The Great Club Revolution

伟大的俱乐部革命

· American Heritage · 原文

In 1936 in New York City there occured the 100th anniversary of the Union Club, oldest and most socially sacrosanct of New York’s gentlemen’s clubs.

1936 年，纽约市举行了联合俱乐部 (Union Club) 成立 100 周年纪念活动，这是纽约最古老、最具社会地位的绅士俱乐部。

From all parts of this country and even from abroad there arrived, from lesser clubs, congratulatory messages, impressive gifts and particularly large offerings of floral tributes.

来自全国各地甚至国外的小型俱乐部纷纷送来贺信、令人印象深刻的礼物以及特别大量的鲜花贡品。

At the actual anniversary banquet, however, as so often happens in gentlemen’s clubs, there was, despite the dignity of the occasion, the severe speeches and the general sentimental atmosphere, a little over-drinking.

然而，在真正的周年纪念宴会上，正如绅士俱乐部中经常发生的那样，尽管场合庄重，演讲严肃，气氛伤感，但还是有点喝多了。

And one member over-drank a little more than a little.

一名成员喝得过量了。

Shortly before dessert he decided he had had enough, at least of the food, and he disappeared.

吃甜点前不久，他觉得自己已经吃饱了，至少是吃饱了，然后就消失了。

Furthermore, he did not reappear.

Worried, some friends of his decided, after the banquet, to conduct a search.

The faithful doorman in the hooded hallporter’s chair gave the news that no gentleman of that description had passed out, or rather by, him, and the friends redoubled their efforts.

坐在带兜帽的大厅门卫椅子上的忠实门卫通报了这样的消息：没有一位这样的绅士昏倒过，或者更确切地说，没有被他昏倒过，朋友们加倍努力。

High and low they combed the missing member’s favorite haunts—the bar, the lounge, the card room, the billiard room, the locker room, the steam room, etc. One even tried, on an off-chance, the library.

他们上下梳理了失踪成员最喜欢去的地方——酒吧、休息室、棋牌室、台球室、更衣室、蒸汽浴室等。一个偶然的机会甚至尝试了图书馆。

There, as usual, there was nothing but a seniority list of the Union’s ten oldest living members and a huge sign reading “SILENCE.”

和往常一样，那里只有一份联盟十位最年长的在世成员的资历名单和一个写着“沉默”的巨大标牌。

Finally, in one of the upstairs bedrooms, they found the gentleman.

最后，在楼上的一间卧室里，他们找到了那位绅士。

He was lying on a bed, stretched out full length in his faultless white tie and tails, dead to this world.

他躺在床上，全身伸直，系着完美的白色领带，扎着燕尾服，对这个世界已经死了。

To one of his friends there occurred an idea.

他的一个朋友突然想到了一个主意。

It was the work but a moment to enlist support for this, and soon all the man’s friends had joined in.

这是一项工作，但只是一个争取支持的时刻，很快该男子的所有朋友都加入了进来。

From all corners of the club they procured the Moral tributes; these they piled in great profusion around, under and over the gentleman.

Then they worked out, in shifts, a guard duty.

然后他们轮流执行警卫任务。

A couple of hours later the guard sounded the alarm.

The gentleman had stirred.

那位先生动了动。

Quickly but quietly his friends reassembled and filed into the loom, faking planned positions, they stood silently around the bed, hands clasped in front of them, heads decorously bowed, all either actually weeping or giving visible evidence of abundant grief.

他的朋友们迅速而安静地重新聚集，列队进入织布机，假装计划好的位置，他们静静地站在床边，双手紧握在身前，庄重地低着头，所有人要么真的在哭泣，要么表现出明显的悲伤。

The gentleman stirred once more, moaned something inaudible, then sniffed several times.

Finally, gingerly, he opened his eyes.

终于，他小心翼翼地睁开了眼睛。

At once he shut them again, blinked a couple of times and then reopened them, this time very quickly, as if to take the sight by surprise.

This time, hardly believing, he took in the beautiful flowers piled bank on bank, his loyal friends shaken with such obviously deep grief and the dearly familiar bedroom of the dull he loved so well.

这一次，他简直不敢相信，看到了河岸上堆满的美丽花朵，他忠实的朋友们因如此明显的深切悲伤而颤抖，还有他深爱的那个愚蠢的人非常熟悉的卧室。

With a sigh he sank back again and reshut his eyes.

Before again resuming his sleep, however, he murmured one line which was not only clearly audible but also clearly happy.

Today, in the opinion of club oldtimers, it would have been better, from the standpoint of permanent happiness, had the gentleman actually passed on in that manner.

今天，在俱乐部的老前辈看来，从永久幸福的角度来看，如果这位绅士真的以这种方式去世，那就更好了。

For, during the intervening years, what has happened to the great city clubs of New York is one of the most extraordinary social changes of our times.

因为，在这些年里，纽约伟大的城市俱乐部所发生的事情是我们这个时代最非凡的社会变化之一。

Furthermore, this change is being duplicated, to a greater or lesser extent, in almost every other major city.

Years ago the Union and the Century, the Union League and the University, the Knickerbocker and the Racquet and Tennis, the Metropolitan and the Manhattan, the Brook and the Links, were legendary names.

多年前，联盟与世纪、联盟联盟与大学、尼克博克与网球与网球、大都会与曼哈顿、布鲁克与林克斯，都是传奇般的名字。

They were names known not only to New Yorkers but to people all over the country, from whom they drew, albeit sparingly, their non-resident members.

他们的名字不仅为纽约人所熟知，而且为全国各地的人们所熟知，他们从他们那里吸引了非居民成员，尽管他们的数量很少。

The power and prestige, the pomp and circumstance of these clubs were awe-inspiring.

A young man of Manhattan felt his life was meaningless, if not actually broken, if he did not “have” a club—the expression “make” a club was always frowned upon—and such a young man, looking forward to being had, cheerfully sat out club waiting lists, in some cases ten years long.

曼哈顿的一个年轻人觉得，如果他没有“拥有”一个俱乐部，他的生活即使不是真正破碎，也是毫无意义的——“建造”俱乐部这个词总是被人皱眉——而这样一个年轻人，期待着被拥有，高兴地坐在俱乐部等候名单上，有时甚至长达十年。

No humorous magazine, and indeed no sightseeing bus tour, was complete without some reference to the mustached men in the black leather chairs of the oak-paneled rooms overlooking Fifth Avenue; and the famous stammering wit, William R.

任何一本幽默杂志，甚至任何观光巴士之旅，如果不提到那些坐在橡木镶板房间里、俯瞰第五大道的黑色皮椅上的留着小胡子的男人，都是不完整的。还有著名的结巴智者 William R.

Travers, who founded the first Racquet Club, used the sight for his most famous bon mot .

特拉弗斯创立了第一个网球俱乐部，他用这个景象来表达他最著名的妙语。

Passing the Union Club, he was asked if all the gentlemen who could be seen in their chairs from the street outside were actually club habitués.

经过联合俱乐部时，有人问他是否所有从外面街道上看到的坐在椅子上的绅士都是俱乐部的常客。

“N-n-no,” replied Travers, “s-s-some are s-s-sons of h-h-habitués.”

Today the change has passed the bon mot stage.

如今，这一改变已经过了妙语阶段。

In the clubs themselves, if the oldtimers will not discuss their own clubs, they will, at the drop of a share of Gulf Oil, give you very good reasons for not joining any other club.

在俱乐部本身，如果老前辈们不讨论他们自己的俱乐部，他们会以海湾石油公司股份的价格下降，给你很好的理由不加入任何其他俱乐部。

“You wouldn’t want the Knickerbocker,” says a member of the Union.

“If Nelson Rockefeller hadn’t bought the place, there wouldn’t be a club.” A member of the Knickerbocker, in turn, warns against the Century.

