West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Tuesday 10 May 1892, page 2


LADY CLUBS.

In 1848, (writes "Ivan" in the Melbourne Argent woman's club was established in Paris ¡' Probably the members' fought with each other, and did not pay their subscript tions anyhow, there was the club, and its existence made the Parisian map, even the advanced man, angry. There was no good

reason for that when one comes to think of it but I suppose the novelty infringed on the average male idea and suddenly revealed a new and ttnexped kind of woman with claims to be thought about, in addition to other troubles-all which was irritating. to! the following June, when the tumult broke out again in Paris, as the mob " raided the woman's club, and so dealt there and then with the unhappy members present that for some hours afterwards the latter, if requested to take a chair, said that they were really not tired, and seemed to prefer to rest standing on their feet. This uncouth action of the Paris mob utterly dissolved the club'. Erects have marched rapidly since then. We live under a new dispensation truly. Who indeed could have predicted in the year 1848 that by the end of the century the Hon. J. W. Fortescue would probably be the first elected Governor of the Commonwealth of Australia, and that there would be five or' six ladies' clubs comfortably established in the West End of London P England is, so. cording to French critics, the land of "shocking," a unique word to which the French give fresh and genuine value by their mispronunciation of it. Yet it is England which has made the most successful experi-ment in ladies' clubs. There is, in fact, room both for club women and for those women who would still call the acts, words, and ideas indulged in by club women shooking!. The day-schools, - or-orders; t>f female humanity do not clash, not mix with each other ; indeed, they are scarcely conscious of

each other's existence.

A score of West End clubs for men are quite nndistinguishable^-mere copies of one another. Male members of political, military, literary, and sporting clubs all look very much alike and they all perform about the same actions and say the same things when they are inside the club premises. Not so with the women. There is no similarity between any two ladies' clubs in London! classing them according to the amount of the subscription, the " Albermarle " would come first. There is a club for both men and women. There is no entrance fee, but the annual subscription is £5. The club-house is in a street off Piccadilly, and it is a coraT fortable, sociable place. During the season, especially from about four to six o'clock in the afternoon, the scene is both lively and impressive ; carriages dash up to the door, everybody seems to have plenty of money and food and clothing. Here flit to and fro coldly beautiful Americans, an occasional actress of undoubtedly correct antecedents, and married ladies who take fashionable life

most seriously, and give sober thought to shopping in Bond-street, which is close handy. At afternoon tea time, and when dinner parties are made up before the theatre, the Albermarle members are seen at their most brillant moment. It seems to be a settled principle at the club with both male and female guests to behave even more or-reproach ably at those hours than ordinary people do in private life. No one ever really was so desperately proper as some of the members of this club of up to nine or ten o'clock at night. Supper parties after the theatre are an institution here, and then it is rather otherwise.

Very different in the " Alexandra Club " in Grosvenor-8treet,not very far off. No lady can become a member here unless she be also eligible for presentation at Court. To belong to this club is really to take part in a demonstration to formally proclaim one's achievements. Beyond that, the Alexandra is a very dull club. The annual subscription is only three guineas for town members and two for country members. There is an entrance fee of five guineas. This is the only residential ladies' club in London, for although certain other hostels call themselves clubs, they are, as a matter of fact, merely boarding-houses for women, where the members have to observe sundry rather strict rules and regulations. There are six bedrooms at the Alexandra for ladies who wish to sleep in London, and two rooms for their maids. A lengthy code of rules and regulations exists. One queer rule seems to imply that ladies, even of an exalted and select description, are not above interfering with servants and trying to secure a good one at the expense of their fellow members. Another speciality at the Alexandra Club is that no man is permitted, on any pretence whatever, to set foot within the club premises. This rule is the outcome of experience, doubtless. The Orleans Club on the Thames, at Twickenham, once a very pleasant and successful men's club, where women were admitted (a very different thing from a woman's club where men are admitted), was finally wrecked by the circumstance that it, was also a residential club. Some of the members and guests got confused on the residential question, and there were awfulmesses The summer palace of the Lyric Club at Barnes, frequented by real ladies, is rigidly non-residential. The grounds are extensive and badly lit.

The Victoria Club," now closed-they say only for a time-was also a residential club. The committee not long ago took two large houses in Holies street, Cavendishsquare, splendid premises. Besides drawing, dining, reading, and bed rooms, all furnished in first-rate style plenty of bevelled mirrors and panelling and Oriental carpets, snug chairs and sofas, glitter and colour there was a wonderful chamber here, called a fitting-on room, where ladies could see their dressmakers, and devote that earnest and zealous attention to business, without which successful undressing and dressing are impossible. This fitting-on room must have

been the theatre of decisive events. The entrance fee at the Victoria was two guineas ; annual subscription three guineas - not nearly sufficient, I fancy. Ladies belonging to county families patronised this club. But owing to the agricultural depression of recent years they did not smoke and drink as men do ; hence the profit of wines and cigars so helpful to club finance, as a rule, was wanting.

