nced.

In 1868 the country was electrified by the advent of Sorosis in New
York City and the New England Woman's Club in Boston. These were the
first societies formed by women purely for their own recreation and
improvement--all others had been for the purpose of reforming the weak
and sinful or assisting the needy and unfortunate--and they met with a
storm of derision and protest from all parts of the country, which
their founders courageously ignored. The last quarter of a century has
witnessed so many organizations of women that it would be practically
impossible to record even their names. Every village which is big
enough for a church contains also a woman's club, and they exist in
many country neighborhoods. In the larger cities single societies have
from 500 to 1,000 members, and in a number handsome club houses have
been built and furnished, some of them costing from $50,000 to
$80,000.

From 1850 the annual conventions in the interest of Woman's Rights
were called under the auspices of a Central Committee, but in 1869 the
National and American Woman Suffrage Associations were formed. Five
years later the Woman's Christian Temperance Union sprang into
existence. There are now more than one hundred associations of women
in the United States which are national in their form and aims, and a
number have become international through their alliance with those of
other countries. In 1888, in Washington City, the National Council of
Women, a heroic undertaking, was founded to gather these vast and
diverse organizations into one great body. By 1900 sixteen had become
thus affiliated, representing a membership of about 1,125,000 women.

An International Council also was organized in 1888 to be composed of
similar National Councils in various countries and to meet in a
Congress every five years. At the close of the century fourteen
National Councils had affiliated with the International, representing
a membership of 6,000,000. This is not only immeasurably larger than
any other association of women but is exceeded in size by very few
organizations of men, and its two great Congresses--during the
Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, and at London in 1899--were
occasions of world-wide interest and value.

Each of the more than one hundred national associations of women in
the United States holds its annual, biennial or triennial convention
in some one of the large cities, which is attended by delegates from
all part