WOMEN CLUBS. i
More Than Fifty of Them in the
Metropolis.
Their Scope Embraces Every
Object Dear to Femininity.
Women’s clubs in this big town are
increasing at the rate of half a dozen a
year, and their scope covers every ob
j ec t that is known in feminine society.
There is the social, literary, religious,
musical, sewing, charitable, athletic,
industrial, cooking, art, and the Direc
tory man only knows what others. There
tre over fifty such clubs for women now
established in New York. Some, like
the Sorosis, are hale, hearty and prosper
eus, while many of tho others are
struggling through a precarious and
rather unhealthy babyhood, beset by
many perils and weighted down by a
bewildering host of juvenile tribula
tions, such as no real infant, outside of
a museum, ever managed to survive.
The oldest women's club in the world
is the Sorosis. It has grown stronger
jear by year during the twenty-four
years of its existence. Before Sorosis
was established, the wildest dreams of
the fair sex did not include a club for
women. After it was born,
others soon came to bear it com
pany. To form a club for women
vas found to be a comparatively ea^-y
matter after all, and pluck, joined with
money and social influence, were enthu
siastically enlisted in support of the
movement. Mrs. D. G. Croly and
fourteen other clever and practical wo
men, who had already made reputations
in the fie ds usually given over exclu
sively to men, formed the club, partly
as an experiment and partly to prove to
the male journalists of New York that
their sisters of tho pen had spirit and
abil ty and fine independence. Their
success is a matter of history. Soon
after Sorosis came her sister, the Boston
Woman’s club, the second in the world.
After that the brood increased with pro
digious fruitfulness, and, were all of the
progeny alive today, there would be
more women’s than men’s clubs recorded
on the back pages of the city directory.
The Pot Luck Club is one of the best
known of the social sisterhoods. It is
designed to comfort and extol tho vir
tues of those housekeepers who have re
ceived unkindly criticisms from their
lords and masters. At the Pot Luck
meeting certain members contribute evi
dence of their culinary skill for the de
lectation of their sisters, and woe be it
to the luckless husband whose sneers
have not been borne out by the judg
ment of this somewhat captious jury.
There are both male and female Pot
Luckers, and both sides of the contro
tansies receive impartial consideration.
But happily Pot Luckers as a rule have
kindly dispositions, and disputes are
rare. Among the best known members
are Jennie June, Richard Henry Stod
dard, the-poet; Ella Wheeler Wilcox,
Joaquin Miller, Edmund Clarence Sted
Mrs. John Bigelow and Montague
Marks. The meetings are delightful
treats, and the outsider who is fortunate
enough to be favored with an invitation
Las a different idea of Pot Luck than
Le ever had before.
Tho Athletic Club, which is composed
of stalwart, healthy, and wealthy
women from young
nd Murray Hill, Sta'en Island,
* ot Ler fashionable localities,
is an
outgrowth of the Recreation Club. The
latter organization has no permanent
quarters. It meets once a month for
Business in the drawing room of one of
e members, and again Wed
on every
uesday morning for recreation. The
tnembeis take their recreation in
walking. Central # Park, Harlem,
ashington Heights, and even New
er st*y are tramped laughed
ftn L over, over,
c a!f ed over by the prettiest, fresh
es t faced, strongest-limbed lot of
a ®»zons that young
the town of Knickerbock
ers has cver seen. The Atlantic Club
* ^° a ws ^ ermat from hs, the is much organization, and, liko
han its more pretentious
predecessor. It is building
c hil> house, with a handsome
J appointed gymnasium, and all
L e belongings of the gymnast’s craft.
le, e the members will race and wrestle,
oa t ot >g-ringed ropes suspended
r0m the filing, “skin the cat” on tho
,
^orizontal et ween the bar, parallels, broaden their shoulders
raise great lumps
n arms in the dumb bell deparfc
and polish off their circus course
o training by having round
nd a with soft
tifioi* out * with . the tho sandbag, foils and a scien
and tho fencing
master. *ext^2ZT Sh W °rr 0f
the generation will not only be a
cub woman, but she will bt able to set
e her disputes much in tho same way
Besides these there are art and minor
literary clubs in great number, The
history of many of these is too well
known to need even a passing mention.
Among the best known charitable and
industrial clubs are the Kindly, Mizpah
and Emma Lazarus. Each of these does
a noble and benevolent work. This
partial list would be grossly incomple e
were some of the many eccentric clubs
left unmentioned. The is Hereditary,
Clio, Meridian, Science of Life, Spirit
ualist, Germ of Reason, Struggle for
Truth, Socialist, Communist, Sociologic,
and the Woman’s True Friend. Queer
names? Yes, and queer objects they
have, too. If man rewy have their
Lambs, Thirteens and Growlers, why
not women their Germs of Reason and
Struggle for Truth? —Neie York Sun.
