WAKING UP THE CLUBS

Evening Star, Issue 17032, 1 May 1919, Page 6

WAKING UP THE CLUBS

Not the least curious effect of the war has been the change effected in the London West End clubs. Lonely men who have lost old friends in the war can now easily make new ones there. "There is not the same stiffness and formality in club life," said a secretary of a Piccadilly club. " Few introductions are necessary. The fact that a man is a member is usually sufficient recommendation to his fellow-members. Inquiry about referenc.es is, however, even more searching- than before, and they have to be of the highest. The English were always reserved in speech ; but this trait is passing away, and I don't think it will return. To-day there is" no reason why a man should be without friends, if he becomes a member of a club. It entirely depends upon how a man conducts himself. If he is stand-offish in his mannet and bigoted in his ideas he is going to bf put into a corner by himself, of course; but the man who is' catholic in his taste* and reasonable jn his opinions is sure to make friends. There are more young men belonging to London clubs to-day than ever "before In former days they were frozen out by the exclusiveness of the older memhers ; but the old clubman no longer feels that he owns one particular chair and one special corner to the exclusion of everyone e^se - because his father and grandfather, perhaps, occupied that chair and corner for 50 years."