■5r*Qx 
 
 President White Library, 
 Corn e ll U n iver'sity. 
 
r 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 PN 22.L88E37 
 
 Brief history of the Lotos Club. 
 
 3 1924 027 160 567 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027160567 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
LOTOS CLUB HOUSE. 
 No, 2 Irving Place. 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY^ , , ,, 
 
 I I I l:/,(:Y 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN ELDERKIN. 
 
 Club House, 
 
 556 AND 558 Fifth Avenue, 
 
 New York. 
 
4 4. t 5" F2' 
 
 1 
 
 Copyright, 1895, 
 By The Lotos CIjUB. 
 
 PRESS OF 
 MACGOWAN a SLIPPER, 
 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 House, No. 2 Irving Place, . . . Frontispiece. 
 
 Portrait of Whitelaw Reid 23 
 
 House, No. 149 Fifth Avenue, . . . .43 
 Portrait of Frank R. Lawrence, . . 79 
 
 House, Nos. 556 and 558 Fifth Avenue, m 
 
THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 'IPHE Lotos Club had its modest beginning in 
 * 1870. In February of that year half a dozen 
 young men, journalists and critics, met in the 
 office of the " New York Leader " and talked 
 over the proposition of one of their number to 
 form a club on somewhat different lines to any 
 then existing in the city. There had been re- 
 cently organized a number of clubs of a literary 
 and artistic character, none of which were very 
 vigorous or conformed to the idea suggested for 
 the new organization. The Palette was, perhaps, 
 the nearest prototype, but this was composed 
 largely of artists, and its membership included 
 so many of foreign extraction as to give it a for- 
 eign flavor and character. This was the case 
 with one or two lesser clubs of the same general 
 purpose. There was the Century Club, in Seven- 
 teenth Street, which had succeeded the Sketch 
 Club, an informal organization, of which Wash- 
 ington Irving, who had given the name to the 
 club ; S. F. B. Morse, the founder of the National 
 Academy; Asher B. Durand, Henry T. Tucker- 
 
8 THE LOTOS CLUB. ig-0 
 
 man, and other gentlemen engaged or interested 
 in literature or the fine arts, were members. The 
 Century, although then less than twenty-five years 
 of age, was looked upon as a most venerable and 
 moss-grown institution ; moreover, it styled itself 
 an association, but was to all intents and purposes 
 a club, composed of authors, artists and amateurs, 
 with inherited traditions, and the best and strong- 
 est men in the professions, and, therefore, naturally 
 somewhat exclusive. An account of the clubs of 
 New York of that time includes only fourteen of 
 sufficient strength to merit enumeration, although 
 there were probably not far from a hundred of a 
 miscellaneous and informal character. The elder 
 journalists were hard-working and busy men, with 
 little leisure and taste for club life. An occasional 
 evening at the home of the Cary sisters afforded 
 Mr. Greeley all the relaxation in the way of society 
 that he desired. There had been an informal or- 
 ganization of newspaper men, editors and reporters, 
 which met at Delmonico's monthly and dined, and 
 discussed after dinner matters appertaining to 
 journalism. The moving spirits in this organization 
 were David G. Croly, S. S. Packard, J. W. Simon- 
 ton and Montgomery Schuyler. 
 
 After the meeting in February, at the office of 
 the " New York Leader," the promoters of the 
 new club commenced an active propaganda in 
 newspaper circles, and among actors and artists 
 and professional and business men whose tastes 
 would render them congenial. The aim of the 
 club was formulated. Its primary object was de- 
 
1870 THE NAME OF THE CLUB. 9 
 
 clared to be to promote social intercourse among 
 journalists, literary men, artists and members of 
 the musical and dramatic professions, and such 
 merchants and professional gentlemen of artistic 
 tastes and inclinations as would naturally be at- 
 tracted by such a club. Some of those interested 
 were acquainted with the history and success of 
 the Savage and Garrick clubs of London, the free- 
 dom and sociability of the Savage Club being an 
 especially attractive ideal to be realized. A per- 
 manent organization was effected on the 1 5th of 
 March, 1 870. The name first proposed for the club 
 was the Melolotos, but as it was conceived to con- 
 vey the impression that the club was organized for 
 the cultivation of music, it was changed to Lotos, 
 as conveying an idea of rest and harmony, and 
 gaining something of charm from Tennyson's poem 
 the Lotos Eaters, which was then in the full bloom 
 of popularity. Two lines of this poem. 
 
