Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Roundabout Papers“STRANGE TO SAY, ON CLUB PAPER”Before the Duke of York’s column, and between the “Athenaeum”and “United Service” Clubs, I have seen morethan once, on the esplanade, a preacher holding forthto a little congregation of badauds and street-boys,whom he entertains with a discourse on the crimes of arapacious aristocracy, or warns of the imminent peril oftheir own souls. Sometimes this orator is made to “moveon” by brutal policemen. Sometimes, on a Sunday, hepoints to a white head or two visible in the windows ofthe Clubs to the right and left of him, and volunteers astatement that those quiet and elderly Sabbath-breakerswill very soon be called from this world to another,where their lot will by no means be so comfortable asthat which the reprobates enjoy here, in their arm-chairsby their snug fires.At the end of last month, had I been a Pall Mall preacher,I would have liked to send a whip round to all the Clubsin St. James’s, and convoke the few members remainingin London to hear a discourse sub Dio on a text from theObserver newspaper. I would have taken post under thestatue of Fame, say, where she stands distributing wreathsto the three Crimean Guardsmen. (The crossing-sweeperdoes not obstruct the path, and I suppose is away at hisvilla on Sundays.) And, when the congregation was prettyquiet, I would have begun:—In the Observer of the 27th September, 1863, in thefifth page and the fourth column, it is thus written:—“The codicil appended to the will of the late Lord Clyde,executed at Chatham, and bearing the signature of Clyde,F. M., is written, strange to say, on a sheet of paperbearing the ‘Athenaeum Club’ mark.”What the codicil is, my dear brethren, it is not ourbusiness to inquire. It conveys a benefaction to a faithfuland attached friend of the good Field-Marshal. Thegift may be a lakh of rupees, or it may be a house andits contents—furniture, plate, and wine-cellar. Myfriends, I know the wine-merchant, and, for the sake ofthe legatee, hope heartily that the stock is large.308