by Prof. Theodosia G. Ammons.

One of the uncongenial tasks of the officers of the association has
been the answering of the many attacks made in Eastern papers on the
position of women in Colorado, though this becomes far less trying
when it is remembered that in most States public opinion on the
question of woman suffrage is still in its formative stage. So soon do
we become accustomed to a new thing, if it is in the order of nature,
that the women of Colorado have almost ceased to realize that they
possess an uncommon privilege. It seems as much a matter of course
that women should vote as that they should enjoy the right of free
speech or the protection of the _habeas corpus_ act. It is seldom
defended, for the same reason that it is no longer thought necessary
to defend the Copernican vs. the Ptolemaic theory. One aim of the
association is to arouse a more altruistic spirit, and another so to
unite women that they will stand together for a good cause
irrespective of party. There is at present a strong legislative
committee which has been studying the statutes from a non-partisan
standpoint, with a view to influencing needful legislation.[194]

Before the autumn of 1893 there were many clubs in Denver, mostly of a
literary nature, each formed of women of a certain rank in life, with
similar tastes and pursuits. Some had a membership so limited as to
render them very difficult of access, but in their way all were good.
Perhaps the only truly democratic association, if those of the
churches were excepted, where the rich and the poor met together on a
plane so perfectly level that only mental or moral height in the
individual produced any difference, was the equal suffrage club.
Whether related to it or not, this new ideal of club life followed
closely after the gaining of political equality.

The Woman's Club of Denver was organized April 21, 1894, with 225
charter members, and now has nearly 1,000. It contains many women of
wealth and high social standing, many quiet housekeepers without the
slightest aspirations toward fashionable life, and many women who earn
their daily bread by some trade or profession. What the public school
is supposed to do for our youth in helping us to become a homogeneous
nation, the modern woman's club is doing for those of maturer years.
The North Side Woman's Club of Denver is second to the Woman's Club
only in size and time of organization. The Colorado Federation of
Women's Clubs