women's club. This was in the very early days of clubs for women: in all New England there were only a few. The new club entered at once upon its work, and continued for many years one of the oldest women's clubs in Maine. In its origin it was true to the German proverb, "All good things go in threes": it had but three members. That there might be no favoritism, each member was to bear the Pickwickian title P. P. Miss Hoyt was made Perpetual President, and the two remaining members were made Perpetual Poet and Perpetual Penman. There was no treasurer, as there were no club dues. As the membership was at first exclusive, one who was not invited to join remarked that she thought the ladies were rather "hifalutin." The term so pleased the members of the club that they concluded to adopt it; and the Hifalutin Club, with an increase of membership, continued until Maine agitated the federation of its women's clubs, when the Every Monday Club of Farmington was organized, and the Hifalutin fell asleep. It was the original idea of the club to read at home and discuss the matter read in the club. It was in every sense a working club; every play and many of the sonnets of Shakespeare were studied, also Spenser's "Faerie Queene," Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Milton, Dante, and other classic writers. With a retentive memory and vivid imagination. Miss Hoyt delighted to review for the benefit of the club the leading fiction of that day. The writer recalls "Uarda" and "The Egyptian Princess" and many other books thus graphically portrayed. Miss Hoyt believed in keeping abreast of the times, and was a wise reader of the daily newspapers. The consideration of current events formed an important feature in the Hifalutin Club.
On May 18, 1901, there came a hush over the village of Farmington, when it was announced that Jane W. Hoyt was dead. For twenty-five years she had lived her useful, unostentatious life in that community, loved and respected by all classes of society. As a private tutor she had given direction to the college life of many young men and women by imparting to them an enthusiasm for work. They lingered long over their recitations, that between the lines they might catch glimpses of the spirit that actuated her. Few of her pupils will fail to remember the talks on practical ethics and moral philosophy which she loved to interweave with the higher mathematics, Latin, French, and German. In addition to her labors as a teacher Miss Hoyt carried on other literary work. She wrote for the press, and was much sought after as a lecturer before women's clubs and the Chautauquan assemblies, especially those at Ocean Park. Her church affiliations were with the Free Baptist denomination.
Miss Hoyt was a woman of unusual mental powers and of a highly spiritual nature. She had rare literary taste and an ability to assimilate knowledge that gave her abundant resources. The excellent school advantages of her early days were supplemented by constant application to study throughout her life. European travel still further broadened her mental scope. Her love of study was not confined to secular subjects: she devoted a great deal of attention to the Bible, and lived much in the contemplation of things that are unseen and eternal.
EMMA JANE MAREAN RIPLEY, philanthropist, wife of Sewall C. Ripley,
president of the Thomas P. Beals Company of Portland, was born in Durham,
Me., April 8, 1848, the daughter of Charles Livermore Marean and Mary Sherwood Drink- water Marean. She comes from patriotic stock. Her maternal grandfather, Perez Drinkwater, second, served as Lieutenant on the privateer "Lucy" in the War of 1812, and was a prisoner in Dartmoor Prison, England, for thirteen months. His father and her great-grandfather, Perez Drinkwater, was an officer in the Revolutionary War.
Mrs. Ripley is a graduate of the Casco Street Seminary in the city of Portland, where the most of her life has been spent, and has been an attendant of the Second Parish Church, the Payson Memorial, from her childhood. She is a prominent member of the Ladies' Circle and the Missionary Auxiliary. The poor of the city know her, for she never turns
