Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21
FAMOUS PARIS CLUBS.
Some Customs and Characteristics of
the Best Known.
From the Pail Mall Gazette.

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
The Paris club elections are over. and
have resulted in the reappointment of four
ducal presidents to the four leading social
institutions. The Due de Rohan has again
been given the chair of the Cercle de
lUHion the Due de Mortemart has been
re-eStablished at the Cercle Agricole, the
Due de la Tremoille at the Club of the Rue
Royale and the Due de la Rochefoucald-
Doudeauville at the Jockey Club. These
are positions which can only be occupied
by men of the very highest rank and of an
unSullied reputation. All four presidents
are the bearers of great names, which is
much in country where titles of nobility
are often fantastic The Union Club is the
oldest in Paris. 1t was founded in the
early years of the last century by the Due
de Guiche, the enthusiastic sportsman who
was the first to win a great race with a
French horse, and who also held the posi-
ton of 'menin' gentleman attached to
the service of the dauphin.
The duke was also the friend and broth
er-in-law of the celebrated D'OrSay. He
was Angl Omaniac from long residence in
London, and he imported various English
fashions. The first list of members con-
tanned some most distinguished names.
There was Talleyrand. the famous diplo-
mat, then getting an old man, but inVeter-
ate in his bon mots; there was Lord Gran
Vile, BulWer Lytton, Lord Seymour-more
Partisan than the Parisians, and whose ex-
PLOTS are as household word to this day
and Baron Rothschild. They dined at 6 in
those days; after that came the promenade
of the boulevard-there was only one where
a gentleman could walk, the Boulevard des
1talens, fronting the great restaurants.
Those were the heroic times of real CONVEX
sation and real cooking OF real cooking
there is yet the memory treasured in the
kitchen of the clubs chef, Joseph Legarde,
who was brought, with the offer of much
gold, from Vienna, from the household of
Prince Metternich. Yet. in an ordinary
way, the dining habits of the circle were
not expensive and a 5-shilling meal of an
evening sufticed for many of the members.
At IL o'clock began the card parties whist
and piquet. One evening a rich banker,
whose name is yet a power on the CONT
nent lost $500. Such a sum was sufficient
to make every one talk about 1t. The club
has been noted for its politics, and still is
to a degree. After important sittings in
the chamber the discussion is often car
ried on with great animation in the club
house. A noted member of the club and
an ardent politician, is the former minister
of war, Gen. Gallfet.
The Jockey Club, If we are to trust to
the chronicler, was born at the establish
ment of a man who kept pigeon shooting
ground. Many of the people who belonged
to the Cercle of the union belonged also TO
this club whose distinguishing note was
elegance to the last degree. Its members
came to have the name of Arthur, after,
1t is said, the name OF the founder. From
this club. says Tallemant. in q contempO-
rary. came the Societe Encouragement,
and horse racing was given its definite
form and existence in France. course
was mapped out at Chantilly, and the first
meeting was held there in 1884. The club
moved its quarters to some premises at
the corner of the Boulevard des 1taliens
and the Rue du Holder. Lord Seymour
was president. which is tantamount to say
ing that there was no undue sense of deco
rum about the proceedings of the club.
Bottles and dish covers had a way Of flying
out of the windows, and We may believe,
with the recorder of these events, that
simple folk marveled.
The Cercle Agricole, which belongs to
these times also, has been more political
in it's history than agricultural. 1t has for
president the Due de Montmorency, a
member of that ilIustrious family which
has through the centuries played so large
a part in the fortunes of France. 1t is
supposed to have been implicated In va
rious legitimist plots. Marshal Grouchy,
who commanded the Inflated expedition to
Ireland, and who had no better fortune at
Waterloo, was a member of the club,
whose members certainly held opposite
views to his in politics-in fact. all the
great intriguers of the day were there.