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work in peace; and here is arranged the beginning of a reference library for the use of members.

There is also a room for the attendant, a respectable person, who is always in attendance and will procure a meal for a member at any time. The cooking arrangements, it is true, as yet, leave much to be desired, as, at first, it had been settled that all cooking should be done upstairs; but owing to the ill-health of the care-taker of the premises this arrangement fell through, and the committee were under the necessity of finding an exclusive attendant for the club, which deprived us of the use- for the members of one of our rooms. In addition to these, there is a good dressing-room and lavatory, so that members living at a distance from the city can wash and dress in comfort before going to a theater or other evening engagement, if it is one not requiring a change of dress. This, in itself, is a great convenience to many members, who live perhaps ten or twelve miles out of town, and for whom it would be impossible to go home for a meal between afternoon work or engagement and the work or engagement which takes them to theater, concert, or lecture in the evening. At their club they can get a meal, which, if not luxurious, is at least sustaining, and they can make such small additions to their toilets as they may think necessary, or enjoy the luxury of freshening themselves up by a wash and a brushing.

We do not always propose to remain in this very modest style. We have thoughts of larger quarters, of a regular cuisine, of several silence-rooms, and a comfortable diningroom. But these things can come only with time, as we are all resolved to make the club strictly self-supporting, and not in any sense a bolstered-up concern. Of the first year of the club's existence, I can say that it has been conducted in absolute harmony, and that the rules and constitution are found to cover, with the necessity of a very few slight modifications, all the needs for which the club was started.

And now I must say something of the usefulness of the club, and speak also of its social side. As to its great usefulness, I can speak with certainty. I know that several workers have made their way in the thorny path of literature entirely because of belonging to it. I know of others who have practically dated their first success from the lucky day on which they first entered the club premises. To all, it is distinct advantage to be able to say that they are members.

The social side is even more encouraging than the business one. On each Friday in the year, except during August and September, there has been a house-tea to which members can bring their friends. These house-teas have been most delightful and popular. They are managed thus: Each member has a season ticket, for which she pays half a crown, which admits her to the house-teas for one year. The guest tickets may be bought for three shillings a dozen, and are available for any Friday, though not transferable. They must bear the signature of a member.

The teas are managed in this way: A certain number of members undertake the duty of providing the sweets and cake necessary, having a fixed sum sufficient for the purpose handed to them by the honorary secretary, and most ladies bring one of their own servants with them, and also one or two young friends who help with the tea, and so make those who do not know many people feel at home and welcome. The attendant prepares the tea and coffee, and also the bread and butter, etc. In this way we find that a good and varied tea is given, and as those who undertake a tea all like the task, it falls heavily on no one, and is indeed a labor of love.

Such a thing as a stranger's going to the Writers' Club on a house-tea day and being left to mope alone till his or her host appears is positively unknown. I do not know how it is, but the general tone of the club is one of extreme friendliness. I, for one, have made some of my most delightful friends in the pleasant and homely rooms where

a few women started an institution for the comfort of the least well-off in the world of literature, amid the assurances of most of the women, and practically all of the men, that no club of that kind could possibly exist for a year. My great hope is that it may flourish and grow apace, but that we may never grow so big as to become either formal or unfriendly.

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CHAPTER XIII.- RELIGION,

AS TREATED IN THE SUBORDINATE CONGRESSES.

EDITORIAL COMMENT - EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE CATHOLIC WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT CONGRESS, BY MARY JOSEPHINE ONAHANEXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE DEPARTMENT CONGRESS OF THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF UNITARIAN AND OTHER LIBERAL CHRISTIAN WOMEN, BY MRS. JENKIN LLOYD JONES - EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE DEPARTMENT Congress of THE WOMAN'S CENTENARY ASSOCIATION OF THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, BY REV. LORENZA A. HAYNES EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE DEPARTMENT CONGRESS OF THE WOMEN'S BAPTIST HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY, BY MARION E. ISAACS - EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES DELIVERED IN THE REPORT CONGRESSES, BY MRS. E. S. STRACHAN, MRS. O. A. BURGESS, ALICE MAY SCUDDER, ELIZABETH M. TILLEY, AND SIGRID STORCKENFELDT EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE DEPARTMENT CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS, BY MRS. WILLIAM BOYD-SERMON DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL CONGRESS, BY REV. ANNA H. SHAW.

PER

ERHAPS no other single chapter in its history will better denote the true catholicity of the Congress than this, which presents the service of women to religion through the varied means provided by the Roman Catholic church and the denominations of Protestantism.

The Catholic Women's Department Congress is assigned the first place from a sense of reverent respect to the mother church, which the most ultra Protestants should be the readiest to express, and also from the desire to recognize the peculiar difficulties under which the liberal-minded Catholics who organized this congress labored. From the first the committee of organization wished to secure the coöperation of Catholic women. (It will be understood that the word Catholic is used here in its restricted sectarian

sense.) But owing to the reciprocal ignorance of one another's work, which has hitherto distinguished Catholics and Protestants, the committee did not know to whom among Catholics to appeal for this coöperation; whom to invite to speak in the General Congress; or to whom to suggest the organization of a Catholic department congress. The committee's ignorance delayed action. It was finally through the kindness and sympathy of Archbishop Ireland that the chairman of the committee of organization was placed in correspondence with Alice Timmons Toomy, whose response merits equally the gratitude of Catholics. and Protestants.

The paper representing Unitarians and other liberals. follows that representing the Catholics, in order that the contrast between those who insist upon dogma and those who repudiate it may be emphasized. This chapter will show that as much diversity of opinion upon the abstract side of religion exists among women as among men; and that women are equally frank in expressing their opinions. It will also show that women of all faiths regard the concrete expression of religion as the just measure of its sincerity, the accepted test of its substance.

Any one who cherishes the belief that women have a genius for finance, and that in them, as a class, the executive faculty preponderates, will find here numerous illustrations of this view. That the impecunious class, the dependents, the "paupers," can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for religious work, shows that "making bricks without straw was by no means an impossible task. That this class, deficient in business experience as in pecuniary resources, can manage financial enterprises which girdle the earth, is a just ground of hope that, with experience, they may come to "hold their own" in temporal affairs.

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The sermon, with which the chapter concludes, was delivered in the General Congress, and was indeed (if one excepts the musical programme prepared by Mrs. Coonley,

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