Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-02
EARLY CLUB HISTORY.
Classic Gatherings of the Socially
Inclined Ancients.
POETS PRAISED THEIR VIRTUES,
Even Ladies Had Organizations for Friendly
Intercourse.
GAY TIMES AT THE MERMAID TAVERN

In his great dictionary, DR. Johnson defines
the word club as San assembly OF good fel-
lows meeting under certain conditions"
says Chambers Journal, and proceeds to il
lustrate his meaning by sentence from
Dryden: "What right has any man to meet
in factious clubs to viiify the Government"
Though such definition was no doubt suf-
ficient in the day in which it was written,
it is to-day utterly inadequate to include
the vast series of organizations known as
clubs. Of the people in whose daily life
club plays an important part, it may be safely
asserted that not one in hundred has any
idea of the origin and early history of the
institutions with which he is so familiar.
"Clubs seem so essentially modern, so
much a part of our everyday lives, that we
are apt to forget that they have any history
at all. We are proverbially ignorant of
common things, and though industrious
people have written volur IS on such mat
ters, they do not seem to have beea very
successful in putting an end to the prevail
ing gloom The history of clubs is
subject of considerable interest, taking
US back to the classic days of Greece
and Rome, and thence to the days
of Queen Elizabeth, reminding us that, after
all, there is nothing new under the sun. 1t
is to Greece that we must look for the first
page of the story Of course, the old
Athenian clubs were not in all respects
similar to those of modern London; but
there was nevertheless between them a
strong affinity, for Aristotle tells us that
men Of the same trade and members of a
particular tribe were wont to club together
for business purposes.
Some Combined for Social Intercourse.
He goes or to say thai others combined
for the sake of social intercourse, and adds
that "these meet together for the sake of
one another's company and to cffer sacri-
fees; when they meet, they both pay certain
honors to the gods, and at the same time
take pleasures and relaxation among them
selves" In Rome, the earliest clubs were
the trade guilds founded by Numa, similar
to the guilds Of craftsmen which
play so important part in the
art history of the middle ages At one
time, there were 80 of these guilds ir Rome
alone, and they were not confined to the
metropolis, for the boatmen of the Seine al
Paris and the boatmer of the lower Rhone
formed clubs of their own. Very closely
allied to the Masonic lodges of our day were
the secret societies formed throughout the
Roman Empire for the practice of religious
rites unknown to the State.
An idea of the extent of club life in
Rome may be obtained from the fact
that even the slaves attached to the great
houses of the city formed clubs of their own.
In the house of Augustus there would seem
to have been several clubs of this kind, for
his chef de cuisine left sum of money for
the benefit of the club of cooks, of which
he was member. The history of the
purely social clubs of the Roman Empire
is incomplete. They were formed chiefly
by Romans employed in the more distant
parts of the empire, in order to lessen the
feeling of isolation which their exile in
volved Notwithstanding that military
clubs we're prohibited by the State, they
were tolerated among the officers of regi-
ments employed in foreign service, as a
compensation for the social disadvantages
entailed in a long residence abroad.
Club Rules in Ancient Times.
The rules of a club of officers of a regi-
ment on service in Africa have been dis
covered on the site of a Roman encamp-
ment. They are engraved on two stone
pillars, which stood in a conspicuous posi-
tion near the residence of the commander
The contribution to such club was about
25 pounds two-thirds of which were
returned to his representatives on the
death of the member, or to himself
on his retirement from the service. The
expenses of the funeral of deceased men,
Der were paid by his club, or he might claim
portion of his contribution to enable him to
travel in foreign countries. If he made use
of this privilege the liability of the club to
bury him was at an end.
Another form of the social club was the
ladies' club Although we are accustomed
to look upon ladies' clubs as institutions
especially characteristic of our own times,
they are in fact far older than English civil
ization ITSELF The ladies' clubs of
Rome were very numerous, and met for
religious as we'll as for social purposes.
The most distinguished of them was known
popularlv as the ''Senate of Matrons.' Its
title was derived from an imperial edict.
Attached to it was a debating society in
which momentous questions of etiquette
and dress were discussed with becoming
gravity. Sometimes the fair women so far
condescended as to interfere in municipal
questions, and when man who was so
fortunate as to gain their goodwill died,
the ladies erected statue of their hero.
Political Clubs Among the Romans
Political clubs were common to both
Greece and Rome. Mr.. Grote has shown
that the Athenian aristocrats on the one
hand, and democrats on the other, ad-
cal clubs in much the same way as is done
throughout Great Britain to-day. A select
company of the young men of
Greece, inspired by the teach
ings of the voluptuous epicurean
Aristippus, formed themselves into a
club, to which they gave the gloomy and
significant title of "Those About to Die
Together" A weird description of the |
banqueting hall of these eccentric indi-
viduals remains: "Over some TASKS of the !
red Chan wine, within the walls of noble |
hall, in dim city we sat, at night, COM
pany of seven. And to our chamber there |
was no entrance save by lofty door of |
brass; and the door was fashioned by the |
artisan Corinnos, and, being of rare work |
manship, was fastened from within.
''Black draperies likewise, in the gloomy
room, shut out from our view the |
moon, the lurid stars, and the people
less streets; but the boding and the
memory of evil, they would not be so
excluded" Although there were clubs in
these classic lands, generally speaking,
there were no club houses. Buildings of |
this kind were, indeed, not so necessary in
Greece and Italy, where men could meet in
the shade of a temple or at the baths, as in
England, where the climate is unfavorable
to open air lounging To pass from Greece
and Italy before Christ to England in the
reign of Henry ~. is long step. Clubs
seem to have become extinct in the
which divides these distant
periods, for the secret societies of
the middle ages were hardly clubs,
even using the word in its broadest sense.
They were rather associations formed to