OL\t\J Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation witli Cornell University Libraries, 2007. You may use and print this copy in limited quantity for your personal purposes, but may not distribute or provide access to it (or modified or partial versions of it) for revenue-generating or other commercial purposes. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 1999 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® THE CLUBS OF NEW YORK: WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, PRESENT CONDITION AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE LEADING CLUBS ; AN ESSAY ON E^EW YORK CLUB-LIFE, AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF LEADING CLUE-MEN. BY FRANCIS GERRY FAIRFIELD. 4!i& NEW YORK: HENEY L. HINTON, PUBLISHEB, 744 BBOADWAY. 1873. Digitized by Microsoft® Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by HENRY L. HIKTON". in tlie Office of the Librarian of Congress at "Washiugton. Digitized by Microsoft® PREFACE. The basis of this work is constituted by a series of papers contributed by the author to the 1871 volume of the Hnme Journal ; and it is but just to state that several previous series on the clubs of New York have been begun : one by the late Fitzhugh Ludlow in a leading daily, another and later by January Searle, which went no further than a clever paper on the Centiu-y. In editing these papers for book-form, the author's aim has been threefold: to produce, first, a history, de- scription, and analysis of club-life in New York ; secondly, a detailed directory of the clubs treated; thirdly, a careful digest, for purposes of reference, of organization, habits, house-rules, and the like — in all, a practical handbook of clubs and club- Ufe. For the materials relative to the early history of the Century the author is indebted to Mr. John H. Gourlie's ad- mirable pamphlet taking the subject down to 1856 ; for the initial pages of the Lotos, to that fine critic and essayist, Mr. J. H. Elliot, formerly of the Home Journal, one of its founders, and long a member of the directory : and he begs here to tender his thanks to the officers and members of the several clubs for courtesies, which withheld, this volume would have been im- possible; also, to accredit the germs of sundry by-the-way discussions to the Home Journal, Evening Mail, and other papers, in which they have first appeared as contributions, either under liis name or quite without specified ownership. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® CONTENTS. I. CLOB-LrPE IN New Yoek . II. The Oentuey Chjb m. The Union Club IV. New Yokk Yacht Club V. Union League Club VI. Manhattan Club VII. Ameeican Jockey Club VITI. Amekicus Club IX. Lotos Club X. Blossom Club . XI. Teavelebs' Club , Xn. The Palette XIII. Arcadian Club XIV. AuMY and Navy Club . 7 29 57 8i 106 139 167 202 215 230 255 271 2.38 3U Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® THE CLUBS OF NEW YORK. CLUB LIFE IN NEW YORK. At no time, probably, in the historjf of the metropolis, has there been a movement so marked in the direction of club-life: New York being the second citj' in the world in the number and membership of its clubs, London stand- ing first. There are now in operation, within city limits, not far from one hundred clubs, with a membership in the aggregate of not less than fifty thousand. It has been alleged in some quarters that the rolls of these associa- tions are mostly recruited from the ranks of unmarried men. It would be natural to suppose so; but an ex- amination of the facts disproves the proposition, which is one of those d priori conclusions that people are apt to indulge in ' out of respect for what they conceive to be the fitness of things. The facts are at variance with the terms of the fiction. At least, three-fourths of the club- men of New Tork are married men — more than one-half are bankers and heavy business men: men of extensive financial transactions and responsibilities. What is true of club rolls now, moreover, has been equally true of them fifom the days of the old Hone and Kent clubs, in the Digitized by Microsoft® CLUBS OF NEW YOBK. (lays of which existed only three associations of the sort, to wit, the Union, founded in the summer of 1836, and representative of a certain element of the old regime; the Hone, founded later in the year, and representative of a second element or clique of the. ancient quality of the city; and the Kent, dating from the autumn of 1838, and uniquely representing the cream and talent of the bar. To the latter belonged J. Prescott Hall, the legal father of William M. Evarfs, and the most brilliant lawyer of his day; Ogden Hoffman, the eloquent; Edward Curtis, the friend of Daniel Webster, and the most profound of that splendid circle; O'Conor, whose fame is European as well as American; Peter A. Jay, Francis B. Cutting, and other legal lions. It was the golden age of New York — in literature as Well as law — even in commercial greatness. There were Titans in those days — ^bold, honest, far-seeing pioneers — Titans everywhere. Literary art was represented by men like Washington Irving; C. Penno Hoffman, and George P. Morris, the pioneers of American song; the brilliant, fastidious, and imaginative Willis; the erratic, wandering, and wonderful Poe; the grave, sweet, beautiful singing Bryant; the fanciful but gifted Fay, and the noble, deep- seeing Halleck. Look through the round of living men, Where will you find their like again ? They constituted a crop of intellectuals to be reaped not oftener than once in a century; and Death, the grim reaper, has reaped them aU except one who, gray, grand, and antique, still stands like a column of Karnak, indicial of the ancient splendor of the temple. Whatever the present may develop, these will always be the gods of the American literary Pantheon — names to be remembered Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIFH IS A-JSW YORK. 9 in American letters as those of the Elizabethan age are in English. In one respect the decade between 1830 and 1840 very singularly resembled the present. It was a decade ol' penny journalism, and saw the foundation of that vast newspaper system which has since become an engine of thought more powerful than book-making. It was a decade, too, of the most intense Americanism, and in- tensely anti-English, Mrs. Trollope having just published that volume of American notes, which rendered her name a proverb in this country, and gave origin no doubt to the epithet of Trollope as applied to unruly liliputians. Horace Greeley and the late James Gordon Bennett were almost penniless young men, whose futures remained to be mined out; the late Henry J. Raymond was only known as a hard-working and hard- worked reporter; but the acorn had been planted, out of which was to grow the great oak of journalism. The late Professor Morse, whose telegraph afterwards became the nervous system of civilization, was a starveling young artist in his studio, later located in the New York University building. It was a generation, in short, of many lions, most of whom have now quiet homes in Greenwood, half a dozen of whom only, gray, grizzled and decrepit, wander about, wondering what the present generation — with its push- ing to and fro, its dim feeling in the dark for the freer and higher in life, and its obhteration of old landmarks — means by its irreverent rejection of the ancient and once undoubted. For, with all its brilliancy, and its host ot intellectuals, the decade was analogous to the eighteenth century in England. Its investigations were limited by certain bounds beyond which was no thoroughfare ; its speculations were safely tethered to a conventional cen- tre, bej'ond which lay dreamland and vagary; its poetry Digitized by Microsoft® lO CLUBS OF NEW YORK. and fiction were formal in their art, followed classic models, afforded small scope for real originality. Clubs, among them the Sketch Club, discussed at length by Dr. Francis in his papers read before the Historical Socdety — had existed for years, but had been small and had attracted little attention; and thus, as with journalism, the ten years, from 1830 to 1840, saw the foundation of New York club-life as it at present exists. There had been a Column Club — strange name, with an odor of the classical about it — but, for some reason, club- life had not thriven. The Hone Club included a number of very familiar names. Moses H. Grinnell and Simeon J)i"aper were members. Thomas Tileston and Paul Spofford, two names never to be dissociated in the commercial history of New York, and James Watson "Webb, who fought the duel with August Belmont, also belonged. The Hone Club represented at that day the wealth and talent of the old "Whig party, occupying the same position as to that political organization, that the Manhattan now occupies in relation to the Democratic party, or the Union League in relation to the Republican. Daniel Webster and William H. Seward were honorary members; andHealy's celebrated j)ortrait of the former, the best now existing, was painted for the Association in 1842. The "Union Club was constructed upon purely social principles, and represented the old regime of Livingstons, Van Courtlandts, "Van Rensselaers, Dunhams, and others; and, of these, the descendants of two families — the Livingstons and the Dunhams — have from the beginning retained their prominent influence in the club. David Dunham, familiar in the business circles of old New York as the Handsome Spaniard, and in society circles as the Old Turk, deserves mention as the grandfather of more Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIFE IN NEW YORK. I I club-men than any other of all that circle of commercial princes, who laid the foundation of New York pre- eminence in trade. His son-in-law, Eeuben Withers, cashier of the Bank of the State of New York, was one of the first members of the Union, and is now represented there by sons, sons-in-law, and grandsons to the extent of a dozen or more; also in the Jockey Club by David Dunham Withers, whose stables are second only to those of Belmont; also in the Manhattan by A. W. Clason and William H. Paine, who are members of the Union as well. Thus, what the English call, with the, most unmtisieal adjective ever invented, the clubbable disposition, appears to run in families, if not to be, in some respects, subject to the ordinary laws of hereditary descent; and an ex- amination and careful comparison of the lists of the great leading associations proves that one-half of the club-men of the city are descended from less than a score of the old families. These are club-men in the fullest sense of the word. There is another class of members who be- long merely by way of reference in social circles, and who are members merely because a certain social standing is therewith associated. Club-men, however, in any just definition of the term, they are not— habitues of clubs they certainly are not. There is again a third class of young men who join the club for the mere sake of be- coming habitues, and of having an elegant place to lounge and pick up the society gossip of the day; but this latter class is not so numerous as has been generally supposed. The number of unmarried men who live en club is, on the other hand, very large. Tue way is easy. Half-a-dozen or a dozen — friends and cronies — all club together and rent a house in an eligible quarter, paying the rent by- apportion, or accordiag to the quality of the rooms Digitized by Microsoft® 12 CLUBS OF NEW YORK. occupied. A caterer and two or three servants complete the organization, which is a true club in the old, exclu- sive sense of the word. Living en club is not so very expensive, either, com- paratively considered. Granted that an unmarried gentleman is worth three thousand a year. To live in lodgings and take meals at a restaurant will cost him not less than twenty-fire dollars a week, even if he lives very modestly; and nobody with any income boards now-a- days, unless at a hotel. A dozen gentlemen effect a combination, agreeing to contribute twenty dollars apiece per week, which is equal to $12,480 a year, upon which to keep house. They take a Fifth Avenue mansion at a rent of $5,000, and have still $7,480 left for table ex- penses, which is more than equal to the necessities of the case; and thus a stylish location and all the comforts are secured at less than the ordinary cost of uncomfortable lodgings and hurried restaurant dinners. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that living en club has become popular, even more so than belonging to clubs of the crowded hotel (for gentlemen only and on the European plan) sort, which are ruinously expensive, and afford nothing of the privacy of home and proprietorship afforded by the club system thus differently practised. In fact, living en dub is eminently practicable, sensible, economical, and home-like — a remark which cannot be applied to living in lodging-houses, boarding-houses and hotels, without considerable quaHfication. Clubs these cooperative institutions are, though not in the more modern sense; and, in this way, probably not less than ten thousand young men of the city are members of clubs. But to the clubs of more or less publicity, of which the crop is large and continually augmsnting. The number Digitized by Microsoft® CL UB LIFE IN NIS W YO&K. I 3 that, have risen, had a brief existence, and fallen into nothingness again during the past twenty years, has been legion. The New York Club, which had rooms on Fifth Avenue facing the Union, was long one of the wealthiest and most celebrated in the city — in fact, emulated the Union in social prestige ; and great was the popular wonder when, in May, 1869, it suddenly suspended. One hundred and ten of the members joined the Union, and the rest scattered themselves elsewhere. In May, 1870, it was resuscitated, under the presidency of Mr. H. H. Ward, at No. 2 East Fifteenth street, but has not re- covered its old standing and membership, though now ranking as both opulent and stylish. The Eclectic, occupying the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-sixth street, was also, after a brilHant existence, compelled to suspend on account of debt, most of its member joining the Union League. The most famous, however, of modern clubs dying insolvent, was probably the Athe- naeum, with which were associated the leading talent and wealth of the aiiy, say fifteen or twenty years since. In details of organization it was a pretty exact copy of the Athenaeum Club, of London, ranking with the Union and Century in literary and social eclat. But the old fatality, debt, attended, and suddenly the Athenaeum was as if it had not been. In fact, the proper epitaph of the defunct club is — " Died of debt;" aud very often, perhaps, pecula- tion on the part of the trusted steward or superintendent has more hand in the taking off than that personage would be willing to admit. A deeper reason is, however, found in the fact that really very few of the members are actual habitues and patrons of the club-house. Take the Union League, with its membership of fifteen hundred, as an example. The restaurant, in point of variety and elegant epicureanism, is not exceeded by that of any Digitized by Microsoft® 14 CLUBS OF NHW YOBK. first-class hotel, and exceeds that of most first-class hotels kept on the European plan. The regular system of the club involves two men m per day, to wit, the special breakfast bill, and the dinner bill. Epicure most inveter- ate could scarcely ask for delicacy or substantial not specified in the menu; and yet the dispensation of meals averages less than one hundred per day. Of all the members, possibly twenty take their meals at the club with something like regularity. Yet, everything must be kept in stock. Hence, loss, waste, and perpetual drain on the resources of the club; and hence, no economy is possible — as it would be were a greater proportion of the members actually habitues of the club-house. At the Manhattan, the restaurant of which is celebrated, and at the Union, the same phenomenon is illustrated — every- where, in fact, except at the Travelers', where, by means of a system of monthly membership, the restaurant is practically opened to the general public. An exhibit of the balance sheet of the Union League for a single year will serve to convey an idea of the receipts and expendi- tures of this deparment of the leading clubs. For the year 1870 the receipts were: From restaurant $47,970 55. From -wines 17,480 96. From liijuors 6,756 47. From cigars 8,664 29. Total S80,872 27. Cost of new materials 78,081 43. Balance $2,790 84. Making no account of cookery and service, and recollect- ing that wines, liquors, and cigars, with great profit, are subject to little waste,' it is obvious that the restaurant did not actually take money enough to pay for its raw Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIFE IN NEW FOSK. 15 material, and, but for the other items, would have in- volved the club to the extent of not less than fifteen thousand dollars, had its account been kept separate from the wine and cigar accounts. This is the secret of that insolvency which, sooner or later, swamps the club, except in oases where, if the income is unequal to the current expenses, the amount is assessed on the members by a per capita tax, as provided for in the constitution of the Manhattan. The result is referable to the fact that though, nominally, the membership of clubs in this city is scarcely less than that of London clubs, most of the members are not club-men in the London sense, and manifest very little of that clubbable disposition which is habitual and hereditary in the Englishman. Scores of men could be mentioned who are members of three or four clubs, but really habitues of none : A. T. Stewart, for ex- ample, William B. Astor, Jay Gould, John J. Cisco, Wil- liam M. Evarts, Manton Marble, William Cullen Bryant William H. Paine — in fact, eminent bankers, business men, and professionals by the dozen. In European circles the case is reversed; and hence, the subsidence of a club through insolvency is a rare occurrence indeed. There, for the most part, people belong to clubs in order to frequent them, and not by way of reference or pass- port to high social circles. It must not be taken for granted either, without considerable reservation, that the clubs of New York embody the position and condition of the city to any great extent, or to the extent that it occurs in London. The influence of American clubs, except politically, is less marked and general than that of English associations of the same kind — their labor less mental ; their admission to the sanctum less socially authoritative; their material less homogeneous. As a rule, too, aims have not taken a very extended Digitized by Microsoft® 1 6 CJ.C/2Jii OF lYSir YOHK. range. Middletown, Conn., has a conversational club composed of the professors of the Wesleyan University, Berkeley Divinity School, and lawyers, doctors, clergy- men, and professionals; but New York has as yet noth- ing of the sort, unless the "Woman's Club may be re- garded as holding that position. A Greek Club has been founded recently, I believe, under the paternity of Rev. Dr. Crosby, of New York University, and numbers among its members Mr. C. A. Dana, of the Sun, and Mr. C. T. Lewis, late of the Evening Post. Nothing but Greek is spoken at the weekly reunions, whence it may be concluded that the members talk very little. Greek composition is — so said — one of the necessary credentials to initiation. Of sporting dubs, on the other hand, the names are legion. Among the several cricket clubs the St. George is the most celebrated; of base ball clubs, the Mutual, having rooms at 622 Broadway, John Wildey, President. Of rowing clubs there are half a dozen of celebrity, clubs devoted to this specialty taking precedence of all others for antiquity, though the Amateur Boat Club Associa- tion, founded in 1834, with boat houses at Castle Garden, was first to render the sport popular. Famous in their day were the Wave, the Gull, Gazelle, Cleopatra, Pearl, Halcyon, Ariel, Minerva, and Gondola — all of which had numerous partisans; though for years the Wave ulwaj'S carried ofi' the golden fleece, until at last, in an unlucky hour, vanquished by the Annie, of Peekskill. Then came the Independent Boat Club Association, with its Dis- owned, Wizard Skiff, Laffitto, Masanielo, Vivid, Spark, Met- amora, Triton, D. D. Tompkins, Sylph, Erie, Duane, Eagle, Thomas Jefferson, Fairy, Washington, Brooklyn and Edwin Forrest. But, the two clubs passed away, and, in 1859, the New York Regatta Club, under the presidency of Mr. Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIVE IN NEW VOBK. ' I C. M. Coy, absorbed most of -what had once been their membership. It should be ■understood, however, -that, under the old associations, every crew was reckoned as a club, and there existed, consequently, as many clubs as there were boats; while, under the later system, the crews taken together constitute the club, and thus a more closely articulated organization of boating men has been effected. The Atalanta is now, perhaps, with the exception of the University associations, the most famous of American boat clubs; but boating as a sport seems to be ill adapted to the American organization, which is really less aquatic than the parent Enghsh, and takes none of the fostering pride of Englishmen in 'dexterity of oar. Though not a club, strictly speaking, because having no formal organization, yet as a sort of nursery of clubs, the Stable Gang, having quarters over the horse-hotel of Mr. Greorge W. Butt, corner of Bayard and Elizabeth streets, is entitled to mention. For more than twenty years a coterie, of which William M. Tweed — before that fall, my countrymen — was the leading spirit, has met here. It consists in the main of members of the Orien- tal, Blossom, and City Clubs — organizations of pronoun- cedly Democratic type; and has for its distinctive feature the celebration of the birthdays of its members. On these occasions the member's portrait, decorated with floral garlands, is suspended in the club-room, and a bountiful feast is served. They have a way, too, of brewing a beverage in the thousand-dollar porcelain bowl belonging to the organization, which is really fasci- nating to lovers of a symposium, not of philosophical drinks as was that of Plato, but of authentic and imbib- able liquids. Judge Edward J. Shandley, C. H. Hall, Judge Scott, Superintendent Kelso, Marshal Tooker, Digitized by Microsoft® I 8 CLUBS OF KEW YORK. Hon. David L. Miller, Daniel Berrian, James L. Harway, Daniel S. Poster, M. J. Shandley, and other well-known politicians are members of the Coterie, and take part in its festivals, at the last of which, in honor of Mr. George W. Butt, a gold-headed cane, with a tiger's head pro- truding a tongue of rubies, was presented by Judge Shandley on behalf of the organization. The eyes of the tiger were a couple of real emeralds, teeth so many dia- monds — for those were days, in the spring of 1871, when Tammany politicians could afford to be ostentatious; and for long had the Coterie been famed in its circle for the magnificence of its gifts and the reckless conviviality of its reunions. A few smaller clubs must be noted en masse before pro- ceeding to take up the larger ones. The AUemania, of which A. Wormser has for several terms been president, is probably the most powerful German club in the city, having splendid quarters at No. 18 East Sixteenth street, with a fine hall for public exercises. The first anniver- sary of the then feeble, but now prosperous, Palette Club, was celebrated in this hall; though the second took place in the new and elegant building of the Arion Association, in St. Mark's Place. The German Club — Dr. E. Kraekowizer, President — is younger than the AUemania, and has rooms at No. 104 Fourth Avenue. The Harmonie, a thu-d and semi-Teutonic club, under the presidency of Mr. M. Simonfeld, Jr., is, on the other hand, old, wealthy, and prosperous. The club-house is situated in West Forty-second street, a few doors from Fifth Avenue, and is one of the most elegantly appointed in the city. A fourth club, distinctively German, under the presidency of Mr. Gustav Matzke, occupies the prem- ises. No. 14 East Fourth street. Taken together, these clubs, with a membershi23 of a couple of thousands, are Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIFE IN NEW YORK. I 9 representative of powerful and active social forces. In- deed,' the German element appears to be endowed with what the Enghsh call the clubbable disposition more bountifully than the native American, who, though emi- nently gregarious in his instincts, is not so eminently social. That gemuth of disposition, for which English has not even a name, accounts, no doubt, for the Ger- man's love of the club. Then, too, the German clubs of the city are arranged with a regard to cosiness, home- likeness, and comfort; while the Americans run mad after that vague something termed stylishness, to the loss of all substantial comfort and ease; and hence, German associations are not addicted to dying of insolvency. While speaking of the modern tendency in the direc- tion of club-life, the sable citizens of the Fifteenth Amendment must not be omitted. Imitative always, they have imitated their paler brethren in this also; and, of naturally social disposition, their clubs are models of sociability and harmony of feeling. Thus far, they are represented by two clubs only, embodying the wealth and social position of the sables in the city; and that they really have an ari.stocracy of their own, everybody who has looked into the social condition and ideas of the class, is aware. They have their miUionaires, their heiresses, their oratorical, political, and musical celebri- ties, their social lions, and their old families — and, of course, their social rivalries, jealousies, and bickei-ings. Strange to say, a sort of esprit de corps, or rather, esprii de gens, is prevalent to an extent that would not be cred- ited by an ordinary observer. They manifest little or no inclination to intermarry with white people; 'and, in their best circles, a negro is more respected than a mu- latto. The little intermarriage that occurs is between negroes and Irish women, in the lower classes of both. Digitized by Microsoft® 20 CLUIiS OF KSW TOItK. Political emancipation appears, in short, to have vaccin- ated the negro not only vrith self-respect, but with a sort of race-respect ; having thus put an effectual bar to amalgamation, and solved the problem more perfectly than any prohibitory statutes could have done. This race-respect finds its legitimate out-cropping in clubs of exclusive membership, in which the two existing are unique. Their initiation fees are not so very small either — forty dollars in one, and sixty in the other — and their club rooms are really cosy and luxurious. One would not expect to find clubs of luxurious appointing in Thompson and Sulhvan streets; but here they are. The membership of the two organizations is a httle over three hundred, and, as might be sujjposed, they are as exclusively republican in their ideas as the Union League. It would not be proper, perhaps, to call the Arion and Liederkranz associations clubs, principally because social intercourse is not the leading purpose of their organiza- tion; but the Beethoven, with a similar musical intent, has the club form, and, though only a few months old, has just erected an elegant club house on lots Nos. 14 and 16 East Fifteenth street. The plans exhibit a struc- ture four stories in height, with a Mansard roof. The frontage is fifty feet; the depth of the building, ninety- six feet. The facade is of Nova Scotia stone. A broad balcony, supported by pillars, runs the whole length of the front on the second story, constituting a splendid location for a summer evening's smoke. Pour bowhng alleys and the culinary department occui^j' the basement; on the 'first floor is a billiard room, forty-seven feet by sixty; also, the bar-room, and a vestibule of magnificent proportions. The sitting-room is on the second floor, forty-seven feet by sixty. Here, also, is the reading- Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIFE IN NEW TOBE. 2 I room, with numerous closets, lavatories, and a second bar taking the remainder of the space. The third floor is occupied by a ball-room, forty-seven feet by eighty, ■with a ceiling of the dizzy height of twenty-five feet. A gallery runs round three sides of this grand hall, and provides quarters for bands, by the half-dozen if neces- sary. The janitor's and servants' rooms occupy the fourth floor. The interior is finely frescoed. The Andrew Jackson Club — Leander Buck, President — occupies quarters in Lexington Avenue, corner of East Thirty-third street; the Cosmopolitan, Stephen A. West, at 220 Sulhvan street; the Invincibles, L. O'Brien, at No. 397 Hudson street. These are clubs of small mem- bership and special purpose. The City Club, of which Mr. S. Crocker is president, is, on the other hand, a strictly social body, though it has a considerable sprinkling of politicians, and now ranks very high for fashionable and stylish membership. James H. Ingersoll, once a leading society man, but car- ried under by the whelm of Tammany, was, ere his fate overtook him, a member and a habituS of the club rooms. The roll is not large, however, as compared with the Union League and Union, though large enough for weight as a club-body. In fact, from two to four hun- dred represents the average membership of what may be termed the lesser clubs, which, however, are the cosier and more exclusive on that account. The Gotham Club occupies elegant quarters at the corner of Union Square and Fourteenth street; and, for others, there are the Oriental, and Standard, and Old Guard — the former two of strictly social intent; the latter composed of gentle- men who make it a yearly penance to lament over the political degeneracy of the age, with the best in edibles and imbibables that the St. James can afford. The oS.- Digitized by Microsoft® 2 2 CLUBS OF NSW YORK. cers of the Seventh Regiment have curdled into a ohib under the name of the Morning Glories, (of which — happy return to the old system — the roll is limited to fifty) and leased a comna odious club house on Madison Avenue. The association already numbers over forty members, among whom are Colonel John Oakey and Colonel John Fowler, of General Shaler's staff; Captain Wiley, of the Wash- ington Grays; Mr. David D. Holdridge, and Mr. W. H. Kipp. The recently projected United Service Club has also taken objective form, and is modelled pretty closely- after the club of the same name in London. Thus far, our military and naval heroes have had to be content with becoming army and navy members, on half dues, at the "Union, and regulars or honoraries at the Union League. Hence, the jDroject has a mission in the provis- ion of a home frequented only by kindred spirits, for officers of the army and navy. The military system en- genders habits and modes of thought — an esprit, so to speak — which is sadly un-at-home with civilians, with the methods of whom it has few points of sympathy. The Union League, during the war, filled very amicably, and with not a little ecloi, the position that would ordi- narily have been occujjied by a United Service Club; and its honorary names included the Hons of the service, like grand, antique Farragut, brilliant Sheridan, mastifi-like Thomas, General Grant, and others. But since the con- clusion of the war, it has receded into a purely civilian club, with a semi-political purpose; and it is now, of course, impossible for it to hold the attitude toward the veterans of the service that it then held. Hence, the new club, which starts with the present prospect of a membership of a couple of hundred, thus beginning with that success which it is the aim of every association to attain. The moving spirits in the matter have been Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIFE IN NEW TOBK. 23 Generals Burn side, Wright, Cullum, Shaler, and others — good names all. The details of organization have been settled, and they have leased an elegant club house, with more than ordinary accomroodations for members and guests. The organization provides for stated receptions, and nothing spared to cover it with an eclat like that adhering to its prototype, the United Service Club, of London. The club begins with over a hundred members, under the presidency of Rear- Admiral Godon; and the splendid mansion corner of Pifth Avenue and Ninth street has been taken at an annual rental of four thousand one hundred dollars. The same rented in 1870 for seven thousand, but, in consideration of permanent occupancy, the club renews at fifty per cent, discount, or nearly that. The organization takes the name of the Army and Navy Club. The Liberal Club, the discussions of which have at- tracted a great deal of popular attention, has rooms in Plympton Building, on Stuyvesant street. Its member- ship is over one hundred, consisting mostly of scientists and amateurs in science, and including names like those of Dr. T. H. Van Der Weyde, D. T. Gardner, Alexander Delmar, and Professor Youmans. John Stuart Mill, Professor Huxley, and George Henry Lewes are honorary members, and in correspondence with the club. Initia- tion fees and dues are the same as at the Palette. The Standard Club, Broadway, near Forty-second street, though the youngest of all the strictly social clubs, has very elegant and expensive quarters, a membership of from three to four hundred, and appears to be firmly established: albeit there is no knowing when a club, manifesting all the signs of prosperity both in appurte- nances and reports, may collapse, so thoroughly unknown Digitized by Microsoft® 24 CLUBS OF JS'EW YOBK. to the general public are the transactions and exigencies of the treasury and superintendence. The Standard, however, ekes out a tolerable income by letting its splendid hall-parlors for receptions and the like, and to be a member is considered very styUsh, if not indicative of solidity. The Arcadian, the youngest of all the semi-social, semi-sesthetic clubs, is really too new to have any history to recount, beyond the single fact that it is an off-shoot from the Lotos, and had its origin in one of those feuds which periodically occur in social aggregations of pro- fessionals. Not less than half a dozen attempts to found such institutions have been made by leading City Hall Square journalists; but all have dragged a feeble existence or have been nipped in the bud by dissensions. The^ Press Club, founded in 1866, constituted the latest endeavor of the literary guild to form an aggregation which should have some practical weight; but the mem- bers of the staff of the Herald were estopped by a decree issued by Mr. Bennett, commanding withdrawal from the club or resignation; some few well-known journalist were blackballed for reasons of personal malice; and, after making some noise in the world, the thing dropped dead of its lack of vitality. There was never, I believe, any formal funeral: it was simply agreed, though tacitly of course, to abandon all formal organization. Horace Greeley was first president of this club, which started under very favorable auspices, only to waste into nothing from sheer lack of vital energy. The Arcadian — to return from reminiscence to present facts — starts under favorable conditions, and with a large number of literary notabilities on the roll, among them Max Maretzek, the veteran ivipreasario ; J. M. Bundy, of the Evening Mail; Mr. Bowker, of the same journal, a Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIFE IN NEW YOBK. 25 gentleman whose literary critioisms have lifted him to the first rank in his profession; Mr. Wells, of the same, whose musical and dramatic criticisms are independent, analytic and discriminative; George A. Hows, of the Evening Express, son of the late Professor Hows, and of eminent talent, both as critic and lecturer; Mr. Wheeler, the acute and brilliant " Nym Crinkle " of the World, and many more of the coming men in journalism, the drama, music and art. Hon. H. G. Stebbins is the president of the organization, as well as one of its leading spirits. The club-house is No. 52 Union Place, where fine receptions are statedly held. There is, also, a Commercial Club far down-town at Nos. 104 and 106 Leonard street, which numbers two hundred and fifty members; but, in common with the Arcadian and others, it is too modern to be regarded as permanently established. Dividing the clubs of New York into two great classes — those in which a thorough amalgamation of materials and something like a social crystalization have taken place, and those in the different stages of formation— it may be premised that in the first class the ofiicers and membership remain the same from year to year with merely sporadic accessions and a few losses hj death, expulsion and resignation. Elections are simply farces per constitution; admissions are quite limited to the fill- ing of vacancies; and the writer has known persons to wait year after year patiently, after being proposed for membership, before an actual ballot took place. Of this class, therefore, as comparatively permanent the rolls of officers and members are incorporated. At the Manhat- tan, for example, the members of the Directory hold for life, electing president, secretary and committees from among themselves. At the Century, Mr. Bryant is a sort Digitized by Microsoft® 26 CLUBS OF NE^Y YORK. of fixed president ; and, generally, in the larger clubs, which, with the exception of the Union are corporate bodies, the incorporating members direct. There are a few fallacies extant as to club-life that need correction. With nervous wives and mothers a club is synonymous with extravagance and temj)tation. By men in the middle ranks belonging to a club is looked upon as giving one a position. By that large class of social paupers, lawyers without briefs, doctors without patients, clerks on attenuated salaries, a club is often regarded as an expensive luxury, only suitable for magnates or the wealthier orders. In all these instances, the light in which clubs are viewed is incorrect. A club is not a haunt of dissipa- tion; it neither adds to nor detracts from social stand- ing, nor is membership beyond the means of poor men. Indeed, with regard to the last point, the contrary is rather the fact. Clubs are essentially English. Though every conti- nental city in Europe has imitated the institution, yet the English club still remains sui generis. The clubs and cercles in Paris, in Vienna, in St. Petersburgh, and those flabby transplantations called English and American clubs, which flourish in every city in Europe, are as different from their English and American namesakes as wine-bibbing is fronj total abstinence. On the continent the cafe, takes the place of the club; there men eat, drink, smoke, and read the papers; while those who belong to clubs have generally some claim to wealth or distinction, and use them as a fashionable lounge where bets are made in the day-time, and high play is the rule of the evening. The light in which a Parisian, Austrian, or Russian views his chib is not that of a home. And here lies the great difference between club-life abroad and Digitized by Microsoft® CLUB LIFE IN SEW YORK. 37 club-life in London and New York, where a man's club is bis home. It is there that he sees his friends, writes his letters, dines, and spends the greater part of the day. EespeetabOity, in its most severe moments, can wish for no more decorous haunt for husbands and sons to enter and take up their abode. As long as men are within the walls of their club they must conduct themselves as gentlemen. Should a member behave himself in an objectionable manner, and to the annoyance of his fel- lows, most assuredly he will be reprimanded by the secretary, or, if his offence be very reprehensible, be requested by the committee to take his name off the books. With the exception of certain clubs instituted especially for gambling, the committees of a club, as a general rule, forbid all games of hazard to be played under its roof, and limit the points at whist. "Where, then, is the occasion for the nervous apprehension in the female mind that clubs are calculated to lead their sons and husbands astray ? Apart from the admirable manner in which the table is provided for, a club possesses advantages. The library is a splendid collection of rare and interesting books, and on the different tables are the various monthly magazines and the latest works from the circulating library. To literary men this room is invaluable, and one of which they take full advantage. Jenkins, the fashionable novelist, looking through a county history, finds out here a good description of some noble country-seat in order to trans- fer it to the pages of his novel as the baronial residence of his hero's father; and Brown, the great dramatist, hunts out the materials for another new and original drama. In the writing-room are various little tables replete with writing materials — note-paper, envelopes, foolscap, Digitized by Microsoft® 2S CLUBS OF JVJSW YOJJK. sealing-wax, etc., and for aught the club cares, you may make as free use of those materials as you please. Jon- kins writes all his novels on the club paper, and Brown his tragedies, and these gentlemen mu.st find it ex- tremely convenient not to have to pay for stationery. And then, in addition to the above rooms, there are the well-ventilated smoking-room, with its after-dinner stories and cigars of the finest brands; the large hand- some morning-room, with its sofas xn.A faidewilH, and all the leading papers, aired, cut and temptingly- laid out for perusal; the dressing and bath-rooms; in short, every- thing that luxurious tastes can demand except bed-rooms; most clubs considering that they have had quite enough of your company during the day, and done enough for you, to be exempt from your society during the night. All you need, therefore, if you are unmarried, is an attic in some eligible quarter. The club comes to your rescue in all the remaining amenities of stylish living. Digitized by Microsoft® II. CENTURY CLUB, No. 109 EAST FIFTEENTH STKEET, NEAR UNION SQUAEE. On the evening of January 13, 1847 — Wednesday, as the almanac indicates — an important though very unpre- tentious meeting was held in the rotunda of the New York Gallery of Pine Arts in the Park. Not the Park which is now-a-days the Park par excellence, but that triangular bit of ground until lately barricaded at all strategic points by hucksters and apple-women — in a word. City Hall Square. In those days the collection of the late Guy Bryan occupied a sort of grotto-like edifice at the corner of Broadway and Thirteenth street, and, saving the New York Gallery of Fine Arts and the col- lection of the Historical Society, was the only accessible gallery of studies — the old New York Art Union and the, old Dusseldorf excepted. The meeting was not far from contemporary with the advent of Malibran, under bent old Bagioli, father of the late Mrs. Daniel E. Sickles, and that of the Italian Opera, under superannuated Palmo. Eheufugaces ! A century turns its glass ten times — every turn marking a decade — and a great city scarcely seems to notice it, with the exception that new cemeteries have to be staked out, and the statistics of funerals wax larger and larger, until the dead are more than the living. There was an old man in those days, or before, who did some business in paintings at auction, where the Digitized by Microsoft® 3° CLUBS OF iVBW YORK. Astor House now stands, forgetful of the ancient remi- niscences of its situation. Tbis old man was the first who ever imported a Corregio — upon which, if tradition saith aright, he lost money, the ancient canvas really bring- ing him twenty dollars, or thereabouts. The recently deceased Halleck, and the long since dead J. Rodman Drake, who wrote the " Culprit Fay," were the coming litterateurs just then. Morris, the song writer of America, and Willis, the pet-poet of fashionable New York, had already put on their laurels and started the HoTne Journal; and Bryant, the venerable president of the Century Club, is the last living of the brilliant literary galaxy that then twinkled pretty near together in the firmament of New York letters. Irving and Poe were in the zenith of their glory — the former in his first humorous crayons, the latter as the fierce critic of the Broadway Journal ar.d the author of strange tales and stranger poems. Dead — dead aU except the author of "Thanatopsis," who still toils at his desk as the veteran editor of the Eue^iing Post. The lounger about City Hall Square is familiar with the physiognomy of an odd little building among that cluster constituted by the Hall of Records, Court House, Croton Aqueduct Department, and Hook and Ladder No. — , which looked like the crown of a somewhat en- larged Derby hat. This squatty little imp of a public building — taken down a few months since — bore once the ancient dignity of the New York Gallery of Pine Arts, and was late inhabited, if paintings have ghosts, by the pigmentary ghosts of other days. It was here that the meeting was held, which resulted in the foundation of the Century Club. There had existed before a small and rather informal art club, of which H. T. Tuckerman, A. B. Durand, and Digitized by Microsoft® osyTunr club. 31 others eminent in the annals of the decade, were mem- bers. At a meeting of this club in December, 1846, a proposition was started and canvassed. The necessity for an association of larger scope, with permanent rooms for its meetings, had ah-eady been felt. Art, in those days, like Queen Elizabeth in hers, was