of clubs and an unconscionable number
of ways of entertaining itself--from theatrical companies to balls!

Of course the best known of the Greenwich magazines is _The Masses_,
owned by Max Eastman and edited by Floyd Dell. It has, in a sense,
grown beyond the Village, inasmuch as it now circulates all over the
country, wherever socialistic or anarchistic tendencies are to be
found. But its inception was in Greenwich Village, and in its infant
days it strongly reflected the radical, young, insurgent spirit which
was just beginning to ferment in the world below Fourteenth Street. In
those days it was poor and struggling too (as is altogether fitting
in a Village paper) and lost nothing in freshness and spontaneity and
vigour from that fact.

"You might tell," said Floyd Dell, with a twinkle, "of the days when
_The Masses_ was in Greenwich Avenue, and the editor, the business
manager and the stenographer played ball in the street all day long!"

It is, perhaps, symbolic that _The Masses_ in moving uptown stopped at
Fourteenth Street, the traditional and permanent boundary line. There
it may reach out and touch the great world, yet still remain part of
the Village where it was born.

Here is one man's views of the Liberal Club. I am half afraid to quote
them, they sound so heretical, but I wish to emphasise the fact that
they are quoted. They might be the snapping of the fox at the sour
grapes for all I know! Though this particular man seemed calm and
dispassionate. "The Liberal Club Board," he said, "is a purely
autocratic institution. It is collectively a trained poodle, though
composed of nine members. The procedure is to make a few long
speeches, praise the club, and re-elect the Board. Perfectly simple.
But--did you say _Liberal_ Club?" He used to sit on the Board himself,
too!

A visiting Scotch socialist proclaimed it, without passion, a "hell of
a place," and some of its most striking anarchistic leaders, "vera
interestin' but terrible damn fools"! But he was, doubtless, an
eccentric though an experienced and dyed-in-the-wool socialist who had
lectured over half the globe. It is recorded of him that once when a
certain young and energetic Village editor had been holding forth
uninterruptedly and dramatically for an hour on the rights of the
working-man, etc., etc., the visiting socialist, who had been watching
his fervent gesticulations with absorbed attention, suddenly leaned
forward and seized the lapel of