 In the afternoon they came unto a land 
 In which it seemed always afternoon, 
 were selected as the motto of the club, and appear 
 upon the title page of its first manual, dated 1870. 
 The meeting for organization was held in Weber's 
 Piano Warerooms, on Fifth Avenue, and it is said 
 that all who -attended at that meeting were elected 
 to official positions, as follows : De Witt Van 
 Buren, President; Frederick A. Schwab, Vice- 
 President ; Albert Weber, Treasurer ; George W. 
 Hows, Secretary ; and Montgomery Schuyler, 
 Thomas A. Kennett, William L. Alden, J. H. Eliot 
 and Harold W. Bateman, Directors. The new 
 
lO THE LOTOS CLUB. isto 
 
 club was now fairly launched with a name and an 
 object in life, and subsequent meetings were held 
 almost daily, wherever the officers could get 
 together, at the old Belvidere Hotel, in the corri- 
 dors of the Academy of Music, to consult and elect 
 members. The initiation fee was placed at $20 for 
 the first hundred members. It was subsequently 
 raised to $50, and the annual dues to $40. A com- 
 mittee was appointed to find a house, and at a club 
 meeting held at the Belvidere Hotel, on the 13th 
 of April, the directory was authorized to secure 
 the building No. 2 Irving Place, next door to the 
 old Academy of Music, which was thereupon 
 secured at a rental of $2,800 per annum. 
 
 On the 29th day of April, 1870, the Lotos Club 
 was incorporated under the general act applicable 
 to such organizations. 
 
 It must not be supposed that all this was accom- 
 plished without a great deal of discussion. In fact, 
 the eloquence expended at the meetings was some- 
 what disproportioned to the matters in hand. A 
 " big talk " was necessary to the settlement of the 
 smallest preliminary. The eloquence of Albert 
 Weber, the treasurer, a lively, humorous and 
 shrewd business man, must linger in the minds of 
 all who heard him. For a time after the house was 
 secured the members were obliged to sit around 
 on empty candle boxes, soap boxes and such stray 
 stools and camp chairs as the steward provided. 
 On the gth ot June, the club, desirous of thoroughly 
 furnishing the house, passed a resolution to issue 
 bonds to the amount of $1,000, to bear interest at 
 
18TO 
 
 THE FIRST PRESIDENT. II 
 
 the rate of 7 per cent, per annum. As may be sup- 
 posed, this munificent sum did not enable the house 
 committee completely to furnish the three floors. 
 So it was decided to rent out the upper stories in 
 unfurnished rooms to members. 
 
 The club had now gained quite a repute for 
 sociability. There was a contagious enthusiasm in 
 the membership. Recruits were constantly brought 
 in. There was a great deal of life and go about 
 the club. Seldom an evening passed without 
 music, recitations and stories. Randolphi, a power- 
 ful baritone, and Wehli, the pianist, were seldom 
 absent. Randolphi's voice could easily be heard 
 and enjoyed within a radius of two blocks from the 
 house. The neighborhood was alive to the fact of 
 the existence of the new club, and it was difficult 
 to tell which created the most stir and noise in 
 Irving Place, the Academy or the Lotos. There 
 was a provision in the constitution which required 
 that at least one half of the members should be 
 journalists, literary men, artists, actors and musi- 
 cians, and this provision was jealously guarded in 
 the elections. 
 
 De Witt Van Buren, the first president, died on 
 the 5 th of October. He was not in robust health 
 at the time that he accepted office. He was a quiet 
 and agreeable man, especially dear to those of his 
 own profession of journalism, and much respected 
 by all the members for his gentleness and dignity. 
 He had made his mark, and his early death was 
 truly lamentable. 
 
 At the election of a president to succeed Mr. 
 
12 THE LOTOS CLUB. isio 
 
 Van Buren there were two candidates, Hon. A. 
 Oakey Hall, at that time Mayor of New York, 
 equally distinguished in journalism and politics, 
 and Col. Thos. W. Knox, who had been a corre- 
 spondent of the " Tribune " during the war and a 
 prisoner at Andersonville, and whose recent book, 
 " Across America and Asia," had given him the 
 nickname of " The Siberian Traveler." The can- 
 didates were about equally popular, but Mr. Hall 
 was chosen, and at a dinner shortly after expressed 
 his gratification, saying that political honors were 
 cheap compared with the honor of being president 
 of the Lotos, a sentiment which did not strike any- 
 one present as at all extravagant, as the honor of 
 holding the offices was as much coveted then as 
 now. 
 
