JOSS COLONIA IN LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

JOSS COLONIA IN LONDON.

CONFIDENCES TO HER COUSINS ACROSS THE SEA.

LONDON, February 3 WOMEN'S CLUBS.

You Lave often asked me to tell you something- about Women's Clubs here. I have not visited many yet, so will this time give you only a short preJiminary sketch of our principal clubs in London, leaving a more detailed description until I have had an opportunity of personal inspection, Men used to assert boldly that women were not of a disposition to thrive in ciubs, but they take up that tone no longer, since we have shown that we can manage, our own institutions in a businesslike and harmonious fashion. Nowadays they are only too anxious to exchange the cynical .somewhat boring atmosphere of their own clubs and enjoy the repese and refinement that reign in ours together with earnestness and enthusiasm for the solution of all modern problems. I think that our clubs may fairly tie divided into societies for work, those for rest and relaxation and mixed. The first division is led by the Pioneer, which owes its foundation to the late Mrs Massingberd, the leader of the New Woman movement, by winch women secured the right to possess an individuality and opinion of their own, and to take their share in the world's work. She founded ' the club to bring the "woman worker into contact with the woman of leisure for their mutual assistance and the advancement of woman's interests. Mrs Massingberd was of course a great Temperance Reformer, and bequeathed to the club all its present furniture on condition that it should be carried on upon teetotal lines. Beginning in a small way in Mrs Massingberd s own establishment, the club has moved to larger and larger premises, until it is now comfortably established in roomy quarters in Graf ton Street, where it enjoys quiettogether with proximity to Piccadily and the centre of London. The subscription is—considering all the advantages the club affords —small, £3 3/ and £3 3/ entrance fee for town members, and £2 2/ and £2 2/ entrance fee for country, members. All classes of women belong to the club, in which ,are to be found women workers and professional women of all kinds, enthusiasts in science, literature, art and education, staunch supportcis of the extension of political privileges to; our sex. In short the Pioneer is an intellectual centre for intellectual \ women. A little vrhile ago it used to be the fashion for members to imitate the severely masculine coat, shirt, high, collar, and tie worn by Mrs Massingberd, as may be seen in the portrait of her which hangs an the drawing room above the 'motto 'Love thyself last,' Traces of the short hair and garment of forrnsl cut style still linger in the club, but its members are now indulging in more womanly dress, although the Pioneer is as yet hardly the place in which to look for smart and fashionable frocks. In the Pioteer you see our busy bees not our butterflies. However rational dress is not yet in evidence. Downstairs is a pleasant dining room, to which i>. couple oi months ago members wera given the privilege of taking their men friends. A few bedrooms afford accommodation for the country members ppfiKtmg a night or two in town. Upstairs is a large reception room, separated from which by folding doors only is a handsome drawingroopn. In these roms are held the Thursday evening debates and symposia, which are so marked a feature of the Pioneer Club life. Prominent ■women discuss all the problems of the day, and you will hear some interesting papers and some capital speaking. Of recent discussions I refill one opened by a paper from Mrs Le Panu ou 'The Opening- Literature Affords to Women,' and another opened by a dryly amusing paper from Mrs Dowson, lecturer at the School of Medicine for Women, on 'Some defects of Modern Education.' In the latter discussion a Canadian teacher described himself as 'a male desert in an1 oasis of feminine charms,' and was afterwards somewhat curtly referred to ty a lady speaker as 'the first desert.' "jVlec do attend and take part in these debates, but they find their ninich in the best speakers of the Piouerr, who display eloquence, sarcasm, and commonsense. One little room is really the sanctum of the New Woman, the smoking room, where many a cigarette soothes the nerves of the highly strung. In Lady Hamilton, the widow of a former Governor 1 of Tasmania, the club has a capable and tactful secretary. The Writers' Club is an unpretentious institution, a working place and meeting place for women novelists and journal isis. Its location is the Strand, close to F-leet-street, the haunt of journalism. The club is very popular, as it is essentially a workaday club with a guinea subscription and no entrance fee. Here women writers take their meals, rest between their labours, write their letters, interview their friends or meet on business appointments. The club does not indulge largely in conviviality, but every Friday has an 'At Home' and afternoon tea, at which i you see the literary lions feeding. The club was originated six years ago by Lady Jetsne, John Strange Winter, and others, and now has as president Princess Christian, chairwoman Mrs Flora Steel, and secretary Miss Routledge. The Somerville is the oldest established Jadies club in London, and strictly democratic. Its subscription is also small, and it caters chiefly for professional women. • Like the Pioneer, it goes in largely for debates and lectures. Hanover Square is its headquarters, and lately its members have started an art club in connection with it. Of the social and *iolce far niente clubs the chief are the Alexandra, the Green Park, the Empress, and the Ilchester, while the Grosvenor Crescent, of which I gave you some account last year, combines toil and recreation in about equal proportions. The Alexandra and the Green Park are both vtjry exclusive, as both admit to membership only those who are eligible to attend the Queen's draw-ing-rooms. The former is a proprietary club, managed by a financial comtaittee of four Society ladies, who Jpake themselves responsible for all liabilities, but expend all receipts in the club's maintenance. The subscription is £5 5/, with an entrance *cc of the same amount. There are over 900 members, and the committee **&• elect any eminent woman as an

