for that purpose... + + Yours lovingly, J.C.C. + + + + + QUEEN'S ROAD, ST. JOHN'S WOOD, + LONDON, N.W., April 16, 1899. + +My dear President: + +What a lovely programme! I am so proud to show it, and so happy that +Sorosis is going on so beautifully. Have I congratulated you? If not, +let me do it now with all my heart. I always knew your time would +come, and that you would make a popular as well as a wise president. +You have a light touch, but a very appreciative one, and that good +thing--a fine sense of humor. You do not take yourself too seriously, +but you give the best of yourself unreservedly. God bless you for +carrying the banner of Sorosis up to its highest level, and +maintaining its dignity in a way worthy of its reputation. + +The London Club, or Society of American Women in London, is +flourishing. The president comes often to see me, and in her address +at the second luncheon, April 10th, said that she considered it a +special providence that I was in London at the beginning; that I had +been of the greatest help to her, and that she should always look upon +me as their "Club Mother." I began to wonder if that was what my leg +was broken for, and how many more times I might have to be cut to +pieces to make "Mother" enough to go around. + +Mrs. Henry Norman (Muriel Dowie, author of "A Girl in the +Carpathians") made a brilliant little speech. She is delightful, and +very anxious to visit America. Her husband is the Englishman who of +his own choice graduated from Harvard. He has written some very +appreciative articles about America... + +I hope I shall know when Mrs. F. and Mrs. L. are coming, and something +of their plans. At least how long they will stay in London. Won't you +be so good as to tell them this and give them my address? + +I am endeavoring now to put myself under treatment for the pain and +weakness I feel when I try to walk (with sticks) in the street... + + Really yours, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + 7 RUE D'ASSAS, PARIS, FRANCE, + October 3, 1900. + +My very dear President and Friend: + +Your letter was most welcome. I have been in a quiet little country +place since coming from Ober-Ammergau, and know no one. I thought much +of you in those quiet days, and wished to write, but waited to hear, +and the echoes did come in a way I understood, for I had letters +before leaving America which were an indication of the general trend +of thought and desire. Of course I never for a moment misunderstood +your attitude in the matter of the election... You could not help your +election. [Referring to the first vice-presidency of the General +Federation.] + +I am very, very sorry the color question has been raised again. It +almost made a split six years ago. It was, at the best, premature. It +was a sacrifice of the greater to the less, of the real good we had +attained and the ideal towards which we were working, to a theoretical +possibility which had not yet presented itself. We have yet a thousand +obstacles to overcome within ourselves; a thousand problems to solve; +an ideal to work towards capable of infinite expansion. But we should +not strain the limits while the centre still lacks order and form, and +depends upon the wisdom with which it is guided for permanence. + +We have made some dreadful blunders,... but ideals are not stones in +the street; they are stars in the sky. They are always beyond us; we +cannot wear them as breast-pins but we can work towards them... + + Yours faithfully, + J. C. CROLY. + + + + + 82 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, + LONDON, W.C., April 10, 1901. + +My very dear Friend and President: + +How good it was of you to send me the beautiful souvenirs of the +thirty-third Annual Breakfast. They took me straight back to you all +through a mist of tears that were half pleasure, half pain; pleasure +that I was not forgotten, pain that I was not there to see the loving +glance, and share the hand-clasp. It is true I have many friends here, +but none that seem quite like the old friends; and there is only one +Sorosis--God's blessing be upon it for evermore! Yet wherever I go, +God's blessing and His Spirit seem to me to have descended upon women. +They show the most wonderful goodness and insight. They seem each one +to be specially made; not the kind that are kept in stock, so to +speak. Oh, I feel sometimes as if all my life had been partly a test, +partly an experience of their goodness, and that it is a sufficient +blessing, for nothing else has been left me. + +A writer remarked the other day, in an article on the South African +war, that the best results of war were ties--the spirit of good +comradeship that it established among men. This is what we +preeminently get out of our club life, and without paying so fearful a +price for it. I hope to see you all when you come together in the +autumn. + + With loving remembrance, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letters to Mrs. Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (London) + + + 11 BARTON STREET, WEST KENSINGTON, + Jan. 15, 1889. + +My Dear Mrs. Stopes: + +It is very kind of you to take this trouble to give us a pleasure, and +I would not miss it on any account. But it is a little difficult for +me to name the day. I am in the hands of the dentist this week; I +shall hardly get through to go to the Writers' Club on Friday. These +two circumstances have postponed my visit to Miss Genevieve Ward to +whom it is now arranged that I go a week from to-morrow. I could make +it any afternoon that week that would suit you. Mrs. Sidney will be +delighted also to accept your invitation; and perhaps Miss Ward also. +Please make the afternoon to suit yourself and Miss Blackburn. + + Really yours, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + Jan. 19. + +I go to Miss Ward's on Monday. It is her day at home, and therefore +will be more or less fatiguing. Tuesday I have promised to dine at the +Crescent Club with Mrs. Phillips and hear Mr. Felix Moscheles' lecture +afterwards. Miss Ward and her brother, Col. Albert Lee Ward, go also. +Three days of continuous going out would be too much for me, and +something would have to give way. I would rather it would be any event +than yours. Suppose you arrange it for the week following, and in the +meantime call for me at Miss Ward's on Monday. You will find Miss Ward +a very striking personality, and I particularly wish Col. Ward to +accompany me to your house. I will see you on Friday, and you can tell +me how you decide. + + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + Jan. 20. + +Friday the 27th will suit me very well. I have been out-of-doors so +little as yet, that I feared I might break down on the third day of +trying. I do know Lady Roberts Austen; have been to luncheon at her +house, but have not seen her since I came this time; I have +communicated as yet with so few. I heard from her the other day +however, and I know she will go to your house if she possibly can. I +have to drive wherever I go. I move too slowly for crowds and public +conveyances. I cannot risk weather. + + + + + Feb. 8. + +I want to thank you for the afternoon I spent at your house; I enjoyed +it so very much. You will not consider me "pushing" if I say I am only +half satisfied. There are so many sides to your house; I want to see +the Queen of Scots portrait again, and the Donatello, and some of your +rare cookery books. I expect to change my quarters in about three +weeks to the North West; then you will let me come and browse, won't +you. But first you must come and lunch with me. With kind regards to +your delightful family, + + I am, etc. + + + + + March 12. + +May I come up next Thursday afternoon and bring with me an American +friend, Mrs. Stockber of Silverton, Colorado, who has just arrived by +the _Umbria_. Mrs. Stockber is an unusually interesting woman. She is +equal owner with her husband, an intelligent and large-minded German, +of one of the largest silver mines in the States, and is one of the +only two honorary women members of the great Association of Mining +Engineers of the United States. Mrs. Griffin, the President of the new +Society of American Women in London, also wants to come. I don't want +to inundate you; and this is only to ask if you are better, and can +receive a trio safely. + + Yours, etc. + + + + + March 16. + +I am sorry to give you so much trouble. But I have a friend here just +now, a woman of unusual character and ability. I remember I told you +of her. The other is Mrs. Helen T. Richards of the Boston Institute of +Technology. The only moment I can get her is on Monday afternoon, and +I want her to see the collection of prints and your pictures. If it is +all right I will bring her with me on Monday at 3 P.M. We must go to +Miss Ward's at 4.30. Do not have tea at that primitive hour; for we +shall be obliged to have a cup at Miss Ward's. I wish we might have a +chance of seeing Mr. Stopes; but of course that is something that may +be prayed for, but not what common people are made for. Dear, take +care of yourself if you can. There is only one of you. + + Yours, + J.C.C. + + + + + March 17. + +We will postpone. I cannot reach my two troublesome friends, and next +week you will be busy and tired. "By-and-by" is coming with the sun +and flowers. We will come too. + + Yours lovingly and really, + J.C.C. + + + + + June 25, 1901, + 82 SOMERS' STREET, W.C. + +My very dear Friend: + +I have only time to thank you for your kind "welcome," and tell you +how sorry I am not to see you to-day, and your precious Winnie, who I +hope has really started on the road to recovery. Children are the +richest boon vouchsafed us in this world, and the parents are the +trustees of this wealth committed to their charge, but belonging to +the world at large, and of which time only tells the value. I shall be +very busy now for a few days, but will see you as soon as possible. + + Affectionately, + J.C.C. + + +[Illustration: Facsimile of a portion of a letter written by Mrs. +Croly in October, 1900.] + + + + + 222 WEST 23D STREET, + NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 1901. + +My dear Friend: + +Thank you very much for your letter and card. It was a great pleasure +to me to receive it, and to learn something about yourself and what +you are doing. The news was long belated. The letter was to have been +printed the week that I left, and I provided to have it sent to about +a dozen friends as a good-bye. But it was so long delayed by Transvaal +excitement and sad war news, that I did not expect it to appear at +all. + +I had a wonderful celebration on my seventieth birthday in December; +poems