Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-26
A QUEER PARIS CLUB.
The Home of the has Beens and the
Oddities 1t Shelters.
MEN WHO HAVE BEEN JAY GOULDs
And Wonderful Schemers Who Thought
There We're Millions In Il
MEET AND WEEP OVER EACH OTHER.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DISPATCH

4ue bceue was ldlQ IN
suburb Of London which was supposed to
be peopled entirely with men who had
"busted" in the city, and their social emf
nence in the community was regulated by
the amount of money they had failed for.
The man who had "pit the barrow down."
as they say in Scotland, to the tune of mill
lions, lorded it over the poor unfortunate
who had only made his creditors whistle for
thousands, while the ''No Account trader
who had failed for few paltry hundreds
had to SIT away below the salt.
Whether or no the Frenchmen who have
started the Glaneurs, the latest addition to
the Partisan clubs, had ever read Besant's
novel is open to doubt, but certain it is that
they have founded the club on much the
same lines as the imaginary suburb. Before
man can become member of the "Glan-
eurs" he must prove to the satisfaction Of q
committee, which causes the strictest in
| curry to be made, that he is member of
he great army Of Has Beens," and that
at one time or another his belongings have
gone where the woodbine twineth." Here
| is another coincidence about the "Glan-
eurs." 1 do not suppose any of the found
ers have ever heard of Jim Fisk and his i'm
mortal saying, yet the crest of the "Glan
eurs' is a sparrow-hawk perched upon =
twig Of woodbine twining "up a spout" q
WANTED TO EMULATE cRGsUs.
Not only Is it necessary for "Glaueur''
| to have failed in business in order to become
a member, but an additional qualification
of membership is that a candidate must have
started some scheme with millions in it,
my boy" and which said scheme must have
gone up in smoke. If the object of the
founders was to get together the queerest,
rummiest, bummiest crank Drained crowd
in Paris, they have succeeded beyond their
most sanguine expectations. The scheme
was just the one that would commend itself
to such crowd as this, and every sc6emer
and bankrupt in Paris that could beg, bor-
row or steal the necessary entrance money
and years subscription-you may be sure
it was payable in advance-became a men,
Der of the "Glaneurs." There, at any rate,
the hoary-headed "Has Been" would be GER
tain of meeting another old Has Been"with
whom he could swap lies, and be sure Of
sympathetic listener, as he related for the
goth time how he had been within an ace
OF "copping million cool, my boy"
am beginning to be a bit of ''has been"
myself, so when friend asked me the other
day if would care to pay q visit to the
found the club situated ON small side street
running off the Rue Rivoli, near the Hotel
de Vile. They occupied the entire house,
and my friend informed me that the upper
floor was a sort of holy OF holies OF "Has
Beens," and it was tacitly understood thEt
no member who had failed for less than
1000, 900 francs was supposed to use that
particular floor. There the ], ,0U0, 900 francers
smoked aud drank their absinthe and re-
lated tales Of bubble schemes and "busted"
banks, of gold mines and Chateaux d.
Espagne, while there less fortunate fellow
members gossiped below.
THE SCHEME AND sCHEMERs.
The club was furnished in keeping with
the character of its members, the chairs,
tables, etc., all being antique and second
hand, and Of peculiarly Fickerty pattern.
Not only that, but to be still more consist
ent, the pictures on the walls had evidently
been taken in bloc from the shop of some
bankrupt picture restorer, and mauy of the
portraits were still in that state which we
sometimes see labeled in the restorer's win
dow 'Before and After Process" one-haIf
the face being restored, and the other half
in faded condition.
The smoking room was large and fairly
well furnished, and at the time I visited il
was full of members. ''There are at least
dozen men in this ROOM said my friend,
who have come holy smash by eudeavor-
ing to start newspaper to supply long
felt want That man over there" pointing
to fat, jolly-looking man, who looked as if
making an assignment for the benefit Of"
etc., had agreed with him, started a paper
some years ago to advocate monogamy, that
is that one woman could have several hus-
bands at once, in opposition to polygamy,
and he came to grief in three months. They
say pioneering never pays, and there is an
instance over there, that ianky man, with
face like a parrots with the indignation,
was the first man to start the coupon system,
giving prize to any man who would guess
three winners at the races. The scheme
didn't catch on"
INVENTORS REPRESENTED.
Next to newspaper men the largest num-
Der seemed to have come to grief over try
ing to solve the oar-coupler question, and
there were at least half dozen who had
"cracked up" over the perpetual motion
craze. Company promoters there were of
course galore, but they were so numerous
that they were mo account" men. There
were at least 80 members of the club was
told, who had just missed making fortune
by sinking their own and their friends
money in the gorgeous production of plays
that had to be withdrawn after the first
week.
The boss of the show was an old man with
watery eyes and finger nails like birds
claws, who had, years and years ago, sunk
over 100000 francs in scheme for
making an inland sea out of the Desert of
Sahara, and another who was greatly looked
up to who had successfully foated COM
pany to sell a compound o the niggers in
Central Africa to make them pure white.
There was not, in fact, crazy scheme that
or other in the club had not had q
band in, either as promoter or investor. Art,
'cience, music, acting, inventing, promot-
ng and financing had all their unsuccessful
representatives.
ALL TALK AND IDLE TALK.
In the smoking room the ''has beens"
we're mostly in groups, and it was amusing
% listen to the scraps of conversation that
we're waited toward me-
II tell you this coupler is"
mo, sir,-20, 900, 900 francs, I tell you,
,0, 900, 900 and IL, 900, 900 would have been
ninel 7 was just five minutes too late"
You see everybody would drink asses milk
+ it were cheap enough. Now, in Spain there
IRE 5o0, 900, and If every ass gave a quart of
milk, which, at sous a quart"
1T was all that idiots doing, he was re-
olved to damn my play, and damn it he
lid, and 80 on, and so on. The fun of it
vas that every HAS Been" seemed to listen
o other" Has Beens'" story withdeep inter-
st, and when the first one got through the
econd would get his licks in and tell his
cheme.
It is hard to say what the next club will
onsist of. Now that the "Glaneurs" kas
roved such a success in Paris, someone
ught to start another on the same lines in
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