 Mr. Hall was an excellent choice. In the office 
 of president he proved himself both judicious and 
 popular. Among the many good suggestions which 
 he made, was that of setting aside one evening in 
 the week for social entertainments. Thus came 
 about the Lotos Saturday Nights, which have been 
 a feature of the club ever since. Pictures, music, 
 vocal and instrumental, illustrated lectures, draw- 
 ing and painting contests against time, recitations 
 and nearly every other form of evening entertain- 
 ment known to the footlights in modern times have 
 been witnessed in the parlors of the Lotos at its 
 Saturday night entertainments. On the 22d of 
 December, 1870, the club passed a resolution 
 authorizing the acceptance of works of art from 
 artists for their initiation fees. This is still in force, 
 
isn A SPEECH BY TILDEN. 1 3 
 
 and has had an important influence in maintaining 
 the status of the Lotos as an art club. At the end 
 of the first year the membership numbered 172, 
 four of whom were honorary. 
 
 Naturally the abounding good fellowship and 
 conviviality found its best expression in dinners, 
 which were a feature of club life as soon as the re- 
 sources of the kitchen and dining room were per- 
 fected. The purchase of the first complete dinner 
 set, white china, decorated with red bands and the 
 monogram of the club, was an event which no 
 member of that day has forgotten. It required 
 very little distinction in those days to provoke the 
 honor of a dinner at the Lotos Club. Guests were 
 a necessity, and it was the duty of the directory to 
 provide them, and it did so, whether there was 
 special occasion or timeliness in the demonstration 
 or not. Amusing stories are told of the way in 
 which the committees of the Lotos Club watched 
 the wharves for the arrival of distinguished 
 strangers from Europe. The committee which 
 surprised Charles Kingsley on the deck of the 
 steamer was met with the response, " But, gentle- 
 men, I am trying to view the approaches to New 
 York. I cannot make any engagements now." 
 
 During Mr. Hall's incumbency of the office of 
 president, Mr. Samuel J. Tilden was a guest, and 
 Chandos Fulton, who had him in charge, tells an 
 amusing story of how the sly old fox sent his 
 speech in advance to all the newspapers, and 
 although he was one of the last called upon to 
 speak at the dinner, his speech appeared first and 
 
14 THE LOTOS- CLUB. ml 
 
 in full the next morning, while merely brief para- 
 graphic references were made to the other speakers. 
 The entertainment of the composer Jaques Offen- 
 bach, then in the flood tide of popularity, was a 
 specially memorable and delightful occasion in 
 those early days. Offenbach was a little man with 
 Hebraic physiognomy who could not 
 Jaques gpcak a word of English, but whose 
 
 Offenbach. ^ . ^ ,.,?,,,, , 
 
 capacity for making himself understood 
 by expressive shrugs and gestures and pantomime 
 full of meaning was quite as amusing and under- 
 standable as any speech which he could possibly 
 have made. He was able, too, to illustrate his 
 feelings by accompanying himself on the piano. 
 It is said that Offenbach's entertainment was the 
 cause of some burning jealousies in the breasts ol 
 the musical critics which ultimately led to dissen- 
 sion and the secession of part of the members. 
 
 There were now many distinguished names on 
 the roll of membership. The parlors of the modest 
 house on Irving Place on the occasions of enter- 
 tainments were crowded with men whose presence 
 would lend distinction to any company. The club 
 house had become the common meeting ground in 
 the city for journalists, actors, artists and authors. 
 Distinguished foreigners and non-resident Ameri- 
 cans were welcomed to its privileges and courte- 
 sies. There was a prevalent Freemasonry and 
 camaraderie which made every one who entered 
 its hospitable doors at home ; and with all the rol- 
 licking humor and banter, there were seldom any 
 breaches of the rules of good fellowship and good 
 
