Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, Jenny June | Page 7

of the excellent work done by its departed
president, in and for the Woman's Press Club of New York City. To
others is assigned the testimony in reference to the career and work of
our departed president as a press woman, and her place in literature.
We are not here to analyze her character, or to chronicle her work. Nor
are we here to dwell on those biographical details which belong to the
pen rather than the voice; to the book and the reader rather than the
address and the hearer. We are here to testify our regard for one whose
busy pen is laid aside, but whose example of industry we may well
imitate; though in the journalistic field the women of to-day will never
have opportunity to emulate her perseverance and fearlessness, since
her entrance in times long gone by on this untrodden path bore an
important part in opening the way and obtaining results for women
with whom the pen to-day is a power.
Mrs. Croly was the founder of this club in 1889, and for twelve years
and to the day of her death, its only president. It started (as she tells us
in the large quarto volume relating to clubs--which was the closing, if
not the crowning, effort of her busy pen) with an invitation sent out by
herself in November, 1889, to forty women, a number of whom were
then engaged upon the press in New York City, to meet at her residence,
and consider the advisability of forming a Woman's Press Club. It was
eminently fitting that one who had been stirred in former years by the
absence of social recognition in journalism as within woman's province,
on the part of the men of the press, and moved to take a prominent part
in the formation of Sorosis, should organize a club of women
writers--women journalists especially--which should be known
everywhere as distinctly a Woman's Press Club.
The response to her call was most gratifying. Her ability as an
organizer, and her social qualities which could attract and hold women
together in strong bonds of mutual esteem and fellowship, were again
evident, and on November 19, 1889, the organization was effected and
a provisional constitution adopted.
At first the literary features of the new club were considered secondary
to the social and beneficiary, but gradually they grew to their present
importance.

In its early days, like most clubs this one was migratory, and its work
incidental. Gradually it came to have a more permanent home, and its
monthly programmes which, as Mrs. Croly herself stated, "are more in
the form of a symposium than of a question for debate," came to be so
attractive and varied, and in every way so excellent, that they are often
declared to be unsurpassed in interest by any woman's club. This was a
matter of exceeding satisfaction to its founder, who saw the club grow
from its membership of fifty-two to two hundred. She was never weary
of recounting its successes, literary, musical, artistic and social. The
Press Club was her joy and pride from its organization to the very day
when she last met with its members, devoting on that day her failing
strength to a cause that was beyond expression dear to her heart. I think
I shall only be saying very feebly what the members of the club,
especially those who have been members from its organization, now
feel--that they regard her presence with them on the recent day of
installation of new officers as a benediction, though they little knew
that in her feebleness she was bidding them a loving farewell. When the
news of her departure reached them it was received with surprise and
deep sorrow. By prompt action the officers at once came together, and
immediate measures were taken for appropriate expression of the Press
Club's loyalty and love.
Its members are here to-day not only to express their own high regard
for their departed founder and president, but also to unite with Sorosis,
the London Pioneer Club, and other clubs in the State Federation, who,
by their presence, speech, or song, indicate the sympathy they have
with those who will hold in fadeless remembrance their ascended
president, who has learned ere this, that
"Life is ever Lord of Death, And Love can never lose its own."
As members of the club she, who has now passed into the eternal light,
founded may we seek earnestly to walk in the light of Truth, strenuous
for that more than royal liberty of conscience, which means liberty
under righteous law and seeking for the Unity which obeys the Golden
Rule, and thus binds heart to heart. So shall the Woman's Press Club of
New York City truly honor the memory of its founder and