The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-06-12
THE NEW YORK CLUBS.

The late duel between Messrs. Breckeu-
ridge and Leavenworth, of New York, which
on account of the infrequency of such affairs
in section in which the laws against duel
ling are fully sustained by public opinion
has caused much excitement in New York
has drawn attention to the clubs of that city
to which the parties belonged, and in which
the difficulty originated. These clubs are
copied, like many of the other absurd fash
ions of upper-tendom, from England, the
habits of these aristocraey forms, in all things
in which they can be copied, the model of
our plebeian imitators. There are about
twenty of whose clubs in London, composed
of noblemen and gentlemen, which are ex-
ceedingly exclusive in their rules. an ex-
clusiveness which the mushroom aristocracy
of New York have adopted in their own insti-
tutions, but which is by no means suited to
a republican atmosphere. Even in England,
they are believed to be great social evil,
and to their influence is attributed much of
the imbecility of the aristocracy, and the
inefficieney of the English officers in the
Crimea. In New York, it is said, these clubs
have already produced their effect in the
decentralization of young men, in creating a
spirit of exclusiveness that is at war with
liberal institutions, and in psndering to the
most depraved tastes and sensual appetites.
Says the n Y. Herald:
"Instead of fostering lsudable and praissworthy
desire 10 our young men for intellectual pursuits.
they teach them to lead the life of gambler the
sourmand and he debah chez. They cause them to
ignore the refining il fuence of wonan's society," by
substituting in its stead that of the most vicious and
degrading. In France such establishments could not
exist for there is gallsntry in the French oharac
ter, and love for the fair sex that would lead them
once to reject an institution in which the exist
ence of woman Is entirely ignored. They have
been tried there, but they have invariably failed
and to that fact may be attributed, in small de-
gree, the efficiency of the officers of the French
Army, aud their admitted superiority over the En-
gsh. The existence of this evil in midst should
be deprecated by every man who has tn true in,
terests of the country at heart. 1t is fact that
some of our greatest defaulters have only been
members OF these Clubs, but that their schemes of
swindling have been concoctsd in some of them.
sStock gamblers assemble here in private and Law
their plan. for the next daysoperations Change.
while their brother Gembers are engaged in other
games of chance, at which thousands Of dollars are
lost and 1t Is said they established for the
promotion of social but that
OF the most restricted kind, and is confined sxslu
| sively 10 the members of the Club. From the rules
OF the Union Club, of which the great railroad de.
| fauer Schuyler, was one of the principal members,
ear 9, tnst the sdmlsson tee to that one hun
In this establishment, which is fitted up 10 the most
sumptuous style, they have the card and billiard ia.
opportunity 10 afforded them for indus in other
| games. The number of membsrsis not TO exceed
six hundred, and any candidate for membership can
be excluded by one black ball in ten when baoted
for. The Shakespeare Club s conducted on early the
same principle. and differs in very few of its features
institutions of similar description though not 40
extensive, in New York"