r his seconder, or at least an old member; for
since in exclusive clubs visitors living in the same city are never given
the privilege of the club, none but members can know their way about. Let
us say he goes for lunch or dinner, at which he is host, and his friend
imparts such unwritten information as: "That chair in the window is where
old Gotrox always sits; don't occupy it when you see him coming in or he
will be disagreeable to everybody for a week." Or "They always play double
stakes at this table, so don't sit at it, unless you _mean_ to." Or
"That's Double coming in now, avoid him at bridge as you would the
plague." "The roasts are always good and that waiter is the best in the
room," etc.

A new member is given--or should ask for--a copy of the Club Book, which
contains besides the list of the members, the constitution and the by-laws
or "house rules," which he must study carefully and be sure to obey.

=COUNTRY CLUBS=

Country clubs are as a rule less exclusive and less expensive than the
representative city clubs, but those like the Myopia Hunt, the Tuxedo, the
Saddle and Cycle, the Burlingame, and countless others in between, are
many of them more expensive to belong to than any clubs in London or New
York, and are precisely the same in matters of membership and management.
They are also quite as difficult to be elected to as any of the exclusive
clubs in the cities--more so if anything, because they are open to the
family and friends of every member, whereas in a man's club in a city his
membership gives the privilege of the club to no one but himself
personally. The test question always put by the governors at elections is:
"Are the candidate's friends as well as his family likely to be agreeable
to the present members of the Club?" If not, he is not admitted.

Nearly all country clubs have, however, one open door--unknown to city
ones. People taking houses in the neighborhood are often granted "season
privileges"; meaning that on being proposed by a member and upon paying a
season subscription, new householders are accepted as transient guests. In
some clubs this season subscription may be indefinitely renewed; in others
a man must come up for regular election at the end of three months or six
or a year.

Apart from what may be called the few representative and exclusive country
clubs, there are hundreds--more likely thousands--which have very simple
requirements for membership. The mere form of ha