260 Among Men and Horses. 



sportsmen who had been a member of my class at Malta ; 

 whereupon we simultaneously exclaimed : ' Dear me, what a 

 small world this is ! ' My friend seeing my state of collapse, 

 led me off to the Randt Club, which was hard by, refreshed 

 me with the best, and got me made an honorary member. 

 The men of the better sort in South Africa are eminently 

 clubable, and even in the small towns, generally manage to 

 form a pleasant retreat for themselves where they can eat, 

 drink, read the papers, and play billiards without being 

 poisoned or fleeced. Their clubs are comfortable, well 

 managed, and afford a stranger an easy means to become 

 acquainted with the members, who, like all South Africans, 

 are only too glad to be kind and hospitable to strangers who 

 can give a ' good account of themselves,' and who do not put 

 on 'side,' which was the stone over which Lord Randolph 

 Churchill stumbled when in those parts. It is the custom in 

 South African clubs to have a bar, similar to those in public 

 houses, at which drinks are dispensed to the members. Such 

 an adjunct to a club in England or India, would naturally 

 render the place liable to be termed a ' pot house ' ; but in 

 South Africa the case is very different. There, men who 

 belong to clubs, instead of being more or less idle like those 

 in the two countries I have mentioned, have their time fully 

 occupied, and appreciate the convenience of the bar system. 

 Besides, in a country where good waiters are very difficult to 

 be found, it would not always be possible to procure sufficient 

 and suitable attendance for serving liquor only in the various 

 sitting-rooms. When South African society has assumed a 

 more permanent and a more cultured form than it has up to 

 the present attained, and when its ladies have increased in 

 number, and have become less afraid than they are of each 

 other, the club committee men will see the advantage of 

 catering for the amusement of the members' womankind by, 

 for instance, allowing them the entrance into certain club 

 rooms during certain hours of the afternoon or evening, hav- 

 ing lawn tennis courts at which they might play, and getting 



