Clubs And Club Life In New York City

Kindle version of a vintage magazine article originally published in 1899. Contains 29 Kindle pages, with 18 illustrations.

excerpt -

The Knickerbocker is undoubtedly our most exclusive fashionable club. You may always be gratified by seeing some of the very greatest swells seated in its square bow window at Thirty Second Street, and it is as near an approach to the Travellers and the Marlborough, of London, as it is possible to attain in this deplorably democratic land. Mere membership is a passport to society, and there are men who would give a hundred thousand dollars to be able to engrave its aristocratic name in the left hand corner of their visiting cards.

The Calumet is the cozy home of the younger social element; the Metropolitan's nickname of the "Millionaires" is sufficiently adequate to render description useless. The Union League, the eminently dignified representation of all that is best in Republicanism, commerce, and finance, was organized, as everybody knows, to assist the Union cause during the Civil War, and it has always been true to its honorable heritage. It is not so exclusive, socially, as the clubs we have been speaking of, but it is unquestionably one of the finest institutions of its kind in the world. The St. Nicholas is limited to men who are of Dutch descent, and unless you can prove a prerevolutionary ancestor you will knock in vain at that little oaken door behind which is so much pleasant cheer and good fellowship. The Manhattan is simply "a good all round club" of Democratic political proclivities, and the New York is supposed to be representative of Wall Street. Both of these are excellent establishments, which, like the green baytree, have renewed their youth for many years; and any well placed business man may aspire to membership in either of them.