supposed to have no feet to walk upon, and, it must be confessed, was rather gTadual in its locomotion. Artists then, as now, often found themselves deficient in that protoplasm which Professor Huxley regards as a necessary physical basis, and, consequently, in that molecular activity which, according to the same eminent professor, is necessarily the basis of all intellectual conception. The venerable S. F. B. Morse, since famous as the inventor of the electric telegraph, then best known for his " Mort d'Her- cule," and as the founder of the National Academy of Design, was a member of this embryo " Century.'' So, too, the genial Irving, from whom its name, the Sketch Club, was taken. At this meeting a resolution was offered inviting mem- bers to propose names; and at a subsequent meeting one hundred names were presented, and a committee ap- pointed to call a meeting of the proposed members. This committee issued the following notice: "New Yoke, January 9, 1847. '■The first general meeting of the association of gentlemen en- gaged or interested in letters or the fine arts, will be held on Wed- nesday nest, the thirteenth instant, at eight P. M. , in the rotunda of the New York Gallery of Fine Arts, in the Park. As a member, your attendance is particularly requested. John G. Chapman, ' a. b. dueand, C. C. Ingham, , ^ ... „ A. M. CozzENs, [Committee. P. W. Edmonds, H. T. TUOKEEMAU, J Digitized by Microsoft® 32 CLUnS OF KEW YOBK. The now forgotten rotunda was pretty well congested; and the meeting was nucleated, as a scientist would say, by appointing David C. Golden President, and Daniel Seymour Secretary. In the time-honored way of pro tempore presidents, Mr. Golden stated the object of the gathering, and en- tered, with the enthusiasm of the true president from time immemorial, upon the explanation of benefits to art and letters which were to result. Then the commit- tee reported, recommending a list of one hundred names by them proposed as members, suggesting the election of a managing committee, and begging, in conclusion, that dissolution which is the last prayer of all comitiary bodies. A constitution was now framed; and, on motion of Edgar S. Van Winkle, the name of the Century (from centum, a hundred, and meaning, no doubt, the select hundred) was adopted. A single extract from the old constitution — the club has since adopted a new one — will illustrate the intent with which the club was started : — " The name of the association shall be the Century. It shall be composed of authors, artists, and amateurs of letters and the fine arts, residents of the city of New Tox-k and vicinity. Its objects shall be the cultivation of a taste for letters and the arts and social enjoyment." Election of officers ensued; and a managing commit- tee, composed of two authors, two artists, and two ama- teurs, a treasurer and secretary, was balloted for. The managing committee was thus composed: Gulian C. Verplanck, John L. Stephens, A. B. Durand, John G. Chapman, David C. Golden, Charles M. Leupp. Thomas S. Cummings was first Treasurer and Daniel Seymour Secretary. Digitized by Microsoft® CENTVBY CLUB. ^T, The few initial, or rather formative, meetings of the club were held in the old rotunda, but at length the committee reported that they had taken rooms at No. 495 Broadway, and, the rooms having been put in order and modestly upholstered, the old rotunda was left to wax desolate, and at length to become a hive of politi- cians. Once comfortably s^ettled, the club waxed strong and lusty. Its meetings were punctually attended, and a great deal of esprit du corps marked the action of its members. Artist members hung the walls with paintings from their studios; newspapers and periodicals were provided; and presently a Century journal was estab- lished, to which authors and amateurs in letters contrib- uted with emulative zeal. A list of the original members includes many of the best names of the old metropolitan art and letters. All told they were as ensuing: "William C. Bryant, Eev. Henry W. Bellows, Henry K. Brouen, John G. Chapman, A. M. Cozzens, David C. Colcjen, J. D. Campbell, L. G. Clarke, T. S. Cummings, A. B. Du- rand. Rev. Orville Dewey, F. W. Edmonds, C. L. Elliott, Thomas Addis Emmett, Dudley B. Fuller, Thomas H. Faile, George Eolsom, Allan Goldsmith, John H. Gour- lie, Henry Peters Gray, Daniel Huntington, Ogden Hag- gerty, W. J. Hoppin, Charles C. Ingham, Governeur Kemble, Wilham Kemble, Shepherd Knapp, Eobert Kelly, Charles M. Leupp, Samuel E. Lyon, Christian Mayr, Dr. McNeven, Eleazer Parmly, T. P. Rossiter, Daniel Seymour, Jonathan Sturges, John L. Stephens, Joseph French, H. T. Tuckerman, H. P. Tappan, Gulian C. Verplanck, and Edgar S. Van Winkle. The judges, lawyers, artists, men of letters, amateurs, and commercial men of the New York of 1847 are well represented in this list; and some of its names are among the brilliant of well-remembered stars. At the Digitized by Microsoft® 34 CLUBS OF NEW YOBK. second monthly meeting four members were admitted by election — Eussell H. Neyins, J. W. Glass, Charles S. Roe, and Thomas S. Officer. At the third, Major T. S. Brown, then at the head of the engineering staff of the New York and Erie Railroad, and since celebrated as having been appointed to the head of that bureau in connection with the Moscow and St. Petersbui-g Rail- road by the Russian emperor, was duly elected: and, in all, thirty-eight members were added daring the first year, making an aggregate of eighty. At the first annual meeting, after paying all expenses, the treasurer reported a balance of three hundred and sixteen dollars. At this meeting, held January 13, 1848, a somewhat important suggestion was offered and adopted, or rather, having been moved by Daniel S. Seymour, was referred to a special committee. This was nothing less than the publication of a volume of contributions by the literary members, to be illustrated by the artists. The commit- tee reported favorably at the next meeting, and a resolu- tion inviting members to contribute was adopted. Some few articles were submitted to the committee; but, for obvious reasons, the project was never carried into effect. Three years after, in January, 1851, the literary depart- ment of the club was invested in the editors of the jour- nal, which thus far has been the only substitute for the original project, though latterly even this has fallen measurably into disuse. The well-known humorist, Frederic S, Cozzens, and John H. Grourlie were first editors of the journal, which, for some years, was read at monthly meetings — Cozzens contributing some of the very best of his peculiar Hood- isms in prose and verse. It was here, in fact, that his reputation as an essayist was made; and from his monthly morceaux to the journal was selected the matter Digitized by Microsoft® CENTURY CLUB. 35 of his volume of "Prismatios." C. P. Cranch and Peter A. Porter were also leading contributors. Here tlie former first attracted attention as a poet by Ms " Graces of Art," in its way a clever production. Porter's "Spirit of Beauty " was also fortunate in securing general en- comiums, rather, perhaps, by reason of its keen humor than on account of any uniquely poetic merit. The artist member, first to give an impulse to the foundation of a gallery, was Mr. Paul P. Duggan, to whom the club is indebted for a large number of the portraits of members, now deceased or superannuated, which adorn the walls, and keep green the memory of the dead in the hearts of the living. Duggan was first to suggest the collection of these as the kernel of an ■ art-gallery, and first tc? commence the work. Others have, from time to time, made valuable additions, Specimens of the styles of the Giffords, Kensett, Bier- stadt, Gignoux, Cropsey, McEntee, and others are scat- tered and grouped among examples of the older artists, like Durand and his co-workers in founding the National Academy. In a word, as might be supposed, the gallery of the club is rare and valuable — though not so valuable as one might imagine' it would be — and almost a history of New York art and a biography of New York artists for the past twenty years. Rossiter, Hicks, and Darley deserve special mention as having been liberal contrib- utors to the pigment wealth of the institution — beg pardon for the Americanism — while the moneyed mem- bers, amateur collectors most of them, have added ma- terially, from time to time, from the works of foreign and American masters. One of the purposes in starting the Century was to entertain and introduce eminent strangers; and, though this has latterly fallen a great deal into the hands of the Digitized by Microsoft® 36 CLUBS OF NJUW YOBK. Travelers' Club, the practice is still continued. Hon. J. E. roinsett, then a lion in circles of statesmanship — there were giants in those days, too — was the first to be invited to the hospitalities of the club. The late Pitz-Grreene Halleok, at first a member, Major Brown, and, in fact, most of the bright lights of poetry, art and science, resi- dent as well as non-resident, have been complimented with the hospitalities of the Century — most of the former having been members. The semi-annual festivals, parti- cipated in by ladies, were commenced during the first year, and very early was begun the custom of celebrating Twelfth Night, which has now fallen into partial disuse. The festivals or receptions are still continued occasionally, and are generally attended with brilliant social gatherings. The Broadway rooms of the club were occupied just two years. It was at iirst proposed to enter into a sort of jDartnership with the National Academy, then about to remove to the new Broadway building; but, the negotia- tions miscarrying, rooms were engaged at No. 435 Broome street, where it remained one year. At the expiration of the year's probation, 575 Broadway was fixed upon as its temporary home, and, packing paintings a few, books a few, and articles of verlu a great many, thither it gypsied in the spring of 1850. Here it remained two years, when a second attack of migratory fever supervened, and not until comfortably settled at No. 24 Clinton Place was the patient pronounced convalescent. In May, 1852, the club removed hither, the rooms having been elegantly fitted up under the superintendence of Henry L. Pierson. The copies of the casts from the original works of Thor- waldsen, forming a part of the art gallery, were collected by the latter gentleman, or rather obtained from Itlr. Unnewehr, then in possession of them. Ogden Haggerty and Andrew Binninger also presented valuable bits of Digitized by Microsoft® GENTVEY CLUB. S7 statuary to adorn the new rooms. These few presenta- tions were the original kernel of the now large collection of works of sculpture since aggregated by contributions of the members. The portrait of Daniel Seymour was presented by 0. M. Leupp; the very admirable portrait of Henry Inman, painted by Elliott, was obtained b-y subscription of the members and presented to the club. Mr. David D. Colden, the first president of the club, was rather a patron of the fine arts than an artist, and had the honor of being one of the original six commis- sioners named in the act organizing the emigration com- mission, of which Mr. Verplanck was for some years an honored member, and one of the trustees of the House of Refuge. He died in June, 1850, after three years in the service of the club as an indefatigable laborer in its inter- ests. R. Gary Long, well-known as an American pioneer in the builder's art; C. Mayr, celebrated as an artist; Daniel Seymour, whose efficient services as a manager contributed greatly to render the Century successful; Major Thompson S. Brown, the engineer, and George 0. Smith, were among those whose deaths occurred during the first decade of its existence, and, in some sense, con- secrated it as a club having reminiscences of the past. The latter was lost at sea on the ill-fated Ai'dio, upon the bell of which, tolling as it went down, the late Mrs. Sigourney composed her stanzas, somewhat in imitation of Cowper's elegy on the death of Admiral Kempenfeldt: "ToU, toll, toU, Thou beU by 'billows swung ; And night and day these warning worda Bepeat with mournful tongue." Digitized by Microsoft® 38 CLUBS OF NEW I'OliK. The stanzas, with those of Cowpar, their original, running: ' ' Toll for the brave, For the brave who are no more. All sunk beneath the wave, Just by their native shore " — will be remembered in detail by all who have been so for- tunate as to hear them repeated by her nephew, the Eev. Mr. Eussell, long celebrated in eastern universities as the first elocutionist of his day. In the spring of 1857, the Century entered upon exis- tence as a corporate body; Gulian C. Verplank, William Cullen Bryant, C. M. Leupp, Asher B. Durand, John P. Kensett, William Kemble, and William H. Appleton appearing in the act as first members of the corporation, the rest being designated in the very legal phrase, other persons. Its corporate name is the Century Association; its corporate purpose, the promotion of art and literature, by establishing and maintaining a library, reading-room, and gallery of art. By statute, the seven gentlemen above-named were constituted trustees and managers until others should be elected in their places; and the corporation was empowered to hold or lease any personal or real estate, but not to hold in excess of the sum of fifty thousand dollars. The club thus entered upon its second decade, not as a mere ephemeral association of artists, men of letters, and amateurs, but as a corporate literary and artistic body with the power to have a local habitation and a name, to hold property, and perform other functions quite neces- sary to the utmost efiiciency of a body having a distinct and elevated popular purpose. Thus, the meeting which tlie squatty little rotunda in City Hall Square remem- bered for years as a recollection of its artistic days, has Digitized by Microsoft® OEiYTrRT CLUB. 39 in ten years eventuated in a powerful association with corporate functions. A new removal was now about to occur, and presently the historian finds the Century well settled and its own major domo in the elegant building in Fifteenth street, a couple of doors east of Union Square. In a word, it sets uj) an establishment and assumes the importance which Dickens laughs at Americans for dignifying as an insti- tution. Now begins the collection of those large literary and artistic aggregations which give value to the library and gallery of art. Owing to increase of membership and greater social homogeneity, it was found, at the January meeting of 1870, expedient to adopt a new constitution and an ex- tended code of by-laws for practical government. The new document recounts that the society shall be com- posed of authors, artists, and amateurs of letters and the fine arts. The managing committee is composed of seven instead of six, three amateur's appearing instead of two, as formerly. An annual meeting for election of officers is held, the president of the managing committee being also president of the Association. First and second vice-presidents, a treasurer and secretary, complete the corporate organization. The as sociation still keeps up its monthly meetings; its initiation fee is still one hun- dred dollars, as formerly; the annual dues for membership being thirty-six dollars. Two black balls reject a candidate for admission; but members intending to be absent from the city for a year or more, are exempted from the pay- ment of yearly dues upon notifying the treasurer, and without loss of membership. Card-playing and betting in the rooms of the Association are strictly prohibited. Monthly meetings, for the election of members, are held on the first Saturday of every month (January, July, and Digitized by Microsoft® 40 CLUBS OF NEW YOEK. August excepted), at eight P.M.; and a regular yearly meeting is held on the second Saturday in January. The by-laws forbid any book, journal, paper, picture, statute, or other work of art, to be taken from the rooms on any pretext, except by the authority of the managing board. No accounts are kept with members; no restau- rant is connected with the rooms. Members may per- sonally introduce visitors to the rooms, but, in all cases, parties doing so enter their own names and the names of parties introduced on the vistors' book. Nor can any member introduce more than one person, except by con- sent of the managing board. A house committee employs stewards and looks to supplies; a committee on literature superintends the conduct of library and reading-room ; a committee on art manages the art gallery, arranges for exhibition at monthly and annual receptions, and keeps the catalogue of the art properties. Naturally, as the club has waxed fatter in body cor- porate, it has waxed a little leaner in ilaa and social soul; though, as compared with other clubs, it is still eminently free and inform.al in the social intercourse of its members. Always aristocratic in its way, it is now a trifle more aristocratic than formerly, in the way of other people. Its membership is now over six hundred, afford- ing an annual income, from current dues alone, of $22,000, which is yearly augmented by initiations from eight to ten thousand, giving an aggregate, say, of rather more than thirty thousand. It is now twelve years since the club has celebrated Twelfth Night, which of old was its night of festivities; and, very gradually, a more formal spirit has crept in as the members have waxed hoarier with the rime of years. Many of its leading spirits have dropped out — not ostensibly, of course, but really, so far as actual club-life Digitized by Microsoft® CENTURY CLUB. 41 is concerned — ^by marriage. The monthly meetings have, however, always been well attended ; and consider- able of the old social spirit has marked'the intercourse of members on these occasions. The dinners are frugal — quite so, as compared with those of the Union and other leading clubs. Oysters and lighter restauration, with the inevitable bowl of brandy -brew, form the staple; but members wishing wines, order them at their own ex- pense. The traditionary mush and milk has, however, long since disappeared. The monthly gatherings have latterly, more than formerly, been made the occasion of art exhibitions, to which the artist members contribute from their studios. The usual routine of these occasions comprises a formal business meeting of members in the council room, and the discussion by members and guests in the reception rooms, of new art and literary works, and such general topics as may suggest themselves to the grouiDS of talkers. Later in the evening comes the dejeuner, and, frugal though it be, the members rush for it in a style that re- minds one neither of luxurious Epicureans nor yet exactly of Mr. Longfellow's " dumb driven cattle." The feast is performed like most burial ceremonies, the company standing, with uncovered heads. The last Twelfth Night Festival (1858), was com- memorated by the late Gulian 0. Verplanck, whose humor, considering that the club never met at another festival, somewhat illustrated John Van Buren's famous phrase, whistling at a funeral. Then, for twelve years, the Century fares on, without any salient social event to mark the footsteps of years, that tell off the decade. Last year an attempt at renaissance was made by some of the younger members educated in Germany, and having a fondness for German social customs. The Digitized by Microsoft® 4 2 CLUBS OF IVUW YORK. resurrection of the old festal spirit was effected in the form of a Germanism incident to the holidays, but did not take place on -the eve of December 24th, owing to the fact that married members could not be reasonably ex- pected to neglect the demands of home at the very begin- ning of the season of Santa Glaus. So the Kris Kriakle tree was postponed to the evening of Thursday, Decem- ber 29th, when the Century rehabilitated itself in its old festal dress. The tree was prepared by subscription; members drawing numbers entitling them -to presents quite at random. The incongruity of the presents afforded the pegs upon which to hang puns, witticisms, and hearty laughs by the hundred. A box of vesuvians here, to somebody rather vesuvian in temper; a bundle of cigars there, to somebody who didn't smoke; a doll elsewhere, to somebody hopelessly single; and so on with a punctuation of bon-bons of vrit, joke, and hearty laughter. Launt Thompson disported himself with a terra-cotta baby, emblematic of a recent domestic happen- ing. Stoddard read some nonsense-verses, hitting off in clever doggerel, the sahent foibles and weaknesses of the master spirits, and eliciting a great deal of that internal convulsion which the poet declares to be heathful, in "Care drives our coffin-nails, no doubt; But mirth, with merry fingers, plucks them out. " The sensation of the evening — if the grave and reverend seigniors of the Century will permit the term — was con- stituted by J". W. Ehninger's caricature illustrations of the Seven Ages of Shakespeare, in which the leading members of the club figured in caricature at once so good-natured and telling, that even the venerable and sedate author of "Thanatopsis," could not find it in his heart to play Philip and be offended. Digitized by Microsoft® GENTUBT GLUB. 43 The affair was concluded with a festal dinner, and will, no doubt, owing to infusion of younger blood, become a permanent feature; contributing not a little to give the Association social unity ; for, latterly — so rumored — cliques have sprung up in the process of that inevitable segregation into social groups, which in clubs of large membership cannot be avoided, if there is any truth in Darwin's hypothesis of natural selection. A quarter of a century, too — and the Association is verging now upon that mark — ^has dried up the spirits of the elder members who began the world together, and rendered the institu- tion an excellent illustration of Mr. Spencer's theory of progTessive differentiation. The present membership includes of publishers, authors, lawyers, artists, judges, and professionals of all sorts, the best names in the metropolis — names familiar as household words in literary, artistic, and legal circles. George P. Putnam, William H. and John A. Appleton, of the firm of the Appletons; and Van Nostrand, the scientific publisher, are members. Staid and courteous Judge Daly, learned Evarts, David Dudley Field, the eloquent and dignified O'Conor, C. F. Sandford, of the old aristocracy, and John A. Graham, the great master of criminal jurisprudence — all are names that would give eclat of the legal sort to any association; and, as to authors, poets, artists, and amateurs, they are numbered by the score. Alex. T. Stewart and John Jacob Astor are probably its wealthiest members. William Cullen Bryant, R. H. Stoddard, E. C. Stedman, and Bayard Taylor are its best known poets. H. T. Tuckerman now dead, Eugene Benson represents art criticism as well as art, and will be remembered by patrons as having been once connected with the collection of Guy Brj^an. Min- ister and historian Bancroft represents history. Prof. E. L. Digitized by Microsoft® 44 CLUBS OF NEW YORK. Youmans, the pupil of Huxley, and Egbert L. Viele, of repute in engineering circles, are its present sponsors in science. Of clergymen, Dr. Bellows is a member, and Dr. Francis Vinton was. Parke Godwin, whose effort in history is at once the most powerful and most Maeaulayan of all Americanisms in that direction, Gr. W. Curtis, William Allan Butler, author of "Nothing to Wear;" 0. A. Bristed, Henry Sedley, the last knight of the brilliant Bound Table band, and now of the Times; S. S. Conant, of Harper's Weekly; and Manton Marble, editor of the World, are also to be remembered, with Adam Badeau, the biographer of General Grant. Ed- win Booth stands as the representative of the drama. In its legal and poetic groups the Century is supreme. Four lawyers like William M. Evarts, Charles O'Conor, John A. Graham, and David Dudley Field, the list of no other club presents; four poets like Bryant, Bayard Taylor, Stedman, and Stoddard, it would be equally difficult to find. Not that it is impossible to overrate the mission of poetry in this age, when the poetic con- sciousness has been wholly outrun by the scientific, and when the disgrace of not being able to write a good poem is only equalled by the disgrace of writing one and supposing it to be remarkable. In fact, taking poetry in its profoundest sense — creation, — the scientists and thinkers are the true poets. In creation, what ia Tenny- son to Herbert Spencer, Browning to Prof. Huxley? The age is an age of feeling forth for the real in the old metaphysical sense, the potential in the sense of Hegel; and the conviction that there is little of this in the poetic toy-houses erected by versifiers, has had no little part in the determination of the general discredit into which poetry has fallen, and the proximate contempt im- plied in the term poet — for, as Carlyle puts it, why Digitized by Microsoft® CENTUll Y GL UB. 4 5 should a man — a real man, with humanity strong within him — spend his time in writing poetry when he might better act it in his daily life ? Why, indeed, except that to build word-palaces is easier than to fill them with action ? Verily, there must come a new revelation of the poetic consciousness. It is seldom, except on official evenings, that Bryant is seen at the Century; though Stedman and Stoddard — both poets of the formal type — are hahilues. Bayard Taylor drops in occasionally; but, on the whole, the evenings at the Century are not what they were when the weird-voiced and weird-faced Duggan sang those strange Irish ballads, the music of which was part of him, with George William Curtis and a few kindred spirits to listen. As the club has advanced in age, it has lost vitality, having in the literary respect become the rendezuoua of a clique of men afflicted with the fancy that they carry the world on their shoulders — a pardon- able egotism, certainly, for some of them were Atlases in the day of them. In this regard, indeed, the club needs young blood — a need which is not likely to be answered, since, long snubbed and denied, the rising- representative men of journalism, art, and literature have identified themselves with the Lotos and Arcadian, which, though boasting of no legal, poetic, or even ar- tistic groups like those of the Century, will not be long- in raising- them up, as new men come forward and the old pass away. If ever, in the course of an evening's saunter at the Century, your eye encounters a bland gentleman, of cler- ical appearance, and looking as if he ought to part his hair in the middle, you may be sure that the gentleman .is George W. Curtis — a man of temperament too poetic to be a great master of prose fiction, and of tempera- Digitized by Microsoft® 46 CLUBS OF NJBW YORK. ment too prosaic ever to produce more than a kind of prose poetry. As you scan tli-e gentleman, whose " How- adji" and "Prue and I" are famous in their way, you ob- serve that he walks, talks and moves in curves, and prob- ably thinks in curves also, and draw the conclusion, if you happen to be in the critical mood, that he is exactly the man to make an elegant essayist of — an Addison a century out of time, with a dash of the wit and fecun- dity of Steele. Graceful, you say, grace itself; and grace is the only word exactly descriptive of the man. Not a powerful face, except in the way of that slumbrous strength that indicates what the nature might have been, had it ever been so stung to the quick as to have opin- ions, convictions, instead of tastes. A man, you specu- late, whom a little more adversity would have made a Titan, who has really been too prosperous in life to have brought up rare things from the deejDS of the human soul, whose greatest powers have slumbered on from year to year, their possessor regardless of the poss3Ssion. A gen- tleman of five-feet-ten he is, whose bow is something to be remembered, so thoroughly courtly is it, yet massive in physique, with a massive head well set on the shoul- ders of an Atlas. English whiskers shade a handsome and even noble face; darkish light locks, a massive forehead in which perception and imagination predominate over causality and comparison. The height of the head is in- dicial of strong moral qualities; its length, or lack of length, betokening an intellect quick to assimilate and reproduce, festooned with rhetorical rainbows and set off with rhetorical bric-d-brac, but not an originative or inventive mind. It is the head of a man who can say the largest number of beautiful things on an ordinary topic, and who can make the ordinary look extraordinary and novel; of one who can gossip, recall reminiscences, Digitized by Microsoft® CJENTUBT CLUB. 47 and fairly fascinate with exquisite nothings, until you be- gin to wonder why, with all his powers of description, he is so unjust to himself as to waste them on eiDhemeral toj)ics. But here lies his limitation: as a journalist, he has dealt too long in mere mental millinery to attempt higher work. His successes at the beginning were too pronounced for progress. Why should I investigate, think, he seems to say in his essays, when I can express the thinking of oth- ers far better than they themselves can ? "Why should I delve to bring up new things, when I can make the old appear new ? Why explore for nuggets when I have a special talent for coinage. Thus, though lacking in fer- tility, the literary career of Mr. Curtis has been brilliant. Like " Timothy Titcomb" in quite another field, he has the art of saying well what has been said before — of dressing a truism in a costume imported from Paris; and as in manual industry there must be milliners as well as man- ufacturers or producers, so in literary industry there must be the men of ideas and the men of expression, whose business it is to distribute, whose function to cos- tume: and though not a great one, the function is a ne- cessary one to popular progress. In his dress Mr. Curtis is unobtrusively elegant. A brilliant orator, he is in great demand as a lecturer on topics, connected with modern culture, though lacking in the kind of magnetism that moves masses, because of the porcelain work with which he embellishes, and of that talking in curves which, though elegant and graceful, begets an impression of in- sincerity. • Yet, at times, he can cut directly home, with a rarely electric stroke, though generally preferring to nip off a head gracefully and with the nicety of a Turkish expert. Had his nature ever been profoundly stirred, he might, perhaps, have been an original in a deeper sense than he now is; but he would not have been the brilliant. Digitized by Microsoft® 48 CLUBS OF NEW YORK. the adroit, the gossiping, graphic and degage Curtis, whose "Manners on the Road," a deeper insight and a more impressive earnestness would have converted into sermons; and this to his after critics may prove useful — appreciate the essayist for what he is, not for what he might have been, but is not. Great in his field, his field is unique and one that no other intellect and no other experience could have tilled sucessfully. What if he has produced tuberoses, dahlias and rare floral exotics only ? The land has corn and wheat enough, and to spare, and somebody must cultivate the exclusively color side of life. " Take care of the beautiful," Willis used to say, in the way of Home Journal motto, "the useful will take care of itself;" and if one prefers to fret the hard, stony facts of life with a few mosses, and now and then a blossom, who shall find fault that the aridness of the facts is shaded a little ? And besides, in doing so, Mr. Curtis brings unity into his life, and establishes a harmony between himself and his literature, that renders workman and work parts of the same individuality. The same sympa- thy between the man and his creations, taken as a whole, exists in the case of Bryant, who more than any other poet, living or dead, Shelley excepted, merits the epithet of the biilbul-hearted, that is, who sings because it is in his nature to sing, not because of any stirring of the deeps — for Bryant, like Curtis, never had the hard wres- tle with the world, with hfe, necessary to bring out the deepest in the man. The former has a strong hold on nature, and sees poetically by instinct; the latter has, to a greater degree than any living master, the quality of mind that Coleridge terms the secondary imagination, a definition preserved and engrafted upon American criti- cism by that Nestor of the profesion, Mr. George Eipley, whose Tribune reviews have settled the comparative staud- Digitized by Microsoft® CEXTURY CLUB. 49 ing of nearly every living poet, Bryant excepted. Tlie wri- ter well remembers being indebted to him for his first real opinion of Alice Gary, of Bayard Taylor, of E. H. Stoddard, of Margaret Puller, of Longfellow, of Low- ell — of how many more recollection saith not: for Mr. Ripley has had more hand in the formation of American literary taste, probably, certainly in giving direction to Americaj) criticism, than any one living American. Poe, acute and analytical as he was, lacked both in candor and perception of the higher beautiful; Lowell, the Curtis of criticism, has too little sympathy with the popular heart to be very influential in the formation of tlie popular taste; Margaret Fuller's career was too brief to be very productive; and, as to rising critics, there are none, critical opinions being now governed mostly by considera- tions of advertising patronage, criticism having degen- erated into what is aptly termed giving notices, ezoept perhaps in the sizigle instance of the Nation. In person, Mr. Eipley is a solid man, as Mr. Bryant is a poetic man, Mr. Curtis a man of Addisonian type. Neither too idealistic nor too realistic for criticism, Mr. Eipley has the capacity in eminent degxee to put him- self in the centre of the literary circle and compare the candidates occupying it. Hence, he gives his man his just relief, his groups of men their exact relative per- spective, properly graduating their relative distance from the foreground — no one exalted at the expense of the other. Occasionally he writes around a subject when reasons exist for not using the scalpel too freely — for even in criticism on a journal so eminent -as the Tribune, com- mercial considerations will mate themselves felt, and business principles will force recognition to a limited extent. Indeed, in a city of commercial ideas, like New Digitized by Microsoft® 5° CLUBS OF NHW YORK. Torlr, it is scarcely pofssible that it should be other- wise. Than Mr. Evarts and John A. Graham stronger physical contrast conld not well be imagined — the one tall, slen- der, lantern-jawed, and lean, as well as somewhat awk- ward; the other of medium height, suave in manners, grace itself in carriage. Mr. Evarts dresses in a rather slovenly way, with a collar rolled, not turned, over his neckcloth; and should you meet him on the street, though distinguished in appearance, scarcely less so than was the late James T. Brady, you would never take him for the master intellect he is. But wait till he doffs his hat to some passing lady, and you will see a real seven-story head, and one as long as it is high — a cra- nium that must hold a tremendous battery of brains, and reminds of a powerful ganglion continued in a spina] column, or rather, set on the apex of a tall, lank, sup- porting verlebrce. O'Conor, on the other hand, looks the legal lion he is, while you would sooner take Graham for a gentleman of the old regime, rather fastidious in his dress, and with curious httle labyrinths of eccentricity of his own, than for the wonderful silver-voiced orator he presents at the bar. The club-house, though not at all bizarre in appear- ance, except in having a very high Mansard roof, which, the building being rather low, causes it to resemble a jockey's head with a jockey cap on it, has a certain indi- viduality both in front and entrance, that renders it somewhat noticeable. Entering you find yourself in a large roomy hall, with medallions here and there in artistic profusion; on this hand, a cosy i-eading-room stocked with the latest periodicals; on that, an artistic reception-room; at the rear, looking like a crypt, with shadows flickering about, the art-gallery — a veritable Digitized by Microsoft® CEN'CUliY CLUB. 5 I grotto of the beautiful, arranged as oiilj- artistic hands, guided by the suggestions of many an artistic head, can arrange, and so grouped that the grouping is an art- study in itself. An interior it is that grows upon you as you linger, and fills your brain -with troops of pleasant fancies, dodging in and out as pileasant fancies will. To attempt enumeration of eminent names in art would be to sound the whole gamut. Kensett, Bierstadt, Cropsey, the two Giffords, Gignoux, Darley, Elliott, Durand, Hicks, Hart, Launt Thompson, and the weird Weir are pei-haps as popularlj' famihar as any others. For others socially, politically, legally, judicially, artistic- ally, and otherwise celebrated, the reader can pick them out at leisure from the perfected catalogue of members. LIST OF MEMBERS. Agnew, C. E. ; Agnew, John T. ; Albinola, G. ; Alexander, H. E. ; Allen, William M. ; AUen, Richai-d H. ; Amory, Arthur; Ammidown, E. H. ; Anderson. H. H. ; Andre"ws, E. P. ; Andrews, J. B. ; Anthony, A. v. S. ; Anthony, Henry T. ; Appleton, D. Sidney; Appleton, John A. ; Appleton, "William H. ; Arnold, Frank E.. ; Arthur, Chester A. ; Aspinwall, W. H. ; Astor, John Jacob; Auchmuty, Richard T. ; Aufermann, William ; Austin, S. F. ; Avery, Samnel P . Badeau, Adam; Baker, N. F. ; Baler, John S. ; Balestier, Joseph N.; Bancroft, George; Banyer, Goldsborough; Barker, Fordyce; Barnard, F. A. P. ; Barnard, John G. ; Beardslee, R. G. ; Beard, 'William H. ; Beckwith, N. M. ; Beeckman, Gilbert L. ; Beekman, James W. ; Beekman, Gerard; Bellows, H. W. ; Bellows, A. F. ; Benson, Eugene; Bttts, G. F. ; Belts, "William; Bierstadt, Albert; Bigelow, John; Billings, Frederick; Binicger, Andrew G.; Bispham, Henry C. ; Black, Charles N. ; Blake, Charles F. ; Blatohford, Samuel; Blodgett, W. T. ; Bond, "William; Bond, Frank S.; Bcnnell, Lewis; Booth, Edwin; Booth, George; Bosworth, Joseph S. ; Botta, Vin- cenzo; Bowman, Francis C. ; Bowne, Richard H. ; Boynton, John H.; Brace, Charles L. ; Bradford, William; Bristed, C. Astor; Bridge, William F. ; Bronson, Isa c; Brown, Addison; Brown, H. K. ; Brown, J. G. ; Brown, "Walter; Bryani, "William C. ; Buckingham, — ; Buckley, Joseph E. ; Bull, B. W. ; Bull, A. B.; Bumstead, F. J.; Digitized by Microsoft® 52 CLUBS OF NEW YOBK. Burrill, .John E. Jr.; Butler, Charles; Butler, Charles E. ; Butler, Wm. Allen; Butler, Eiohard; Butler, B. J.; Butenschon, E. Cadwalader, John L. ; Camp, H. N. ; Carter, James C. ; Gary, William F.; Catlin, N. W. S.; Center, A. J.; Chambers, William P. ; Chauler, J. Winthrop; Chandler, Charles F. ; Chapin, Edwin H. ; Chapman, John G. ; Chauncy, Henry; Cheever, J. H. ; Choate, Joseph H. ; Choate, William G. ; Church, Frederick E. ; Church, WilUam C. ; Church, F. P. ; Cisco, John J. ; Clark, E. T, ; Clift, Sm^th; Cochrane, David H.; Coddingtou, T. B. ; Colles, James Jr.; Collins, N. B. ; Collins, Charles; Conant, S. S. ; Cooley, James E.; Cooper, Edward ; Cowdin, Elliott C. ; Cranch, C. P. ; Crane, J. J. ; Craven, A. W. ; Crerar, John; Cropsey, Jasper F. ; CuUum, George W. ; Curtis, G. W. ; Curtis, William E. Daly, Charles P. ; Dana, William P. W. ; Dana, Samuel B. ; Darley, Felix O. C. ; Davis, J. C. Bancroft- Davi.son, Edward F. ; Day, James Geddes; Delano, Edward; Delano, F. H. ; Derby, J. C. ; Detmold, C. E ; De Visser, Simon; Dix, Charles T.; Dodge, William E. Jr.; Dorr, George B.; Dorr, Henry, C; Dorsheimer, William; Douglas, Andrew E. ; Draper, William H. ; Drisler, Henry; Dudley, Henry; Dunning, E. J. ; Dunster, Edward S. ; Durand, Asher B. ; Dwight, T. W.; Dwight, J. F. Eaton, D. Bridgeman ; Edgar, Jonathan ; Edwards, Ogden ; Edwards, Jonathan; Egleston, Thomas Jr.'; Ehniuger, John W. ; Eidlltz, Leopold; Elliott, D. G. ; Elliott, Charles W.; Ely, Smith Jr.; Eno, Amos P. ; Evarts, William M. Faile, Thomas H. ; Fawcett, Frederick; Fellowes, Frank W. ; Fellows, E. C. ; Field, Benjamin H. ; Field, Cyras W. ; Field, Dndley ; Fisher, Joseph; Fish, Nicholas; Fitch, John L. ; Fithian, F. J. ; Ford, J. K.: Forrest, George J.; Forster, George H. ; Fuller, George; Fuller, W. H. Gaillard, Joseph; Gambrill, C. D. ; Gandy, Sheppard; Gavitt, John E. ; Geary, H. S. ; Gibts, Woleott; Gibert,' F. E. ; Gifford, S. R. ; Giflford, E. Swain; Gignoux, Regis; Godkin, E. L. ; Godwin, Parke; Goddard, C ; Goodridge. Francis; Goodridge, Frederick; Goodwin, James J. ; Gordon, Robert; Gould, Charles; Gonley, John W. S. ; Gourlie, John H. ; Grah^.ni, J. L. Jr. ; Graham, John A. ; Graham, Wm. Irving; Graj-, G. G.; Gray, H. Peters; Gray, H. W.; Gray, Horace; Graj', J. F. S. ; Greene, George S. ; Grinnell, W. P.; Gris- wold, George. Habicht, C. E. ; Haighf, Benjamin I. ; Hall, George H. ; Hall, Elial Digitized by Microsoft® OE^-TURY CLUB. 53 F. ; Hamersley, John W. ; Hamilton, William G. ; Hammond, Henry B. ; Hart, Joseph M.; Harrison, Heniy G. ; Harland, Edward; Hasel- tine, William S. ; Haseltine, Albert C. ; Hawley, D. Edwin ; .Hawley, E. Judson; Hawkins, B. W. ; Hays, W. J.; Hegeman, William; Hennessy, W. J. ; Henry, E. L. ; Herrick, Jacob H. ; Hewitt, Abra- ham S. ; Hibbard, George B. ; Hicks, Thomas; Higgins, A. Poster; Hilton, Henry; Hitchcock, Thomas; Hoe, Robert; Hofftnau, P. R. ; Holly, Alexander S. ; Holt, Henry; Holyoke, George 0. ; Homer, Winslow; Hoppin, William J. ; Hoppin, P. S. ; Hoppin, William W. ; Howe, Frank E. ; Howland, Alfred C. ; Hubbard, E. W. ; Hunt, Charles H. ; Hunt, Leavitt; Hunt, Richard M; Hunt, Wilson G. ; Huntington, Daniel; Hutton, B. H. Irving, P. M. ; Iselin, Adrian. Jay, John; Jay, William; Jenness, John S. ; Jessup, M. K. ; Johnson, Eastman; Johnston, James B. ; Johnston, John Taylor; Jones, Alanson S. ; Jones, P. H. ; Joy, Charles A. Keller, C. M.; Kemble, Gouverneur; Kemble, William ; Kendrick, Henry L. ; Kennedy, J. S. ; Kensett, John P. ; Kernochan, Prank E. ; Kernochan, Prederiok J.; Kilbreth, James T.; K'mball, James P.; Kmnicutt, Thomas ; Kirkland, Charles P. ; Kitchen, William K. ; Knapp, Charles; Knoedler, Michael; Knower, Benjamin; Kuetze, E. J. Lambdin, George C. ; Lane, Frederick A. ; Lane, Josiah ; Lane, Smith E. ; La Parge, John; Lang, Louis; Lapsley, Howard; LeClear, Thomas ; Lee, D. Williamson ; Lee, Gideon ; Lee, William P. ; Lefferts, Marshall; Lewis, Charlton T. ; Linton, W. J. ; Livingston, R. J. ; Loop, H. A. ; Low, A. A. ; Ludington, C. H. Macdonough, Aug. R. ; Macmullen, John ; Macy, Charles A. ; Marble, Manton; Marbury, Francis P.; Markoe, Thomas M. ; Mar- quand, H. G. ; Marshall, Charles H. ; Martin, Charles; Martin, Homer D. ; Mathews, Albert; Maverick, Augustus; Mayo, William S. ; McCready, Benjamin W. ; McElrath, Thomas; McEutee, Jervis; McKewan, John P. ; McLean, James, M. ; McLean, Samuel; Melville, Allen; Metcalfe, John T. ; Mignot, L. R. ; Idler, Edmund H. ; MiUer, George M. ; Milnor, Charles E. ; Morgan, J. P. ; Morgan, WilUam D. ; Morton, Levi P.; Moss, C. D. ; Mott, A. B.; Myers, T. Bailey. Nash, Stephen P. ; Newberry, John S. ; Nicol, Robert; Noyes, H. D. O'Conor, Charles : Ogden, Charles H. : Ogden. William B. ; Oeden, Digitized by Microsoft® 54 CLUBS OF lYBW YOBK. Gouverneur M. ; Olmstead, P. Law; Olyphant, E. M. ; Oothout, Edward; Osgood, Samuel; Osgood, J. E. ; Otis, P. N. ; Otis, G-. K. Palen, George; Paris, Irving; Parker, Willard; Parkin, William "W. ; Parsons, John E. ; Paulding, James N. ; Pearson, Isaac Greene ; Peaslee, E. E. ; Pearson, Henry E. ; Peck, William G. ; Pell, Duncan A. ; Pellew, Henry E. ; Pepoon, Marshall; Perkins, C. L. ; Perry, E. W. ; Peters, G. A.; Phcenix, S. Whitney; Pierrepont, Henry E. ; Pierson, Henry L. ; Pierson, Henry L. Jr. ; Pinchot, J. W. ; Platl, John H. ; Pomeroy, George ; Porter, John K. ; Post, George B. ; Post, A. K. ; Potter, Henry C. ; Potter, Clarkson N. ; Potter, Edward T. ; PoLts, George H. ; Prentice, James H. ; Prentice, W. P.; Priestly, John; Pruyn, J. V. L. ; Pumpelly, Raphael; Putnam, George P. Eappalo, Charles A. ; Raymond, Eobert E. ; Eaymond, E. W. ; Eead, John Meredith, Jr.; Eedmond, James M.; Renwick, James; Rich, Edward S. ; Eobbins, H. W. Jr. ; Roberts, Marshall 0. ; Robert- son, Touro; Robinson, E. E. ; Roelker, Bernard; Eoemer, Jean; Eogers, Charles H. ; Eogers, J. H. ; Eood, Ogden N. ; Eoosevelt, R. B. ; Roosevelt, Theodore; Eoosevelt. James A.; Eos.siter, T. P.; Euggles, Samuel B. ; Ruggles, H. M. ; Ruggles, James P. ; Russell, John E. ; Eussell, Charles P. ; Eutherford, Lewis M. Saekett, Adam T. Sanderson, James M. ; Sands, H. B. ; Sands, Mahlon, D. ; Sanford, Charles F. ; Sanford, H. S. ; Satteriee, George B. ; Satteriee Edward; Schell, Augustus; Schenck, N. H. ; Scudder. Hewlett; Scudder, Henry J.; Sedgewick, Henry D. ; Sewell, Robert; Seyton, C. S. ; Sheldon, Frederick; Sherwood, John D. ; Sherwood, Thomas D. ; Shiff, Gustavus ; Short, Charles ; Silliman, Augustus E. ; Skiddy, Francis; Slosson, Edward; Smith, Augustin; Smith, Charles D. ; Smith, E. Delafield; Smith, Charles S. ; Smith, Normand; Smith, Augustus F. ; Southmayd, Charles F. ; Speir, A. W. ; Spier, Gilbert M. ; Staigg, Richard M. ; Stanfield, Mark M. ; Sfcansbury, E. A. ; Starr, Peter ; Stedman, Edmund C. ; Stewart, A. T. ; Stewart, D. Jackson; Stickney, Albert; Stoddard, E. H. ; Stone, William Oliver; Stoughton, E. W. ; Stout, F. A.; Strang, Samuel A.; Strong, Peter E. ; Strong, George T. ; Strong, Charles E. ; Stuart, Eobert L. ; Sturges, Frederick; Sturges, Jonathan; Stuyvesant, Eutherford; Stuyvesant, Robert; Sutherland, Josiah; Suydam, D. Lydig; Swan, Otis D. ; Swan Benjamin L. Tallmadge, Frederick S. ; Taylor, Bayard; Taylor, Alfred J.; Terry, Eliphalet; Thompson, Laimt; Thomson, James; Thomson, WiUiam Leupp; Ticknor, B. H. ; Tilden, Samuel J. ; TiUinghast, Digitized by Microsoft® CENTURY CLXJB. 