[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 142 (Saturday, October 10, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2023]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   LADIES LITERARY CLUB OF SYLVANIA, OHIO TO CELEBRATE ITS CENTENNIAL

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                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 9, 1998

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Ladies 
Literary Club of Sylvania, Ohio in my district. The club proudly 
celebrates its centennial this year, with a special event on October 
14, 1998. Members past and present will celebrate the 100th year of 
active study of the fine arts, with a luncheon and historical 
presentation.
  In October of 1898, four women who lived in Sylvania met in the home 
of Mrs. Walter Cutler, the wife of a Congregational Minister, to begin 
the study of Oliver Wendall Holmes' ``The Autocrat of the Breakfast 
Table''. Regularly since that day, the ladies of Sylvania continued to 
gather to discuss works of literature. They meet once a month. 
September through May, with the membership by invitation only remaining 
at thirty.
  The purpose of the club since its inception has been ``to read, 
listen, share, and be aware of the world around us.'' The ladies of the 
club live by words from Audobon: ``Use the talents you possess; the 
woods would be silent if no birds sang but those who could sing best.'' 
In keeping with the group's first study, a message from an 1884 Address 
given by Oliver Wendall Holmes carries this motto a step further, and 
captures the spirit of the Ladies Literary Club of Sylvania, Ohio. 
Holmes noted, ``. . . as life is action and passion, it is required of 
a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril 
of being judged not to have lived.'' Through what is certainly lively 
discussion not only of arts and literature but also the events of the 
day, the ladies of the club have celebrated and participated in their 
times, their discussions weaving their way through the fabric of each 
of their lives in ways both big and small and perhaps even they didn't 
always realize. Their discussions may have helped shape their actions, 
and their actions may have helped shaped their times.
  It is truly a gift that the Ladies Literary Club of Sylvania, Ohio 
have continued for 100 years. It is a privilege to be among members of 
an organization which, in the words of one of its members, ``will have 
touched three centuries''. I wish both past and present members of the 
Ladies Literary Club of Sylvania, Ohio my heartiest congratulations on 
this momentous achievement, and wish them well as they are poised to 
begin a new century.

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