honorary life member. The Clubhouse ,No. 3 2 Grosvenor Street, is luxuriously furnished, and is intend-

Ed as a quiet haven of refuge for its members. Country members find bedrooms at their disposal, and can bring their ladies' maids with them, no as not to be inconvenienced in the preparation of their toilettes. Social functions are conspicuous by their absence, so are men, to whom the Alexandra is as strictly barred as was the ladies 'college "of Tennyson's Princess.

The Green Park also has its permanent habitation in Grosvenor Street, but in some respects is quite the antithesis of the Alexandra. It is essentially a social and musical club, and every Friday in the various seasons gives musical and dramatic entertainments, at which the best artists perform. The subscription is £?> 3/, and entrance fee £2 2/, and this gives subscribers membership of the Alexandra Club at Dublin. For £20 a lady can become a life member. The Club-house is" most luxuriously furnished, and full of articles of 'bigoiry and virtue.' Its walls are adorne.e} with autograph photographs of most of the modern actors and singers,- and with several fine pictures, the most noteworthy being those by Professor Herkomer and Mrs Jopling Rowe. The stairs are tastefully lined with a collection of the Club pro-

grammes

The Empress Club, although it only dates from the Queen's birthday, 1897, has a larger roll of members th.au any other ladies' club in London. It numbers 2,700 members, and has turned away from its doors quite half that number. Its subscription, £5 5/, and entrance fee, £3 3/, entitle members to the use of all public roomc and dressing rooms at the Princes Hotel, Brighton, which is connected by telephone with the Club-house in Dover Street. You can see from "the daintiness of its appointments and the smartness of the member;,' frocks that it is essentially a chic club. A winter garden is a pretty feature of its many pretty rooms. The Club is managed by a committee, of 23, and a smaller committee of six titled and distinguished women. In commemoration of its fc:indalion in the Diamond Jubilee 2'car, it contributes every year to the Prince of Wales Hospital Fund a shilling from each member's subscription. " This year the. contribution amounted to £136. The Empress has no special entertainments, but members are sure of finding agreeable and varied companionship in their cwn ra&ks at any time.

The Ilchester Club, opposite the north end of the Broad Walk in Kensington Gardens, was founded and is fuuiuced on a philanthropic basis to "bring all the comfort and refinement of a" private house within the means of a slender income. It is therefore more or less of a residential club, and has sleeping accommodation for forty members, a fine dining-room, a smo-king-room, a comfortable drawingroom, and best of all a delightful music-roout with a grand piano, card tables ,and a good dancing - floor. Flection is searching, as is natural, where so many members live on the prjjr.i&es, but the entrance fee is only a guinea. * The three mixed clubs, the Bath, the Sesame, and the Albermarle, all have their home's in Dover-street. The Bath Club is highly fashoinable, and has a high sti ascription, £10 10/, and £10 10/ entrance fee. Its chief attraction is a large swimming bath, in which on exhibition days you will see some wonderful feats of swimming- anc 1 diving and aquatic tricks performed by some of our fashionable beauties. But the Club is amphibious, and has distinct land-quar-ters for men and women. In the Sesame, on the other hand, the sexes mingle freely and share the same club-rooms. Town members pay £3 5/ and country members £3 3/ subscription Besides its social life, the Sesame provides its members with some mental exercise in the shape of lectures and discussions on current topi-cs. Now, I think you have heard- quite enough of our London Clubs. Have you anything similar in the colonies? The Austral Salon I know in Melbourne, but that, I fancy, is not quite on the same lines as our clubs here.