Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1907 — The Parle Clubs. [ARTICLE]

The Parle Clubs.

Election to the exclusive clubs of Paris is a very serious business. The proposer and seconder must not only know all about their candidates, but be able to bear witness to their antecedents and even to their forefathers. They must write to all their friends and ask them to support their candidates. When the election takes place, they must not only be in the room, but approach each member Individually as he comes up to the ballot box and ask him for his support. When the member has been elected, he arrives the first day as a kind of stranger and with his hat in hand. He is then formally introduced by one of his proposers to each member separately who happens to be In the room at the time. On the second occasion he has ceased to be a stranger and may leave his hat in the hall, but he Is still expected to go around the room with one of his proposers and be formally introduced. This lasts for a week, by which time he is assumed to know all big colleagues, though a foreigner who is extra punctilious and lusipts on being introduced to every member of the club gains considerably ih popularity. —London Saturday Review.