55 Win. H. ; Tinker, James; Titus, George N.; Toppan, Robert N. ; Toppan, Charles; Tracy, Charles; Tracy, "William; Tuokerman, Lucius; Tuokerman, Gustafus; Turner, George W. ; Turney, Paschal W. Vail, H. F. ; Van Amringe, J. H. ; Van Nostrand, David; Van Vorst, H. C. ; Van Winkle, Edgar S. ; Vandarlip, G. M. ; Vandei-poel, Aaron; Vanderpoel, A. J.; Varuum, Joseph B.; Vaux, Calvert; Vermilye, Jacob D. ; Verplanck, Gulian C. ; Viele', Egbert L. ; Vinton, Alexander H. ; Vinton, Frank L. ; Von Hoffman, Richard. Wagstaff, David; Wainwrigiit, J. Howard; Walcott, B. S. ; Wal- lack, J. Lester; Walker, F. T. ; Walsh, Thomas; Ward, George Cabot; Ward, J. Q. A. ; Ward, Samuel G. ; Ward, Samuel B. ; Ward, Thomas W. ; Ward, John E. ; Warren, James S. ; Washburn, E. A. ; Weeks, John A. ; Weeks, Francis H. ; Weir, John F. ; West, Charles E. ; Westervelt, Tompkins; Weston, Theodore; Wetmore, Samuel; White, James F. ; White, A. D. ; White, J. C. ; Whitehead, Charles E. ; Whitney, W. C. ; Whittemore, W. T. ; Whittredge, W. ; Wilkins, G. JM. ; Wilkinson, W. ; Willard, John H. ; Williams, Stephen C. ; Willis, liichard S. ; Winthiop, Benjamin E. ; Winthrop, H. E. ; Winthvop, Buchanan ; Wisner, W. H. ; Wolfe, John ; Wood, James R. ; Wood, C. B. ; Wood, Wilmer S.; Wood, T. W. ; Wright, William P. ; Wright, J. Butler. Youmans, E. L. Zimmermann, J. E. The officers of the club for the year are the following: — President — William Cullen Bryant. Vice-Presidents — First, Gilbert M. Speir; second, F. E. Church. Secretary — Augustus E. Macdonough. Treasurer — John Priestley. Trustees — Henry Drisler, WUham E. Curtis, John F. Kensett, W. "Whittredge, J. W. Beelnnan, J. C. Carter, H. E. Winthrop. Committee on Admission— W. T. Blodgett, T. M. Markoe, B. F. Butler, S. P. Nash, C. F. Chandler, W. W. Parkin, Charles Collins, E. Stuyvesant, A. W. Craven, Launt Thompson, E. L. Godkin, James Tinker, G. H. Digitized by Microsoft® 56 CLUBS OF NEW YOBK. Hall, Charles Tracy, A. S. Hewitt, Lucius Tuckerman, John La Farge, H. C. Van Vorst, Jervis McEntee, Calvert Vaux. House Committee — Theodore Weston, William H. Wisner, Charles D. Gambri]!. Committee on Art — Louis Lang, H. Gr. Marquand, J Q. A. Ward. Committee on Literature — E. C. Stedman, John H. Van Amringe, Parke God-win. Digitized by Microsoft® III. UNION CLUB. TWENTY-FIRST STBEET AND FIFTH AVENUE. The year 1836 will be remembered as having been a year of meteorological oddities. The oldest inhabitant avers that oats did not turn with the strange gi'ay of maturity until the middle of September; and the tall, rustling regiments of the Indian corn forbore to wear tassels at least a month longer than usual. The times seemed to be out of joint in some way, and the months of mid-summer, which ought properly to have dripped with perspiration, crawled past-ward shivering. Tradition preserves the record of the season under the designation of the cold summer. Weird auroras did not forbear to hft themselves in mountains of fire along the north, even in July; and more than once the canopy- aurora hung like a mock sun in the very centre of the heavens. People predicted strange things; but the strange things did not happen. The hyena of j^esti- lence, the wolf of want, and the red death of war were conjured, but emerged not, nevertheless, from the vasty deep supposed by Shakespeare to be inhabited by their spirits. The harvest, though late, was not stinted: Jack Frost kindly omitting to nip the half-shivering vegetation un- til almost November, thus silencing the deep-throated forebodings of the croakers, and quite impairing their repute as prophets. It is not pretended that the gestation of the Union Club, then in progress, had any material influence in the evolution of these omens, or that the weather was Digitized by Microsoft® 53 VLVVS OF jVi'ir YOBR. affected by the parturition of the great social event. The fact is merely noted as one of those coincidences which will happen oecasio'nally, in spite of learned scien- tific protest, and which men will interpret grotesquely, though rhyme and reason should both enter their nolle prosequi. 1836. New York was then a bit of village, of rather more than 350,000 inhabitants. Houston — then North — street, Bleecter and Bond streets were particularly up-town, and thoroughfares of fashion and aristocracy. The old regime was still in its glory; and real counts, in plaid pantaloons, were sensational occurrences to be petted, set up as lions, and finally entrapped into matri- mony, just by way of improving the blood of the first families. The little white-faced hotel now termed the Tremont was kept by a real foreign count — the Count Charles Plinta — expatriated for political reasons, but afterward restored to titles and estates. Having come to this country, the count concluded to marry, and start a hotel; accordingly, espousing a niece of the then com- mercial prince, David Dunham, known in society as the handsome Spaniard, and founding the Bond Street House. After his restoration, the Count and Countess PHnta returned to Bavaria, the beautiful American be- coming one of the stars of the court circle. The Broadway lounger might have observed a year ago, in passing the Bond street corner, a pyramid of debris, representing the wreck of No. 1, now replaced with a japanned tin box in the form of a business struc- ture; but he is not aware that this same No. 1 was once the local habitation of the wealthiest and most exclusive of New York clubs — the Union — whose black ball is sim- ]Dly indelible, and murders a man, socially, quite as elfee- tually as a defalcation might, provided it were detected. Digitized by Microsoft® UKIOA CLVB. 59 Fact, nevertheless. Early in June, 1836, an informal meeting of a number of gentlemen of social distinction was held at this same number, at which the founding of a purely social club was mooted. These gentlemen mapped out the ensemble of an association, adopting a sort of provisional constitution, and evolving the germ of that organization which terminated in the Union. As contrasted with the call of the Century, there was something of formal, dignified gravity in the very docu- ment framed and transmitted to certain select parties as an invitation to become members. As preserved in its gilded frame at the Club Palace, corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first street, it reads thus : — "New Yoek, June 30, 1836. ' ' Sir, — The Committee of Formation of the Union Clnb, appointed at a meeting at which the accompanying constitution was adopted, are authorized to invite you to become a member. "The constitution is adopted provisionally, subject, of course, to the approbation of the club, when formed; and the committee are desirous of obtaining immediately a general expression of opinion on some points considered debateable. They will thank you, there- fore, to give the subject your consideration, and to signify your intention as to joining the club, by a note addressed to the secretary, at No. 1 Bond street, or through the post-office. ' ' The general ideas and objects are set forth in the preamble to the constitution, but on the subject of economy it may, perhaps, be well to remark here, that it is intended to adopt the principle that everything called for at the club-house is to be paid for by the per- son ordering, at its actual cost only; the current expenses of the establishment being defrayed by the annual dues. ' ' Samuel Jones, E. T. Throop, Thomas P. Oakley, B. E. Brenner, Philip Hone, G. M. Wilbins, Beverly Bobinson, S. C. 'Williams, ■W. B. Lawrence, E. Sheldon, Charles King, J. Depeyster Ogden, Ogden Hofiinan. "By ordeij Johk H. L. McCeacean, Socrefaiy." Digitized by Microsoft® 6o CLUBS Of NHW YORK. Of these names, that of Ogden Hoifman will be remem- bered popularly as that of the star of the New York bar, both for fervid eloquence and profound learning. He was a bald-headed, dreamy-eyed man, whom the present Governor (Hoffman) reproduces singularly in face and physique, though the latter is less fervidly imaginative. For the'rest, in their day, they were of social distinction; but Greenwood — that metropolis of the dead, almost as large as this metropolis of the living — has long since re- corded their names in its awful and ever augmenting city directory. C. Fenno Hoffman, next to Morris the sweetest song-writer America has produced, and now an inmate of a maison de sante, became later a member of the association, which soon came to represent the social crime de la creme of the then developing metropolis. Prom its inception it was the representative organ- ization of the old families. Livingstons, Clasons, Dun- hams, Griswolds, Van Cortlandts, Paines, Centers, Van- dervoorts, Van Eensselaers, Irelands, Stuyvesants, Suy- dams, and other names of Knickerbocker fame, filled its list of membership with a sort of aristocratic monotony of that Knickerbockerism which has since, in solemn and silent Second Avenue (the faubourg St. Germain of the city), earned the epithet of the Bourbons of New York. Hence, sprang up that contest of the old mag- nates of New York society with the new Napoleons of wealth by trade, which for years agitated the club, and has occasionally threatened to rend it asunder; for these Vans, of whatsoever final syllables, have always made a sort of grand fetish of pedigree, insisting that a man, like a horse, ought always to be blooded. A sort of hankering for foreign counts marks the daughters of the old stock even to this day, taough not so distinctly as it once did; and regularly at luscious and rosy sixteen. Digitized by Microsoft® UNION ULUB. 6 I having been kept immured, lest some unfortunate affair should spring up with some low American — good-enough fellow, but mere common clay, you know, not porcelain — to be put, like Circassians, in the loreigu market: and seldom, indeed, are they brought back, until some sijrig of the sangre azul has been hooked, or they have passed the twenty -five; gotten well and safely by the impressible ' age, you know. Happen occasionally it will, of course, that some representative of the old Knickerbocker fam- ily of Van Dunderhead sees and is conquered, or con- quers, before the young lady is taken to the Parisian market; and then a compromise is effected — for though a real count — Italian, German, or sad Polish — is prefer- able even to a Van Dunderhead, yet a Van Dunderhead is preferable to a possible count. Opulent are the Van Dunderheads; and it takes a deal of investigation some- times to ascertain whether the most dashing count can count on anything except what he borrows or wrings from that friend of counts in distress — unreliable Sir Faro. So, as I have implied, when a true Van Dunder- head enters the lists he is apt to win — a Van Dunder- head in esse being reckoned ten per cent, better than a count in posse, with all the untried and, hence, exagger- ated difficulties in the way of entrapping him. But let moneyed Mr. Parvenu bid for the alliance — Mr. Petro- leum Parvenu is as opident as old Dunderhead's heir — and he -will find that his stock is not only below par, but not to be taken on any terms. It is not money alone, not the man alone, that leads captive the paternal ima- gination of the old regime, but money and the man, either separately considered being valueless without the sup- porting presence of the other, which is a better state of things than that which prevails in the new regime, where it is money and a dummy to carry it, Vive I'ancien regime! Digitized by Microsoft® 62 CLUBS OF A'EW YOliK. But time works metamorphoEes stranger than pagan Ovid ever dreamed of. A f'ew years slip by, and No. 1 Bond street reverberates no more to the tread of Liv- ingston or Van Cortlandt, and if the ghost of the old revisits the new, it can be only to repeat Moore's bound- ing stanza: "I seem like one Who treads alone Some banquet hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all hut me departed. " Paupers steal in and out where once was heard the sound of revel, and once resided the secretary; and No. 1 Bond street reappears as the office of the superintend- ent of the out-door pool*. As the old Rotunda, where the Century was born was given over to politicians who plotted and planned beneath its squatty dome, regardless of ancient dignities, so No. 1 Bond street, as intimately as- sociated with the inception of the Union, became a sort of hive of paupers of another and more respectable sort; and, oddlj' enough, both have been palled down almost contemporaneously — two landmarks in the annals of club- formation thus disappearing within a few weeks of each other. But to return. The old regime still maintains its su- premacy -^still guards as its Elysium the portals of the Union. The aristocracies since evolved have but trifling- ly affected its membership, and old names are yet enumer- ated in monotony of Knickerbockerism throughout its now long catalogue. To the petitions of codfish and shod- dy, and oil and parvenu, its ears are as deaf as ever, and perhaps a little more so, as, by constitutional limitation, the association can now afford to be exclusive. Of the Digitized by Microsoft® rxjoy CLUB. 63 one thousand members permitted by that document, nine hundred and sixty-seven already appear upon the books, leaving a possible admission of oaly thirty-three more. Of course social struggles and bickerings of the bitterest sort have been engendered by this exclusiveness, and occasionally contemptuous snubbing by the repre- sentatives of the first families, of applicants and candid- ates of wealth, though of undemonstrated pedigree: it being a canon and proverb of habitues that a man is to be black-balled, unless he has not only a father but a grand- father, and is a hidalgo in the old Castilian sense. Some few deficient in grandfathers have been admitted, but only with great misgivings as to precedent. The club has had its scandals, as well as its triumphs iii the occasional espousal of its daughters by foreign counts. Some of its members, with that fine egotism common to old blood, have taken unpleasant liberties with the physiognomies of off'ending persons. One of its pres- ent members once went all the way to Newport to slap the face of a foreign count, who, having married his sister, had had the ungentlemanly impudence to abet her ap- pearing in opera at the Academj' of Music; and one member of the present managing committee has had the honor of breaking his walking-stick over the shoulders of a prominent journalist. To his kindness of heart be it said, the same member had the forbearance, having disbursed a few hundreds for the luxui-y of so using his rattan, to insist upon the admission of the injured gentleman's son as a member of the club; but, though a stylish young man, being only a journahst, he was promptly black-balled. Incidents like this serve to illustrate that antagonism between the old regime and the new, which has for years marked the internal straggles of " our best society " — Digitized by Microsoft® 64 CLUBS OF XEV YVUK. an antagonism which began with the commercial succesis of men of comparatively obscure families, and has con- tinued with more or less virulence for the past half a century. In old days— the times when the duello was regarded as the honorable thing — the association could boast of more than one member who had tried his hand at fence. Eeuben Withers, whilom President of the bank of the State of New York, initially a member, and Mr. Belmont, have tilted in the tournament of honor. However, since the duel has waxed unfashionable, the members of the club are peaceful enough; though they number a pretty large delegation of army and navy officers — at least enough of them to have given a little of the lighting habit to the association. Though a great deal of effort was made to effect a form- al organization, it was not until 1837 that the Union became settled in a local habitation apart fr,:m the resi- dence of its secretary, Mr. McCrackan, whose widow af- terwards became Mrs. Charles O'Conor, at No. 1 Bond street. At length, in that year a building on the west side of Broadway, near the corner of Leonard street — in fact, the second door from the corner — was secured, and. the club moved into it. Here it remained three years, when an attack of migratorj fever prevailed gen- erally; and in 1840 it flitted, bag and baggage, across the street, occupying a building owned by John Jacob Astor, one door from the corner of White street, on the east side. For seven years Lhis edifice constituted its local habitation, but, at length, in 1847, it obeyed the prevalent impulse up-town-ward, and shifted its quarters to Broad- way above the then aristocratic Bleecker street. At that time A. T. Stewart resided in the palatial mansion which is now known as Depau Row, where, it will be remem- Digitized by Microsoft® iryio-\ CLUB. 65 bered, Mr. Dickens was received and feted. This remov- al placed the association in the house formerly occupied as a residence by Joseph Kernochan, on Broadway, one door from the Fourth street corner. The house was afterward occupied by Maillard as a hotel and restaui-ant, previous to his occupancy of the present premises, for- merly the property of Peter Stuyvesant, and still owned by the Stuyvesant family. The club still continued to prosper and wax wealthy in its new Broadway quarters, and was soon to own a pal- ace as a corporate bodj', though not as a body legisla- tively corporated — for, unHke the Century, it has never applied for legislative sanction to be a body and hold property. In 1852 the question of building began- to be mooted. The association was now worth half-a-million ; and to what better use could it be put than that of acquiring real estate and improving thereupon ? In 1854 the voice of the majority prevailed, and a com- mittee was appointed to secure an eligible situation, and erect thereon a suitable building. The corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first street was fixed upon, and, receiving the approval of the club, wort was imme- diately begun. The result was the splendid brown-stone palace on the west side of the avenue at the upper corner of Twenty-first street, where the association is now domiciled. The edifice, which was erected at a cost of $250,000, fronts on Twenty-first street, and is still one of the most solid and imposing of that regiment of palaces, which walls the Avenue from Waverly Place to the Broadway junction. However, it is at present scarcely equal to the wants of the club, which has over fifty employes, and needs, therefore, considerable house-room. The two up- Digitized by Microsoft® 66 CLVBS OF jYEW TOKK. per stories are not available for club purposes, being inac- cessible except by ascending the wearisome Alps of half a dozen flights of stairs; and it is contemplated during the present year to put in an elevator, thus assimilating the building to a first-class hotel. The new structure was completed in 1855, and the club occupied it in May of that year, thus fulfilling one of the primary conditions of stability — that of owning its own property : so that as a coherent body the association dates from 1855, and is a year or two older than the Century in the capacity of a property-holder. At this date, it numbered over five hundred members; but dur- ing the last fifteen years of its existence it has aggregated membership still more rapidly than during its first twenty years of migratory and rather unsettled Bohemianism. The Union approximates more nearly in organization to the European club than any other in this country — has certainly greater social coherence, and more of that distinction which is peculiar to the leading London asso- ciations of similar intent. Literature is scarcely repre- sented at all, and journalism only by Manton jMarble, of the World, whose admission was secured by the strenuous determination of a gentleman who for years has been a member of the directory and one of its leading spirits. Having been balloted for and black-balled in the person of Mr. Marble, journalism would not have been admitted as eligible even, had not the gentleman indicated boldly declared that not a single member more should be ad- mitted until the black-balls were withdrawn, which se- cured for the daily press a representation in the person of one of its most talented editors; heads of other news- papers, and of great dailies at that, have indeed, fared worse, having been mercilessly black-balled. J. Lester Wallack is the ouly leading member of the dramatic pro- Digitized by Microsoft® UNION CLVB. 67 fession w'ho appears on the books. La-s^' is, on the other hand, fairly represented. Mayor Hall, the wit of the bar (since Brady), and its humorist as well, was until recent- ly a member. William M. Evarts; {he urbane, able, and popular Judge Bedford (Gunning S.), the intimate of James Gordon Bennett, Jr.; Judge Gar-vin; impractic- able and hobby-riding, but eloquent and long celebrated O'Conor; EU P. Norton, and John E. Bun-ill fill the hst of legal names. Of names well known in politics, August Belmont, lately President of the Democratic National Committee; Samuel J. Tilden, and Peter B. Sweeny are familiar as nursery legends. Ex-Collector Henry A. Smythe and Ex-Mayor George Opdyke are also habitues. Also, Moses H. Griunell, whose portrait in oil decorates the walls of the reception-room; Isaac Bell, and Andrew H. Green, whose admirable administration as Comptrol- ler of the Central Park has earned for him a lasting reputation as an able and efBcient public officer. Eobert J. Dillon, at jDresent an officer of the Park, and probably the best master of landscape gardening in this country, General Viele excepted, and J. H. Lazarus, one of the pet portrait-painters of Fifth Avenue, are almost the sole representatives of art. Of people familiar in the financial world, the Ust num- bers such as August Belmont, John J. Cisco, Henry Clews, A. T. Stewart, John Jacob Astor, and others whose names may be hunted out from the catalogue without special indication. In fact, financiers are the strength of the club, though in the person of the Baron C. E. Osten Sacken it can boast of at least one titled representative. There are seven Livingstons, six Gris- wolds, and four Appletons — one of them, Daniel S., of the publishing firm of the Appletons — connected with the association. William H. Paine, President of the Digitized by Microsoft® 00 CLUBS OF NM!W YORK. Washington Club, Paris, whose wife and daughter will be recollected in fashion annals as being the guests of the Empress Eugenie at Compeigne in the summer of 1870, is one of the leading spirits of the club, and had that same summer the honor of refusing a titled son-in- law in the person of an Italian count. The club has had its d'esagremens, as most clubs have; and in the summer and fall of 1871, when the great anti- Tammany crusade was at its height, an event occurred which was not easy to settle. Mayor Hall having been rouAd-ly assailed by the Times, certain members, not a few in number by the way, became impressed with the notion that the interests of the club demanded his with- drawal, in default of which expulsion was mooted. But here intervened a difficulty. To have been libeled in a newspaper was not exactly synonymous with conduct unbecoming a gentleman; and it was thus questionable whether there existed any constitutional right to expel. It was barely possible, too, that, in event of arbitrary proceedings, the libeled Mayor might see fit to protect his rights with an injuriction. However, the knot was at last very generously cut by Mayor Hall in a note of resignation addressed to the directorj', but not until considerable angry discussion had taken place between the partisans of either cause. Than Lester "vVallack, of the Union Club, the gay, gal- lant, and fastidious farceur of the drama, and Edwin Booth, the lion of the Lotos and a member of the Cen- tury, a stronger contrast could not be imagined. Wal- laek — and he is the same Wallack on the stage or off — is thoroughly penetrated with the spirit of the old satirical and comedy masters. He is a brilliant and polished Gil Bias, who adventures for the fun of it, farces himself as a glass to see humanity in, and thinks he sees humanity Digitized by Microsoft® u^■IO^' CLcn. -69 in it, whereas he only sees a single side of it. He is not a cynic, because even undei" the farce of living his acute sensibilities detect the tragedy; nor is he a man to be smitten with visionary projects of refoi-m, because in the tragedy of living, with all its awful sublimity, all its ter- rible earnestness, all its infinite struggling after the true and the real, his keen scent of the ridiculous snuffs the odor of a comedy strangely intermixed with the serious- ness. Hence, he lives (as he acts) the briUiant farceur of the Sheridan type, and his theatre, taking its individ- uality from him, represents the comedy of the Sheridan age — a comedy that by no means dips into the deeps of human nature, even on the humorous side, as did that of Shakesjpeare, with a humor akin to tears, but rather skims the surface and personifies society foibles and the whims and eccentricities of an age — a comedy that is rather witty than humorous, rather clever than natural in its situations — a comedj' with a kind of relation to folly as it flies, not to human life as it is. This comedy of manners, not of man, Mr. Wallack represents. By courtesy it inay be termed comedy, but in elementary analysis it is farce; and it is to be regxetted that, taking their cue from the popularity of dramas of this type, young writers like Mr. Bronson C. Howard, who is really able, should not have attempted something deeper and more abiding. In person, Mr. Wallack is a fine example of physical manhood, or rather, of physical aristocracy; in manners a polished gentleman, with a flavor of the farcical and sarcastic in address and conversation. A face and head of extremely patrician type, massive yet delicate, rest upon broad and massive shoulders, and complete a tout ensemble which, for elegance and grace, is not exceeded on the Avenue, and which unites felicitously the distinc- Digitized by Microsoft® 70 CLVBS OF XEW YORK. tion and quietude of the patrician with an individuality now regarded as almost incompatible with good breed- ing, the Paris code of which insists that a gentleman should have no angles about him. Edwin Booth — to complete the contrast — is a man of Hawthorne type. Naturally taciturn, slightly sardonic, acute, and somewhat imaginative, in his better moods he is Hamlet; in his bitter, lago. A man who can live tragedy as well as play it, there is, as with Wallack, a peculiar sympathy of his stage individuality with that of his real life. No man, however conventional in hia art at times he may be, has ever caught and interpreted the mood of Hamlet's soliloquy as Edwin Booth has. Not Bogumil Davison, without superior as Lear and the greatest tragedian New York has listened to for the past ten years or twelve years, equals Booth in this particular; and would the latter but break loose from the conven- tional, adherence to which renders him a consummate artist in a somewhat imperfect style of art, and give his individuality freer play, he might take his place among the great Shakesperian masters of the age, instead of figuring ephemerally as the lion of the ladies — for the conventional and traditional dicta of a criticism, founded solely upon observation of previous models, hamper his really fine and original powers. In person, Mr. Booth is about five-feet-eight and rather slender, with the student's stoop. Lacking vital- ity in himself, his dramatic creations have a similar lack, and are thus spectr.il and rather unsympathetic: un- vitalized phantoms of Shakespearian originals. In man- ners, a thorough gentleman, and very quiet, dreamy, and taciturn, though full of kindliness. In Judge Bedford, who must not be forgotten in speaking of the lions of the Union, you have a fine exam- Digitized by Microsoft® IWIOSf CLUB. 71 pie of the man who, with all the exclusiveness of the old regime, and its high sense of honor and of noblesse oblige, has outgrown its unprogressive traditions. A man of the vital-moral type one might term him; of keen, com- prehensive intellect and quick sympathies, vividly feeling the pulses of the humanity about him; yet with a high moral sense, giving judicial balance to his opinions, and peculiarly fitting him for the administration of justice. In person, Judge Bedford is about five-feet-sis, of Saxon type of physique. His face indicates a rare union of strength with emotion, of firmness and fine sensibili- ties — qualities which, in the difficult position of City Judge, his conduct has thoroughly exemplified. Of frank, pleasant address, genial and companionable, always in earnest, yet wholly unafi^ected in his earnestness, Judge Bedford is naturally one of the pets of the club. Army and navy members are not liable to annual dues, and enjoy sp>ecial privileges. The army contributes to membership in the way of generals and lesser dignitaries the subjoined: Ulysses S. Grant, P. St. George Cooke, John H. Coster, Samuel W. Crawford, George W. Cullum, "WilliaTn B. Hazen, Eufus Ingalls, Julian McAUister, Albert J. Meyer, John G. Parke, Jared L. Kathbone, Isaac U. D. Reeve, Justus Steinberger, Howard Stockton, Z. B. Tower, and Stewart Van Yliet. The navy is represented by James B. Breese (lately deceased), James Alden, Charles H. Baldwin, Edward C. Gratton, James Glynn, William C. Le Eoy, Henry 0. Mayo, Aulick Palmer, Thomas M. Potter, L. M. PoweU, James E. Tolfell, and John H. Wright. The Union is governed somewhat less than the Century in some respects, and somewhat more ;n others. Incor- porated, of course its property is vested in trustees. The goverment is conducted by a committee of twenty- Digitized by Microsoft® 72 CLUBS OF i\'E\\ TOBK. four members, who elect President, Vice President, Sec- retary, and Treasurer, appoint the superintendents and clerks, and prescribe the duties of servants. This com- mittee appoints a sub-committee of five, to direct and control expenses, receive and consider complaints, and report upon any communications addressed to it by mem- bers, officials, or servants. The committee of twenty-four meets on the first Wednesday of every month, August excepted, at eight o'clock P. M. , its business being the election of members, who are not voted upon bj' the club at large. A member of the committee cannot propose or second a candidate, but can only vote on names pro- posed and seconded by members at large. The sub-com- mittee meets weekly, that is, on Monday evenings. The management of the club, the regulation of prices, the auditing of account, redress of complaints, and dismissal of employes, when necessary, are among its practical duties. Admissions to the club are very strictly regulated. Non-member residents in or within fifty mlle3 of the city can be admitted only to the private dining-rooms. By invitation of a member, a gentleman may be the guest of the club, and have the use of it for two weeks, but no member can have more than one guest at a time. Upon written assent of a member of the committee, the invi- tation may be extended two weeks, or may be repeated if the stranger has been absent from the city three months. Names and residences of guests, and of mem- bers introducing, must be recorded, and hosts are held responsible for their guests. The entertainment of mem- bers of the diplomatic corps, the election as visitors of officers of the army and navy, and the fixing of penalties for violation of the rules, as well as the responsibility of admission and expulsion, are lodged with the committee. Digitized by Microsoft® UNION CLUB. 73 Accounts are kept with members, but when the liability of any member exceeds twenty-five dollars, it becomes the duty of the clerji to notify him and demand payment. If payment is not made within three weeks after the date of the notification, the member so notified is regarded as having forfeited his membership, and is dropped from the books. The association is governed by excellent rules. In the first place, any member making a profit from the club, is liable to summary expulsion. If a member fails to pay the yearly due of seventy-five dollars within three months after the first of May, when it is due, he ceases to be a member; and the club is not entitled to make a profit exceeding twenty-five per cent, on articles dis- pensed, that is, on wines, cigars, and edibles, served in the restaurant, or at the private dining-rooms. Servants and employes are not permitted to receive fees, and an employe thus receiving is summarily dismissed, while any member feeing an employe is liable to be reprimanded, suspended, or even expelled. Leading hotels and res- taurants, please copy: and gentlemen at hotels and res- tautants, please remember that high social authority dis- countenances the practice of feeing, as unworthy of the dignity of the complete gentleman. Again, a member may be expeUed for social conduct unbecoming a gentleman and prejudicial to the interests of the club, as well as for offences under the jurisdiction of the formal rules — which renders membership, in some respects, an obhgation to good morals and upright private conduct. Games are not prohibited; but whist, all-fours, ecarte, bezique, cribbage, euchre and billiards are the only games allowed, and stakes must, in no instance, exceed twenty dollars. A splendid billiard room, a reading room, and a library belong to the appurtenances of the club, but it has no gallery of art, and owns verj' few Digitized by Microsoft® 74 CLUBS or NEW YOBK. paintings, engravingfs, and bits of statuary — scarcely enough, in fact, for the proper decoration of the walls of its different apartments, which are rather too bare for taste. The club has never, as a body, given more than a couple of dinners to celebrities. The son of Jerome Bona- parte, familiarly nick-named the Prince Plon-Pl.nt,i<(l l,o the rc^^Miiicnl, (in Union Squ.ivc, ill front of llm cluli-huuso), on liolnilf of tlu> 1ii(ii(>s of New Yorl;, and :ni luldrcss coiniucnioiMl ivo of iln' ocraaion was delivered by rresideni, ICin;;', of C-olunibiii Colle!_;-e. Tluw weelcs liil.<'r, the Twenty-sixth lve,;;'i uient was sen), forward with similar honors. It was at the rooms of the Union Ijea;;ne C\n\i, also, that the throat Sanitary Fair was llrst |iro|)osed, and here tiiat it operunl its bazaar, with the resull, of ra.isiii}^ (Jie prineely suni ol one million oiio hundred Ihousand dollars, to be i^x]iond(Hl in furthci-iiiL;- the purposes of tho Sanitary (,'onunittee. On ihe eleventh of Felinniry, ISIM, a c.oniinittee was appointed to recruit for IfaneocU's (^orjis, then sadly d(^- pletod; and, on tho ninotcunith of Oetobor, the eoniniittoe reported a sending forward of over six thouMand men, at a cost of two hundred and seventy-live thouBand dollars, defrayed by subscription. These w(!ii^ days of worlc— days of sharp iiud vigorous struggh^ and yet, of brilliant rcaJi/,ati(ui: for, in addition to tho S(!ndiug of r. v,\\ to tho (ield, a grciat dea,l of trouble and money was expondcid in rc^lieving the wants fuul re- dressing tho grievances of the troo)is stationi'd in the city and vicinity. 'Tlic rresidontial (canvass also bore heavily upon tho rosources of the a.ssoctiation. U).>on it devolved the work of organizalion, andof conducting the canvass, and it was ji(^riia])s moie iminediately instru- mental in securing Mr. Lincoln's ro-blection than all tho orators of that most orator-bei'idden campaign. Later, its political history has biuin less rruirlted, though perhaps not loss eventful, having been nnire particularly identified with State tlian National [lolitics. The first reception ever given liy the Union lica^gue was that accorded to Lieutenant Gushing, the hero of Digitized by Microsoft® USWX LKAGIJE CLUB. 109 the AU)emarle.. The evening of November 12, 1864, its second was given in welcome of Professor (rojflwin Smith. In May, 18G5, General Butler was the finest of the asso- ciation ; and in Jnnf, 18G5, General Shenann was ten- dered the honor of a reception, and accepted. In October, 1865, Governor Fenton v/as received with groat eclul, so far as eclat can be supposed to ckister about purely polit- ical occafiions ; and Preston King, then Collector King, whose tragic end will be remembered, delivered the ad- dress of -welcome. In November of the same year. Gen- eral Grant was the guest of the association. General Meade, the hero of Gettysburg, was present ; as, also, were General Ingalls and Admiral Ringgold. Receptions have also been given in honor of Farrag-ut, Dupont, Winslow, Hooker, and Franklin; but that which attracted most attention, perhaps, was in honor of Sheri- dan, on the evening of September 29, 1867, on his return fi'Om New Orleans. Uniou Square, in front of the club- house, was densely packed with the populace, over which fell the glitter and glare of calcium lights by the half dozen, blinding here, and there leaving almost wholly in the dark. Swaying, surging, seething, the crowd occu- pied the square until nearly midnight, when, having feasted to their content, the lion and his keepers appeared on the balcony and roared. Then, having seen the lion, as if a great breath had come suddenly, these atoms of humanity were all whirled away different ways, and fhe^' square was suddenly as empty as if the croAvd of a few minutes before had been the mere conjur-ation of a magi- cian. On the evening of November 28, 1867, Rev. D.'. Newman Hall was received by the members of the club, Mr. John Jay, the president, welcoming the rev- erend gentleman with an address alike remarkable for length and abundance of compliment. Digitized by Microsoft® no ChVBS OF NEW YORK. These have been the principal receptions given by the club since its organization in 1863. It has had, as well, its eras in other respects than that of social re-nnion: its eras of controversy and wordy combat, mostly con- ducted in the very dignified and formal shape of resolu- tions, which are to political organizations what pellets are to a homoeopathic doctor. First came the great con- troversy with President Johnson, on the pohcy questitfn; next, that with Mr. Greeley, on the projsriety of his going bail for Jefferson Davis, which the members very strongly doubted, — Mr. Greeley retorting that they were a pack of blockheads, in terms more remarkable for vituperative- ness than force. Lastly, the election fraud sensation has received the attention of the association, though with no very marked practical results; and protests have been entered against legislative corruption, which protests have been dismissed indignantly b}' the body in session at Albany, on the ground that the very term legislative corruption was insulting, and ought not, as a phrase, to receive official recognition. Thus, all the high-sounding resolutions of the club concerning legislative corruption, came to naught: that Democratic body dubbed Albany by the daihes regarding it as quite inconsistent with dig- nity to confess the possible existence of anything answer- ing the conditions of the phrase. The admission fee, at first only seventy-five dollars, was, in 1866, brought into close approximation to that of other leading clubs, and set at one hundred. On the same occasion, it was voted that yearly dues should be made sixty instead of fifty dollars, an advance from thirty to fifty having taken place the year before. The association has no long series of migrations to be recorded. The old Parish residence,- No. 26 East Seven- teenth street, the most elegant in the city in its day, was Digitized by Microsoft® UNTOX LEAGUIC CLUB. ' ' ' first leased liy the clnb, wliich, May 12th, 186% entered its first club-house. This was only a couijle of months after its organization fFebi'uary 6th, 1863), and previous to the date of its actually entering upon serious work. Its first lustrum in the old club-house will be remembered by all members as its years of peculiar eclat and peculiar activ- ity. A fever-fire was in the blood of the poinilace, and shoulder-straps were of themselves passports to the best societj'- of the metropolis, excepting, perhaps, the royal circle of the old regime, where some little discrim- ination was made as to the quality of the persons weai'ing them. Hence, the splendor and glory of the first recep- tions of the association; though occasionally, albeit, a little unnecessary tinsel was added, a little needless glare and glamour, just to daze the eyes of the groundlings, and its receptions were a trifle spectacular, as all engines of po- litical effect are apt to be. There can be no question, however, as to the influence of the club during this bril- liant semi-decade, — for it was the success of the Union League that led to the foundation of the Manhattan, now one of the most powerful clubs in this country. Its mem- bership was over six hundred at the date of its fourth birthday, and at present it is more than double that. The new club-house, Madison Avenue, corner of East Twenty-sixth street, was opened April 1st, 1868, — having been erected by Mr. Jerome, projector of Jerome Park, for the use of the Jockey Club, but subsequently leased to the Union League for a term of ten years. It is probably, internally as well as externally, the most elegant club-house in the city, as it is the most expen- sively upholstered. The general framework of the fur- nishing is of black walnut, though the larger mirror- frames are of rosewood. The reading-room, first story, fronts on Madison Square. Its walls are decorated with Digitized by Microsoft® ' I 2 CLUBS OF NEW YOMK. photographs and portraits of members mostly. The reception-parlor fronts on Twenty-sixth street, and is a hijou in its way. Portraits of Captain Marshall, Robert B. Minturn, and Jonathan Sturges, decorate the walls. The art gallery fronts on Twenty-sixth street; adjoin- ing it is the billiard-room, having four fine tables; near by, opened into by grand doors, is the ten-pin alley. On the second floor, is fitted up an elegant bijou of a theatre, intended not only for the use of the club as a meeting- room, but to be let for lectures and dramatic readings.' The carpeting throughout is of WUton, Axminster, or Brussels; and, in connection with the rosewood, and wal- nut of sofas and mirrors, a great deal of gilding has been employed. In fact, of the two, monograms and gilding are rather superabundant. The private dining-rooms are on the second floor, and very elegantly fitted up. They seat one hundred persons, and it is superfluous to state, of course, that all glass- ware, porcelain, and the like, bear the monogram of the club, for nowhere is that self-conscious crypt omitted. It is now three years since an active movement for the collection of an art gallery was begun. Previous to that date the art treasures of the association consisted of a few portraits, mostly of members and military celebrities, interlarded with those of a few celebrated civilians and statesmen. Large portraits of Lincoln, John Bright, Cobden, General Sheridan, General Sherman, General Strong, De Gasparin, and Laboulaye, were first procured. Since then, something of a gallery of engravings and photographs has been collected; but, until quite lately, no attempt has been made to lay the foundation of an art gallery such as the Century has. Cropsey's view of the battlefield at Gettysburg is now in possession of the club. C H. Henry is represented Digitized by Microsoft® UNION Li; A G UE CL UB. 1 1 3 by a couple of pieces, one of which commemorates the j)resentatioii of a stand of colors to the very first colored regiment sent foi'ward to the seat of war from the Bast. It was painted to order for the club, and is microscopic in its fidelity to details: hence, in its actualism. A splen- did portrait of General Thomas (in oil) has also been added to the collection. Winslow Homer's " In the Wil- derness" is hei-e, as also are some halt dozen or more paintings of war scenes, often spoken of, but seldom seen. Employes of the club are expected to appear in fuU dress on all occasions — with the exception of ushers, who are in uniform, and the superintendent, who is at liberty to dress in the manner of a private gentleman. Though founded in 1863, the club was not incorporated until February 16th, 1865. The conditions of member- ship were, at the beginning, rather political than social. First and foremost stood unswerving loyalty to the gov- ernment, and unwavering support of its efforts to sup- press the rebellion; and members, collectively and indi- vidually, were pledged to resist, to the utmost, every attempt against the territorial integrity of the nation. These conditions express the primary purposes of the association as it was, and were then quite necessary con- ditions of unity and concert. At a meeting, January 11th, 1866, another clause was added, which somewhat directed the efforts of the asso- ciation to another and then quite popular crusade; and it became a part of its mission to resist corruption, to promote reform in national, state, and municipal affairs: in short, to elevate the idea of American citizenshij) in the particular sense of elevation preferred by its mem- bers, and most advantageous to them. The organization of the club is exceedingly complicated : Digitized by Microsoft® 114 CLUBS 01' NSW YOBK. a system of committees and sub-committees, wheel withiu wheel, yet working harmoniously enough, and admirably balanced in its distribution of powers, fanctions, privi- leges, and prerogatives. A president, twelve vice-presi- dents, a treasurer, a secretary, and three auditors consti- tute the head of an