1872 MARK TWAIN's FUN. 1 5 
 
 manners. Mark Twain, in his speech at one of the 
 early dinners, set the key for a good deal of the 
 sarcastic drollery which prevailed on many occa- 
 sions. He said that he did not like to make any 
 personal allusions, but that the profane 
 conversation he had been compelled to 
 listen to from Whitelaw Reid, John 
 Hay, Samuel Bowles and Henry Watterson had 
 frightened away all the pious thoughts he had con- 
 cocted for the solemn occasion. He spoke of Mr. 
 Reid as a man who had grown so accustomed to 
 editing a newspaper that he could not distinguish 
 between truth and falsehood ; and that John Hay 
 had written so many ribald verses that he (Twain) 
 was always compelled to disown his acquaintance 
 when presiding at meetings of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association. Candor obliged him to 
 confess that he had a poor opinion of a club which 
 admitted Congressmen to membership, and he 
 found it difficult to sit opposite Robert B. Roose- 
 velt, who had the hardihood to be present without 
 getting a dollar from the Credit Mobilier. He 
 closed with an apology for discontinuing his 
 harangue ; saying that those anxious to hear the 
 remainder of it might step down stairs, where he 
 had stationed a number of agents, and purchase 
 tickets for his Wednesday evening lecture, add- 
 ing, " 1 make it a rule of life never to miss any 
 chances, especially on occasions like these, where 
 the opportunity for converting the heathen is 
 luxuriously promising." As may be surmised, 
 Mr. Twain was not let off without a dreadful 
 
1 6 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1872 
 
 scoring in which he was denounced as an impostor. 
 Much of his history was ventilated. 
 
 After the retirement of Mr. Hall from the presi- 
 dency, there was an interregnum of some months, 
 during which the vice-president, Mr. John 
 Brougham, acted in the capacity of president. Mr. 
 Brougham had been one of the first 
 
 ■''''"' members. He was in the very prime of 
 
 Brougham. , . ,., , , 1.1, r 1 • 
 
 his life, and at the height of his popu- 
 larity and success. All of his experience had 
 gone to make him one of the most interesting, 
 charming and lovable of men. He was hand- 
 some, agreeable and brilliant. In a conversation 
 at the Lotos Club one day, he said, " Look at 
 Matthews," meaning Charles Matthews. "After 
 buffeting through a long life of chronic debt and 
 trouble, you find him, at seventy-five, gracefully 
 posing on the London stage with the agility and 
 lightheartedness of a budding juvenile man." 
 Brougham was himself an example of cheerful 
 philosophy, for the passing years had dealt gently 
 with him. His eye was as bright and his gait as 
 firm as ever, while he retained all the sparkle and 
 humor that had characterized him in his younger 
 days, although he was then nearly sixty. Chat- 
 ting with a reporter upon the ups and downs of 
 that capricious pursuit, the stage, he deprecated 
 the struggle of those who make themselves 
 martyrs to feeling and fret in vain against the in- 
 exorable conditions of destiny. " That man," he 
 said, " is the wisest and the happiest whose discip- 
 line has culminated in a serene stoicism." At this 
 
isra RECEPTION TO YATES. 1 7 
 
 time Mr. Brougham bore a good deal of the weight 
 of doing the honors of the Lotos to its distinguish- 
 ed guests and fulfilling the duties placed upon the 
 head of the club by the members. He welcomed 
 the French band of the Garde Republicaine when 
 it was received at the Lotos ; and Herr Johann 
 Strauss, who, during the evening, played his 
 famous composition, " The Blue Danube Waltz." 
 The election of Mr. Whitelaw Reid to the 
 presidency was a fortunate event. It was the 
 commencement of a long period of uninterrupt- 
 ed prosperity. During the summer of 1872 the 
 house in Irving Place was enlarged and reno. 
 vated and better provision made for the exhibi- 
 tion of paintings. On September 17th, 1872, a 
 reception was given to Edmund Yates, the novel- 
 ist. Yates, following in the wake of 
 Thackeray and Dickens, had come over 
 from England to lecture. Mr. Yates 
 was eminently a club man who enjoyed the good 
 company, the good stories and the good dinners 
 of the Lotos. He found plenty of congenial 
 spirits, and so long as he remained in the city 
 he was at home in the club. In a neat little 
 speech toward the close of the reception, in re 
 sponse to a toast by the president, Mr. Yates 
 said : " When, the other day, I saw John Broug- 
 ham coming toward my hotel, I thanked Heaven 
 that I had at least one friend in America; but 
 John Brougham is now displaced ; instead of one 
 friend, I have suddenly found a hundred." 
 
 The place of the Lotos Club was now pretty 
 
 Edmund 
 Yates. 
 
