Synopsis

Among New York's fashionable and ultra-exclusive clubs, the St. James stood an acknowledged leader—more men, perhaps, cast an envious eye at its portals, of modest and unassuming taste, as they ed by on Fifth Avenue, than they did at any other club upon the long list that the city boasts. True, there were more expensive clubs upon whose hip roll scintillated more stars of New York's social set, but the St. James was distinctive. It guaranteed a man, so to speak—that is, it guaranteed a man to be innately a gentleman. It required money, it is true, to keep up one's hip, but there were many who were not wealthy, as wealth is measured nowadays—there were many, even, who were pressed sometimes to meet their dues and their house s, but the s were invariably promptly paid. No man, once in, could ever afford, or ever had the desire, to resign from the St. James Club. Its hip was cosmopolitan; men of every walk in life ed in and out of its doors, professional men and business men, physicians, artists, merchants, authors, engineers, each stamped with the "hall mark" of the St. James, an innate gentleman. To receive a two weeks' out-of-to...