Culture and Women's Clubs 



101 



Those Lincoln days were stirring days ; they were pre- 

 eminently days of action. Men and women met the 

 great problems of their time, fought them out, and, as 

 they could, thought them out the women battling gen- 

 erally unaided and alone. Things were done! Many 

 were the res gestce, the things attempted, but many also 

 the res versatce, the things pondered. 



The Lincoln time was a time of action, because a time 

 of war, and it was just in those years of action that the 

 women of this country began to find themselves. The 

 great commissions, aiding the civil government in the 

 care of the soldiers in the field, gave women in those 

 times their opportunity. They were organized and 

 worked together, with but one end in view, in every 

 village, more potently in every city, most of all in New 

 York and Philadelphia; but over the whole country, 

 women learned to do things in an organized way; they 

 found their power. It is to be remembered that on this 

 side 1865 begins the story of every great women's col- 

 lege and of every women's club in the United States. 



However, at the end of the war, with the passing of 

 necessity, the lesson learned bade fair to be forgotten. 

 It remained for a curious incident in connection with 

 the coming of Charles Dickens to this country in 1868, 

 to re-awaken women to their real social and political 

 status, to bring about an organization that became per- 

 manent; and did, as a matter of fact, make possible the 

 assembly of this hour. 



The New York Press Club, in March, 1868, gave a 

 dinner to Dickens and refused admission to women, many 

 of whom were at that time engaged in newspaper work 

 in the city. "We'll have a club of our own," they 



