The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-01-21
HURTFUL OR HELPFUL.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses on
the Influences of Club Life.
Organizati ations Which May be Beneficial or
DetrimentaI-The Influence OF the
Club on Domestic and Conn
merciaI Life.

| VIII Ialmage enoeaVOrS TO draw Cne
line healtfuI and unhealthful condi-
tions surrounding club life. The text
| is:
Let the young men now arise and pay before
| uS.-IL Samuel, H., IA
There are two armies encamped by
the pool of Gibeon. The time hangs
heavily on their hands. One army pro-
| poses game of sword-fencing. Moth
| could be more healthful and innocent
The other army accept the challenge.
| Twelve men against twelve men, the
| sport opens. But something went ad-
versely. Perhaps one of the swords
men got an unlucky clip, or in some
way mad his ire aroused, and that
which opened in sportfulness ended in
violence, each one taking his contest
ant by the hair, and then with the
sword thrusting him in the side; so
that that which opened in innocent
fun ended in the massacre of all the
"a sportsmen. Was there ever a better
illustration of what was true then,
and is true now, that that which is in
nocent may be made destructive?
At this season of the year the club
houses of our towns and cities are in
full play. l have found out that there
is q legitimate and an illegitimate use
of the club house. In the one case it
may become healthful recreation,
like the contest of the "a men in the
text when they began their play; in
the other case it becomes the massacre
of body, mind and soul, as in the case
of these contestants in the text when
they had gone too far with their sport
All intelligent ages have had their
gatherings for political, social, literary
purposes-gatherings characterized by
the blunt old Anglo-Saxon designation
of CLUB"
If you have read history, you know
that there was Kings Head club, a
Ben Jonson club, Brothers club, to
which Swift and Boiling gbroke belonged,
literary club, which Burke and Gold
smith and Jonson and Boswell made
immortal; a Jacobin club. a Benz njamin
Franklin Junto club. Some of these
to indicate Justice, some to favor the
arts, some to promote good manners,
some to despoil the habits, some to de-
stroy the soul. If one will write an
honest history of the clubs of England,
Ireland, Scotland, France and the
United States for the last 100 years, he
will write the history of the world.
The club was an institution born on
English soil, but it has thrived well in
American atmosphere. Who shall tell
how many belong to that kind of club
where men put purses together
and open house, apportioning the ex-
pense of caterer and servants and
oE 101Coctia
establishment-a style of club house
which. in nay opinion, is far better
than the ordinary hotel or boarding
house? But my object now is to speak
of club houses of different sort, such
as the Cosmos, or Chevy Chase. or Lin
coin clubs, of this capital, or the
Union leagues" of many cities, the
United Service club of London, the
Lotos of New York, where journalists,
dramatists, sculptors, painters and
artists, from ali branches, gather to-
gether to discuss newspapers, the
aterS and elaborate art; like the
Americus, which camps out in
summer time, dimpling the pool
with it's hook and arousing the
forest with its stag hunt; like the
century C1uUg WA4SA AtbS ASS 4oA kO
group of venerable lawyers and poets,
like the Army and Navy club, where
those who engaged in warlike service
once on the land or the sea now come
together to talk over the days of car
mage; like the New York Yacht club,
with its floating palaces of beauty up
holstered with velvet and paneled with
ebony, having all the advantages OF
electric bell, and of gaslight, and of
kings pantry, one pleasure boat cost
ing So, 900, another $4,000. another
$50, OOO, another $65, 900, the fleet of
pleasure boats belonging to the club
having cost over $4,000, 600; like the
American Jockey club, to which
belong men who have q passionate
fondness for horses, fine horses,
as had Job when, in the
Scriptures, he gives US sketch of
that king of beasts, the arch of it's
neck, the nervousness of its foot, the
majesty of its gait, the whirlwind of
it's power, crying out: Hast thou
clothed his neck with thunder? The
glory of his nostrils is terrible; he
paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in
his strength, he saith among the trum-
pets hal hal and he smelleth the bat
tie afar off, the thunder of the cap
tains, and the shouting;" like the
Travellers club, the Blossom club, the
Palette club, the Commercial club, the
Liberal club, the Stable Gang club, the
Amateur Boat club, the gambling
clubs, the wine clubs, the clubs of all
sizes. the clubs of all morals, clubs as
good as good can be, and clubs as bad
as bad can be. clubs innumerable.
During the day they are comparatively
lazy places. Here and there an aged
man reading a newspaper, or an en-
ploye dusting sofa, or clerk writing
up the accounts; but when the curtain
of the night falls on the natural day,
then the curtain of the club house
hoists for the entertainment. Let
us hasten up now, the marble stairs.
What an imperial hallway See! here
are parlors on the side, with the up
holstery of the Kremlin and the Tuil-
cries; and here are dining halls that
challenge you to mention any luxury
that they can not afford; and here are
galleries with sculpture, and paint
ings, and lithogrphs, and drawings
from the best artists, Cropsey, and
Bierstadt, and Church. and Hart. and
Gifford-impassione or placid; ship
wreck, or sunset over the sea; Sherl-
dams Ride or the MONDAY party OF the
farmers under the trees; foaming deer
pursued by the hounds in the Adiron-
aaclxs, or the sheep on the lawn. On
this side there are reading rooms