EXTRAORDINARY CLUBS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 116, 15 May 1880, Page 1

EXTRAORDINARY CLUBS.

Two clubs have been started, both J under one roof, in the Frankfurter ] Strasse, Berlin, one which has received the name of " The Fat Club," while the j other rejoices in the no less significant - titleof" The Thin Club." Candidates: ; desiring admission to these associations are required to qualify for membership 1 by a procedure hereafter to be recounted. No number of black balls will exclude 1 ]

an aspirant ; for balloting, although a highly popular institution in Prussia, is alike tabooed within the precincts dedidated to the exceptionally portly and the extraordinary lean. In the club-house common to both societies there has been constructed two test doorways — the one generously wide, the other thriftily narrow. To these door-ways the candidates for election, respectfully obese or attenuated, are ceremoniously conducted after they have registered a vow to abide uncomplainingly the result of the ordeal awaiting them. Should the would-be-member of the Fat Club be found capable of passing with ease through the wide door- way, his qualification is thereby proved beyond appeal. His rej ection is politely signified to him, with the merciful intimation that when he shall have waxed somewhat fatter he will be be permitted to " try again." The test applied to the exiguous candidate is exactly the converse of that to which fat aspirants are subjected. If he cannot slip through the doorway constituting the latitudinal standard of membership, he is informed that until he reduce his exorbitant dimensions to the prescribed limit he must resign all hope of being received into the emaciated bosom of the " Thin Club."