exceedingly complicated body. Then come the standing committees, of which there are five, to wit: the executive committee, committee on admissions, committee on publications, committee on arts and relics, and committee on library; to which list must be added an acting house committee, invested with ordinary func- tions of bodies of that kind. The executive committee is modeled after the pattern of that of the Union Club, that is, five of its fifteen members are elected annually — an innovation introduced in the year 1870, when, to make provision for the carrying of the system into effect, five members were elected for one year, five for two years, and five for three years. The committee, unlike that of the Union Club, is, however, subject to the prescription of limitations by the main body, except in the matter of expenditures, where it exercises a certain discretion; and no member is eligible for more than one successive term. Except during the months of June, July, August, Sep- tember, and October, this body meets monthly for the transaction of current business. The committee on admissions consists of seven mem- bers, to whom aJl names of candidates are referred, not to be acted upon, but to be reported upon. Candidates must be projjosed by one member, seconded by another, and bulletined, before reference to the committee whose business it is to investigate as to qualifications or eligi- bility. At every monthly meeting of the club, it is the duty of this body to report upon the names of candidates submitted to its consideration, after which the membera Digitized by Microsoft® UNIOiY L EA G UE CL OB. 115 vote by ballot upon names thus recommencled. one ballot in ten excluding. An excluded candidate cannot be pro- posed again within one year from date of black-ball. The committee on publications consist.s of seven members; so, also, the library committee and the committee on arts and relics, whose names sufficiently indicate their respect- ive functions. Neglect on the part of any member of one of these bodies to attend three consecutive meetings, is regarded as tender of resignation, and the committee may proceed to fill the vacancy, as if written resignation had been actually tendered. The club has a regular monthly meeting for the trans- action of business; but the annual meeting, which occurs on the second Thursday in January, constitutes the great evening of festivity and reunion. The rules of Cushing's Manual govern all debates and deliberations, — the regu- lar order of business being, first, reading of minutes; second, election of members; third, reports of standihg committees; fourth, reports of special committees; and fifth, general business. This order of business may be altered, however, by a majority vote, and is not, therefore, inflexible. Duties of members vary little from the general specifi- cations. Members cannot receive salaries for services rendered as officers, or in other functions; cannot fee servants, under penalty of reprimand; must not in spirit or act manifest any disloyalty to the government, which, being interpreted, means probably that any member who bolts anything understood to be Eepublican, is liable to expulsion. The number of resident members is limited to one thousand; the admission being now (and having been, since September 1st, 1866), one hundred dollars. The annual due is sixty dollars, payable within thirty days after the date of the annual meeting. If payment Digitized by Microsoft® Il6 CLUBS or NEW YORK. is delayed until April 1st, the member so delaying forfeits his membership, and is, after the thirty days mentioned, bulletined as a defaulter. This applies to resident members: non-res'ident mem- bers, officers of the army and navy, and clergymen are subject to half-admission fees and half-dues onl}'. Mem- bers are expected to observe the rule of cash on delivery of wines, dinners, and the like, that is, the cashier is not permitted to open any formal accounts, and names of delinquents are regularly posted every Monday morning. MemLers thus posted must pay -within one week or ac- cept the liability to suspension. Games for money are not permitted; and ladies can only be admitted on Tues- days and Fridays, from twelve M. to three P. M. After one o'clock at night admittance cannot be claimed by lodgers; and at twelve the restaurant, wine-room, billiard- room, and bowling-alley are closed for the night. A mem- ber may personally introduce a non-resident or guest, but for one day only; and persons introduced for a longer period, must receive tickets bearing the sesame names of the executive committee. The art treasures of the club are worthy of more than passing mention. During the single year 1870, ten por- traits and other paintings in oil, and twenty-four steel engravings (at a cost of $3,000) were added to the collection. Eastman Johnson's splendid portrait of the late General George H. Thomas decorates the walls of the Madison Avenue palace. S. E. Gifford's "Seventh Regiment at Washington;" Julian Scott's "Rear Guard;" E. H. Henry's " City Point in 1865," and his "First New York Colored Regiment; " and Winslow Homer's "Eight in the Wilderness," constitute the leading historical canvases. The whole, with its value, may be mapped thus:— Digitized by Microsoft® VXTOS LEAGUE CLUB. I '7 Portraits in oil 17 Landscapes and historical works in oil 20 Framed drawings ^ Statuettes, in bronze and plaster 7 Photographic portraits (framed) 47 Engravings (framed) 25 Total 126 Cost S18 958 no As a rule, it is difficult to ascertain the cun-ent receipts and financial condition of clubs, for the very natural rea- son that they are generally in debt, and prefer that no public exposition of the fact should occur. The Union League, having no debt, is above scruple in this respect, and, by the kindness of the treasurer, the writer is enabled to exhibit its budget of receipts and expenses for an average current year: — Admission fees and dues S83,545 00 Kestaurant and other sources "101,643 44 Total §185,198 44 Disbursed 184,600 36 Excess of receipts over expenses S598 08 The property of the club stands thus, in its financial aspect : — In ten-forty coupon bonds $25,000 00 In five-twenty coupon bonds 5,000 00 In insurance scrip 355 00 In cash on hand 839 00 Total $31, 19 i 00 The amount expended for the restaurant and wine- room was $78,081.43; receipts from same, $80,872.27; leaving a profit too small to pay for service, and proving that club restaurants are only drags upon the resources of the associations supporting them. Digitized by Microsoft® I iS CLUnS OF NEW YORK. Two of the most brilliant names on tlie honorary list — those of Admiral David G. Farragut and General George H. Thomas — were transferred to the mortuary in 1870; while from the general list have dropped Wil- liam H. Brady, Frederick A. Coe, F. W. CorggiU, W. W. Cornell, Moreau Delano, George Folsom, John H. Macy, Frank B. Eussell, John H. Simpkins, Joseph A. Trow- bridge, Hiram Walbridge, and James Kelly. On the roll of dead, the most eminent literary name is that of Dr. Francis Lieber, late Professor of Constitu- tional History and Political Science in Columbia Law School, — who, having written a letter showing why Mr. Greeley ought not to be elected President of the United States, gave up the ghost on the afternoon of Wednes- day, October 2d, 1872. Born in Berlin in the year 1800, Dr. Lieber entered the Prussian Army at fifteen, and, after takirg part in the battles of Ligny and Waterloo, was wounded in the storming of Namur. Returning to Berlin, he became an active politician of the Young Ger- many type, and was finally arrested as a Liberal and im- prisoned. Eeleased, he pursued his studies at Jena, but the Government opposing his progress at every step, at the age of twenty-one he started on a crusade in behalf of Grecian liberty, trjiveling on foot through Switzerland to Marseilles. After many dangers and privations, he found his way to Italy, and became a member of the family of Niebuhr the historian, then Prussian Minister to Italy, where he spent the years 1822 and 1823, and collected the memoranda for his reminiscences of the great historian, really the only minute pen-and-ink por- trait extant of one of the foi'emost historical critics of the centurj'. His sojourn in Niebuhr's family was em- ployed in the preparation of a journal of his adventures and experiences in Greece, issued at Liepsic. Promised Digitized by Microsoft® U^UOX LTSAG CE CL UB. I I 9 iiiimunity from arrest, he returned to Germanj', but was af^ain clungeonerl at Kopnick, where he wrote a volume of poems, afterwards imblisLed in Berlin, under the nom deplume of Franz Arnold. Again liberated, but subject to annoying espionage, he emigrated to England in 1825, and while in London supported himself for two years by contributions to various Geiinan periodicals. In 1827, advised to the step by Niebuhr, he came to the United States, and began his career as a lecturer on history and political science, fina.lly settling in Boston, where he foiinded a swimming school on the system of Pfuhl, of Berlin, whose pupil he had once been; and edited the " Encyclopsedia Americana," a sort of English version of the famous "Conversations-Lexikon " of Brockhaus, which ran through thirteen volumes, and was issued by a Phil- adelphia house between the years 1829 and 1833. In addition to this — his most voluminous work — he trans- lated a work on the revolution of 1830, the Life of Kas- par Hauser, and De Beaumont and De Tocqueville on Penitentiary Systems in the United States, adding an introduction and copious notes. His plan of university instruction, drawn up at the instance of the trustees of Girard College, was his next work; his next, the famous " Letters to a Gentleman in Germany," in which the grand tour is made the vehicle of a great deal of philo- sophical dissertation. In 183.5 he was appointed Professor of History and Political Economy in South Carolina Col- lege, Columbia, S. C. ; in 1858, Professor of the same in Columbia College, New York. His published works cover nearly the whole field of political science, and treat a list of subjects rarely attempted by one man. An enumera- tion of them includes his "Manual of Political Ethics," Boston, 1888, adopted as a text-book at Harvard, and commended by Kent and Story; "Legal and Political Digitized by Microsoft® 120 CLUBS OF XK^\■ yonK. Hermeneiitics, or Principles of Interpretation anrl Con- struction in Law and Politics"; "Laws of Property: Essays on Property and Labor," New York, 1842; "Civil Libert}' and Self-Government," Philadelphia, 1853. Spe- cial departments of civil polity also largely occupied his attention, particularly that of penal legislation, on which he wrote his "Essays on subjects of Penal Law and the Penitentiary System,'' published by the Philadelphia Prison Discipline Society; "Abuse of the Penitentiary Power," published by the Legislature of New York; "Remarks on Mrs. Fry's Views of Solitary Confinement," published in England; "Letter on the Pardonjng Sys- tem," published by the Legislature of South Carolina. His best occasional papers are: "Letter on Anglican and Gallican Liberty," translated into German, and annotated by the distinguished jurist, Mittermaier, who also super- intended a translation of " Civil Liberty;" a paper on the vocal sounds of Laura Bridgman, the blind deaf-mute, compared with the elements of phonetic language, pub- lished in the "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge"; a series of political articles in Putnmn's Monthly on " Na- poleon and Utah," and numerous anniversary and other addresses. Among his valuable writings, since his con- nection with Columbia College, are his inaugural address, entitled " Individualism and Socialism or Communism," in which he maintains that these are the two elements on which human life hinges, and that the problem is to exclude neither, but to ascertain its true limits; and his discourse introductory to a course of lectures on the State, in the Columbia Law School, entitled "The Ancient and the Modern Instructor in Politics." He was ap- pointed Arbitrator of the Mexican Claims, and held that position at the time of his death. Dr. Lieber enjoyed the friendship of leaders of thought Digitized by Microsoft® u'lVTOy LEA G UE CL Ub. 12 1 like Kent, titory, Woolsey, and others, and must be esti- mated as an active, loafical, and acute thinker, but not as a specially original one. Practical rather than specula- tive, though not the man to look into the grounds of things or to propound brilliant solutions of difficult problems, he was eminently safe as a professor. His mind was rather encyclopaedic than assimilative; he was given to combination, not to origination. He masticated facts and swallowed them, but did not digest them, — in a word, lacked imagination, and the constructive and origin- ative power depending upon that faculty. His intellect, unlike that of John Stuart Mill, was not one of those powerful agents that dissolve facts, and precipitate their dross, while preserving their essence; but was always ready with reasons for this and that, always endeavoring to effect a reconciliation between the Utopian and the actual, always building upon accepted though question- able foundations. The honored name of Abraham Lincoln: though dead, yet not dead: for men like Lincoln never die, and are never bui'ied: heads the honorary list. The remaining honorary members are U. S. Grant, Prasident of the United States; General W. T. Sherman, United States Army; Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan, United States Army; Major-Generals Robert Anderson, A. E. Burnside, "Winfield S. Hancock, Horatio E. Wright, Gouverneur K. Warren, and W. F. Smith; Admiral David G. Porter, Eear-Admiral Theodore Bailey, Commodore John Rodg- ers, and George T. Strong, Esq., of New York. Other officers of the armj- and navy, not honorary mem- bers, but subject to half-rates only, are included in the coming list: — Major-General Robert Avery, United States Army; Captain Alexander S. Clark, Brevet Major-General George Hartsuff, Brevet Major-General R. Ingallg, Dr. Digitized by Microsoft® 12 2 CL UBS OF XEW YORK. Edward Kershner, United States Aimy; Brigadier-Gen- eral Kiddo, Captain C. D. Mehaffey, Colonel John Moore, Major-General B. S. Roberts, Brigadier-G-eneral W. H. Slidell, Colonel J. Steijiberger, Lieutenant-Colonel Frede- rick Yan Yliet, and Lieutenant-Commander G. C. Wiltse. The list of members, resident and non-resident, in- cluding a host of familiar names, amounts in statis- tical budget to — Paying members 1,390 Eesident members 1,005 Non residents 385 This is the largest membership in the city; and, as might be inferred, the club-house is insufficient for its accommodation, and any material increase would produce serious inconvenience to habitues. Hence, the agitation has already begun, which must" result either in a new club-house or in a rigid limitation of the privilege of membership. It is probable that the former event will ensue, and a building committee has already been ap- pointed to consider the expediency of building and re- moval; although the lease of the present palatial club- house has still several years to run, and previous to its ex- piration, removal cannot be regarded as expedient, unless a splendid edifice is to be perverted from its original intent. Of names included in the list, many are too familiar to be passed without special note. The Kev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D., the Rev. Dr. Thomas Armitage, and the Rev. O. B. Prothingham, the exponent of the new theol- ogy in this country, lead the clericals. The Rev. Dr. Jo- seph P. Thompson is also a member. William M. Evarts, Judges Emott and Eithia::!, and a hundred or so of legal b'ghts, more or less brilliant, represent the bar. WiUiam Digitized by Microsoft® Cullen Bryant stands the almost solitary exponent of belles lettres and poetry. The genial and brilliant Dana, of the Sun ; Salem H. Wales, of the Scientific American ; Whitelaw Keid, of the Tribune; its lion, Mr. Greeley; and others, represent the now distinctive profession of journalism; and medical gentlemen are numbered hj the hundred, from the eccentric, but learned and intellectual Argyle Watson to Dr. J. C. Peters, of Madison Avenue, or the less celebrated, but loyal struggler whose prac- tice is scarcely sufficient to settle his carefully audited restaurant bills. Of pohticians it would be superfluous, almost invidious, to enter upon any partial enumeration, since most of the names in this department are of almost eqnal popular familiarity; and the reader may be left to select them by actual study of the catalogue. Parke Godwin represents political criticism; and the late H. T. Tuckerman, long known as a fine literary and art critic, and representative of the old regime in literature, was an honored habitue. In the literary list, also, and at the head of it in many respects, must be included Major J. M. Bundy, editor of the Evening Mail, who, though scarcely turned thirty-five, has lifted himself by sheer force of mental power to the position of one of the great journalists of New York, and ranks with founders of journals like the late James Gor- don Bennett, Henry J. Raymond, and the still living Horace Greeley. By descent Major Bundy is of Norman extraction, his pedigree being traceable to the Bondis of Bondi Forest, Prance, who were represented with William the Norman, at Hastings. His American ancestry dates from Plymouth Rock; but his father having emigrated West, young Bundy was educated at Beloit College for the profession of law, which he studied in the o£5ce of Senator Carpenter. His first literary hit was made as a Digitized by Microsoft® 124 CLUBS OF NEW ran K. pamphleteer; his first New York position was that of literary, art, and musical critic on the Evening Post, v/hn-e he acquitted himself in a manner felicitously illustrative of Mr. Greeley's dictum that, to climb the ladder of jour- nalism, a man must be able to perform the work of three men creditablj'. There is a great deal of the keen critic in Major Bundy's face : hence, his first metropolitan hit in the finest criticism of " Lothair," in Putnam'n Monthly, which that brilliant, but scrappy and unsatisfactory novel by Mr. Disraeli, called forth either in England or America — a criticism with which the only fault to be found .vas that the novel was not exactly worth the trouble of criti- cism, being really as inferior to the standard of the age as a work of fiction, as were the fireworks, Roman can- dles, and sky-rockets of Victor Hugo's ''L' Homme Qui Bit" to the really volcanic eruptions of power displayed in " Les Iliserables.'' In person. Major Bundy is a slender, Poe-ish looking gentleman of five feet six; of intensely cephalic organization, and genial manners. Dresses rather elegantly. Is generous, to a fault, — a fast friend; an able, but always honorable and courteous opponent. If you just peer into the breakfast-room of a morning, you will be likely to get a glimpse of Whitelaw Reid, — a tall, handsome, genial gentleman of thirty-five, with a pair of wonderfully pleasant and dreamy eyes looking out, large-orbed and somewhat shrewd, from under one of the most intellectual foreheads to be found in journal- ism. Of Scottish ancestry, canny expresses his personnel as he sits quietly at his coffee, weaving webs of editorial, or wondering what is to be the next turn in the Presi- dential campaign, or cogitating, perhaps, some new de- vice for " bulling " the Tribune stock in the market. Like Bundy, Mr. Eeid hails from the West, but is a man of Eastern ideas with Western andace: else could he never Digitized by Microsoft® UNIOy LEA G ri; CL UB. 125 have planned that political web which captured the nn- wary flj' of the Democracy, and laid it at the foet of its life-lonf^- enemy. A piece of lago-work was that, demand- ing boldness, craft, and long-headed strategy, of which good, placid, idealistic Mr. Greeley would never have been equal to the execution, and which mark his lieuten- ant as a natural diplomat. At the regular monthly meeting of February 11th, 1869, the art committee was at some pains, as previously noted, to prepare an exhibition, and thus an impulse was given to sesthetic upholstery, if the phrase be permissible, which brought its artist members into places of some promi- nence. Kensett contributed his "Lake George," and a couple of other canvases. Whittredge exhibited a study from Tennyson's brook; A. J. Wyand, his "Coming Storm," and "Emigrant Train"; Gifford, one of his pet bits of Green Mountain scenery; Heade, his "View Near Oyster Bay," and a study; E. C. Henry, his painting of the blistered old kirk in Eulton street; Cropsey, his "Au- tumn in the Mountains"; George Hall, a Spanish study; Bradford, a Labrador scene; George A. Baker, a couj)leof sweet pigmentary morsels; Hicks, his "Morning Walk"; Fagnani, a portrait of the venerable Samuel Finley Breese Morse, his "Moonrise in November," and the "Shores of the Mediterranean," (now the property of the club) ; Dana, his "Letter Dog"; Griswold, his "Purgatory Point"; Gay, a painting entitled "Newport"; Barron, a " Eising Moon"; and Ehninger, his " Spring," and the spirited drawing of "Sheridan's Ride." F. B. Carpenter is also on the list; though Mr. Calverly, who contributed the finest medallion of Lincoln ever executed, and is mas- ter of the manner of Palmer, is not a member. Neither is Winslow Homer, though one of his canvases is repre- sented in the property of the club. Digitized by Microsoft® 126 CLUBS OF KUW YORK. I had nearly forgotten that, like the Manhattan in the instance of Bateman and Cranston, the club has had its sensation. The body of the battle was trivial enough. In the height of the draft-riots, in 1863, a certain English doctor visited the club-house, and, by invitation, rode down Broadway with a certain drawing-room colonel — the lion of the ladies — and a certain American doctor, both members of the club. That is, the former claims that he was besought or beset to accept the four-wheeled hospitalities of these gentlemen; and, having been ur- gently besought, did thereto accede. The carpet colonel did the gentlemanly thing. Having been the proposer of the expedition, when he dropped out of the carriage he handed Doctor No. 2 — so alleged Doctor No. 1 — the amount of money needed to pay the hackman. Arriving at the Metropolitan Hotel on the return trip, Doctor No. 2 — so runs the story, as related in the pamphlet — left the carriage, handing Doctor No. 1 only a portion of the money advanced by the carpet knight. Doctor No. 1 de- manded the rest, and, having received it, was driven to the club-house; but was soon after electrified by the in- formation that the doctor had denounced him as having made a petty profit out of the club. In old days it would have been pistols and Hoboken for two. But the aggrieved gentleman appears to have preferred paper pellets to leaden ones as the safer of the two, if not the more effective in putting down an oppo- nent. Having brought the matter to the notice of the club, that body refused to interfere, on the ground that the affair was not within its jurisdiction; whereupon he produced a very exhaustive pamphlet, explaining the du- ties of clubs, lampooning his opponent on the same page, and getting himself deservedly horsewhipped. Thus again, was brought to the surface another question of Digitized by Microsoft® UNIOS LEA . H. ; Kuehne, Frederick. Laimher, William, Jr.; Landon, Charles G. ; Lane, Josiah; La- nier, Charles: Lanier, J. F. D. ; Lamed, D. R. ; Lasar, Sigismund; Lathrop, William G. , Jr. ; Lawrence, D. W. ; Lawrence, E. N. ; Law- rence, James W. ; Lawson, John D. ; Lawson, James, Jr. ; Learned, B. P. , Jr. ; Leavitt, J. T. ; Lee, Benjamin F. ; Lee, Daniel W. ; Lee, W. H. ; Lee, W. Halsey; Lefferts, Marshall; Leggett, Andrew W. ; Le Roy, Daniel; Lesher, S. K. ; Libeneau, J. H. ; Lieber, Francis; Lincoln, Lowell; Lindsay, John P. ; Linsly, J. H. ; Littlefield, E. L. ; Livermore, Charles F. ; Livermore, W. F. ; Livingston, H. F. ; Liv- ingston, John A. ; Locke, William II. ; Lord, George W. T. ; Lothrop, Jeremiah; Loveridge, H. ; Low, Joseph T.; Lowrey, G. C. W. ; Low- rey, G. P. ; Lowrey, J. S. ; Lundington, C. H. ; Lusk, William T. Mabbatt, Samuel R. ; Mackenzie, M. L. ; Magoun, George 0. ; Mairs, John D. ; Mali, H. W. T. ; Mali, W. W. ; Man, Albon P., Man, Frederick H. ; Manice, W. D. F.; Manning, John A. ; Marsh, Charles C. ; Marsh, C. P. ; Marsh, John A. ; Marsh, L. R. ; Marshall, D. D. T. ; Marsnall, John G. ; Marsland, George; Marston, W. H. ; Martin, John C. ; Martin, William; Marvine, W. H. ; Mason, H. C. ; Mason, Joel W.; Mason, Thomas F. ; Mason, T. Henry; Matthewson, Rollin; Maxwell, William H. ; McClees, William K. ; McClnre, George; McGurdy, Richard A. ; McCurdy, Robert H. ; McKaye, James; McMartin, Peter; McMillan, Charles; Mead, E. F. ; Mead, George AV. ; Mead; William A. ; Meeker, William B. ; Meeks, John, Jr. ; Meeks, J. W. ; Meyer, F. W. ; Millard, H. B. ; Miller, Ira O. ; Milli- ken, David; Mills, Abraham; Mills, S. A.; Mitchell, Cornelius B. ; Montross, William ; Moore, E.G.; Moore, Homer R. ; Moore, John Whitley; Moore, L. C; Moore, William, H. H. ; Morgan, E. D. Morgan, H. T. ; Morris, Coles ; Morrison, John A. ; Morton, Levi P. Moss, Theodore; Motley, J. M. ; Moulton, G. S. ; Mowry, A. L. Mudgett, B. F. ; Munn, 0. D. ; Murdook, U. A. ; Murphy, Thomas Murray, D. Golden; Murray. G. W. ; Musgrave, T. B. Digitized by Microsoft® !32 CLUBS OF A'EW YORK Nast, Thomas; Needham, E. P.; Newbold, Clayton E.; Newbold, George; Nichols, John H. ; Niebuhr, Charles C. ; North, Thomas M. ; Norwood, Carlisle, Jr. ; Nye, Francis C. Ockerhansen, A. F.; Olmstead, Dwight H; Opdyke, George; Op- dyke, G. F. ; Opdyke, William S. ; Orton, William; Osborn, William H. ; Osgood, Kev. Samuel, D.D. ; Ostrander, C. V. B.; Otis, C. S.; Owen, T. J. Paine, A. G. ; Paine, John; Palmer, Francis A.; Palmer, 0. H. ; Paucoast, George; Pardt-e, Harris; Parker, Willard; Parkin, Will- iam W. : Parsons, Arthur W., Jr.; Paterton, William G. ; Paulding, James P.; Paxsou, William; Peabody, C. A.; Pea.son, Isaac Green; Pease, Walter A.; Peaslee, E. E. ; Peck, Norman; Pulton, Guy K. ; Perkins, Charles L. ; Perkins, E. H., Jr. ; Perkins, Henry V/.; Peters, George A.: Peters, S. T.; Pettis, A. P.; Pfeiler, Carl; Phelps, Ben- jamin K. ; Phelps, George D., Jr. ; Phelps, William Walter; Phcenix, Phillips; Pierson, H. L. ; Pierson, J.F. ; Pmohot, James W,; Pink- ney, James H. ; Pippe.y, B. Y. ; Place, George; Place, James K. ; Piatt, John H. ; Piatt, J. N.; Piatt, S. R. ; Pleasonton, A. ; Pomeroy, William L. ; Poor, H. W. ; Pope, John; Porter, John K. ; Post, Will- iam; Potter, Howard; Potts, Frederick A.; Prentice, P.; Price, James; Prichard, William M. ; Pride, George G. ; Putnam, George P. Quincey, John W. Kandail, Henry; Saymond, A,; Raymond, Charles H. ; Kaymond, C. M. ; llaynolds, C. T. ; Raynor, William H. ; Eead, J. Edwards Read, Thomas B. ; Read, T. T. ; Read, William G. ; Keed, Samuel C. Reid, Whitelaw; Reynolds, J. C. C. ; Rhodes, J. A. ; Richardson, F. C. Richardson, N. P. ; Richardson, William; Richardson, W. P. ; Bicker, S. A.; Ripley, Joseph; Robb, James; Robert, Christopher R. ; Rob- erts, John P. ; Roberts, Marshall O. ; Robinson, Coleman T. ; Rob- inson, E. ; Robinson, H. C. ; Rodgers, Charles T. ; Rodman, B. W. ; Koe, Alfred; Rogers, Columbus B. ; Roosa,*D. B. St. John; Roose- velt, Cornelias; Roosevelt, James A.; Roosevelt, Theodore; Root, EUhu; Ross, William B. ; Ross, William H.; Rowland, W. Frede- rick; Ruggles, Samuel B. ; Buggies, H. M. ; Rumrill, Alexander; Runkle, Cornelius A. ; Runkle, J. C. ; Busch, A. ; Russell, Charles H. ; Sussell, J. E. Sackett, James H. ; Salomon, Edward; Saltonstall, F. G.; Sanford, J. C; Satterlee, G. C. ; Sauinier, Henry E.; Schenek, F. H. ; Schief- feliu, Eugene ; Schieffelin, Samuel B. ; Schiefielin, William H. ; Schultz, Jackson S. ; Schultz, Frederick; Scott, David; Scott, Will- Digitized by Microsoft® U^ION LEA a UK CL b'B. 1 3 3 iam; Scoville, Tliomas L. ; Scranton, G. B. ; Scudder, Hewlett; Scudder, Liuvis; Sedgwick, Henry D. ; Sedgwick, John; Sedley, Henry; Seligman, Jes^e; Seligman, Jose; Selofer, J. M. ; Sewall, J. N. ; Sewall, Robert; Shaler, Alexander; Shannon, Thomas V/. ; Sharps, George H. ; Shattuok, W. B. ; Shaw, Samnel; Sheffield, G. St. John; Shelton, C. C; Shepard, Elliot F.; Shepard, 0. H.; Sher- man, G. E. King; Sherman, E. T. ; Sherman, F. K. ; Sherman, Isaac; Sherwood, Warner; Shethar, Samuel; Sinclair, Samuel; Sloane, Henry T. ; Sloane, J. ; Sloane, WUliam I). ; Smales, Holbert; Smith, A. P.; Smith, A. M. C, Jr.; Smith, Charles S.; Smith, Edgar M. ; Smith, Ethelbtrt M.; Smith, E. E.; Smith, George W.; Smith, H. Erskine; Smith, Isaac E. ; Smith, J. E. ; Smith, N. D. ; Smith, S. S. ; Smith, U. J.; Smith, Wil.iam A.; Snitfen, Elisha; Sdow, Michael; Soren, G. W. ; Speyers, Albert G. P. ; Spofford, P. N. ; Sprague, Jo- seph A. ; SprouUs, Samuel E . ; Stanton, Edmund D. ; Starr, Pi-ter ; Sterling, William G. ; Stetson, H. C. ; .Stetson, Wilham F. ; Stevens, Simon: Stewart, A. T. ; Stiver, Eufus M. ; Stockwell, A. B. ; Stokes, James, Jr. ; Stone, John O. ; Stone, Lewis B. ; Stoughton, Edwin. W. ; Strebeigh, Robert M. ; Strickland, J. W. A.; Stiuthers, James; Stiirges, Jonathan; Sturges, P. D. ; Stnrges, Thomas T. ; Stnrges, T. T., Jr.; Stm-gis, Frederick K. ; Suydam, D. Lydig; Swain, George W. ; Swan, Ed. H. ; Swan, Frederick G. ; Swan, Otis D. ; Sweetser, F. C. ; Swift, Fostrr; Swift; H. H. ; Swift, James T. Taber, H. M. ; Tailer, Ed. N., Jr.; Taintor, G. E. ; Talbot, Charles N. ; Tappan, F. D. ; Taylor, H. S., Teats, Sylvester, M.D.; Tenney, Amos; Thomas, Seth E. ; Thompson, Henry; Thompson, Henry G. ; Thompson, Eev. J. P., D.D. ; Thompson, Launt; Thompson, S. C. ; Thomson, Eugene; Thomson, Mason; Thome, Elwood E. ; Thorno, Eichard J. ; Thorne, William; Thornell, Thomas I ; Thornton, E. B. ; Thoron, Joseph; Thorpe, Albert G. ; Tice, Isaac P. ; Tiffany, Charles L. ; Tilney, J. T. ; Todd, Eeuben J.; Tonsey, Sinclair; Townsend, E. M. ; Townsend, John J.; Townsend, E. H. L. ; Tows. Francis H. ;' Tracy, John F.; Trask, Wayland; Treadwell, William E. ; Treat, E. B. ; Trotter, William, Jr.; Tuck, Edward; Tuckerman, Ernst; Tuck- erman, Henry T. ; Tuckerman, Joseph; Tuckerman, Lucius; Twom- bly, Horatio N. ; Twombly, Howard N. ; Tyler, Christopher. Underhill, George E. ; Underhill, J. F. ; Underbill, Jacob. Vail, David D. ; Van Alen, J. H.; Van Buren, Thomas B.; Vance, Samuel B. H. ; Vandenhoff, E. W. ; Vandervoort, William L. ; Van Nest, Alexander T.; Van Nostrand, David; Van Rensselaer, Alex. ; Digitized by Microsoft® 134 CLUBS OF NEW YOliK. Van Schaick, J.; Van Schoonhoven,- Ed. ; Van Wagsnen, C. D. ; Van "Wagenen. Jacob; Van Wart, Irving; Varnum, James M. ; Varnum, Joseph B., Jr. ; Vermilye, W. M. : Verplanck, P. W. ; Verplanck, Rob- ert N. ; Velmar, Frederick; Vyse, Thomas A., Jr. Wade, Elias, Jr. ; Wagner, F. C. ; Waite, C. C. ; Wakeman, Abram ; Walbridge, Hiram; Walcott, Bsimmin S. ; VValcott, Joseph C. ; Wales, Salem H,; Walgrove, E. W.; Walter, Francis T. ; Wall, Charles; Wallace, David S. ; Waller, Frank; Walraven, Ira E. ; Ward, Charles H. ; Ward, George Cabot; Ward, John; Ward, J. Langdon; Ward, J. Q. A.; Ward, S. G. ; Ward, Thomas W. ; Ward, W. K. L.; Warner, A. R. ; Warner, H. W. ; Warner, Samuel A. ; Warren, James S. ; Washburn, John S. ; Watrous, Charles; Watson, H. B. ; Watson, John H.; Watson, W. Argyle; Weaver, P. G. ; Webb William H.; Weeks, John A. ; Weld, George M. ; Weld, Francis M. ; Welling, W. K.; Wells, James H. ; Wells, N. W.; Wendell, Jacob; Wesley, E. B.; Westertield, Joseph H. ; Weston, K. W.; Weston, Theodore; Wether- ell, F. E. ; Wetmore, George C; Weymau, Charles S. ; Wheeler, D. W. C. ; Wheeler, E. D. ; Wheeloci, William A. ; Wheelwright, B. F. ; White, Ezra; White, John H. ; Whitehead, Charles E. ; Whitewright, WiUiam, Jr. ; Whitin, Henry ; Whiting, F. H. N. ; Whitman, George L.; Whittredge, W. ; Wicks, George A.; Wickes, E. A.; Wilkes, George; Willard, E. K; Williams, Charles P.; Willmarth, A. F. ; Wilson, Monmouth B. ; Winchester, Locke W. ; Winslow, James; AVinston, G. S. ; Wolfe, John David; Wood, C. B. ; Wood, Edward; Wood, Isaac F. ; Wood, Oliver E. ; Wood, W. Stanard; Woodruff, L. D. ; Worcester, H. ; Worth, Frank W. ; Wyeth, Leonard J. NON-EESIDENT MEMBERS. Adams, Union ; Alger, Charles C . ; Allen, Julian ; Almy, J. H. ; Armstrong, M. Greenville; Amoux, William H., Atkinson, George P.; Avery, Robert; Andrews, E. R. Bacon, Jnhus; Bagley, G. F. ; Ballantine, Robert G. ; Ballou, David ; Bannister, W. A. , Barnes, John S. ; Barney, Hiram ; Barney, Newcorab C. ; Barron John C. ; Bates, James T. ; Beebe, W. H. H. ; Belcher, H. W. ; Bend, George H.; Benedict, Charles; Bigelow, A. M. ; Bigelow, John; Biggs, Charles; Blake, C. F. ; Blake, F. D. ; Blatchford, Smuel M. ; Blood, Henry; Bogart, John; Bond, George; Boomer, L. B. ; Bowen, Holder Borden; Bowerman, H. A.; Boyd, D. M. ; Brown, A. H. ; Brown, Edgar F. ; Brown, Greenville R. ; Brown, J. B. ; Brown, J. Carter; Brown, James G. ; Brown, J. M. ; Digitized by Microsoft® UAIOy LEA G UE CL LfU. 1 3 5 Brown, Levi; Brown, P. H. ; Browu, Vernou H, ; Brown, W. H. ; Brown, W. M. ; Brownell, J. L. ; B'.icldugham, J. A. ; Bull, Isaac M. ; Barlock, W. E. ; Bushnell, C. S. ; Butler, George B., Jr. ; Butler; George A.; Butl-r, W. A.; Eutterworth, J. F. Cady, Howard C. ; Camp, Hugb N.; Carter, J. E. ; Case, B. L. ; Chadwick, J. H. ; Chandler, 0. P.; Chapman, H. P.; ChaiDpell, Franlc H. ; Child, Calvin G. ; Church, Benjamin S. ; Church, John B. ; Clark, Freeman ; Clark, Paris G. ; Clark, Paris G. , Jr. ; Clarke, Alex- ander S. ; Clarke, B. G. ; Cobb, G. T. ; Cook, Effingham ; Codding- ton, Cliflbrd ; Coifing. George ; Cogswell, William S. ; Coit, Joshua ; Collins, Sheldon; Colt, Koswell 0.; Gomstock, Nathaniel; Cornell, A. B. ; Corse, John M. ; Cornell, Thomas; Cowles, E. P. ; Cragin, "William B. ; Crear, John ; Croes, J. J. E. ; Cromwell, Edward ; Cropsey, J. F. ; Crowley, Richard; Crozier, H. P. ; Culyer, J. Y. ; Cummings, Spiers. Dale, T. Nelson, Jr. ; Davenport, Charles F. ; Davies, John W. ; Davis, G. F. ; Davis, John C. B. ; Davis, Noah; Davis, E. T. ; Day, A. F. ; Delano, Warren; De Peyster, J. Watts; Dic-kson, Thomas; Diggles, J. H. ; Dix, George W. ; Downing, A. C. ; Duer, C. A. ; Dunham, James E. ; Dunton, William C. ; Durfee, B. M. C. ; Dutcher, John B. ; Dutcher, Silas B. Eakin, William S. ; Fames, F. F. ; Eddy, Thomas F.; ElUs, George G. ; Ellis, J. S.; Emmett, Thomas A.; Emmett, Eichard S. ; Emmett, William J. ; Erwin, C. B. ; Esterbrook, William P. Farriugton, H. P.; Fenton, Reuben E. ; Field, Marshall; Fisher, Clark; Forbes, J. M. ; Forsyth, R. A.; Frary, J. D. ; Frieze, L. B. ; Frost, Luther W. ; Frothiugham, Samnel; FnJler, H. W. Gale, Alfred De F. ; Gardiner, Thomas, Jr. ; Gardner, 3. H. ; Gardner, J. H. , Jr. ; Gay, Joseph E. ; Gest, Erasmus : Getty, E. P. ; Getty, Samuel C. ; Gibson, William A.; Goddard, C.; Gray, Wil- liam, Jr.; Greeley, Horace; Greacen, John, Jr.; Green, Walter C.; Greenleaf, A. W. ; Gregory, David H. ; Gregory, D. S., Jr. ; Griswold, Chester; Griswold, John A. ; Griswold, J. N. A. ; Guiteau, J. M. Haff, E. P.; Haight, Edward; Haines, W. A., Jr.: Hardy, A. H. ; Harland, Edward; Hartsuff, G. L. ; Haskell, L. S. ; Hathway, John B. ; Havens, E. S. ; Hawley, Thomas E. ; Hayes, 1. I. ; Heiser, H. A., Jr.; Hill, Charles E. : Hillhouse, Thomas; Hoffman, F. S. ; Hol- brooke, J. G. ; Holdane, J. H. ; HoUinsbead, J. S. ; Homans, J. S., Jr. ; Homans, Sheppard; Hooper; E. W., Dr. ; Hoppin, Hamilton; Howe, S. H. ; Howell, T. D. ; Howland, Francis; Howland Horace; Hoyt. Digitized by Microsoft® '3^ CLUBS OF ^^EW youk. Oliver; Hubbard, W.; Hunt, E. F. ; Hunt, H. W. ; Husted, James W.; Hyatt, Stephen; Hyde, Henry S. Ingalls, Eufus. Jackson, P. W. ; Jackson, F. Wolcott; Jackson, J. P., Jr.; Jaj', J. C. ; Jewell, Marshall; Johnson, Kowland; Jones, W. E. T. ; Jordan, C. N, Kendall, Josiah F. ; Kendall, W. B. ; Kershuer, Edward; Kiddo, J. B. ; Kimball, E. J. ; King, John L. ; Knight, Austin M. ; Knight, H. G. ; Knowbs, L. J. Landon, George J. ; Lane, J. H. ; Lang, W. B. ; Lathrop, R. D. ; Lathrop, William G. ; Lawrence, Cyrus J. ; Lawrence, De Witt C. ; Lawrence, Justus; Lee, George F. ; Lee, H. T. ; Lippitt, Henry; Lockwood, Alfred; Lockwood, Fr. M. ; Lockwood, W. B. ; Loomis, Colonel J. S. ; Lord, J. T. ; Low, H. E. ; Marshall, William E. ; Mathewson, Parke; Maynard, George; Mayo, William S. ; McCarthy, D.; McComb, H. S.; McMillan, Sol. D. ; Mehaffey, G. B. ; Mellick, A. B., Jr.; Merriam, Clinton; Metcali, H. B. ; Miles, Frederick; Miller, Henry; Milliken, S. M.; Mitchell. Charles H. ; Mitchell, J. P. B. ; Moody, Horace J. ; Moore, E. B. ; Moore, John; Morri.s, Gouver- neur, Jr. ; Morse, H. J. ; Moulton, Francis B. ; Mowry, J. B. ; Mudge, E. K. ; Murray, Nicholas. Nichols, J. E. ; Niles, Nathaniel; Norris, S. B. ; Norvell, C. C. Oakey, John; Osgood, James E. ; Otis, G. K. Palmer, A. W. ; Parker, Charles; Parker, Charles E. ; Parksr, Cortlandt; Payson, Samuel E. ; Pearoe, S. H. ; P. elps, Henry B. ; Philp, Franklin; Pierce, B. W. ; Plummer, John F. ; Poor, Edward E. ; Potter, Asa P. ; Prince, L. B. ; Puleston, J. H. ; PumpelJy, J. C. ; Putnam, Charles L. Quintard, E. A. Eead, J. M.,' Jr. ; Eeed, J. H.; Eennie. Eobert; Eice, A. G. ; Eichards, Edward C. ; Eichmond, Edward; Riggs, Eli-sha; Eoberts, B. S.; Eoberts, Lewis; Eockwell, C. H. ; Eogers, Charles H. ; Eowe, Charles T. ; Eussell, Charles "W. ; Eumrill, James B. Sanford, E. S. ; Sauzade, J. S. ; Schieffelin, Sidney; Scranton, H. D. ; Scribnes-, G. H. ; Seaver, W. A. ; Senger, W. A. ; Seymour, Sam- uel E.; Shaw, A. B. ; Shn,v^, Francis G. ; Shepard, Charles A. B. ; Shepard, W. A.; Sidell, W. H. ; S:isbj', John; Simpkius, N. S., Jr.; Smith, B. E.; Smith, J. Gaul"; Smith, James B.; Smith, Walter M.; Smith, William S. ; Smythe, J. Kennedy; Snyder, Louis; Southwiok, J. C.;Slanton, George E. ; Sfeinberger, Justus; Stevens, B. F. ; Sti- astny, L. J. ; Strong, Thomas W. ; Sullivan, Nahum. Digitized by Microsoft® UiVIOS LEA a UF, CL fJD. ' 3 7 Tait, Arthur F. ; Taylor, Alexander; Taylor, Hudson; Taylor, John; Terwilliger, James; Thompson, Albert; Thompson, J. Dixwell; Thompson, J. R.; Tiffany, Kev. C. C. ; Titus, James H. ; Towar, Thomas H. ; Townsend, Peter; Torrey, Ellsworth; Tufts, Edwin 0.; Turner, N. Dana. Vail, D. Thomas; Valentine, L. ; Van Vliet, Frederick; Vermilye, W. R. ; Vose, John G. Wadsworth, C. "W. ; Wagstaff, Alfred; Walker, George; Walter, Howard; Warren, Joseph; Waters, E. F. ; Weld, Daniel; Wetmore, Theodore E.; Wheeler, George M. ; Wheeler, Oscar C. ; White, Horace; White, Samuel B. ; Whitehouse, J. 0.; Whiting. C. A.; Whitney, J. P.; Wilcox, D. C; Wild, Alfred; Wiley, F.; Wilkins, G. M. ; Williams, John S.; Williams, W. T.; Vyills, E. A.; Willse, G. C. ; Wiuslow, Norris; Wolcolt, Charles M. ; Woodford, Stewart L. ; Wright, J. Butler; Wylie, .John E. ; Wyman, J. C; Wyman, L. B. Young, Henry; Yale, John B. Zabriskie, Augustus; Zabrislde, A. O. ; Zabriskie, Lansing. Scanning this list, the reader finds, besides those noticed, a host of names eminent; from Nast, the inim- itable, who bore the Grant-Greeley campaign on his shoulders, and justly ranks as the first American carica- turist, the broadest in style — another Dore in sarcasm — to Eastman Johnson and Kensett, artists, and John Q. A. Ward, the sculptor; from Samuel Sinclnir, publisher of the Tribune, to Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood, whose priest- Hness wit'y Henry Clapp once described as that of a man " waiting' for a vacancy in the Trinity," and Kev. George Hepworth, late fledged evangelical ; from Bryant, the last translator of Homer, to Sinclair Tousey, of the American News Company. Names, some of these, to conjure with ! The following named gentlemen fiU the list of ofiicers, and, as the cliib elects yeai-ly, are enumerated simply to give a clear idea of the organization. President — William J. Hoppin. Vice-Presidents — Wihiam Cullen Bryant, George Gris- Digitized by Microsoft® 138 VLUBS OF NEW YORK. wold, William A. Booth, William T. Blodgett, Thomas B. Van Buren, Theodore Koosevelt, Alexander T. Stewart, Charles P. Kirkland, Benjamin H. Hutton, Daniel P. Appleton, Otis D. Swan, Alexander Van Rensselaer. Secretary — George H. B. Hill. Treasurer — George Cabot Ward. Executive Committee — Salem H. Wales, Henry F. Hitch, Richard Butler, Charles Denison, Adrian Iselin, Le Grand B. Cannon, Edward M. Townsend, Joseph H. Choate, Charles G. Judson, Henry L. Dyer, John H. Hall, Henry Clews, John F. Kensett, Lansing C. Moore, James C. Carter. Committee on Admissions -^N. Pendleton Hosack, Albon P. Man, Parker Handy, William H. Maxwell, Nathaniel P. Bailey, William H. Bridgman, Charles G. Landon. Committee on Publications — Benjamin Collins, Sinclair Tousey, George B. Butler, Robert Bliss, Henry Whitin, T. M. Cheesman, Jeremiah Lothrop. Library Committee — Rush C. Hawkins, David G. Francis, Henry D. Sedgwick, Joseph B. Varnum, John H. Piatt, Charles McMillan, J. M. Bundy. Committee on Art — George P. Putnam, Cyrus Butler, W. Whittredge, John Q. A. Ward, Samuel P. Avery, George A. Baker, Eastman Johnson. Auditors — George C. Majoun, Benjamin S. Walcott, Frederick H. Cossitt. The club employs over forty servants, and has an annual income from fees and dues of nearly ninety thou- sand dollars, part of which, with property on hand, con- stitutes the now rapidly increasing fund to be devoted to the erection of a new building. Digitized by Microsoft® VI. MANHATTAN CLUB. CLUB-HOUSE 96 FIFTH AVENUE. Though it did not assume corporate and permanent form until 1865, the initial steps in the formation of the Manhattan Club were taken in 1864. It had its origin in the hurly-burly of the Presidential canvass of the year last named, which resulted in the defeat of General George B. McClellan, and the re-election of Mr. Lincoln. The Hon. George H. Pendleton, candidate for the Vice- Presidency on the McClellan ticket, is a member of the association, as also are the magnates of the Democratic party, not excep)ting ex-President Andrew Johnson, as to whom, Mr. Johnson having once filled the vocation of a tailor, Washington wits have always had a habit of quot- ing the Ciceronian witticism. An oratorical tailor having- electrified his audience with a very pointed address, Cicero, in almost the only jeud'esprit attributed to him, complimented his opponant with a witty turn of the vernacular idiom, " Bern acu tetigisli," that is, the gentle- man has pricked the subject with a needle — which is equivalent to the EngUsh idiom of hitting the nail on the head. The canvass of 1864 had proved disastrous to the Democratic party; and its mag-nates conceived the idea of founding a clab which should effect a combination of the social prestige incident to the Union Club and the Union League, with the political prestige of still dominant Digitized by Microsoft® MO CLUBS 01 NEW yOKK. Tammany — a combination not effected by any existing Democratic club. The first movers in its foundation were Douglass Taylor, then Secretary of the Tammany Society; Street Commissioner George W. McLean; S. L. M. Barlow, one of the proprietors of the World ; Hon. A. Schell,, now j>resident of the club; Anthony L. Robertson, since deceased; Judge Hilton, afterwards a member of the Commission of Public Parks, and John T. Hoffman, since Governor of the State of New York, and once, in fond Tammany imagination, slated as the 1872 Democratic candidate for the Presidencj'. These gentlemen held their preliminary meetings at Delmonico's, corner of Fourteenth street and Fifth Avenue, which may, therefore, be accredited with the gestation of the soon powerful and active Manhattan Club inhabiting the palace No. 96, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifteenth street. In tact, after the organization of the association had been perfected, its meetings continued to be held at Delmonico's, and the two Delmonicos, Lorenzo and Siro, stiU appear on the list cf members. The intent was to counteract the powerful politico-social influence of the the Union League, so as to begin the next great wrestle under conditions more favorable to success. John Van Buren, celebrated as the Democratic wit of his day, whose " whistling at a funeral" as a simile for badly-articulated jubilancy went the rounds of the papers, was the first president of the club, of which the present presiding ofScer was then vice-president, and Anthony L. Robertson, second vice-president: Manton Marble was secretary, and still continues to hold that office; while W. Butler Duncan held the office of treasurer, now occupied by Andrew H. Green, late Comptroller of the Central Park under the old rtgime of 1869, before the Central Park Commission was merged into the general Digitized by Microsoft® UA y JJ . I TTA X (■ LUB. ' -', I Board of Public Works, and afterwards Comptroller of the city of New York ad interim. In the summer of 1855, the association was enabled to buy the premises at present occupied, for the sum of $110,000, though the situation is now valued at a quarter of a million; and in October of that year, the writer finds the Manhattan in occupancy of its own local habitation, and, like the Travelers', a body corporate, according to the statute, having, in fact, been incorporated under the same general act. At the beginning, as now, the domestic affairs of the association were managed by a house committee, con- sisting of Hiram Cranston, Andrew H. Gi'een, and Douglass Taylor; though the unfortunate occurrence of the winter of 1867-8, which constituted the sensation of the day, should have ended in the limitation of that body. The sensation was brought about by Manager Bateman: familiar to the public as the father of Miss Bateman, the actress, and as her manager, as well as