STRANGE DOINGS AT WOMEN'S CLUBS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2745, 24 October 1906, Page 37

STRANGE DOINGS AT WOMEN' S CLUBS.

In the Daily Mail a contributor makes 6ome remarkable statements about women's clubs: — "To the question, For what quality are women's clubs in general most \ notorious? I reply that it is for thievishness, the thievishnese of their members. Gould the real facts be brought to light it would probably be found that there

is not a tecretary of a woman's olub who has not had trouble with petty pilferings, if not with more serious thefts Some of the clubs <Te direfully ashamed of thie, and do all they can to put a etop to it, in sharp distinction to the mildly tolerant attitude of others. But I doubt if there is one of the most fashionable clubs, at anyrate, whose name has never once been bandied about as a by-word of thievishnese, whose fair fame has always been quite untar-

nished. Those frequented by leas wealthy women apparently enjoy a better reputation. ... In one woman's club it is common knowledge that a tablet of soap | does not remain five minutes in the dress- ' ing room ; and at another, accounted among 1 the most fashionable,, even the table silver has been known bo disappear. I belong to a woman's olub whose reputation is admittedly one of the best. Yet I dare not leave things in the oloak room, and have

to warn my guests not to do so either. And I shall not forget my surprise when a friend, who took me to one of the largest and best known of the women's clubs, said I had better carry my fure a/bout with me ! . . . In one club it is reputed that if you drop anything, walk half the length of the room, and turn round to pick up your property, you will find it hae disappeared A purse containing a good deal of money was once dropped in another club, and

picked up shortly afterw axds on the club premises empty. Allow for exaggeration, and there atill remains far too much. . . W«^ all know the oft-told taJe of the bishop,' his umbrella, and the Athenaeum dub; < and how harmless is that story is proved by the open way in which the club is named. Is there a woman's club about which a similar story could be told with as little fear of ite not being taken seriously?"