Contributions to All The Year Round | Page 5

with work, and leaning on a rude stick more
crooked than himself, slowly trudging to the club-house, in a shapeless
hat like an Italian harlequin's, or an old brown- paper bag, leathern
leggings, and dull green smock-frock, looking as though duck-weed
had accumulated on it--the result of its stagnant life--or as if it were a
vegetable production, originally meant to blow into something better,
but stopped somehow. Compare him with Old Cousin Feenix, ambling
along St. James's Street, got up in the style of a couple of generations
ago, and with a head of hair, a complexion, and a set of teeth,
profoundly impossible to be believed in by the widest stretch of human
credulity. Can they both be men and brothers? Verily they are. And
although Cousin Feenix has lived so fast that he will die at
Baden-Baden, and although this club-man in the frock has lived, ever
since he came to man's estate, on nine shillings a week, and is sure to
die in the Union if he die in bed, yet he brought as much into the world
as Cousin Feenix, and will take as much out--more, for more of him is
real.
A pretty, simple building, the club-house, with a rustic colonnade

outside, under which the members can sit on wet evenings, looking at
the patches of ground they cultivate for themselves; within, a well-
ventilated room, large and lofty, cheerful pavement of coloured tiles, a
bar for serving out the beer, good supply of forms and chairs, and a
brave big chimney-corner, where the fire burns cheerfully. Adjoining
this room, another:
"Built for a reading-room," said Friar Bacon; "but not much used--
yet."
The dreary sage, looking in through the window, perceiving a fixed
reading-desk within, and inquiring its use:
"I have Service there," said Friar Bacon. "They never went anywhere to
hear prayers, and of course it would be hopeless to help them to be
happier and better, if they had no religious feeling at all."
"The whole place is very pretty." Thus the sage.
"I am glad you think so. I built it for the holders of the
Allotment-grounds, and gave it them: only requiring them to manage it
by a committee of their own appointing, and never to get drunk there.
They never have got drunk there."
"Yet they have their beer freely?"
"O yes. As much as they choose to buy. The club gets its beer direct
from the brewer, by the barrel. So they get it good; at once much
cheaper, and much better, than at the public-house. The members take
it in turns to be steward, and serve out the beer: if a man should decline
to serve when his turn came, he would pay a fine of twopence. The
steward lasts, as long as the barrel lasts. When there is a new barrel,
there is a new steward."
"What a noble fire is roaring up that chimney!"
"Yes, a capital fire. Every member pays a halfpenny a week."
"Every member must be the holder of an Allotment-garden?"
"Yes; for which he pays five shillings a year. The Allotments you see
about us, occupy some sixteen or eighteen acres, and each garden is as
large as experience shows one man to be able to manage. You see how
admirably they are tilled, and how much they get off them. They are
always working in them in their spare hours; and when a man wants a
mug of beer, instead of going off to the village and the public-house, he
puts down his spade or his hoe, comes to the club- house and gets it,
and goes back to his work. When he has done work, he likes to have his

beer at the club, still, and to sit and look at his little crops as they
thrive."
"They seem to manage the club very well."
"Perfectly well. Here are their own rules. They made them. I never
interfere with them, except to advise them when they ask me."
RULES AND REGULATIONS MADE BY THE COMMITTEE From
the 21st September, 1857
One half-penny per week to be paid to the club by each member
1.--Each member to draw the beer in order, according to the number of
his allotment; on failing, a forfeit of twopence to be paid to the club.
2.--The member that draws the beer to pay for the same, and bring his
ticket up receipted when the subscriptions are paid; on failing to do so,
a penalty of sixpence to be forfeited and paid to the club.
3.--The subscriptions and forfeits to be paid at the club-room on the last
Saturday night of each month.
4.--The subscriptions and forfeits to be cleared up every quarter; if not,
a penalty of sixpence to be paid to the club.
5.--The member