1 8 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1873 
 
 well established. One authority said, " Clubs serve 
 an excellent purpose in affording the means of 
 giving suitable reception to eminent strangers 
 who visit us, who otherwise might feel them- 
 selves neglected." On the first visit of Charles 
 Dickens to New York he was dined by the Novelty 
 Club. When Thackeray came, he was dined by 
 the Press Club ; and since then every eminent 
 author, artist or scientist who arrives in New 
 York is sure of a reception from the Lotos Club, 
 which gives a kind of official welcome which 
 makes him feel at home among strangers. The idea 
 of exclusiveness and seclusion, dear to the heart of 
 the old-fashioned, club man, somehow never took 
 root or had any vogue here. The Lotos had 
 marked out an individual and special course of its 
 own, and it was discovered that it was doing a 
 good service, as our representative host. The 
 author, the artist, the journalist, the man of genius 
 coming to our shores, who otherwise may be 
 neglected, was at once ushered into the notice, 
 friendship and companionship of his compeers on 
 this side of the Atlantic. Such paragraphs to this 
 purpose began to appear in newspapers in all 
 parts of this country and England and spread 
 widely the fame of the club. 
 
 Following Mr. Yates came the historian James 
 James Authony Froude. Mr. Froude was a 
 Anthony tall man, with a scholarly stoop of the 
 shoulders and a manner which seemed 
 to deprecate any expression of feeling or enthu- 
 siasm. One unaware of his brilliant and aggres- 
 
1872 RECEPTION TO FROUDE. 1 9 
 
 sive intellect, his splendid literary accomplish- 
 ments, would have been entirely misled by his 
 self-repressed and deprecatory manner as he ap- 
 peared in the parlors of the Lotos Club ; but 
 there was a twinkle in his eye and a note in 
 his voice which betrayed the militant spirit of 
 this dashing soldier of letters. Among those who 
 gathered to meet Mr. Froude were Mr. White- 
 law Reid, president of the club, Hon. John 
 Bigelow, Hon. Samuel -J. Tilden, President Barn- 
 ard, of Columbia College, Gen. Irwin McDowell, 
 Col. John Hay, Bret Harte, Dr. J. G. Holland, 
 Launt Thompson, Joaquin Miller, George P. Put- 
 nam, Col. W. C. Church, S. S. Conant, Robert B. 
 Roosevelt, James Brooks, Richard Schell, David 
 G. Croly, Dr. Edward Eggleston, J. Blair Scrib- 
 ner, Edmund Yates, Prof. Roswell D. Hitchcock, 
 Oliver Johnson, Mayor Hall, Col. Thos. W. Knox, 
 John Bell Bouton, Charles D. Bragdon, Dr. Charles 
 Inslee Pardee, Wm. Appleton, Jr., and John Elder- 
 kin. There were many others, but these names 
 were preserved in the newspaper accounts of the 
 occasion. 
 
 A writer connected with the " Cincinnati Ga- 
 zette," who was present, said that not since the 
 dinner to Charles Dickens had there been an as- 
 semblage of equal brilliancy. The gathering num- 
 bered a large proportion of our prominent repre- 
 sentatives in literature, art and journalism. Mr. 
 Reid, in his speech of welcome, recognized the 
 literary athlete who had raised such a hubbub in 
 England over Henry the Eighth, Queen Elizabeth 
 
20 THE LOTOS CLUB. J872 
 
 and Mary Queen of Scots, until he had finally 
 stepped into the great place left vacant by Lord 
 Macaulay. In Mr. Fronde's modest response, he 
 acknowledged the many kind acts of hospitality 
 which he had received during the short time he 
 had been in the country and thanked the club for 
 the reception, not only for himself, but in the 
 name of our common profession of letters. He 
 himself had been the editor of a London magazine 
 and had worked upon the daily press, and there- 
 fore deemed himself one of the members of the 
 great profession of journalism, among whom there 
 is a sort of Freemasonry which he recognized, 
 and therefore felt himself among friends and 
 brothers. The final speech of the reception was 
 delivered very late in the evening, by Mr. John 
 Brougham, who mounted a chair and entertained 
 the company with a display of intellectual fire- 
 works and delightful reminiscences which brought 
 the occasion to a charming conclusion. 
 
 To a California journalist, who visited New 
 York at this time, the Lotos Club was a revela- 
 tion. He wrote to the Chicago " Tribune " that 
 he had dined there, that it was the literary and 
 artistic club of the Atlantic coast ; that authors, 
 actors, journalists and artists made up the bulk of 
 the members, and that, while it had been in ex- 
 istence only a little over a year, it was one of the 
 notable organizations of the East. 
 