written, cakes with seventy candles sent, and a great +spontaneous gathering in my honor, which really bothered me not a +little, for I do not pose worth a cent, and do not know where to look +or what to do when people compliment me. + +However, one thing gratified me above all others. It was a "birthday +party" given me by the Daughters of 1812--the most exclusive of +patriotic societies that is restricted to lineal descendants. The +gathering was magnificent; the cake was brought in lighted by seventy +candles borne on the shoulders of four men. By unanimous vote they +conferred upon me honorary membership, and the insignia were +conferred. The president in seconding the motion said, this departure +from their rules (alluding to my English birth) was not in honor of +"the club," nor of the "literary women," but of the woman who knew no +line of separation, and whose work had been done for all women. Was +not that a beautiful thing to say? Only that I intend to be cremated, +I would have it put on my tombstone. + +We had a very bright and very beautiful beginning here to the "Holy +Year," so far as weather is concerned, and it is also very gay, though +my lameness prevents me from participating much in social doings. I am +also grieved by the unexpected effects of the Boer war, in England. +There must have been shocking blundering and mismanagement somewhere. +The pitying way in which "poor, stupid, decrepit old England" is +talked about is galling. Some military officers remarked recently that +England was hardly worth having a "scrap" with, she would be so easy +to beat. + +Our General Federation holds a Congress in Paris in June, and my +passage is taken for May 19th. If nothing untoward prevents, I shall +be in London for a week early in June, and then go to Paris and +Ober-Ammergau. If you could go it would be very pleasant. Give my love +to your daughters, and kind regards to Mr. Stopes. + + Yours ever, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Letter to Mrs. Carrie Louise Griffin + + 82 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, W. C. + June 25, 1901. + +My dear Mrs. Griffin: + +Mr. Bell wants an article immediately, about the American Society, for +the Chicago _Recorder_; and I am glad to write it, because it enables +me to make it stand for what it does; and will, still more, in the +very heart of western clubdom; and will be a John the Baptist for you +if you should go over next summer. He wants some photographs, yours +particularly; which please send. He left his card with address of +_Recorder_ in Fleet Street, which I omitted to take up-stairs at the +moment, and afterwards it could not be found. I am hoping that you +have it and will give it to me, or that Mr. Griffin perhaps knows it. +If you can drop in on Monday, A.M., I should be glad to ask you in +regard to some members--what to say of them, etc. Would Mrs. Clarence +Burns allow her picture to be used, and have you one of Mrs. De +Friese? + + Always faithfully yours, + J. C. CROLY. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. May Riley Smith + +... I have never done anything that was not helpful to woman so far as +it lay in my power. (April 2, 1886.) + + + + +Letters to Miss Anna Warren Story (Chairman of Executive Committee of +the Woman's Press Club of New York) + + + HILL FARM COTTAGE, HERSHAM, + WALTON-ON-THAMES, ENGLAND, + Oct. 29, 1900. + +My dear Executive: + +Your letter giving me all the news to date was most kind and welcome. +It seems very strange to be away from you all in this secluded corner +of Surrey, with nothing in sight but woods, a meadow in which cows are +grazing, and one neighboring cottage. My morning walk, when the +weather will admit of walking, is along the old post road lined with +woods and at the foot of our little lane or entrance to farm. The +other morning one solemn old cow put her head through the fence, and +stared with amazement at my crutches. Four others walked over to see +what she was looking at; and they all stood in a row, looking and +making no sound as long as I could see them. It was very funny. + +It seems so odd after so many years of continuous and often hurried +work, to be using days for walking, and little things that since I was +a grown woman have been crowded into odds and ends of time, or omitted +for want of enough of it. I am gaining strength, however, and realize +how complete the prostration was, and how radical the reconstructive +processes had to be. The seclusion in which I live, surrounded by pine +woods, a mile and a half from the nearest post office (tho' a postman +brings our letters) and an equal distance from such supplies as a +village can afford, is a little trying in some ways, but a real boon +to me in my present condition. + +It would have been very easy to plunge into the activities of women in +London. Many invitations have reached me, but I have been nowhere but +to one little dinner given by our only neighbor, the wife of a London +editor, and herself a popular story writer. + +I can walk now with one crutch and a stick, and begin to hope for +complete restoration, which at one time seemed to me impossible. But, +oh, how tedious and wearing it is! We have an unusually fine October +for England, but gray skies and almost daily rains now. But the Surrey +country is beautiful, full of quaint old villages and objects of +picturesque interest. I am longing for the time and the weather to +explore it. I could write all day about my gradually growing desire to +be "up and doing." But time and space do not admit. Let me say in one +word how deeply I was touched by the action of the Executive +Committee, the Governing Board, and club. But I am also disappointed. +I wanted to leave the field clear, and have new energy put into the +club by bringing into active and central circulation the young, best +blood we possess. Thank you for your assurance that as far as possible +that will be done; and thank every officer and every member in my +behalf for the long and affectionate confidence they have reposed in +me, and for the many acts of personal kindness I have received from +them. + +I am sorry you have lost the Countess by removal, and other valuable +members by death... + + Yours faithfully and affectionately, + J.C. CROLY + + + + + NORFOLK VILLA, WEYBRIDGE, SURREY, + August 20, 1901. + +My dear Anna: + +Your letter came most opportunely. I had been thinking about you, the +Press Club, and my dear friends at home; for somehow I have not felt +the old pleasure in being in England, and if I had a home to come back +to, and my goods and chattels were not so far off, I should have come +back, I think, this autumn. + +For one thing, the weather has not been favorable. We had such warm +weather in July; but every month has had a week or more of very cold +and wet weather. In Ober-Ammergau on the 8th of July we perished with +the cold, and the rain almost caked in ice upon us. Still, even such +weather could not spoil Ober-Ammergau. It is the one thing of its kind +on earth, and the nearest to an absolutely perfect thing I ever saw. A +great charm is the unconsciousness of the performers. They do not play +to an audience. There are no footlights, nothing theatrical; only the +Great Tragedy wrought out as a living reality. I think of all the +scenes; the one that made the deepest impression upon me was the one +in which there were the fewest actors and least acting. That was the +Garden of Gethsemane. So intense was the agony of spirit, that it +seemed as if I myself should cry out if the disciples had not gone +away and left the Saviour alone to his mortal struggle. + +It is a great thing, Anna, that these people have done. They have +lived the Passion of Christ for nearly three hundred years. They are +born in it; they are fed upon it. They have made a cult of religion; +and they are absolutely religious, but not in the least sectarian. The +Christ they have lifted up draws all men unto him. + +I have been in a quiet country place for four weeks, and shall stay +two weeks longer... If I remain this winter we shall probably go back +to Paris by November and to Italy in the spring. Now that I am here I +might as well give myself this one more chance... I was very tired +when I came back from our hurried trip, and was very glad of rest and +quiet... + +Do not let my dear friends in the Press Club build upon me, or weaken +their force by re-electing me. Elect a young, strong, press woman. +Anna, do this without any reference to personal feeling or likes or +dislikes. You are capable of acting impersonally. Beg the club to do +this in my name, and to pick out their best for the chairmen of their +representative committees. + +My own dear friends and fellow members; how I wish I could make them +feel the strength of my desire for their growth in wisdom and honor. +God bless them all! + + Yours affectionately and faithfully, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + + ASHOVER, DERBYSHIRE, + May 30, 1901. + +My dear Anna: + +Your kind letter arrived this morning, forwarded by Mrs. Sidney to +this remote village in Derbyshire. I left London ten days ago because +I had to get fresh air and quiet. Ashover is a quiet little village; a +paradise of meadows starred with flowers, and wooded and cultivated; +hills in which all the treasures of one of the richest counties in +England (in floral wealth) are to be found. When I came here there +were still primroses, cowslips, violets, forget-me-nots, and fields +white with small daisies and yellow with buttercups. Now there are +masses of yarrow, marguerites, rhododendrons, bluebells, and great +trees of white and purple lilacs. Roses, I am told, will cover +everything by and by, but development is a little late this year. I +wish you could spend a month here this summer: what a revelation of +English beauty it would be to you! + +Thank you for your sympathy with my personal troubles. I am not +unhappy... The goodness of women to me is always and everywhere +miraculous. This alone makes life worth living... + +I am rejoiced to hear of the Press Club's prosperity. Nothing could +give me greater pleasure than to know of its constant growth and +advancement. + + With love, ever yours, + J. C. CROLY. + + + + +Letters to Mrs. Caroline M. Morse + + + HILL FARM COTTAGE, WALTON-ON-THAMES, + SURREY, ENGLAND, Dec. 13, 1898. + +My dear friend: + +I was sorry to know from Ethel's note, received day before yesterday, +that you had been ill, and were still unable to the task of writing. I +wished above all things that I could in some way help and comfort you, +having always in mind the help and comfort you were to me during the +trying days last summer