The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-12
CONTINENTAL CLUBS.
How they nre Conducted.


Probably the three best clubs on the Con-
tinent (says the Pal MdH Gdzette) are the
Ceree Imperial in Paris, the Club Anglais at
st. Petersburg, and the Mobiles Club in the
Hern Gasse at Vienna; but none of these can
in any way be compared with the larger
political and literary clubs of London. The
Paris clubs make the nearest approach to the
English; for one may breakfast and dine
there, smoke, read the papers, play billiards,
and pass ones evening at whist. But here
the points of similarity end In every other
respect save those Just mentioned, an English
and French club are as unlike as possible.
The class of men to whom the English club
is such boon, that is, the bachelor who has
but few hundreds year, is rarely seen in a
Paris club Barristers, artists, officers, Jour
nalists, and professional men generally spend
their leisure hours at the cafe. They look
upon the clubs as something too extravagant
and expensive for incomes less than fifty
thousand francs year, and they are not
wrong.
The members of Paris clubs are almost
all either bankers, stockholders, imperialist
deputies, sportsmen, diplomatists general
officers or young noblemen, and a poor man
would not know what to do in such company
The subscription is very high ranging be-
tween 500 francs (e32) and 1000 francs, and
Iu0 humber Vi lnelnD6IS lS SInull, JQ0 ROOQ
clubs seldom admitting more than $50. A
strong Freemasonry exists between the men,
bers. They bow to each other in the streets,
they talk to one another when they meet, and
on New Years Day they leave cards upon
each other. AS Partisan clubs are never mon
ster buildings, such as those we have in Lon
don, but merely large suites of apartments,
the members are thrown very much together.
The conversations in the rooms usually be-
ba INoc,i
as it mostly does towards midnight three or
four times a week, those who do not feel in
clined to join go home to bed.
1t is this systematic gambling which has
earned such very bad name for the Paris
clubs, many of which have become of late
years regular private gaming houses. They
are even more dangerous than the casinos of
Germany, for in French clubs the members
are not obliged to play with ready money;
they gamble ''sur parole" and lose sums
which appear incredible. In 1866 young
viscount lost 800, COO francs (e16, 6,OO0) at his
club in one evening playing baccarat. His
| relatives complained to the Empress, and the
prefect of police interdicted baccarat, but the
| gambling continues as furiously as ever with
other kinds of games. Two years ago the men,
! bers of the extreme Imperialst party founded
! a political club in the Rue de lArcade but it
] was failure, the politics of most of the men,
|
ment. Latterly there has been some talk of
founding an artists and Journalists club on
the model of the Garricl but the insuperable
difficulty is what the French call '1n jaL0usie
dM mctiC2," which is three times stronger in
France than elsewhere. One of the organ
iZers of the scheme was heard to declare
naively that, unless there were open voting,
not single vacancy could ever be filled up
1t is almost needless to observe that there
is not such q thing as a Liberal club in
! France. When the ultra -Imperialist Cercle
de lArcade was started, the chief members
of the Opposition fancied that they, too,
might found club but the Government ex-
planned to them that, however lawful an I'm
perialist club might be, Liberal one would
be illegal.
Russian clubs pure (that is, those in which
the members are not for the most part Eng
| Ish) are, like the more fashionable Paris
clubs, mere gambling houses in disguise
They are very sumptuous establishments,
the subscription is extravagantly high (rang-
ing between 250 and 600 roubles, T. e., f40 TO
GG0) and the entries to them are fercely
often ridicuously contested. The clubs are
the only places in Russia where faction
makes itself felt; the secrecy of the ballot
enabling many an apparently devoted noble
to give his sovereigns favorites SLY kick in
the dark In Russian clubs no Jews are ad-
mitted.
The Mobiles Club at Vienna is pretty much
what the Jockey Club is in Paris, a luxurious
lounging and gambling house. 1t is very ex-
clusive so much SO that few years ago
Count Esterhazy was blacllballed, very greatly
to the indignation of his friends, who vowed
to exclude every new candidate until the
Count was admitted. AS it happened, the
first candidate who offered himself was the
secretary of the Russian Legation. The
Esterhazy clique blackballed him, as threat
ened; but the Government set matters straight
by intimating to the committee that unless
the diplomatist were admitted the club would
be forthwith shut up.
The clubs of lesser note in France, Russia,
and Germany are simply private cafes In
the provincial towns of France, where there
is Cercle du Commerce and a Cercle de Ia
Noblesse, the former is a miniature exchange
where stocks and prices are discussed frater
nally, every man taking his coffee or his ab-
sinthe. The Cercle de la Noblesse is gene
rally select, every member being required tC
prove that on his fathers or his mothers side
he boasts Of a titled relative. The clut
generally consists of q billiard-room and
coflee-room provided with papers The mem
bers neither read books nor write there The
chief amusement of everybody is to black
ball any ''noble" suspected OF lmperlallit
procliyities, or supposed to have wrong
fully tagged the particle 'de' to his name.
To sum up, one may say that foreign clubs
ditferfrom English in that they are looked upon
altogether as places of relaxation and amuse
nent for the rich and idle; not in any way a
homes in which a bachelor may live, eat
drink, and do anything he pleases but sleep,
= Few foreign clubs have q library, and very
few CT- 400 hTornh a (}Ontl Gnta