The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-27

make that contract, for they would save homo
steads, save fortunes save bodies, minds and
souls The ten thousand men who would be
sacrificed by that contract would be but small
part of the multitude sacrificed without the con-
tract.
But make vast difference between clubs
have belonged to four clubs--a theological
Club, a ball club and two literary clubs. / got
from them physical Regeneration and moral
health What shall be the princpe2 If God
will help me, will lay down three principles by
which you may judge whether the club where
you are member or the club to which yet have
been invited, is legitimate or az Legitimate
clubhouse.
THE FIRST TEST.
First of all, I want you to test the club
influences on home. if you have home
l have been told by a prominent gem
tleman in club life that three-fourths
of the members of the great clubs Of
these cities are married men. That wife soou
loses her influence over her husband wha
nervously and foolishly looks upon all evening
absence as an assault on domesticity. How
are the great enterprises of art, and literature
and beneticence, and public veal to be carried on
if every man is to have his world bounded on
one side by his frontdoor step and on the other
by his back window, knowing nothing higher
than his own attic or nothing lower than his own
cellarl That wife who becomes jealous of heg.
husbands attention to art, or literature or re-
ligion charity, is breaking her own sceptre Of
conjugal power. know in this church an in
stance where a wife thought that her husband
was giving too many nights TO Christian service,
to charitable service, to prayer-meetings aud to
religious convocation. She systematically de-
coyed him away. until now he attends neither
this nor any other church, and s on a rapid way
to destruction-hs morals gone, his money
gone, and / fear, his soul gone. Let any
Christian wife rejoice when her hus-
band consecrates evenings to the service OF
God, to charity, or to art. or to anything ele-
waited; but let not men sacrifice home life to club
life have the rolls of the members OF great
many of the prominent clubs of these cities, and
/ can point out to you a great many names Of
men who are guilty of this sacrilege. They are
as genial as angels at the clubhouse, and as ugly
sin at home. They generous all sub
jects of wine suppers, yachts and fast horses.
but they are stingy about the wife's dress and
the children's shoes. That man has made that
which might be ahealthful recreation an usurper
of his affections, and he has married it. and he Is
guilty of moral bgamy.. Under this process the
interesting and homely He becomes critical
of her; does not like the Dress does not like the
way she arranges her hair, is amazed that he
ever was so unromantic as to offer her hand and
heart. She is always wanting money, money,
money, when she ought to be discussing Dex-
tiers and Derby day and English drags with six
horses all answering the pull of one ribbon
tell you there are thousands of homes in
brooklyn anu new IOrk DeluR CluUDeu 10 uedtu.
There are club-houses in these cities where mem
bership always involves domestic shipwreck
Tell me that man has joined certain club.
tell me nothing more about him for ten years,
and will write his history if he be still alive.
The man is vino guzzler, his wife broken
hearted or prematurely old, his fortune gone or
reduced and his home mere name in a direc-
tory. Here are six secular nights in the week
What shall I do with them9" says the
father and the husband II will give
c4,- e b. 10 nxsf
and entertainment of my family, either at home
or in good neighborhood; will devote one to
charitable institutions; will devote one to the
club congratulate you Here is a man who
says Il will make different division Of the
six nights. l will take three for the club and
three for other purposes" I tremble. Here is
man who says: "Out of the six secular nights
of the week, will devote FIVE to the clubhouse
and ono to the home, which night Will spend in
scowling like March squall, wishing was out
spending it as had spent the other fve" That
mans obituary is written. Not one out of 0,00O
that ever gets SO far on the wrong road ever
stops Gradually his health will fail through
late hours and through too much stimulus. He
will be frst-rate prey for erysipelas and rheuma-
tism of the heart The doctor coming ia,
will, at a glance, see it is not only
present disease he must fight but years of fast
living The clergyman, for the sake of the feel
ings of the family, on the funeral day, will only
talk in religious generalities. The men who got
his yacht in the eternal rapids will not be at the
obsequies. They will have pressing engagements
that day. They will send flowers to the .ofin-
sympathy. but they will have engagements
elsewhere. They never come. Bring me malet
and chise and l will cut on the tombstone that
mans eptaph: BLESSED are the dead who die in
the Lord No you say, that would not be
righteous, and let my last end DO like
his" No you say. "that would not be
appropriate Then give me the mallet and
the chisel and ! will cut an honest epitaph;
Here lies the victim of dissipating club
housed" think that damage is often done by
the scions of some aristocratic family, who be-
long to- one of these dissipating club-houses.
People coming up from humber classes feel it
an honor to belong to the same club, forgetting
the fact that many of the sons and grandsons OF
the large commercial establishments of the last
generation are now as to mind, imbecile; as to
body, diseased; as to morals, rotten. They
would have got through their property long ago
if they had had full possession of it; but the
willy ancestors, who got the money by hard
knocks, foresaw how it was to be, and they tied
up everything in the will. Now, there is moth
ing of that unworthy descendant but his grand
fathers name and roast beef rotundity. And
yet. how many steamers there that feel hon.
ored to lash fast that worm-eaten tug, though it
drags them straight into the breakers.
ANOTHER TEST SUGGESTED.
Another test by which you can find whether
you club is legitimate or ilegitimate-the effect
it has on your secular occupation. can under
stand how, through such an institution, a man
can reach commercial successes know some
members have formed their best business rela-
tions through such a channel If the club has
advantaged you in any honorable calling. it is
legitimate club. But has your credit failed2
Are bargain makers more cautious how they
trust you with bill of goodsl Have the men
whose names were down in the commercial
agency ] before they entered tho club been
going down since in commercial standing2 Then
look outl You and l every day know Of
commercial establishments going to ruin
through the social excuses of one or two mem
bers. Their fortunes beaten to death with ball
players BATS or cut amidships by the front Prov
Of the regatta, or going down under the SWIFT
hoofs of the fast horses or drowned in large
rotations of cognac and Mononeahela: Their
- laT IL. H. al hIaSi