that followed my accident, and the consequent +long and tedious illness. There are many people who feel +sympathetically, but so few are capable and who are ready or are +permitted to apply the act of sympathy. It is the friend in need that +is the friend we remember with a grateful, lasting love... + +At this moment we are on the eve of removal to London where we are +taking rooms once occupied by the family of David Christie Murray. We +go to-morrow, and begin a new chapter in this most disastrous of +years. So many things seem to culminate toward the close of the +century--good fortune for some, evil fortune for others; hopes dashed +at the seeming moment of realization, as if all the forces in nature +were aiding to make an end of the century's efforts in any way that +would bring finality. + +For my part I feel as if I had been forcibly brought to a standstill. +In a few days (the 19th) I shall have reached the milestone: I shall +be seventy. Sorosis would have made an occasion of it if I had been in +New York. As it is, I feel a little tinge of regret that my +annihilation last June was not more complete; that I did not leave, +along with my dear friend, Mrs. Demorest. Not that I am wholly +unhappy; I only feel somehow brought to an unfinished close; left in a +state of animated suspension. I seem to see everything from a +distance; separated by my inability to participate in the goings and +comings, the doings and pleasures of others. I feel the wall that +stands between those who still live and those who have passed from +this world; but alas, I still retain consciousness, and desire for +sympathy, and can see and hear and feel, though my feet are chained. +It is just three months since I arrived. A part of the time we had +beautiful weather, and I could walk on the road a little on sunshiny +days, leaning upon my two sticks. But during the past five weeks, my +out-door exercise has been nil: the roads were too wet and rough. It +has been almost constant fog, rain, wind; and the drip, drip, drip, of +a mist that was wetter than rain. This, I think, has added a little +rheumatism to give name to the pain and stiffness of joints and newly +forming muscles. The change we are about to make will be a new +departure for me--I shall have to try stairs... But I shall have the +dear companionship of Marjorie,[1] who has lived an ideal out-of-door +life here. She will there begin to have regular lessons at home, or go +to kindergarten. I have been reading to her Mary Proctor's "Starland," +which by your thoughtful prompting she caused to be sent to me through +her London publishers. I am so much obliged to you and to her for +remembering the promise that I should have a copy. It is charming, and +ought to have a wide sale... + +[Footnote 1: Her grandchild.] + +I must stop; Vida has come for my mail, and is going to the +post-office on her bicycle. She and Mr. Sidney are never so happy as +when taking long bicycle rides on these fine English country roads. + +With warmest greetings to Colonel Morse and Ethel, and ever loving +remembrance to you, dear friend, I am, as always, + + Ever yours, + J.C.C. + + + + + 11 BARTON STREET, WEST KENSINGTON, + LONDON, January 29, 1899. + +My dear friend: + +I have been wondering these many days where you are and how it is with +you. How I have wished that you were near by, and that we could have +taken some of my lonely, painful "duty" walks upon crutches together. +I miss your sympathy and ever ready kindness... I suffer terribly now +with sore and swollen feet--the result of pain, stiffness, strain in +movement, and lack of exercise. But I am stronger. I can now lift my +arms and brush my own hair... + +We are having beautiful weather just now. We have had sunshine for a +week, and people go about announcing the fact with joy and surprise, +as if a new Saviour had arisen; all but the Americans, newly come, who +complain about everything, rain or shine... + + J.C.C. + + + + + + LONDON, Jan. 16, 1901. + +Dear friend: + +This letter is for the family. Poor as it will be, it will have to +tell of all I would like to say to you, and for the thousand and one +things I would like to tell of London and of the many kindnesses I +have received. I had not expected to be here this winter, as you know, +and ought not to be. The cold and the damp have developed rheumatism +of a very severe type in my lame leg, and I suffer from pain and +difficulty in walking... I could, of course, obtain some mitigation of +these conditions, but the same reason that compelled my return to +London, Mr. P.'s actual failure, has so encroached upon my +income--without a prospect of even partial recovery for a long time to +come--as to make it almost equally difficult to live either in +Switzerland, where, at Schinznach-les-Bains, I could receive so much +benefit; or in London, or New York. I wish, as I wished two years ago, +that my accident had ended it, and saved all the pain and difficulty +of solving a perpetual and insoluble problem... It seems sometimes as +if there were only two kinds of people in the world--those who ride +over others roughshod, and those who are ridden over. The cruel +accident that shattered me on that June day shattered my world. Life +since then seems in the nature of a resurrection; every day a special +gift, and every pleasant thing an act of Divine Providence. Love to +you all. This is about myself. Write soon and tell me all about +yourselves. + + Lovingly, + J.C.C. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. Christina J. Higley + + + LONDON, July--, 1899. + +My dear friend: + +... It seems as if everything had been taken from me but the +friendship, the affection of women; and that manifests itself here as +well as at home. God bless them! They have made all the brightness of +my life. + + Affectionately, + J.C.C. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. Catherine Young + + + LONDON, Sept. 3, 1895. + +Dearest Mrs. Young: + +Your letter has been before my eyes many times... + +Keep up your courage and your faith in women and in the _old flag_. I +came across it the first time after I arrived, in a moment of extreme +despondency. It did me a world of good... In three weeks, if all goes +well, I shall see you. We sail for New York on the 12th of this month. + + Affectionately, + J.C.C. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. Harriet Nourse + + +... Oh, yes, I have made my will many times; but some man always +spoils it and I am obliged to make it over, I am not at all +superstitious about making a will. My only trouble is having nothing +to leave. I am fond of superstitions--the little ones. They give +interest to life, if you have to spend it in one place. A little +unreason is less monotonous than the eternally reasonable, and if it +makes you happy for a minute to see the moon over your right shoulder, +why not see it, and be unreasonably happy? + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. Margaret W. Lemon + + + 222 WEST 23RD STREET, + NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 1900. + +My dear Mrs. Lemon: + +I am very glad you are to formulate the resolution of thanks and +appreciation of the work of the Reception Committees. Of course it +goes without saying that it will be spread upon the minutes. + +The work was altogether so fine and painstaking, and showed such +thought, care, taste and judgment, that, apart from my personal +pleasure in it, I felt exceedingly proud, and happy at the complete +and beautiful result... I am sorry you do not like "Current Events." +To me "Current Topics" means the fag end of everything we know and +have been obliged to read about in the papers. "Current Events" has a +broader significance, and leaves out the trivial and vulgar. + + Sincerely yours, + J. C. CROLY. + + + + +From a Letter to Mrs. E. S. Willard + + + BELLA-VISTA, BOSTON HARBOR, MASS., + August 28, 1901. + +... As yet I think I am still in London; or at least still in England. +Crossing the Atlantic is not so much of an undertaking; less than +taking a "trip" with "crossing" changes. Packing and unpacking, and +the harassing "customs" are the worst features. There were only +fifty-six passengers on the _Minneapolis_, but it took us from 8 A.M. +to 1 P.M., in a pouring rain, to pass the argus-eyes of one hundred +and eight inspectors, about two to each passenger. + +In my case it seemed a bit ironical,--one of Thomas Hardy's "Little +Ironies," for a _rapid_ American trustee had lost my whole capital +during my absence... The necessity for tying up the ragged ends and +applying a test brought me home. But it is a trial, though I seem to +have lost the power to be unhappy. Do you know what that means? Is +that unarmed neutrality the serenity of Heaven? + +I am as yet living in England. My thoughts are there, and my desire. I +see you and a few others whom I love come and go, and I exchange the +loving word, the kindly smile, the sympathetic look. + +I am waiting for an indication of where I am to end my days. If my +steps turn towards the isles of the sea, you will be a magnet to draw +me, you with your spiritual beauty, and your constant, unfailing +goodness. God bless you, and grant that I may see you again, and that +we may gain the love, as well as the peace, that passeth all +understanding. + + Yours always, + J.C. CROLY. + + + + +Resolutions of Protest Offered by Mrs. Croly Through the Woman's Press +Club + +(From the Recording Secretary's Report) + + +At a special meeting of the Governing Board, held in the club rooms, +126 East 23rd street, Dec. 26, 1892, the following resolution +proposed by the president was adopted. + +_Resolved_: That the Woman's Press Club has learned with deep regret +of the backward action of the Columbian University of Washington, in +deciding to exclude women from its Medical Department, after ten years +of co-education. + +_Resolved_: That we unite with Pro-Re-Nata of Washington, D. C., in +expressing an emphatic protest against this retrograde movement; that +we earnestly hope that better counsels will prevail; that, at a time +when so conservative an institution as the British Medical Association +has voted to open its doors to women, the stigma of retrogression will +not be allowed to rest upon the foremost school in the Capitol of the +Nation. + + + + +Tributes of Friends + + + +Jane Cunningham Croly + +An Appreciation from Miriam Mason Greeley + + +In the joyful Christmas-tide of 1829, into the sweet influence of an +English country home there came to life a blue-eyed, brown-haired +maiden, whose sunny nature was destined to laugh with gladness of +heart, or smile through falling tears, for more than seventy