“You could go very wrong there,” he says.

“你可能会犯很大的错误，”他说。

“They’re all over a hundred and it isn’t even a club.

That’s why they call it the Century Association.”

这就是为什么他们称之为世纪协会。”

A member of the Century continues with stern counsel against the Union League.

“Look out for those boys,” he says.

“留意那些男孩，”他说。

“They put a tag on everybody—I guess they have to.

“他们给每个人都贴上了标签——我想他们必须这样做。

They never say they’re dining with So- and-so.

他们从不说他们正在和某某一起吃饭。

It’s always So-and-so, president of Such-and- such, and then they both deduct each other from their income tax.” A member of the Union League follows with a strong caution against the Metropolitan.

总是某某人，某某公司的总裁，然后他们互相从所得税中扣除。”联邦联盟的一名成员随后对大都会提出了强烈的警告。

“They take in anybody,” he says.

“他们接纳任何人，”他说。

“They get some fellow who doesn’t know the first thing about clubs and the first thing he knows he’s in there, and then where is he?” A member of the Metropolitan proceeds with a critical view of the Manhattan.

“他们找到了一些对俱乐部一无所知的人，他首先知道自己在那里，然后他在哪里？”大都会的一名成员对曼哈顿提出了批评性的看法。

“It isn’t even just everybody,” he says.

“甚至不仅仅是每个人，”他说。

“It’s everybody and his friends.

“这是每个人和他的朋友。

Why, they even have two entirely different crowds.

为什么，他们甚至有两个完全不同的人群。

It’s textile men at lunch and lawyers at dinner.

午餐是纺织工人，晚餐是律师。

They never even speak to each other.”

他们甚至从不互相说话。”

A Manhattan member, obviously, has no use for the University.

显然，曼哈顿成员对大学没有用处。

“They can talk about their library all they want.

“他们可以随心所欲地谈论他们的图书馆。

It’s a rather crowded and not very exclusive hotel.

这是一家相当拥挤且不是很独特的酒店。

Nobody knows who anybody is and half the time nobody’s even heard of the college they’re from.

没有人知道谁是谁，而且有一半的时间没有人听说过他们来自哪所大学。

It’s like a cemetery in there at night, and at lunch time it’s like Jones Beach.” A member of the University has some fatherly advice about the Racquet and Tennis.

晚上那里就像一个墓地，午餐时间就像琼斯海滩。”一位大学成员对球拍和网球提出了一些慈父般的建议。

“They do nothing but drink and gamble and talk about their rice pudding.” he says.

“他们除了喝酒、赌博、谈论他们的八宝粥之外什么也不做。”他说。

“Who wants to join a club on account of rice pudding?” A Racquet Clubber, of course, takes a short snort in the direction of the Links.

“谁愿意因为八宝粥而加入俱乐部呢？”当然，球拍俱乐部成员会朝林克斯的方向短促地哼一声。

“They’re always telling you about their big shot executives and how strong they are out-of-town.

“他们总是告诉你他们的大人物高管以及他们在外地的实力如何。

They have to be, I guess, because in New York nobody even knows where they are.” A member of the Links concludes with a parting shot at the Brook.

我想，他们一定是这样，因为在纽约，没有人知道他们在哪里。”林克斯队的一名成员在布鲁克球场上进行了告别投篮。

“They don’t even know what time it is,” he says.

“他们甚至不知道现在是什么时间，”他说。

“I had to go over there a year ago and tell them it was their fiftieth anniversary.” And, finally, a member of the Brook brings the wheel full cycle by ending up again back at the Union.

“我必须一年前去那里告诉他们今天是他们的五十周年纪念日。”最后，布鲁克的一名成员再次回到联盟，完成了整个循环。

“I mean to say,” he says, “I could take you up there for lunch.

“我的意思是，”他说，“我可以带你去那里吃午饭。

It wouldn’t be a good lunch, I mean to say, and it wouldn’t be a bad lunch.

我的意思是，这不会是一顿美味的午餐，也不会是一顿糟糕的午餐。

I mean to say, it just wouldn’t be anything.”

我的意思是说，这不会有什么。”

This sort of defection is a large change from the Good Old Days.

这种背叛与过去的美好时光相比是一个巨大的变化。

In those days the clubs had their differences, of course.

当然，在那些日子里，俱乐部之间存在着分歧。

The Century, for example, which dates from 1847, was formed in the belief that the Union was slighting intellectual eminence.

例如，成立于 1847 年的《世纪报》是在认为联盟轻视知识分子的情况下成立的。

“There’s a club down on 43rd Street,” said one Union Clubber, “that chooses its members mentally .

“第 43 街有一个俱乐部，”一位联盟俱乐部成员说道，“它通过精神选择其会员……。

Now isn’t that a hell of a way to run a club?” The Union League, a Republican club dating from 1863, was formed in answer to the fact that the Confederate Secretary of State was allowed to resign from the Union Club when, according to Union Leaguers, he should have been expelled: the Manhattan, originally a Democratic club, was formed a year later in answer to the answer.

现在这不是一种管理俱乐部的好方法吗？”联邦联盟是一个成立于 1863 年的共和党俱乐部，其成立是为了回应这样一个事实：南部邦联国务卿被允许从联盟俱乐部辞职，而根据联盟联盟成员的说法，他本应被开除；而曼哈顿原本是一个民主党俱乐部，一年后为了回应这个答案而成立。

The Knickerbocker (1871) was formed because its members felt the Union was taking in too many out-of- towners and wanted a club limited to men of Knicker- bocker ancestry: the Metropolitan (1891) was formed because the elder J.

尼克博克俱乐部 (Knickerbocker, 1871) 的成立是因为其成员认为联盟吸纳了太多外地人，并希望俱乐部仅限于尼克博克血统的男性；大都会俱乐部 (Metropolitan, 1891) 的成立是因为老 J.

P。

Morgan could not get a friend of his into the Union and thereupon, in the Morgan manner, built his own club; and the Brook (1903) was formed because two young Union Clubbers had been expelled for having attempted, unsuccessfully, upon the bald head of the Union’s most levered patriarch, to poach an egg.

摩根无法让他的朋友加入联盟，于是他以摩根的方式建立了自己的俱乐部。布鲁克（Brook）（1903）的成立是因为两名年轻的联盟俱乐部成员因试图在联盟最有影响力的族长的光头上偷鸡蛋，但没有成功而被开除。

But basically these were minor differences.

但基本上这些都是细微的差别。

The gentlemen of New York’s “400” belonged to not one but many clubs and wore them like ribbons—actually wearing them, in fact, on neckties, hatbands, vests, garters and suspenders.

纽约“400”的绅士们不只属于一个俱乐部，而是属于许多俱乐部，他们把它们当作丝带佩戴——事实上，它们佩戴在领带、帽带、背心、吊袜带和背带上。

The elder Morgan forgot the difficulty about his friend and was soon again a member in good standing, not only of both the Union and the Metropolitan but also of every other major club as well.

老摩根忘记了他朋友的困难，很快就再次成为信誉良好的会员，不仅是联盟和大都会俱乐部的会员，也是所有其他主要俱乐部的会员。

Even the errant Brook Club eggheads were soon reinstated in their mother t lull, and by the time of the Union’s 100th anniversary, it could boast that the presidents of no less than 13 other clubs were all good Union men.

即使是犯错的布鲁克俱乐部的书呆子也很快恢复了平静，到联盟成立100周年之际，它可以吹嘘至少有13个其他俱乐部的主席都是优秀的联盟人。

Further back, before the turn of the century, there occurred perhaps the most striking demonstration of club power when the late Union Clubber, Frederick de Courcy May, had, in the course of an argument, the misfortune to kill a New York policeman.