 Henry M. Stanley had returned from his ro- 
 mantic first expedition to Central Africa. He had 
 left New York unknown, and had come back to 
 
1872 FIRST RECEPTION TO STANLEY. 21 
 
 find himself famous. He had added new laurels 
 to the special correspondent. In Abyssinia he had 
 beaten all the English correspondents, and was the 
 first to send to Europe and America news of the 
 death of King Theodore. Then, in the face of 
 terrific obstacles, he had penetrated to the interior 
 of Africa and found the dying Livingstone. In 
 England the reports of his discovery of 
 enry . j-j^. Livingstone had been received with 
 
 Stanley. ^ 
 
 incredulity, but later, in face of the evi- 
 dence which he produced, all doubts had disap- 
 peared. His appearance at the Lotos Club on the 
 22d of November, 1872, was in the character of a 
 veritable hero, and as a hero he was welcomed and 
 celebrated. Mr. Stanley's appearance and bearing 
 were those of a most resolute man. He had the 
 look of one not to be trifled with. One might 
 have said of him, " We know that he is ugly ; we 
 hope that he is good." The parlors were crowded 
 at an early hour by three hundred members of 
 the club and a large number of distinguished 
 guests. Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the president, • was 
 unstinted in his praise, awarding the highest honor 
 to Mr. Stanley for his achievements, and quoting 
 the old Frenchman, who said, " It is a sign of 
 mediocrity always to praise sparingly." Mr. Stan- 
 ley responded in a way to raise the high estimate 
 formed of him by his simplicity and modesty. He 
 declared that the principal motive and sustaining 
 power which had held him to his purpose was the 
 directions of the editor of the " Herald," who had 
 told him, on starting, "• Go on, and do not come 
 
22 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 1872 
 
 back until you find Livingstone." His speech was 
 a recognition of the splendid spirit of loyalty and 
 devotion of modern journalism, which, in the 
 words of Mr. Reid, " secures more unquestioning 
 obedience, more enthusiastic zeal and greater suc- 
 cess than cabinets and parliaments." Among the 
 delightful features of this reception was a capital 
 recitation by the late William J. Florence, or Billy 
 Florence, as he was familiarly called in the Lotos. 
 Mr. Brougham also made a humorous speech and 
 recited his " Hymn of Princes," a satirical poem on 
 the dispatch which the Emperor William had sent 
 to the Empress Augusta after one of Prussia's 
 great victories over France : " Heaven has again 
 blessed our arms, and twenty thousand of the 
 enemy are left upon the field. Order a Te Deum." 
 Mr. Brougham recited his production with great 
 spirit on many occasions and the members seemed 
 never to tire of hearing him. Mr. W. S. Andrews 
 also recited " Buck Fanshaw,"" and admirably. 
 He was frequently called upon for this, and it 
 was always received with applause, as on the 
 present occasion. 
 
 At this time, when the club was enjoying great 
 prosperity, it was threatened with disaster by the 
 defection of a considerable portion of its literary 
 and artistic element. The old adage about the 
 irritabihty of the literary genius received a new 
 confirmation. Complaint was made that there 
 were too mai>y business men in the club. They 
 filled too great a space and crowded the repre- 
 sentatives of the artistic, literary and musical pro- 
 
WHITELAW REID. 
 From a Photograph by Rockwood. 
 
jgis FOURTH ANNUAL ELECTION. 23 
 
 fessions. By its constitution the Lotos could only 
 elect business men to the extent of one half its 
 total membership. It thereby secured a conserva- 
 tive element which in every emergency has proved 
 a guarantee of strength and permanence. The 
 dissatisfaction culminated in the resignation of a 
 small minority, who went off and formed a new 
 club which they called the Arcadian. It is un- 
 necessary to trace the history of this movement 
 or to mention any. of the silly things which were 
 perpetrated. It is sufhcieij^ to say that some who 
 left the Lotos lived to return, and that the rivalry 
 •of the Arcadian is forgotten. 
 
 At the fourth annual election in March, 1.873, 
 the treasurer reported that the club was out of 
 debt, and had cash in hand and property to the 
 value of $20,000. The officers elected for that 
 year were : President, Whitelaw Reid ; vice- 
 president, John Brougham ; secretary, Charles H. 
 Miller ; treasurer, C. McK. Loeser ; Directors : 
 John Bell Bouton, Thos. W. Knox, Geo. H. Story, 
 A. F. Tait, John Elderkin, Charles Inslee Pardee, 
 Thos. A. Kennett, Daniel Bixby and Jos. A. 
 Picard. 
 
