PORTSMOUTH � Ask most people on the streets of Portsmouth about the Warwick Club, and chances are they?ll say, "What's the Warwick Club?"



Located at 5 Market St., on the second floor above Alie's Jewelers, the private, men-only social club formed in 1892 still operates under a shroud of secrecy today.



"We're pretty private and we really don't want the community to know much - if anything -about us," said Morton Schmidt, a veterinarian, 20-year member and former club president.



Current president, David Pratt of Kittery, Maine, agrees.



"You know the Rotary Club gets its picture in the paper quite a bit because of its charitable work," he said. "We're not looking for that type of exposure so we've always kept to ourselves."



Schmidt described the Warwick as a "old gentlemen's club," one of only about 100 remaining in the United States, and said its members don't want to be in the public eye.



"The Warwick Club doesn't do charitable work. We don't have a political agenda. It's strictly a social club," said Pratt.



A book written for the club's centennial (1892-1992) by member Woodard Openo, and published by Peter Randall, cites a quote from former President James R. Kilcoyne on that issue.



"In the Warwick Club, we don't collect old eyeglasses or wear funny hats, nor march in parades, support a children's burn hospitals, or sell Christmas trees for charity," Kilcoyne, a Portsmouth resident, is quoted as saying. "Indeed, we have no objectives, except to have a good time among friends. That is the secret of our success."



The main criteria for membership, says the book, is whether someone would "... enjoy the club and fit in ... . You?re not supposed to talk business in the Club ... gambling with dice is not allowed ... ."



"When asked how a social businessmen's club has lasted so long, (one member) suggested that not having a liquor license (it's BYOB) helps preserve its character, as does keeping women out," the book said.



The club also used to exclude Catholics and Jews, but that is not the situation today, Pratt said.



"I think we even have a Muslim gentleman who is a member," he said. "We can barely maintain our membership (175 men) as it is."



The book highlights drinking as a major activity in the first 100 years of the club's existence.



"The old guys would all sit around a table and pay penny-ante poker," said Openo's club history. "So a poker game would be going on and somebody else would be ?taking a bubble? (another expression for having a drink)."



During the club's early history, these activities caused some concerns for wives of the members, Openo's book said.



"(Members) would take strangers or business associates up for drinks," an excerpt from the book reads. "The women hated it because they?d go up there all night, and some of the newer members would tell their wives they were going up there and would go out on ?em."



Schmidt said that while members have private liquor lockers at the club, the club is currently not all about drinking.



"We're not rolling out the door and falling down in the street," Schmidt said with a chuckle. "Maybe 50 years ago, they might have been doing that, but not today.



"Fifty years ago, there were hardly any bars in town. I think the only place you could get a drink (of hard liquor) 50 years ago was at the Meadowbrook. That book was for a 100-year anniversary, so it encompasses 100 years of history."



However, few current members would discuss exactly what goes on at the Warwick these days. Attempts to contact club members Kilcoyne, Tim Griffin and attorney Jack McGee were unsuccessful.



Openo, the centennial book's author and a club member, would not discuss the club. Membership director and local Realtor Joe Hunkins said, "I really don't have any information for (the Portsmouth Herald) about that club."



Attorney Joseph Field, a club member, said the Herald should contact the officers of the club, but would not reveal their identities to the Herald.



"I'm not going to talk about the club," said Field. "You have the centennial book."



Schmidt said he understands why most club members would refuse to talk about the organization.



"I think you?re going to get put off by people because we just don't want people to know that we're there because the membership's by invitation only," he said. "(There was a time) when the idea of an old gentlemen's club was probably more accepted than it would be today's standards, and that's why we want to be left alone."



Pratt agreed.



"For the most part, the guys that are up there tend to be very protective of what's going on," he said. "They don't want to rock the boat."



According to the centennial book, the club did not want women as members, and Pratt confirmed that is still the case today.



"It is something that is brought up and discussed from time to time," said Pratt. "There's never been enough interest to follow through."



That's another reason for the secrecy that surrounds the organization, he said.



"Because it is an all-men's club we've always understood the significance that it was men only," he said. "We never wanted to cultivate any problems with this community as being a sexist club."



Furthermore, said Pratt, he doubts the cigar-smoking, pool-playing, male atmosphere would appeal to women anyway.



"We always felt that women would not like to come," he said.



Another reason women may not have been put off by the goings on at the club may have been the selection of reading materials available.



"Members (as of 1992) continue to enjoy the library, which features news magazines, National Geographic and Playboy," the centennial book said.



Schmidt said the club also has other magazines including Time magazine, Cigar Magazine and Newsweek. It also subscribes to two daily newspapers.



"It's there for the membership to come up and enjoy," he said.



Pratt said the Playboy subscription is more of a tradition than anything else.



"We've been getting it for so long. We've been getting that magazine for at least a generation," he said.



The Playboys are part of the club's old-fashioned ambiance, he said.



"It's like the old carpets ... . We like to keep the old look to (the club)," said Pratt.



Yvonne Krause, now 83, who cooked and cleaned for the Warwick Club for 48 years until her retirement nine years ago, was one of the few women who had sustained access to the organization. She said last week that she loved working at the club all those years and does not recall the Playboy magazines or excessive drinking.



"Maybe they got the Playboy since these young whippersnappers got in there," she said. "It was a respectable club. They?d have a few drinks, but I've never seen anybody intoxicated."



Krause's statements concerning drinking at the club were so notorious among members that the centennial book author even commented on them in the book.



"In all the years she's been here, she has only seen two men intoxicated. If she's blind, how can she cook so well?" it said.



Krause says she still misses working at the club today.



"I enjoyed the club," said the 83- year-old. "Now it's all them young squirts."



Schmidt says the Warwick Club is all about tradition.



"It's what we classify as of the old gentlemen's clubs, and that's what it's all about," he said. "We're pretty private."