. Our Philadelphia. porary Club to assemble their variously dividedends and objects under one head, and to entertain litera-ture as George W. Childs had entertained it, and, goingfurther, to pay literature for being entertained, if literatureexpresses itself in the form of readings and lectures bythose who practise it professionally. The change dis-concerted me more than ever when I, Philadelphia born,was assured of a profitable welcome if I would speak tothe Club on anything. The invitation was tentative andunofficial, but the Contemporary Club need be in nofear. It may make the invitation of
. Our Philadelphia. porary Club to assemble their variously dividedends and objects under one head, and to entertain litera-ture as George W. Childs had entertained it, and, goingfurther, to pay literature for being entertained, if literatureexpresses itself in the form of readings and lectures bythose who practise it professionally. The change dis-concerted me more than ever when I, Philadelphia born,was assured of a profitable welcome if I would speak tothe Club on anything. The invitation was tentative andunofficial, but the Contemporary Club need be in nofear. It may make the invitation official if it will, andnever a penny the poorer will it be for my presence: Iam that now rare creature, a shy woman subject to stagefright. And I cannot help thinking that, despite theamiability to the native, the stranger, simply because he isa stranger, continues to have the preference, so many arethe Englishmen and Englishwomen invited to deliverthemselves before the Club who never could gather anaudience at DOWN SANSOM STREET FROM EIGHTH STREET THE LOW HOUSES AT SEVENTH STREET HAVE SINCE BEEN TORN DOWN AND THE WESTERN END OF THE CURTIS BUILDING NOW OCCUPIES THEIR PLACE PHILADELPHIA AND LITERATURE 355 And Philadelphia has recaptured the lead in theperiodical publication that pays, and I found the CurtisBuilding the biggest sky-scraper in Philadelphia, tower-ing above the quiet of Independence Square, a brickand marble and pseudo-classical monument to the LadiesHome Journal and the Saturday Evening Post, and if inthe race literature lags behind, what matter when merit isvouched for in solid dollars and cents? What matter,when the winds of heaven conspire with bricks and mortarto make the passer-by respect it? I am told that on awindy day no man can pass the building without a fightfor it, and no woman without the help of stalwart police-men. In her own organ of fashion and feminine senti-ment, she has raised up a power against which, even withthe vote to back her, she c
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