再往前追溯，在世纪之交之前，俱乐部权力最引人注目的表现可能是已故联盟俱乐部成员弗雷德里克·德·库尔西·梅在一次争论中不幸杀死了一名纽约警察。

Fellow Clubbers promptly rallied round, hid Mr. May for a time in first one club and then another, and finally, when the occasion offered, spirited him away to South America for a year until the unpleasantness blew over.

俱乐部成员迅速团结起来，将梅先藏在一个俱乐部，然后又藏在另一个俱乐部，最后，当时机成熟时，把他偷偷带到南美洲一年，直到不愉快的事情过去。

To understand the causes of this great club revolution it is necessary to look for a moment at club history.

要了解这场伟大的俱乐部革命的原因，有必要回顾一下俱乐部的历史。

The American city clubs were patterned originally on the English ideal of a gentlemen’s club.

美国的城市俱乐部最初是按照英国绅士俱乐部的理想模式设计的。

Although they never carried this pattern to the extreme of the English Club, where in the old days members wore their hats everywhere in the club except the dining room, the American gentleman found, like the Englishman, that his club, and not his home, was his real castle.

尽管他们从未将这种模式发挥到英国俱乐部的极端，在过去，除了餐厅之外，会员在俱乐部的任何地方都戴着帽子，但美国绅士像英国人一样发现，他的俱乐部，而不是他的家，才是他真正的城堡。

Here he had the best of his well-bred friends, the most comfortable of his well-stuffed (hairs, the best of food, drink and cigars from his well-stocked larders and cellars, the least irritating of reading material from a well-censored library and the best of games from well mannered losers.

在这里，他拥有他最好的有教养的朋友，最舒适的丰盛头发，来自他藏书丰富的储藏室和地窖的最好的食物、饮料和雪茄，来自经过严格审查的图书馆的最不刺激的阅读材料，以及来自彬彬有礼的失败者的最好的游戏。

Here he could do what he pleased when he pleased where he pleased and with whom he pleased: here, and only here, he found sanctuary and his four freedoms—freedom of speech against democracy, freedom of worship of aristocracy, freedom from want from tipping, and, above all, freedom from fear of women.

在这里，他可以随心所欲地为所欲为，随心所欲，随心所欲：在这里，也只有在这里，他找到了庇护所和他的四项自由——反对民主的言论自由、崇拜贵族的自由、免于小费的自由，以及最重要的是免于对妇女的恐惧的自由。

Actually, in the case of the latter, he even found freedom from fear of the double standard of the day.

事实上，就后者而言，他甚至摆脱了对当今双重标准的恐惧。

It was to a gentlemen’s club, rather than his home, that the extra, or extras, among his lady friends wrote, and the tactful servant would always bring such a letter on a silver tray butter side down; this was, of course, on the chance that the lady might be connected with, or, indeed, in the family of, another member.

他的女性朋友中的额外的或额外的人写信的是一个绅士俱乐部，而不是他的家，而机智的仆人总是把这样的信放在银托盘上，黄油面朝下；当然，这是基于该女士可能与另一位成员有联系，或者实际上是另一位成员的家庭成员。

With such appeal it is small wonder that the clubs were, in the unpopular sense, of course, popular.

凭借如此大的吸引力，这些俱乐部在不受欢迎的意义上当然很受欢迎也就不足为奇了。

Ward McAllister himself, author and creator of the “400” and a leading clubman of the day, blessed the movement.

沃德·麦卡利斯特（Ward McAllister）本人是“400”的作者和创造者，也是当时的领先俱乐部成员，他对这一运动表示祝福。

“Men whose personality is not remarkably brilliant and who.

“那些性格并不十分出色的人。

standing by themselves, would not he apt to arouse a great deal of enthusiasm among their associates on account of their intellectual capacity,” he said, “very frequently counteract these drawbacks by joining a well known club.

他说，“如果他独自一人，他不会因为自己的智力而在同事中激起极大的热情吗？”他说，“经常通过加入一个知名的俱乐部来抵消这些缺点。

Thus it will be seen that a club often lends a generous hand to persons who, with out this assistance, might ever remain in obscurity.”

因此可以看出，俱乐部经常向那些如果没有这种帮助，可能永远默默无闻的人伸出援手。”

Today this obscurity might be said to be on the other foot; certainly the four freedoms of the city clubs have gone with the wind.

今天，这种默默无闻可以说是另一种情况。当然，城市俱乐部的四项自由已经随风而去。

First came the rise of the country club.

首先是乡村俱乐部的兴起。

Then came Prohibition.

然后是禁令。

At first thought to lie a boon to the clubs, with their secret bars and lockers, it proved, in the end.

起初，人们认为这对俱乐部来说是件好事，因为他们有秘密酒吧和储物柜，但最终证明了这一点。

a bane.

祸根。

Clubmen found it easier to stop oil at a speakeasy than risk arrest at their own club.

俱乐部会员发现在地下酒吧阻止石油比在自己的俱乐部冒着被捕的风险更容易。

And finally, of course, there came the Depression.

最后，当然，大萧条来了。

The first two club freedoms—versus-democracy and pro-aristocracy—seemed, in their political implications of that era.

前两项俱乐部自由——相对于民主和亲贵族——似乎在那个时代具有政治意义。

slightly to the right of Charlemagne.

稍微位于查理曼大帝的右侧。

Even today it is a vital part of club tradition that Presidents like Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower are either honorary or actual life members of every major social club while a President like the late Franklin D.

即使在今天，像赫伯特·胡佛和德怀特·艾森豪威尔这样的总统仍然是每个主要社交俱乐部的名誉或现实生活成员，而像已故的富兰克林·D·布什这样的总统仍然是俱乐部传统的重要组成部分。

Roosevelt was a member of just two, the Century and the Harvard Club, and Harry Truman is neither an honorary nor an actual member of any.

罗斯福只是世纪俱乐部和哈佛俱乐部这两个俱乐部的成员，而哈里·杜鲁门既不是其中任何一个的荣誉成员，也不是实际成员。

The only Democratic club, the Manhattan, changed with remarkable rapidity to ninety per cent Republican, and when Gordon Dean, recent chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, spoke last year to the Union League Club, he was advised that he was the second registered Democrat who had addressed the club in ninety years.

曼哈顿唯一的民主党俱乐部以惊人的速度转变为百分之九十的共和党人，当最近担任原子能委员会主席的戈登迪恩去年向联合联盟俱乐部发表讲话时，有人告诉他，他是九十年来第二位在该俱乐部发表讲话的注册民主党人。

“I never did find out who the first one was,” he says.

“我从来不知道第一个是谁，”他说。

“I think it was Robert E.

“我认为是罗伯特·E.

Lee.”

李。”

Not only did the Depression usher in an era when assessments were added to dues, but it also ushered in an era when the club waiting list became a grab bag.

大萧条不仅开创了会费中加入摊款的时代，而且也开创了俱乐部候补名单成为抢手包的时代。

“The only reason I got into the Century in 1931,” says lecturer and critic John Mason Brown modestly, “was because they thought I was John Nicholas Brown, the world’s richest baby.” Coupled with club poverty went an almost complete breakdown of club morality.

“我进入 1931 年世纪的唯一原因，”讲师兼评论家约翰·梅森·布朗谦虚地说，“因为他们认为我是约翰·尼古拉斯·布朗，世界上最富有的孩子。”再加上俱乐部的贫困，俱乐部道德几乎完全崩溃。

To this day there is hardly a single club which does not complain of members’ stealing.

直到今天，几乎没有一个俱乐部不抱怨会员偷窃。

For fifteen years a member has been driving up to the University Club on Sunday morning in a chauffeur-driven automobile, sneaking in and surreptitiously making off with a Sunday paper; at the Union League there is a similar story.