that of Parepa, pending her first tour in this country: who, regardless of the rules of the club, appears to have taken the liberty of introducing a friend to the club-house. As a member of the house committee, Mr. Cranston refused the attend- ants permission to serve, thus putting an affront upon both Mr. Bateman and his guest, which Bateman re- sented by personal assault upon the offending member of the house committee. Hence, the sensation, not only as a physical phenomenon, but as a topic, as the journalists say. The matter occasioned a good deal of newspaper com- ment. " Evidently," remarked the Herald, rather wittily, taking up the cudgels for the offended dramatic celebrity, " evidently, to be slapped is what some faces are made for ! " But the board of governors did not condescend to Digitized by Microsoft® 1 4 2 CL UBS O F JVEW YOEIC accept the Herald's interpretation of the law in the case, and Mr. Bateman was summarily expelled, the board refusing to settle the rcatter by accepting his resignation. The rencontre was useful, however, in that it brought the question of etiquette under discussion. Perhaps, in point of courtesy, Mr. Cranston should have jiftrmitted the attendants to serve, thus omitting to humiliate an unoffending stranger, and, having notified Mr. Bateman that he infringed, should have reported him to the board. Courtesy would have suggested this method of dealing with the offence, and would have prevented not only a gratuitous insult to a stranger, but a scandalous rencontre at the rooms of the club. However, the magnates of the board seem to have regarded the matter in a different light, and expressed their opinion in the expulsion of the offender, thus supporting the managing commissioner in his theory of club etiquette. All the circumstances con- sidered, the precedent, nevertheless, is not one to be copied with justice to all parties. The annals of the association are replete with political gossip. It was in conclave held here, while the New York press was speculating as to the ultimate result of the Democratic National Convention at the new Tam- many Hall, that Seymour and Blair were first nominated, and made their first remarks accepting the nomination. It has been here that most great national questions affect- ing the Democratic party have been settled; the Man- hattan Club being the spider, so to speak, that spins the gossamer webs of policy, and manages the details of campaigns, itself silent within the mahogany doors of its splendid Fifth Aveniie den Here, too, have been in- cubated the great railroad wars of the last decade. Here Vanderbilt and Drew, both members, have met to play whist, While enacting in Wall street and the courts the Digitized by Microsoft® 3IA .y/IA TTA i\' CL UB. 1 4 3 first great railway struggle, and playing the roles of opposing generals in the great battle of tactics, which elevated, their names to the honor of very aggravating wood-cuts in the illustrated papers. In some sort, the club has always been the headquarters of the Vanderbilfc coterie, and it was from the club-rooms that the railroad king sent word to the judge who demanded his presence in court, that he was engaged for a game of whist and could not attend. In the battles that have supervened between the railroad king and the Titans, Gould and Pisk, the webs have here been woven, and here the details of critical campaigns have been mapped out ; while Vander- bilt and Jay Gould — ^for the latter is a member also — have played whist according to Baldwin's rules, and tried their hands at ecarte, before measuring tactics in battles between the Ei-ie and Central interests. James Fisk, Jr., was not a member, and appears as the only railroad lord who has not made No. 96 a lounging place. The club makes no attempt to conceal its purpose, and specifies that its objects shall be to advance Democratic principles, promote social intercourse among its mem- bers, and provide them with conveniences of a club-house. The number of resident members is limited to one thou- sand, of which over six hundred are already enrolled. That which in the Century is the board of trustees, in the Union the managing committee, and in the Travelers' the directory, is here designated as the board of governors, who hold office until relieved by tender of resignation or removed by decease. There are twenty-five governors, who control the afiairs of the club, elect or expel mem- bers, take cognizance of all infractions of the rules, and fill vacancies in their own body. Nine constitute a quorum, and are necessary to the transaction of business. The board of governors annually elect from their own Digitized by Microsoft® I ',4 CLUBS OF NEW YORK. number a president, a vice-president, a secretarj'-, and a treasurer, which officers also constitute the house com- mittee. In addition to the powers usually vested in the manag- ing body, that is, the making of by-laws, control of pro- perty, interpretation of the rules, and election of members, the board of governors can, by a two-thirds vote, assess the members of the club, individually, in a sum not exceeding fifty dollars for any calendar year; being thus invested with the power of raising thirty thousand dollars for any specific purpose deemed essential to the welfare of the association. The secretary has the custody of the constitution and by-laws, and of the corporate seal of the body, and conducts all its correspondence. The treasurer is invested only with the usual duties, and must account to the governors in all instances of outlay. Admissions are very few. No one is admitted unless he be twenty-one years of age; and none but Democrats are eligible. The rule is to exclude all Republicans and neutrals, albeit the veteran Thurlow Weed, reputed a Republican, appears on the list of membership as the solitary neutral or Republican habituk Every candidate must be proposed by two members, and his name and residence, with the names of those proposing him, must be bulletined for two weeks by the secretary, before the governors can act. Two black balls exclude; but a mem- ber of the board may, before the meeting adjourns, move a reconsideration of the vote of exclusion or admission, and members of the board are bound, under pain of re- moval, to strict secresy. Any candidate having been balloted for and excluded, is ineligible only for the term of six months, and may be renominated at the end of that period. Having been admitted, the member disburses an Digitized by Microsoft® M.ixnATr.iX CLUB. 145 admission fee of one linndred and fifty dollars, and an annual fee of fifty dollars on the first day of October. Members cannot neglect to pay dues over three months; and current indebtedness at the restaurant must be liquidated on demand. Members so neglecting are dropped from the roll, and cannot be reinstated except by vote of the governing board and the liquidation of all arrears. At the Union the superintendeut is limited to a profit of twenty-five per cent, on all articles dispensed; but at the Manhattan the board of governors is invested with the duty of fixing the rate on all articles dispensed as per carte, and the superintendent cannot deviate in the matter of substantials or extras. The restaurant of the Manhattan is the most celebrated in the city — ejjicures prefer it to Delmonico's table — and, hence, the secret of its popularity as a resort of members; for no club-house in the city is so uniformly the resort of club-men as the Manhattan. Managers assert that, as a general rule, the restaurant is unprofitable, and, in fact, seriously em- barrasses the finances of the club; and, to this general rule, if the testimony of habitues may be taken, the res- taurant of the Manhattan forms no exception. Members are required to defray all expenses of their visit before leaving the club-house — that is, no accounts are kept; but the rule is not very strictly interpreted. However, a member cannot remain in arrears for more than a week under penalty of being bulletined, in case of which the steward (under penalty of summai-y dismissal) is for- bidden to answer any order made by the posted mem- ber, who, if he neglects to pay after a posting of thirty da\s, is liable to expulsion. The regTilar meeting of the club is held on the first Thtirsday in October, and constitutes its annual reunion ; but the board of governors meets monthly for the trans- Digitized by Microsoft® 146 CLUBS Oi yEM' yOUK. action of current business, its meetings taking place at the club-hoiise, at half-past nine, P. M., on the first Friday. The order of business is invariable and as specified : 1. Reading and approval of minutes. 2. Calling of the roll of the board. 3. Reports of treasurer, secretary, standing and select committees. 4. Motions and resolutions. 5. Balloting for members. 6. Any general business falling within the jurisdiction of the board. Any member of the board who fails to put in an appearance within thirty minutes after the beginning of the session (half-past nine o'clock), is liable to a penalty of one dollar, and any member who shall afterward absent himself without leave pays one dollar to the treasurer; the fund thus created being subject to the order of the board. At these meetings no member can speak more than twice, and is limited to five minutes, and not more than once until all other members have spoken to the question in hand. The removal of employes is a part of the business of the monthly meeting, which, in its de- liberations, is governed by the rules of the State As- sembly at Albany; and any member of the board who neglects to attend for six consecutive evenings, is re- garded as having tendered his resignation. Introductions to the club-hoxise are rigorously regu- lated. Mepibers may introduce persons not members, residing within thirty miles of the City Hall, to the dining- rooms only, in accordance with the regulations of the board, that is, by entry on the visitors' bulletin; and per- sons not resident within thirty miles of the City Hall may be admitted to aU parts of the club-house. At the request Digitized by Microsoft® MAA^HATTAN CLUB. '47 of any member, however, the President of the United States, Members of the Cabine', Governors of States and Territories, members of all learned societies, and diplo- matic agents accredited to the Government of the United States, may be admitted to the club-house for the period of three months; but their admission must be passed upon by a vote of the board of governors. Members are not permitted to give gratuities to servants, nor can private dinners be ordered for parties of more than tour. The riiless of the club-house are very strict, and ad- ministered with equal strictness. Though open at all hours, members cannot be admitted between the hours of two and seven in the morning — a rule cojDied from the regulations of the Union. The steward is not required to fill any orders after one o'clock at night, and lights in the card-room are not permitted after half-pasfc two. All games, except whist (according to Baldwin's Laws of Short Whist), are prohibited, and stakes must not exceed five dollars. Smoking in the restaurant is strictly for- bidden; and members must not sleep on lounges or sofas, except on the third floor. Liquors cannot be served in the reception room, and all damages to crockery or up- holstering occasioned by any member, must be settled before leaving the house. Amounts are fixed by refer- ence to the first cost of the article, or the estimated cost of repair, if the latter is practicable. Quite apart from introduction is the matter of honorary admission to the privileges of the club-house, which can only be extended to strangers of distinction by vote of the board, and is, therefore, very seldom extended at all. Any member of the board may, however, extend the privileges of the house to a non-resident for a period of two weeks, but not to more than one at the same date, nor oftener than once in sis months. However, the club has Digitized by Microsoft® 1 48 CLUBS OF NEW YORK. occasionally entertained guests, and still occasionally euteitains. President Johnson was its guest pending his swing around the circle; General McClellan pays frequent visits and partakes of its hospitalities; the Hon. George H. Pendleton is often its lion; and the venerable ex- President, now deceased, who represents the last Demo- cratic incumbent, has been honored with dinner and dejeuner. Saying nothing at present of the illustrious living, the association has a long list of illustrious dead. The late Robert B. Minturn was a member, and one of the board of governors; so was the late Gulian C. Verplanct, who was identified with the formation and success of the Centurj'. Everybody remembers Peter Cagger, as the senior of the firm (in politics) always designated by the Herald as Cagger, Cassidy & Co., and the tragedy of his sudden death. Well, Cagger was a member, as Cassidy still is, though the affairs of the firm have been wound up. So was the great political spider, whose webs governed the Democracy of the State, the not long de- ceased Dean Richmond. Daniel Devhn, scarcely second to the latter as a Democratic manager, Washington Hunt, and Anthony L. Robertson, were also habitues ; and the late James T. Brady, the brilUant and profound, has here cracked his best jokes and concocted his most famous pleas. John Van Buren, the " Waaiba " of Democratic politics, ex-President Franklin Pierce, and ex-President James Buchanan, successor of the latter and the Bourbon of the same political regime:, have here met and hob- nobbed with the fizzing amber; and the son-in-law ol the handsome Spaniard, ancient David Dunham, who first conceived the idea of ocean transit by steam — the writer alludes to the late Reuben Withers, to whom August Belmont was indebted for his first introduction to the old Digitized by Microsoft® MANBATTAN CLUB. 145 regime — has here concocted financial webs for the next day's operations in Wall street. For the rest, its mortu- ary list consists of the names of J. H. Baldwin, Eustace Barrows, E. M. Bruce, Pierce Butler, Isaac F. Delaplaine, Charles Edwards, Sai-.uel Gilman, C. S. Hecksher, Henry Heyward, M. Hilger, SomerviUe Holmes, John Kelly, Edward Kohley, H. J. Lyon, "William McMurray, Wash- ington Murray, Warren Ncwcombe, Josiah Randall, F. F. Randoph, L. R. Ryers, Isaac Scott, Thomas Sewall, W. H. Wall, A. H. Ward, and John Wilson— a long list, indeed, for a club so young as the Manhattan. Forget not to mention, also, the whilom dramatic lion, James W. Wallack. Comparisons are invidious — odious. Still, it may well happen that some members are popularly familiar, while others are not. The world may be broadly separated into three classes — those who make no noise in it, be- cause to make a noise in the world is vulgar; those who make as little noise as they can under the circumstances, and would not make any at all if they could help it; and those who, quack doctor fashion, make all the noise they can, noise being their stock in trade. Of the first class, the club numbers many; and of the second a consider- able number, whose names are familiar in politics, law, and letters. Manton Marble and William Henry Hurlburt, both of the World, and the latter its San Domingo cor- respondent in 1870,with William C. Prime, represent jour- nalism; although the Hon. James Brooks must be re- garded as a journalist, as must the pale-faced but active Ben Wood, both of whom appear on the roll. August Belmont, S. L. M. Barlow, and Samuel J. Tilden, consti- tute a trio often mentioned together, and, in some re- spects, a sort of trinity in Democratic politics. With the assistance of Manton Marble, this trinity is popularly Digitized by Microsoft® 150 CLUBS OF NEW YOBK. supposed to edit the World. City Comptroller R. B. Con- nolly; J. J. Bradley, the owner of the Leader; Peter B. Sweeny, whom somebody aptly terms the spider of Tam- many politics; A. Oakey Hall, lately Mayor of the city; William M. Tweed, who owns the only historical diamond in this country, and John T. Hoffman, represented until 1871 the Tammany wing of the Democratic party, though both wings did, iiutil that time, act in concert. George Ticknor Curtis, the biographer of Daniel Web- ster, and Thurlow Weed, his own biographer (see the Galaxy), are the literary habituea of the club, which, in law, is represented by Judge Hilton, Samuel G. Courtney, Judge Barnard, Judge Russell, Judge Clcrke, Judge Daly, Judge Ciu'tis, Judge IngTaham, Judge Comstock, Judge Garvin, learned and eloquent O'Conor, brilliant and impulsive O'Gorman, and keen and thoughtful John E. Burrill. Lester Wallack and Joseph Jefferson are the dramatic members, and the gallant Slocum is the sole representative of military celebrity. Ex- GoTernor Horatio Seymour and ex-President Andrew Johnson appear on the roll. John J. Cisco, the banker, ex-Mayor C. Godfrey Gunther, ex-Comptroller Andrew H. Green, the jjopular Douglass Taylor. Wilson G. Hunt; the German orator, Oswald Ottendorfer; the three rail- way kings — Vanderbilt, Drew, and Jay Gould; the fiery Western Pendleton, and a dozen others, might be men- tioned, only it is not worth the while to print the whole roll in advance. Of all institutions of its kind in the city, the Manhattan Club is, with the possible exception of the nev.r-fangled though poptilar Lotos, most frequented by its members, — a fact partly referable, no doubt, to the reputation of the restaurant. Stop in front of the palace, No. 96 S'ifth Avenue, and note the current of habilues going and com- Digitized by Microsoft® MANBA TTA N CLUB^ I 5 1 ing, entering and departing, gossipping, hob-nobbing, and enacting the club habilua with all the lieartiness of a member of the Royal Beefsteak. Or if you happen to be curious, as most atoms of humanity are, puU the bronze knob at the door, and ask for somebody — no mat- ter who it may be, so long as it affords an opportunity to stay long enough to take a few random notes of celeb- rities. Vanderbilt, Drew, and Jay Gould are what are termed regulars; and as three railroad kings, who have been put to the indignity of frequent wood-cuts in the illus- trated weeklies, it is worth the trouble to give them a sitting. Fancy a gentleman of sis feet in his stockings, and neither slender nor heavy, yet erect as an Apollo, and you have Vanderbilt, probably the most magnificent example of Americanism in manhood ever quoted as its physical representative. There is the unfailing fur-bor- dered overcoat, too, which, with its owner, has been sub- jected to the penalty of one of the woi'st bronzes ever per- petrated, just because Albert De Groot has an inclination to toadyism. One's first impression of Vanderbilt is that he is a man of steel; and there is a steely glint in his grayish-blue eyes that reinforces the impression. His face is Grecian in its cutting, and as cold, impassive, and fixed as a cameo — having no equal, in this respect, with the possible exception of that of Horace B. Claflin ; and sternness, even to the climax of the imperative, marks every word and motion — crops out in the put-down of the foot, as well as in the set expression of the rather thin lips. Talks very little; walks with a firm, elastic gait, setting down his foot at every step as if he would say, " Stay there till I take you up again." Is addicted to whist, and handles the cards almost with the skill oj a professional. Digitized by Microsoft® 132 CLUBS OF XEW YORK. Daniel Drew has a great deal of the look and manner of a man of iron, or an ancient Indian sagamore, his Indian-like physiognomy serving- to carry out the illusion to perfection. Painted to the mind's eye, the old saga- more is a man of five feet ten, rather angular, slightly stoop-shouldered, and giving the impression of a gentle- man consisting of nerves and biliousness in about equal proportions — a single Titanic liver permeated with a ner- vous system. As might be suspected, his physiognomy is Roman, of the most Ca;sarian description, with the eagle-like beak that made ancient Csesar the beau ideal of an executive. The world produces few personnels of that sort in these daj's, when people have no salient an- gles, and are — morally, mentally, and physically — as round as pumpkins, and pretty nearly as deficient in in- dividuality. In the Spartan age of New Ycrk they were many. Everj'body was not an exact copy of everybody else, and people had dramatic point, piquancy, and flavor in their composition, as they have in the books of Mr. Dickens or in old comedies. Vanderbilt and Drew are relics of the Spartan age, and illustrate it fairly — the former in his grand, self-centred, semi-epic career, as a steamboat and railroad hero; the latter as one of the longest-headed and most imperturbable of speculators. A volcano might break out under the very heels of either of them, without shaking their equanimity to the extent of a jot. Mr. Drew has a walk of his own — a sort of striding gait as if he was going after something and did not intend to come back till he got it — which suggests nothing else so vividly as an Indian on the trail of game. Observe that thin, quiet, critical gentleman, lounging passively on the sofa in the sitting-room. For anything in his dress and manner he might be taken for a Meth- Digitized by Microsoft® LIANUATTAN CLUB. '53 odist clergyman excogitating a sermon on doctrinal points or meditating a revival, or a member of the press concocting the details of a sensation. His forehead is abnormally high and of the speculative cast generally as- sociated with philosophers and reformers; but as his dark hair is closely cropped, it is obvious that he is not a member of the clan. Besides, what should a reformer be doing at the Manhattan Club ? Vanderbilt nods to him — so Drew — and neither of these gentlemen would be apt to nod to a reformer. So, who is he ? To parody "Timothy Titcomb ": — What are the links, And the curious kinks, Of the gossamer train, The little man weaves in hi.s comical brain? Railroad webs of monopoly, of course. The little Method- istic-looking gentleman is Jay Gould, so long the brain of that noisy body corporate known as Prince Erie, of which James Fisk, Jr., was merely the hand. There is a remi- niscence of the spider in the man's composition. His very manner has an unpleasant suggestiveness of webs in which you may possibly get caught. Not a dangerous man, physically considered, you argue to yourself, but so secret — so like a spider in his den, concocting traps for some poor, innocent iiy of Wall street, and mumbling as it disposes the clammy filules into a web as strong as steel, — "The way into my parlor is up a winding stair. And I have many pretty things to show you when you're there." With that man to plan the campaign and Mr. Fisk to execute, you have solved the problem of Prince Erie. Gould needs a man like Eisk to attend to the rough work of campaigning — which he is too fastidious and Digitized by Microsoft® 154 CLUBS OF NE^Y TOliK. gentlemanly to soil his hands with. To take away Fisk was to rob the brain of its hands — nothin:^ more. The brain is still what it was, but, wanting hands, powerless in battle. So Jay Gould and James Fisk made a man, together; but apart, one of them can simply concoct without executing, while the other would have fulfilled the conditions of his existence by working blindly, though energetically, and somewhat at random. That dark, clerical-looking person, who has just lounged in, apparently in a fit of abstraction, is George Ticknor Curtis, the biographer of Daniel Webster, and a profound master of political and legal problems. Atten- uated by no means expresses his exceeding thinness ; and retrousse- is no term for the vicious, saucj", inquisitive, audacious upward curve of his thin Bclmont-ish nose. Man was never more quiet: man, dead and buried, and, therefore, as quiet as it is possible for humanity to be- come under the most advantageous circumstances, could not be more so. His voice, when he speaks, which is seldom, is thin and hacks a little, like that of a consump- tive. About five-feet-seven, with the limbs of an Egyp- tian, his physique suggests a molecule of humanity run wholly to brains — a suggestion which is reinforced by the height and frontal expansion of one of the most intel- lectual foreheads frequenting the Manhattan; so that, somehow, you get the impression that it must be terribly hard work for that little body of his to tug it about. However, Mr. Curtis is an orator, notwithstanding all these drawbacks, and somewhat popular on the rostrum, though too logical and exact, as well as too hard and un- sympathetic, to be effective with the masses. To hear him is like hearing a brain talk, not a man. Indeed, a sort of ganglion — a network of nerves he is, terminating in a head-centre, with no physique to speak of. Mr. Digitized by Microsoft® MA.VBATTAy CLUB. 155 Curtis stoops a little, and walks with the carefulness and precision of a man walking- on eggs, or having glass toes, and living in imminent dread of snapping some of then] off. Dresses neatly, quietly, almost clerically. Is emi- nently a gentleman in his m£innei-s, though a trifle book- ish. Suggests, in fact, a legal volume in waistcoat and pantaloons of the latest cut. Curtis naturally prefaces the banker, lover of good blood in horses, and rather ele- gant millionnaire, August Belmont; for physically there is a sort of kinship between the two men, tliough Belmont is of full habit, and limps a little in consequence of an ancient encounter in the duello. The latter has a florid complexion, too, suggestive of Old Port and high living, but is not corpulent. Of late year.'i Belmont wears Eng- lish whiskers, and makes up in the mannei of theEnglish gentleman. Imagine a man of five feet eight — ratlierless than more — with a large head, a round physiognomy, just the merest trifle joiiffiu, a slight stoop of the shoulders, and in carriage rather ungraceful th.an graceful. Imagine this gentleman with black bushy hair, just sprinkled witli gray and cropped short, a pair of keen black eyes peering, out from under heavy eyebrows, a retrousse nose, and an English complexion. Imagine this bundle of descriptive points very carefully enclosed in a suit of yellowish gray, with one button of the coat fastened over the shirt-front, and you have a walking photograph of Augiist Belmont, the senior of that Democratic trinity represented by Bel- mont, Barlov/, and Tildeu, of which Man ton Marble is informally the secreiary, and the World the political organ. Physically, the resemblance between Belmont and Curtis is curious, the latter being a sort of attenuated edition of the former. There is the same head, the same body, reinforced with good living in the one, in the other suggestive of deficiency in protoplasm; the same walk. Digitized by Microsoft® 150 CLUBS Ot NEW YOIiK. though heavier in the instnnce of the heaviei- gentleman of the two; the same phy.siog'nomy in all respects, though Belroont's face is full and that of Curtis very atteuiiated ; and, withal, there is something dogmatic in the manner of both. The hacking* voice of Curtis is, again, what Bel- mont's would be with a similar lack of vitality; and it is a wonder that nobody has suggested the latter as the dnppel ganger of his better-develo]ped confrere at the Man- hattan. Belmont affects the English aristocrat, and, hav- ing married the daughter of Commodore Perry, moves in the old Knickerbocker circle. Manton Marble drops in very seldom — is, in fact, a sort of journalistic recluse and valetudinarian, dining oc- casionally with his political friends, hut seldom appear- ing in public. There is a Fifth Avenue palace, near For- tieth street, where you may find him during business hours. You knock, and the door is jjarfcly opened by a duenna-Yika old woman, who asks you what you want, with a manner that says very distinctly that you can't get it by any connivance of hers. Here Mr. Marble, like a modern sort of Atlas, carries the daily World on his shoulders, finding it, perhaps, a greater burden than his Greek grandfather did. You can send in your card, if you like, but you will scarcely be accorded an interview un- less armed with special letters of introduction, in which contingency you may possibly get admittance to the lion's den. In manners, Mr. Marble is the quintessence of quietude; in breeding and social ideas, affects the old regivie, numbering his society friends mostly from the pld Knickerbocker stock. Take a more accessible subject for a crayon — the jovial, clever Douglass Taylor for example, to whom, with 3, f^w select spirits, the club is indebted for having existed nt 9.11, and who is one of its most inveterate frequenters. Digitized by Microsoft® MAAMATTAy CLUB. I 57 Of fnll habit, Mr. Taylor suggests the gentleman of 6ow- homie in combination with the keen, practical sagacity of the clever polirical manager. A full, round, baritone voice issues from the massive physique, with an off-hand sort of — " How are you, sir ?" A pair of grayish-blue eyes at the same in.gtant appear to wonder what you want, and to be reading you like a book. Here is the Roman physiognomy again, with plenty of executive ability, tempered with good humor, and one of the larg- est hearts in the whole circle of politics. Mr. Taylor is a man of forty-five or thereabout, and has the air of being on excellent terms with Douglass Taylor and the rest of the world. Has brown hair, cropped closely; is rather swart of complexion than rubicund, having, in fact, a Creole skin, and moves 'urith the manner of a man accus- tomed to mastery of the situation. In manners, is easv, natural, and graceful. In address, eminently frank. That tall, slender gentleman, with grayish hair, and eyes that laugh in spite of the serenity of his face, is Andrew H. Green, formeriy Compti-oUer of the Central Park, in the office of which was won his splendid repu- tation for executive ability. Quick, nervous, impetuous, and almost abrupt as is his address, his motion is as graceful as that of James Gordon Bennett, Jr., a paragon in that respect; and, withal, there is a similarity between the two men in more respects than one. Mr. Green is not an inveterate habitue, and, like Marble, only drops in occasionally when something extraordinary is on the carpet. There is nothing suggestive of the politician about him, except in the shrewdness that lurks in the corners of his eye.?, and the irou set of an exceedingly firm mouth, that warns you that the owner can be both bitter and implacable, and can bide his time for both. It IS a face rather light than heavy that surmounts the aris- Digitized by Microsoft® '5*^ CLUIiS OF NEW YOBK. tocratically-sloping shoulders, and one that in youth must have been delicately handsome. But the nose in- dicates the man ; and here you have a nasal aj^pendix of the exact pattern of that which rendered Lord Brougham's face so individual. It is a nose as executive, and more dogmatic than the Cffisarian, not retrousse, but with just an inclination to be so. Prof. Huxley carries a similar proboscis, and exhibits in his writings all the traits that accord with it ; and one may imagine that Carlyle's demi-god and hero, old Fritz, had it, too — for his career was in unison with a nose of exactly that sort. In fact, it always frequents the physiognomies of people remarkable for audacity, and for a disposition to make coups d'etat, both of which have been more than once ilkistrated in the public services of Mr. Green. For the rest, the late comptroller dresses neatly, even elegantly, emulating Mayor Hall in the faultlessness of his ensemble, and is eminently courteous in his manners, though apt to be a little brusque, which is, no doubt, occasioned by the possession of that same Brougham nose ; converses easily and fluently, and is an excellent essayist, as wit- ness his frequent appendices to the Central Park reports. If you happen to be attracted by the swinging gait of a gentleman in black, whose clothes appear to have been put on him without particular regard to fit, and who suggests a clergyman puffing a cigar, or a Mephistopheles doing the same, you may set him down for Hon. Benja- min Wood, in club parlance dubbed Cadaverous Ben ; and if this same gentleman happens to wear his " Knox " at an angle of one hundred and twenty with the spinal column, 'ih.e'n you may be positive that you have had a glimpse of the great anti-war editor and pohtician, whose name in 1864 was synonymous with copperhead. Pallid, ghastly pallid, pallid as that of a man who, by accident. Digitized by Microsoft® MA XHA TTA X UL UB. I 5 9 Las eluded burial — this is one's first impression of the Deniooratic ex-leader, to whose opposition may be traced the defeat of McClellan in the State of New York. But bolder and more individual physiognomy never topped shoulders everlastingly covered with clerical black. The man moves as if propelled by steam, or a galvanic bat- tery, cunningly inserted somewhere inside of him, and sending simultaneous waves to everj' muscle in his an- gular body. Momentarily, one expects to see him shake his hat off, or loosen some part of his jDhysique and drop it as he walks, swinging his long bony arms with a get- out-of-the-way sort of gesticulation that suggests the propriety of yielding their owner the whole walk if ne- cessary. His phsiognomy is original, not to say aborig- inal. In fact, not so swarthy in comp>lexion, it ia as ludian-hke as that of Drew, and rather more so. There is the same tendency to what engineers term triangula- tion, running through the whole ensemble, and regulating it at all points. Somebody has said that a man's nose is a commentary on the whole of him taken together. Granted this apothegm, and one may solve the riddle of Mr. Wood's career as a journalist and politici n. A cross between the Caesarian and the Brougham proboscis, the owner has something of the audacity and dash of the latter, with something of the cautiousness and im- passive firmness of the former. From the latter he gets his fondness for taking risks ; from the former his im- perturbability in playing, which renders him a rather doughty antagonist, either at the tabic or in the game of politics. In manners and conversation, a strange com- mingling of abruptness and impassiveness ; in physical make-up, suggesting nothing else so vividlj' as a cadaver, walking, talking, and gesticulating by means of a gal- vanic battery inside of it; a bloodless creation, without Digitized by Microsoft® l6o CLUBS 01< :iJiW YORK. an atom of living, sympathetic humanity in its whole composition, such seems Ben Wood. A. Oakey Hall, known in club circles as elegant Oakey, is a personage of another sort. There is a soupfon of the traditional Brother Jonathan in his personnel. In a Lord, he looks the Yankee having passed through what the Germans call the j^rocess of elegantirung, for which English has no word and American no coinage. Dress- ing elegantly — rather stylishly, in fact — graceful in mo- sion, with a stylish physique, he is the very beau ideal of a club-man, and, to employ an adjective common in J oudon, has an eminently clubbable disposition. An orator of s^ome merit, if Mr. Hall has one besetting sin, it is the endless repetition of ex un disce omnes and other Latin phrases, in which respect his only rival is the pe- dantic John A. Dix. For the rest, it is not often one meets the stern, fate- tike face of Hoffman, or the broad, good-humored and foxy, yet powerful phiz and physique of William M. Tweed, at the Manhattan. Members they are; but Hoffman is not clubbable, and Tweed, who has waxed surly of late, frequents the Blossom in the Winter, camp- ing out with the Americuses during the Summer season. The membership is a trifle over six hundred; the in- come from annuals over thirty thousand dollars a year. The servants at the club-house, ushers, and the like, wear livery, in the blue dress suit with gilded biittons ; but the supei-intendent is exempt from the uniform. Forty servants are employed. The reading-room is bountifully supplied with leading political publications current, and the library with plentiful tomes of refer- ence. The rooms are hung with engravings, and por- traits of deceased members are procured when procur- able. For the rest, political celebrities, by the dozen or Digitized by Microsoft® MA .VITA T TA y OL VB. 1 6 I hundred, look down from the walls on the weaving of political webs by their successors in business; and, on any evening of the week, one may here meet any number of famous political spiders. LIST OP MEMBERS. Ab'oott, Josiah G. ; Adams, D. W. ; Adams, AVilliam H. ; Agnew, John T.; Alker, Henry; Allen, Daniel B. ; Allen, Franklin; Allen, Henry W. ; Allen, William B. ; AUen, William F. ; Alstyne, John ; Anderson, John; Andrews, Constant A.; Arkenburgh, Eobert H.; Armstrong, C. W. ; Arnot, Stephen T. ; Ashley, L. Seymour; Atkin- son, Richard; Austin, William; Averell, William J.; Averell, H. W. Babeock, D. M. ; Baby, Francis '&.; Baker, Frank; Baldwin, C. C; Banks, Edward M. ; Bancroft, E. W.; Banker, James H. ; Bangs, N. D. ; Barbour, Alex-.mdtr D. ; Bai-ney, D. N. ; Barnard, George G.; Bartlett, J. J.; Barbour, John M. ; Barlow, S. L. M. ; Barger, Samuel F. ; Barboar, Thomas; Barnum, William H.; Bar- rett, William C. ; Baxter, A. J. ; Baxter, H. H. ; Bayard, James A. ; Becker, Henry; B 11, Seneca M. ; Belmont, August; Benrimo, Bar- row; Bornheimer, Isaac; Berret, James G. ; Biederman, E. H. ; Bishop, E. F. ; Bissell, George H.; Bissenger, Philip; Bishop, Wil- liam D. ; Black, William H. ; Bliss, William E. ; Boardman, Samuel; Eoese, Thomas; Bond, Thomas H. ; Boomer, L. B. ; Bostwick, H. A. ; Boyle, Edward; Boyle, John P. ; Bradford, S. Dexter; Brady, John E. ; Bradley, John J.; Brandon, Edward; Brengijr, M. D. ; Brougham, John; Brooks. James; Bryan, John; Bryce, T. Tileston; Bryce, James; Buckley, Thomas G. T. ; Bullock, James B.; Burnham, Gordon W.; Burrill, John E.; Bush, M. P.; Butler, William A.; Butts, Isaac. Caldwell, W. Shakespeare; Cameron, Eoderick W. ; Cammack, Addison; Carnocban, John M.; Carr, Lewis; Carver, B. F. ; Cas- sidj', William; Case, Rufus D. ; Casserley, Bernard; Chamberlain, D. Drew; Chamberlain, I.; Chandler, Henry E. ; Charlick, Oliver; Church, Gaylord; Church, Walter S. ; Cisco, John J.; Clapp, N. D. ; Clai-k, Horace F. ; Clark, George C. ; Clason, Augustus W. ; Clem- ents, Nelson; Gierke, Thomas W. ; Gierke, William B. ; Clinton, Henry L. ; Cobb, Daniel; Cockrolt, Jacob H. V. ; Coggeshall, H. G. ; Coit, E. W.; Coleman, William T.; Colvill, Alfred; Comstock, George F.; Connolly, Charles M. ; Connolly, Eiohaid B. ; Cooper, Digitized by Microsoft® 1 62 CLUBS OF iv£yy youk. Edward; Cooper, Henry "VV. ; Cooper, Joseph M. ; Cooper, Wil- liam B., Jr.; Corlier;, Edward L. ; Corlies, Joseph W.; Corning, Edward W.; Corning, Erastus, Jr.; Cottsrill, J". P. C. ; Courtney, Samuel G. ; Couves, G. W. ; Cox, John W. ; Cox, Samuel S. ; Craig, James B. ; Cranston, Hiram; Crawford, David; Creamer, Thomas J. ; Cummings, C. P.; Curtis, George Ticknor; Curtis, George M. ; Curtis, William E. ; Cutting Eobert L., Jr.; Cuyler, Richard M. Bailey, William J. F. ; Baly, Charles P.; Darling, Alfred B. ; Davies, Henry E., Jr.; Da vies, John M. ; Davis, JohnG. ; Davis, J. Whyte; Davis, Samuel M. ; Day, Henry; Day, Thomas D. ; Deas, Zachariah C. ; De Bary, Frederick; Decker, N. H. ; De Forest, WiUiam J.; Delmonico, Lorenzo; Delmonico, Siro; De Visser, Simon; Devlin, Jeremiah, De Wolf, Delos; Donnelly, Edward C. ; Doolittle, J. K. Jr. ; Drew, Daniel ; Duncan, Henry P. ; Duncan, Samuel P.; Duncan, Stephen, Jr.; Duncan, W. Butler; Durand, Harvey ; Durant, Thomas C. ; Durf ee, Philo ; Duryee, Abram ; Dzondi, Euzene. Earnshaw, John W. S. ; Earle, James; Edgerton, Lycurgus; Eld- ridge, Titus B. ; Elsberg, Louis; Ely, Smith, Jr.; Eudicott, George M. ; Evans, Thomas Coke. Fachiri, P. A. ; Fachiri, Theodore; Fairchild, Sidney T. ; Fancher, Smith; Fargo, William G. ; Fellows, Richard C. ; Fellows James W. ; Ferguson, Yates; Ferry, Theodore S. ; Field, Edward G. ; Fielding, M. B. ; Fillmore, Millard; Fischer, Frederick; Fisher, Thomas E. ; Fisher, James K. ; Fizinnia, T. , Flint, Thompson J. S. ; Florence, William; Flournoy, Lafayette M. ; Forrest, George J.; Foster, Henry A. ; Foster, WiUiam ; Fox, John ; Freeman, David V. ; Free- man, Henry O. ; FuUer, George W. Gallatin, J'omes; Galway, William T.; Gardner, Henry J.; Gard- ner, James, Gardner, John R. ; Garland, John R. ; Garner, James G. ; Garrison, Cornelius K. ; Garrison, William E. ; Garr, George; Gar- vin, Samuel B. ; Gemmell, Thomas; George, John W. ; Gibson, David; Gilbert Clinton; Gimbernat, Jules R. ; Glover, Robert O.; Goepp, Max.; Goodridge, Frederick; Goodyear, George G. ; Gor- don, William J.; Gould, Jay; Graefle, D. H..; Graham, W. Irving; Grant, D. B. ; Grant, W. L. ; Green, Andrew H. ; Green, Noi-vin; Greene, Martin E.; Greene, JohnW. ; Greenfield, Thompson; Greer, George B. ; Grinnell, Henry; Gunther, C. Godfrey; Gunther, Fras. Frederick; Gurnee, Walter S. ; Garteen, S. Humphreys. Haiftht, Edward; Haldaman, E. J.; Hallet, Eobert W. ; Hall, Digitized by Microsoft® MANHATTAN CLUB. 163 Charles B.; Hall, George C; Hall, O. E. ; Hall, A. Oakey; Halsey, George A.; Hamilton, William H. ; Hammond, William A.; Handy, Truman P.; Harbeck, William H.; Hard, Samuel B. ; Harney, Charles H. ; Harned, Samuel W. ; Harris, Townsend; Hart, Benja- min; Hart, Emanuel B. ; Hardenbm-gh, John A.; Harrier, Calixte, Harvey, A. H. ; Hatch, Rufus; Hayden, J., Jr., Henneu, William D.; Henry, Henry S. ; Herbert, George F. ; Herrick, Edwin; Hewitt, Abram S. ; Hildreth, David M.; Hilton, Henry, Hoffman, John T.; Holberg, Ernest AV. ; Howell, D. G, ; Howes, Keuben W. ; Hoy, James: Hoy, Joseph; Hoy, Robert T.; Hoy, V/illiam E. ; Hughes, David M. ; Hull, Joseph J. ; Hunt, Wilson G. ; Hunter, John; Hurlburt, William H. ; Hutchings, Robert C. ; Hyman, Robert W. ; Ingraham, Daniel P. Jackson, Eugene J.; Jackson, George R. ; James, Frederick P.; Jarvis, Algernon S. ; Jarvis, Nathaniel, Jr. ; Jarvis, R. W. H. ; Jeffer- son, Joseph; Johnson, Andrew; Johnson, H. A. ; Jones, Charles C, Jr. ; Jones, David ; Jones, Samuel ; Justh, Emil. Kaufman, Samuel; Kelly, Eugene; Kelly, William; Kendall, Daniel B. ; Kerner, Charles H. ; Kernochan, James P. ; Kidd, George M. ; Kidd, James; Kilbreth, James T. ; Kingsland, A. C. ; King, David James; King, R. W. ; Kirtland, E. S. ; Knap, Charles; Knowlton, George W. ; Knowlson, James S. ; Kohn, Adolph; Kuchler, George J. Lafitte, John B. ; Laing, Alvah E. ; Lamontagne, Edward; Lamont, Charles A.; Lambard, Charles A.; Lane, Frederick A.; Lane, William G. ; Lathrop, F. S. ; Lathrop, George A. ; Lathers, Richard, Law, George; Laws, S. S. ; Lawrence, A. R., Jr.; Lawrence, William E. ; Lawrence, Wm. Beach ; Lee, William P. ; Leonard, William H. ; Leverich, Charles P. ; Levin, Martin H. ; Lewis, Samuel A. ; Loew, Charlss E. ; Loring, W. W. ; Lovegrove, Arthur; Ludlow, William H. ; Ludington, James. Macdonough, A. R. ; Macy, Charles A., Jr.; Mackie, Robert; Macawley, John L. ; Magee, Duncan S. ; Magee, George J. ; Manley, Reuben; Marldey, A. W.; Marston, W. H. ; Martin^ M. E. ; Martin, Mathias, L. B.; Martinez, Juan; Marbte, Manton; Marsh, John A.; Marshall, John R. ; Marshall, Jesse A. ; Marshall, Samuel S. ; Mat- thews, James; McCormick, Cyrus H. ; McCredy, Dennis A.; McClelland, John; McGinnis. John, Jr.; McKeon, John; McKinley, Andrew, McLean, George W.; McLean, James M. ; McLane, Louis; McLaue, Robert M. ; McMahon, Martin T. ; Meade, Edwin E. ; Digitized by Microsoft® l64 CLUBS OF NEW YOiiK. Meliss, David M.: Merrill, Ayres P., Jr.; Mills, Joseph G.; Miller, Edmund H. ; Miller. Moriis S. ; Minturn, Kobert B. ; Mitchell, Alexander; MitchsU, James L. ; Mitchell, Moses; Mollcr, William; Moncrief, James; Monell, Claudius L. ; Monheimer; A.; Monson, Marceua, Jr.; Montague, D. P. ; Morgan, David P.; Morgan, Ed- ward T. ; Morris, John A.; Morris, Francis; Morris, Stepnen; Morton, Thomas; Moss, Theodore; Mott, Jordan L. ; Mott, James; Mowry, Sylvester; MuUauy, John E. ; Mui-phy, D. P.; Musgrave, Thomas C. ; Myers, Julien L. Nathan, Frederick ; 3Sf evin, Kobert Johnston ; Newmark, M. J. ; Newton, Benjamin; Nichols, LeRoy; Nixon, James O. ; Nugent, John. Oakman, John; O'Conor. Charles; O'Donohue, Joseph J.; OpI- richs, Henry; Ogdeu, William B. ; O'Gorman, Richard; Oliver, William V7. G. ; O'Sullivan, J. P. ; Osborne, Charles J. ; Ottendorfer, Oswald; Owens, Robert L. Page, J. Augustus ; Palmer, Henry D. ; Paucoast, Richard ; Park, Joseph, Jr.; Parks, William M. ; Parker, Joel; Past, Edwin; Pat- chin, F. D. ; Patterson, James A. ; Pecham, Wheeler H. ; Pendleton, George H. ; Perier, Alphonse; Pettes, William E. ; Phillips, Heruy M. ; Pierrepont, Edwards; Piercs, Franklin; Pitzipio, George D. ; Piatt, Frank; Pond, Loyal S. ; Ponvert, Elias; Porter, H. H. ; Porter, Mortimer; Post, Edwin; Potter, Orlando B. ; Pritie George G. ; Prime, William C. ; Provost, Alexander; Purser, George H. ; Purdy, John P. Quintard, George W. Eader, Louis B. ; Rader, Max; Ramsay, Charles G. ; Randall, Robert E. ; Rapallo, Charles A. ; Raphael, B. L ; Raymond, C. Mon- son; Ra^molds, John; Redmond, William; Reid, William J.; Eenshaw, James M. ; Repplier, J. George; Rhodes, Fraiili;; Rich- mond, Henry A. ; Riggs, Laurason; Eiston, John A. ; Ritch, John W. ; Roberts, John J.; Robinson, James P.; Rodewald, Henry; Roelof- son, William F. ; Rogers, John L. , Jr. ; Rogers, Jacob S. ; Rogeis, Michael W. ; Roome, Charles ; Root, Russell C. ; Eo;s, Elmore P. ; Eoy, James; Eussel. Abram D. Sanford, Henry ; Sanford, Milton H. ; Sargeant, Winthrop ; Sche- peler, John D. ; Schanck, Daniel f^. ; Schaek, 0. W. C. ; Schell, Augustus; Schell, Edward; Schell, Richard; ScheU, Piobert; Schra- der, Theodore L. ; Scott, John H. ; Scott, William L. ; Searles, James L.; Seaver, William A.; Selover, A. A.; Sewell, Ajrthur L. ; Digitized by Microsoft® MAX/rATTAX CLUB. 