eventful +years. "Jenny June" while yet a child came with her family to New York +State, entering here an atmosphere well adapted to foster her +activities and her power to work for the good of others. Her breadth +of vision and her genial sympathy would have been evinced in any land +or clime, but in the stimulating freedom of American thought her +abilities developed to their best. + +She found opportunity to plant the seeds of earnest thought, of which +later she was to gather such a rich harvest in the confidence of her +fellow-women. Her eager mind was a rich soil for the growth of ideas +springing from her fertile brain; which led her to be both +conservative and impetuous, grave or vivacious, ever fearless and +versatile, all pervaded with the wholesome balance of quick +penetration. + +To her is due the tribute of praise for having borne the heat and +burden of the day in the early development of women's clubs. Friends +tried to persuade her to abandon her plans for organizing woman's +varied abilities, ridicule assailed her most cherished hope, and the +sarcasm of opponents barred the way. She lived to triumph in seeing +her aims successful, and after thirty-five years of club life to be +honored by one of the highest gifts in the power of the General +Federation to offer--the honorary vice-presidency. + +Mrs. Croly formulated in 1890 her well-matured plan for a general +federation of women's clubs, and with the cordial assistance of the +"Mother Club, Sorosis," issued the first call for representatives of +women's clubs of all the States to meet. + +Stimulated by the success of the General Federation, Mrs. Croly urged +the formation of the New York State Federation, and assisted by +Sorosis as the hostess, an invitation was issued to all the State +clubs to be the guests of Sorosis at Sherry's, November, 1894. + +[Illustration: MRS. CROLY at the age of 18.] + +Mrs. Croly's life-work as a writer had gone forward hand in hand with +her club interests, and, having finished the foundation work of the +two federations, she devoted her time to the preparation of her +massive volume on the "Growth of the Woman's Club Movement," which is +a monument to her patient industry, and the only permanent record of +the development of women's clubs in America. + +She sleeps--but each woman who to-day shares the benefit and the +responsive pleasure of club life, should place a leaf in the garland +for "Jenny June." + + + + +From Marie Etienne Burns + + + "Work is a true savior, and the not knowing how is more the + cause of idleness than the love of it."--MRS. CROLY. + +The idea of a State Industrial School for Girls originated with Mrs. +Croly, and at a spring meeting of the Executive Committee of the New +York State Federation of Women's Clubs, held in 1898, she suggested +that the first work of the Philanthropic Committee for the year be an +endeavor to establish a State Industrial School for wayward, not +criminal, young girls of tenement-house neighborhoods. Soon after this +Mrs. Croly met with a serious accident and was obliged to give up all +active work. She decided to go to Europe, hoping to be benefited by a +stay abroad. Just before her departure Mrs. Croly wrote asking me to +present the proposed industrial-school plan to the Convention for its +endorsement. The next day I called upon her to discuss matters. I +found her confined to her sofa with, a crutch beside her, and +evidently suffering much pain; but she seemed to be thinking less +about herself than about the work that was so close to her heart. She +urged me to take up the work which, she was regretfully obliged to +abandon, and was most enthusiastic over it. + +Mrs. Croly said: "Those who have worked among the poor in large cities +are aware of the value of orderly and systematic industrial training +for girls of irresponsible parentage, between the years of twelve and +eighteen. These girls are often bright and attractive, but they are +usually self-willed, lacking in judgment, and ignorant of every useful +art, as well as of all social and domestic standards that lend +themselves to the development of a true womanhood. Their homes are +usually unworthy of the name, often scenes of disorder, not +infrequently of violence, from which their only escape is the street. +Their vanity and unbridled desire for low forms of pleasure expose +them to all kinds of evil influences, and the first steps in a +downward career are taken without at all knowing whither they lead. +The most dangerous element in the lives of such girls is their +ignorance. It bars all avenues to respectable employment and deprives +them of self-respect, which grows with ability to maintain oneself and +one's integrity in the face of adverse circumstances. In putting the +knowledge of the simplest art or industry in possession of the +untrained, unformed girl you supply an almost certain defence against +that which lurks to destroy." + +I fully agreed with Mrs. Croly. My many years of experience as a +worker among the poor of New York City had taught me the importance, +and indeed the necessity of just such a school, and I gladly promised +to carry forward the good work. + +Mrs. Croly said in parting: "I can truly say that during the whole of +my working life in New York, a period of more than forty years, my +heart has bled for these poor neglected, untrained girls, who yet have +the elements of a divine womanhood and motherhood within them, though +undeveloped and hidden by the rankest weeds and growth." + +At the Convention in New York City, held in 1901, I presented the +Industrial School project, and the plan received the unanimous +endorsement of all those present. It was, however, deemed wiser to +omit the word "wayward," as the school was to be preventive and in no +sense reformatory. A Committee was formed, of which Mrs. Croly was +made Honorary Chairman; and the work upon a State Industrial School +for Girls was begun. + +It was my desire as Acting Chairman of the Committee that the movement +should carry at all times the banner bearing the name of its inceptor, +a name that would always suggest not failure but success. While +seemingly insurmountable obstacles at once arose, they were more or +less overcome as the preparations and work of the Committee +progressed. And at the time of Mrs. Croly's death the project had +reached a point more hopeful than assured, resulting in the +establishment of at least one school which should stimulate the State +Legislature into a realization of the needs of the young girls of the +tenement-house neighborhoods, so that some time in the future there +might be provided through State legislation, on a broad plan, the +State Industrial or Trade School for Girls, the idea of which was +conceived by Jenny June. + + + + +From Mrs. Croly's Letter to Mrs. Burns, Relative to the Proposed +Industrial School for Girls + + + 222 WEST 23RD STREET, + Feb. 28, 1900. + +My dear Mrs. Burns: + +There is only one point that I would have emphasized, and that I do +not find included in your otherwise excellent statement. It is the +moral influence of a training for self-support. Ignorance and idleness +lead to vice and crime; and a Technical Training School would do more +to remedy the Social Evil and raise the standard of morals than all +other influences combined. The fact that work is the great purifier is +what I wish could have been embodied in the plan presented. + + Yours with real regard. + J.C.C. + + + + +From Izora Chandler + + +How can one picture all that this one woman was to the hundreds of +other women who loved her: the gentle demeanor, the thoughtful +conversation, the high thinking evidenced not less in her choice of +subject than in the fitness of word and phrase which gave a +distinctive charm to all her utterances, whether public or private? + +When first meeting Mrs. Croly one could hardly believe that so +gentle-voiced, slight a creature could have accomplished the +pioneering accredited to her in the enlargement of the mental life of +women. Drawn to her at the first greeting one was soon convinced of +the hidden forcefulness of her nature which could be likened to the +resistless, unyielding under-current, rather than to the wave which +visibly and noisily assails the shore. + +Present or absent, the thought of her was magnetic. While charming the +heart she convinced the mind with argument. Her power did not absorb +and minify; it enlarged, enlivened, and became a source of +inspiration. After talking with her, impossibilities became possible +to the timid, the diffident were encouraged to dare, and those who +were strong at coming went away valorous. Her dignity and ready +decision when presiding over a public assembly were noteworthy. She +became a stateswoman in whatever concerned her sex; an earnest soul +pleading for love among co-workers, and for more and yet more of love, +for only in that atmosphere can the heart of woman come into its +rightful sovereignty, urging that slights be forgotten, aggressions +overlooked, and that the fair mantle of love be spread tenderly over +all. + +An earnest devotee of the best and highest in art, she seemed to have +an insatiable desire after the beautiful; and was never more serene +and lucid of mind than when considering this scheme, and encouraging +with rich appreciation those who were in the field. + +Her store of knowledge was phenomenal. She was a constant learner, an +unwearied seeker after wisdom. When those who had given special study +to any subject addressed the house over which she presided, they +received her most flattering attention, and in the brief afterword of +the chairman she indicated intimate knowledge of the matter in hand, +often giving comprehensive data and suggesting fresh lines for +consideration. No wonder that the finest minds were attracted to her; +that thinkers desired her acceptance of their thoughts; that active +workers sought her cooeperation and leadership. Quiet and forceful; +competent as a critic, but ready with encouragement; simple in manner, +easily approached; patient with those who appealed to her, seeking +rather than waiting to be sought; abundantly appreciative of others, +her memory becomes an abiding impulse towards high and generous +thought, towards simple, worthy living. + + + + +From Janie C.P. Jones + + +Before my friend's last trip to England I went to bid her good-bye, +and among her parting words were the following which I never can +forget: + +"I dislike going so far from my friends. To me they are the most +precious things on earth, the greatest gift the world can bestow; to +me they have been like flowers all along my path, and their sweet odor +of influence