十五年来，一名会员总是在周日早上驾驶一辆有司机的汽车前往大学俱乐部，偷偷地偷偷拿走一份周日报纸。在联盟联赛也有类似的故事。

At the Harvard Club the purloining of after-dinner coffee spoons became such an accepted practice that the club has had to give them up entirely.

在哈佛俱乐部，偷窃餐后咖啡勺已成为一种普遍接受的做法，以至于俱乐部不得不完全放弃这种行为。

Even card playing in many of the clubs became a problem, the low being reached by the brief appearance of a sign on the Racquet Club bulletin board which read, “MEMBERS ARE CAUTIONED NOT TO PLAY CARDS WITH MEMBERS.”

甚至许多俱乐部的打牌也成为了一个问题，网球俱乐部公告牌上短暂出现的一个标语“会员请勿与会员一起打牌”使问题达到了最低点。

Following the Depression, of course, came two and a half wars, inflation, and, worst of all from the club point of view, a king-and-a-half sized servant problem.

当然，大萧条之后接踵而至的是两次半的战争、通货膨胀，以及从俱乐部的角度来看最糟糕的，一个国王半大小的仆人问题。

The whole tenor of club life depended upon service, and yet the problem of keeping servants and at the same time maintaining the precious third freedom— freedom from want from tipping—became an almost impossible task.

俱乐部生活的全部内容都依赖于服务，然而，留住仆人并同时保持宝贵的第三种自由——免于小费的自由——的问题几乎成了一项不可能完成的任务。

No club worthy of the name permits any gratuities to employees, except a regular Christmas contribution, any more than it permits members to pay cash for purchases, and yet a new generation of servants has arisen which fails to understand what an honor it is to serve.

除了定期的圣诞节捐款外，没有一个名副其实的俱乐部允许向员工提供任何小费，就像它允许会员支付现金购物一样，然而新一代的仆人却无法理解服务是多么的荣幸。

But if what has happened to the other three club freedoms is a stern story, what has happened to the fourth freedom—freedom from fear of women— is a positive nightmare.

但如果说其他三项俱乐部自由的遭遇是一个严峻的故事，那么第四项自由——免于对女性的恐惧的自由——的遭遇则是一场积极的噩梦。

Back in 1838 James Gordon Bennett pondered editorially in the New York Herald as to whether or not he should accept his invitation to join the new Union Club.

早在 1838 年，詹姆斯·戈登·贝内特就在《纽约先驱报》的社论中思考是否应该接受加入新联盟俱乐部的邀请。

“What is the use of any social system in which women do not participate?” he asked.

“女性不参与的社会制度有什么用？”他问道。

“In which their petticoat is not seen—where glossy ringlets cannot enter and make it Paradise …

“在那里看不到她们的衬裙——光滑的卷发无法进入并使其成为天堂……

?”

？”

For a hundred years the laugh was on Mr. Bennett; today the last laugh is not.

一百年来，班尼特先生一直受到人们的嘲笑。今天笑到最后的不是。

Even the New York Yacht Club which, in happier days, permitted no gentleman who did not own a yacht of a certain length, now permits ladies, after 5 P.M.

即使是纽约游艇俱乐部，在快乐的日子里，没有一定长度游艇的绅士不允许入内，现在下午 5 点之后也允许女士入内。

and except Saturdays and Sundays, with no boat at all, while the Metropolitan Club allows ladies every day all day and even has fullfledged lady members who can do anything except spend the night.

除了周六和周日，根本没有船，而大都会俱乐部则允许女士全天通行，甚至还有正式的女性会员，除了过夜之外什么都可以做。

The two most active of today’s clubs, the Regency and the River, the former a bridge club and the latter an East River tennis club, are now completely family clubs.

当今最活跃的两个俱乐部，摄政俱乐部和河流俱乐部，前者是桥牌俱乐部，后者是东河网球俱乐部，现在完全是家庭俱乐部。

“At the River we have very few what I call ‘tea cozies,’ ” says Mrs. William Grace Holloway, Sr., “except me.

“在河边，我们几乎没有所谓的‘茶包’，”老威廉·格雷斯·霍洛威夫人说，“除了我。

But we’re a very successful club for nowadays.”

但如今我们是一家非常成功的俱乐部。”

At the Union the change is the most revolutionary.

在联盟，变革是最具革命性的。

For a century no lady ever saw the inside of the club unless she were either a female employee or the wife of the club president.

一个世纪以来，没有任何女士能够参观过俱乐部的内部，除非她是女雇员或俱乐部主席的妻子。

If the latter, she was permitted to visit the club once, on some morning when the club was empty, for the sole purpose of seeing her husband’s portrait and where it was hung.

如果是后者，她被允许在某个早晨俱乐部空无一人的情况下参观俱乐部一次，唯一的目的是看看她丈夫的肖像及其悬挂的地方。

Otherwise, literally for 100 years, only one other lady had the honor.

除此之外，实际上一百年来，只有另一位女士有此殊荣。

The wife of an inveterate Union Club whist player, she suddenly went berserk one afternoon, pushed aside the doorman in the hallporter’s chair, ran up the stairs and burst into the card room.

作为一位资深的联合俱乐部惠斯特牌手的妻子，一天下午，她突然发疯，推开门卫椅子上的看门人，跑上楼梯，冲进牌室。

Immediately there was a deathly silence, and what followed is best recalled by Reginald T.

立刻一片死一般的寂静，雷金纳德·T. (Reginald T.) 对接下来发生的事情记忆犹新。

Townsend, president of the Union Club’s Distinguished Visitors’ Committee:

汤森，联合俱乐部贵宾委员会主席：

The unfortunate member—whose wife was responsible for this unheard of breach of etiquette—retained his presence of mind.

这位不幸的成员——他的妻子对这起闻所未闻的违反礼节的行为负有责任——保持了冷静。

Gravely he introduced his wife to his fellow members at his table.

他严肃地向同桌的其他成员介绍了他的妻子。

Then he turned to her and courteously and politely asked her to be seated until the rubber was ended.

然后他转向她，彬彬有礼地请她坐下，直到比赛结束。

When this had been accomplished he offered his arm to his wife, bowed gravely to the other members and left the Club—never to set foot inside the clubhouse again.

当这一切完成后，他向妻子伸出手臂，向其他会员严肃地鞠了一躬，然后离开了俱乐部——再也没有踏进俱乐部会所。

Such a club did not give in to the new era without reluctance.

这样的俱乐部并没有不情愿地向新时代屈服。

All men’s clubs have strict rules that the ladies who enjoy signing privileges, and hence may use the club without benefit of male escort, must be in the immediate families of members.

所有男子俱乐部都有严格的规定，享有签约特权、因此可以在没有男性陪同的情况下使用俱乐部的女士必须是会员的直系亲属。

The Union’s rules have been perhaps the strictest in this regard—but still not strict enough.

在这方面，欧盟的规则可能是最严格的，但仍然不够严格。

The late Union Club wit, Albert Eugene Gallatin, arriving at his club one popular Thursday “maid’s night out” and seeing the invasion of a stream of ladies, about some of whom he had doubts, could not resist a sly wink at the ancient door-man.

已故的联盟俱乐部才子阿尔伯特·尤金·加勒廷 (Albert Eugene Gallatin) 在一个受欢迎的周四“女仆之夜”到达他的俱乐部，看到一群女士的入侵，他对其中一些人表示怀疑，忍不住向这位古老的门卫狡猾地眨了眨眼。

“Do you mean to say,” he joshed, “that the Union Club has come to a day when a man can bring his mistress to the club?” The doorman remembered, along with the great club revolution, the great club tradition.

“你的意思是说，”他开玩笑说，“联盟俱乐部已经到了一个男人可以带着情妇来俱乐部的日子了吗？”门卫在记住伟大的俱乐部革命的同时，也记住了伟大的俱乐部传统。

“You may, sir,” he replied stiffly, “if the lady is the wife of one of the members.”

