The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-26
NEW YORK CLUBS.
Most Expensive Places of Their Kind
I'm the World.


G. B. Mallon, in Ainslee's Magazine
There is no city in the world that has
more expensive clubhouses than New York
and nowhere else are club dues so high To
man with modest income one good club
is, In many ways, an economy. For the
millionaire. a dozen clubs are not worth
their dues. He may find 1t convenient to
use three or four of them, and he probably
does not enter the others more than once a
year. know one man in New York who is
a member of twenty-one clubs. He has
paid dues to one of them ever since 1t was
organized, nearly twenty years ago, and
ne mas been inside its doors but once There
are others in which he has not been during
the past-fve years, and possibly for a
longer time. If one picked out at random
a dozen young men of wealth and social
position in New York, he would find that
they had at least five clubs In common.
This is both the weakness and the strength
OF New York's club life. The club does not
identify a man here as it does in London
Each club has few men whose names are
always associated with il, but the ma
Jority of its members are also members of
several other clubs which they use quite
as much, and their loyalty is divided.
Were this not the case, however, we should
have many fewer handsome clubhouses
because there would not be members
enough to support them. We could not
follow better example in selecting clubs
for our millionaire bachelor than that set
by the discriminating possessor of 10000
CO., who devotes much of his time when
here to his country place in New Jersey
He selected such clubs as he thought q
gentleman should belong to, rather more
from sentiment than from actual need of
them. Here is his list, with the annual
dues which he must pay: Union. s75:
Racquet, SIS; Tuxedo, 500; University, $50:
Metropolitan. sl0O; Coaching, $685. Riding
500; Country, SIS; New York Athletic, $50;
also member of his college fraternity
club, OF several New Jersey clubs of half
a, do2e1 associations; and of a good club
In London and another in Paris. The ini-
tiation fees of the New York clubs to
which he belongs range from the $500 of
s sne M Mfe th and the Union and the
Fencers. If our bachelor happens to have
strong Republican convictions, we NAV
add to this list the most influential club in
the United States, the Union League, with
its Initiation fee of $500 and it's annual dues
OF SO Or, he may have a fondness for arts
and letters and join the Century Club by
paying sl5O initiation and $50 annual dues
or the more risky Lotos, with It's entrance
Zee OF 500 and its annual dues Of SIS. The
Calumet, with an initiation fee of $500,
prides itself, with some justice, on being a
Junior Union Club, and its far more ex-
elusive neighbor, the Knickerbocker with
an entrance fee of $500 and annual dues of
most popular bachelors in New York So
ciety. Nor should the claims of the Players
CLUB be overlooked, If the bachelor likes to
get as near the stage as did the man to
pugilism who shook the hand that shook
the hand Of Sullivan. There are some act
ors still in the Players Club, but, for the
real midnight-to-daw flavor of the pro-
fession, he should join the Lambs Club
and use 1t moderately. To this list may be
added, If our bachelor is something of
rover. and appreciates club comforts in the
cities where he is likely to spend the most
time, the Metropolitan, of Washington at
$50 a year; the Philadelphia, in the city of
that name, S5 annually. and the Somerset,
likely to be three or four golf and hunting
clubs, If he be sportsman He may make
choice OF ten or dozen of these organi-
cations already mentioned without being
extravaganza, and possibly without being
described as a 'well-known club man.
should misfortune make him a target for
the newspapers. But, when he has paid his
initiation fees and his dues, his club ex-
penses are not ended, even If he does not
use them. There Christmas boxes for
to subscribe and an occasional subscrip-
ton for other purposes 1t would be fair to
put his annual club expenses, exclusive of
his restaurant and bar bills, at $1,000
quently his restaurant and bar bills may
easily average him 5000 a year. A distin-
guished member of one OF the clubs men,
toned. died two years ago, and curious
steward who went back through his ac-
counts with the club, found that his bar
bills alone amounted to $685. 600, and at that
time the club was less than thirty years
old. 1t is only fair to say that this mans
case was an exception. There is very much
less hard drinking in the best New York
ago. and in most of them gambling is pro-
hibited.