The most cherished notion finds itself frequently Onlooker the object of attack. This often induces warmth, yet no one is the worse for thať, since no word is uttered, no attitude assumed, which would not match the precise conduct of gentlemen in their personal relations. Indeed, I've more than once considered that this very acridity-this roughness of mental contact, is the charm which brings us to one another. Your animal loves to have his fur rubbed the wrong way, and men are only animals who employ tailors. But whatever the reason, not one would miss a club meeting; and no call has yet been urgent enough in the case of any member to work a surrender of his Thursday evenings to aught save the Casual Club.

*

THERE are but six; and perhaps some slight description of at least five of these personages would be worth the space; the more so, since it is possible that, from time to time, they may be heard through these types.

There is then-to give him that eminence he believes to be his due and name him earliest, -one who has much local celebration as a

mugwump. He is florid, coarse, self-sufficient

of face, with close-trimmed beard; rather

jowlish than intellectual; and carries a nar- The row, superior air as one who believes in the Casual right of property more than in the rights of Club persons. Like all mugwumps, he is a congenital Invert, who with his feet in the airwalks through life on his head and regards everything as upside down save himself. This is Mr. Vacuum. He is an honest fellow at heart, yet no less perilous in his views for all that; and his favorite club is The Reform.

NEXT in curious interest if not in weight, one has Mr. Van Addle. This young gentleman is a true Knickerbocker; affects the club of that name; was raised in a world of butlers, footmen, coachmen and flunkies of general kind; is prone to regard himself as of high caste compared with other folk; and while knowing much of automobiles, seventy-footers, horses, golf, tennis, paper chases and cotillons, is of an ignorance as practical when one comes to things political as Vacuum himself. Van Addle dresses fantastically by the simple device of italicizing a style; and while they are in the mode, his collars saw his ears, his cravat is glorious of color, and he would as soon appear on Fifth Avenue without his trousers as without his "spats." However,

The Van Addle is genial and pleasant withal, acOnlooker curately trained in a surface gentility, and failing of use more worthy, serves as a buoy marking certain shoals of existence which the wise mariner would wish to avoid.

THERE is in sharpest contrast to both Vacuum
and Van Addle, Judge Lemon. Rich, he has
retired from the law at middle age.
He re-
fuses office or employment, and gives himself
to those natural currents of cynicism which
flow within him. He is lean, dark, sour; is
mentally strong and clear; has read widely
and thought deeply and to the purpose. Of
a stern honesty, he has brief patience with
scoundrels, and holds them next to fools, to be
most dangerous citizens. Their presence in
politics especially offends him; and while
professing those sentiments of state whereof
the great Jefferson was a prime expositor,
Judge Lemon turns from every activity of
party, declaring that he will not consort nor
rub elbows with the coterie of not-yet-con-
victed criminals which collects itself as a su-
perlative influence in present councils of the
local democracy. Judge Lemon's title was
never earned, for he was never on the bench.
It was bestowed on him perhaps, for that on

more than one occasion on each of which The he put forth a resolute refusal-he was ten- Casual dered the woolsack in nomination. Lean, Club

caustic, hard as agate in seeming, there be folk to know Judge Lemon, who claim for him a tender heart and one weak for charities. They say, too, that maugre his blunt and bullying tone, he is modest of his own merits and secretly tolerant towards the shortcomings of others.

LIKE Judge Lemon, Mr.Fatfloat has “retired.” Fatfloat was a merchant; and is rich in blocks on Broadway which he rents as stores and offices and wherefrom the round, plump, twinkling Fatfloat derives the revenues of a prince. Fatfloat is sixty; and is easy on all questions save those which relating to his own interests are measured by dollars-and-cents. Fatfloat is sagacious concerning worldly affairs; has his own thoughts on politics and no theories; and would be a republican if hunted to his last stand. There goes no knowledge of any fine or graceful character with Fatfloat, and he wots as little of art or literature as any denizen of Africa.

PROBABLY that most elevated soul of the
Casual Club is Enfield. He is polished,

The quiet, determined. He is rich; he has read; Onlooker he has ransacked the earth with travel.

All

men has Enfield met; and forgiving them all, he long ago learned that to find a man different from one's self is not always to find a man worse than one's self. Enfield owns opinions, but no politics; and has now and then said he would cancel his citizenship if a way were opened other than that of becoming a citizen of some alien land. Enfield would live willingly a citizen of the world; but while he holds this government as presently practiced to be no better than the frying pan; he regards all others as the fire in fact, and therefore simmers without further struggle where he is.

*

ON last Thursday night the club met at a restaurant in Twenty-eighth Street. The place was of quiet sort, with good food at fair rates, and there was sawdust on the floor instead of carpets. Also, there hovered an odor of cookery essentially German. Van Addle hesitated at this; however, overruling the objections of his nose-educated by Sherry and Delmonico-he made shift to come in with the rest. The club was made at home in a private room, and save for the visits of a