The morning call., 1894-06-10
THE EVOLUTION OF THE CLUB.

popular club and the gambling gossip
current abou: another are leading people
to consider the general subject of clubs
and their usefulness. The study takes in
the remarkable tendency of the fair sex TO
form clubs-a phenomenon which is con-
verting society into a Methodist meeting
with the men on one side and the women
on the other.
Strange TO say, the pip which is affecting
our local clubs appears TO prevail in other
social centers as well. ln London the
clubs are plunged into a severe crisis, and,
according to Mr. Labouchere. "almost
without exception the older West End
clubs are passing through a period Of I'M
precedented depression" 1t seems that
the receipts from restaurant, cafe and bar
have fallen below expenses and that the
club has had to live on membership fees
Only-which in institutions that cherish
the sacred right of the blackbRll do not
increase very rapidly. The reason which
is assigned for the decline in the popu-
larity of the clubs is that the hotels are
nnw paying particular attention 10 their
cuisine, and that at these a gentleman may
get as good dinner as he could get at his
club and have his wife, daughter, sister or
sweetheart at his SIDE. Realizing this fact,
a number of the London clubs now have
aunexes where ladies can paItake of a
meal This incenses the od-Style club
man. who writes to the paper to protest
against any such dangerous and pestilent
notion. Good GOD, sir, do we want women
chaitering round the club tables? Why.
they will be admitted to the smoking-rOOm
next" At New York several clubs have
had to retrench and to send out drummers
to solicit con1dentiaily a new acces eion OF
mem bers. The Millionaires Club appears
to be a failure. Alter the membership
committee blaekballed DR.. Rainsford and
Senator WOlcOtt people were shy Of apply
ing for admission, and club which ceases
to grow begins 10 die. Some of the men,
bers are so irritated at the eXclusiveness of
the Governors that they never enter the
club doors, and there are days together
when the total attendance is bare dozen,
and members have TO talk to the walters in
order TO hear the sound oftheir own voices.
OF the usefulness Of well-mansged
club where gentlemen can meet to lunch
or dine or talk without encountering per-
sons who are not of their world there can
be no question. To such institutions there
is the drawback that they engender selfish
ness and sometimes observation-disclosures
among their members. But this is offset
by the convenience of gathering within
four walls body of intelligent, wel'-bred
men, whose conversation is instructive
and entertaining. The cardinal flaw in
clubs is that they separate the sexes. ana
that no man can keep in touch with the
social and intellectual movement Of the
day unless he hears what women think
about it. To remedy this defect the new
clubs, and among them one Of the most
prosperous in this city, admit women to
certain portions Of the club building under
certain well-defned conditions. The prac-
tice is evidently destined TO become
universal, and then clubs will simply be-
come hotels, With the distinction that
Abundance will require ticket OF men,
bership. There is no reason why such
institutions should not become an attrac-
tive feature of modern civilization.
The male club, as it stands, is a proven.
tive of matrimony. A young man.
especially if be rooms at his club, is
made so comfortable there that he has no
temptation TO marry. He has all the CON-
forts and conveniences and luxures Of the
season at his command by simply tinklinR
a bell. If the spirit moves him to subject
himself to the refining influence of female
society he can take his hat and make a
call: when the lady bores him he will not
infringe the social laws If be departs and
returns to the gloomy grandeur of his club.
Therefore, it should be the aim of far
seeing young women to labor for the
destruction Of clubs, so far as in them lies.
They should discourse on the text that the
best of all possible clubs Is the drawing
room where a well-bred, weli-read aud
amiable lady sits.