“您可以，先生，”他生硬地回答，“如果这位女士是其中一位成员的妻子的话。”

Along with their own decline and fall, the great men’s city clubs have been forced to witness, as insult added to injury, the rise and shine of the great women’s city clubs-the Colony, the Cosmopolitan, the York and even the socio-charitable Junior League.

随着自身的衰落，伟大的男子城市俱乐部也被迫目睹了伟大的女子城市俱乐部——殖民地俱乐部、大都会俱乐部、约克俱乐部，甚至社会慈善青年联盟——的崛起和辉煌，这也是雪上加霜。

In the past century such a movement would have been regarded as unthinkable, and Mrs. J.

在过去的一个世纪里，这样的运动被认为是不可想象的，而 J.

Borden Harriman, who with a few Astors, Vanderbilts and other Newporters, founded the Colony Club in 1903, was forced to take all sorts of slings and arrows in the early days.

博登·哈里曼 (Borden Harriman) 于 1903 年与几位阿斯特 (Astor)、范德比尔特 (Vanderbilt) 等纽波特家族 (Newporters) 创立了殖民地俱乐部 (Colony Club)，早期被迫接受各种投石器和箭矢。

Her own husband told her, “Daisy, I don’t think you can make it pay,” and the Princeton Club put its new house plans in abeyance on the theory that the Colony would soon fail and be for sale at a bargain price.

她自己的丈夫告诉她，“黛西，我认为你付不起钱。”普林斯顿俱乐部搁置了新房计划，理由是殖民地很快就会失败并以便宜的价格出售。

But such was not to be the case.

但事实并非如此。

“Anne Morgan sent word that she was keen,” recalls Mrs. Harriman, “especially if we included a running-track in our plans,” and soon there came that memorable night when “that valiant spirit Mrs. Perkins-herself a mother of club presidents” —sailed into the Colony dining room.

“安妮·摩根发来消息说她很热衷，”哈里曼夫人回忆道，“特别是如果我们的计划中包括一条跑道的话。”很快，那个难忘的夜晚就到来了，“勇敢的珀金斯夫人——她本人就是俱乐部主席的母亲”——驶进了殖民地餐厅。

“I’ve waited for this evening all my life,” she said.

“我一生都在等待这个夜晚，”她说。

“I’ve just telephoned the boys, ‘Don’t wait dinner, I’m dining at my club.’ ”

“我刚刚给孩子们打电话，‘别等晚饭了，我正在我的俱乐部吃饭。’”

Today old Colonyites particularly enjoy chuckling over the men’s complaints that their club would become nothing but a rendezvous for clandestine letters.

如今，老殖民地人特别喜欢嘲笑这些人抱怨他们的俱乐部只会成为秘密信件的聚集地。

“They were jolly well right,” says the ever-charming Mrs. Margaret Emerson.

“他们说得非常正确，”永远迷人的玛格丽特·爱默生夫人说道。

“Anyway, I know that’s where I got mine.” And, again, the club wheel finally turned full cycle when the Colony boasted, within its own membership, the so-called Sabbatical Club.

“无论如何，我知道那是我得到我的东西的地方。”当殖民地在其自己的会员内部吹嘘所谓的安息俱乐部时，俱乐部的轮子再次完成了完整的循环。

Founded by the irrepressible Ethel Barrymore, it was originally composed of just seven ladies; seven times a year they met seven men not their husbands for dinner at seven o’clock.

该组织由势不可挡的埃塞尔·巴里摩尔 (Ethel Barrymore) 创建，最初仅由七名女士组成。每年七点钟，她们都会和七个男人（而不是她们的丈夫）共进晚餐七次。

Not until 11 o’clock were their husbands allowed to call for them.

直到11点，她们的丈夫才被允许去接她们。

Although, as men’s clubs well know, it is an integral part of the great club tradition to exaggerate entrance difficulties, it is particularly galling to men clubbers to face the fact that the Colony and the Cosmopolitan are more difficult to get into than, for example, the Union and the Knickerbocker.

尽管男性俱乐部众所周知，夸大进入难度是俱乐部伟大传统的一个组成部分，但对于男性俱乐部会员来说，面对“殖民地”和“大都会”比“联盟”和“尼克博克”等俱乐部更难进入的事实，尤其令人恼火。

Probably the Cosmopolitan has the strictest requirements.

可能 Cosmopolitan 的要求最严格。

Founded in 1911 for women “engaged in or interested in the liberal arts or professions,” it has gradually come to include, along with members like Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Helen Keller and Mrs. Richard Rodgers, a large membership category which is called “attractive generals,” but this is, to the misfortune of a large waiting list, so loosely applied that it is now filled to over-flowing.

该协会于 1911 年为“从事或对文科或职业感兴趣”的女性而成立，逐渐包括了像安妮·莫罗·林德伯格、海伦·凯勒和理查德·罗杰斯夫人这样的会员，一个被称为“有吸引力的将军”的庞大会员类别，但不幸的是，这一类别的等候名单非常松散，以至于现在已经满员了。

At the Colony, where no one, including a severe board of male advisors, has ever known just what the qualifications for membership are, there is, in addition to the usual proposing and seconding letters, a final so-called “Inquisition.” This consists of the Chairman of the Board of Admissions and three lorgnette-type assistants.

在殖民地，没有人，包括严格的男性顾问委员会，知道成员资格是什么，除了通常的提议和附议信之外，还有最后的所谓“宗教裁判所”。该委员会由招生委员会主席和三名长矛型助理组成。

Candidates, facing this group, are never permitted to talk about the subject at hand but spend half an hour discussing the servant problem and namedropping such formidable Colony Club names as the late Mrs. Hamilton McKown Twombly, last granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

面对这群人，候选人永远不被允许谈论手头的话题，而是花半个小时讨论仆人问题，并提到一些令人敬畏的殖民地俱乐部名字，例如已故的汉密尔顿·麦考恩·托姆布雷夫人，科尼利厄斯·范德比尔特准将的最后一个孙女。

“Since the death of Mrs. Twombly,” says Miss Mabel Choate, daughter of the great club wit, Joseph H.

“自从托姆布雷夫人去世以来，”伟大的俱乐部才子约瑟夫·H·托姆布雷 (Joseph H.

Choate, “the Colony has had very little to talk about anyway.” In any case, if the candidate passes, she receives a handsome letter telling her so, together with a bill for initiation fee—$250 plus tax-and a bill for a year’s dues—$150 plus tax.

Choate，“无论如何，殖民地没什么可谈论的。”无论如何，如果候选人通过了，她会收到一封漂亮的信，告诉她这一点，并附上一份入会费账单——250 美元加税——和一年会费账单——150 美元加税。

If the candidate fails, she doesn’t hear anything until she hears of someone who received such a letter who she knows faced the Inquisition after she did.

如果候选人失败了，她就不会听到任何消息，直到她听说有人收到了这样一封信，她知道这个人在她收到这封信后也面临了宗教裁判所。

Then she knows she was blackballed or voted down.

然后她知道自己被否决了或被否决了。

If the whole club situation looks dark from the point of view of men clubbers, they can at least take heart from some recent goings-on at the Colony.

如果从男性俱乐部成员的角度来看，整个俱乐部的情况看起来很黑暗，那么他们至少可以从殖民地最近发生的一些事情中得到鼓舞。

In the opinion of the oldtimers the club, like Society itself, is far from what it used to be.

在老前辈看来，俱乐部就像社会本身一样，已经远非以前的样子了。

“They’ve spoiled it completely,” says founder Mrs. Harriman, while Miss Jessie Fanshawe, New York’s premier social secretary, seconds the motion.