1^5 Scyraour, Horatio; Sberman, 'WiUiam Watts; Simonson, George M. ; Simpaoji, M. M. ; Simpson, Thomas M. ; Slimmon, Robert; Sloane, C. S. ; Slociim, William H. ; Smith, Angus; Smith, Benjaunin G., Jr.; Smith. Hugh; Smith, H^nry N. ; Smith, James; Smith, Mun-ay F. ; Smith, Nelson; Smith, Perry C. ; Smith, Samuel B. ; Smith, William Gordon; Solomon, Ezekiel; Spaulding, Mon-ell B. ; Spsir, Gilbert M. ; Spence, James C. ; Spencer, James C. ; Speyer, George M. ; Sprague, Cortland A.; Squire, Alfrerl L.; Squire, Fi-ank; Stager, Auson; Stark, Benjamin; Stebbins, Honry G. ; Steinberger, Albert; Stem, Simon; Stovens, F. S. ; Stevenson, J. W. ; Stevenson, J?. S. ; Stewart, Alexander!.; Stimson, H. C. ; St. John, Daniel B. ; Stokes, Henry; Stokes, James; Stockton, John P.; Stoughtoj, E. W. ; Strong, William L.. ; Stryker, John; Stuart, William; Sturtevant, Dwight; Sumner, A. A. ; Sutton, William M. ; Sutherland, John McC. ; Sweaney, Peter B.; Sybrandt, J. T>. Tag, Charles P.: Tasker, Thomas T., Jr.; Taylor, Douglass Taylor, Richard; Taylor, William H. ; Tiflany, Georg.i; Tift'my, Henry; Tilford, Richard C. ; Tilden, Henry A.; Tilden, Samuel J, Thayer, James S. ; Thieimaun, Henry; Thorburn, C. E. ; Thomas, John; Thompson, J. P. C. ; Throckmorton, A.; Throop, M. H. Tobin, John M. ; Todd, Charles; Toel, William; TowJe, Hamil ton E. ; To\vnsend, Dwight; Townseud, E. L. ; Tracy, Albert H. Tracy, E. W. ; Tracy, John; Tracy, John, Jr.; Tracy, John F. Travers, William R. ; Tucker, Gideon J.; Turnbull, William; Tur- nure, Laurence; Tweed, William M. Van. Antwerp, J. H. ; Van Benthuysen, F. ; Van Brunt, Charles H. ; Van Buren, John D. ; Vandoibilt, Cornelius; Vanderbilt,WilliamH. ; Vanderpoel, A. J.; Vansehaick, Jenkins; Verhuven, Henry F.; Ver- planck, Guliau C; Viokers. John M. ; Volckmanu, Henry; Voorhies, B. r. Voorhees, Jacob ; Vul te, Frederick L. Wade, James H.; Wallace, F. B. ; Wallack, J. Lester; Wallack, James W.; Walsh, Ohcrles; Ward, Elijah; Ward, John E. ; Ward, Samuel; Waterbury, N. J.; Wat^.on, John; Watson, AVilliam; Web- ster, Sidney; Weed, Smith M. ; Weed, Thurlow; Weilly. G. W. ; Wenman, James F. ; Wesley, Edward B. ; Westray, Fletcher; Wheatley, William; Wheeler, Nathaniel; White, Frederick; Wilcox, E. A.; Williams, A. Denison; William.s, William S. ; Williams, WilUam; Williamson, D. B. ; Wilson, Edward J.; Wilmerding, George G. ; Wilmerding, Theodore F. ; Wolfe, Joel; Wolfe, Udolpho; Wood, Benjamin; Wood, WUmer S.; Woodville, WiUiam; Wood- Digitized by Microsoft® i66 CLUBS OF NEW YORK. ward, James P. ; Woodward, E. T. ; Woodward, William, Jr. ; Wood- ruff, B. L. ; Wook, Frank; Wook, John C. ; Wooley, C. W. ; Worth- ington, W. N. ; Wiight, Isaac >!. ; Wright, William W. The club is officered thus: — President, Augustus Schell; "Vice-President, Samuel L. M. Barlow; Treasurer, Andrew H. Gi'eeu (uice William Butler Duncan) ; Secre- tary, Manton Marble. Board of Governors, William F. Allen, S. L. M. Barlow, August Belmont, John R. Brady, Horace P. Clark, Edward Cooper, A. Oakey Hall {vice Edward L. Corlies), Hiram Cranston, George Ticknor Curtis, William Butler Duncan, Andrew H. Green, Wil- liam Henry HurlLurt, John T. Hoffman, Manton Marble, Bernard Casserly {vice Marcena Monson, Jr.), Smith Ely, Jr. {vice Eobert B. Minturn, deceased), George W. McLean, Charles O'Conor, William C. Prime, Augustus Schell, Horatio Seymour, Douglass Taylor, Samuel J. Tilden, and John T. Agnew {vice Gulian C. Verplanck, deceased). Members of the board of governors, as previously hinted, hold office until decease or resignation, but elect officers annually — a system which differentiates the Manhattan from the general method of clubs, and ren- ders it, to that extent, a unique example of the social communism it represents in common with others. In a word, the organization is ruled with an eye, on the part of its magnates, to a sort of democratic absolutism. Digitized by Microsoft® VII. AMERICAN JOCKEY CLUB. CLUB-eOUSE AT FORDHAM. Jerome Park, Fordham, whence dates the formation of the American Jockey Club, was excogitated in the brain of Leonard W. Jerome, Avhose career in financial his- tory has an odor of the romantic about it, and who thus perpetuates his name as having been the first to surround the American Turf with the eclat and glory of the Derby. The idea had been propounded, talked over, discussed, previously and by various parties; but nobody appeared to comprehend exactly how the redemption of the turf was to brought about, until Mr. Jerome announced the project of founding Jerome Park. Henry J. Raymond, Jerome's personal friend and crony, approved; Lester Wallack, the Beau Brummell of the drama, was de- lighted; and, having elucidated his plans to these gentle- men, the projector began to moot the redemption of the turf in Wall-street circles, and with flattering snccess. Belmont fell in with Mr. Jerome's views, and John B. Irving, the first secretary of the club, who qiiotes Latin with the fatal facihty of General John A. Dix or Oakey Hall, was enthusiastic, and ejaculated in splendid Ovidian- phrase, " Quis non invenit tiirba, quod amaret in ilia" — which, wrested from its original amorous significance, may be supposed to mean, " Who in this Wall-street world could fail to find. In crowd so varied partner to bis mind ?" Digitized by Microsoft® i6S CLUBS OF NEW YORK. The American turf was just then in the condition ex- pressed by Professor Lowell in the term Sans-calotte-ism. The palmy days of the light fantastic hoof, when men of the North like Stevens, Livingston, and Stockton, met kin- dred spirits like Colonel William R. Johnson, 0. P. Hare, and others from the South, had long since passed: and the light fantastic hoof had become measurably associated with the light fantastic finger. From its inception, that is, from the day this excogitated Minerva of turf reform left the excogitating cranium of its especial Jove, the idea constituted the topic of gossip in racing circles; and though those who predicted a coming out at the little end of the horn, as the proverb hath it, were not few, the popular impression v.'as very generally favorable. The gestation of any public work is a matter of tedious and discouraging degrees; and the work in hand proved no exception to the rule. First, it was talked up; sec- ondly, it .vas written up; and this talking up and writ- ing up occuijied a period of several months, during which the press teemed with paragraphs dwelling upon the excellent philanthropy of the project for redeeming the turf, and its practical results on popular morals. Then, having been hoisted to the topmost wave of popularity, the idea was embodied in the organization of the Amer- ican Jockey Club, and the preparation of Jerome Park for its reception; and the note was sounded for the in- augural meeting. August Belmont was active from the first in the furtherance of the jjroject, and has since con- tinued to be president of the body. E.. A. Alexander, J.W. Weldon, M. H. Sanford, D. McDauiels, S. J. Carter, James S. Watson, F. JVIorris, R. W. Cameron, R. Ains- ley, J. W. Pennock, Dr. Kii-wan, D. Read}', J. F. Stone, Paul Wood, and T. B. Read— old turfmen all — were also concerned in the first meeting. A constitution was Digitized by Microsoft® AMJCRWAN JOCKEY CLUB. 1 69 adopted, with rtiles governing the club, and work was begun. The laj'ing out of the race-course, the erection of paddocks and stables, the preparation of n. club-house, which was afterwards abandoned for a larger building — in a word, the details of practical organization were scarcely comjDleted, when the first race day, September 25, 1866, dawned, and the club, like Css sar, stood on the very margin of its Kubicon. However, a competent corps had been gotten in work- ing order. August Belmont was presiding steward of the occasion; W. Butler Duncan, J. F. Purdy, Paul S. Forbes, A. Keene Eichardp, and E. Boudinot Colt, assist- ing as stewards in gen.ei-al. W. Butler Duncan, John F. Purdj', and Benjamin Bruce were named as judges to oc- cupy the little gilded pagoda facing the main stand; G. A. Hopper and R. B. Chisholm were distance judges; David Dunham Withers, of Louisiana, aud Henry Toler, were the timers; John B. Irving enacted the role of handicapper; J. F. Purdy was starter; C. Wheatley was clerk of the course; and John B. Irving kept the min- utes. One may suppose that they all felt like quoting the pet Shakespearean couplet of turfmen: "Think, when ye talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth" — For, though they were enthusiastic, they trembled: the day having come for the solution of the question, whether the fashion and ion of the city could be induced to visit a race-course, aud the horses about to print their proud hoofs in the receiving earth, being not at all imaginary horses, like those in the brain of the bard, but real pro- toplasmic creatures, of sleekest mould and manner. The first day ot the meeting, which was continued for the first three days in October, was, however, a brilliant success, and Jerome Park became the fashion. Digitized by Microsoft® 17° CLUBS OF SEW YOBK. It was a splendid September morning. Fifth Avenue and fashion were strewn all along the road from New York to Fordham. Belmont's turnout, with four mag- nificent horses, ridden b_y postilions in livery, and Je- rome's English drag, jDulled by six horses, himself han- dling the ribbons, led the longest, most irregular, and motley procession that ever left New York for a day's excursion. Canter, and prance, and trot — clouds of dust enveloping clouds of people — and, presently, this band of doughty crusaders entered the special Jerusalem of their destination; some a little the worse for dust, and some a little the worse for frequent moistening on the road; but all rose-pink with anticipation, and some rose- pink with Bourbon and Burgundy. Never was equal crowd gathered at a race-course in this country. Old turfmen admitted that; not excepting even the whirling, swirling, oceanic crowd gathered at the Union Course on the day when Eclipse and Henry had their run, neck and neck. Jenkins talked learnedly about Derby days, in which his experience had been slight indeed; and classicists raved of the advent of another Deucalion con- verting all the pebbles of a county into men. Dense, dense, and denser waxed the crowd. There were whole acres of vehicles packed like pave-stones, and almost acres of heads packed, no doubt, with ideas or anticipations. Even the trees surrounding the park bore fruit of humanity in heavy clusters; but, as there was no statute against climbing trees, there was no way to prevent this stealing of a view of what was going on within the precincts of the club ground. Kentucky was the star of the day, and what a clamor of pool-selling there was : Kentucky against the field, and the field against Kentucky. It was a race of four-mile heats, best in three, Kentucky carrying twenty pounds Digitized by Microsoft® AMEBIC A X JOCKE Y CL UB. 1 7 ' or SO, and ridden by that Gilpin of jockeys, Littlefield, whom Jenkins, the next day, compared to Phaeton, or some other daring but defunct Olympian. A bugle blast, and off they start — Kentucky, with twenty pounds, reinforced by Mazeppa Littlefield on his back, and the rest of them; ai;d round thej' shoot, almost in a circle — rieetwing, and Onward, and Idlewild, straining after the will-o'-the-wisp of the turf like three butterflies trying to outrim a jack-o'-lantern. They did, swimming through the September sunshine, veritably suggest the hexam- eter, which just then and to the- point was buzzed about as the happy hit of'the Secretary, ' ' Florum putares nare per liquidum setbera"' — For, like the old satirist's butterflies, swim they did in the liquid air, and shimmer in the liquid sunshine, which, that noon, beat down fierce and dense enough to have been bottled. Of course, the victory was won by Ken- tucky, and fashion clapped her dainty hands and was satisfied. The day had been a success — the three October days were equally successful — and the American Jockey Club had won its spurs; not a little of the honor being due to the gentlemanly Theodore Moss, of Wallack's theatre, as a sort of master of ceremonies. Equally successful were the June races of 1867, and equally so the Fall races of the same year. During the winter, occasion was taken to perfect the accommodations of the club, and a club-house in graceful Italian was put up on an eminence well overlooking the course. Since then, the history of the Jockey Club has been simi^ly a history of races, varied with an occasional incident; and American racing has been reduced to civilization. But, by way of giving the reader an insight into the Digitized by Microsoft® '72 CL UBS OF JS'E W TO T7K. workings of a club devoted to horsehood, let me briefly review the origin and progress of racing and of the race- horse. A Semitic wave of civilization rolls over that little tongue of the European Continent, that laps the waters of the Mediterranean, to wit, the Grecian peninsula — nobody can tell when. Recedes or is driven ahead — nobody can tell whither — and leaves an alphabet and a body of strango, terrible myths, which the Hellenes after- wards transmogrify, soften, belittle in Greek mythology; declaring with proverbial Hellenic egotism, that it belongs to them. Full of horses and heroes it was; and there was one peculiar stallion in it designated as Pegasos, which had the hapjDy faculty of flying and running at the self-same minute. This the Hellenes deify, by way of indicating that the ideal horse will very likely have wings. There rolls over that same little peninsula a Pelasgian wave, and the land swarms with monuments in conse- quence. There also occurs a Trojan war, in which Homer celebrates the wrath of one gentleman and the steed- breaking qualities of another — the gallant Hector. In those days they fought, not on horseback, but in what moderns would call gilded and exceedingly unwieldy carts. Diomed and Ulysses are the only gentlemen who ride. For the rest, they are carried to battle in two- wheeled cars, gilded, gorgeously trapped, but sadly de- ficient in springs, and answering, according to the record, the double purpose of locomotive fortresses, whence men fought living, and of ambulances in which men were car- ried home dead. It is not, in fact, until the thirtj' -third Olympiad that riding-racing becomes a part of the Olympic games, though breezes in harness occur as early as the twenty- Digitized by Microsoft® AMEMICAN JOCKEY CLUB. I 73 fifth Olj^mpiad. What were the names of the Eclipses, jMambrinos, and Dexters, of the Kentuckys, Teiinessees, and Aldebarans of the primitive turf, tradition saith not; but names they had, doubtless — for history records that of the famous stallion ridden by that ancient Napoleon — Alexander of Macedon; also, that of the mythical racer dedicated to poets. From the Olympic games dates, therefore, horse-racing as a sport, and, very likely, betting on results — for, as a race, the old Greeks were natural gamblers, and gambled for fame, power, or political supremacy, with equal fa- cility. In the same way, the Trojan war may be said to have developed European equestrianism. Rapid proficiency they made, too, pending that long struggle, which was at last settled by the stratagem of a wooden horse intes- tinal with humanity in panoply of war; for, whereas, at the beginning, nobody rode but Ulysses and Diomed, in the fifteenth book of the " Iliad " one man rides four horses. ' ' Safe in his art, as side by side they run, He shifts his seat and vaults from one to one; And now to this and now to that he flies; Admiring numbers follow with their eyes." Thus Pope murders Homer in description, leaving the trot of the grand old master's hexameter to be imagined from the pace of his own two-footed iambics, which neither race, canter, nor trot, but simply walk with the regularity of so. many foot-soldiers. The Eomans repeat the story of Greece in this respect, but take their appreciation of the horse, which afterwards develops into the equestrian order, from their Parthian foes. Still, as a people, the Romans were never addicted Digitized by Microsoft® 174 CLUBS OF NEW YOJiK. to horses. As a race, in everything they did they always went a-foot. The brilliant, the spirited, were alien to the plodding, methodical Roman mind — equally alien to the rhythm of the Latin language. Homer's hexameters run mad with the trample of steeds, having all the thrill of the Saracen's fire-shod stallion. Now and then, his verses race, canter with the thunderful music of the hoof-beat. Not so those of Virgil, the representative of Roman epic. Hexameters, with plentiful dancing dactyls, they are; but they always walk — stalk wth great dignity, it may be, but never canter with spirit. As comijared with Homer's, they are like Longfellow's or Sir Philip Sid- ney's hexameters in comparison with the splendid dac- tylic and spondaic trample of Swinburne's " Hesperia" — the only real bit of Homeric hexameter the Enghsh lan- guage has yet produced. Listen just here: — "Out of the golden, remote, wild west, where the sea without shore is, Full of the sunset, and sad if at all with the fulness of joy." Or, again, and more to the purpose: — " By the low sea-wall and the margin of years. Sudden and steady as eight hoofs trample and thunder. " Tou hear the very thud and music of the hoofs that cleave night asunder, in the passage quoted. You see the very steeds of the poet as, through the night, they shoot Hesperia-ward. There is a vivid, actual, hexam- eter canter in the very motion of the syllables (just as if they were so many hoofs of so many living horses), which no heroic stalk of iambics could possibly translate effect- ively. Ancient European equestrianism began thus. A wave of the Asiatic spirit rolls over Greece, and leaves it there as a sort of Phyrgian relic. Digitized by Microsoft® AMERICAN JOCKISY CL UB. 1 75 But modern begins a trifle differently, though from an Asiatic source. The Saracens occupy Spain, and recede, leaving algebra and equestrianism. From this beginning, a romantic incident introduced it in England. The Spanish Armada, intended for the subjugation of Enghsh Protestantism, landed nothing but a few horses of real Arabian pedigree on the coast of Galloway; and thus the English ideal of the horse, like the Greek ideal of woman, was cast up by the sea. They might have made a myth of the matter, had it happened in an age when myths were in fashion; but, as it was, the material for a magnificent fiction was lost in the Saxon adherence to the literal facts of the thing. How- ever, the Scots turned the accident to the Armada to ac- count in the adoption of the castaway Arabians; and when James of Scotland became James of England, one of his first acts was the foundation of the Newmarket course. Hence, racing in England, with its Epsoms and Ascotts, founded by the Duke of Cumberland; its Don- casters, due to the munificence of Colonel St. Leger, and its Derbys. In 1667 a liberal subsidy was. granted for the course on Newmarket Heath, which is really the Jerome Park of England; and thus the English metropolis precedes the American by almost exactly two hundred years in the popularization of horse-racing. It must be premised that Virginia, settled by cavalier stock, was first to engraft upon American institutions the sporting prochvity of the parent aristocrat, which the Puritanic New-Englander hated with a hatred of fourth- prooi intensity. So the dissemination of pedigreed horses radiates from the Old Dominion in all directions, as the annals of horse-racing abundantly prove; the turf, as an institution, being emphatically of Virgitiian parent- Digitized by Microsoft® U^ CLUBS OF XUW rOBIC. age. Trotters move outward in all directions from the same common centre ; though trotting is a younger sport than racing, and was legitimated by the once-famous Mambrino of trans-Atlantic celebrity. The first imijorta- tion took place in the South, in the shippiDg of Mambrina, a daughter of the English trotting stallion; and the name swells the list of New York trotters in Mr. Robert Bon- ner's Mambrino Bertie, which that critic in horses pro- nounces the most extraoi-dinary colt the world has yet produced. Mambrino Bertie has, says his master, the easiest of trots; is nearly as large as the Auburn horse, but is more "rangy," with stride of length only exceeded by that of the mythical Indian in " Hiawatha," — "Every stride a mile he measured," — which has ::ieTer been equaled even by a descendant of ancient Mambrino. Of course, while Mr. Bonner owns it, the gifted colt will never make its debut as a Hon of the turf. Trotting and racing are, however, as distinct as trotters and racers; and there are those who contend that royalty of blood never trots. The racer is oriental, descends primitively from the stallion of the desert, and the whole running stock of the world may be traced back to the Selims, Saladins, and Aldebarans of the Saracen. When the first wave of Asiatic civilization — the Phrygian — rolled over Greece, it left traditions of horses and heroes. When Saracenic civilization receded from Spain, it left the stalhon of the desert as well as the Arab's weird crea- tions of art in the strange old Alhambra. Judging from antique sculptures, the ancient horse raced even in har- ness, and tackled to the clumsy vehicles of the earliest ages. Blood, says the horseman's proverb, must run, and the proverb embodies the experience of centuries. Digitized by Microsoft® aiulHicas jockey club. 177 It seems probable, therefore, that the natiu-al trotter is rather a representative of the native European horse than of the Oriental; though there are 25lentY of critics who urge that the trotter sprang from the racer by a sort of Darwinism — in a word that Mambrino illustrates Darwin's theory of the origin of sj^ecies. However this question may be settled, the antique and classical are in favor of the racer, to which, and the njotion of which, ancient iDoetry and ancient sculjatures bear witness. Homer's famous passage imitative of the rhythm of the hoof could never have arisen from the anapest patter of the trot. The horse runs in dactjds and spondees; trots in anapest and iambic ; so that, notwithstanding the utility of the trotter, the real poetry of equestrianism is the run, with its dactyl dance of hoof and tornado swell of spondee. Trotting is prose; running is lyrical, almost as lyrical as wings. Besides, trotting is modern and un- Hom.eric. But, dismissing the upper-ten-thousand of trotters, for trotting is move nearly allied to ordinai-y road practice, take a trip to Jerome Park. The Olympic games come on regularly in June, and the last of May is exactly the date when breezes are daily and the park is a city of thoroughbreds. The best way to get there is by way of the Bloomingdale Eoad. On the western heights and hill-tops villas, like bubbles of the beautiful, overtop wil- dernesses of trees and shrubbery; and before half of the three leagues or so has been traversed, you will find your- self on excellent terms with the aesthetic: just the mood for appreciation of the points of a horse, or of those of William Morris's "Earthly Paradise." You are there presently, having put in a mental request for a lodge in some vast wilderness at every step of the way. It is a city with gates and walls, a city of blooded hcrseu, uiid Digitized by Microsoft® 17° CLUBS OF A'^ETV YORK. trainers and jockeys, vi\\h. a constitution and municipal rules of its own, not for the governing of the liorses, but for that of their masters. Beyond the little Italian club- house, which is the Capitol, runs a perfect street of brown edifices, one story high, and handsome enough for ordi- nary cottages for ordinary people — more comfortable, too, than ordinary people can afford. The mere enumeration of the couple of hundred animals, with their pedigrees, would fill a tome with romantic names; for American owners are apt to be poetic in the nomenclation of their pets. Bayswater, Bayleaf, Lightning, Maroon, Tisdale, Nina, Florida, Tom Woolfolk, Magnolia, Citadel, Yellow- hammer, Durindana, Newminster, Knighthood, Glycera, Ulrica, Luther, Aldebaran, and Trovatore are high- sounding, but seemingly of no particular application to horses, though Lightning must, perliaps, be excepted. Meetwing means something to one who has attended a race, for it was a subtle idea that endowed Pegasos with wings, and a racer on his mettle really conveys the im- pression, spurning the earth somewhat as the ancient fabled that Pegasos did. Ruthless and Vandal, Cyclone and Onward, Zigzag, and Leatherlungs, are happy hits, too — but why not tornadoes and hurricanes and whirl- winds, than which nothing could be more appropriate? Belies of Scottish nomenclature and the dawn of the sport in England, are Balrownie, Glencoe, and Bonnie Scotland. Idlewild embalms one of the hits of N. P. WilHs; Lexington, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Carolina are distinctively American; and nobody but an American would ever have thought of calling a horse Mondaj', or Two Bits, or Barefoot. AugTist Belmont has a Maid of Honor — a pretty name, by the way — and Topaz answers for a name in place of something better. Digitized by Microsoft® A MERICAN JOCKEY CL UB. 1 79 Of course 3-011 will not omit Kentucky, the ^^ Nihil nimile, aiil seeuTidum" of the American tiu'f. More splendid specimen of horse- hood America boasts not. McDonald once made a study of him in sculpture, but then marble is not muscle and color; and painting is better and more vivid than stone, while Kentucky is more vivid than either. Cid, Moor or whatever he was, never bestrode stallion more powerful. Well-muscled all over; thighs powerful; legs sinewy, with strong', elastic pasterns; clean, as though hard work were not embodied in four miles at seven minutes and a half. Nobler head and face, denoting both spirit and good temper, and the very ideal of thorough breeding, were never the luck of horse. So compact is the physique that, standing quietly in his stable, an or- dinary observer would mistake him for a small horse. In his clothes he seems diminutive; but, stripped and mounted for the tourney, then he looks the sixteen hands high that he is; then, like Diomed, ' He rises on the toe; that spirit of liis In aspiration lifts him from the earth. " His motion has the haughtiness of a Sehm — the trans- parent, distended nostril suggesting the mythical simile of breathing fire. Son of Lexington and Magnolia, daughter of Glencoe, " A creature full of strength and grace. The noblest of his noblest race" — Kentucky is a sort of poem in the shape of a horse, as, indeed, every race-horse is, to a gTeater or ■ less extent. Nowhere else is found that cleanness of bmb, which amounts to transparency almost, or that spirited laugh Digitized by Microsoft® i8o CLuns OF .y;;ii' york. of nniscles at the flank, which suggests and indicates the racer. But fame with horses is as fleeting as the fame of jDoets; and tlie sovereigns of the turf now are not they who were sovereigns when Jerome Park was first opened to tlie public. Of the hundred or more now training for future meetings, the reader will find few of the celebrities of 1866, when Fleetwing, Onward, and Idlewild tried hoof with Kentucky, and were beaten in two straight heats of four miles: time, 7:35 and I'Al^. The splendid physical horsehood of Kentucky has been photographed with some minuteness, for the sake of a starting point. His performances at Jerome Park must not, however, be mistaken for the best that horse can eke. The inauguration stake, won by Kentucky, in competition with Fleetwing, Onward, and Idlewild — famous horses all — by no means exhibits the fastest of the record; and more recently, in his struggle against time, the handsome son of Lexington has been beaten, though not ignoininiously, at 7:32J. As & point d'appui to the discussion of the unquestionably fast, the official summary of the inauguration stake, first day of the meet- ing of 1866, is worth noting. There were four entries — for four-mile heats, best in three — Kentucky winning in two consecutive heats. In official form the record stood: J. Hunter's black horse Kentnety, by Lexington; dam Maguolia, by Glencoe, five years old, 114 lbs 1 1 Forbes's and Jeroroe's Fleetwing, by Brandywine; dam Khody, by Glencoe, six j^ears, 114 lbs 3 2 James S. Watson's Onward, by Einggold; dam My Lady, by Glencoe, four years, 104 lbs 2 3 K. A. Alexander's Idlewild, by Lexington; dam by Glen- coe, age not stated, 114 lbs Distanced. Time of first four miles 7:3S Time of second four miles 7:414 Digitized by Microsoft® A.UhTiWA.\ JOCKKr CLUIi. l8l In I'aot, no recent contests have taken pdace in which the wonderful exploits of the two lions of the turf — Lex- ington and Lecomte, 1852 to 1854 — have been equaled. Previous to that date Fashion had (in 1842) made the best four-mile heat, in 7:32i, which for almost ten years held jarecedence as the fastest of the record. Boston's best four-miles — and Boston was famous in his day and generation — was made in 7:40, that is, seven minutes and forty seconds. This was beaten by Henry, who crept the four in 7:31^. Still subsequently. Gray Medoc and Altoof, in a dead heat, reduced the limit to 7:35, which Mi.ss Foot repeated, having run one heat — an un- precedented performance in those old days of racing. George Martin and Fall Trade, in their day, did the four miles in 7:33; and next, in 1842, Fashion reduced the limit to 7:32^-. Then came the golden age of American racing, under Lexington and Lecomte, in which Lexing- ton was at last victor after three hardly contested races, the first and third with Lecomte, and the second against time. The rivalry between these two stallions and their partisans was something unprecedented in the annals of horse-racing, and it was not until after a two years' struggle that Lexington was admitted to the kingship of the American turf. The contest developed the suprem- est rapidity on record until quite recently, and gave a popular impulse to the classic sport, similar to that which has been given it by the eclat of Jerome Park and its hosts of fashionables. The contest was begun in 1352, in a race between Le- comte and Lexington, four-mile heats, best in three, in which Lexington was beaten in two straight heats: time, 7:26 and 7:38^. This seemed to establish the supremacy of Lecomte beyond a doubt. The fastest four miles on record had been beaten by six seconds and a half, and Digitized by Microsoft® I 82 CLUBS OF KEM' YORK. turfmen did well to question, can this be equaled ? So the fame of him of G-auiish name waxed great in prose and wood-cut, and the name thereof was on every tongue. With this defeat, Lexington might well have been with- drawn, for victory by a thunderbolt is victory over less ' rapid adversaries. But plucky old Ten Broeck, owner of Lexington, had i^nbounded faith in his horse, and faith is equal to the removal of mountains. Accordingly, Ten Broeck began a campaign to regain the lost laurels of Lexington, and early in the ensuing spring the stallion was pitted for a four-mile heat against time, and to beat the fastest four mile on record, now that of Lecomte, who had done the work in 7:26. Events proved that Mr. Ten Broeck had not over-estimated the speed and endurance of Lexington, the incomparable; the gallant descendant of the desert stallions, doing the four miles in 7:19|, which still remains as the quickest long heat on record. Having beaten Lecomte's best time, Lexington was now ready to defeat Lecomte in propria ^persona, and in the fall of the same year the two were again pitted one against the other in the tug for supremacy. As be- tween these two, other horses were nowhere, it was a grapple between two Titans of the turf, with whom the feebler of the day could not even compare. Imagine it: the splendid spirited trample of Lecomte, and the fox- like creep of the more oriental Lexington. The former is magnificent, looks the king in horsehood; the other, greyhoundish in aspect, and like a very spirit in the quietude of his motion. But Lexington, the fox, wins, and Lecomte, the splendid, is beaten, his best time being beaten as well. The four-miles is traversed in 7:23|, which, again, is the fastest, horse against horse, on the record, and will, no doubt, continne to be so until the iawn of the next golden age. American Eclipse, son of Digitized by Microsoft® AiFEnWAA- JOCKUY CLL'B. 183 Daroc, son of Diamond, son of Florizel; Aviel, Flirtilla, and Bltick Maria; Trifle, Wagner, Gray Eagle, Boston, and Fashion were no longer gods iu the inytliology ot horse-racing. Lecomte was barely Olympian; but Lex- ington was Jupiter, and as Jupiter is still remembered. A summary of his performances is interesting, as indi- cating the amount of money a successful racer may pos- sibly win, thus illustrating the business transactions of the turf. In 1853 he was started three times and won three races: At Lexington, Kentucky, mile heats SI, 700 At N jw Orleans, two-mile heats 1 , 300 At New Orleans, three-mile heats 8,500 In 1854, he runs once at New Orleans, in four-mile heats. . 19,000 In 1855, he runs twice — once against time, at New Orleans, four miles 20,000 And once for the Jootey Club purse 6,000 Total earnings S56,500 The acts of Lexington are noted thus minutely, be- cause he stands as the ancestor of the present best in the American stud-book, and as the very best race-horse, past or present, which the American stable has yet pro- duced. Scores of his progeny have been and are famous; though not more thaji 0, single score have won places in the front rank, and none have equaled the performances of the ancestor. Kentucky stands at the head of them. Then come Ansel, Areola, Asteroid, Bayflower, Bayonet, Bertie Wood, Daniel Boone, Donegall, Harry of the West, Idlewild, Jack Malone, Lancaster, Loadstone, Lightning, Norfolk, Judge Curtis, Kingfisher, and Thun- der. Several of these stand pre-eminent on the record as having made the best cotemporary time. For ex- ample, Judge Curtis must be credited with the best mile Digitized by Microsoft® 'S4 CLUBS OF NJSW YOJIK. heat, tit 1:43^; Lancaster, with the best two miles, at 3:35 J, and 3:885 respectively; Norfolli:, with the best three miles, at 5:272 and 5:29i; and Idlewild, with the best four miles, at 7:26j, and lacking only a quarter of a second of ranking with old Lecomte, the splendid. As these are all cotemporary horses, and still hahilu'es of the turf, the record will serve to indicate something of their relative value. By all means beware of betting against the fox-like gait and still motion of the stallion that steals over the course, as if half spirit and half serpent. It is the gait of the desert, and always wins. Others may run more magnificently, but it is the deceptive magnificence that forfeits your money. Grand horses are represented on the sculptures of ancient Nineveh, as disinterred by Mr. Layard — splendid, high-crested, large-headed, heavy- shouldered, long-bodied animals, with powerful limbs, and volumes of shaggy mane, often fancifully jDlaited, oftener fancifully braided. These are the horses of bib- lical royalties, which, harnessed to the scythe cars of Assyrian or Phoenician kings, trampled the field of Me- giddo, or were buried, through the intervention of Jeho- vah, in the river of Kishon. Wonderfully minute are these sculptures, often exhibiting details of tendon and artery; and wonderful were these horses for strength. But could they run with the low-statured, small-headed, basin-faced, foxy-moving Arab and Barb, with the long, thin mane, large, full eyes, and delicate and almost trans- parent limbs? What, again, was the G-reek horse? The merest cob, as the groups from the Propylsea of the Temple of Minerva, iu the Acropolis at Athens, now in the British Museum as the Elgin marbles, abundantly prove. The ideal horses of Phidias and his pupils they undoubtedly were; but what were they? Not above Digitized by Microsoft® A M Eli 10 A X JOCKE Y CLUB. I 8 5 fourteen and a half hands high, the}' had, instead of the graceful, spiry formation of the Arab or Barb, all the short, rigid stalkiness of the common Galloway, and would have run with a Lexington somewhat as a mastiff might with a gro.yhound. Beware of that supple, foxy gait, the owner of which slips along like a spirit; it means win: and, of all horses ever bred in this country, Lexington had it in the most emphatic degree; and hence, Lexington may be regarded as tlie founder of a species, or a variation which, according to Darwin, must at last end in a species. In the study of the strings represented by the mem- bership of the club, the first thing that fixes the atten- tion is the great number that carry the blood of Lexing- ton and his more than equally famous son, the peerless Kentucky. Horses to cue's right, Horses to one's left, Horses on all hands — and more than a third of them with the spirit of Lexing- ton in the splendid hexameter of their motion, and in the clean-cut, shining limbs, that you fancy you could see through, so slender are they from the knees down; proud- stepping, greyhound-ish creatures, of whom — for the rel- ative which desecrates their splendid horsehood — you fancy a sort of aspiration to soar Pegasos-like, and from whom it needs no wonderful deftness of imagination to imagine that you see wings starting on either spirited and quivering shoulder; magnificent creatures, whose canter sets you speculating as to the validity of Plato's hypothesis that all being is dimly set to a sort of music: ideal horses ! In 1867, the idea of erecting a city club-house was mooted, and with that intent, Jerom.e commenced the Digitized by Microsoft® [86 CLUBS OF NEW YORK erection of the maguificent edifice, corner of Madison Avenue and Twenty-sixth street, now occupied by the Union League. But, previous to completion, the idea was abandoned, the Union League taking the building for a period of ten years, with the option of buying it; and the Jockey Club still nestles among the fastnesses of Fordham, having a business office in the city. Li 1868, the spring meeting was attended with an un- happy accident, in the killing of a jockey, who was un- seated in leaping the hurdle, and since then hurdle- racing has been voted barbarous in its old form, special precautions having been adopted. In fact, in the course of its history, two accidents of the same kind have hap- pened, of which, however, only one proved fatal : whence, was al last originated the idea of erecting hurdles too flimsy to be dangerous if not fully cleared by the leap. Again, the same year, Kentucky tried hoof with time, and hy time was beaten; which constituted, probably, the most sensational tournament ever attempted at Jerome Park. The writer well remembers the breath- lessness of the great crowd for that anxious seven min- utes. At blast of bugle off shot Kentucky, '•ETery muscle, every sinew straining;" and off shot Time, with his hoof-beats of seconds, at the same old pace as ever, never straining in the least, but as steady, steady as one of the old Greek Fates of Eurip- ides. Once round whirled Kentucky, really swimming thiough the air, coming home a second or so in advance of the steady-hoofed old racer, who has cantered at the same pace since the world began, distancing generations of man and beast, onlj' Darwin can tell how many. Half- way round again, and Time prods the gallant stallioi^. Digitized by Microsoft® AMERICA X JOCKEY CLUB. 1 87 Then they let out a swarm of half-a-^dozen upon him, like a pack of hounds, and Kentucky quickens a little, leaving steady old Time (and the pack of four-footed stimulants) behind for a second or two, and comes round about even with his still antagonist. But, at the third round, with the same eternal steadiness of hoof- beat, Time jjrods him again, passes him, and comes home a few seconds ahead, Kentucky lagging a few seconds. Whereupon, a great deal of money is shifted from one pocket to another, and it is agreed that Time is a great racer indeed, and cannot be beaten by the fastest horse in America. In general organization, club-house rules, and the like, the Jockey Club is after the model of the Union and Manhattan, having, like the latter, its board of governors, like the former its president and vice-presidents, and needs, therefore, no special description at length. Its regular meetings are held in June and September, but meetings of the board occur monthly at the city office. The club-house is supplied with a refectory and other appliances, but is not largely frequented by members, except at the regular meetings. As elsewhere, the res- taurant is rather unprofitable than profitable, having little patronage except on special occasions. The racing rules are, of course, special, and subject to special statute. Kace-horses take their ages from the first of January. In measuring height one-third of a foot is a hand, that is, three hands make a foot, and fourteen pounds constitute the fixed reckoning of a stone. If an owner enters a horse for a purse he must gtart, or submit to be ruled off the course, unless the de- fault can be accounted for to the satisfaction of the judges. A sweepstakes can only be constituted by three subscribers; but, in instance of the death of one of the Digitized by Microsoft® 1 88 CLUBS OF iYfJW YORK. subscribers, the sweepstakes is not vitiated, and the race is not void. A plate is a sum offered for a race for which two or more horses may be entered by the same person, but in wlrich no person can run, in his own name or that of another, two horses of which he is wholly or in part the owner on the day of the race, unless by special permis- sion. A poststake is a race in which subscribers are not compelled to declare what horses they intend to run until ten minutes previous to starting. A handicap, a race in which the horses carry weight, regulated accord- ing to the decision of the handicapper. The winner of any given heat is entitled to the pole at the next start; and others take their places to the right or left, accord- ing as they came out on the previous heat. In running for a purse, the places for starting are raffled for; but in sweepstakes, plates, poststakes, and handicaps, the clerk of the course determines the order of starting, and which shall have the pole, or inside of the track; and from his decision no appeal can be taken. All riders must wear the jockey costume, consisting of cap and jacket of silk or satin, pantaloons of white corduroy, cords, flannel, or buckskin, and top-boots. The colors selected by owners are recorded by the clerk of the course, and, after record, cannot be appropriated by other parties. A list of all colors that have been re- corded is, for the benefit of spectators, posted at the judges' stand. Insufficient identification voids an entry, said insuf- ficiency consisting in the omission of color, sex, n.ame, age, pedigree — with the exception that, with a horse having once run on the course of any known association, name and age are regarded as identification sufficient to entitle to the course. If, again, the horse has been given a Digitized by Microsoft® A MEIifCA X JOCKKT CLUB. 189 new name by a new owner, it. is necessary to give bot'i names, or the entrj' is null; that is, in all instances, all names by which the racer has been previously known must be recorded in the entry. In the nomination of for- eign horses, the owner must produce the certificate of some racing club of the country' whence coming, or from the mayor or other public ofiScer of the district;, stating the age, jje iigree, and color of the horse, and the marks by which it may be identified; and if a horse is not suffi- ciently identified, not only is it not permitted to start, but the owner is liable to pay the whole stake, if the race be play or pay, or a forfeit if not. Fraudulent entry constitutes a peroetual disaualification of the horse so entered, and the owner is compelled to return anj' money which may have been won. No person can start ahorse for any race in his own name or that of another jjerson, unless both owner and namer have liquidated all former stakes and forfeits; this rule extending to forfeits in- curred on any course to which the club extends the honor of recognition; and persons appearing in the forfeit list are disqualified, so long as dues and forfeits remain unsettled. The list of weights to be carried by running horses is thus specified : P&unds. Two year, olds 75 Three-year olds 95 Fonr-year olds 108 Five-year olds 114; Six-year olds and upward 118 However, in all races exclusively for three-year olds, weights must be one hundred and ten pounds, and in all for two-year olds exclusively, one hundred pounds; while, with the exception of handicaps and races where weights are absolutely fixed, an allowance of three pormds Digitized by Microsoft® '90 CLvna OF new yobk. is made in favor of mares and geldings. Tlie foaUiov- weight is fixed af seventy-five pounds; tlie welter weight at twenty-eight pounds, added to tlie weight for age, as specified in tlie table. The interval between heats is also fixed by table, thus: Between mile heats 20 minutes Between two-mile heats 25 miiintes Between three-mile heats 35 minutts Between four-mile heats 40 minutes Dead heats and other matters are also regulated by special rules; special rules governing the behavior of jockeys, who, in default of exact obedience, are subject to penalties varying from twenty-five to one hundred dollars. In mile heats, forty yards constitute a dis- tance; in heats of two miles, fifty yards; in heats of three miles, sixty yards; in heats of four miles, seventy yards — the distance being reckoned from the winning post, at the proper interval from which is located the stand of the distance judge, whose duty it is to drop his flag in case a runner shall not have passed him before