The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-01-12
GOOD AND BAD CLUBS.
Dr. Talmage breaches Sermon
on Them.
D0mestic shipwreCk often Follows Club
1Aembership-The Man Who Spends
HIis Evenings at Home Leads
the Happiest Life.

In the following sermon the popular
Washington divine gives some good adj
vice to those who frequent clubs. His
text is: Ii. Samuel, 2: Ia: LET the
young men now arise and play before
uSr
There are two armies encamped by
the pool of Gideon. The time hangs
heavily on their hands. One army pro-
poses game of sword fencing, Moth
ing could be more healthful and inno-
cent The other army accepts the chal-
Ienge4 Twelve men against twelve men,
the sport opens. But something went
adversely. Perhaps one of the swords
men got an unlucky clip, or in some
way had his ire aroused, and that
which opened in sportfulness ended in
violence, each one taking his contest
amt 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
sp0rtsmen. Was there ever a better
illustration of what was true then, and
Is true now, that that which is inno-
cent may be made destructive.
At this season of the year the club
houses of our towns and cities are in
fnll play. have found out that there
Is a 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 of the text when
they had gone too far with their sport.
All intelligent ages have had their
gatherings for political, social, artistic,
literary gatherings charac-
terized by the blunt old Anglo-SaXon
designation of club"
If you have read history, you know
that there was a Kings Head club, a
Ben johnson club a Brothers club, to
which Swift and Bolingbroke belonged;
Il Literary club, which Burke and Gold
smith and johnson and Boswell made
Immortal; Jacobin club, Benjamin
n
to indicate justice, some to favor the
arts, some to promote good manners,
some to despoil the habits, some to de-
StCoy the soul. If one will write an
honest history of the clubs of England,
Ireland, Scotland, France and the Uni
ted 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 expense
of caterer and servants and room, and
having sort of domestic establish
unent-a style of club house which in my
opinion is far better than the ordinary
hotel or boarding house? But my OBJ
fectnow is to speak of club houses of {
different sort, such as the Cosmos, OF
Chevy Chase, or Lincoln clubs of thi
capital, or the Union Leagues" o
zsany cities, the United Service club
of London; the Lotos, of New York
where journalists, dramatists, sculp
tors, painters and artists, from al
branches, gather together to discus
newspapers, theaters, and elaborat
art; like the Americus, which camp
ogf in summer time, dimpling the poo
with its hook and arousing the fores
with its stag hunt; like the Cen
icury club, like the Travellers club
'tise. Blossom club, the Palette club
the Commercial club, the Liberia
club, the Stable Gang club, tn
Amateur Boat club and gambling
clubs, the wine clubs, the clubs of al
sizes, the clubs of all morals, clubs a
good as good can be, and clubs as ba
as bad can be, clubs innumerable. Dun
ing the day they are comparatively laz
places. Here and there an aged ma
reading a newspaper or an employ
busting a sofa, or clerk writing u
the accounts; but when the curtain G
the night falls on the natural day, the
the curtain of the club house hoists fo
the entertainment Let us hasten W
now, the marble stairs. What an in
perial hallway! See here are parlor
ON the side, with the upolstery of tn
Kremlin and the Tuilleries; and her
are dining halls that challenge you
mention any luxury that they cannC
afford; and here are galleries wit
sculpture, and painting, and It'll
s3graPhs, and drawings from tn
best artists, Cropsey, and Bic
.staIlt, and Church and Har
and Clifford - pictures for ever
mood, whether you are impassione
or placid; shipwreck, or sunlight ovC
the sea; Sheridan's ride, or the nool
day party of the farmers under tt
trees; foaming deer pursued by tt
hsynnds in the Adirondacks, or the shee
on the lawn. On this side there al
reading rooms where you find all new
papers and magazines On that sic
there is library, where you find a
books from hermeneutics to the fail
tale. Coming in and out there are ge
hIemen some of whom stay ten mil
utes, others stay many hours. Some
these are from luxuriant homes, al
Their have excused themselves for
while from the domestic circle tn
they may enjoy the larger sociabili
of the club house. They are from di
menbered households, and they have
plain lodging somewhere, but tn
come to this club room to have the
chief enjoyment.
If the dissipating club houses of tt
country would make contract wi
the inferno to provide it 10000 men
year, and for 30 years, on the conditi
that no more should be asked of the