The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-14
MISERY WAS THEIR BOND.
STEELE MAoKAYB and "A PUNCH
o MUCH FOR A FREAK CLUB.
The Convinced the H1cnbers That
They Conldn't pknsw what Real Wretched-
ness Was TIN They mad Produced . Play
ana the Punch Did the Rest-Rise ana

and the Punch Did the Rest-nise ana
Deoadence OF the TendeFiefn Cinb.
There seems TO be q lull in tho organizing Of
freak clubs Just now" said a man who had
helped to organize several Of them. 1T un.
doubtedly means that the demand Tor them Ia
slack. There was q time when q gang could
be collected for almost any kind OF club, but
the business was sadly overdone.
''ono of the first clubs of this kind that I had
anything to do with had a very profane tito
and nominally its purpose was to gather a con-
genial crowd of detached men. who had no
ties Of any description in this city. on tho
eve Of such holidays as Thanksgiving and
Christmas, and to lament that any such days
appeared on tho calendar. The suggestion of
this club has always been credited to q man
who is now a successful playwright At that
time he lived In o small room Of q very OBJ
scure boarding house and his chief source Of in
was from writing verses for topical
songs. When he was melancholy he was tho
most depressing man i have ever known and he
was always melancholy on the eve Of every
holiday that Is celebrated in tho home. One
Christmas eve he happened to meet in n cafe
fRcquented at that time by men who enjoyed
well-cooked late suppers three other men who
were equally depressed. They discussed their
grievances against society over hot Scotches
II Clo separating tuey hhu oikhiibOu hCi
selves into q club and pledged to meet each
year on the eve OF Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and New Years. The next meeting was held
on New Years eve, and new recruits brought
the club membership up to q dozen. With the
exception Of one man, an artist, who has since
died and whose pictures nrc now winning the
place that was denied them when he was alive,
all of the members were young men. Several
of thom were writers, two were lawyers, and
one was n physician waiting for n practice.
None of them was born in this city and all Of
them lived in bachelor apartment houses or
boarding houses.
Each man was called upon at this second
meeting to tell how miserable he was on that
occasion. Whenever a man was particularly
f~elicitous in telling the extent of his depression
hot Scotches were served all around. This
stimulated a healthy rivalry. and Eugene
Fieldss tale OF woe wasn't a marker to some
of the stories told. Hot Scotch, you know, is
the saddest drink on earth. 1t will reduce n
happy man to tears In two rounds. After
every man present had told what a lonely, for
saken individual he was on holidays, and how
on such occasions. when all his acquaint-
ances were rejoicing, each in his own home
circle, he dined alone in q restaurant and hated
everybody, it seemed as II the depth Of melan-
choly had been reached. Another round Of
u SCOtCh Ndo u o u hlButIup, aiu
every member of the club felt that the meet
ing had been a success. There wasn't a man
present who would not assert truthfully that
he was just as blue as any other man.
drop in for a rabbit. He knew several OF the
o %emior' for St '1 the G meeti nse When, it was was exc J
planned to him he said he would like to add
his ha sfSss tS the t6 ,S SSns and S @a. Msok nRer9 wi Tsi
his eyes with his handkerchief, took u hot
Scotch for his voice, and told the story of the
tho theatre-going public and the critics, IL
any member Of the club had up 10 that time
the world, and that his life was especially out
of joint, he learned after listening to Mackaye
for a few minutes that he was really ignorant
of misfortune. Mackaye began by telling
how much money and time he had put into this
production. Then he told how the stage car
had put off their work until OF, the night Of the
production the scenery for the last act was
o on me e first aet' T Shsn re aa1 eaFi IN the vent piay up
dragging along until after midnight. When
he reached the public and the critics his woe
1T was, a low down trick on the club.
though. Just as we were convinced that we
were the most miserable people in existence, no
came along and clearly demonstrated that we
couldn't Sad nrtd RnoT n what hat real fha, misery Misery was saisr until W., we
sat around listening and trying to look miscr-
able and ND oil the time ge%stting cheerful by con;
tiooS az c. II liSCtiiib J q
in confusion, and each man who began tho
evening in gloom sneaked home in a shame.
author OF Steele Mackayc's last play.
met next year On Tha an eve and
meeting was fairly gloomy, though there was
a streak of chcerfulness in it because one mem
her had accepted an invitation to dine with a
family and three OF the men had secured seats
for the football game on the following day. On
the whole, though, it was a reasonably miser-
Like most freak clubs this one had been dis.
cussed outside of the membership, and the re-
suit was a big batch of applications for men,
Thanksgiving eve and that was our I'M
doing; When VIC met on Christmas eve tho
Scotch whiskcy gave out just as we were in tho
midst OF our misery, and a new member offered
to make n punch. Well, sir, before thai punch
crowd that ever nurscd a sorrow; We had a
merry evening, and as the club had lost its
original significance it died.
Take the old Tenderioin Clnb as another ex-
ample of the freak club. This club was the
natural outcome of a dozen or more good Eel
police station.
About half of these men were assigned to
duty there by their newspapers and the others
were members of various clubs who had fallen
into the habit Of calling around at the station
Of seeing an arrest made. The station was a
lively. place in those days. The Tenderloin
half of the criminal news of the city. One night
one OF the men present suggested that II room
should be hired on tho second floor OF an old
rookery across from the station house where
a late supper might be served and n small game
of poker played. This WAS done, and the
dozen or more men who bore the expense Or
ganizcd themselves into a TcnderlOin Club. To
be eligible a candidate must prove that hc was
first OF all a good fellow and second that he
was not stuck on himself. Supper was served
~ midnight always and it was prepared by a
negro who was amiablc and at times witty.
Within a month every man in New York to
whom such u club appealed knew of it and mys.
terious we're the reports OF the clubs enter
tainments. The expenses we're light and the
dues were correspondingly small. Within two
months after IL was organized 1t had u mem.
bcrship of about one hundred. The men who
belonged to the club represented nearly every
big club in town. Many of them were news
paper writers or artists. 1t was u freak
affair from the beginning and it made an in.
t~cresting last resort for parties which had been
taking In the town. The clubs quarters were
enlarged and n regular entertainment was pro
vidcd for every Saturday evening. 1t was one
of the rules OF the club that no entertainment
should begin until midnight.
"Otero, the dancer, made her appearance al
ono OF these entertainments, The room was
filled with men and blue witt tobacco smoke
when q Hungarian band filed in. No ono knew
what the entertainment wag to be. and after
Tho hand had pInynd IA lively march tho doc,