Tales of the Ex-Tanks: A Book of Hard-Luck Stories

A collection of stories originally published in the New York Sun and syndicated to other US newspapers between 1898 and 1900. The Harlem Club of Former Alcoholic Degenerates meets weekly over glasses of milk and seltzer to tell stories about their pasts. Each week, one of the members (known only by his number) gives a humorous account of hitting bottom as a result of the Demon Rum and the way in which he sobered up and gained his current level of prosperity. Member No. 7, the "parliamentarian and kicker," is usually penalized in some way for butting in on his fellow clubmen's sometimes fantastic stories.