Another nice, qoiet^dnolfensive club is not one for Unjv**wity^Jj|Éa|es, in New Mens streft^àjungal sMesViptien and entrance fee one t^Vte^^mg^ßtmiam saxe modest anougb,,oo||s|stingf«^one large handsomely furms^Mm>MBg room and reading room

eolnaineA^^p^Dg out of this is a smaller

writing~rOomVand beyond that a good-sized dressing room. On the floor above is a bunch or dining room. The housekeeper, who lives on the premises, does the cooking. ~ The Charges are moderate, and the members eat and drink much less than at a club like the Albermarle. - - -

Differing in almost every respect from the clubs already mentioned in the New Somerville Club, close to Oxford Circus. This is perhaps the most interesting ead represents-tive of London women's clubs. There is no attempt at sweetness here. Indeed, the original intention was to have made it a working, women's club, for shop-girls female clerks/typewriters, post-office seraphs, scr But the English lower middle class girl

isn't, and let's hope never will be, Bohej

man or emancipated. Shop girls, clerks, telegraphists, rate, in regular employment generally have a home to go to. Besides, they are rather afraid of the type of married ladies, divorced in principle," who largely patronise this dab at present. Anyhow the ideal working girl wouldn't come, and the Somerville would have collapsed if another class more emancipated and with some money had not taken the enterprise ap. The Somerville now includes women who " do something"-professional women, I was going to say; but what is a professional woman female lecturers, writers, agree, firsthand enthusiasts. It would, perhaps; be a Bohemian club were it not that there is also strong religious and intensely respects able contingent which. keeps the balance level. The Somerville Club literature is a curiosity in itself. The members insidiously scatter about newspapers and magazines re. presenting their own particular religious or heathen'beliefs,JJp1oliticál predilections, and special types of insanity. Odd numbers of the Anti Vaccinator, the Vegetarian, Lucifer, or the Hyleplasmie Review may be found on the hospitable table of the Somerville, in addition to the regular daily, weekly, and monthly burthens. Many of the members are very old and serious-looking. They have had histories stale and worn-out tragedies

in many acts. The good ones havosbeexj treated badly by their husbands, and the bad ones' have treated their husbands shabbily. "No happy women come here," said an official of this club once. "They have no need to tell me When they join there is something wrong, I know well enough, at home" r The, Somerville Club is over an Aerated Bread Company's shop, and notwithstanding their Complaint that the female employés of that company do not participate in the vast profits of the undertaking, the members of the Somerville get meals from the aerated bread shop sent up to the general

room above, a bright and very prettily for

nished apartment. "Men are admitted to this club as guests. " Social evenings" are celebrated once a month, and the entertainment is wonderfully good. Plenty of people can sing, or recite, or' play some instrument fairly well nowadays, and they are glad to make themselves - known. Then there are lectures and debates, in which well-known personages sometimes join Mrs. Besant

gave a lecture on " Theosophy " here a while' ago, which was reported, and no harm came of it. The Somerville managers try indeed very hard to provide social and intellectual diet for members', and the place is becoming rather more of a polytechnic than a club. Indeed, several members, especially the lady journalists, complain that they have found themselves shut out of the " silence room," where they wanted to do their writing, because some class or lecture was in progress. On one occasion a harmless lady member, not remarkable for any distinctive quality suddenly entered the silence-room and found a group of lady anatomists dissecting a rabbit. The scene, I am assured, was " anything but pleasant " If they were vivisection the rabbit, the victim must have concluded that ladies' clubs were, on the whole; failures. - Yet although the subscription to the Somerville is only 10s. a year, with a like entrance fee, the club pays its way and has a good balance at its bankers'. It has 700 members, however.

Lately London lady journalists and writers have started at project for a writers' club," consisting of women. They have held various meetings, which were of course elaborately reported, but the idea does not seem to make much progress. Over a hundred members are said to be already enrolled, although some ladies who were very enthusiastic at first are now bitterly hostile. Mrs. Arthur Stannard, John Strange Winter, is the president. The subscription is to be a guinea a year for town members, guinea entrance fee. That seems to be far too slight a financial basis. The " writers " want to find premises Fleet-street, way, so as to be able to write up till twelve o'clock at night, and to have drawing-room and dressingrooms, meals, Ac. Rents are, however, too high in that quarter, and the lady journalist is not fond of spending money. The successful lady novelists and " swells " would not go near the place once a month, and it is very doubtful whether such a club could pay its

way.

The Somerville has over 700, the Alexandra 790, the University 200, the Albemarle over 300 members. Thus, exclusive of the suspended Victoria, more than 2,000 ladies be-long to London clubs.

These women's clubs are either demoralis-ing or deadly dull. The same might be said of men's clubs. Only, with men it doesn't matter so much. For a man may serve' various useful purposes in this world if he is half bad, extensively demoralised, and' difficult to recognise as a perfect work of God. A woman cannot stand much spoiling and selling. The many women belonging to these clubs who have husbands, and no children, are shunned and outlawed, and they know it, though no one says it. By-' and-bye they take to cigarettes, and, as that furrows a woman's nervous system far more deeply than a man's, later on they take to drink and to morphia convenient pocket' races, which fold up, so to speak, and occupy little space.