Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-18

West, young man, and grow tea fo
 your country!"
 mere IS one club in town. tn
 gill!-room of which, particularl, festive in days of yore, for it boast strong percentage of vonthfu
 members, now sports one of the mos
 elaborate tea 'layouts" in the Unite, States of dry America. PunctnaI " at 4 every day servitors annea,
 bearing all the appurtenances of : tea that would delight the heart ot
 the most English of Enelishman
 There are mullins and crumpets ana
 Jam sandwiches; there are merlin.
 pues ana rusks and cinnamon toast
 tnefe are lady fiS~ers. It is one
 of the sights of Ciubland to see the
 1fequenters of this grillroom. they
 Who yesterday consumed double
 BronXes and Clover clubs. crossino
 the floor toward a table-it is 9
 self-servlce tearoon-with all that tea flend could desire for makjne Wild afternoon of it. One of them
 stumbled the other day, gave q pa thetlc little cry, and upset tea and cream and lady fingers all over the floor. It was the most exciting thiney that has happened in that club for weeks and weeks.
 So much for the social side of the
 boozeless club. The financial side makes far gloomier picture. Al practically all clubs in New York the bar receipts represented an imnor- tant part of the income; at some 'heV were the most important. serv- ing to cover deficits in other depart- ments, allowing clubs to break even or show profits. It was quite com mon tor the bar profits to offset losses In a clubs restaurant, to permit the serving of meals at pri ces considerably less than those pre- Va'llng around town at restaurants of the same calibre. Now, however, many club restaurants are mn against it. Members are startled from day to day by sudden jumps in the prices of foods, at the insidious way in which cover charges" have Wormed themselves onto meal checks It was not so bad as long as mem bers were allowed to keep stocks of alcoholic drink in lockers at their clubs and treat others to drinks from these stocks. In such cases, mem bers owning the stocks sent club attendants to fetch the drinks and the clubs took care. to charge for such servlce at rate which did much toward offsetting the deficit due to the Elimination of the regular bar and grillroom drinking
 But when locker hospitality became legally taboo clubs were confronted with a crisis. For some time vet members living at the clubs-and many New York clubs make provis- on for quite a number of permanent 'esidents-could continue to take ! friends to their rooms and treat them 0 drinks, but there was no profit i rom this to the club. It became imperative to find ways to cover the leficit by other means. As a re- i suit of this impera tive need prac- ,lcally every club in the city has escorted to some eXpedient or other 0 maintain its income at level ! where 1t can meet constantly grow ng expenses.
 One of the favorite forms of in- reasing the revenue has been by aising the initiation fees of new members and the annual dues from Il members. This is one of the implest ways of overcoming the diff iculty, as the dues may be raised, : necessary, to a figure that will !: lake certain an increase of revenue i: xactly offsetting the decrease due , the lack of liquor sales. At one i: Tub, which may be taken as typical 1: i many throughout the city con- {:
 
 ave been raised about 25 per cent, oth for residents and non-residents; ; is calculated that this increase lake it possible for the club to con- nue on as satisfactory basis as hen it could rely on constant big : avenue from it's bar. l:
 The prices of rooms have also : one up at clubs all over the city. : ne club used to rent rooms without ath couple of years ago at $2 and 25O, while rooms with bath cost $3 oon the rates went up to $2.50, $3 nd $3.50; now, as result of the : risis brought about by the demise the clubs bar, the rates are S3 : nd $50 for rooms without bath, nd S4.50 for rooms with bath.
 It is still too early, in the opinion .; clubmen, to prophecy what the ltimate effect of prohibition on CIV York's clubs will be. The fi- ancial expedients adopted may or ay not prove as adequate as those ho have instituted them hope they ill prove. When the attitude of waiting" is no more, hen it is definitely known that not zen beer and light wines are to re- lrn to clubs, the attendance of le members may drop to such an ,tent as to make clubrooms now 'owded mere shadows of their .istine glory. Who knows? Any ow, it may be said just now that le average New York club, though ,oZeless. is cheerful,