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TOL.XV., NO.XL1X
ESTABLISHED IN 18S6
PRICE FIVE CENTS
LINCOLN. NBBR.. SATURDAY. DEGbMBbR 8 1900.
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g OBSERVATIONS.
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1
Richard Mansfield.
Richard Mansfield is to appear in
the role of "Monsieur Beaucalre'' this
winter. The dash, the gallantry, the
heroism of Monsieur Beaucalre. the
Duke d'Orleans incognito, is excel
lently adapted to the cleverness and
finesse of Mansfield. That fierce parley
between the Duke of Winterset and
"Monsieur Beaucaire,'' when the so
called barber forces the duke to in
troduce him to Lady Mary, the famous
beauty of Bath, will possess great
verve and spirit in the hands of this
actor. There is such a magnificent
opportunity for him where the Duke
of vVinterset, with his fourteen con
spirators, attack Monsieur. The
bravery, the wonderful skill with
which the Frenchman defends him'
self, showing in spite of his hidden
identity, nobility of character and of
birth. Later in the card room scene
is place for that wonderful subtlety
and grace, wherein lies so much of the
charm and magnetism of Mansfield.
Only a Mansfield is capable, after the
identity of "Monsieur Beaucaire,"
as Prince Louis-Philippe de Valois,
Duke of Orleans, is established of put
ting the finishing strckeson this old
"Watteau portrait:'
"Mademoiselle is fatigue? Will she
honor me?"
"He bowed very low, as with fixed
and glistening eyes, Lady Mary Car
lisle, the Beauty of Bath, passed slow
ly by him and went out of the door."
Tne Little Room.
Five or six-years ago Chicago news
paper men who had been meeting
periodically to exchange notes on
their craft, and to cheer each other
organized a club which they catted
"The Little Room," after a magazine
story which one of their number had
written. Since then the club has
grown, though it has not lost, its orig
inal informal character. No one can
be a member of this club who has not
created souiethlng worth publishing,
listening to, or looking at. Newspa
per writers, who write for a day,
magazine writers whose work lasts a
week or a month, real authors who
are responsible for a book in cloth or
leather and who have the leisure to
write three names, in their signatures,
musicians, cartoonists, picture paint
ers, architects, cunning silversmiths
and sculptors are members of "The
Little Room." The atmosphere of
the club is that of a guild where the
members understand each other and
where ideals of varying kinds but of
the same persistency animate all A
husband or wife of a member is not
admitted on account of the tender tie.
Creation is theindispensible qualifi
cation for entrance into The Little
Room.
Last week The Little Room gave a
banquet to Mr. Field, brother of Eu
gene Field who left that night to
take a position on the Youth's Com
panion of Boston. Mr. and Mrs.
Field have been in the centre of the
literary circle in Chicago, which is
larger and more real than Bostonians,
for instance, credit. Writers who
come to Chicago to get material fur
border tales are entertained by The
Little Room and fascinated by the
camaraderie, brilliancy and attain
ments of the membership. I have
heard that neither in New York or
Boston is there any such meeting of
members of allied guilds. There are
no literary men of the first rank in
Boston or New York who have
thought it worth while to organize
such a club and the young newspaper
men and women and aspiring young
artists whose feet are not quite firmly
planted on the first rounds of the ex
igent ladder, but whose eyes rest per
sistently on the figures balanced on
the top rounds have not the prestige
to establish anything more ambitious
and permanent than a group around
a restaurant table. Yet the encour
agement and stimulation of meeting
people engaged in the same work is as
profitable to writers as it is to stone
masons or printers. The establish
ment and operation of such a club
tends to draw literary men to a city
and it is not impossible that within
the decade the literary atmosphere of
Chicago will be as stimulating and as
famous as that of Boston in the days
of Margaret Fuller, Hawthorne, Em
erson, Lowell and Longfellow.
Mrs. Elia W. Peattie is one of the
most distinguished and influential
members of The Little Room. The
excellence and rare quality of her
literary work is recognized, and ap
preciated. She breathes an atmos
phere to the remotest vibration con
genial and tender. She has bought
her father's house in Woodlawn where
she was married. It is the mfdtfle'itde
of three, wherein her sisters live. All
the houses are surrounded by big
oaks. The central room In the Peattie
house is a big sitting room built
around a deep fireplace, flanked by
bookshelves which extend all the way
around. Mrs. Peattie herself is the
same humane fascinating and unat
tainable personality she was in Ne
braska when we tried to reduce her
to familiar terms and failed. Mr.
