The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-08
BOYS AT THE COUNTRY CLUBS
WELCOME AS ATHLETES. BUT IA
BOOED AS noon COMPANIONS.

How the Problem OF Regulating the Junior
Members Is working Out-TOWn Clubs
DO Not Have the Question Put Up 10
Them-SpOrt and SOclablltty Mixed.
A problem that in some cases has heen a
cause Of worry to the house committees ls,
By What rules shall the junior members OF
a country club be governed2 1t was easy
to grant an inch to the juniors, but since the
boys nave been doing so we'll at golf ana
other games some of them demand an ell.
To grant the concessions claimed would
mean an end to the charm Of club life to
the adults, yet the refusal is sometimes
hard to frame when 1t 10 addressed to the
clubs best golfer. lawn tennis player or
the crack poloist. The oommitteemen
who must pass the verdict, between ad-
miration for the athletic prowess OF the Kid
and the realization that the rules must be
upheld, does not stand in slippers OF padded
down.
At the town clubs there Is no lifting OF
the barriers to juniors, but when there
Is a gymnasium or sport is the clubs object
the sons Of members may usually CONT for
lessons at stated hours by arrangement.
In the Racquet and Tennis Club a boy may
visit the club only with a senior member
of his own family, but during the recent
national tennis championship the house
committee ran up against the kid problem
Of the country clubs. Championship en-
trants, by an equitable custom as old as the
hills at all clubs, must nave the right TO
practise in the courts for a week before
the contest. This rule opened the club to
Jay Gould. the seventeen-year-old entrant
from the Tuxedo Club, who improved the
occasion by defeating in the practice games
all the players who made an attempt to
take his measure.
Georgian Court, at Lakewood, is per-
haps the best appointed private club for
sports in the world, but young Gould en-
tered from the Tuxedo Club to have the
sanction Of an organization In full afhliation
with the National Tennis and Racquet COM
mittee. The Tuxedo Club is a family colony
and the juniors are under as firm a govern
ing hand in the sports and recreations OF
the place as they are In the home circle
u control that is not 80 easy to maintain
at country clubs not 30 segregated on a
private domain. The boys and girls from
the cotta ges enjoy under certain restrictions
at Tuxedo all that may be going on at the
central club house, or they may be guests
there with their parents, and they have
the privileges except at the crowded hours
of the separate clubs, the wheels within a
wheel, such as the Tuxedo Golf Club or the
Tuxedo Tennis and Racquet Club.
The one city club that is a family organi-
cation is the Riding Club. This organiza-
ton is not at the present time under it's
on-,, ,onrfrao Tor ito hpi1IinUa on EGftv-
eighth street, near Fifth avenue, in use since
1883, are being replaced by larger structures
that will not be ready until the fall. But
the old customs and rules will prevail under
the new environment. The club, 1t may
be stated, is the inner circle of New York's
most exclusive society. The wives, minor
sons, unmarried daughters and unmarried
sister, only of members are granted the
rivileges of the club.
Practically, aside from the riding ring
and stables, distinct clubs for men and
women are run under the one roof, with
also q third club used in common by all the
members except children and minors.
The women's clubro ms are for the ex-
elusive Use Of women and children entitled
to the privilege, excepting minor sons over
10 years of age. A room is provided for
maids or nursery governesses in attendance
on women or children.
Minor sons under fifteen may Use only
the dressing rooms provided for their use,
the women's parlor and the dining room,
under certain restrictions; minor sons
over fifteen have only the use Of their
dressing rooms and the dining room.
Children under thirteen years OF age are
not allowed to ridc in the ring after 4o'clock
in the afternoon, and lone under sixteen
T. .-.-l " Ill ia Ah~ al "a
music. Also, as an instance OF the parental
care of the committee only young girls under
fourteen years of age are permitted to ride
astride in the ring or with the class in Cen
trail Park,
When Major Pendennis brought Arthur
from the country to launch him into Lon
don society he took care that the young
man should have a club, but not the one
the willy senior himself most frequented.
Asidef from the very few old and overcrowded
clubs, 70 which, inspired by pride OF family,
fathers nominate their infant sons in the
knowledge that they will not get in for
twenty-five or thirty years, the junior
needs no consideration in the town life Of
the clubs. 1t is different in the country,
where the club is the daily rendezvous Of
young and old.
There are no object ions at any time to a
well behaved hoy who knows enough TO
lave his noisy fun outdoors ar not 10 brag
about his good scores in the club. True, to
certain venerable supporters OF every
country club, freehanded with their cash,
and therefore TO be cherished by the COM
mittees in spite Of the frequent splenetic
contributions to the complaint book, the
presence of a healthy boy Is as a red flag
to a bull 1t annoys such old hands, as
they nibble at a sandwich and sip weak
tea, to see a lad browse through the lunch
con ard top of with both pudding and pie
not igr orir q the Joe cream il there is any
10 go gayly back to the lin KS ar d make a
record round. Yet to the individual boy
the country clubs have few objections to
make; the restrictive rules are 10 prevent
the BOYS entering in number and then pro-
ceeding to run things.
The s~choolboys OF New York, Boston,
Philadelphia and Chicago have each a golf
organization and their tournaments are
held with all dignity and deoorum. They
are then on their good behavior, as the
guests of a club for one thing, and also
there is usually a committee Of older boys
who come from college as voluntary ad-
visers Of their former pals, The parents,
too, nave a a Of dropping in at such
tournaments as lockers on.
Gould any one have seen a better behaved
lot OF boys?" remarked the gray haired
chairman OF the house committee as the
last stage trundled of with its load after
one interscholastio tournament. They
have acted splendidly and 1t has been a
pleasure to entertain them, yet I've been
sitting on dynamite flguratively through
out the week. You see such boys are as
liol .p;rtad ao collie onI Tive Laa. ~