Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1908-07-30

new member as greatly as though he had received
- a vacant Garter or had been caricatured in "Vanty
y&GS9I Men who belong to the Grill Club never men
ton that fact. If you were to ask one of them
which clubs he frequents, he win name all save that particular one.
BE is afraid if he told you he belonged to the Grill, that it would
sound like Boosting:
The Grill Club dates back to the days when shakespeare's Thea
ire stood on the present site of the Chimes" office. 1t has a golden
Grill which Charles the Second presented to the Club, and the org-
nal manuscript Of "Tom and Jerry in London" which was bequeathed
to it by Pierce Egan himself. The members, when they write letters
at the Club, still use sand to blot the ink.
The Grill enjoys the distinction of having %backbaled, without
political prejudice, a Prime Minister of each party. At the same sit
ting at which one of these fell, it elected, on account of his brogue
and his bulls, CUTLER, g. G, who was then a penniless barrister.
When Paul Prevail, the French artist who came to London by
royal command to paint a portrait of the Prince of Wales, was made
an honorary member-only foreigners may be honorary members
he said, as he signed his first wine card, II would rather see my name
on that, than on a picture in the Louvre"
At which CUTLER remarked, "That is a devil of a compliment, be-
have been dead fifty years."
On the night after the great fog of 1897 there were five mem
bers in the Club, four of them busy with supper and one reading in
front of the fireplace. There is only one room to the Club, and one
long table. At the far end of the room the fire of the grill glows red,
and, when the fat falls, blazes into fame, and at the other there is
broad bow window of diamond panes, which looks down upon the
street. The four mel at the table were strangers to each other, but as
they picked at the grled bones, and slipped their Scotch and soda,
they conversed with such charming animation that a visitor to the
Club, which does not tolerate visitors, would have counted them as
friends of long acquaintance, certainly not as Engishmen who had
met for the first time, and without the form of an introduction. But
it is the etiquette and tradition of the Grill, that whoever enters it
must speak with whoever he finds there. 1t is to enforce this rule
that there is but one long table, and whether there are twenty men at
it or two, the walters, supporting the rule, will place them side by side.
For this reason the four strangers at supper were seated to-
gether, with the candles grouped about them, and the long length OF
the table cutting a white path through the outer gloom.
81 repeat" said the gentleman with the black pearl stud, "that
the days for romantic adventure and deeds of foolish daring have
passed, and that the fault lies with ourselves. Voyages to the pole I
do not catalogue as adventures. That African explorer, young Chef
ney, who turned up yesterday after he was supposed to have died In
Uganda, did nothing adventurous. He made maps and explored the
sources OF rivers. He was in constant danger, but the presence of
danger does not constitute adventure. Were that sc, the chemist who
studies high explosives, or who investigates deadly poisons, passes
through adventures daily. No, adventures r for the adventurous
But one no longer ventures. The spirit of it has died of inertia. We
are grown too practical, too just, above all, too sensible. In this room,
for instance, members of this Club have, at the swords point, disputed
the proper scanning Of one of Popes couplets. Over so weghty a
matter Is spilled Burgundy on a gentlemans cuff, ten men fought
across this table, each with his raper in one hand and a candle in the
other. All ten were wounded. The question of the spilled Burgundy
concerned but two of them. The eight others engaged because they
were men of spirit They were, indeed, the first gentlemen of the
day. Tonight, were you to spill Burgundy on my cuff, we're you even
to insult me grossly, these gentlemen would not consider it incumbent
upon them to kill each other They would separate us, and tomorrow
morning appear as witnesses against Ii at Bow Street. We have here
tonight, in the persons of Sir Andrew and myself, an illustration of
how the ways have changed"
The men around the table turned and glanced toward the gentle
man in front of the fireplace. He was an elderly and somewhat portly
person, with a kindly, wrinked countenance, which wore continually
a smile of almost childish confidence and good-nature. 1t was a face
which the illustrated prints had made intimately familiar. He held a
book from him at arms-ength, as if to adjust his eyeight, and his
brows were knit with interest.
"Now, were this the eighteenth century," continued the gentle
man with the black pearl, "when Sir Andrew left the Club tonight I
would have him bound and gagged and thrown into a sedan chair.
The watch would not interfere, the passers-by would take to their
heels, my hired DULLES and rufians would convey him to some lonely
spot where we would guard him until morning. Nothing would come
Off, except added reputation to myself S a gentleman of adventurous
spirit, and possibly an essay in the 'Tater;' with stars for names,
entitled, let us say, The Budget and the Baronet'"
"But to what end, sir q inquired the youngest of the members.
"And why Sir Andrew, of all persons-why should you select him for
this adventure?"