the fore- most horse has passed the winning post. The betting rules constitute a complicated system, to be fathomed by nobody but an expert. As a rule, as the stakes so the bets; and in all cases there must be a possibility of winning when the bet is made. All bets, ui:less stipulated to the contrary, are play or pay. When a race is postponed all bets must stand; but bets on a dead heat are void. Money given to lay a bet cannot be demanded, though the race should not be run; and the person who lays odds has the right to select his horse against the field — the whole forming a comjilex network of taking risks, upon which no novice should enter with- out special study or acute legal counsel, so intricate are its quips, quirks, and windings, and special exceptions. Digitized by Microsoft® A M ERIC A iV JOCKE Y CL UB. I 9 ' The jjreseat condition of the clab is flattering. Its membership is in excess of one thousand , affording from dues an income of fifty thousand a year; while its annual income from admissions to the races has, thus far, ex- ceeded one hundred and fifty thousand; and hence it may be regarded as the most solvent of all the leading clubs, with the exception of the Union League, Man- hattan, and Union — which latter, owning property to the extent of four hundred thousand, is ridden by a mortgage for one hundred and forty thousand. During its brief biography it has developed the finest stables in this country. First oh the list stands that of August Belmont; Sanford's next, probably; after which may be mentioned half-a-dozen only les.s valuable. Je- rome Park has, in fact, become a little city of blooded hoi'ses — an aristocracy of animals as sternly dependent on pedigree for social standing as any member of the old regime by vchich the leading clubs are mostly supported. Its success has given an impulse, too, to the passion for " The thoroughbred of purest breed," ' which nothing else could have developed; and prominent citizens everywhere are becoming amateur turfmen, to be a turfman having been decreed fashionable. Under its influence, also, racing has won a certain popularity as compared with trotting, which, at present, surrounds the ranner with especial eclaf: Gloire, which means some- thing quite distinct from English glory, is not an Amer- ican word, but an American pas.sion it certainly ex- presses; and something of the halo indicated by the term has been engrafted upon racing and ils cojrcomitants by the fashionable galaxies which the meetings of the club have called. " Falmam qui meruit, ferat," vemaxked the learned ex-secretary, in laudation of Kentucky, on the Digitized by Microsoft® '9^ CLUBS OF NEW YOBK. occasion of the great national handicap, and so one may say of the American Jockej' Chib. For decorum, fashion, and proprietj', nothing in the annals of the American turf has been equal or even second to its meetings, which have, at least, had the merit of translating the slang of the profession into respectable English, thus eliminating numerous barbarisms from the already barbarism-bed- ridden i language. So far, the club is entitled to the thanks of the jjurist in manners; and, by and by, per- haps, it may deserve the thanks of the pimst in morals, by the. invention of some method of betting not classifi- able in the general category, or subject to its vices, and the elimination of that maelstrom of abomination, rightly named the pool, from the fact of its sucking in whatso- ever comes within the circle of its fascinating- eddies. The club is thus oiEcered: — President, August Bel- mont; Vice-Presidents, W. Butler Duncan, Leonard Je- rome, John H. Purdy, and William E. Travers: Execu- tive Committee, David Crawford, Jr., WilHam Constable, A. C. Monson, William H. Vanderbilt, and David Dunham Withers, in addition to the president and vice-presidents, who are members of the committee ex officio: Treasurer, A. C. Monson; Secretary, C. Wheatley: Board of Gov- ernors, S. L. M. Barlow, C. W. Bothgate, James A. Bayard, August Belmont, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., R. W. Cameron, J. W. Glendenin, E. Boudinott Colt, WilHam Constable, David Crawford, Jr., George Denison, William P. Douglas, Henry Duncan, W. Butler Duncan, WilUam J. Emmett, W. A. Fitzhugh, Paul S. Forbes, John E. Garland, W. H. Gibbons, George Griswold Gray, H. W. Gray, G. G. Hammond, John Hoey, G. G. Howland, John Hunter, Lawrence E. Jerome, Leonard W. Jerome, Duncan F. Kenner, Carroll Livingston, Alex- ander S. Macomb, Adolphe Mailliard, Manton Marble, Digitized by Microsoft® AU ERIC AN JOCKEY CL UB. I 93 AVilliam H. McVickar, A. 0. Monson, Francis Morris, Lewis G. Morris, Edward Pearsall, Jr., John JF. Purdy, William Redmond, A. Keene Kichards-, Elisha Riggs, A. Robeson, M. H. Sanford, Francis Skiddy, Henry A. Stone, R. Taylor, William R. Travers, WHliam H. Van- derbilt, Craig W. Wadsworth, and David Dunham Withers. The membership, resident mostly in New York, is included in the subjoined list: LIST OF MEMBERS. Abecases, J. S. ; Adams, D. M. ; Adams, H. M. ; Adams, J. J. ; Alexander, J. E. ; Alexandre, Francis V. ; Allen, D. B. ; AUerton, A. M. ; Alley, George B. ; Alvord, Alwj'n A. ; Amsiuck, Gustave; Ander- son, John; Andrews, George P.; Angler, William E. ; Antbon, Wil- liam H.; Anthony, C. L. ; Anthony, James L. ; Appleton, Nathan; Appleton, W. H. ; Appleton, W. W. ; Armstrong, D. Maitland; Arnold, B. G.; Arnold, Charles; Arnold, F. B. ; Ashley, 0. D. ; As- pinwall, Lloyd; Aspiiiwall, A\^ H. ; Atkinson, E. ; Austin, David; Austin, James; Austin, S. F. Babcook, Henry G. ; Babcoclc, Samuel D. ; Babcock, Stephen B. ; Baby, Frank E. ; Backman, Charles; Bacon, Francis; Bacon, George; Badgley, J. D. ; Baile, Eobert; Bailey, J. Muhlenburg; Bailey, N. P.; Baker, F. ; Baldwin, C. G. ; Baldwin, G. V. N. ; Baldwin, Nathan A. ; Banker, James H. ; Banyer, Goldsborough; Barclay, Henry A. ; Bar- clay, James L. ; Barclay, Saokett M. ; Barger, Samuel F. ; Barnard, George G. ; Barnes, Charles; Barker, Dr. Fordyce; Barker, Isove; Barre, James H. ; Barreda, P. L. ; Barrett, Alexander ; Barrett, Geo. C. ; Barrett, William C. ; Barretto, F. J. ; Barrow, J. W. ; Bartholo- mew, J. 0. ; Bartow, George L. ; Bassett, 0. M. ; Bates, J. H. ; Bates, Martin; Bathgate, Alexander; Bathgate, James; Baxter, A. S. ; Baxter, H. H. ; Bayard, Edward ; Bayley, William A. ; Beecher, John S. ; Beekman, G. L. ; Beekman, B. F.; Beldeu, William; Bell, Edward E. ; Bell, Isaac; Bell, J. W. ; Bell, M. ; Bend, George H. ; Bend, William B. ; Benkard, Jiimes; Benrimo, Barrow; Bent, S. S. ; Berrymau, Charle ; H. ; Beresford, J. G. ; Betts, George F. ; Bickley, H. W. ; Binsse, Edward; Bishop, David W. ; Blague, G., Jr.: Blanchard, E. W. ; Blodgett, D. C; Blodgett, W. T. ; Bloodgood, John; Bolles, Kiciard J.; Bond, E. N. ; Bond, Frank S. ; Bond, Digitized by Microsoft® '9-1 CLUBS OF ,\EW YOBE. William; Bonuer, E. H. ; Bonner, George T. ; Bonner, John; Boody, A.; Booraem, H. Toler; Borie, Beauveau; Borrows, W. B. ; Bost- wick, H. A.; Bouvier, J. V.; Bowles, Charles B.; Bowdoin, George R. J.; Bowdoin, George S. ; Bowerman, Henry; Bowers, Henry; Branden, Edward; Bradford, J. Henry; Bradley, James S. ; Biady. John K. ; Braem, H. M. ; Bradhurst, T. C. P. ; Brewster, Beuj. Har- ris; Brewster, Henry; Brewster, J. E. ; Brevoort, Henry W, ; Bren- uan, M. T.; Briggs, William H.; Bristed, C. A.; Britten, John W. ; Broadhead, George H. ; Brook, Morton; Bronson, Isaac; Brooks, Edward S. ; Brooks, Elisha; Brown, Clarence S. ; Brown, J. Carter, 2d; Brown, John W. ; Brown, Lewis B. ; Brown, Lewis M. ; Brown, Philip H. ; Brown, Eobert J.; Brown, T. E.; Brown, Vernon H. ; Brown, W. H. ; Bruce, S. D. ; Bryce, James; Enckingham, J. A.; Buckley, T. C. T. ; Burden, James A. ; Burden, J. Tow: send ; Burn- ham, Douglas W. ; Burns, W. H. ; Burrill, Charles D. ; Bnrrill, James E., Jr.; Butterfield, Daniel. Cadwell, S. TJ. ; Camnlack, Addison; Cammann, Charles L. ; Gar- uoohan. Dr. J. M. ; Carver, B. F. ; Carroll, J. E.; Cashman, M. A.; Caswell, W, H. ; Cater, Ayinar; Catherwood, Pi,. B. ; Cecil, George; Cecil, J. E. ; Center, Henry; Center, Eohert; Chalfin, S. F. ; Chase, Nelson; Chadwick, Henry A.; Chamberlain, Charles; Chapin, E. S. ; Charlick, Oliver; Chickering, C. P. ; Chrystie, Albert N.; Claflin, H. B. ; Clark, Prank H. ; Clark, George C. ; Clark, Luther C. ; Clarke, William M. ; Clapp, Harry; Clapp, Hawley D. ; Clapp, N. D. ; Clason, Augustus; Classon, Augustus W. ; Gierke, W. B. ; Clews, Henry; Cochrane, John; Cockroft, J. H. V.; Coe, Spencer W. ; CofSn, Jul:eu E. ; Colburn, G. C. ; Colburn, Warren ; Coleman, A. B. ; Coleman, W. T.; Collins, C. B. ; Connolly, J. A.; Connolly, J. T.; Connolly, M. ; Connolly, Thomas B. ; Connolly, W. A. ; Constable, James M. ; Constable, William, Jr.; Cooke, Henry D. ; Cooper, D. Johnson; Cooper, Edward; Cooper, Henry W. ; Cooper, Mervelle W. ; Cooper, W. B., Jr. ; Copcutt, Francis; Corlies, E. L. ; Corlies, J. W. ; Cornell, C. G. ; Cornell, J. E. ; Cornell, Thomas C. ; Cornwalli^, K. ; Coster, Daniel J. ; Coster, Henry A. ; Coster, John G. ; Coster, J. H. ; Cot- tenett, Edward L. ; Cottrell, George W. ; Courtney, Samuel G. ; Courtright, Milton; Cox, S. S. ; Crane, H. C. ; Craig, W. W. ; Cran- ston, Hiram; Cross, John W. ; Cryder, W. W. ; Curphey, Jamas y. ; Curtis, Abijah; Curtis, N. B.; Gushing, J. G. ; Cutler, 0. N. ; Cut- ting, B. ; Cutting, Hayward; Cuttii^g, J. D. W. : Cutting, Eobert L. ; Cutting, Eobert L., Jr.; Cutting, Walter; Cutting, Walter L. ; Cut- ting, Wilbam. Digitized by Microsoft® .■I MKRICAN JOCKJS T CL UB. I 95 Dailey, Johu T. : Dailey, W. J. F. ; Daly, K. B. ; Dale, John G. ; Dane, Andrew J. ; Darling, A. B. ; Dater, James; Dater, Philip; Dav- enport, C. F. ; Davies, Henry E. , Jr. ; Davies, Johu T. ; Davies, K. K. ; Davis, S. M.; Davidson, Stratford P. ; De Bary, Adolphe; De Bary, Frederick; De Bary, L. A. ; De Camp, A. L. ; Decker, N. H. ; De Co- meau, O. ; De Comeau, U. ; De Coppet, H. ; De Coster, C. M. ; D'HautviUe, F. S. G. ; De Jonge, J.; Delafield, M. L.; Delmonico, Laurent; De Louisada, Marquis; De Neufville, Jacob; Denison, Charles; Denis, Charles, Jr. ; Des Marets, Earnest A .; Detmold, C. E. ; De Vis.ser, Simon; Dibble, Edward D. ; Dick, W. B. ; Dinsmore, Wil- liam B. ; Diven, General A. S. ; Dobell, Edward ; Dodge, C. C. ; Dodge, Edward; Dolan, Henry; Dore, John; Doremus, E. 0.; Dos- well, Thomas W. ; Douglass, James; Dowling, J. W. ; Draper, David S.; Draper, J. H. ; Duer, Dening; Duer, Edward A. ; Dufais, F. F. ; Duflon, P. V. ; Duncan, David; Duncan, Stephen, Jr. ; Duncan, S. B. ; Dunscomb, Alexander H. ; Durant. Charles W. ; Durant, T. C. ; Dur- kee, Harrison. Earle, F. P.; Eckerson. Jacob; Eccles, F. H. ; Edey, Charles C. ; Edgar, R. VV. ; Edgar, Leroy; Edgar, Newbold; Einstein, Edwin; Elwees, Captain C. F. ; Ely, Richard S. ; Emmett, Richard S. ; Engs, George; Eno, Amos F. ; Evens, Silas G. ; Evens, W. "W. ; Eyre, Henry. Fachiri, Theodore ; Fahnestock, H. C ; Fanshawe, G. A. ; Fanshaw, W. S. ; Faye, Thomas; Fearing, D. B. ; Fearing, George E. ; Fearing, Henry S. ; FeiTis, Henry; Ferris, Warren; Pesser, E. M. ; Field, E. G. ; Field, Maunsell B. ; Fields, Thomas C. ; Finck, Eugene; Fischer, Charles P.; Fischer, Frederick; Fish, Nicholas; Fisk, James, Jr. ; Fiske, J. M. ; Fitzhugh, Henry; Fliess, William M. ; Fleitmp.nn, Herman; Flint, James L.; Fhnt, T. J. S. ; Poote, T. M. ; Forbes, De Courcy; Ford, Smith; Forrest, George J. ; Foster, Heniy A.. ; Foster, J. P. G. ; Foster, William ; Fowler, John, Jr. ; Fowler, Mortimer L. ; Fox, D. G. ; Francklyn, Charles G; Frank, G.; Freeman, George A. ; French, S. Barton; Furbish, Hemy H. ; Furman, J. M. Gafney, John H. ; Gaillard, Joseph, Jr. ; (jandy, Sheppard ; Gard- ner, Peter; Garner, James G. ; Garr, George; Garrison, C. K. ; Garri- son, W. R. ; Gebhard, William H. ; George, John W. ; Gerard, James W., Jr.; Gerry, E. T. ; Gibson, Wood; Gibert, Fred. E.; Gillian, Hercules E.; Gillespie, I. W. ; Gimbemat, J. R. ; Godwin, J. H., Jr. ; Go let, Ogden; Goelet, Robert, Jr. ; Goodhue, Charles C; Goodridge, F. ; Gossage, Charles; Gould, Edmond L. ; Gould, Jay; Grace, W. R. ; Digitized by Microsoft® 19^ CLUBS OH JS'EW YOUK. Gracie, Charles King; Grafton, J.; Grainger, J. E. J.; Grant, 0. De Forest; Gray, Bryce; Green, Edward Murray; Green, Martin E. ; Greenleaf, A. "Warren; Grice, Charles 0. ; Grinnell, G. B. ; Griunell, Irving; Grinnell, Moses H. ; Griswold, C. W. ; Griswold, George; Griswold, John A. ; Griswold, J. C. ; Griswold, J. N. A. : Grote, F. ; Grubb, E. Kurd; Grymes, C. A.; Gunther, C. Godfrey; Gunther, F. F. ; Gunther, William Henry; Gurnee, W. S. Hadden, John A. ; Hale, Seth W. ; Hall, E. S. ; Hall, F. M. ; Hall, George C. ; Hall, George W. ; Hall, Peleg; Halsey, W. L. ; Hamilton, Alexander, Jr. ; Hamilton, James A. ; H!immoud, E. H. ; Harbeck, C. H. ; Harbeck, Henry ; Harbeck, John H. ; Harbeck, William H. ; Hargous, P. A. ; Harley, Henry; Harmon, P. C ; Harney, Charles H. ; Hart, Ben.; Hart, E. B.; Hart, Henry; Hartshorne, J. M. ; Hai-vey, Alexander W. ; Harway, J. L. ; Has'.inga, C. C. ; Hatch, Rufns; Hatch, E. E.; Haughton, M. G. ; Haven, G. G. ; Haven, N. P.; Hawley, E. Judson; Haxtum, John K. ; Hayden, Joel, Jr. ; Heath, A. H. ; Hecksher, John G. ; Hedden, Josiah; Heineman, Emil; Hen- dricks, E. ; Hendricks, Joshua; Henriques, William H. ; Henry, M. H. ; Herbert, George F. ; Heslapp, Joseph Stitt; Hildreth, D. M. ; Hiller, William S. ; Hoadley, George E.; Hoag, F. M. ; Hobbs, John; Hodge, Jonn G. ; Hoffman, C. B. ; Hoflinan, L. M. ; Holbrook, Edwin W.; Holladay, Benjamin; Hollinshead, J. S?; Homans, I. S., Jr.; Homans, Shepard; Hone, K. L. ; Hopkins, Henry; Hopkin.'', S. W. ; Hou.ston, James B. ; Howe, Frank E. ; Howes, Kenben W. ; Howland, Meredith; Hoy, H. E.; Hoyt, Gould; Hoyt, Henry S. ; Huchins, E. C; Hudson, W. Holley; Hunt, E. T. ; Hunt, M. Furman; Hunting, James H. ; Huntington, L. B. ; Hurst, F. W. J. In galls, Eufus; Ingraham, Daniel P. ; Irvin, K. , Jr. ; Isaacs, Monte- fore; Iselin, Adrian; Ives, Frederick E. Jackson, E. J. ; Jackson, F. W. ; Jaffray, W. P. ; James, David H. ; James, F. P.; James, Julien; Jameson, J. A.; Jarvis^ N. , Jr.; Jay, Louis; Jay, William; Jerome, Eugene; Jerome, Isaac; Jerome, Thomas A.: Jewel, L. B. ; Johnson, Bradish; Johnson, Francis L. ; Johnson, George W. ; Johnson, H. A.; Johnson, Theodore; Johnson, Wilmot; Johnson, William; Jones, David; Jones, Frederick M. ; Jo- seph, L. ; Josephson, Louis; Joslyn, O. W. ; Jova, John J.; Judson, Charles J.; Justh, E. Kane, John G. ; Kellogg, George G. ; Kemeys, Edward; Kemp, John H. ; Kendall, J. S. ; Kerner, C. H. ; Kernoohan, J. Frederick; Ketohum, Charles J.; Keteltas, Henry; Keteltas, J. Gardner; Kim- Digitized by Microsoft® AMEBICAN JOCKEY CLUB. I 97 ber, Arthur; Kimball, Robert J. ; King, A. Gracie; King, D. J. ; King, 0. v.; King, Edward (42 Ex, P.); King, Edward (68 E. 34); King, E. H. ; King, Olivi-r K. ; Kingsland, Ambrose C. ; Kimgsland, A. C, Jr.; Kingsland, Daniel; Kingsland, Emile; Kingsland, George L. ; Knapp, A. M. ; Knapp, G. L. ; Knapj], Shepherd F. ; Knickerbacker, K. ; Knowlton, George W. ; Kohn, A. ; Kobbe, William A. ; Kutter, George. Lafarge, Alphouze; Lally, James; Lamb, David; Lambard, G. A.; La Montagne, Edward; Lancey, K. C. ; Lange, A. K. ; Lansberg, S. ; Lansing, Arthur B. ; Lathers, Richard; Liw, George; Lawrence, Alexander C. ; Lawrence, A. G.; Lawrence, Bryan; Lawrence, Geo. P. ; Lawrence, J. K. ; Lawrence, J. B. ; Lawrence, John S. ; Lawrence, J. W. ; Lawton, J. Wari'en; Leary, Arthur; Leavett, H. S. ; Lcdiard, Charles; Lee, D. B. ; Lee, W. P. ;Leland, Charles; Leland, Simeon; Lemmon, William; Leonard, Henry K. ; Le Boy, Herman B. ; Leslie, Frank ; Levine, M. H. ; Lewis, George M. ; Littlefield, Erastus ; Liv- ingston, J. B. ; Livingston, Johnston; Livingston, Robert J. ; Locke, S. M. ; Lockwood, Alfred; Lockwood, S. F. ; Loew, Charles E. ; Long, George \V. ; Long, Jacob M. ; Lord, John T. ; Lorillard, G. L. ; Lor- illard, Louis L. ; Lorillard, Pet;r; Lounsbury, Richard P.; Love- grove, Arthur; Lowry, John A.; Luckemeyer, Edward; Ludlow, Ed- win ; Ludlow, Thomas W. ; Luling, Charles ; Ly dig, David. Macaulay, John L. ; Main, S. A.; Mali, H. W. T.; Mali, W. W. ; Manice, E. A. ; Marie, Peter ; Marshall, Charles H. ; Marston, Willianr H. ; Martin, W. R. ; Marx, Louis; Mason, Henry; Mason, Sidney; Matthews, Edward; Matthewson, Park; Maxwell, James E. ; Maxwell, John D. ; Maxwell, Dr. W. H. ; McClave, John; McClure, George; McGullum, George W. ; McConuell, T. R. ; McCracken, Ernest L. ; McCready, D. A. ; McCready, N. L. ; McOulloh, James W. ; McCune, Charles W. : McDougal, G. C. ; McGinuis, John, Jr. ; McGown, H. P. ; McGrath, \V. B. ; Mcintosh, John E. ; McKim, R. V. ; McLane, Allen; McLaue, Louis ; McLean, C "orge W. ; McLean, James M . ; McLean, S. ; Meeker, W. B. ; Meyer, Christopher; Meyers, T. Bailey; Miller, A. B. ; Miller, A. M. ; Miller, Edmund H. ; Miller, Henry ; Millbank, Samuel W. ; Millbank, A. J. ; Mills, J. G. ; Mills, W. J. ; Minor, A. J. ; Mitchell, Alexander; Mitchell, James L. ; Mitchell, M. ; MoUer, Geo. H. ; MoUer, Peter; MoUer, Peter, Jr. ; MoUer, "William; Moller, Wil- liam F. : Monroe, James; Montague, D. P.; Monson, Marcena, Jr.; Montant, Alphonse P. ; Moody, H. J. ; Moore, E. G. ; Morgan, Chas. ; Morgan, Edward; Morgan, M.; Morgan, Theodore M. ; Morgan, W. Digitized by Microsoft® ■9° CLUBS OV NE^Y YORK. D. ; Morris, Fordham; Morris, A. Newbold; Morris, G. W. ; Morris, J. A. ; Morris, James L. ; Morris, W. H. ; Morsell, J. Ferguson; Mor- ton, LeviP. ;Moslier, A. T.; Moss, Theodore; Motley, J. M. ; Mott, Alexander B. ; Mott, James; Mott, John; Mott, John W. ; Mott, Jor- dan L.; Motz, Ferdinand; Moulson, John; Mount, W. S. ; Mowi-y, Sylvester; Mudgett, B. F. ; Mullaney, J. K. ; Munzinger, Charles; Murdock, Uriel A. ; Murphy, John; Murphy, Thomas; Murray, John B. ; Myers, A. L. ; Myers, J. L. ; Myers, Theodore W. Nathan, Benjamin; Natorp, Gustavus; Naylor, Henry; Naylor, Joseph; Nsill, Edward M. ; Neill, J. Be Laucey; Nesbitt, George F., Jr. ; Nicholas, George S. ; Norrie, Gordon; Norvell, C. C. Oakley, H. C. ; O'Brien, James; O'Connor, Charles; Oddie, John Van Schaick; O'Donnell, J. M. ; O'Donohue, Joseph J.; Decks, An- thony; Oelberman, E. ; O'Fallon, James J.; Ogden, Alfred; Ogden, Charles H. ; Ogden, W. B. ; Olliffe, W. M. ; Oppenheim, E. L. ; Or- cutt, C. C. ; Osborne, C. J.; Osgood, Franklin; Osgood, Gt'orge A.; Otis, Dr. F. N.; Otis, George K. Paine, W. H. ; Palmer, Charles P. ; Palmer, Henry; Palmer, H. D. ; Palmei', Richard S. ; Paris, Sherman; Parker, James V. ; Parks, C. C. ; Parks, William M. ; Parsons, L. ; Patersou, James A. ; Paulding, J. N. ; Pearsall, Denton; Pearsall, Thomas W. ; Penneman, C. R. ; Penneman, S. G. ; Perez, Don Manuel; Perkins, C. L. ; Perkins, H. B. ; Perrin, Robert P. ; Perrine, "VV. H. ; Pettee, D. L. : Pettes, William R. ; Phelps, Royal; Phillips, Arthur Edward; Phipps, George; Phceuis, Lloyd; Phoenix, PhilliiDs; Pierrepont, Edwards; Pitzipio, Gaorge D. ; Place, Charles; Piatt, Frank; Piatt, John R,; Piatt, Samuel R. ; Pleasanton, A.; Plock, Otto; Polhemus, H. D. ; Pond, L. S. ; Ponvert, Elias, Jr.; Ponvert, Louis; Post, Charles A, ; Post, E. A. ; Potter, Edward E. ; Potter, R.B.; Potter, William Henry ; Powell, A. H. ; Punnett, James; Purdy, E. H. ; Purdy, Lovell; Purdy, Samuel M. ; Purser, George H. ; Pyne, John. Rader, Louis B. ; Rader, M. ; Randall, Nathan; Raudoph, E. D. ; Ray, Winthrop G. ; Raymond, Charles M. ; Read, C. H. ; Read, T. B. ; Read, T. T. ; Resd, Edgar; Reed, Isaac H. ; Redmond, Goold H. ; Redmond, E. ; Redmond, William, Jr. ; Reford, J. J. ; Remsen, W. R. ; Renshaw, J. M. ; Rhodes, James A. ; Richardson, John G. ; Richardson, W. ; Richmond, Henry A. ; Rieck, J. G. ; Ripley, Joseph; Risten,Johii A.; llobbins, H. A.; Robbins, S. H. ; Uobert, Frederick; Robinson, Beverly, Jr. ; Robinson, Douglas; Rodewald, H. ; Rogers, Fairman; Rogers, John; Rogers, W. 0. ; Roome, Charles; Ronalds, Digitized by Microsoft® A MEUICAN JOCKEY CL US. 199 Thomas A.; Ross, W. D. ; Routh, H. De B. ; Kowe, Edward; Kowe, Thomas P.; Eubino, Jacob; Buggies, J. F. ; Bupill, Henry G. ; Russell, Charles W. ; Russell, Harry ; Russell, T. B. ; Ruttcr, Jostp-i O. Samauos, S. A. ; Sands, Andrew H. ; Sanford, Charles F. ; Sanford, Gi5org3 W. ; Savory, George; Sayre, Lewis A.; Schanck, D. S. ; Scheftel, Adolpho; Schell, Augustus; Sohell, Richard; Schenck, Edward; Schenck, J. F. ; Schenck, W. I, ; Schepeler, J. D. ; Schepeler, J. P.; Schermerhorii, F. A.; Schermerhorn, John; Schermerhorn, W. B.; Schieffeliu, Charles M.; Schieffelin, W. H.; Schnabell, Richard A ; Schneely. A. ; Schuyler, C. P. ; Schuyler, George L.; Schuyler, Philip; Scott, Edward P. ; Scott, V/. G. ; Searles, James L.; Ssars, K. W.; Sellar, David P. ; Sellye, "W. W. ; Solover, A. A. ; Solover, James JM. ; Seton, Alfred L. ; Seward, Clar- ence A.; Shermau, Frederick; Sherman, W. "VV.; Sherwood, Johu: Sherwood, Warner; Shirley, Henry; Simmons, Z. E. ; Slingerland, William A.; Slingerland, William J.; Slocomb, Thomas; Smith, David; Smith, Desha; Smith, E. Delafield; Smith, Hugh, Smith, H. M.; Smith, James; Smith, James M. ; Smith, James Read; Smith, J. Gait; Smith, L. Shuster; Smith, Murray F.; Smith, Selah ; Sober, A. ; Spear, Charles ; Spencer, James C. ; Spofiord, Gardner S. ; Spofford, J. L. ; Sprague, Joseph A.; Squire, Fi-ank; Squires, Itobert; Starin, W.H. ; Stebbins, C. H. ; Stebbins, Henry G. ; Stedwell, J. H. ; Steers, Henry; Stephens, JohnL.; Step>hens,'W'. A. : Stetson, Alex. M. C. ; Stevens, Prank S. ; Stevens, Paran; Stevens, P. H.; Steward, John, Jr. ; Stewart, Thomas E. ; Stewart, William P. ; Stiastney, L. J.; Stillman. Cljarles; Stiner, Joseph; Stiner, Philip; Stokes, E. S.; Stone, Joseph F.; Stone, W. Oliver; Stoughtou, Charles B. ; Stoughtou, Edwin W. ; Stow, J. A.; Strong, Charles E. ; Strong, W. E. ; Strong, W. L. ; Struthers, James ; Sturgess, P. D. ; Sturgess, T. T. , Jr. ; Stuyvesant, A. Van Horn ; Stuyvesant, Robert E.; Sumner, G. Edwards; Suydam, D. L. ; Suydam, Ferdinand P.; Suydam, P. M. ; Suydam, Richard L. ; Swan, Benjamin E. ; Sweeney, J. M.; Sweeney, P. B. Tag, Charles P.; Taller, E. N., Jr.; Talman. George H., Taylor, Alexander; Taylor, H. A. C; Taylor. H. S. ; Taylor, Stuart M. Taylor, William H. ; Teft, E. T. ; Telfair, J. R. ; Thayer, J. S. Thomson, Christopher ; Thomson, James ; Thompson, A. C. Thompson, Henry ; Thompson, Samuel C. ; Thome, Eugene Thome, W. S.; Thorp, A. S.; Tiffany, 0. L.; Tifiany, George; Til- Digitized by Microsoft® 200 CLUBS 01< iVJSW YUltK. den, Samuel J. ; Tillingbast, Crawford T. ; Timpsoa, B. F. ; Timp- SOD, Theodore; Tobias, Joseph F. ; Todd, Reuben J. ; Toel,William ; Toler, James B. ; Toler, William E. ; Townley, George A. ; Townsend, Effingham; Townsend, John Jackson: Townsend, Peter; Ti-acy, F. W. ; Tracy, John F. ; Trask, B. I. H., Jr. ; Tucker, Gideon J.; TurnbuU, Hem-y; Turn bull. L. G.; Turubull, E. J.; TurnbuU, V/illiam; Tur-nbuU, Wm. ; Turner, David L. ; Tuttle, Charles; Tuttle, C. A.; Tweed, William M. ; Tyler, George F. Underbill, I. F. Vail, Henry F. ; Van Buren A. ; Van Buren, Smith T. ; Van Courtland, Augustus ; Van Courtlandt, P. J. ; Van Courtlandt, J. S. ; Vauderbilt, C. ; Vanderbilt, J. H. ; Vanderboff, E. W. ; Van Sauu, A. ; Van Schaick, E. H. ; Van Schaick, J. ; Van Voorhis, Barton W. ; Varian, W. A.; Vatable, Jules; Verhuven, Henry F. ; Vibbard, Chauncy; Vickers, J. Milner; Viele, Egbert L. ; Von Hoffman, Louis; Von Hoffinan, Pjchard; Von Keller, Herman; Vyse, Thomas A., Jr. Wadsworth, J. 0. L. ; Wainwright, J. Howard; Walker, Thomas George; Wall, Michael W. ; Wallack, J. Lester; Walrave :, J. E. ; Walsh, C. AlUson; Ward, George B. ; Ward, Henry H. ; Ward, John E. ; Ward, Samuel; Waterbury, James M. ; Waterbury, Lawi-ence; Watson, Goodwin; Watson, L. G. ; Watson, William; Webster, Sid- ney ; Welch, Edward V. ; Welch, J. H.; Wells, Kirk B. ; Wenman, J. F. ; West, James O. ; Wetmore, George P. ; Wheatley, Charles; Wheeler, De Witt C. ; Wheeler, S. G., Jr.; Whipple, John; White, Charles E. ; White, Charles W. ; White, Samuel E. ; Whitehouse, E. M. ; Whitewright, Wm., Jr. ; Whitaker, Thomas A. ; WTiiting, J. R. ; Whiteman, N.; Whitney, Frederick A.; Wild, Alfred; Wiltes, George; Willard, E. K. ; Williams, A. D.; Williams, Bai-ney; Wil- liams, Howell L.; Williams, W. S. ; Wilmath, A. F.; Wilmexhug. George G. ; Wilmerding ; Theodore T. ; Wilmerding, Thomas A. ; Wilson, George W.; Winchester, L. W. ; Wiudle, James B. ; Win- throp, Buchanan; Winthrop, Egerton L. ; Wolfe, J. Burke; Wood, Alexander G.; Wood, Benjamin; Wood, Charles B. ; Wood, J. E,. Wood, W. Stannard; Woodruft', Benjamin L. ; Woodward, W., Jr. Woodward, W. S. ; Wooley, Chaales W. ; Woolsey, Edward S. , Jr. Woolsey, Theodore B.; Work, Frank; Worral, Lawrence; Wright, Edward H. Zimmerman, John E. A new and substantial up-to^-n club-house has jusb Digitized by Microsoft® A MEMICAX J CKE T CLUB. 201 boen completed and entered. Situated ou Madison Ave- nue, in the very heart of the most aristocratic precinct of the city, it is somewhat less elegant than that of the Union League Club (erected by Mr. Jerome), but speaks well for the prosperity and permanency of an organiza- tion so young. The club employs forty waiters and ser- vants at the club-house, exclusive of superintendent and clerk, and as many jockeys during- the racing season, who are, however, regarded as regularly in the pay of the association. Hostlers and stablemen are emploj^ed by Digitized by Microsoft® VIII. AMERICUS CLUB. INDIAJ^ H.4RB0R, CONN. The Americus Club was started as early as July, ISdQ, being in point of age fourth among the existing clubs of the city, and only three years j'ounger than the Century. It was at first intended as a purely social organization — a sort of club for gentlemen of leisure with sporting pro- clivities. But, in those days, gentlemen of elegant leisure were not plentiful, and the club, consequently, did not get on very thrivingly: indeed, not until William M. Tweed, president at present, became its master, did people begin to hear it quoted. By organization, it ap- proximates to the old English form of the club. In its original intent it was a summer club, and was to have a club-house convenient to the city, with a fleet of pleasure craft. This intent has been carried out in all substantial respects. The club owns a number of sailing vessels and several steamers, which latter are employed in summer in conveying passengers between New York and the camping ground — said passengers consisting ex- clusively of members and invited guests. In fact, a new steamer, the Americus, was added in 1870, and several new sailing vessels. They are, however, the property of the club as a body, not of individual members. The peculiar feature of the association is the annual campaign in camp, dates of the opening and closing of Digitized by Microsoft® AMXBICUS CLUB. 203 which are deterniined at the regular June meeting, when all indebtedness must be paid under penalty of loss of membership, exce23t in cases of sickness or death in the faruily of a member, who is then excused for the time, but must settle with the president or secretary jDrevious to opening day. The regular meetings of the club are quarterly instead of monthly. The annual meeting for election of officers is held on the second Thursday in September, at eight o'cloct, P. M. The interesting period of the club is the annual camp, which begins about the first of July and generally con- tinues until September. A ball or two in the winter, and a steady frequenting of the Blossom Club-rooms, compensate the members for the lack of a city club- house. The rules of the encampment form a special part of the organization, and constitute a body of laws worth condensation : 1. Meals are served at regular and stated hours — breakfast at seven o'clock, A. M. ; dinner at twelve o'clock, M. ; tea at six o'clock, P. M. 2. Bathing is not permitted within one hundred yards of the club-house between sunrise and dark. 3. On anj' question, whether of business or of pleasure, the majority rules, except whe:i the decision thereof transgresses some fixed rule or by-law of the club. 4. Any member abusing or destroying the property of the club is held personally responsible, and it is the duty of officers to note violations of the rule, and report at the regular meeting. 5. Members visiting the grounds must wear the uni- form of the club during the whole term of their sojourn there. 6. Members are strictly "irohibited from lending any Digitized by Microsoft® 2 34 CL UBS OF N.E W YORK. jDOrtion of their uniforms to any but members, and any member -violating the rule must pay a penalty of five dollars. 7. Guests are not permitted, under any circumstances, to wear the uniform of the club. 8. Every member is entitled to five cards of invi- tation, which contain the signature of the president, and the name of the person receiving. These the member is at liberty to present to his fiiends, endorsing them with his name, and guests must present them upon arrival at the club-house to the officer whose business it is to look after the matter. 9. Members cannot invite any person to stay more than two nights, if any member of the club objects. 10. Members or guests must not make any unnecessary noise, or cause annoyance to members sleeping in the house between the hours of midnight and five o'clock in the morning. Violations of these rules must be reported to the supervisory board, and by that body reported at the regular meeting next succeeding the caonths of camp; and the president or supervisory board, as may be most convenient, is empowered to make special rules at need, intended for the preservation of houses, grounds, or property of the club. Rules thus made must be obeyed as by-laws, but are subject to revision at any special meeting of the members, to be called on three days' notice, and for the specific purpose of revision or emen- dation. The camp uniform consists of blue cloth navy pan- taloons with gold cord down the seams; blue sack coat of the navy cut; white cloth vest cut low, and navy cap. The purveyors of the club, and custodians of jDroperties and uniforms, when not in use, are Drumgold & King, Digitized by Microsoft® AMERrCUa CLUB. 205 clothiers, 746 Broadway. Uniforms of lishers, wait- ers, servants, are also manufactured by the same firm, and kept in store subject to call of the club. The erection of the now building at Indian Harbor for the summer use of the 'Mericuses, in the winter of 1870 and spring of 1871, brings up the subject of club buildings iu New York, where, principally because clubs have leased instead of building, no great progress has been made. The building of the Union is grand, mas- sive, and im230sing as one of Blair's periods, but not ex- actly cosy, agreeable, or even convenient. The ceilings are of dizzy height, and the massiveness of the general air admits of very little ornamentation — too little, in fact, to secure that home-like atmosphere which renders the club comfortable. The Union League building, light, graceful, and easy, is very superior in this respect. Its rooms have lower ceilings, and the general style admits of those cosy corners, nooke, and crannies, which are so fascinating to lovers of tete-a-tete and gossip. So, those of the Century, though the building was not erected for club-house purposes; but, for the most, they are simply Fifth Avenue mansions converted into club-houses, with no extei'ior, and very little interior metamorphosis. The finest club-house in the world is probably that of the Travelers' Club, London. It is a noble Italian edi- fice, of the Koman palace manner, in contradistinction from Palladianism and its orders. Professionally, I be- lieve they call it the Af^tylar; more intelligibly, the Italian palazzo mode. The building of the United Service Club has a Roman-Doric portico of great purity. Grander, more massive, of greater severity than that of the Travelers', is the building of the Athenseum, which is Grecian, with a frieze copied from the Pauathenaic procession in the frieze of the Parthenon. Over the Digitized by Microsoft® 206 Cl.UIiS Oh- .\i'tl- YOHK. 'Roman-Doric portico stands a colossal Minerva by Bailev. The interior is remarkable for grandeur and massive severity, but not for cosiness or comfort, and, though unlike that of the Union in details, is vaguely like it in effect. In the Tvay of summer accommodations, the new house at Indian Harbor is by far the finest in this country. It is a wooden building, of L shape, and occupies the south- western portion of the club's propert}'. On Indian Har- bor it has a front of one hundred and thirty-two feet, and a like extent of front on the Sound. That portion of the structure facing the Sound rests on an old wall of solid masonry. The style of the building is Gothic — the first story being thirteen feet high, the second twelve, and the third twelve : the latter, according to the pre- vailing type in vogue — the more's the pity — bein\>' consti- tuted by that squattj' cap of a roof known as the Man- sard. The first floor contains the g'rand parlor, seventy- two feet ]iine by thirty feet ten, a rarely splendid salon, elegantly frescoed and elegantly furnished. The grand reception room, otherwise the Tweed room, is also on the first floor, and is, it is needless to say, gorgeously appointed. The twelve remaining rooms on the first floor — all twelve feet by twelve feet six — are used mainly by the officers of the club; and on the same floor, at the southeast corner, is the barber's shop), thirty-two feet by eleven feet eleven, with bath-rooms, and every possible convenience for the renovation of the outer man. A piazza encircles the whole floor, and affords shelter in bad weather — also a promenade, seven times around which is equivalent to a mile. The second and third floors are fitted up alike, and contain bedrooms for menibcrs and guests. The num- ber of bedrooms to the floor is thirty, making in all Digitized by Microsoft® AMJCmCUS CLUB. 207 pixt}', averaging twelve feet square; and, of course, the bedding and furniture is of the best money can buy. The leaders and wealthier members have, in face, had their rooms fitted up at their own expense. Externally, the effect (in Gothic) is assisted by a couple of towers — one at the northwesterly, the other at the southwesterly angle of the building — which have an ele- vation of sixteen feet above the roof-top of the main structure. The central tower perfects the Gothic effect. This, designated as the grand tower, occupies the centre of the building, in the angle formed by Indian Harbor and the Sound, rising to the height of fifty feet above the roof, and one hundred above the sea-wall. In this tower above the third floor are fitted up rooms for the use of guests of distinction — for it may be sup- posed that an organization so powerful and opulent has had plenty of guests falling, under that head; and thus committing to the tower gets a new meaning, quite dis- tinct from what it had in old days, when it meant treason. From this floor of the tower, by winding stairway, easy of ascent, access is had to the observatory, one hundred feet above the base of the building. The view is vast — magnificent. On the north, Connecticut for leagues; on the south. Long Island, and the long, ribbon-like Sound; away to the southAvest, with that softening that the magic of distance lends, the busy, bustling, noisy iQetropolis — seen but not heard, visible but silent, as a mere city of mirage might be. Some few points still remain to be noted. The grand entrance is a sort of poem in its way, though not exactly in that which, straining a njetaphor, one might term Gothic. Beautiful it is, nevertheless. It occupies the northwestern angle of the building, is thirty-two feet by twenty-four, and looks out upon elegant walks. The Digitized by Microsoft® 208 CLUBS OF NEW YOBK. grand staircases, too, are models of elegance, in carved walnut: .the cost of the edifice having footed up to about three hundred thousand dollars, irrespective of all upholstery. The erection of so elegant a building gives occasion for some remarks as to club buildings in this country. The Academy of Design, and the splendid edifice facing it, can scarcely be regarded as club buildings, a club differing from an association, m.ore especially in having a sort of home-life, in being a communal experiment. Primarily, it should have uo purpose except a social purpose, and primarily it had none except that. Associations banded for moral, aesthetic, or artistic purposes, are not clubs, except they make a home-life for members, and give it prominence over all other considerations. For this reason, musical societies and the hke are not clubs, since, primarily, clubs were bodies of small membership, first developed out of the private dinners of the Greeks: which were private dinners at public tables: at which, the tables being set for fifteen, vacancies were filled by ballot. Cicero was a club-man, and frequented the confraternities. The early English and American clubs were limited in membership to twenty-five often, more often to fifty, but seldom it was that the roll of names was not fixed at less than one hundred. The example of membership practically unlimited was set by the Athenaeum, London, in 1824, when the gates were opened, twelve hundred members flowed in, and all privacy and exclusiveness were lost. The example was copied by American clubs (but not by the Hone and Kent); and, hence, in the two great cities of New York and London have been developed vast bodies in the club form: not social and en fmnille, as the old clubs were, but rather gregarious, with a tendency to Digitized by Microsoft® AMJJBICUS CLUB. 209 break into cliques. These inhabit huge palaces of brown-stone or marble; but they are not clubs in the ancient sense. Pulaces — palatial indeeJ — are the struc- tures they erect, but not club-houses. The interests of the club suffered in the fall of 1871 from the same causes that disturbed the symposia of the Blossoms, and the building was, in the spring of 1872, reported to be in the hands of the sheriff; but recent events have extricated the organization from pecuniary difficulty, and it resumes under the old auspices, though not likely to be so lavish in expenditures, having had its lesson, in the necessity of making a debtor's and abscond- er's castle of the elegant Indian Harbor structure. This, however, is gossiping by the vvay, and not par- ticularly descriptive of the organization. The club is managed upon a somewhat less extravagant plan than previous to the downfall of the late Tammany magnates, in that halcyon year of 1871, when ]\Ir. Tweed was at once president and treasurer, and the club-house at Indian Harbor was a sort of Hotel de Tweed; for, whereas in the summer of 1871 the cost of entertaining the numerous guests of the members was no less than forty thousand dollars, the bar being free, last summer mem- bers introducing guests were assessed at the rate of three dollars a day for board, wines and cigars extra and paid for on delivery. The consequence was that guests were fewer in number and a trifle more select, and that, while in the summer of '71 the average number who sat down at the table was one hundred and fifty per day, partaking, gratis, of the hospitalities of the club, in '72 they were so sporadic — these elegant loungers — that the summer was reaUy less joUy than usual (though the house was made to pay expenses), and the convivial loueed for the close of the season. Digitized by Microsoft® 2IO CLUBS OF NEW YOBK. To discuss the 'Mericuses is to discuss William M. Tweed socially and politically. He made the organ- ization what it was in the days of its prosperity, when Governors, Mayors, Legislators for the whole State of ISIew York were elected at Indian Harbor. When he fell it fell. A man one-thii-d fox, one-third lion, and one-third elephant, was this William M. Tweed: a sun about which revolved a whole solar system of smaller political villains, equally ready to commit a murder or a perjury at his beck, and depending upon him for light, warmth, and political vitality. Something colossal there was about the man; something vast and intricate there was aboat the schemes he pondered — something imposing and Napoleonic in the manner in which those schemes were aocom|)]ished; yet his success was of a kind, accomplished by means, that could only have occurred in a country where politics had become a gambler's game, not a gentleman's jsrofession; for his method resolved itself into one simple principle, to wit, universal corruption. It was a method of dollars and cents — a commercial method — neither better nor worse than that which rules "Wall Street or Broadway: only Mr. Tweed, like James Fisk, Jr., was somewhat extraordinarily audacious in the application of it. Most of the colossi of the world are (and have been) scoundrels. Indeed, to be great poH- tically, it is inherently necessary to be a great scoundrel. When Lanfrey has lifted the veil that hid the real Napoleon, what see the gaping crowd ? A colossal scoundrel: a man who was not even a gentleman: a liar in word and act, whose whole life was a spectacular drama, of which, tinsel-tricked and star-bespangled, he was the central figure. When Proude has puffed away the illusion enveloping about Queen, Elizabeth, what Digitized by Microsoft® A JIEKIV CS CL UB. 2 1 1 remains ? A coarse, vulgar, jealous, intriguing female scoundrel: a coward who murders a rival with a pretext, having hinted the propiiety of her assassination to every villain about the court. Stripped of the sp)lendid mys- tifying verbiage of Carlyle, what is Frederick the Great ? The coarsest, vulgarest, weakest, burliest, most colossally egotistic scoundrel of them all: the prototype of Mr. Tweed, who is herewith recommended to the uext suc- cess-worshiping Carlyle as the subject of an historical epic. It is one of the merits of human wickedness that it can be colossal, sensational; of human goodness, that it cannot. So Lucifer is a deal the grandest and most fascinating figure in " Pai-adise Lost," as Tweed has been in New York politics; overtop23ing the goody Hoff- man, the jocose Hall, the frightened Connolly; playing with his puppets as Napoleon did, and shifting the stage- scenery of politics to suit his own purposes. You see the man thus at a distance; the elephant and the lion preponderating. Scan, him more closely, and the fox comes out. The craft and low cunning of his broad, heavy physiognomy begin to impress you. " Yes," you mutter to yourself, " a Frederick the Great in loxi- ness and cunning — Carlyle's hero and man of success over again ! Poor, demented Carlyle, who can find no heroism except in success villainously huge, hugely villainous ! " Unjust this may be to Frederick the Great, mayhap unjust to Mr. Tweed; but when, O Carlyle of the future, thou wouldst a hero worthy of thy steel, seek one who, ambitious as Frederick, did let success slip from his hook rather than bait it with meanness and hypocrisy, and thy heroes wiU be neither Fredericks, nor Napoleons, nor Tweeds, nor Fisks. The trouble is that these men have made history: costumed themselves in togas, and Digitized by Microsoft® 212 CLUBS OF XEW YORK. insisted they wei-e Romans; and the men who have written, have not had the courage to strip them of the costuming, and photograph them as they appeared in the green-room. Small the difference between a Nero and a Napoleon, a Frederick the Great and a Tweed, excejDt in the costuming ! But dismiss the disagreeable topic. The membership of the Americus is limited to one hundred; it is the only club of note the membership of which is practically limited, for a thousand is really no limitation at all. Hence, the admission fee and dues are fixed at a scale by no means economical — the former being two hundred and fifty dollars, the latter one hun- dred a year, payable quarterly in advance. No candidate can be elected except upon the unanimous voice of the members, a single black ball excluding, which is, prima- rily, a principle of club organization. About the prelim- inaries there is one point that is original. Any person wishing to join must deposit one hundred dollars with the president, which, in case of rejection, is returned; but, if elected, is credited to his initiation fee. On elec- tion, the candidate pays the rest of the fee, with the ad- dition of dues from the date of the last annual meeting; that is, all jDersons becoming members are required to pay all dues and assessments pei' capita from the date of the previous September meeting. Any mem.ber resign- ing, forfeits all interest in the prof)erty of the club, but is eligible as an honorary member. The club has no special peculiarities of organization. The officers consist of a president, vice-president, secre- tary, assistant secretary, treasurer, captain, and five trustees, the president and treasurer constituting, ex officio, two of the five. These are elected at the annual meeting in September. The president appoints all com- Digitized by Microsoft® .