women realize that their part is still that of conserver and preserver and they had asked themselves, as soon as their eyes became a bit accustomed to the growing light of freedom: In what way may I become of service under these. changed conditions of life? A little of this was brought home to them in those days of trial when every ablebodied man had gone to the front to lay down his life at his country's call or to come back maimed, crippled or impoverished by that terrible experience. Women had learned a little of their own strength and ability to help in that time of need. All things had combined to make ripe the time for the foundation of the movement which is now known as the Woman's Club: the educational door had been opened a little, the work of the home had been usurped, the call to service had come to women at home as to men at the front; all things worked together to give to women a conscious freedom of thought and action, a quickened sense of their own responsibility and power. EARLY FORM of woman's Club The earliest form of the woman's club was the study club, the "Middle-aged Woman's University," as it was called somewhat facetiously by those who felt half-inclined to criticize. But the term, given at first in semi-derision, does not sound so badly now that the club has become a fixture upon society and has evolved into a useful adjunct to our everyday civilization. It is true that the club attracted at first and still does attract, in a very large degree, the women who are no longer of school age, women who have already entered upon the serious work of life, women whose children are well out of the nursery, women who desire to be of service to women other than themselves and children other than their own. The early club was a rather exclusive affair, in which the membership was ordinarily confined to women of similar walks in life, women who had interests in common, whose tastes were congenial. It was an unusual thing to find in those earlier clubs women who did not meet often at other social gatherings, or at |