has made me better every day. I cannot prize them too +highly, for all I am I owe to them." + +To have known one who so highly appreciated the value of friendship, +who knew the true meaning of the word "friend," and who possessed the +rare gift of knowing how to retain friends, was an inspiration, and an +influence which added to the value of life. I think of her now as +having "gone into her garden to gather lilies for her Beloved." + + + + +From Catherine Weed Barnes Ward + + +My task is at once sad and pleasant: sad, because I speak of a dearly +loved and lost friend; pleasant, because I am asked to bear my +testimony as to her worth. + +Mrs. Croly's friendship and unselfish kindness began with my entrance +over twenty years ago into club life, and from then onward she was +continually urging and helping me towards increased intellectual +effort. Through her active inspiration I joined Sorosis, the Woman's +Press Club of New York, and other American organizations, as well as +the Society of American Women in London, the Women Journalists of +London, and various English organizations, besides taking part in the +International Congress of Women held in London three or four years +ago. + +Mrs. Croly lived constantly in two generations, her own and the next +one; her wonderful mental vitality setting the paces of many pulses, +besides those which stirred her own brain. I know much of the actual +labor she accomplished for her sex, both here and in England, but even +nobler than that was the high ideal she set them in her own life and +the inspiration of her personality to younger women. + +To those she called special friends her loyalty was unswerving, true +as the needle to the pole, and as one blest with such friendship I +feel the influence of her beautiful, unselfish living will be ever +with me, though something has gone out of my life, never to be +replaced. Her daughter, Mrs. Vida Croly Sidney, worthily carries on +the traditions and work of her noble mother, and her friends feel that +in her there is a living tie between the untiring spirit laboring now, +we may well believe, in another existence and the work so loved by +that spirit while on earth. + +A true heart, a generous nature, a broad mind, and keen mental acumen +are qualities that do not die with their possessor; they bless the +world to which she has gone and that she left behind. + +We can best honor her memory by carrying on her work and by leaving +the world better and happier for our having lived in it. + + + + +From a Letter to the Memorial Committee from Sara J. Lippincott (Grace +Greenwood) + + +I feel Mrs. Croly's death very deeply. The sacred holiday season, +dedicated from time immemorial to household joy and mirth, and calling +for Christian gratitude and hope, was already saddened by +bereavements, and her death--absolutely unlooked for by me--made it +melancholy and mournful. + +"She should have died hereafter." I did not dream when I saw her last +that she was to solve the great mystery before me. Though feeble, +there seemed so much of the old energetic, enthusiastic self about +her; and I parted from her hoping to see her soon in renewed health +and strength. + +She always had a peculiar fascination for me: her soft, sweet voice; +her strong though quiet will; her unfailing faith in all things good; +her loyalty to her sex. I think her pass-word to the realm of rest and +reward must have been, "I loved my fellow-woman." + + 35 Lockwood Avenue, New Rochelle, + January 6, 1902. + + + + +From a Letter to the Memorial Committee from Jennie de la M. Lozier + + +Mrs. Croly was a woman of uncommon intuition and sympathy. She took +wide and far-reaching views of woman's possible development and +usefulness. She believed in organization as a factor in this +development, and spared no effort to form and maintain, even at +personal sacrifice, the woman's club or federation. She was always +generous and warm-hearted, of boundless hospitality, never more +genially herself than when her friends gathered about her in her +attractive home and she could make them happy. I shall always recall +with pleasure the rare moments when she talked with me of her real +life, her hopes and her plans. I believe that she constantly exerted a +noble influence, and that she stood for all that makes for woman's +unselfish helpfulness, courage and independence. + +New York, February 10, 1902. + + + + +From Genie H. Rosenfeld + + +In the early days of the Woman's Press Club, when it was divided upon +the question of a suitable meeting place, and undisciplined members +were resigning in appreciable numbers, Mrs. Croly surprised me one day +by declaring that the club had never been stronger than it was at that +hour. + +"Why, Mrs. Croly!" I exclaimed, "we have only a handful of women +left." + +"My dear," she said, "we have lopped off all our dead wood. The +branches that remain may be few, but they are vigorous, and from them +will spring up a tree that will be a glory to us." + +This little saying of Mrs. Croly's has come back to me and been of use +many times, and it has often enabled me to understand the benefit of +lopping off dead wood and starting anew. + + + + +Contributed to the New York _Tribune_ by S. A. Lattimore + + +The sad announcement of the death of Mrs. Jane Cunningham Croly +recalls a delightful incident of several summers ago when I had the +pleasure of meeting her at Long Branch. + +In the course of a most interesting conversation I ventured to ask her +to give me the origin of her well-known _nom-de-plume_ of "Jenny +June." In her bright, sympathetic way, which all who knew her can +describe, she said: + +"Yes, I will tell you. In my early girlhood I knew a young clergyman +who was in the habit of occasionally visiting our house. One day he +came to bid us good-bye, saying that he was going to a Western city to +reside. As he bid me goodbye he gave me a little book. It was a volume +of B. F. Taylor's poems, called 'January and June.' The little book +opened of itself at a page containing verses entitled 'The Beautiful +River.' An introductory paragraph read thus: 'On such a night, in such +a June, who has not sat side by side with somebody for all the world +like Jenny June? Maybe it was years ago, but it was some time. Maybe +you had quite forgotten it, but you will be the better for +remembering. Maybe she has gone on before where it is June all the +year, and never January at all,--that God forbid. There it was, and +then it was, and thus it was.' This stanza was marked in pencil: + + 'Jenny June,' then I said, 'let us linger no more + On the banks of the beautiful river; + Let the boat be unmoored, and muffled the oar, + And we'll steal into heaven together. + If the angel on duty our coming descries + You have nothing to do but throw off the disguise + That you wore when you wandered with me; + And the sentry will say: "Welcome back to the skies, + We long have been waiting for thee!"' + +On the margin was written, 'You are the Juniest Jenny I know.' + +"The years of my girlhood passed on, and with their passing faded away +all memory of the young minister. Later there came to me, as I suppose +there comes to every young girl, the impulse to write, and when some +early efforts of mine were judged worthy to be published, I was +confronted for the first time with the question of a signature. +Shrinking from seeing my own name in print, by some witchery of memory +the words 'Jenny June' suddenly occurred to me, and that, as you know, +has been my name ever since." + +After a little pause Mrs. Croly said: "Now that I have answered your +question I must tell you something else. Thirty years after I had +assumed my _nom-de-plume_ a gray-haired stranger called at my house +one day and asked to see me. The name he gave recalled no one I had +ever known, and in meeting there was no recognition on either side. +But he proceeded in a straightforward way to explain the object of his +visit: 'For the last thirty years,' he said, 'since my removal from +this city, I have lived in the West; naturally, I have been a constant +reader of Eastern papers, and particularly have I read every article I +have ever seen bearing the signature of "Jenny June." I have made many +efforts, but always without success, to ascertain who she was, and +whether the name was real or fictitious. Somehow I have never +forgotten the little girl I knew before I went West, and to whom I +gave a little volume of poems with something written on a page that +contained a stanza that I greatly admired about "Jenny June." I have +wondered if she had become the famous writer, and upon my return to my +native city, after so long an absence, I have sought you simply to ask +if you are that little girl.'" + + + + +The Fairies' Gifts + +_By Ellen M. Staples_ + + + To an English home one bright Yuletide + While Christmas bells rang loud and wide + + Came a babe with the gentle eyes of a dove + And a face as fair as a thought of love. + + "Now, God be thanked," the old nurse cried, + "That the child is born at Christmas-tide; + + "For the blessed sake of Mary's Son + God's benison falls on lives begun + + "When Christmas music fills the air + And men are joyful everywhere. + + "And as to Him came Wise Men three + Offering gifts on bended knee + + "So to one born at the Holy Time + On land or sea, in every clime, + + "Come three Good Fairies, and each one bears + A gift to brighten the coming years." + + The pallid mother gently smiled + And looked upon her tender child. + + "Good nurse, the legend is full sweet; + And I lay my babe at His dear feet + + "Whose human Sonhood is aware + Of the painful bliss that mothers bear. + + "I can well believe that heaven may + Send gifts to the child of Christmas Day." + + Tired by her flight from Paradise + The baby shut her wondering eyes, + + Nor knew that 'round the cradle stood, + To bless the babe, three Fairies good. + + The First bent over the cradle head; + "These are my gifts to her," she said: + + "A sunny nature, a voice of song, + And may faithful friends uncounted throng!" + + The Second murmured in accents low: + "The path will be steep and rough, I know, + + "So I give her a heart that is brave and strong, + That will patiently work, though the way be long; + + "And though life may fill them with toil and care + Her hands shall weaker ones' burdens share." + + Then stood the Third for a moment's space + To thoughtfully gaze on the baby face, + + And over her own a radiance came + As she softly said: "My gift is a name. + + "Though born while the earth lies spread with + snow + The babe is a summer-child, and so + + "The sunny nature, the voice of song, + The