Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/422

Rh in this country—at Boston, in 1868. The Sorosis, at New York, on somewhat the same lines, being founded almost simultaneously, as a result of the refusal of the Men's Press Club to recognize the Women's Press Club of that city on the visit of Dickens to this country. Our well-known and zealous friend, Kate Field, of New York, author and journalist, had visited Boston, and reported our organization as already founded there.

The title of "Mother of Clubs" given to the little book compiled by a sympathetic friend, who had sifted the data and felt warranted in using the title, has been somewhat challenged; but the facts and the records given by Mrs. Croly, in her "History of the Club Movement in America," are its justification; and the innumerable heartfelt acknowledgments by pen and voice of the uplift of club life are a precious benediction to me, and recall the poet's lines:

"What I long to be and was not, comforts me."

Faithfully yours, (Signed)