Peattie is one of the editors of "The
Chronicle 'and is in robust health.
He is a very popular memoer of The
Little Room and enjoys everything
but the late hours necessary to a
worker on a morning newspaper.
Among some of the other noted
names tn the membership of this club
are Mr. Lorado Taft, Mr. Herrick and
Mr. Fuller, novelists, Mr. Frankly n
Head, Mrs. Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler
Mr. Richardson, and many others
whose fame is bright.
A Minority Report.
The committee from the Chicago
Woman's club appointed to consider
the action of the directors of the Gen
eral Federation in refusing to accept
the credentials of Mrs Ruffin, a col
ored woman, has reported. Mrs.
Ruffin is a member of the New Era
Club of Bostou a mixed club of black
and white women and not a club of
negro women, as reported in these
columns recently. She knew that
her application for admission en
dangered the harmony and usefulness
of the Federation. Yet she persisted
in presenting it. The directors of
the Federation laid Mrs. Ruff n's ap
plication on the table, which was
equivalent to rejecting it. This action,
of course, incensed Massachusetts,
whose citizens, have been peculiarly
sensitive on this subject for a long
time. And this fall one of the Massa
chusetts clubs resigned from the Fed
eration because of this action of the
directors. In consequence of the rad
ical action of one club it was consid
ered advisable by the Chicago Wo
man's club to appoint representatives
of the pro and anti negro movement
to consider the subject and present
to the club their report. 'The com
mittee was composed of Miss Jane
Addams, Mrs. Elia W. Peattie, Mrs.
Robert B. Farson and Mrs. Granville
M. Holt. The majority reported cen
sured -the action of the directors, but
Mrs. Peattie presented a minority re
port. This report I hope to publish.
A much larger number than she ex
pected applauded Mrs. Peattie's re
port and the wise reasons which led
to her conclusions.
Let us not forget that the union of
north south east and west is of more
importance than the assumption of a
-pose which can not he'.p the negro
woman. Evolntion comes from within
and the negro race is not yet ready, for
the proposed close association. This
federation 'of women is an. unique
medium of communication between
and introduction of the north and
the south. So long as a majority of
the southern women do not approve
of the admission of negroes they
should not he admitted. The Feder
ation is a white woman's club. Its
.benefits are social and vou can nut
legislate any color or class into soci
ety. If negroes were admitted into
the women's clubs of the south they
could outvote the white women be
cause of their numbers. Negro cul
ture has gene avery little way and we
have little'syntpathy if we fail to put
ourselves in the position of southern
women confronted by an overwhelm
ing negro population. It is urged
that only the aspiring, delicate, re
fined negro women desire to belong to
white women's clubs. What white
woman would be willing to enter a
club in which she was repugnant to a
very respectable minority of the mem
bership? Yet Mrs.Rullin was willing
to endanger the existence of'theFcd
cration in 'order that she might ob
tain a seat as a delegate in that body.
Mrs. Williams, the only negro mem
ber of the Chicago Woman's club, ap
plied for admission to it,and persisted
in desiring it though she was cogniz
antof the disturbance which berappli
cation and the discussion of the whole
negro question had caused. Such cal
lousness and imperviousness to the
opinions and tastes of other people is
a remnant of the heathenism of cen
tral Africa and an additional reason
why, for the present we can not asso
ciate witli the negro on a level,
though we may educate, as teachers,
ministers and examples. The negro
is too primitive to retain any respect
for the white man who voluntarily re
linquishes his racial superiority. But
the reason of greatest force is the ob
jection of southern women to the
admission of the negro, their more
exhaustive knowledge of the negro
woman's mind, character and habits,
their really greater sympathy with
the negro and the southern woman's
services in the person of an able presi
dent and Federation officers, of the
national body. To admit the colored
women over their protest is a great
discourtesy and a racial treason. The
Union forever! in all of its manifes
tations. It is both bad politics and
had statesmanship to give up a posi
tive and accomplished good for a
theoretical opportuinty of benevo
lence. The southern women need to
ealize the north and we need them
and their section. The opportunity
of getting acquainted by thehundreds
in the meetings of the Federation. and
by correspondence "is unique and to
destroy it for the sake of a few hun
dred negro women, whom, I honestly
believe, we can not elevate in this
way, is a waste of energy and of a
great opportunity. The number -of
women's clubs is rapidly increasiRg to
the south. Their connection with (lie
national body is stimulating and increases-very
largely the annual sm
of accomplishments credited 'to' the
G. F. W. C. During this winter the
color llne'will oedfiscussed in most
northern clubs. Members of t dab
