The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-31
AN ECCENTRIC CLUB.
QUEER CUSTOMS OF THE TENDER
LolNERS OF NEW YORK.

How Some of the Good Fellows in the
Metropolis Enjoy Themselves One Night
in Each week-Fhe Old Eel Pot"
Reokery the Scene of Their Fan Making.
The Tenderioin club shares with the
WhitechaPei club, Of Chicago, the peculiar
distinction ~ eeins entirely peculiar. Its
home IS the sa.dq1ated wooden building
that ehce Stood somewhere between Tween
ty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets, near
Seventh avenue, but YVES moved up to the
street line; directly opposite the Tender
loin precinct ssafien house On Thirtieth
street, when Thirtieth street was laid out
by the municipal street commissioners.
1t is a notable rookery Years ago it was
called The Eel Pot" and was the resort
of men whose doings eften brought them
into conflict with the police In this build
ing Inspector Williams ran against cele-
brated ghost mystery, and ran the ghost
down 1t is owned by State Senator
Murtha, and his agent insists that it is
over i40 years old. 1t is just about year
now since the Tenderloin club took posses
sion of it, and made it a typical haunt Of
men who are in love with the odd and
picturesque things Of life that make the
cream of Bohemian existence
LEAVE CARE BEHIND"
Senator Murtha would not recognize the
old rookery now in the transformation
wrought by the eccentric fancy of its mem
bers. Once under the archway that bears
the club motto. "Who enters here leaves
care behind" the visitor meets a series of
surprises. Six thousand playing cards, for
example, constitute the novel papering Of
the walls of one of the rooms. These cards
represent the astounding possibilities of
the game Of draw poker, and duplicate
actual hands The ceiling is frescoed with
poker chips in unusual design. This deco
ration is only an unusual fancy Of the
treasurer of the club, who used up over
1900 tacks in the decoration. Gambling
is not a pastime of the Bohemians of the
Tenderloin. Whisky poker and whist are
their pet recreations with the cards.
The next room is papered with photo
graphs. These reproduce joyous scenes and
Jolly personages of the club. 1t is one Of
the customs of the club to preserve souve-
Mrs of its jollier experiences. The most
interesting of these souvenirs are scenes by
the 1ashlight camera. A camera is al
ways set up in the rooms, and whenever q
particularly good story is told, Or anything
thoroughly enjoyable occurs. a magnesium
light is fired, and the effect of the joke or
Of the experience is captured in photo
graph of the members. About every style
of laugh known has been produced in this
galaxy Of Tenderloin faces.
Another room is devoted to the exhibit
ton of curiosities that the members have
collected. There are knives, pistols, opium
pipes, cartridges, bits of bread, wax candles
and other fotsam and jetsam that tell
some sort of a story or recall some queer
happening. A piece of switchboard pick
ed out of the ruins of the Western Union
building fire is the last addition to the sin
gular miscellany. Still another room is
decorated with stone mugs and pipes of all
sorts. In this room, before the great open
fireplace, the members meet every Satur-
day night and make the air blue with
smoke.
These gatherings begin at midnight ex-
actly. Midnight, in fact, is the hour for
beginning everything in the Tenderloin.
Actors drop in and entertain the smokers
after midnight. They get up something
new constantly. Composer Stahl sauntered
in one night, took out the front of the up
right piano and picked harp accompani-
ment on the wires with his right hand,
while he played a new composition with
his left. Every cork drawn is saved as a
souvenir. The center is drilled out and a
pipe stem is fitted into it, and it becomes a
reminder. This custom is copied
from German fancy.
SOME OF THE FUN.
Tenderloin. So is the sandwich of ham
and chicken and Boston brown bread that
was invented by the chef of the Union club.
Plugged watermelon is another great
specially with the Tenderbotn. 1t is soOth-
ing, seductive and mysterious. Nobody
knows what he is going TO strike. The
melons are plugged with claret, cham
payne, brandy and crushed strawberries,
and then mixed up so that it is impossible
to discover what they are without eating OF
them. 1t is a new kind of pot luck that
meets with favor and is provocative Of
great sport.
There is always friendly rivalry among
members to think up new methods of en-
joyment.
The purpose of the founders of the Ten
derloin was to open to men of all profess
sions the charms of Bohemian good fellow
ship that make the Fellowcraft club and
the Press club enjoyable retreats. Both
tbe Fellowcraft and Press clubs have a re-
stricted membership that shuts out effect
ually from its enjoyment of the delightful
society found within their walls many men
who long for such romantic surroundings.
Both Fellowcrsft and Pres club members
are in the Tenderloin, w,sJse membership
door Ia opened In hospita-ble welcome, its
officers say. to all men who can lay Just
claim to the title of good fellows in the
sense Of that much abused title
The Tenderloin lays down a single compre-
hensive rule in choosing its members. II
is this, as President Keller bluntly puts it.
The first requisite of a Tenderloiner is
that he shall not be stuck on himself"
There are 20 members of the club. Under
this rule they ought TO ne very companion
able persons iEdeed.-New York Sun
Dainty and TsefnI