A Famous Constantinople Bridge.
The most favorable place for seeing
the life of Constantinople is on the
bridge over the Golden Horn, uniting
Galata and Slamboul. This rickety old
wooden concern is one of the most dem
ocratic promenades in the world, and
all classes jostle against each other as
they pass to and fro on errands of traffic
or curiosity. Here the boats from the
towns on the Bosphorus and from Scu
tari land their passengers at all hours of
the day. Money changers sit at either
end to give, for a consideration, small
change for gold and silver coins. Turk
ish money is as unreliable as Turkish
politics, and one must be continually on
his guard against clipped, scraped and
perforated pieces. Passing over the
bridge you must have the exact toll, for
the guardian gives no change. Car
riages with screened windows and driv
en by tall, slender, black eunuchs, roll
along with their unseen occu
pants, The high official of
army or state, wearing black
European suits and the red fez, riding
five Arab horses, goes by in apparent
indifference to the swaying masses.
There are Christian women without
veils. The veiled women are Moham
medans, their dark eyes alone being
seen of their faces. Their feet wear
gayly colored slippers, with high heels.
The Turkish pantaloons barely come to
the ankles. The outer dress is plain in
style, but usually gay in color. Moham
medan priests with white turbans and
black, yellow or green gowns, the GreeK
and Armenian priests in black and wear
ing bushy beards, are mingled with the
throng. Beggers in tattered garments
exhibit their infirmities in the hope of
alms. Turks, Greeks and Italians,
Frenchmen and Levantines, men from
the far East and from the West, mingle
togethftr, offering a scene of infinite
variety to the student of human nature.
The Great Desert.
A desert caravan may travel for weeks
without, seeing a single person, and
yet there is scarcely a square mile of the
Sahara between the Atlantic and the
region of the Nile that is not at some
time passed over by some of the wander
ing tribes that make the desert their
home. The regular caravan routes that
traverse it lead from Morocco to Tim
buctoo, from Algiers to the Niger at
Timbuctoo, from Tripoli to the same
region, or to tho cities of the Soudan
farther eastward. The population of
the towns of the oases in the northern
edge of the desert is the same as the
native population of the rest of Algier 3
—Arabs, Jews, Moabite merchants,
negroes, etc. About the outlying
oases are the wandering tribes
called Chambaas, who are nominally
subject to the French, and live in good
understanding with them. Tho great
desert unwatered region, nearly a thou
sand miles wide,that stretches its sandy
wastes southward nearly to tho edge of
tho Soudan, is overrun—for it cannot
be called inhabited—by tho several
tribes of the Tonaregs, who do not
number more than two or three thous
and warriors, yet arc tho terror of all
peaceful traders who endeavor to pass
through their country to tho cities of
tho Soudan. Tho Chambaas entertain
friendly relations with tho Algier Ton
aregs, but aro bitterly hostile to the
Poggars, who are their nearest noigh
b or s.— San Francisco Chronicle.
His Ample Provocation.
A man engaged in selling “Elixir of
Life” in Boston was arrested for wife
beating recently, She says ’Elixir
within a a inch of her life.
SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS.
HISTORY OF FLOODS WUO.
-
The Johnstown Calamity Com
*“•*»«—■
-
The Previous Great Floods In
Europe, Africa and India.
it may not be generally known, but
it is true, that the great flood of Johns
town in Pennsylvania is the most disas
trous, so far as loss of life is concerned,
that has occurred in either Europe or
America for nearly three centuries.
There have been floods and floods
since the deluge. It has been no un
common thing to look for reports of
overflows in the Valley of the Nile, with
great loss of life. Nor do floods in In
dia cause any great surprise, for the fre
quency with which the Ganges and other
rivers of India break their bounds is well
known. The same is true of the rivers
of China, and was once true of those of
Spain, in the older times the break
ing of dikes in Holland carried
desolation into many a thousand fami
lies.
But since James I. sat on the throne
of England there has been no such hor
ror known as that caused by the floods
in Southwestern Pennsylvania, with the
exception of one in China, although
even in our own country the Mississippi
and many smaller streams have played
very serious pranks with tho people who
happened to live near their banks.
Probably the most disastrous Euro
pean flood on record within the last 500
years was caused by the failure of the
dike in Holland in 1530. A general in
undation followed and 400,000 persons
are said to have been drowned. The
greatest following this was the floods in
Catalonia in 1617, when 50,000 persons
lost their lives.
