QUEER CLUBS

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1687, 17 November 1925, Page 6

QUEER CLUBS

The news that clubs for gloomy people have been founded in brighter {London may startle and amuse us, writes Ernest Woodward in the “Daily Mail.” Yet such eccentric circles are by no means unique. In the 18th century, in fact, they had quite a vogue. The Surly Club was one of several curious institutions founded during that time. There, any members who ceased to display a sour temper and a gloomy disposition 'were- immediately thrown out of. the charming group. Depression and scowls were members’ bread and butter. The Split-Farthing Club was another curiosity. Here met the misers of those days; tight-fisted old gentlemen who must have driven their creditors to the asylums. One can imagine these skinflints all grouped together exchanging 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 Wilkes was the president for life; and Count Mirabeau, the greatest orator of the French Revolution was an honorary member. Another freak of 18th century society was an institution called the Lying. Club, whose members were not permitted to utter a single truth during their sittings, unless they had been expressly authorised to do so by the president! 'One spoken truth, "» found to be such, 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 a really big grievance. Under the ro f of the Unfortunate Club in those days gathered the unhappily married, the bankrupts, those who had met disaster in any walk of life or imagined themselves to be ift any way unfortunate. Whether they arranged excursions to graveyards as their successors are doing, I cannot say.