A VICTORIAN LYCEIM CLUB.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 844, 16 June 1910, Page 3

A VICTORIAN LYCEIM CLUB.

The Lyceum Club of London has been such a conspicuous success that now the ladies of Victoria think they would like to have a club run on similar lines. Recently a meeting of women university graduates and others interested in the proposal was held at the Town Hall. Mrs. Deakin was in the chair, and Miss ■St. J. Clark (lion, secretary pro tem) read the list of proposed rules on which a lively discussion followed. Dr. Constance Ellis'suggested that affiliation with tho London Lyceum Club would bo a distinct advantage to travelling members. This was agreed to. A rule was adopted providing, that members should include women distinguished' in art, science, literature, philanthropy, or who had taken a prominent part in promoting education.

A clause which excited comment wns that which suggested that the wives and daughters (tho latter to be over 20 years of age) of men who had rendered public service, be eligible for membership. The question: "What is meant by 'public service,". met with a protest of dismay from the chairwoman, who evidently foresaw a repetition of the endless trouble experienced in defining the term "amateur" in regard to sport, others took exception tc the suggestion that a woman who had not ijualified as an individual for membership, should enter the club on.the same footing as a woman of special attainments, merely because she looked after a distinguished man, while a woman doctor pleaded that this would at any rate develop the social side of the club which was important. Further discussion was postponed. It was a very interesting discussion, because the average woman is more than content if she can share in the-'reflected lustre of a father or a husband, and it is just as well to see how a woman of. achievement regards her own individuality, compared with this borrowed glory. "' ■■■•■,■•■