 The strength of the club had been tested. 
 It was evident that the Lotos was to live. It was 
 founded in the broad basis of a membership com- 
 posed not only of members of the artistic, literary 
 and musical worlds, but of men of all professions, 
 business men, men of leisure, the admirers, judges 
 and promoters of literature and art, frequenters 
 of the theater and buyers of paintings and books, 
 
24 THE LOTOS CLUB. igjg 
 
 as well as critics, artists and authors. That the 
 Lotos had in its ranks a fair proportion of the 
 literary and artistic element, was amply demon- 
 strated by the publication of a handsomely illus- 
 trated volume, entitled "Lotos Leaves," edited 
 by John Brougham and John Elderkin and made 
 up of contributions by members. Among the con- 
 tributors, besides the editors, were Mark Twain, 
 John Hay, D. R. Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby), 
 Brander Matthews, Charles Gayler, Thomas W. 
 Knox, Charles Inslee P<p,rdee, Noah Brooks, Henry 
 S. Olcott, Chandos Fulton, Edward Greey, Isaac 
 H. Bromley, Whitelaw Reid, Robert B. Roose- 
 velt, and others, with illustrations by George H. 
 Story, J. H. Dolph, Gilbert Burling, Arthur Lum- 
 ley, Alfred Fredericks, Charles H. Miller and 
 John Lafarge. The book was a very handsome 
 one and received a great deal of notice from the 
 press of the country. It was reprinted in Eng- 
 land, where the editor's preface was a stumbling 
 block which the literary Englishman found it 
 difficult to get over. One critic congratulated 
 the club on the statement in the preface, that 
 these "spiritual adumbrations are not evanes- 
 cent or fugacious, a latrocinous cheat, repugnant 
 to common sense, but tangible entities, altogether 
 stationary, and visible to every eye." This, the 
 writer declared, was certainly fine and decidedly 
 tall ; and he richly deserved a good dinner and a 
 handsome testimonial for the kindly way in which 
 he proceeded to notice the volume. 
 
 Periodical exhibitions of paintings and other 
 
1873 EXHIBITIONS OF WORKS OF ART. 2$ 
 
 works of art were from the beginning a feature of 
 the club's activity. The extension which had 
 been made to the club house gave greater space 
 for these displays. Every school of native and 
 foreign art was represented. Occasionally an ex- 
 hibition would be given exclusively of pictures by 
 artist members. At one such there were hung Wil- 
 liam Hart's "Last Gleam," which now hangs in the 
 Metropolitan Museum of Art ; Eastman Johnson's 
 " Pet Lamb," since well known by the popular en- 
 graving ; and fine pictures by Edward and Peter 
 Moran, George H. Story, J. H. Beard, Worthing- 
 ton Whittredge, Charles H. Miller, Henry Bacon, 
 John Lafarge, A. F. Tait, H. C. Bispham, Con- 
 stant Meyer, J. H. Dolph, A. H. Baldwin, Ed- 
 ward Gay and B. F. Reinhart." Frequently a 
 complimentary dinner would be given on the day 
 of the exhibition to an artist whom his friends 
 wished to distinguish. Such a dinner took place 
 on January 27th, 1873, the guest being C. P. 
 Cranch, the veteran artist and poet, by a company 
 of sixty, who had the pleasure of listening to de- 
 lightful reminiscences of Longfellow and other 
 eminent persons. 
 
 Mr. A. H. Wyant and Mr. George Inness were 
 frequently represented in the exhibitions. Mr. 
 Wyant came occasionally to the house in Irving 
 Place as a guest. He was a man of very fine tem- 
 per; like Mr. Inness, impatient of all 
 ^' "■ sham, and resenting any praise of his 
 work not based on knowledge. Both of 
 these artists, as well as Samuel Colman, Homer 
 
26 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1873 
 
 Martin, Thomas Eakins and Launt Thompson, the 
 sculptor, were represented in • the exhibition on 
 the night of the dinner to Mr. Cranch. One 
 month later, Mr. William Page was the guest of 
 honor, and a very brilliant assemblage gathered 
 about him. Mr. Page's head of Christ was, ac- 
 cording to the author's recollection, among the 
 paintings exhibited that evening. Mr. Cranch 
 was as well known by his translation of Virgil as 
 by his pictures, and Mr. Page, too, was a scholar 
 and author as well as painter. The conversation 
 and after-dinner speeches on both these occasions 
 were a rare treat. Mr. Cranch sang an old time 
 song during the evening and Mr. Page proved 
 most delightful in his after-dinner talk, R. Swain 
 Gifford, J. F. Kensett, Eastman Johnson, Louis 
 Tiffany, Mrs. Elizabeth Murray, J. G. Brown, Ar- 
 thur Parton and nearly all the artist members of 
 the club contributed to the exhibition. 
 
