The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-14
REAL

When the members of the house com met once a month 1t was a lodge of. sor- row. Hoxie, chairman of the committee, was the chief mourner. He did not like the part. He made S40000 year at his business and was considered one of the brightest men In the automobile field, yet as chairman of the house committee of the Country club he was pronounced failure. What irritated him beyond meas ure was the fact that he got the chair manship because of his criticism of the former management. It hurt his pride that he was making a poorer showing than his predecessor, notwithstanding the fact that he gave more earnest study. more hours of valuable time and more concern to the club than he did to his private business.
 The whole situation was ridiculous The club had a magnificent club house, beau tiful grounds and a membership of 1000. Yet it ran behind in way that spelled bankruptcy The club house was 22 miles out from the city Nearly s1,O00,0O0 had been spent on the building and the grounds There was regiment of ser- wants. The chef was one of the finest in the east The site was glorious, the roads were perfect, the aggregate wealth of the members approximated s1,000,o00. .000. Ev- erything the club officials could think of to add to the attractiveness of the club had been introduced, yet there was an alarming deficit month after month.
 The bar. which usually is young gold mine in a club, did not pay the wages of the bartenders The restaurant ran be- hind thousands of dollars a month Some days 30 persons visited the club house and some days only half dozen or dozen entered it's doors. Even the officers got tired of the emptiness of the great struc- ture and only went there as matter of duty and not of pleasure. Once a year everybody got together and worked like troians for the annual ball. But that was the only function of the F months that drew a crowd.
 Hoxje had tried various means to arouse interest and bring the members out The Symphony Orchestra was engaged for a great concert. and there were less persons on the floor than there were on the stage. He tried the drawing power of a monthly dance, but persons who came once had enough. The dance was suited. unen- toyable and deadly dull. 4 big Fourth of July celebration proved a frost. It was all right while the pyrotechnic show was on, but it only took 20 minutes to burn up s2o00 worth of fireworks. The people did not know what to do with themselves when the flower pots, the aerial bombs. iilf Sichi Sh9rptKftS ana the set pieces had burned out. and after sitting around Tor half an hour they went home Gisap- pointed. On Sundays fair number of men drove out in theT cars, wandered about the porch or parlors and then rode away. Every member was well to do, but nobody spent money freely Every one took club life sadly. There was cold ness and a spirit of disinterestedness that reminded person of a theatrical show that pals on the audience.
 If it were not for the fact that I got this assignment because of the things said about Crawford's regime I'd throw 1t up in disgust" said Hoxie. after he had read over the monthly statement to the other members of the committee.
 The statement was enough to discourage anyone Every department showed a loss. Also every one blamed the house com fnittee. Dozens of members had resigned. The club would not make enough to pay the interest on it's bonds. There would have to be general assessment.