Club Life in New York.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 456, 22 March 1890, Page 6

Club Life in New York.

Given a young man with an income of £SOO a year and a taste for quiet social pleasures, and you have one well fitted to live in a club of modest proportions (says the New York “ Star”). New York abounds in such clubs. Out of the 50 or more thoroughly equipped clubs in the city, less than a dozen are of the costly and fashionable kind. It costs £6O to get into the Union League, and £ls a year for dues, and the membership is full. Much the same facts and figures are true of the Manhattan, the Union, and the University olubs. Rates are less at the Lotos, Century, and St. Nicholas; but these are hardly clubs for the young man with £SOO a year. After these comes a long list of clubs whose entrance fees vary from £2 to £lO, and whose dues seldom exceed £6 per year. Most clubs lose money on their restaurants, and the man who dines steadily at his club gets some part of what the club loses. Club tables d'hote are usually better than those of equal price at public restaurants. A la carte prices in most clubs are from 10 to 20 per cent, below those of first - rate ala carte restaurants. The little D. K. E. Club runs a 3s table d'hote , and professes to make both ends meet. The Reform Club has an unusually good table d'hote at 3s. At the Press Club, the Harvard Club, the Fellowcraft Club, or the Southern Society, a man may dine a la carte for what he will. If he be content with soup, roast, two vegetables, salad, and coffee, his bill will not exceed 4s; but if he is determined to go through the whole list of soup, fish, entree, roast, vegetables, dessert, cheese, coffee, wine, and liqueur, he will have to pay something between 12s and £l. Here are some figures which will fit the case of almost any young man living at a modest club: lodging, £3 to £lO per month ; breakfast, it of rolls and coffee, served in his own room, lOd ; if a more elaborate meal in the cafe, say 2s 6d ; dinner, from 3s to Bs. This figures up from £9 to £26 per month. The first is a pietty low minimum, the last a fair maximum for a man who is not extravagant, but likes comfortable lodgings, good dinners, and an occasional bottle of wine. For £3 a month the club lodger will get a bedroom pretty high up in the house. If the club is well managed, however, he will have an electric bell button within reach of his door, and at the other end a reasonably prompt boy to answer the call. He will have, in addition to this, access to vastly more comfortable drawing-rooms than most boarding-houses afford ; the use of handsome stationery, and the best magazines, reviews, and newspapers. If he smokes cigars and drinks alcoholic stimulants, he ought to obtain them at sDmething below market rates.