There have, however, been some big
floods during the present century, both
in this and in other countries, that were
damaging enough in their way. It was
but shortly after the opening of the cen
tury, in December, 1802, that the river
Liffcy broke its bounds and did a vast
amount of damage in the city of Dub
lin. It was even earlier in the same
year that Lorea, a city in Spain, was
destroyed by the bursting of a reservoir,
which inundated twenty leagues and
drowned more than one thousand per
sons
In 1811 tho Danube overflowed at a
point near Pesth and swept away twen
ty-four villages and their inhabitants,
and these floods were followed by oth
ers almost as disastrous in the summer
of 1813, when whole villages in Austria
Hungary and Poland were swept away.
In September of 1813 the Danube rose
and sw r ept away a corps of Turkish
troops, 2000 strong, who were encamped
on an island in the river near Widner.
During the same year 6000 men and
women were drowned in the Silesia and
4000 in Poland.
In 1816, in January, there were
several floods at Strabane, Ireland,
caused by the melting of snow on the
mountains. In the same year the river
Vistula overflowed and destroyed 10,009
head of cattle and 4.000 houses, beside
numerous lives. During 1819 there
was a flood in the fen countries in Eng
land, when 5,000 acres of land were
inundated. In 1830 there were great
floods in Wien, and in 1833 came the
great overflow in China, when 1,000
persons were drowned in Canton alone.
In 1840 Lyons, Marseilles and other
towns in France were partly submerged
by a break in the banks of tho river
Rhone. And so the list goes. Here is
something like the chronological order
iu which various floods occurred:
1846. Ovoiflow of tho river Loire in
tho west and southwest of France.
Damage, $20,000,000. Tho Loire rose
20 feet in one night.
1849. May—New Orleans flooded by
the inundation of the Mississippi.
1852. Floods at Holmfirth in Feb
ruary. Ovcrflow of the Rhine and
Rhone in September. City of Hamburg
flooded by the Elbe.
1856. Floods in the south of France.
1864. Brad field reservoir, England,
burst March 11; 250 persons drowned.
1862. Forty thousand acres in Hol
land submerged. Inundations in
France.
1869. January—Cork, Dublin and
other Irish cities were flooded and much
suffering was caused.
1866. September—Great inundations
in the south of France. November—
Great floods in Lancashire, Yorkshire
and Derbyshire, England. Mills were
carricd m!nes wcre floodcd > rail -
poads wcre torQ up and many llvcB were
lost.
1870. Rome was inundated and
1 sarar juz. s
money.
1872. In October there were great
floods in Northern Italy and thousands
of persons at Mantua, Ferrara and other
towns were left homeless.
1874. The banks of the Thames river
were swept and many lives were lost.
May 16, the reservoir near Northampton,
Mass., burst much in the same manner
as did that above Johnstown. Mill
River Valley was swept by the flood,
144 persons lost their lives. July 24 a
waterspout burst at Eureka, Neva la, and
many lives were lost. July 26, 220
persons were drowned in Pittsburg and
Allegheny by the rising of the rivers in
Western Pennsylvania.
18(5. By the rising of the river
Garonne in France a portion of Toulouse
was destroyed in June and 1000 lives
were lost. From July until November
of the same year England and Wales
suffered from heavy floods. During the
same period some 20,000 persons were
left homeless in India by the same
causes.
1876. March — Severe floods iD
Franco and Holland. December—
Floods in England.
1877. New Year’s Day the water
overflowed the piers at Dover, Folke
stone and Hastings, England, causing
much damage.
1878. —April—London suffered from
inundations for several days.
1879. A flood in Szegendin, Hun
gary, swept away the entire town.
Over one hundred persons were drowned
and more than six thousand dwellings
were destroyed. June—The rivers Po
and Mincio overflowed, causing much
damage in the north of Italy. October
16-17—Floods in Alicante and other
Spanish provinces destroyed 1,000 lives
and swept away several thousands of
houses. December—Hungary wns again
visited by floods.
1880. The midland counties of Eng
land suffered severely from overflows.
1882. In January there were heavy
floods all through tho Ohio and Missis
sippi valleys, and there was much loss
of life and property.
1887. From three to four million
live3 lost by inundations in China.
General Harney's Prowess.
I have heard my father say (he served
under Harney in tho Seminole war and
also in Mexico) that he was the biggest,
strongest, most powerful soldier that
has worn a uniform since Frederick the
Great. He was a giant in sta'ure, a
Hercules in strength. His powers of
endurance were phenomenal. In the
Seminole war he once went without food
for four days and nights, and at the end
of the time took Billy Bowlegs, who
had caught him in the swamps, by the
nape of the neck and threw him a dis
tance of ten feet. Tho savage had an
old bayonet pointed at his heart at the
Another time, when surrounded by
Indians, he cleaved his way through
them with a sword, and when their ar
rows had him weakened and almost
helpless by loss of blood, ho made a
final rush, and, seizing one savage,
hurled him against another with such
force that both were disabled. That
same night he swam three miles,trudged
nine miles through a swamp, and finally
reached an outpost in safety.
