QUEER CLUBS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 100, 24 October 1925, Page 16

QUEER CLUBS

STRANGE QUALIFICATIONS FOR,

MEMBERSHIP,

The news that clubs for gloomy people have been founded in brighter London may startlo and ainusu us, writes Ernest Woodward in tho "Daily Mail." Yet such eccentric circles are by no moans unique, in tho eighteenth century, in fact, they had quite a vogue. The Surly Club was one of the several curious institutions inaugurated during that period. There, any members who ceased to display a sour temper and a gloomy disposition were, immediately thrown out of tho charming group. Depression and scowls were members' bread and butter. The Split-Farthing Club was another curiosity. Here n:et tho misers of those days; tightfisted old gentlemen who must havo driven their creditors to the asylums. One can imagine these skinflints all grouped, together exchangiiig tales of how they saved farthings. No less queer was the Ugly Club, The -qualification' for membership, once earned, was doubtless easy enough to keep. John Wilkcs was president for life; and Count Mirabeau, the greatest orator of the "French Revolution, had the pleasure of being an honorary member. Another freak of eighteenth century society was an institution called the Lying Club, whoso members were not permitted to utter a single truth during their sittings, unless they had I) UC u expressly authorised to do so by the president! One spoken'truth, if found to bo sneh, might end one's membership. To what other clubs former members of that institution resorted, we do not know. If they attempted to gain entrance to the Split-Farthing Club by saying they were misers, one would imagine the retort, "You're a liar!"

The unfortunate Club- must have been, similar to the present-day Sick and Sorry Clubs, where the qualification for membership is.said to be the ownership of a despondent air and

r, really big grievance. Under the roof of the Unfortunate Club in those days gathered the unhappily married, the bankrupts, those who had met dieter in any walk of life or imagined themselves to be in any way unfortunate. Whether they arranged excursions to graveyards as their successors are doing, I cannot say. ;