The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-31
THAT feller." stammered the new
 hallboy in great excitement, just carried d magazine out of


 Il just carried a magazine out of the house."
 Who? MT. Newmember?" asked the head clerk. "P'raps 1t was his own.'
 No; 1t belongs to the club, an he took it when he thought wasn't lookin'.''
 Nothing of the kind' answered the head clerk Do you understand. no mem Der ever violates the club rules inten- tlonally."
 Then the head clerk, muttering some thing about the sins of his employers, sat down and wrote a note to MT. New member. It was a delicately polite com munieation, asking that gentleman whether by inadvertence he had carried away the current number of a popular magazine and begging him, should he dis cover that he mad done so, to return 1t at his earliest convenience.
 The head clerk made note as to asking the house committee to provide blank form to meet sucl. cases, and held short conver. atlon with his immediate subor dinate upon the subject of club etiquette and then took up other duties
 Clubland sees many strange dolngs. Hundreds of comparatively new club members have not grasped the elemen- tary principle that club member is on his honor to take no pecuniary or other advantage Of his club, because that would le taking advantage of fellow members, toward whom he sustains relation of social trust and confidence.
 Ignorance of this simple law has all sorts of manifestations in the clubs to which entrance is easy. Every such club includes some members who habtually violate the universal rule against tipping club servants.
 The offense of cutting newspaper files is of common occurrence and that of car rying off current magazines is not un- usual. In n surprisingly large number of clubs the library is systematically plum dered by members who take out books which they neglest to return.
 It may be hard to believe, but there are clubs, and pretty well known clubs at that, which are time and again plundered of toilet articles-hair brushes. scissors, nail files. There are other that find it | impossible to keep paper cutters. and In some the matches disappear safe and all. Much of this petty thieving is the work of servants, but some of 1t is done by members who to all outward appearances are as respectable as their fellows. Every club, new or old, has few bad debts. These increase in hard times and shrink in times of prosperity.
 A club that should lose $500 upon annual sales of $50,000 would be doing badly in good times and pretty well in hard times. Shortly before the panic of 1893 there had been great expansion of club life and in the years between 1893 and 1898 many of the new clubs either went out of existence or sharply cut down expenses because members neglected to pay dues and to meet other club obligations.
 That period was marked by stricter A to which a good many clubs have cIung through all the good times since. There has been another expansion of club life within the last five or six years. and the clubs that suffered by the last panic are on their guard against the next.
 Most clubs find that the posted list Is an effectual device to make members pay their monthly house account The list Is long when first posted. but it quickly shrnks. and in very few clubs is the limit list of those whose credit is suspend ed a very long one.
 man with credit at half dozen clubs may easily live the better part of year without paying out much for meat and drink. He has only to be careful to see that he is not posted at all his clubs at the same time. Club conity has not yet gone so far that house committees keep each other informed as to members who have got on the limit list, and man does not suffer in his credit at one club be- cause he is momentarly under the ban at another.
 The club credits of all large clubs are considerable One club. however. drew the line sharply when member sought ohave his wedding carriages placed on his monthly bill. Another club drew the line when nonresident member wished to buy on credit from the club cellars a keg of rum and have it sent half way across the continent
 One of the most insidious things that some clubs have to deal with is the abuse of nonresident and suburban privileges. If s of course. the duty of a nonresident or a suburban member of club, should| he move to the city. to notify the properl authority at once in order that full resi- dent dues may be assessed against him.
 But a good many men manage to live in town and to enjoy full resident privi- leges upon the relatively low dues of non residents or suburbans. Most of these dodgers would be hurt If they were &C., cnsed of defrauding their fellow members to save 80 or $40 year. but It comes to just about the same thing Every year some clubs have to scare such dellnquents into common honesty by threats of ex- pulsion or requests to resign.
 Another abuse from which some of the large clubs suffer Is the violation of the rules touching the admission of guests. that a member may introduce to six For eight a year. This rule Is violated in some of the best-known clubs. and in others is