helpful hands, true heart and strong + + "With Nature's self should be in tune, + Sweet child, I name thee Jenny June." + + + + +From Margaret Ravenhill + + +Jane Cunningham Croly left upon the last century an ineffaceable +record. For industrious and successful work in journalism she probably +had no peer. In a speech before the Woman's Press Club not long since, +she said: "When a woman has written enough to fill a room, she feels +like burning it instead of preserving it in scrap-books." Probably no +woman of her day and generation has done more or better work than our +"Jenny June." No woman had more diversity of gifts; she was equally at +home in the editorial chair, or the reportorial office; as a speaker +she excelled. In the old days we who knew her best would sometimes +notice a hesitancy of speech that would occasionally cloud a brilliant +idea; but if she hesitated she was never lost, and the idea was worth +waiting for. She was always clear, logical, forceful in expression, +and exhaustive in argument. Thoroughness seems the word to express the +character of Mrs. Croly. She was quick to catch the meaning of the +uttered thoughts of others, keen in analysis, and executive in all +work. Witness the many organizations which she helped originate. Her +long years of rule as president of Sorosis were of inestimable value +to that "mother of women's clubs." Her great "History of the Club +Movement" should be in the hands of every woman in the land. + +Of Mrs. Croly's personality it is a pleasure to speak. Every woman who +enjoyed the privilege of her friendship felt the magnetism and charm +of a rare nature; while, with all her force and power, there was a +childishness about her that impressed one with the idea that the +naivete and innocence of childhood had never been wholly lost in the +woman. I think it was in some measure owing to the fact that she was +so near-sighted that there was a kind of appealing hesitancy about her +movements that impelled you to her aid. + +Mrs. Croly's home was one of refinement and good taste in every +detail, and there she was at her best. Always a charming hostess, she +made every guest feel that he or she was the one most eagerly +expected; there were the hearty greeting, the few low words of +welcome, the sunny smile that transformed her face into positive +beauty. Her Sunday evenings at home came nearer in character to the +French salon than any others in New York. There were the most +delightful people to be met: the gifted minds of our own land and +Europe were among her guests. But Mrs. Croly's proudest boast was that +she was a woman's woman. + + + + +From T. C. Evans, in the New York _Times_ + + +When I joined the _World_ staff of writers, in 1860, a few weeks after +the foundation of that journal, I found Jenny June already there. She +did not often appear in the office in person, the lady auxiliary in +journalism not being so familiar a figure as it now is, and she had +not yet adopted her pretty _nom-de-plume,_ but her husband, David G. +Croly, held an official post on the staff as city editor, and her +contributions, which were invariably well written and interesting, +appeared from the first in the _World_ columns, and as the years went +on while she and Mr. Croly remained associated with it, with +increasing frequency. They were written by a woman mainly for women, +and the maids and matrons of her country over all its area from ocean +to ocean and from "lands of sun to lands of snow" have never been +addressed by one of their sex whom they came to know better or to hold +in higher esteem. Her work assumed no pretentious or high importance, +but was sweet and wholesome, sensible, and a mirror of the nature out +of which it proceeded. The name Jenny June, which she adopted a few +years later, became a beloved household word throughout the land, +perhaps more widely known than that of any lady journalist who has +ever wrought in it. + +Mrs. Croly's social dispositions and her aptitude for gathering +interesting people around her were gracious endowments of nature's +bestowal, as strongly marked in her youth as in her maturer years, +when she gradually came to have a wider stage on which to display +them. Her pretty little drawing-rooms, somewhere on the west side near +Grove Street, are well remembered by me, and first and last I met in +them a goodly number of people well worthy to be remembered, some with +their trophies of success yet to win, but their merit divined by their +clever hostess, perhaps before it had obtained any full recognition +elsewhere. Many also came who had won their spurs and epaulets and +shone bravely in the bright glitter of both. In her little +unpretending salon of that day might be met the brilliant young Edmund +Clarence Stedman, in the morning glow of his poetic fame; Bayard +Taylor, risen into the mid-forenoon of his fame, with his Orient +lyrics published and his translation of "Faust" well begun; perhaps +Phoebe and Alice Cary, though on this point I cannot be certain, and +many another of note and distinction in that time, her hospitality +taking in all arts, and all the presentable workers in them, so that +poets, painters, sculptors, singers, actors were equally welcome, as +were those who brought to her only their bright young countenances +and winning smiles. Her later drawing-rooms, when she had removed up +town, nearer to the Mayfair of society, became widely celebrated, and +she founded something perhaps as near to a salon modeled after the +traditional Parisian standards as any that America has known. + +Mrs. Croly is recognized as the chief among the founders of Sorosis, +the most celebrated woman's club in the world, and parent of the +innumerable organizations of like sect which have sprung up since +their renowned progenitor became with fewer vicissitudes and trials +than might have been anticipated firmly planted on its feet and +attested its self-supporting and self-reliant character. No social +development of the modern period is more striking than the swift +multiplication of women's clubs, not in this country alone, but in +others, and they have shown a power of beneficent work most +advantageous to the community at large, which even the most sanguine +among their promoters could not have anticipated. They have also shown +that women can legislate and administrate and rise to the point of +order and lay things on the table in a manner as parliamentary and +self-restrained as men. For such testimony the world should be +thankful, as it never got anything of the kind before. Among the +founders of this now most impressive group of social organizations no +name stands out more brightly and conspicuously than that of Jane +Cunningham Croly. + +Her recent death, though a surprise and shock to her innumerable +friends, came when she had passed her seventy-second birthday, and it +cannot therefore be said that she passed away with her work +uncompleted. It was fully and most worthily performed, and was the +fruit of a systematic diligence never remitted, and in which few of +her sex in any period could have exceeded her. Her memory is fragrant +as the month from which she took her _nom-de-plume_, and will at least +be cherished by those whom her gentle discourse, continued for more +than a generation, has entertained and instructed. + + + + +From St. Clair McKelway, in the Brooklyn _Eagle_ + + +The death of Jane Cunningham Croly, noticed in Tuesday's _Eagle_, +involves the loss of a woman of leadership who put a good deal of help +into others' lives. Born in 1829, she began at seventeen to write for +newspapers. Her topics were, for a wonder, practical, the young too +generally beginning with abstract, academical or recondite subjects. +Hers were "fashions" in dress, fads in food, fancies and foibles in +decoration etc. From them she advanced to more philosophical or +general fields, but on all she wrote was the stamp of applicability to +contemporaneous life. + +In the middle, later, and more genial period of her life she did more +talking than writing. And her talking was always earnest, direct, +sincere, with a gleam of hope and a note of wisdom in it--the union of +experience and reflection. Had it been reported it would have made for +her a literary name: but she was content, or constrained, to limit her +work to the platform, or to the circle of existence affected by it. + +As a clubwoman Mrs. Croly achieved the eminence almost of a pioneer. +It can be shown that a club or two of women had a titular beginning +before "Sorosis," but that was the original society started by her on +the theory that there were opportunities and conditions in club life, +on an educational or literary basis, of which women could well avail +themselves. Mrs. Croly sympathized with the more earnest purposes +entering into her idea, and was in little related to any sensational, +spectacular, or faddish features that may here or there become +attached to it. She was a believer in seriousness, an exemplar of +industry, a devotee to system, and a very remarkably punctual, +effective and straightforward writer. Her flight was never very high, +but it was always progressive, and her regulation of her pen by the +precise rules that govern presswork was entitled to distinct praise. +She could always be trusted to keep within her topic and herself +behind it, and she understood the art of putting things to her public +in a way to discover to them their own thoughts as well as to denote +her own. + +To David G. Croly, her husband, long a newspaper man of admitted power +and executive force, Mrs. Croly was a constant help, as he too was to +her. From him she learned not a little of her topical discernment and +technical knack. He was never afraid of ability in whomever found, and +he rejoiced that the sex of his wife, and the novel fact that she was +the first woman in America to write daily for publication, gave to her +and her subjects a vogue he and his could not command in a world of +more and mainly personal work. She survived him twelve years. Their +union was not made any less congenial by marked dissimilarity of +convictions on cardinal subjects. + +Mrs. Croly was the recipient of many evidences of the honor and +affection in which her own sex held her, and beyond doubt the +organizations of which she was the inspiring force will pay to her +memory the tributes her disinterestedness and abilities deserved, +exercised as she always was for so long with projects nearly related +to the better equipment of effective womanhood for the conditions and +conduct of life. Her death at seventy-two, after not a little +suffering and not a few sorrows, was not unexpected, though