Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-07

uEER CLUBS AND THEIR MEMBERS,
Prof Maxim and Dr. wolfert A valuable
library of volumes dealing with problems
interesting to the members of the Kite Club
shares the affections of the latter with a
perfect model in miniature of Andree's ia
nous balloon ship, now on its way to the
heart of the arctic circle. No club with
purpose similar to that of the Kite Club is
In existence outside Of the hub city.
Superstition and Fatality.
Among eccentric clubs which have some
Kind of grewsome entertainment as an ex-
cuse for being are the Toby Club. the Old
Curiosity Club. the Undertakers' Club and
the Grave Diggers' League of New York.
The Toby Club has fifty members. The
club room is at the northeast corner of
Charles and West streets, New York city.
The main reception room is a subterranean
apartment, sepulchral and unnvitine. Cof-
Inns are used for seats, and beer barrels
with coffin lids for the tops furnish a grew
some substitute for tables. 1t seems to be
the special function of the Toby Club to
scott at the gloomy servitor. Death The
members regale themselves from beer-laden
skulls and smoke from pipes carved from
human bones. The club is composed of
substantial business men of middle age
who are listed in battle against supersti-
ton.
The Old Curiosity Club is, or. rather, was.
an organization of art enthusiasts, With no
unwholesome motive. but with a strange
fatality that places it in the fore rank of
the freak clubs of America. OF the origi-
nal eleven members, eight have died sud
denly within the last two years. One men,
Der was foully murdered another ended his
life in hospital, a third dropped dead of
apopieXy, and the others were called with
out warning to the great beyond. The
three surviving members still meet, and
conduct with great formality such business
as Is before them. Alfred Trumble the
well-known art critic, and the last of the
eight, was found dead in his bed a few
weeks ago. The Undertakers' Club and the
Grave Diggers' League are repellant only
in name. The members invariably cast
aside their professional melancholy once
over the threshold of their respective
rooms.
Eccentric Organizations.
In any list of queer clubs mention must
be made Of the Suicide Club of Bridgeport
Conn. Seven of this clubs members have
died by their own hands during the past
five years. The Fat Mems Club of Milwau-
kee has twenty-four members, with an
average weight of $50 pounds per member,
making total human weight of 5000
pounds when the club is in full session
The Kelley Cure Club is a product of Phil
adelphia. Every member is ex-drunk-
ard. At a regular monthly dinner given by
the club the beverages served at table are
strictly of a medicinal nature.
Every 'one has heard of the Milionaires'
Club. which in reality is named the Met
ropolitan Club of New York, every men,
Der of which can draw his check for a cool
million of dollars and not "go broke after
such an unusual act. A bare mention can
be made of the Anti-Matrmony Club, an
association of pretty young women. who
are persuaded that they never, never will
marry; of the Fireman's Bicycle Club. with
rooms on Lexington avenue, New York:
Of the Coffin Club of San Francisco. similar
tn ha OH rIrrh oh dose ih.al of f1ka
Eccentric Sports Club of New Orleans,
founded in 1884 by some OF the toughest
gamblers in Louisiana, but whose existence
is really due to the efforts of a number
Of kind-hearted Christian women, who
thought that bladders were less harmful
than hard gloves in boxing bouts: of the
Bloomer Club, of the Kempin Club, COM
posed of women lawyers living In Brook
lyn; the japanese Club, the New England
Woman's Club, the first housed club in
this country, and the Electrical Club,
where everything that has to do with cleo
tricity can be seen, heard and felt.
There are other eccentric clubs, like the
Gridiron of Washington, the Lanthorn, Troll
ley, Summing and Uncut Leaves clubs of
New York and the Mountebanks' Club of
Baltimore. America is truly a land of clubs,
and the numerous grotesque and eXag-
gerated organizations such as have been
enumerated add not little to the pictur-
Church Fires.
From the Church Economist.
Most church fires are due to unsafe heat
ing apparatus or lights not properly pro-
tected at the side of the building, espe-
cially in Easements. Wooden steeples are
regarded by insurance men with an aver
sion that can be overcome only by the pay
ment Of some additional premium.
There is not unanimity about how steam
pipes cause fire; whether chemically or
mechanically; but there is not much doubt
among insurance men that they do cause
fires, and there is ample testimony that
steam pipes will in the course of time re-
duce wood in contact with them to the con-
dition of charcoal, In which condition the
wood is certainly dangerous. The fact that
the church is unoccupied so much affords
opportunity for fire once started to get
a considerable start before discovery, and
the large interior gives a flame air that it
could not get where the building is very
much subdivided.
Church buildings, however, are free from
some of the dangers that buildings devoted
to other uses are exposed to. There is no
moral hazard in church insurance, i'm
spite of the apparent large number of in
cendiary fires. A church properly built,
with light and heat apparatus properly put
in. and an intelligent janitor, is in very
slight danger of burning from exposure to
other buildings. But the building commit
tee should be vigilant while the church is
building. and the trustees should see that
lighting and heating are well cared for and
the basement kept perfectly clean.
Sailors Eyes and Electricity.
Owing to the intensity of the electric
light used on board of men-of-war men are
frequently affected with eye complaints
u-hfoh In couna 20 sos he We led IN total hlyni-