an entrance into a
respectable club, I am happy to inform you that you are this day elected
a member of the 'Polyanthus,' having been proposed by my friend, Lord
Viscount Colchicum, and seconded by your affectionate uncle. I have
settled with Mr. Stiff, the worthy secretary, the preliminary pecuniary
arrangements regarding the entrance fee and the first annual
subscription--the ensuing payments I shall leave to my worthy nephew.
You were elected, sir, with but two black-balls; and every other man who
was put up for ballot had four, with the exception of Tom Harico, who
had more black balls than white. Do not, however, be puffed up by this
victory, and fancy yourself more popular than other men. Indeed, I don't
mind telling you (but of course I do not wish it to go any farther) that
Captain Slyboots and I, having suspicions of the meeting, popped a
couple of adverse balls into the other candidates' boxes; so that, at
least, you should, in case of mishap, not be unaccompanied in
ill-fortune."--Thackeray's "Mr. Brown the Elder takes Mr. Brown the
Younger to a Club."

Very likely there are a few thousand New Yorkers, who like the present
writer, not having considered the subject very deeply, have held to the
vague idea that the club was an invention of a certain Dr. Samuel
Johnson. Also that it came about in some such way as this. The Doctor
had grown weary of bullying the patient Boswell, and browbeating the
acquaintance met by chance in Fleet Street or the Strand did not
entirely satisfy him. So one day, storming out of the Cheshire Cheese,
after roundly abusing the larkpie of which he had consumed an enormous
quantity, he founded the first club, with the object of gathering
together a number of his fellow-mortals in one place, and upon them
pouring out the vials of his pompous and splenetic wrath.

One day, however, the "De Senectute" that had been long forgotten was
recalled by a passage in Mr. James W. Alexander's "History of the
University Club of New York." There it was pointed out, that as far back
as 200 B.C., Cicero represented Cato as saying: "To begin with, I have
always remained a member of a 'Club.' Clubs, as you know, were
established in my _quaestorship_ on the reception of the Magna Mater
from Ida. So _I used to dine at their feast_ with members of my club--on
the whole with moderation." But, except as a point of historical
interest, whether stern Cato or voluble Johnson was the inventor does
not matter