“他们彻底破坏了它，”创始人哈里曼夫人说，而纽约首席社会秘书杰西·范肖女士附议了这项动议。

“Frankly it’s stuffy,” she says.

“坦白说，这很闷，”她说。

“I’ve resigned twice.” At present the club is rocked with dissension over how to overcome this stuffiness and over which rooms male guests should be permitted to enter.

“我已经辞职两次了。”目前，俱乐部对于如何克服这种闷闷不乐以及应该允许男性客人进入哪些房间的问题存在争议。

Two years ago a member had to be suspended for drinking and last year the entire club was in a virtual state of siege because of the action of one member who insisted on spending the night in the lounge.

两年前，一名会员因饮酒而被停职，去年，由于一名会员坚持在休息室过夜的行为，整个俱乐部几乎陷入了围困状态。

In the midst of it all Mrs. Thomas K.

托马斯·K 夫人就在这一切之中。

Finletter, wife of the Secretary for Air, about to deliver a talk to- the club, asked how long she should go on.

航空大臣的妻子芬莱特正要向俱乐部发表讲话，她问她应该讲多久。

“Talk,” she was told, “until you hear the canes rattle.” Nor was this an idle boast; the age bracket in the club is so high that no one thought it particularly unusual when a cleaning woman was found drowned in the swimming pool.

“说话，”她被告知，“直到你听到手杖嘎嘎作响。”这并不是一句空话。俱乐部里的年龄段如此之高，以至于当一名清洁女工被发现在游泳池里溺水时，没有人认为这是特别不寻常的事情。

“After all,” said a member of the Committee on Baths and Athletics, “she was over eighty.”

“毕竟，”浴室和体育委员会的一名成员说，“她已经八十多岁了。”

Present-day Colonyites take out their troubles by carrying on a cold war with the up-and-coming Cosmopolitan—a curious state of affairs since there are quite a number of ladies who belong to both clubs, who are called “ambi-clubsters” and who include, among others, Mrs. John Foster Dulles.

如今的殖民地俱乐部通过与崭露头角的大都会俱乐部进行冷战来解决问题——这是一种奇怪的情况，因为有相当多的女士同时属于这两个俱乐部，她们被称为“双重俱乐部成员”，其中包括约翰·福斯特·杜勒斯夫人。

“The Cosmopolitan,” says Miss Emily Post sternly, “was once a club for our governesses,” while Miss Katharine Beach cannot forgive the fact that Cosmopolitanites insist on calling their club the “Cos.” “Whoever heard,” she asks sharply, “of a Harvard man saying he was going over to the Har?”

“大都会”小姐严厉地说，“曾经是我们家庭教师的俱乐部”，而凯瑟琳·比奇小姐则无法原谅大都会人坚持称自己的俱乐部为“Cos”这一事实。 “谁听说过，”她尖锐地问道，“一个哈佛人说他要去哈尔？”

Many male club philosophers believe that this sort of defection will result, ultimately, in the same kind of revolution which has overtaken their clubs.

许多男性俱乐部哲学家认为，这种背叛最终将导致他们的俱乐部发生同样的革命。

Whether or not this is true, there have already been unmistakable signs of change in the whole idea of city clubs for both men and women.

无论这是否属实，男性和女性城市俱乐部的整体理念已经出现了明显的变化迹象。

One of these changes is in the matter of anti-Semitism, and in this respect it is worthy of note that the Harmonie Club, most distinguished of Jewish clubs, was not only the fourth oldest of all social clubs —founded in 1852, it was preceded by only the Union, the New York Yacht Club and the Century—it was also the first club to admit ladies.

其中一个变化是反犹太主义问题，在这方面值得注意的是，最杰出的犹太俱乐部 Harmonie 俱乐部不仅是所有社交俱乐部中第四古老的俱乐部（成立于 1852 年，仅次于联盟、纽约游艇俱乐部和世纪），而且还是第一个接纳女士的俱乐部。

Anti-Semitism reached its peak in the Colony Club’s blackballing of Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, a cause célèbre which occasioned the resignation from the club of Mrs. Roosevelt.

反犹太主义在殖民地俱乐部对亨利·摩根索夫人的排挤中达到了顶峰，这一轰动事件导致罗斯福夫人从俱乐部辞职。

Today it is significant that the most successful social clubs —the Century, the Cosmopolitan, the River and the Regency, as well as the socio-theatrical and literary clubs like the Players and the Coffee House—all admit Jewish members.

今天，重要的是，最成功的社交俱乐部——世纪俱乐部、大都会俱乐部、河流俱乐部和摄政俱乐部，以及社会戏剧和文学俱乐部，如玩家俱乐部和咖啡馆——都接纳犹太会员。

So, too, do the extraordinarily successful college clubs.

非常成功的大学俱乐部也是如此。

Membership in these latter clubs does not merely require previous attendance at the colleges, it also requires being proposed, seconded and voted on like any other social club.

成为这些俱乐部的会员不仅需要以前参加过大学，还需要像任何其他社交俱乐部一样被提议、附议和投票。

Once minor league citadels of sentimental snobbery, they are now easily the most desirable and utilitarian of city clubs.

他们曾经是小联盟中感伤势利的堡垒，现在很容易成为最令人向往和最实用的城市俱乐部。

The Yale Club, located across from Grand Central, is so popular that it is difficult to tell where the station leaves off and the club begins, and the Harvard Club’s membership of 7,000 is exceeded only by the New York Athletic Club’s 8,000.

位于大中央车站对面的耶鲁俱乐部非常受欢迎，以至于很难区分车站在哪里、俱乐部从哪里开始，哈佛俱乐部的会员人数为 7,000 人，仅次于纽约体育俱乐部的 8,000 人。

Nonetheless, these clubs are the order of the day.

尽管如此，这些俱乐部仍然是当今的主流。

Lawyer John Reynolds, who resigned from the Union Club after 22 years of membership, now belongs to just the Century and the Harvard.

律师约翰·雷诺兹 (John Reynolds) 在加入联盟俱乐部 22 年后辞去会员职务，现在只属于世纪和哈佛。

“I want a club,” he says, “where I can take a couple of friends without producing a birth certificate, a marriage license and a blood test.”

“我想要一个俱乐部，”他说，“我可以带几个朋友去那里，而无需出示出生证明、结婚证和验血。”

To the new generation the old men’s clubs seem, in prospect as well as retrospect, forbidding indeed.

对于新一代人来说，无论是展望还是回顾，老男人俱乐部似乎确实令人生畏。

The Knickerbocker which, from the purely social standpoint, is perhaps the most eminent club, has difficulty attracting new members despite the fact that, through Nelson Rockefeller’s largesse, it may now inhabit its ancient clubhouse, located on Fifth Avenue and 62nd Street, rent-free for ten years and ten years more if Rockefeller is still living.

从纯粹的社会角度来看，尼克博克俱乐部可能是最杰出的俱乐部，但它很难吸引新会员，尽管事实上，通过纳尔逊·洛克菲勒的慷慨，它现在可能居住在位于第五大道和第 62 街的古老俱乐部会所，如果洛克菲勒还在世的话，可以免租十年，甚至更多十年。

The Brook Club is also struggling despite clubdom’s wealthiest membership (numbering an even 400 souls), the most attractive of all the small clubhouses, the most lavish of all accoutrements and a remarkable system where members do not even trouble to sign checks but are trailed by a faithful servant who unobtrusively tots up their account.

布鲁克俱乐部也在苦苦挣扎，尽管它拥有俱乐部界最富有的会员（甚至有 400 名会员）、所有小型俱乐部会所中最有吸引力的、所有装备中最奢华的、以及一个非凡的系统，会员甚至不需要费力签署支票，而是有一个忠实的仆人悄悄地计算他们的账户。

There are struggles, too, in the giant Metropolitan.

