London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
POLITICAL CLUBS AND THEIR JUNIORS.
A few lines about political clubs. Of course, the Carlton, Conservative, and Reform, to say nothing of White's and Brooks's, are right enough. And to the list may be added I suppose although some people say that it takes a good twenty years to weed a newly-started party circle. I have so many friends in the Junior Carlton that I would | |
79 | not wish to say a word condemnatory of the past of that most comfortable institution, still, a glance at the Candidates' Book of , in , would no doubt reveal names and professions very different from the names and professions that used to appear in earlier volumes. The Junior Carlton of is a vast improvement on the Junior Carlton that occupied the premises of the Old Parthenon on the Regent Street side of Waterloo Place. In days to come the same no doubt will be said of other political Juniors. Like good wine, they will improve as years roll on. Rome was not built in a day, and the prestige of a club cannot be obtained with the same celerity as marble, morocco, Turkey carpets, and the electric light. And here I may suggest that the young man from the country should be a little careful of joining clubs that advertise and circularise for members. and Albemarle Street are famous for these mushroom societies. When I was a boy I was induced to belong to a club called by a Service title. I fancy we started in . Soon we (I mean the owner) prospered, and took a house in . It was a beautiful house, divided from the Guards by the premises of the London Joint Stock Bank (in those days partly used for a boarding house), and the principal entrance was garnished with medallions of Nelson and Wellington. We did not get on, however, very well in our new |
80 | diggings, and one day someone called us unkindly the upon which we collapsed. I need scarcely say that I had left the club long before the final disaster. |