it will be +sincerely and widely regretted. In her last years she was happily made +aware of the love and tenderness towards her which she had richly +earned by service, counsel, and example to the lives of others. + + + + +From Laura Sedgwick Collins + + + Dear Friend, dear Helper, passed from earth + To heaven, in earthly grace, I here + Would give to thee homage sincere + And memory sweet. Thy ever kindly word + Has oft the sad heart warmed, + The drooped head raised, and thy sustaining hand + A fainting purpose thrilled + To better courage, firmer aim. + + In that far realm where spirits meet + And greet with message mystic, there + Thou must, in sweet commune + Receive reward for earthly deeds. + Thy heart ne'er knew the unkind throb, + Was ever gentle, firm and true; + Whate'er the cause, if once espoused + Thou to thy watchword held thyself. + + Throughout our land, in city, town, + Thy name beloved remains alive; + Alive in hearts, alive in minds,-- + For thou hadst heart and brain as well + To touch the soul and win the thought. + Thy work for woman stands unspoiled; + Untouched by vanity or marred by pride, + Unsullied by a thought of self, + + A generous impulse toward thy sex-- + A woman's word for woman's need. + And so thy name in fragrance fine + Bespeaks again returning June,-- + The spring of promise, budding hope! + The cypress changes to the rose,-- + The rose of dawn, the rose of heaven; + And both are thine and thine the crown + All jewelled o'er with thy good deeds-- + Deeds of mercy, deeds of love, + Are with us still though thou art gone! + + + +From Mary Coffin Johnson + + +Many years before I personally knew Mrs. Croly she was at the height +of her useful public life; the imprint of her hand and mind in +contemporary literature was an evident fact, and she had become a +conspicuous figure in the ranks of well-known women. It is therefore +my privilege to speak of her last few years, when the golden light of +achievement gilded the eventide of her eventful life. + +Having had the peculiar advantage of sitting beside her for six years +as an officer of the Woman's Press Club I am thoroughly aware of her +sincerity, and of the singleness of heart which, actuated her motives +in behalf of women. She believed that every united effort that raises +the personal standard of thought and purpose is of the utmost +importance. It was her earnest desire that women should live lofty and +useful lives. She frequently laid stress upon this manner of life, and +at such times her temperament seemed charged with sympathetic interest +in young women journalists. "Unity in Diversity," the motto adopted by +the General Federation of Women's Clubs, is a fitting expression of +the broad conceptions she brought into club life; indeed, her success +in bringing women of unequal social position and essentially different +callings, into harmonious relationship and unity of purpose was +markedly characteristic. + +During her last years women's clubs became more than ever of absorbing +interest to her, claiming the complete devotion of her broad mind. The +untiring devotion she had already given to this part of her life's +activities had established her fame, and this fame will ever be +exceptionable, for her work can never be duplicated. + +The growing spirit of helpfulness and friendliness which inspires +women's organizations, the manifold opportunities of various kinds +which they afford, and the excellent results which follow could, she +thought, scarcely be estimated. "Club life for women," she would say, +"requires no justification. When we enter our club rooms we leave +behind us much of the rubbish of the world. The richest, fullest +development of life flows through the better social relations, and +from times of old has been uplifting." "It is not merely that we need +one another," she would declare, "but that the sense of kinship is +healthful; it inspires the larger love, and creates a stronger +relationship. It seems to be God's method of helping humankind to the +higher and more perfect life." + +On various occasions, when only members of the dub were present, she +would lay aside the formality of the presiding member, and, assuming +the familiar manner of addressing us, pour forth her lofty ideals for +women, unconsciously testifying that the secret spring of her actions +was her love for her own sex. Though the words were always spoken with +gentle calmness, and in a tone of womanly softness, something in her +passionate sincerity would, like the effect of a magnet, attract every +listener, and a spell of silence would fall upon us. In all that she +said we discerned the Divine Principle. + +There were those who, from their own viewpoints, carped at what they +heard and saw, but a person even of Mrs. Croly's temperament and +courage, placed amid the recurring action and reaction of a life of +much publicity, cannot, of course, please every one. It would be +surprising if in her long career she had not manifested human +imperfections, and had not sometimes made mistakes; she would have +been more than human had she not. + +It was no easy task for her to stem the tide of difficulties and +oppositions from without, for from first to last of her diligent life +she had many trials to endure. Both sunbeam and shadow crossed her +pathway; but her errors were not uncommon to humankind; moreover, she +was very patient under misconception. "It is always fair," said Henry +Ward Beecher, "to credit a man at his best,--let his enemies tell of +his worst." Another writer remarks: "To get a true idea of any +character we most seize upon its higher forming element, that to which +it naturally tends." + +Hers was far from an impulsive nature, yet there were times when Mrs. +Croly suddenly revealed in a marked way her true, deep instincts. +While on a visit to this country on one occasion, Madame Antoinette +Sterling, a concert singer in England, was a guest of the Woman's +Press Club. She was asked to sing for us, and responded with "The Lost +Chord." In answer to an encore she sang a ballad of her own +composition, called "The Sheepfold." Mrs. Croly was visibly affected +by the words; seldom had she ever manifested more feeling. When the +song was ended she quickly rose, and in a tremulous voice exclaimed: +"Does not this say to us that if even _one_ were outside, the whole +strength of the universe would be brought to bear upon it, to bring it +into the fold!" + +In 1897 Mrs. Croly was honored by the General Federation of Women's +Clubs by the appointment to write the "History of the Woman's Club +Movement in America," an undertaking that required exceptionable +ability. The vast amount of mental energy and wearing labor she put +into this work, added to the past years of constant application to +literary and other interests, told seriously upon her health. Her +nervous system had become exceedingly susceptible, and it was evident +that her good constitution was beginning to break down. + +However, the indomitable energy she possessed, and her trained +capacity for work enabled her to continue until the large volume was +finished and given to the public. + +Early in June, 1898, Mrs. Croly had a serious fall in which she +fractured her hip, and she was confined to her room for many weeks. +Though she possessed unusual power of endurance, her lessening +strength could no longer bear the strain upon the delicate frame, and +her rallying power was perceptibly diminished. As the fracture slowly +healed she but feebly met the physical exertion necessary to go about +on crutches. Even then it was impossible for her to take life +serenely; she was restlessly eager to be up and doing. When she could +be removed with safety, which was not until the third of September, +she went abroad with her daughter, Mrs. Vida Croly Sidney, who had +come over from England for her, and she spent a year in London and the +vicinity. In August, 1899, they were in Switzerland, and Mrs. Croly +took the baths at Schinznach-les-Bains. She returned to America the +following September, and remained in New York through the winter of +1899-1900. The change agreed with, her, but her health cannot be said +to have improved, and she was still very infirm. Her natural affection +and interest in the Woman's Press Club led her to attend its meetings, +whenever she was able, going there in the carriage sent for her. On +the 12th of May she was present at a club meeting, and gave us an +informal talk, which proved to be her parting address, though at the +time we knew it not. That day her words were full of significance. She +expressed herself with fervor, chiefly on the importance of clubwomen +bearing a large measure of love and good-will towards one another, and +of the cultivation of the tie of divine charity. With earnestness she +urged again that we should stand "hand to hand to exercise patience in +judgment, and to be slow in criticism." "It is God-like," she said, +"to forgive. Remember," she continued, "that all that is good in this +life emanates from love; that it is the very best thing that this life +affords, and that there is nothing on earth that can take the place of +its ministry. Love has no limitations, and if you give the best talent +you possess to your club it will give it back to you. Club life is +often misunderstood, it is true,--but," she slowly added, "there is +nothing in this world _entirely_ perfect." She spoke touchingly of the +personal sense of loneliness she felt; that although she was a woman +among many women she lived many a lonely hour; and she wished it well +understood that the love and friendship of clubwomen was to her the +most precious thing in her life. In closing she emphasized the counsel +she had given, to be "United and conciliatory in our relations with +each other; to be just; to suspend judgment; and to wait long and +trust God who knows all. He," she declared, "will not misunderstand +you." + +At the end of May she returned to England. Though nature had not +become victorious over her feebleness, and she was still almost +helpless from the effect of the accident of 1898, she heroically +overcame these physical conditions as far as she was able. Something +continually impelled her onward. She attended the International +Congress of Women held during the Paris Exposition of that year, and +then went on to Ober-Ammergau to the Passion Play, accompanied by Mrs. +Sidney; and then returned to England, where she stayed until the 27th +of July, 1901, when she again sailed for New York, business matters +requiring her presence in this country. + +On her arrival in August from the second visit abroad, the grave facts +that her health was not