在这座巨大的大都会区也存在着挣扎。

Located on Fifth Avenue across Goth Street from the Harmonie, the Metropolitan still boasts the drive-in turn-around from carriage days, a Stanford White castle and such publicity-conscious members as Grover Whalen, Dale Carnegie, Spyros Skouras, Floyd Odium and Samuel Pryor; despite all these and Conrad Hilton too, both insiders and outsiders agree that it isn’t what it used to be.

大都会酒店位于第五大道，与 Harmonie 隔戈特街相望，至今仍拥有马车日的免下车周转服务、斯坦福怀特城堡以及 Grover Whalen、Dale Carnegie、Spyros Skouras、Floyd Odium 和 Samuel Pryor 等注重宣传的会员。尽管发生了这些，康拉德·希尔顿也是如此，但内部和外部人士都认为，现在已经不再是以前的样子了。

The Union Club also has its difficulties.

联盟俱乐部也有它的困难。

The move from Fifth Avenue and 5151 Street to Park Avenue and 69th, across the Avenue from, of all places, the Russian Consulate, was the beginning of the end; as one dissatisfied younger member puts it, “Who wants to go into a dining room where you’re the only one there except for Thomas J.

从第五大道和 5151 街到公园大道和第 69 街（与俄罗斯领事馆隔街相望）的搬迁是终结的开始；正如一位不满的年轻成员所说，“谁愿意走进一间餐厅，里面只有你一个人，除了 Thomas J.

Watson who’s explaining to someone how he got Eisenhower to be president of Columbia?” Even the Century, easily the most distinguished club from a Who’s Who standpoint, has its problems.

沃森正在向某人解释他是如何让艾森豪威尔成为哥伦比亚总统的？”即使是从名人录的角度来看，世纪俱乐部无疑是最杰出的俱乐部，但也有其问题。

Ed Streeter, humorous author and president of the Harvard Club, recently elected to the Century, complained to a fellow member that he didn’t like it because he didn’t know anybody.

幽默作家、哈佛俱乐部主席艾德·斯特里特 (Ed Streeter) 最近当选为世纪人物，他向一位会员抱怨说，他不喜欢这个俱乐部，因为他不认识任何人。

“You’re not supposed to,” he was told.

“你不应该这样做，”他被告知。

“You have to work at being a Centurion.”

“你必须努力成为百夫长。”

Although clubman J.

尽管俱乐部成员 J.

Carvel Lange, one of the foremost stock market prognosticators, maintains that club memberships nowadays “vary with the Dow Jones averages,” the underlying fact of the great club revolution would seem to be that there is no genuine new generation to take the place of such time-tested veterans as Vincent Astor, Harold Vanderbilt, Winthrop Aldrich and Myron Taylor; all of these men belong to virtually every club but the S.P.C.A.

卡维尔·兰格（Carvel Lange）是最重要的股市预测家之一，他认为现在的俱乐部会员资格“随着道琼斯平均指数的变化而变化”，伟大的俱乐部革命的根本事实似乎是没有真正的新一代来取代文森特·阿斯特（Vincent Astor）、哈罗德·范德比尔特（Harold Vanderbilt）、温思罗普·奥尔德里奇（Winthrop Aldrich）和迈伦·泰勒（Myron Taylor）等久经考验的老将；所有这些人几乎属于除 S.P.C.A. 之外的所有俱乐部。

and Boys Town.

和男孩镇。

What should be the new generation has, in fact, many doubts on the score.

究竟应该是怎样的新生代，其实对于成绩也有很多质疑。

“Honestly,” says young Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, “I don’t know what clubs Alfred belongs to, and what’s more I don’t think he does either.” R.

“老实说，”年轻的阿尔弗雷德·格温·范德比尔特夫人说，“我不知道阿尔弗雷德属于什么俱乐部，而且我认为他也不知道。” R。

Stuyvesant Pierrepont, Jr., who frankly classes such downtown lunch clubs as India House, the Recess, the Lunch Club and the Downtown Association as “pigeon clubs,” believes that now the pigeons, aided by expense accounts, have come home to roost uptown.

小史岱文森·皮埃尔庞特 (Stuyvesant Pierrepont, Jr.) 坦率地将印度之家 (India House)、休会 (Recess)、午餐俱乐部 (Lunch Club) 和市中心协会 (Downtown Association) 等市中心午餐俱乐部归为“鸽子俱乐部”，他认为现在鸽子在费用账目的帮助下，已经回到了住宅区栖息。

“At the Metropolitan or the Union League or the University,” he says, “you might do a $ 10,000 deal, but you’d use the Knickerbocker or the Union or the Racquet for $100,000 and then, for $1,000,000, you’d move on to the Brook or the Links.” In the midst of such figures, ex-clubman Edgar Ward becomes philosophical.

“在大都会、联盟联盟或大学，”他说，“你可能会做一笔 10,000 美元的交易，但你会以 100,000 美元的价格使用 Knickerbocker、Union 或 Racquet，然后，以 1,000,000 美元的价格，你会转到布鲁克或林克斯。”在这些数字中，前俱乐部成员埃德加·沃德变得富有哲理。

“The whole club thing nowadays,” he says, “is sort of like English titles.

“现在整个俱乐部的事情，”他说，“有点像英文标题。

To an American they’re still very impressive, but to an Englishman the Earl of Warwick isn’t necessarily any more social than just plain Mister Charles Winn.”

对于美国人来说，他们仍然令人印象深刻，但对于英国人来说，沃里克伯爵并不一定比普通的查尔斯·温恩先生更具社交性。”

Certainly there are others who would not agree with this philosophy.

当然还有其他人不同意这种哲学。

Robert Montgomery, who has recently joined the Racquet, Brook and Links clubs, and Fred Astaire, who wore, as a private joke, a Brook Club blue, green and yellow hatband in “The Band Wagon,” are perhaps the foremost joiners today.

罗伯特·蒙哥马利（Robert Montgomery）最近加入了 Racquet、Brook 和 Links 俱乐部，而弗雷德·阿斯泰尔（Fred Astaire）则可能是当今最重要的加入者。弗雷德·阿斯泰尔（Fred Astaire）在《乐队马车》（The Band Wagon）中，作为私人玩笑，戴着布鲁克俱乐部的蓝色、绿色和黄色帽带。

Among other things they have proved that actors, long regarded socially as something out of a zoo, are now admissible in the best clubs.

除此之外，他们还证明了长期以来被社会视为动物园里的演员现在可以进入最好的俱乐部。

So far about the only club Montgomery and Astaire have missed is The Leash.

到目前为止，蒙哥马利和阿斯泰尔唯一错过的俱乐部是The Leash。

This club, founded in 1926, “to promote interest in the thoroughbred dog and to study and apply principles of scientific breeding,” is the only club which does not have a by-law stating that no dogs are allowed in the clubhouse.

该俱乐部成立于 1926 年，“旨在提高人们对纯种狗的兴趣，研究和应用科学育种原理”，是唯一没有附则规定狗不得进入会所的俱乐部。

Otherwise there is no appreciable difference in its function or, for that matter in these trying times, its lack of function.

除此之外，它的功能没有明显的区别，或者说，在这些艰难时期，它缺乏功能。

Sentimentality, always a feature of the clubs in the old days, still exhibits itself, surprisingly enough, in such a club of the world as the Century.

令人惊讶的是，多愁善感一直是过去俱乐部的一个特征，但在世纪这样的世界俱乐部中仍然表现出来。

Here members are still privileged to buy, from the Brooks Costume Co., a cardinal red vest, and at anniversary dinners it is not unusual to see, wandering around 43rd Street in the small hours of the morning, Centurions dressed in togas, tunics and other regalia of very bygone days.

