The Trumpet Club

                                      

It indicates the growing popularity of club life in the early years of
the 18century.the word trumpet is probably used in connection with the
idiom ”to blow one’s trumpet” meaning to boast; and each member of the
trumpet club does just that.The satirical essay speaks of how the
narrator chose to relax before retiring for the night.
After a hard days work, the narrator  made it his custom to spend the
evenings in the company of men where he did not have to exercise his
mind much-their talk lulled him to sleep( meaning it was boring and
repetitive) the number of members had come down from the original 15
to 5- and where he was considered the most learned(Intelligent) the
narrator then gives a pen sketch of the members- the oldest is named
Sir Jeffery Notch(notch means to make a score- reference to sports)
who lost all his wealth igambling on hounds(racing dogs) horses and
gaming cocks.  The next member is Major Matchlock (matchlock is a kind
of gun) who had participated in all the civil wars and his talk
bordered on the same. His greatest heroic deed was when London workers
pushed him off his horse during a demonstration (strike). The third
member is referred to as Dick Reptile (a kind of snake that is slow
and sluggish). He speaks little, laughs at all the jokes. He would
bring with his nephew, who would sit silent, or even if he passed a
comment or laughed at the jokes, would be told by his uncle ‘you young
men us fools, but we old men know you are’’ (fools). The next member
is not referred to by name- his only claim to fame was that he knew
the notorious Jack Ogle well and would tell stories of his adventures.
The 5 member was the narrator himself who was regarded as a man of
letters(Intelligent and well educated) He w as referred to by the
members as ‘scholar’ ‘philosopher’.
 The members met every evening at 6 pm and dispersed at 10pm, and the
conversation was the same as it was for the past few years.   On his
way home, the narrator would reflect  with himself, the talkative
nature of old men who would spin the same yarn(meaning repeat the same
incidents over and over again). This made him also think that when a
young man began to talk over a particular incident, over a period of
time, the story would get elongated so long as to compete with the
Canterbury Tales(A number of long stories to have been told by a band
of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, a place sacred for the tomb of
St. Thomas Becket)
 One way to avoid getting into this pitfall, acc. To the narrator, is
to store up knowledge and observation in our youth and use and recall
it in our declining (old age) years. This can make a man ,in his old
age, a man of wisdom comparable to that of Nestor( a character in the
Iliad known for his wisdom and eloquence)