-1 MKHTCUS CLUB. - i .": mittees, is invested with the duty of keeping the larJcr snpphed, and has sole authority and supervision over the department of restauration. Duties of secretary and treasurer need not be specified. The captain is invested with authority over all boats, steamers, and sea-going properties of the club, and employs what help may be necessary for his purposes. The board of trustees have the custody of the properties of the club, and perform as well the function of an auditing committee. The recep- tion of guests devolves on the president and vice-presi- dent. In connection with the fleet and club-house, the asso- ciation emiDloys one hundred and fifty persons or more, and has an income of ten thousand a year from dues. In general, however, the members are opulent, and put their hands in their pockets freely for the benefit of the club. The ofiicers are: President, William M. Tweed, late of the Department of Public Works, No. 237 Broadway; Vice-President, Henry Smith, No. 1 Broadway; Secre- tary, C. H. Hall, No. 135 Madison street; Assistant Secretary, John Scott, No. .54 Bldridge street; Treasurer, William B. Dunley, No. 21 St. Mark's place; Captain, George E. Mann, No. 197 Monroe street. Board of Trustees, James M. McGregor, William H. Sehaffer, Wilham M. Tweed, William B. Dunley, Edward Mar- renner. Board of Control, John Yanderbeck, Owen W. Brennan, Edward Kearney, Henry Smith, and William M. Tweed. LIST OF MEMBERS. Scott, John; Miller, James L. ; Ely, William L. ; Van Arsdaie, P, B. ; Dunley, William B.; Macgregor, James M. ; Sehaffer, Wil- liam H.; Marrenuer, Edward; Vanderbeck, Francis; Davison, Wil- Digitized by Microsoft® 2T I CZUJIS OF A'EW YOBK. li,uii; Kirk, Lewis J.; MoGarigal, John; Davin, Ed. A.; Clancy, La'm-ence; Kinney, Francis; Southwortb, Joseph; Betts, John S. ; Shandley, Edward J. ; Butt, George W. ; Schaffer, Christian W. ; Eoche, Walter; Braisted, Peter D. ; Bassford, Edward D. ; Garvey, Andrew J. ; O'Brien, William K. ; Eosevelt, George W. ; Keenan, Patrick H. ; Shannon, Joseph; Farley, Terence; Shook, Sheridan; Charlock, William PI. ; Barnard, John T. ; Watson, James; Huelat, Henry H.; Boyle, Edward; Stymus, William P. ; Cornell, Charles G. ; Brennan, Owen W. ; Pickibrd, John, Jr.; Durnin, Eugene; Yard, Wesley S. ; Ford, John J,; Hagerty, Edwin M. ; Hogan, Edward; Jones, Morgan; GrafuUa, Claudius S. ; King, John T. ; Kearney, Edward; Young, Joseph B. ; Corson, Cornelius; Canary, Thomas; Taylor, Robert M. ; Jackson, Joseph A. ; Barber, Anaaziiih T). ; Jones, Edward: Fleming, Charles L. ; Sharp, Jacob; Satterlee, John; O'Brien, Jam's; Bleakley, Andrew; Donohoe, Thomas; Brown, Martin E.; Cuddy, Edward; McGowau, JohuT. ; Tripler, Thomas E. ; Davidson, John McB.; IngersoU, James H. ; Rogers, William C. ; Woodward, E. A. : Sayles, Sol. ; Miller, George S. ; Keyser, JohnH. ; Dewey, William C. ; Berrian, Daniel; Eyan, James; Oliver, Isaac J. ; Pentland, John; Miller, David; Lawrence, Charles L. ; Shandley, Michael, Jr. ; Felter, Henry D. ; Chamberlain, John F. ; Boyle, James W. ; O'Conner, Chris.; Van Elten, Kuseman; Vinanta, Daniel; Prear, Alexander; Fisk, James, Jr. (deceased); Gould, Jay; Kirkpatriok, Thomas; Harrison, Joseph G. ; Selmes, Reeves E.; Loew, Charle.s E. ; Fields, Thomas C, ; Mitchell, George H, ; Pyne, John; Gambleton, James J; Ferris, Thomas H. ; O'Donoghoe, T. J.; Jones, James E. ; Garvey, John; Harway, James L.; Phillips, T. Au- gustus; Carnochan. John M. ; Brennan, Matthew T.; B::rkei-, James; Borrows, William B. ; Barnum, Henry A. ; Halsoy, Schuyler; Watson, James S. ; Sturtevant, Newell ; Collier, James W . ; Helm- bold, Henry T. ; Osgood, George A. ; Brice, John ; McCabe, Francis ; Harnett, John H. ; Coulter, James E.; Bedford, Gunning S., Jr.; Barnard, George G. ; Bleakley, Andrew, Jr.; Funk, Augustus; Trainer, Peter; Schirmer, William; Georgi, Adolph E.; Koch, Joseph; Van Tassell, William. Receptions are always given during the summer season, with, special receptions to the lady friends of the club. Digitized by Microsoft® IX. LOTOS CLUB. NO. 2 IRVING PLACE. " In the afternoon they came unto a land In which it seemed always afternoon." On the afternoon of Tuesday, March 8, 1870, six young New York journalists met together in the office of the New York Leader, to take the initiatory steps necessary for the formation of a club. They were De Witt Van Buren, of the Leader ; Andrew C. Wheeler, of the Daily World ; George W. Hows, of the Evening Express ; Frederick A. Schwab, of the Daily Times; W. L. Alden, of the Citizen ; and J. H. Elliot, of the Home Journal. These gentlemen, besides filling various other positions on the journals with which they were connected, were all musical, dramatic, and art critics, tolerably well knovm in literary and art circles, and fairly representa- tive of the younger portion of metropolitan journalism. The idea of forming a club had been discussed by them in a desultory manner for many months, and had finally seemed to assume a tangible shape. A strictly journal- istic or literary organization of the kind was known to be impossible, successive failures of such attempts having proved that beyond a peradventure. Following somewhat the example of the Savage, Garrick, and Junior Garrick Clubs, of London, it was decided then to found the new club on the broadest possible basis consistent with its central and distinctive idea — in a word, to make it an art Digitized by Microsoft® 2 !0 CLCBS OF ^\7iir VOI^K. club, using the term art in its truest and most compre- hensive sense. The central idea was to bring into the most agreeable social contact journalists, literary men, painters, sculptors, musicians, actors, and members of the learned professions, gentlemen of leisure, and business men, in active sympathy with the assthetic as ^yell as the practical side of hfe. The first meeting of what was to become the Lotos Club, resulted simply in a firm determination to maintain this idea scrupulously in the organization proposed. Exactly one week later, March 15, that organization was effected, the half-dozen gentlemen mentioned having enlisted the cooperation of Albert Weber, the famous piano manufacturer; Thomas A. Kennett, formerly proprietor of the Buffalo Express, now of the Broad Street firm of Noyes & Kennett; Harold Bateman, Escp, son of the well-known manager, and brother of Kate Bateman, the tragedienne; and Montgomery Schuyler, of the World. The following officers were elected for the first year: — President, De Witt Van Buren; Vice-President, Frederick A. Schwab; Secretar3', George W. Hows; Treasurer, Albert Weber; Directory, De Witt Van Buren, George W. Hows, A. C. Wheeler, T. A. Kennett, J. H. Elliot. On the following Saturday, March 19, the name and constitution of the club were adopted. Among the many titles proposed, the compounded Melolotos seemed to find the most favor, but, as it was especially suggestive of music. Lotos alone was finally adopted as typical of a resort where might be always found the social intercourse and pleasant surroundings which tend to promote repose rather than action, and induce quiet and rest for the overworked brain and nervous system, in an atmo.sphere both soothing to the sense beautiful and aromatic, with agree- able regalia flavors. The Constitution set forth the Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. 217 distiactive object of the club ia Article L, Section 2, as follows: " Its inimary object shall be to promote social intercourse among journalist's, literary men, artists, and members of the theatrical profession. " To tbis section was subsequently added a clause re- quiring that at least two-thirds of the members should belong, either directly or indirectly, to the professions named, and still later the limit was fixed at one-half instead of two-thirds. The initation fee was fixed at twenty dollars for regular, and one hundred for honorary members, and the dues for the former at five dollars per month, payable in advance. The Constitution provided that the Directory should be the virtual governing and controlling power of the club, hold weekly meetings, appoint necessary committees, and pass first upon the candidates for membership. Regular club meetings, for the transaction of business, were appointed for the last Thursday in each month, and the annual meeting for the third Saturday in March. Nine affirmative ballots in every ten were required to elect candidates, after their names, residence, and occupation had been posted on the bulletin at least six days previous to being acted upon. Honorary members were elected on the same conditions, and entitled to all privileges except that of voting. The experiment was now fairly inaugurated — the foundation laid whereon to build a structure, which, unique in its social features, should be an honor alike to its originators, promoters, and the metropolis of America. Pending the selection of a local habitation for the club, meetings were held in the parlors of the Belvi- dere House, then located on the corner of Fourth avenue and Fourteenth street, and the membership increased in Digitized by Microsoft® 2l8 CLUB a OF ^'l■J^v york. a short time to between thirty and forty. Meanwhile, the committee appoiiited for the jDurpose, selected the house at No. 2 Irving Place, adjoining the Academy of Music, as the most suitable, desirable, and available for the club, and after no little expressed misgiving on part of a few faint-hearted members, the Directory was em- powered to secure it for one year, at a rental not exceed- ing three thousand dollars. Following these instructions, they secured it for one year at a rental of two thousand eight hundred dollars,with the privilege of retaining it two years longer at an annual rental of three thousand dol- lars. Formal possession of the premises was taken on the fifteenth of April, and on the twentieth the ground floor was furnished and the first meeting held. On the twenty- ninth the club was incorporated under the general act, and from this time the name and fame of the Lotos spread rapidly, and long lists of candidates for membership were voted upon at every meeting. The names proposed were thoroughly canvassed, and great pains were taken to admit no one who could not subscribe heartily to the objects of the organization as set forth in the Constitu- tion. By this means, there was gradually gathered a remarkably fine body of gentlemen, posssessing in the aggregate far more than the average amount of good- breeding, talent, and inilueuce. Such acquisitions natur- ally fastened upon the club the distinctive reputation which its projectors had most desired, and at a compar- atively - early day in its history, it could no longer be fairly called an experiment. On the fifth of October, a little less than seven months after the foundation of the Lotos, its first p,resident, De Witt Van Buren, died, after a comparatively brief illness, although he had been in delicate health for many weeks, strugghng bravely the while to conceal his failing Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. 2 19 strength, and attend as usual his manifold duties. The bereavement was a sore one to the young club, for its members had all learned to respect, esteem, and admire their president, and to regard him as preeminently fitted for the prominent position he held among them. De Witt Van Buren was, indeed, a rare gentleman, a warm lover, and a true friend. A poet by nature, a student and a scholar, there was in his manly presence and whole de- meanor something that seemed to lift him a little above his fellows, and inspire a sort of reverence among- those who knew him well. His interest in the club had been from the first very deep. He labored earnestly for its best welfare, and to the last its success was one of his foremost desires. Resolutions expressive of the universal esteem in which he was held, were passed at a special meeting, and forwarded to his family, and a delegation of the members attended his funeral at Schenectady, his native place. Thus early in its career was the Lotos draped in mourning for one who had hardly crossed the threshold of eai'ly manhood, and before whom, at the time of its inception, a brilliant future had seemed to open. On the twenty-sixth of October a very large represen- tation of the members of the club met to elect a president to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Van Buren. The two candidates presented w*re Hon. A. Oakey Hall, Mayor of New York, and Colonel Thomas W. Knox, the well- known traveler, author, and correspondent. The ballot resulted in the election of Mr. Hall, who formally ac- cepted the position thus proffered at an inaugural dinner given to the club not long afterv/ards. It was then clearly understood that he assumed his office entirely in his social capacity, as a journalist, litterateur, dramatist, and patron of art generally. In his happy and well-timed Digitized by Microsoft® 2-0 CLUBS OF NEW YORK. address, he took pains to declare political honors of small importance compared with the social honor thus conferred upon him, and predicted that the Lotos -would eventually become the foremost club in America. As if to fulfill the prediction at once, the club took a new lease of life and prosperity. At the suggestion of Mr. Hall, Saturday' evening of each week was set apart for a general reunion of members, and the " Lotos Saturday Nights " soon became famous, and were continued throughout the season, with constantly increasing attractions. In the early evening a repast was served, and subsequently there were new works of art to be seen, and music and recita- tions to be heard in the parlors. With artists like Beard, Reinhart, Burling, Lumley, Chapin, Rosenberg, Bispham, and Pickett; pianists like Wehli, Mills, Hop- kins, Colby, and Bassford; singers like Randolfi, Lau- rence, Thomas, Macdonald, Perring, Seguin, Matthison, and Davis; and actors like Edwin Booth, John Brougham, Edwin Adams, Lawrence Barrett, Mark Smith, Walter Montgomery, D. H. HarkinS; and George Clark, all mem- bers of the clab, to contribute to the success of these weekly festivals, it is certainly no wonder that they became so widely known that invitations thereto were eagerly sought. Noted guests like the veteran actor and manager, William Creswick; the veteran comedian, Charles Mathews; Bristow, the ft)mposer; Villanova, the pianist; Simpson, the tenor; Eben, with his silver-voiced flute; and Levy, with his magic cornet, were present on various occasions, and added measurably to the delights of the reunions. Sj)eaking of Levy's cornet recalls an informal but very jovial " Saturday Night," which was celebrated long before the institution proper was inau- gurated. At the close of the Beethoven Festival, held at the Empire Skating Rink in June, Gilmore's Band, Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. 22 1 headed by P. S. Gilmore himself, serenaded the Lotos, and was invited to partake of its hospitalities. The night was one of lively enjoyment, and will always be remembered as the occasion of the first public compli- ment to the club. How jubilantly the projector of the great Boston Peace Jubilee of '69 entered into the spirit of the unique little entertainment, and how the notes of Arbuckle's cornet rang again and again through the length and breadth of the club-house, will sometimes be told as among the more memorable of early Lotos events. The Saturday Nights will be continued from season to season, with very many additional sources of pleasure and entertainment, and it is not unlikely that some of them may be arranged as receptions for the lady friends of the club and its members. Should such be the case, they will speedily become prominent among the social and artistic gatherings of the metropolitan season. On the first of December the initation fee was in- creased to fifty dollars for active, and two hundred and fifty dollars for honorary members. On the first of January following the annual dues were fixed at forty dollars, payable quarterly in advance. The first annual meeting and election of the Lotos took place on Satur- day evening, March 18, of the year 1871. At the last previous regular meeting of the club, the Constitution had been amended and altered in several important particulars. As thus amended, Section 2 of Article I., which has been previously quoted, reads as follows: "Its primary object shall be to promote social intercourse among journalists, literary meu, artists, and members of the musical and . dramatic professions; and at least one-half of the members and two- thirds of the ofncers of the club shall be connected with said pro- fe.ssious." Digitized by Microsoft® 22 2 CLUBS OF A' JEW YORK. An additional office, that of Corresponding Secretary, was created, and the government of the ckib was directly vested in the Directory, increased to twelve, including the president and vice-president as members ex officio. These officers and ten directors were to be elected by the club, and the remaining officers and ail committees by the Directory, from its own number. Regular meetings of the club were abolished, and regular Directory meet- ings fixed for the last Thursday of each month. Names of candidates fpr membership were required to pass from the election committee to the Directory, where two black balls rejected them. The necessity and desirability of these emendations had gradually become so apx^arent that they were adopted unanimously. At the annual meeting, the secretary read a very interesting report of the first year's existence of the club, and the treasurer's report showed a handsome balance in the treasury, with no indebtedness, save two issues of bonds to members, one thousand dollars and two thousand five hundred dollars respectively, for the purpose of furnishing the house. The election passed oft' quietly. There were two tickets in the field, but their only difference was in four or five nominees for the Directory, and what was known as the regular ticket was elected by a large majority. The polls were open from 10 A. M. to ten P. jVL, and the result of the ballot was as follows: Pres- ident, A. Oakey Hall; Vice-President, Thomas W. Knox; Directory, A. C. "Wheeler, T. A. Kennett, George W. Hows, J. H. Elliot, C. G. Rosenberg, Albert Weber, J. H. Hager, Henry D. Palmer, Thomas J. Hall, T. E. Baker. The Directory subsequently elected George W. . Hows as Recording Secretary, J. H. Elliot as Corre- sponding Secretary, and Albert Weber as Treasui-er, and appointed the following committees: Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. 223 PinaDce— T. A. Kennett, H. D. Palmer, T. J. Hall. Election— G. W. Hows, A. Weber, J. H. Elliot. Litera- ture—A. C. "\7heeler, T. E. Baker, T. A. Kennett. Art— C. G. Rosenberg, A. 0. Wheeler, G- W. Hows. House — March 18 to July 1, 1871, H. D. Palmer, T. A. Ken- nett, T. J. Hall; July 1 to October 1, 1871, A. Oakey Hall, George W. Hows, J. H. Hager; October 1 to January 1, 1872, Thomas W. Knox, A. C. Wheeler, C. G. Rosenberg ; January 1 to March 18, 1872, T. E. Baker, Albert Weber, J. H. Elliot. At the beginning of its second year, then, the Lotos was firmly established on the basis which had been laid for it. It bad outlived all probable dangers and dis- asters, and gained an importance and influence which it is believed no club in this city ever before gained in so short a time. Its originators looked upon it with wonder and admiration, scarcely able to recognize in the vigorous and thriving organization the fruition of their humble endeavors. The only real danger that had ever threat- ened was that its distinctive purpose might be unwit- tingly undermined by carelessness or indifference, and so allow it to drift into an ordinary club, without special significance or any fixed purpose. This danger was hap- pily passed with the rest, and nothing was left to bar the progress and prosperity which have steadily attended it. At hardly eighteen months old, the club had a mem- bership of nearly two hundred, and was constantly making fresh acquisitions. Tiie names of some of its prominent representatives of art have been given. Among other well-known members may be mentioned Hon. R. B. Roosevelt, M. C, Mr. Henry G. Stebbins, Mr. Prank Leslie, Douglass Taylor, Esq., Hon. Thomas E. Stewart, Mr. Edwin F. De Leon, former United States Coi:sul- General in Egypt; Otto Pulgraff, M. D., John Hay, the Digitized by Microsoft® 2 34 CLUBS Oil ^'£^V YORK. poet; Bronson C. Howard, the dramatist; Patrick S. Gilmore, Mr. Charles E. Wilbour, Charles Inslee Pardee. M. D., and Hon. John E. Reed, of Long Island. Nearly all the leading journals of the city are represented by two or more inerobers, many of whom have a reputation as authors, writers, and poets outside the newspaper world. Music and the drama are additionally represented by such impressarii, managers, dramatists, and conduc- tors as Max Maretzek, Max Sfcrakosch, Dr. James Pech, J. C. Fryer, Charles Gayler, Augustiji Daly, James E. Hayes, Henry Tissingtou, John A. Duff, Ered. Lyster, J. H. Magonigle, Theodore Moss, Harry Palmer, F. J. Pillott, C. W. Tayleure, John P. Cole, Carl Rosa, J. H. Selwyn, and others. Medicine, law, the fine arts, engi- neering', commerce, finance, and tz-ade generally are all worthily represented. Here doses Mr. Elliot's narrative, with some compli- ments to A. Oatey Hall. And here, alas ! the old -fatality, dissension, intervenes; Mephistopheles appears on the scene; and it ceases to be, in the pleasant words of the test — always afternoon. Out of the discontented of the Lotos is evolved an Arcadian, in which, be it hoped, it ia always afternoon of a dozy Arcadian day, with lulhng breezes — fcr, surely, these sensitive spirits will migrate again, in vain groping after the land where it is always afternoon, should a single rose-leaf of the new Sybaris turn awry. The merits of the case concern not the writer. The Lotos sustained the shock bravely, and began the new year with the following list of of- ficers: President, Whitelaw Reid; Yice-President, John Brougham; Recording Seeretarj', Charles H. Miller; Corresponding Secretary, Charles Inslee Pardee; Treas- urer, William Appleton, Jr.; Directory, Whitelaw Rcid, John Brougham, Thomas W. Knox, J. B. Bouton, Wil- Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. 22 3 liam Appleton, Jr., Charles H. Miller, Charles Inslee Pardee, Joliu Elderkin, J. Henry Hager, Thomas E. Morris, Daniel Bixby, C. F. Chickering. As its Saturday evening reunions constitute a feature of the Lotos, the rules pertaining thereto are of popular importance. To prevent the overcrowding of the club-house, and the presence of unauthorized persons during the Satur- day evening reunions, a servant of the club is stationed at the door every Saturday evening during the season, with orders to admit none but members and guests. Unless accompanied by the member inviting him, each guest must be provided with a card of invitation, which is furnished to any member on application to the stew- ard, ajicl the card must bear the name of the guest and the member inviting him, together with the date for which the invitation is given. No member may bring or invite more than two visitors to the club-house on any one Saturday evening, and the names of all visitors must be placed on the register. As members indebted to the club an amount exceed- ing ten dollars for more than three months are deemed expelled, the doorkeeper is furnished with a revised list of members, and gentlemen whose indebtedness exceeds ten dollars for a period of more than three months, are considered subject to the penalty prescribed. Gentlemen who are guests of the club require no special visiting cards for Saturday evenings. No refreshments can be served from the table, in the parlors, during the regular Saturday evening reunions. The honorary list, which is entered by paying two hundred and fifty dollars, includes P. S. Gilmore, oi Boston Jubilee fame, and the American JuUien; .Alex- Digitized by Microsoft® 2 20 CLUJIS OF SEW YOUK. ander Henderson, Thomas E. Perry, and Thomas E. Stewart. The uecrological list consists of D. W. Van Buren, died in 1870; Walter Montgomery, the well- known actor, whose tragic death thrilled London and New York in the summer of 1871; and Theodore Hagen, tlie well-known music pubhsher, and projDrietor of the Weekly Review, whose death occurred early in 1872. The club is in an exceedingly prosperous financial con- dition, and has given several vei-y elegant receptions in honor of Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, John Hay, Edmund Tates, the English novelist; P. S. Gilmore, James An- thony Froude, and other notabilities. One of its finest Saturday nights was that in honor of Weber, at his Fifth Avenue joiauo palace, on the evening of Saturday, April 6, 1872. The gathering was in response to an in- vitation issued by a committee of the following members : Hon. Henry G. Stebbins, A. C. Wheeler, F. A. Schwab, Albert Webei-, H. D. Palmer, George Dudley Waring, George W. Hows, J. M. Bundy, Mark Smith, Thomas J. Hall, Thomas E. Baker, Clarence H. Livingston. The throng was remai'kable as a gathering of celeb- rities in the world of music, literature, and art. No less than fifteen prime donne of more or less renown wei-e present, and so was nearly every singer and pianist of note, every leading newspaper in the city being repre- sented. OjDeratic managers were there, in the persons of Max Strakosch, Carl Rosa, Mr. H. Jarrett, Max Maretzek, De Vivo, Signer Albites, Gilmore, of jubilee fame: dra- matic, in the persons of Mr. Magonigle, the popular manager of Booth's Theati-e, and Lester Wallack. Especially notable among the musical jDeople were Parepa-Eosa, Clara Lo lise Kellogg, Miss Oary and Miss Morensi, Madame Anna Bishop, Madame Fabbri, Madame Clara M. Brinkerhoff, Mrs. Seguin and her daughter, Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. 22/ nee Zelda Harrison; Mile. Marie Leon Duval, jiadame Van Zandt, Miss Doria, Mrs. Aynsley Coolc, Miss Canissa, Miss Clara Perl, Pratdein Elzer, Miss Graziella Ridgway, Madame Melauia Keboux, Mrs. Picton Rowo, Santlcy, the great baritone; Capoul, Jamet, Barre, Ferranti, Tom Karl, Eonconi, Jacob Muller, of tlie Fabbri o^Dera troupe; Random, G-. F. Hall, S. C. CampbeU, J. E. Tliomas, composer; W. S. Leggatt, and McDonald, vocalists; Charles Lyall, Antonio Moi-a, the organist; violinists, Sarasate, Dr. Damrosch, Signer Padovani, and Mile. Filomena; and the pianists. Mills, Welili, Vilanova, Pat- tison, Lindsay Sloper, Gr. W. Colby, F. Korbay, Agra- monte, and Cai-lo Bosoni. The general society list embraced the names of Henry Clews, Joseph W. Harper, Jr., of Harper Brothers; Mr. Frank Leshe, Dr. A. K. Gardner, wife and daughter; Powell, the artist; G. G. Havens, the banker; Mr. James H. Benson, B. F. Reinhart, artist; S. S. Conant, of Harper's Weekly; Walter Condit, Colonel Dodge, Benja- min Gurney, Dr. William W. Strew, Colonel H. G. Stebbins, Arthur Lumley, the artist, and many more: while among the daily journalists present were Mont- go'mery Schuyler, Mr. W. Jj. Alden, Joseph Howard, Jr., editor of the Siar; W. Francis Williams, the musician and able critic of the Post; Mr. Henry Sedley and Mr. Fred- erick A. Schwab, of the Times; Mr. Myron A. Cooney, of the Herald; Mr. Albert W. Orr and Melville D. Landon, of the Covimercial Advertiser; Mr. Townley, art critic of the Eoening Mail; George W. Hows, of the Express, and Mr. L. S. Israels, representing the World. The miisical entertainment was informal and of high excellence, the performers doing their best to please so critical an audience. Of the prime donne who favored the company were Miss Clara Louise Kellogg, in a song Digitized by Microsoft® 2^o CLUBS 01'' NFAV TOJ-JK. by Claj', " She Wandered down the Mountiin Side," which she rendered in finished style; Miss Jennie Van Zandi", Madame Brinkerhoff, in a pleasing ballad; Miss Zelda Seguin and Miss Kate Moreusi. Among the gen- tlemen singing foremosL stood Santley, who was followed by Randolfi and McDonald. The pianists who plaj^ed included Mr. S. B. Mills and Mr. James M Wehli. Mr. Lindsay Sloper, Mr. Colby, Mr. Sarasate, Mile. Filomena, and Mr. Dachauer also took part — the whole going off with an eclat rarely equaled. Later receptions of considerable importance have been given, one of which will be noticed hereafter: the Lotos and the Union League having until lately, appeared to em- body the greater part of the social vitality concentrated in New York club-life. The social mission of the club is a subject that natu- rallj' occurs in the discussion of the Lotos. The recep- tions given by the Union League, the Standard, the Lotos, the Arcadian, have called up the question of the advisability of so expanding the conception of the club as to render it a society or an intellectual power. So far as the Lotos and the Arcadian have taken part in this impulse they seem to have done so at the expense of the interests of criticism, having become partisans of the artists, actors, vocalists, musicians, poets, and lec- turers represented on their respective lists, to the extent of their power over the press. Both have unconsciously adopted positions as combinations of critical and news- paper influences, assuming to make and unmake reputa- tions at will; and hence, the journals controlled by their members in no way rejDresent impartial criticism, being conducted in the interests of a set of professionals, not in the interests of the public. But impossible as it is that a club should usurp the Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. 229 critical function, without detriment to public interests, it by no means follows that the social function is not susceptible of expansion. The Kue Vivienne Cerole, Paris, presents an example of an attempt in this direc- tion, though an attempt somewhat subordinated to polit- ical purposes; and the Woman's Club, ' Sorosis), that did statedly tea and talk at Del.nonico's, though without earnest purpose, social, intellectual, or moral, unless notoriety-seeking may be considered as such, reveals another phase of the same tentative, but ever restless putting-out of the century's hand for the freer, nobler, more beautiful, more organic and efficient in culture. Seed-ideas, hitherto barren and infecund, bud and blos- som into institutions strong with progressive vitality; for though in one aspect the age is one of intense com- mercialism and of general crooking of the supple knee to the god Mammon, in another aspect it is an age of intense and speculative groping after the real: of groping that fertilizes seminal ideas, long asleep in fallow ground, as no groping' after the Utopia has done before. From the discussion in the abstract of this phase of progress the Lotos and Arcadian clubs may be dismissed; for though the Saturday nights of the former bring to- gether the best rising professionals in the city, and the Thursday night receptions of the latter are intellectually important, the social ovations of neither have any defi- nite relation to genei-al society, such as is held by the receptions "of the Har-monie or of the Standard, of the Union League or the Century. But why not apply the principle of the club on a large scale to society purposes ? The segregation of society into sets has been vastly accelerated, particularly in New York, by the incapacity of the ordinary sahn to accommodate large gatherings; besides, the modern Digitized by Microsoft® 2 30 CLUBS Oil ^■E^Y YOliK. parlor lacks perspective, aiid is by no means a suitabio stage upon which to exhibit the artistic in toilette; and the fact that salons like Delmonico's are frequently called into requisition to give private receptions, seems to demonstrate that the need of larger spaces has al- ready forced itself upon public attention. Here, then, is a new field for cooperative enterprise. Let a certain number of gentlemen of the first standing, with ample capital, club together and erect a building adapted to the purpose of giving receptions on the magnificent scale in which a few society leaders would like to in- dulge, did the conditions of the modern residence permit. The idea is a feasible one, and would introduce into modern society a centripetal tendency it now sadly lacks. The building sliould be one of splendid salons for dance and promenade, with beautiful hanging balconies for music stations, cosy little by-parlors for whist and conversation, an elegant theatre and stage, like those at the Union League, for readings, tableaux vivants and private theatricals, beautiful conservatories for moon- light rhapsody, and an excellent caterer affording the best at moderate prices — the whole upholstered and furnished with all the perfect art of the merest bijou parlor of a private residence, and constituting a kind of pleasure-palace adapted to the larger needs of the modern society queen: for, while the differentiation between private and social life has become more defi- nite from year to year, the type of building erected for purposes of residence has remained practically unal- tered. A club modeled upon this plan would necessarily be- come a great social engine; hence, the necessity that its function should be controlled by private parties, to pre- Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. -3' vent its degeneration into a vast society hotel, with a hotel's lack of exclusiveness; and thus a completeness of art and organization woiild be introduced into a field hitherto inartistic, inorganic, and responsible to no laws except those of accident or caprice. The Kue Vivienne Cercle, constituting in some respects a political and social event even in Paris, suggests, then, in the purpose of its organization, a principle suscej^tible of unlimited expansion and of an application to society life: for though ladies are excluded from membership, they are admitted to the soirees, concerts, and balls given in the magnificent salons during the Parliamentary ses- sion: indeed, one of its intents is to bring general society into coherent body and harmony; and thus a grand social centre, about which may revolve those crystaliz- ations generally designated as sets, has been established, the society solar systems of Paris taking a new unity in the new relation to a central luminary. A new unity, stumbled upon, as all the discovered unities have been, quite by accident, is a new revelation having many and various relations to practical problems, of which, after all, paradox though it be, the key is always found in theoi-y; and in suggesting a new political unity in a unity of politics with social forces, the Cercle suggests a new society unity, having both a social and artistic mission. Why not applj' the same principle in New York? "VVhUe there is a tendency on the part of metropohtan society to break into sets: to segregate, thea aggre- gate into terrestrial Saturns with rings more or less luminous: there is a counteracting tendency on the part of these sets to expand and assimilate, until, having waxed too unwieldy for the facilities of the dwelling- house salon, they break and readjust into new sets, more convenient in their number of cynosurcB ; that body Digitized by Microsoft® 2.32 CLUBS OF yj-jw yoiiic. termed modern society exhibiting the phenomenon of a kind of centripetal force balanced against a centrifugal: a tendency to flj" off at a tangent and to assume closer coherence: a tendencj' to individuation, as the poet of German philosojDhers expresses it, and a balancing ten- dency to closer assimilation of elements, both of which are necessary to a healthy social organization, the one tending to the exclusive, the other to the universal. There are wheels within wheels, sets within sets, unities within unities; and now and then, it happens that some luminary greater than the rest renders the unity almost universal. As intimated, one of the detennining causes of segre- gation has heretofore been constituted by the limited area of the salon : it being impossible or impractiable so to expand the private parlor as to answer the demands of the higher society unity. The question, a party or reception being contemplated, is not who shall be favored with the coveted cards of invitation, but who shall be dropped? who of the circle which has expanded by ordinary laws until it cannot be compressed within the limits of a modern parlor, can be spared with the least perceptible loss to the rest? Where there are few v.-eeds, this process of weeding out is not a pleasant one, and is liable to awaken social bickerings and jealousies, which, like Banquo's ghost, will down at no bidding of apology or reparation. It may be that in the nature of things offences must come, but woe unto her through whom the offence cometh ! And yet, the invitations distributed, the most careful weeding has not prevented a crush fatal to all art, all ease, and all enjoyability; and the few dropped from the Hst, in nowise, apparently, contribute to the relief of the many who remain. It has been fuss and feathers, and no bird: aU the way round, to nothing ! Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. ^Zi Certain heart-burnings have been caused, and nobody has benefited by them : not tlie giver of the party, because the few who could be dropped formed no appreciable proportion of the ay^gregate set: not the guests, because the crush was not ajspreciably lessened, and half a dozen more or less could have resulted in no intensification of the discomfort. And comfort at a party or reception depends mate- rially upon pleasuring of the artistic sense. For this purpose there must be spaces, distances, intervals of light and shade — iu short, perspective. The proximity begotten of crush vitiates art in toilette. The finest exemjilar of Worth's handiwork must be seen as a whole, at distances rendering it one instantaneous impression, to be appreciated or even appreciable. Textures may be ascertained in a crush, the genuineness of laces or gems determined, but to impress the sensibilities with an image of beauty and fitness is impossible; and any person of analytic turn who will subject the discomfort of a modern party to rigid scrutiny, will find most of it referable, not to the fact of having been actually crowded and elbowed, but to confusion of the sensations, to want of unity in the mise-en-icene. The art-sight has been offended somewhat as it is offended by a Gothic front as manufactured uow- a-days, with all oneness lost in meshed and confused intricacies of tracery- work; and when will people learn that the art-sight — the form of beauty in the mind — is potent for good or ill, even in ordinary society gather- ings? Or, if it is nothing, why rehearse a wedding ceremony ? why arrange for perspective of woe at a funeral ? why seek to pacify the seeing of the beautiful that might be, through the beautiful that is, in any of these work-a-day or weep- a-day details? Why? Because there is a ghost of beauty in the mind — a spectre of what Digitized by Microsoft® 234 CLUUS OF NEW YOBK. might be forever visible in the body of what is, like the god shining through the. marble, yet intangible to the senses, in a Phidian statue — that revenges itself, if not appeased by something lite proximate satisfaction; and Lady Vere de Vere can no better afford to disregard it at her party than Mr. Tintoretto on his painted canvases. These two great considerations are altogether distinct from the minor inconveniences, such as compelling gentleman guests to repair to the third story prepara- tory to entering the salon, ladies to the second story — all resultant from the fact that dwelling-houses are built to live in, not to give parties and receptions in. In primitive modes of life, this discrepancy is not visible; lut, in proportion as the differentiation of society needs from household needs advances, the discrepancy becomes more and more distinct from generation to generation; and, taking an impartial survey of the present facts, few persons of great society experience will deny that the differentiation is now such as to call for a differentiation of the residence from the party-giving structure, of the home from the salon. It must come at last to a recognition of this fact, and the erection of the huge society Sybaris, not a roseleaf awry, hereintofore planned: and what then remains to be suggested, but some river Crathis for the benefit of the ladies, Sybaris near by, the waters of which ' ' Electro faciunt similes auroque capillos, " completely to satisfy the sense beautiful ? The collection of an art gallery was begun in the spring of 1872, an addition to the club-house having been built on for that purpose — artists hke A. J. Tait, J. G. Brown, John Pope, Bougereau, Le Croix, Van Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CIjUU. 255 Elten, J. N. Beard, Horsford, of the Savage Club, London; Heade, Samuel Coleman, J. N. Dolph, V. Neblig, and Arthur Lumley, whose clever pencil saved "Saratoga in 1901" from oblivion, contributing good examples from easel or portfoho; and, as if to prove that the convulsions and travail of the struggle of the winter and spring of 1871-2 had done no harm, the opening of the 1872 season on Saturday evening, the fifth of Oc- tober, was converted into a veritable nox amhroHiana, with plentiful ambrosia both intellectual and alcoholic, and plentiful professional Olympians at the symposium. Few are the opportunities offered, even by the most popular London clubs, to scan a list of guests like these that follow: Mr. Maddick, of the London Court Joxirnd, and Alexis Lomonsoff, member of the Imperial Minera- logical Society of Russia; Rubinstein, the king of the keys; Edmund Yates, the English novelist and lecturer; "VVieniawski, the Polish violin wizard; Henry Jarrett, of the Academy of Music; Engel, organist; MM. Meurice and Mercier, editors, and M. Charles Villa, dramatic critic of the Courrier des EtatH-Unis; the great basso, Jamet; Moriami, the savage Neluako; and Charles Lyall, of the Italian Opera company and one of the contrib- utors to the London Vanity Fair; J. W. Simonton, of the Associated Press; Coulon, Rizzo, Captain James Price, Jr., of the steamship Manhattan; Joaquin Miller, Butin, of Eastern Siberia and member of the Russian Geograph- ical Society; Riembelinski, Behrens, the conductor; Sauret, the violinist, and half a hundred other notables. The members came out in strong force, including Whitelaw Reid, the popi.ilar Lotos President; genial John Brougham, Vice-President; Mayor Hall, once President of the club; WiUiam J. Florence, fresh from Paris; D. H. Harkins, who plays husband to Agues Digitized by Microsoft® 236 CLUJSS OF yEW youK. Ethel in '• Agnes;" Bronson C. Howard, autlior of " Dia- monds;" Frederick A. Scbwab, musical critic of the Times; George Clark, the actor; Colonel John Hay, of the Tribune; W. A. C. Fulton, one of the first gentlemen of the press; Thomas E. Morris, Philip Bonfort, C. A. Welles of the Evening Mail; Henry A. Elliot, Arthur Luniley, H. C. Bis^Dham, the lion painter ; Lemuel Hayward, Charles W. Brooke, G. W. Colby, Norman F. Cross, J. A. Picard, Robert B. Roosevelt, Max Strakosch, F. J. Smith, Wilham Curtis Noyes, William McDonnell, Thomas A. Kennett, Blair Scribner, the pubhsher, and many more. Mr. Henry Stanfield sang a song; then Rubinstein set m.usic trickling from the keys of the piano, weirdly sug- gestive of Goethe's strange strain: " Who rideth so late through the night- wind lone? It is a father with his son. " He foldeth him fast, he foldeth Mm warm; He prayeth God's angels to keep him from harm." Or of the weirder conclusion of the same ballad of the "ErlKing:" "The father rideth, he rideth fast, And faster rideth through the blast. "He spurreth wild through tlie night- wind lone, And dead iu his arms he holdeth his son." I can imagine it — for there was once, when I had a few pet poems, among them the "Haunted Palace," "An- nabel Lee," Longfellow's " Siege of Prague," the "Ancient Mariner," Shelley's wild " Serenade to an Ladian Girl," and this same " Erl King," the beauty of which made me weaken and long to die, with a sense of the unattainable: Digitized by Microsoft® LOTOS CLUB. '^37 and had it not been that Florence followed with an Irish story about Shakespeare's skull, reversing the nerve- currents to thai; tending, members and guests, in their then suscejotible condition, must have fainted by common consent and fallen under the table in one entranced heap: doing which imagine that worshipper of Augusts Comte, the goddess Fama, and the beautiful, Mr. John Elderkin, who had burdened himself with the responsi- bility of sending a report to the Home, Journal. John Brougham then told a story; Edmund Yates, having had two dinners beforehand, excused himself on that ground; Mr. Lemuel Hayward rendered the pathetic ballad of " Jim Bludso," the hearers weeping at the wrong jiass- ages. After that they went home, or, rather, formally shook bands with that ostensible intent; for some of them, I dimly apprehend, like the gust of wind that came so near knocking down Mr. Pecksniff, did find others similarly disposed, and made a night of it, many more wending their way homewards, seeing erl kings in every lamp-post, and more than usually impressed with the importance of the law of gravitation, if not personallj' prone to demonstrate the pi'inciple inductively, in loving embraces of Danae earth: the unwonted phenomenon being due to the fact that Rubenstein's fingering of the keys had se disordered the relation that usually exists between volition and the muscles, that the latter, insist- ing upon doing business on their own respon.sibility, did thus somewhat embarrass the function of locomotion, and to it impart that wavy zigzag that Virgil attributes to the gods. Habitues of London clubs solemnly allege that salmon, taken in large quantities, produces a condition analogous to intoxication; and if so be it with salmon, why not with Bubenstein, who is a greater than salmon? Digitized by Microsoft® 23S CLUBS OF \EW YORK. LIST OF MEMBEKS. Adams, Edwin; Alden, Harry N. ; Allen, Henry W. ; Anderson, John; Andrews, W. S. ; Appleton, William, Jr.; Arthur, W. H. Baker, Frank: Baker, T. E. ; Baldwin, A. H.; Ballard, L. Morti- mer; Barrett. Lawrence; Bassford, E. D. ; Bassford, W. K. ; Bauer, John R. ; Beard, James H. ; Bixby, Daniel; Bliss, E. , Jr.; Bonfort, Philip; Booth, Edwin; Bouton, J. B. ; Bouvier, M. C. ; Bowen, H. B. ; Bradhurst, P. T. C; Brelsford, C. M. ; Bridgman, Herbert L.; Brooke, C. W. ; Brougham, John; Brown, J. W. ; Bundy, J. M. ; Burling, Gilbert. Calkins, Hiram; Carozzi, G. N. ; Casey, Joseph J. ; Castle, William; Chapin, C. H. ; Chase, W. S. ; Chickering, C. F. ; Clarke, George H. ; Coe, Spencer W. ; Colby, Geo. W. ; Cole, John F. ; Comstock, F. S. ; Coudit, Frank M. ; Corson, Cornelius; Coutan, Charle,