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Part of the American
History & Genealogy Project |
Introduction to Club Section
By Mrs. C. M. Severance, "The Mother of
Clubs."
Beloved Club- Women of the
Country
I rejoice heartily at being in touch
with each and all of you, through this friendly introduction,
you, who not having seen en masse, I love with sincere regard
and affection.
I rejoice unceasingly in the
ever-growing acceptance of your new opportunities and duties and
in the superb outlook for your future. One of my favorite
prophecies is that nothing is impossible to organized womanhood
united in aim and effort.
My faith in woman became so great that
my zeal took flame, and led me into the early effort toward
making my enchanted dream come true on reaching my "Mecca" at
Boston in 1855. I felt there best could such a dream come true,
as Bronson Alcott assented on his visits to Cleveland, before
our family removed to Boston, with the warning, however, that it
would not be easy to gather the literary and progressive women
from their various circled suburbs and churches. But the hope
was still hidden in a warm corner of my heart, and after the
Civil War had made many of these women friends and co-workers,
who had served their country and homes as valiantly and at as
great cost, in sending their husbands and sons to the chances of
the battlefield, as their brothers!
The time then seemed ripe for the new
venture of comradeship and service through organization. This
comradeship and service had hitherto been exercised in efforts
outside the home, only in the various sewing circles, Dorcas
Societies, study classes and the like, covering some one single,
definite purpose; but the idea of discussion and action upon the
broader lines of civic interests vitally affecting the home,
developed in the organization of the New England Woman's Club,
the first in this country, at Boston, in 1868. The Sorosis, at
New York, on somewhat the same lines, being founded almost
simultaneously, as a result of the refusal of the Men's Press
Club to recognize the Women's Press Club of that city on the
visit of Dickens to this country. Our well-known and zealous
friend, Kate Field, of New York, author and journalist, had
visited Boston, and reported our organization as already founded
there.
The title of ''Mother of Clubs"
given to the little book compiled by a sympathetic friend, who
had sifted the data and felt warranted in using the title, has
been somewhat challenged; but the facts and the records given by
Mrs. Croly, in her "History of the Club Movement in America,"
are its justification; and the innumerable heartfelt
acknowledgments by pen and voice of the uplift of club life are
a precious benediction to me, and recall the poet's lines:
"What I long to be and was not, comforts
me."
Faithfully yours, (Signed) Madame C. M. Severance.
For God to do His will? Thou art His instrument; go forth. And
thine own wish fulfill.
Endorsement
From Mrs. C. M. Severance
I honor most heartily the loyalty to
womanhood which has prompted our friend, Mrs. John A. Logan, to
undertake this chronicle, at the cost of so much strength and
energy.
The women who have come into prominence
as rulers have had their due records in history, the women of
unusual charm, beauty or wit and woman, as a class, has been
sung by the poets from time immemorial. But the achievements of
these other women have not been sympathetically recorded, the
woman who has given to the world sons whom she nurtured for
useful citizenship, given even with heartbreak to the risks of
the battlefield which she abhorred; and yielded the daughters of
her tenderest love and companionship to the risks of another's
ownership and protection, thus serving the state in these
invaluable and indispensable ways.
These women are at last seeking the
ballot, as the badge of citizenship, and the needed protection
of the home and the beloved children when leaving her care for
the outside world, so often made cruel under the present
competitive system. These women have had mention, but have been
suspected and shunned for taking these practical steps towards
the broader helpfulness. But let us be of good cheer! Woman is
rapidly coming into her fuller heritage, thanks to the braver
chronicler, such as Mrs. Logan.
(Signed) Madame C. M. Severance
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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