Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-31
WOMEN IN PARTISAN CLUBS.
Dinner Rules and Regulations Concern
ing Admission of Females.

ing Admission of Females.
From Paris Correspondent of the London Telegraph.
Some information about the dinner
rules in Paris clubs and the regulations
in the same establishments concerning
the admission of ladies has just been fur
| nished by an authority on such matters.
In the first place, it is now certain that
the Jockey Club, initiating other places
of the kind, will henceforth have a spe-
cial dining room for guests or friends of
members. This decision was arrived at
last May, and the new salle-a-manger for
persons invited to dine In the house is
nearly ready. At the Jockey Club the
member who looks after the creature
comfort department. or. as he is called
the commissaire de la table" is the
Marquis de Nedonchel He has under his
| orders that truly celebrated chef, Montau-
ron, who belongs to a family of famous
French cooks. and has inherited from a
long line Of ancestors his undoubted
also near the Madeleine, like the Jockey,
and to which foreign dplomatists are
admitted eX-officio the president of the
dinner committee is the Marquis de Mo-
dene, who commands the kitchen and the
wine cellar, both of which are highly
esteemed by members and their friends
who dine at the club. Among these
friends are occasionally ladies. In this
important matter of ladies the club of
the Rue Royale seems to be in advance
| OF any one of the other establishments of
tIt Sol 4>ot only are ldulSS invited 10
dine there. but they have at their dis
pcsal special salle-a-manger which can
seat thirty persons. Three new dining
rooms have just been fitted up in this
club. They are in the second floor, or
suite OF apartments. overlooking the
Place de Ia Concorde. There the Marquis
de Massa formerly lived. One of the
rooms Is for members. the other for their
male guests, and the third for the ladies.
The commissaire de Ia table is the Mar
ouis de Ianlay. who was formerly secre-
| tary to Marshal Gle MacMahon at the Ely
see. The cook Is an able and accom-
plished pupil of Farlin, who was for
| nerly chef at the club and is now COM
| mander Of the imperial kitchens of EN-
The Agricole, on the quays is a less
| known club, patronized by country gen
| tlemen for the most part Here there are,
| as in other clubs, large and small tables,
and ladies, long excluded from the place,
are now admitted. Not only this, but the
| club which has become the most hos
| pitable in Paris. gives magnificent dinners
| during the winter and ladies attend in
| evening dress. a special place being set
| apart for them as a cloak room The
| commissaire is NJ. Tyssier de Sigy. 1t
| appears that what We're known as din
| ers regionauX,' or what in England are
! called country dinners, are no longer the
rule at the Agricole, and no reason has
| been assigned for their abolition They
| were given by landed proprietors. great
vineyard owners and manufacturers who
| were members to those of their country
neighbors who had houses in Paris or
| who were visiting or passing through
| the city. The Union Artistique, in the
| Rue Boissy d'Anglais. and close to the
| entrance of the Champs Elysees, is a
place noted for its wines. and especially
| for Its vim ordinaire, which is the most
! excellent of the kind to be found any
where. The culinary department is in
! the hands of Dieudonne formerly in the
| family of the Schneiders, the great foun-
dry owners and big gunmakers of Creu-
sot. Here, too. there are special dining
rooms for guests of both sexes. At the
Automobile Club on the Place de la Con-
| corde with its top of-the-roof dining
! place and garden. ladies are frequently
seen. but the dinner invitations have to
| space.
| At the Cercle Militaire, on the Avenue de
IOpera. and corner of the Rue de la PaiX,
| the rules about the admission of ladies are
| remarkable. Officers of the army and navy
| who belong to the club can invite to dinner
| there only their wives, daughters and sig
tiers. Mothers and aunts are admitted If
' necessary after negotiations of prolonged
Character but female cousins are carefully
| excluded. The cuisine at the Cercle Mill
| taire is, perhaps, little more democratic
| than at any of the high clubs above men,
| toned. 1t may even verge little on the
| cuisine bourgeoise type, but it is none the
| less excellent for that. Officers are catered
| for according to their means and can COM
/ mand excellent dinners with good wine al
| reasonable rates for them selves and the
l
| invite to the establishment. With refer
| ence to the lady relatives of members oi
| the Army and Navy Club they can only
| dine there on Sundays in winter 1t is be-
| lieved that it was the Cercle of the Rue
| Royale which first opened its doors to the
| gentler and fairer sex. It's example has
| been followed on large scale. Before the
| innovation the rules were rigorous. and
| mems clubs were called bachelors dens by
! the excluded women. 1t was also said thai
| the persons who frequented clubs were
/ afraid, or unwilling, to face social obliga.
| tons. and that they took refuge in their
| luxuriously carpeted, well-lighted and gen.
| orally comfortable dens from the exactions
| and duties of good society. King Charles
! X said long ago that clubs would be the
| ruin of French society. They may possibly
| have once been on the way to bring aboul
| that ruin of which the old king spoke with
| horror. but that is hardly the case now
| adays. when there are actually Paris clubs
| with special dining rooms for lady guests
| and Others where, during the winter sea
| son, the women mingle with the men at the
| banqueting' board just as they do in nri-
vate houses.