Indians were always afraid of Harney, j
He could shoot an arrow better than
they. He was a dead shot with a rifle
and when it came to physical violence—
something that an Indian has no taste
for—he could throw their mightiest
athletes about like so many rubber balls.
It was no trick at all for him to knock
a truculent savage down with one hand
and with the other take his mat*, lift
him clear of the ground and dance his
legs over his fallen comrade, The In
dians up about Fort Snelling, when
Harney was a captain at that post used
to call him “Thunder Bull”—who
roared like thunder and was stronger I
than a buffalo.
Tho old General was, even in 1861,
when he retired from service tho finest I
looking man in the army. He was six
feet four inches and built like an ath- i
lete.
A Jnniping Toothache.
Effie—Here’s an account of a man i
who threw himself from the ferryboat
because he had a toothache.
Elsie—Must have had tho jumping
toothache.
The Cliffs of the Hereafter.
When we 8Cale the highest mountain
Of our holiest thought in prayer,
Thinner grows the veil between us
!=
Who keep „ m d<*»t cm
On the cliffs of the hereafter
Seraphim in glory throng,
^ n( i each yearning heavenward tending,
Is an angel reascanding
That walked with us along,
For the cliffs of the hereafter
To the Prince of Peace belong.
Have you strayed at sunset’s hour
By the anthem-singing sea
Without noting with what power
He creates eternally
Pictures of the hereafter?
’Tis no mirage that ye seel
On the cliffs of the hereafter
Garments threaded dark with doiM
WtfJ1 be utterly without .
But though naked He will clothe us
In the garb of truth about.
From the cliffs of the hereaftei
Back and forth the angels g
All unseen yet seeing ever
Valley dwellers here below,
Who but sight their radiant raiment
When their dreams are white as snow.
—Augusta Chambers.
HUMOROUS.
Open for an engagement—Portholes.
A figure of speech—The talking doll.
A noose bureau—Tho matrimonial
agency.
Retired to private life—Reduced to
the ranks.
New wheat never ruined as many mew
as old ry*.
Filing saws—Pasting old jokes in a
scrap-book. •
A current remark—I must make some
jelly this fall.
It must be the spur of the moment
that makes time go so fast.
The policeman who is free with his
club keeps law and order on tap.
The passion some women have for at
tending auctions is a mor-bid taste.
A counter-irritant—The fellow who
leans across it and bores the clerk.
“Take your lickin’ without kickin’,”
is the way that a school boy philosopher
counsels resignation to the inevitable.
Husband (entering)—My love the
stove smokes! Wife—You wouldn’t
have it chew would you, like you, you
brute? ~r.
Dentist—‘ ‘Shall I give you gas,
ma’am?” Mrs. Blobsom—“Yes, you
can talk all you please. I reckon it
will kinder cheer me up.
“Don't interrupt me till I’m done,”
j was an Irish bull recently perpetrated
j by an English speaker.
“But, my dear, what has that old
! man to recommend himself aside from
j his riches?” “Heart disease.”
Elsie—I am going to marry the apothe
j cary. Aggie—Oh! how nice. He’ll
trust us for vinilla cream sodas now.
The dying statesman raised himself in
^ ed and f°°hed appealingly around him.
“I have only one request to make, ” he
8a ' ( U feebly. “See that no New York
paper proposes a monument for me. ”
! A gypsy woman laid her curse on an
Indiana farmer who re fmed her a night’s
lodging, and within two weeks an uncle
of his died and left him $35, 000 in hard
cash. He says he’d like some more of
the hoodoo business.
Mrs. Youngcouple: “You must have
a very uncongenial husband! Why I
heard you ask him as many as twenty
questions this afternoon that he made no
reply to whatever.” Mrs, Pertlady—
“Oh! dear George is used to me! He
knows that I ask questions simply to
amuse myself. ”
Restored to a Home of Wealth.
S. B. Sanderson of Joliet, Ill., came
to Los Angeles, Cal., a few weeks ago
with his family to settle permanently.
He is wealthy, and five years ago had
an only daughter, Estelle, who at 16
eloped with a handsome brakernan
named James O'Brien. The girl wished
to be forgiven, but Sauderson turned
her out. Her husband was soon killed
in an accident, and she supported her
self as a governess. She recently drifted
to Los Angeles, but lost her position
and began to make a personal canvass
of houses for work. She rang the bell
of her father’s house without knowing
the name of the occupants, and mother
daughter thus met for the first
time since the estrangement, The
prodigal was welcomed and restored
from a hungry, houseless wanderer to %
home of wt tilth.— Chicago Herald,
