The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-01-14
TWO KINDS OF CLUBS.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON THE GOOD
AND THE BAD.

Famous CIubhouses In the Big Cities
Effect of the Club Upon Business and
Religious Life A Warning to the
Young.
FCopyright, 1898, by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9-This discourse
of DIR. Talmage will be helpful to those
who want to find places with healthful
and improving surroundings and to
avoid places deleterious. His text is ii
Samuel ii, IA, "Let the young men now
arise and play before us. "
There are two armies encamped by
the pool of Gideon. The time hangs
heavily on their hands. One army pro-
poses a game of sword fencing. Nothing
could be more healthful and innocent.
The other army accepts the challenge.
Twelve men against 10 men, the sport
opens. But something went adversely.
Perhaps one of the swordsmen 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 contestant by the hair and
then with the sword thrusting him in
the side, so that that which opened i'll
innocent fun ended in the massacre of
all the % sportsmen. Was there ever
better illustration of what was true
then and is true now, that that which is
innocent may be made destructive?
At this season of the year the club
houses of our towns and cities are in
full play. | have found out that there is
a legitimate and an illegitimate use of
the clubhouse 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 contes-
tants of the text when they had gone too
far with their sport All intelligent ages
have had their gatherings for political,
social, artistic, literary purposes-gath-
erings characterized by the blunt old
Anglo-Saxon designation of ''club. "
Famous Clubs.
If you have read history, you know
that there was Kings Head club, a
Ben Jonson club, a Brothers club, to
which Swift and Bolingbroke belonged;
a Literary club, which Burke and Gold
smith and johnson and Boswell made
immortal Jacobin club, Benjamin
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 destroy the
soul If one will write an honest history
of the clubs of England, Ireland, Scot
land, France and the United States for
the last 100 years, he will write the his
tory of the world. The club was an in
stitution born on English soil, but it
has thrived we'll in American atmos-
phere Who shall tell how many belong
to that kind of club where men put
purses together and open house, appor-
tioning the expense of caterer and serv-
ants and room and having sort of do
mestic establishment-a style of club
house which in my opinion is far better
than the ordinary hotel or boarding
house? But my object now is to speak of
elubhouses of different sort, such as
the Cosmos or Chevy Chase or Lincoln
club of this capital, or the Union
Leagues of many cities, the United Serv-
ice club of London, the Lotos of New
York, where journalists, dramatists,
sculptors, painters and artists from all
branches gather together to discuss
newspapers, theaters and elaborate art;
like the Americas, which camps out in
summer time dimpling the pool with
its hook and arousing the forest with its
stag hunt; like the Century club, which
has it's large group of venerable lawyers
and poets; like the Army and Navy
club, where those who engaged in war
like service once on the land or the sea
now come together to talk over the days
of carnage; like the New York Yacht
club, with its floating palaces of beauty
upholstered with velvet and paneled
with ebony, having all the advantages
of electric bell and of gaslight and of
kings pantry one pleasure boat costing
$1,000 another $l5, 600, another $780,
O00 another $65, 1000, the fleet of
pleasure boats belonging to the club
having cost over $4,000, 900; like
the American Jockey club, to which
belong men who have passionate fond
ness 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 its power, crying out; Hast thou
clothed his neck with thunder? The
glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paw
eth in the valley and rejoiceth in his
strength He saith among the trumpets
'Ha, hat and he smelleth the battle
afar off, the thunder of the captains 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
Sill 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 ana
there an aged man reading newspaper
or an employee busting sofa or clerk
writing up the accounts, but when the
curtain of the night falls on the natural
day then the curtain of the clubhouse
hoists for the entertainment. Let US