New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-05-15
THE ATHENEUM.
A HISTORY OF THE FAMOUS LONDON
CLUB

A HISTORY OF THE FAMOUS LONDON
CLUB.
When the history of the clubs of London
comes to be written a controversial chapter will
have to be included dealing with the claims of
this club that be considered the most ex-
elusive club I'm England. OF 1t will be teld
that membership is only obtanable by nomna
ton in the infancy of the candidate. In an
other case the social standing of the candidate
has to be of the very highest. But to the for
eigner the claims OF one club will seem perhaps
the strongest. He will recognize the portals OF
the Atheneum the hardest TO force Mem
bership in it is the highest honor. of the sort,
to which the possessor of literary genius may
aspire. Once elected, the great author may
sort with bishops and Cabinet Ministers, states
men and cardinals. As will appear below, there
are easy openings for certain candidates. They
have only. in fact. to announce that they wish
TO enter the club. But the visitor who has had
TO wait the doorstep TO see a member, be-
cause another visitor was occupying the few
inches set apart the sole space for strangers
temporarily sheltered beneath the classic roof,
comes away with pretty strong conviction that
the Athenaum is an excessively exclusive in
stitutfon
Under the title of The Athenaum Club and
Its Associations Mr.. Francis Gledstanes
Waugh has recently published a monograph,
which is the first TO give anything like full
account OF its subject. The Spectator alud-
ing to this book, reminds US that the London
clubs which have history and local habita-
ton nearly all cate from the last century, or
the earlier decades of this The celebrated
BrooEss was more especially connected
told, with the dongs Of those wild times
When George the Fourth was young.
BY Giray painted and by Hanbury sung.
Many influences, adds The Spectator" COM
bined to make the age in which the Athenaum
first the light a great deal more decorous,
outside the limits of a very narrow circle, than
were its immediate predecessors. Continuing,
The Spectator" says:
The first idea of such society seems to have
taken shape in the mind OF ole who has receved
and deserved TO receive a great deal of abuse,
alike from men of his and of the opposite
farty-the Right Hon. John Wilson Croker,
the object Of Macauay'S undying fury and the
Mr.. Rigby of ''Conngsby" With all his faults
which were sufficiently numerous he bad some
good qualities; anG the foundation of the most
Successful London club, of its class, stood him,
we doubt not, in good stead before the tribunal
q Rhadamanthus. MI Croker was assisted in
his efforts to start the new venture by Sir
Eumphry Davy. and no Jess a person than Fara-
Gay acted Tor a time as secretary. The first
home of the club No. IL Waterloo Place,
and On May III, 1924, the committee engaged in
organizing il celebrated by dinner their taking
possession Of that house. On June - in that
year the earliest printed list Of mcmbers with
a preamble Of objects and reasons Vas issued.
and in February 1870 the present building was
opened Ii remained substantially what it tlGn
was Till last year. when the additional story
row approaching completion, was begun.
During The erection Of their house there was,
Of course. much difference OF opinion as TO de-
tails among its members. The most important
Of these turned on the question whether an ice
house shoBld should not be attached 10 the
premises. Mr.. Croker was opposed TO the ice
house and in favor of more ornament of costly
and characteristic kind than It's partsans de-
sired. He got his way, as he was apt to do, and
his success was eommemorated in very happy
eI.gram, which Mr.. Waugh has done well
rescue from oblivion:
I'm John Wilson Croker
i do as ! please;
They ask for lcehouse,
I'm give 'en-a Frieze."
The progress Of the Athenaum from its
foundation to the present time has been all that
its founders could have desired. AT the end Of
its first quarter of a century the pressure TO
enter it had become so great that candidate
had TO have his name on the books for eight
years. In 1863 the pressure had become much
greater, and those who had their names put
down in that year could hardly hope to get into
the club before 1879 Now the time OF waiting
is even somewhat lOnger-about seventeen or
after waiting half a lifetime, candidate is very
likely to be rejected; but this is far from being
the case The friends OF the candidate. or those
acquainted with his works, are allowed to write
their names on the paper which announces his
candidature and is known as his certificate, any
day during the week preceding that on which
he comes up for ballot and no man who has a
fair number of good names his certificate is
tieekbelled unless he has excited very vehement
hostility in a considerab bic section of the club
Only two or three times, even in the experience
OF very old embers, has any one been black
balled from political or other similar causes
Some indeed. think that the Athenseum is too
good n6tured, and that people frequently
elected who, however worthy, do not quite come
under the definition TO be found in the preamble
to the first printed list already alluded to. We
are not at all sure. however. that the pouring
OF q certain amount of water into the strong
wine Of that definition has hot worked very we'll
III would not have done so but for wise pro-
vision in the constitution of the club, which al
m a Ytopef ircrr
called ad hoe at months interval nine per-
sons very highly distinguished in literature, the
arts, science, or for public services. AS the COM
nittee is most carefully selected, containing al
ways a large number Of names very fayorably
known to the public, and as Il single voice can
exclude candidate the fortunate nine al
most always judiciousy chosen. The worst that
q cavilier could say of them is that good man
has sometimes TO wait q little longer than he
should, and that the claims of literature are
sometimes postponed a little too much to those
of persons whose merits hardly known save
TO workers In the same field of science. On the
whole however. the committee elections not
only good, but excellent, and of the greatest pos
sible benefit TO the club. Cabinet Ministers.
Bishops and Judges elected without ballot
on giving notice OF their wish to join the club
another arrangement which has worked adj
Brably.
Mr.. Waugh has. as We have said, put on rec
ord the statistics of the Athenaum, but he has
done more, for his pages are full of anecdotes,
many of them good To say that they as
new 20 us as they are good would be untrue.
Some of them are pretty familiar TO certain
with those who. when they chance 10 read
good story they have heard before, Immediately
pronounce 1t q chestnut" II is wonderful how
narrow is the range over which good stories fly,
OF Mr.. Waugll's not member of the Athen9um
who is familiar with his good stories there will
he twenty who never heard of them We quote
a couple not better nor worse than most OF the
others because they chance to be new TO ou"