| Show AN ECCEMRIC CLUB Queer Customs of the Tender loiners of New York THE OLD EEL POT ROOKERY How Some of the Good Fellows in the Metropolis Metrop-olis Enjoy Themselves One Night Each Week Tho Tenderloin club shares with the PThitechnpel club of Chicago the peculiar I of Its listinction being entirely peculiar It lorae is the antiquated wooden building 1 hat once stood somewhere between Twen i yeighth and Twentyninth streets near Seventh avenue but was moved up t tho street line directly opposite tho TenderLoin i Tender-loin precinct station house on Thirtieth ctrcct when Thirtieth street was laid out by the municipal street cornmissjoners I is a notable rookery Years ago it was called The Eel Pot and was the resort of men whose doings often brought them into conflict with the police In this build Williams celebrated ing Inspector ran against a bratcd ghost mystery and ran the ghost down It is owned by State Senator Murtha nnd his agent insist that it i over 140 years old It is jnst about year now since the Tenderloin club took possession posses-sion of it and made it a typical haunt of mon who arc in love with the odd and picturesque things of life that make tho cream of Bohemian existence LEAVE CARE BEHIND I Senator Murtha would not recognize the old rookery now in the transformation wrought by the eccentric fancy its members mem-bers Once under the archway that bears the club motto Who enters here leaves care behind the visitor meets a series of surprises Six thousand playing cards for example constitute he novel papering of the walls of one of the rooms These cards represent the astounding possibilities of tho game of draw poker and duplicate actual hands The ceiling is frescoed with poker chips in unusual design This decoration deco-ration is only an unusual fancy of the treasurer of the club who used up over 12000 tacks in the decoration Gambling is not n pastime of the Bohemians of the Tenderloin Whisky poker and whist arc their pet recreations with the cards The next room is papered with photographs graphs These reproduce joyous scenes and jolly personages of the clnb I Is one of the customs of tho club to preserve souvenirs tte cusoms nirs of its jollier experiences The most interesting of these souvenirs are scenes by the flashlight camera A camera is always al-ways set up in the rooms and whenever a particularly good story is told 01 anything thoroughly enjoyable occurs a magnesium light is fired and the effect of the joke or of the experience is captured in a photograph photo-graph of the members About every style of laugh known has been produced in this galaxy Tenderloin faces Another room i devoted to the exhibition exhibi-tion of curiosities that the members have ton curiosites collected There are knives pistols opium pipes cartridges bits of bread wax candles and other flotsam and jetsam that tell I some sort of a story or recall some queer happening A piece of switchboard picked pick-ed out of the ruins of the Western Union building fire is the last addition to the sin Knlar miscellany Still another room is decorated with stone mugs and pipes of all sorts In this room before the great open fireplace the members meet every Saturday Satur-day night and make the air blue with smoke These gatherings begin at midnight exactly ex-actly Midnight in fact is the hour for beginning everything in the Tenderloin Actors drop in and entertain the smokers after midnight They get up something I new constantly Composer Stahl sauntered I in one nif t took out the front of the np right piano and picked a harp accompani meat on the wires with his right hand I while he played a neW composition with I his left Every cork drawn is saved ns a souvenir The center is drilled out and a pipe stem is fitted into it and it becomes a perpetual reminder This custom is copied from a German fancy SOME OF TIE FUN Deviled crabs are a special dish at the Tenderloin So is the sandwich of ham and chicken find Boston brown bread that I was invented by the chef of the Union club Ph watermelon is another Plugged great specialty with the Tenderloin It is soothing I sooth-ing seductive and mysterious Nobody knows l what he is going to strike The I melons are plugged with claret champagne cham-pagne brandy and crushed strawberries I and then mixed up so that it is Impossible i to discover what they are without eating of them It is a new kind of pot luc that meets with favor and is provocative of great sport I There is always u friendly rivalry among members to think up new methods of enjoyment I en-joyment I I The purpose of the founders of the Tenderloin Ten-derloin was to open to men of all professions profes-sions the charms of Bohemian good fellowship I fellow-ship that make the Fellowcraft club and the Press club enjoyable retreats Both i I the Fellowcraft and Press clubs have a rej ctrictecl membership that shuts out effectually J effect-ually from its enjoyment of the delightful society found within their walls many men who long for such romantic surroundings i Both Feilowcraf and Press club members 1 are in the Tenderloin whose membership door i opened in hospitable welcome its t officers say t all men who can lay just claim to the title of good fellows in the worthier sense of that much abused title r The Tenderloin lays dow single comprehensive hensive rule in choosing its members It I 1 is this as President Keller bluntly puts it i Tho first requisite of a Tenderloiner is I i that he shall not bo stuck on himself i There are 200 members of the club Under i I bo companion i this rule they ought to very I able persons indeed New York Sun |
