The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-18


for gambling, for any kind Of misde-
meanor. a member Is dropped out.
Brilliant clubhouse from top to bot
tom. The chandeliers, the plate, the
furniture, the companionship, the lit
erature, the social prestige. a complete
enchantment.
But the evening is passing on, and
so We hasten through the hall and down
the steps and into the street and from
block to block until we come to another
style OF clubhouse. Opening the door.
we find the fumes of strong drink and
tobacco something almost in~tolerable.
These young men at this table, 1t Is
easy to understand what they are at
from the flushed cheek, the intent look,
the almost angry way Of tossing the
dice or of moving the chips" They
are gambling. At another table are
men who are telling vile stories. They
are three-fourths intoxicated, and bet
ween IL and l o'clock they will go stag
gering, hooting, swearing, shouting on
their way home. That is an only son..
On him all kindness, all care, all cul-
ture has been bestowed. He is paying
his parents in this way for their kind
ness. That is a young married man
who only a few months e at the altar
made promises Of kindness and fidelity,
every one Of which he has broken.
Walk through and see for yourself.
Here are all the implements of dissi-
patton and quick death. AS the hours
of the night go away and conversation
becomes imbecile and more debasing.
Now it is time to shut VI. Those who
are able to stand will get III On the
pavement and balance themselves
against the lamppost or against the
ratings of the fence. The young man
who Is not able to stand will have a
bed ~improvised for him in the club
house, or two not quite so overcome
with liquor will conduct hin to his
fathers house, and they will ring the
doorbell, and the door will open, and
the two imbecile escorts will introduce
into the hallway the ghastliest and
most hellish spectacle hat ever enters
a front door-a drunken son. If the
d~issipating clubhouses Of this country
would make a contract with the in
ferno to provide it 10, 900 men a year,
and for 20 years, on the condition that
no more should be asked of them, the
clubhouses could afford to make that
contract, for they would save home
steads, a fortunes. save bodies, minds
and souls. The 10000 men who would
be but a small part of the multitude
sacrificed without the contract. But
I make a vast difference between clubs.
1 have belonged to four clubs-a theO-
logical club, a ball club and two liter
airy clubs. I got from them physical
| regeneration and moral health. What
shall be the principal? If God will
help me I will lay down three princi-
Piles by which you may judge whether
the club where you are a mi or
the club to which you have been invit-
ed Is a legitimate or an illegitimate
clubhouse.
First of all I want you to test the
club by it's influences on home, if you
have a home. I have been told by a
prominent gentleman in club life that
I three-fOurths of the members of the
great clubs of these cities are married
! men. That wife soon loses her infiu-
, ence over her husband who foolishly
looks upon all evening absence as an
assault ON dOmesticity. How are the
great enterprises of art and literature
and beneficence and public veal to be
carried on if every man is to have his
world bounded on one side by his from
doorstep and on the other side by his
ack window, knowing nothing higher
than his own attic or nothing lower
than his own cellar? That wife who
! becomes jealous of her husbands at
tention to art or literature or religion
or charity is breaking her own scepter
Of conjugal power. I know an instance
where a wife thought that her husband
was giving too many gifts to Christian
service, TO cnarltaDle SERVICE, to prayer
meetings and to religious co~nvocation.
| She systematically decoyed him away
until now he attends no church and is
on a rapid way to destruction, his NOR
ais gone and, I fear, his soul gone.
Let any Christian wife rejoice when
her husband consecrates evenings to
the service of God, or to charity, or to
art, or to anything elevated, but let
not men sacrifice home life to club life.
l can point out to O a great many
names of men who are guilty Of this
sacrilege. They are as genial a. an
gels at the ~ubhou and as ugly as
sin at home. They are generous on all
subjects Of wine suppers, yachts and
fast horses, but they are stingy about
the Wife's dress and the children's
shoes. That mar has made that which
might be a healthful recreation a
usurper of his affections, and he has
married it, and he is guilty Of moral
bigamy. Under this process the wife,
whatever her features, becomes I'M
interesting and homely.. He becomes
critical Of her, does not like the dress,
does not like the way she arranges her
hair, is amazed that he ever was so
unromantic as to offer her hand and