在这里，会员仍然有幸从布鲁克斯服装公司购买红衣主教背心，在周年纪念晚宴上，凌晨时分在 43 街闲逛的百夫长穿着长袍、束腰外衣和其他过去时代的服饰并不罕见。

The Links too, despite its big business toughness, has a sentimental side.

尽管林克斯的业务规模庞大，但也有感伤的一面。

Originally formed in 1921 “to promote and conserve throughout the U.S. the best interests and true spirit of the game of golf,” the club has a membership which includes Sewell Avery, Benjamin Fairless, Marshall Field, Henry Ford II, Walter Gifford, Thomas Lamont, Henry Luce, Eddie Rickenbacker, Oren Root, Charles E.

该俱乐部最初成立于 1921 年，“为了在全美范围内促进和保护高尔夫运动的最大利益和真正精神”，其会员包括 Sewell Avery、Benjamin Fairless、Marshall Field、Henry Ford II、Walter Gifford、Thomas Lamont、Henry Luce、Eddie Rickenbacker、Oren Root、Charles E.

Wilson, Vincent Astor, Harold Vanderbilt, Winthrop Aldrich, Myron Taylor, Douglas MacArthur, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, and Robert Montgomery, all of whom apparently live in relatively Spartan surroundings—the club has only two bedrooms—and indulge in excellent meals, very informal bridge (where kibitzing is always encouraged) and reading a scrapbook compiled by the perennial Links president, Charles C.

威尔逊、文森特·阿斯特、哈罗德·范德比尔特、温思罗普·奥尔德里奇、迈伦·泰勒、道格拉斯·麦克阿瑟、赫伯特·胡佛、德怀特·艾森豪威尔和罗伯特·蒙哥马利，他们显然都生活在相对斯巴达的环境中——俱乐部只有两间卧室——并且沉迷于美味佳肴，非常非正式的桥牌（这里总是鼓励闲聊），并阅读林克斯常任主席查尔斯·C·威尔逊编辑的剪贴簿。

Auchincloss.

奥金克洛斯。

This scrapbook contains not only sentimental homilies in prose— “The ‘acid’ test of whether a man is a desirable member of a Club is whether, when you meet him in the Club, you are glad to see him”—but also sentimental and laudatory verses to members.

这本剪贴簿不仅包含散文中感伤的说教——“检验一个人是否是俱乐部理想会员的‘严格’测试是，当你在俱乐部遇到他时，你是否很高兴见到他”——还包含对会员的感伤和赞美诗句。

One of these verses, honoring U.S. Steel’s Enders McClumpha Voorhees, whose nickname is Van, will perhaps suffice:

其中一首纪念美国钢铁公司的恩德斯·麦克伦法·沃里斯（绰号为范）的诗句也许就足够了：

Once again, let us drink to our Van, A superlatively companionable man.

让我们再次为我们的范干杯，他是一个非常友善的人。

He can bid like a Blizzard, Toss dice like a Wizard, And can he shoot birdies?

他可以像暴雪一样叫牌，像巫师一样投掷骰子，他还能打小鸟吗？

He can!

他可以！

Our Van!

我们的货车！

If such a club may seem slightly out of touch with the present, so too, at least at times, can its giant parent, the Racquet and Tennis Club at 370 Park Avenue.

如果说这样的俱乐部似乎有点与现实脱节，那么它的母公司——公园大道 370 号的网球俱乐部（Racquet and Tennis Club）也可能会如此，至少有时如此。

Along with the Century, the Links and the Brook, the Racquet has been a bastion of defense against women, and its more than 2,000 members still live by its original objective “to encourage all manly sports among its members.” Actually such manliness boils down to all manner of racket games, both on the courts and on the card tables, on the part of its younger members; golfers like T.

与 Century、Links 和 Brook 一样，Racquet 一直是反对女性的堡垒，其 2,000 多名会员仍然秉承其最初的目标“鼓励会员开展所有男子气概的运动”。事实上，这种男子气概可以归结为年轻会员在球场上和牌桌上的各种球拍游戏；像 T. 这样的高尔夫球手

Suffern Tailer and W.

萨芬·泰勒和 W.

G。

Holloway, Jr., and tennis players like Ogden Phipps and Alistair Martin happily combine with indoor gamblers like Barclay Cooke and Stuyvesant Wainwright, Jr. Although once in a while a member like the Duke of Windsor writes a book, an extraordinary number of Racquet Clubbers have no regular occupation beyond clipping coupons or perhaps fellow members.

小霍洛威（Holloway, Jr.）以及奥格登·菲普斯（Ogden Phipps）和阿利斯泰尔·马丁（Alistair Martin）等网球运动员与巴克莱·库克（Barclay Cooke）和小史岱文森特·温赖特（Stuyvesant Wainwright, Jr.）等室内赌徒愉快地结合在一起。尽管像温莎公爵这样的会员偶尔会写一本书，但大量的球拍俱乐部会员除了剪优惠券或可能是其他会员之外没有固定的职业。

At the same time, while many sports at the club such as court tennis, an involved squash game, or “towie,” a three-handed bridge game, are virtually unknown elsewhere, no sport, or for that matter, drink, passes unnoticed, and the entire club recently applauded when Dwight F.

与此同时，虽然俱乐部的许多运动项目，例如球场网球（一种复杂的壁球比赛，或“towie”，一种三人桥牌比赛）在其他地方几乎不为人知，但没有一项运动，或者就此而言，饮酒，会被忽视，最近，当德怀特·F·肯尼迪（Dwight F.

Davis, Jr., was presented with the Knapp Cup for Outstanding Improvement in Bottle Pool.

小戴维斯因在瓶装台球方面的杰出进步而被授予纳普杯。

Unhappily, in these difficult days, even such a club faces the present with uncertainty and the future with alarm; there have been several instances of its members attempting to fall back on the old practice of forming clubs-within-clubs.

不幸的是，在这些困难的日子里，即使是这样的俱乐部，也面临着不确定的现在和惊慌的未来。其成员曾多次试图采用组建俱乐部内俱乐部的旧做法。

In the old days these often proved a bulwark against total disintegration during periods of social inflation, and many members hope that nowadays they will do as well.

在过去，这些往往被证明是在社会通货膨胀时期防止全面解体的堡垒，许多成员希望现在他们也能做到这一点。

The most exclusive of these clubs-within-clubs is probably a club called the Phinitny.

这些俱乐部中的俱乐部中最独特的可能是一个名为 Phinitny 的俱乐部。

Formed in 1950 and consisting of just eight members—four so-called “charm boats” and four so-called “slugs”—it has never, according to Secretary Guild Copeland, author of the club verse and a slug, let down the bars in any way, shape or manner.

该俱乐部成立于 1950 年，仅由八名成员组成——四名所谓的“魅力船”和四名所谓的“鼻涕虫”——根据俱乐部诗句和鼻涕虫的作者吉尔德·科普兰秘书长的说法，它从未以任何方式、形状或方式让酒吧失望。

The verse follows:

诗句如下：

Jesus Christ Astor Vanderbilt Whitney Tried and tried to get into the Phinitny, But he was so appalled At being blackballed That he went out and shot himself, didn’ he?

耶稣基督阿斯特范德比尔特惠特尼试图进入菲尼特尼，但他对被禁止感到非常震惊，以至于他出去开枪自杀，不是吗？

For over 75 years, American Heritage has chronicled our nation's history like no other publication.

75 年来，《美国遗产》以无与伦比的方式记录了我们国家的历史。

Please support our trusted, non-partisan historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it by donating today.

请通过今天的捐赠来支持我们值得信赖的、无党派的历史写作以及维持它的志愿者。

We rely on contributions from readers like you to survive.

我们依靠像您这样的读者的贡献才能生存。

Donate

捐赠

For 75 years, American Heritage has been the leading magazine of U.S. history, politics, and culture.

75 年来，《美国遗产》一直是美国历史、政治和文化的领先杂志。