established, and that her time here was not to +be long, were soon evident to her friends. The struggle of nature not +only had begun, the shadow was even now sweeping near. She appeared at +the November business meeting of the Woman's Press Club, accompanied +by an attendant, and took the chair, but she was so much exhausted by +the effort that her nurse easily persuaded her to come away. During +the following four weeks her prostration and decline were steady. + +As the final day of her human infirmity approached, she expressed to +the close friend who sat beside her a timid shrinking, common to all +human nature, from the passage out of this life. It may be counted a +special mercy that, as it afterwards proved, she need not have had any +disquietude concerning the inevitable moment, for a few hours before +the closing scene she fell into a state of coma, and passed beyond so +quietly and tranquilly that she did not herself know when the moment +came. She entered the world of infinite repose in the forenoon of +December 23, 1901. + +The funeral service was held in the Church of the Transfiguration, +Mrs. Croly's friends gathering from far and near to pay their last +tributes of love and regard. The women's clubs and societies of +Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the suburbs, were represented in large +numbers, and every seat in the church was filled. + +Mrs. Croly lies at rest beside her husband, David G. Croly, in the +beautiful cemetery near Lakewood, New Jersey. + +"Yon's her step ... an' she's carryin' a licht in her hand; a see it +through the door." + + + + +From Caroline M. Morse + + +As Chairman of the Memorial Committee it is my privilege to add my +memories of Mrs. Croly to those which have preceded. Mine are not of +her club interests, nor of her identification with the woman's club +movement. So much has been written, and so well, regarding these +public phases of her life that it would seem almost officious for me +to add a stone to the already piled up cairn; I write rather of my +friend as my family knew her in her home, surrounded by husband and +children. + +It was in 1880 that we first knew Mr. and Mrs. Croly, and the +acquaintance soon became an intimacy that lasted for twenty-three +years. They were living in their own house in Seventy-first street, an +artistically furnished house, an ideal home full of a sweet +domesticity. + +Intimate as we were it was frequently our privilege to gather with the +family at their Sunday evening supper, when Mrs. Croly was as +completely the "house-mother" fulfilling the homely duties of the +table, as, an hour later, she was the gracious, though more formal +hostess receiving in her drawing-room the usual Sunday night throng of +old friends and the strangers of distinction who, chancing to be in +town, were fortunate enough to have letters of introduction to her. I +see her slight figure moving from group to group, and the low English +voice and sweet smile with which she encouraged her visitors to speak +of themselves, and, if they were foreigners, of their missions to this +country. A characteristic act of hers was to carry around a little +silver tray on which there might be several glasses of a dainty punch, +the base of which was a light, non-alcoholic wine. This she offered to +friends whom she desired particularly to honor, and the act had all +the significance of the Russian custom of breaking bread and eating +salt with the host. These Sunday evenings at home, which were a +feature of the society in which she moved, were continued until a +short time before her death, or until she was incapacitated by +illness. + +My friend had none of the usual failings of the traditionary +"emancipated woman"; she would sit down to her basket on an afternoon +and take up a bit of household sewing with the same spirit and +aptitude that had guided her in the forenoon in the writing of an +editorial article or the preparation of a paper to be read before a +club. + +I recall with especial joy the long walks we used to take together. +After a day of wearisome work, it was one of her great delights to +leave the piled-up desk and find herself in the street, her arm linked +in mine. At such times much of her talk was ravishing speculation upon +things seen and unseen. It was as if, released for the moment from +the pressure of work, her mind sprang into a world removed from the +practical and immediate, to revel in contemplation of the divine. Yet +she was no visionary, and the world of sight held her cheerful +allegiance. Hers was never "the dyer's hand subdued to what it works +in," and this is the more remarkable since she never relinquished +work, even for our beloved walks, without a mild protest at laying +aside her pen. One afternoon I called, intending to take her out for +one of our "play-hours," but I failed to find her in her apartment. +Next morning the post brought me this note: + + "MY DEAR FRIEND: + + "I was so glad to get your card, and so sorry to miss you. + It was just that hour out-of-doors with you that I was + longing for. I have been so long away, and since my return + have been so busy with much detail of correspondence that in + quantity is always more or less depressing, that I needed a + sight of you to tone me up and restore my standard. I have + also taken advantage of enforced quiet to brace up for an + heroic two weeks of dentistry, and have therefore been in + absolute retirement and upon baby diet of the most innocuous + description... + + "I am afraid this recapitulation will take away all desire + to repeat your effort in my direction. But I trust that + this may find you in a missionary humor, and that you will + see that I need 'looking after'--a far stronger motive with + most women than friendship, isn't it? Anyway, come again + soon, won't you? Afternoon is our gadding time, you know. + + "Really and lovingly your friend. + + "P.S.--This note will show that I truly have not command of + all my faculties and need a human tonic." + +All out-of-doors was dear to her. Trees were to her as men--rooted, +and she often naively talked to them as if to friends while we +strolled in the twilight. Her love of nature even seemed to affect her +choice of diet, for she preferred simply prepared dishes and the +natural foods. This was doubtless due in part to her unmixed Old World +nationality and to her early surroundings in rural England: as she was +in girlhood, so, in spite of the complex life of this distracting New +World, she remained to the last. + +My friend dwelt lovingly upon anniversaries; the true spirit of +Christmas entered her heart at every Yuletide season, and her gifts +showed generous care in selection and in the dainty wrappings in which +they were sent to us. She delighted in the Christmas and Thanksgiving +dinners, but St. Valentine's was the dearest, as it was the +anniversary of her marriage. This the Woman's Press Club of New York +has always observed as the date of its annual dinner. + +She had a keen sense of humor, yet never did she forget herself either +in posing or pranks, for hers was the unerring sense of the fitness of +things. An instance of her ready wit comes to me: Soon after her +return from her last visit to England she came to us to stay for a few +days. It was in September, three months before her death. On Sunday +evening several friends dropped in, and from general conversation we +drifted into singing some of the old songs. Now and then she would add +her own low tones to our untrained vocalizing, crooning or +cantillating the tune as if she were musing aloud. We had been singing +for a full hour, she, with crutch near at hand, sitting apart from us +at the open window. We had just sung one of her favorites, the old +ballad "Far Away," and were beginning another with all the energy of +amateurs when it occurred to me that Mrs. Croly might be tired and +ready to go to her room for the night. Bending over I whispered, +"Come, dear, you must be weary of all this." She turned slowly in her +chair, and looking up into my face, smiling whimsically, said: "Oh, +no, not yet! I am enjoying the music just as if it were good!" + +I have already intimated that the home life of the family was happy. +There existed between husband and wife a genuine congeniality in +tastes and pursuits; yet between any two minds when both are strong +and original there will generally be a divergence; and it has always +seemed to me that the origin of Sorosis might be traced by the +psychological analyst to some such divergence between Mrs. Croly's +lines of intellectual development and those of her equally gifted +husband, David G. Croly. The power of initiative was strong in each of +these two, and in each it produced excellent though differing results. + +It is cause for regret that Mrs. Croly did not write more in her +latter years, when her native wisdom had ripened in the soil of a rich +experience. + +Her philosophy was the fruit of a rightly-lived, useful life, and even +after the distressing accident which lamed her, her enthusiasm never +waned, but rather seemed intensified and glorified. Seldom do the +heart and brain work together as did hers. She will ever stand to +those who knew her as a fine specimen of a rare type. She had +convictions, and she had the courage to uphold them. She hated shams +and hypocrisy with the vigor of Carlyle. The bravery of her public +life was matched by the beauty of her private life. Good and Truth +were her watchwords. "Good has faculty," says Swedenborg, "but not +determinate except by truth. Determinate faculty is actual power." In +the dear friend whom we here commemorate, faculty was determinate. + +Brave and honest pleader for woman; true, tender, sincere friend, you +fought the good fight well; the world is better for your work, and +among your saddest survivors are those whom you smote with a deserved +pen-stroke, or with spoken words, who have long since given you +grateful thanks. + + C.M.M. + + + + +L'Envoi + + + She cut a path through tangled underwood + Of old traditions out to broader ways. + She lived to hear her work called brave and good, + But oh! the thorns, before the crown of bays. + The world gives lashes to its pioneers + Until the goal is reached--then deafening cheers. + +ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, +"Jenny June", by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JANE CUNNINGHAM *** + +***** This file should be named 12099.txt or 12099.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/0/9/12099/ + +Produced by Ari J Joki and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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