Evening star., 1933-08-06

- EOPLE who read the newspapers and
who are sensitive to the undercurrents
of meaning IN headlines realize that
any member Of any club becomes at
once a prominent ciubman as soon as
he succumbs to a taxicab accident, an
attack of ptomaine poisoning. surgical opera
ton or q financial operation. prominent
Clubman Goes Under Knife" for instance does
not necessarily mean that the president Of the
local Union League Club has been frisked
for his vermiform appendix. On the con-
trary, 1t may have reference to the janitor
Of the Tackapoosha Club, forty-second assem-
bly, district who has been surgically treated for
enlarged tonsils.
Nor does the title Prominent Club Member"
imply that when viewed in profile by his fellow
members with the naked eye, his waistline
shows that he has low resistance to good
bill of fare. Thin prominent members have
been resigning from clubs lately with as much
frequency as bulging prominent members, and
this paper Is an examination into the cause Of
SO many designations by assorted sizes of
prominent members that clubs. which formerly
had long waiting lists, now have membership
vacancies.
You can't tell me that the need for economy
has done 1t all. Nor has there been a con-
certed return to the bosom of the family,
with table tennis at home instead Of Kelly
pool at the club, and by mentioning this noisy
game, you will understand that while In my
time may have been a prominent member Of
waistline prominence, I was never a member Of
many prominent clubs The fact is that during
the past three decades people found themselves
prominent members" as the victims Of a fad,
and before they were aware Of it they had
collected club memberships in the spirit Of
King George v collecting stamps. In short,
they became possessed of duplicates; then fol-
lowed the designations.
Hence, If this epidemic of designations IS to
kI.-. - h. ol,,t,
ship exchange where by applying to broker
a man who found himself loaded up with
memberships in four theatrical clubs could
retain one of these memberships and swap
the others for Y. M. c. A. membership with
swimming pool privileges writer's club men,
bership and a Summer membership in a sub
urban beach club.
to this exchange. I believe in consolidation.
In the vicinity of New York, for example. there
ought to be consolidation of clubs so that
man who woke up one morning to the realiza-
tion that he belonged to the Soundshore Beach
and Country Club, university club and the
Minnewaska Association of the sixtieth assem-
bly, district, could call a meeting of his fellow
members and could form club to be known as
the Soundshore Beach, University and Mime
waska Club, and thus cut out two annual dues
and the same number Of Christmas funds.
Take my own case, for example, and for
horrible example at that. During the past
three years I have divested myself Of MEM
bership in two golf clubs, an athletic club
theatrical club, beach club and (don't be-
lieve it If you don't want to- a yacht club
1t might have been possible to put through a
consolidation, although these clubs were sepa-
rated by miles Of railway and ocean travel, but
you would hardly credit how easily the COM
bination could have been made, had these
clubs been in the same neighborhOOd
This sounds like nonsense to me-" you may
say, but the aims Of these golf, athletic and