Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-02-13
London Clubs.

People may bOast as they please oi
the pleasures of the Continental capltais
but the club life which is a. institution
of London. offers unrivalled attractions
70 the bachelor who is simpecunious and
unattached. If ne has any sort ci pre-
tensions, he is sure of finding footing
somewhere. Payment of the entrance
money NAV be "a pull" as Mr., Trad
dies in "David Copperfield" remarked
of his fees at the bar; but the annual
subscription is relatively insignificant,
and il secures him mansion on the
Joint stock principle which otherwise
would be far beyond the means of
man of twenty times his income 1t is
true that the life in public has its draw
backs. IL is the nature of all animals
when suffering from ailments TO with
draw themselves from the company OF
their Kind and sulk and nope in their
lairs. But if the club bachelor Is sick
or sorry, there is no help for him.
Keeping to his apartment through the
day would make a disagreeable sensa-
tion in the establishment, giving rise to
all kinds of sinister rumors, while the
dismal influences of his den would in
fallibly confirm him in the blue devils.
Yet if he goes forth to his club he Will
be surrounded in his melancholy mood
by crowd of lively and unsympathetic
acquaintances who will either innocent
" bore him to death or offer him ''chaff''
for consolation. And even if his health
and spirits are unflagging until they
finally go with a crash, he must break
himself to be the slave Of his habits if
he is to make the routine of his existence
endurable. Every club man must be
familiar with certsin members whose
presence may be counted upon all the
year round more confiuently than that
of the walters, who sometimes are in
dulged with holiday. Each day of
the year from January to December
these men are to be seen in the places
they have appropriated. How sick they
must become of the little table where
they daily breakfast, lunch and dine.
How weary they must be of the menu,
varied as less frequent visitors may find
il! The very patterns of the curtains
and carpets must have worked them
selves into their souls; and, if they are
sensitive, they must have an uneasy
feeling of the detestation in which they
are held by the servants. Too often
they are tyrants; but, however unex-
acting they may be, their invariable
presence must make them the hardest
Of taskmaste rs; and they have doomed
themselves TO haunt the house like
weary spirits, even to the point of din
ing there on Christmas Day. A melan-
choly routine of this kind must inevi
tably engender dyspepsia and aggravate
those inevitable maladies to which all
flesh is heir. And when their health
begins to break up it is horrible to
picture their condition. The doctor
may prescribe change and recommend
cheerful society; but possibly they are
tethered by the lack of means, and, at
all events, they are hobbled by confirm
ed habits. 1t Is long since they gave up
trying the country, having found the
oppression of it intolerable. Their ut
most change latterly has been Sunday
al Brighton, and then it was with in
tense relief that they hurried back on
the Monday. The chief excitement of
their monotOnous days was to be found
at table or in the smoking room. But
now they are put upon regimen and
stinted in the quantity of their food.
SeNere injunctions, under pain of death,
cut them down in the favorite indul-
gence of smoking. Sherry at odd times
and brandy and soda of an evening are
peremptorily forbidden. They have
neither intellectual nor other resources
to console them under the restriction of
stimulants and narcotics; and, worst of
all, the privations to which they are
condemned seem to do nothing toward
repairing their shattered constitutions.
They grow more hopeless and unhappy
as their health becomes more precarious
and their frames more feeble; until,
finally, they perforce are made prison.
ers in their lodgings, and one day it is
announced in the club that old So-and-
so is gone at last,