The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-01-17
Boston Clubs.

George P. Lathrop in Harpers Magazine for Feb
ruary.l
What Boston, pure and simple, lacks social
ly it makes up in clubs. Long ago, public
spirited gentleman, one Captain Keayne, who
died in 1866, left money to the town to support
"a room for divines, scholars, merchants, ship
men, strangers and townsmen" to meet in.
What has become of the legacy I do not know;
but the spirit of the captain may be excused if,
in looking down and beholding the transcend
ent realization of his kindly forethought by
other means, it INDUCES thrill of vanity.
There are the two chief clubs, the Union and
the Somerset; the former frequented by law
yers, judges, merchants, and sometimes by the
historian Francis Parkman, by DIR. Holmes,
Thomas Gold Appleton celebrated as a wit
and a man of fine aesthetic insight), Fields,
and his successor, Osgood. The Somerset, be-
ing the fashionable club of Boston, embraces
some of the Union membership, but is es-
pecially favorte with the old young men and
the young old men. There are the Temple,
the Suffolk, the Central, the Athenan, ali
carrying houses ON their backs; and the Art
Club and st. Botolph, in a similar predica-
ment The Art Club, in fact, is about to put
up new building which will cost fifty thous.
and dollars. Then there are swarms of small
dining clubs, weekly, fortnightly, monthly,
for which male Bostonians have passion.
They are limited to some half dozen or
twenty persons each So powerful is their
attraction that members will come miles
from the suburbs, through inclement weathec,
or when no other form of relaxation would
draw them, to eat together, in hotel or res
taurant. The Papyrus Club is in structure
merely one of those dining companies, grad
ually enlarged so as to take in about a hun
1ra6 UnutlauopO alctc nj
painters originated it, and are conceded con-
trolling force IN its government. A small ad-
mission fee is paid, and each member may pur-
chase ticket on the first Saturday of each
month, which entities him to partake of a din
ner and bring friends with him, for whom he
likewise pays. At these dinners speeches are
made and poems read after dessert; and some
of the most distinguished authors in New Eng
land as well as from without, have been the
clubs guests. The Papyrus too, holds annu-
ally Ladies's Night, and it distinguished this
occasion not long since by inviting to it some
of the notable literary women from different
parts of the country. Among its own members
Edwin p. Whipple and the two Irish Ameri-
can poets DR.. Joyce and John Boyle O'Reilly,
are numbered. The one last mentioned, by
his gifts of imagination and the captivating
grace of his social presence, has won place
in local regard, and is certainly the most ro-
mantle figure in literary Boston. But the
younger intellectual elements are even less
united than were the older ones in their prime.
Recently the st. Botolph Club has been
formed with the hope of bringing together in
closer relations artists of all kinds and those
who should be the friends and supporters of
the arts. But the atmosphere of tradition in
Boston is SO geld that a thin crust of ice forms
upon the wine of sympathy as soon as it is
poured, and it is to be feared that benumb-
ing frost will creep into even the St. Botolph's
house.
The multiplying of clubs, however, is the
sign of an uneasiness which may result in
good. They are tissiparous. No sooner is one
formed than it begins to make another by sub
division. Men fly from the clubs they have
to others that they know not of, hoping always
to find one which will yield that generous,
productive fellowship essential to healthier
and more joyous life. Perhaps by the time
that Boston's suburbs have extended so far as
to include the White Mountain school of au-
thors, society itself may have learned to supply
| the need.