 The pictures and the works of art remained on 
 view on Mondays, when ladies were entertained, 
 and often on these ladies' days most exquisite art- 
 istic entertainments were given. The actors and 
 musicians were most generous in contributing to 
 the amusement of the ladies. Harry Beckett and 
 John Brougham, Wm. J. Florence, Ned Sothern, 
 Charles Roberts, Jr., Sidney Wollett, Gottschalk, 
 Ronconi, George W. Colby, Harry Stanfield, 
 William McDonald, Arthur Matthison, Ran- 
 dolphi, Alfred Pease, Bonawitz, Alberti, and 
 George Clarke were frequently among the en- 
 tertainers. Ladies of the grand opera and the 
 
1873 RECEPTION TO WILKIE COLLINS. 2/ 
 
 leading theaters were also heard with pleasure 
 in the parlors of the Lotos on Monday after- 
 noons. 
 
 Mr. Wilkie Collins made his first and only visit 
 to America this year. He came over to lecture 
 under the auspices of Brelsford's American 
 Literary Bureau; Brelsford was a member of the 
 Lotos. He was a scrawny, sickly Yankee, but a 
 good fellow and a capable manager, who was ex- 
 ploiting the country with authors and entertainers 
 on the lecture platform. The Lotos Club enter- 
 tained Mr. Collins at a reception on September 
 
 29, 1873. Many persons of distinction 
 (^u'inl^ were present, among them Bret Harte, 
 
 Richard H. Stoddard, Edmund C. Sted- 
 man. Dr. E. H. Chapin, Signor Salvini, John 
 Gilbert and Ivory Chamberlain. Mr. Whitelaw 
 Reid, the president, made the speech of welcome, 
 and a sincere and hearty welcome it was, associat- 
 ing the guest of the evening with his great fore- 
 runners Thackeray and Dickens, especially noting 
 that he was the prized friend and literary associate 
 of the latter. Mr. Collins was a little man, and he 
 told a funny story of the time when, as a little 
 boy of thirteen, he had met in. Sorrento, Italy, a 
 very tall, very lean, very silent and very melan- 
 choly American, who had treated him to an excel- 
 lent dinner, crowned with cake, an epoch in his 
 youthful experience which had lived gratefully 
 ill his memory, so he was not a stranger to 
 American kindness and American hospitality. 
 There were many delightful speeches and ex- 
 
28 THE LOTOS CLUB. igra 
 
 changes of compliments. Signor Salvini, the 
 great Italian, responded to a toast. Toward the 
 close of the evening there were calls for Charles 
 Bradlaugh, the English Republican, who was pre 
 sent. He modestly responded, thanking the club 
 for the opportunity to unite with them in testify- 
 ing his regard and admiration for his distinguished 
 fellow countryman, whom he met for the first time 
 on foreign soil. It was a privilege, he said, which 
 no club in England would accord him. 
 
 Prof. Richard A. Proctor was also a guest 
 this year. This brought a somewhat different 
 body of guests to the Lotos. Science had its 
 innings. President Barnard, of Columbia College, 
 in his speech, introduced some remarks on the at- 
 titude of the more progressive scientific men 
 toward the Christian belief in a personal; God, 
 which called out some sharp rejoinders from 
 several scientific gentlemen present, and devel- 
 oped at last an exceedingly animated debate. Mr. 
 
 Proctor exhibited great diplomacy in 
 Proctor^' ^^^ ^"^"^ which he gave to the discussion. 
 
 There were present on this occasion Mr. 
 Cyrus W. Field, Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field, Chief- 
 Justice Charles P. Daly, Hon. Abram S. Hewitt 
 and Prof. E. L. Youmans. What was most de- 
 lightful at this reception was Prof. Proctor's 
 sincere tributes to American colleges and other 
 institutions. He expressed the hope that one day 
 his own children might receive a portion of their 
 education in America. This hope he realized, as 
 subsequently he married an American wife, re- 
 
1374 DINNER TO CHARLES KINGSLEY. 29 
 
 moved from England to the United States and 
 established his home in one of our Western cities. 
 Charles Kingsley was the guest at the first dinner 
 of the Lotos Club in February, 1874. Canon 
 Kingsley had as many claims to distinction as any 
 man who was ever entertained by the club. As 
 the famous author of " Westward Ho ! " " Hypa- 
 tia," "Alton Locke " and " Amyas Leigh" he was 
 among the foremost novelists of England. As the 
 author of " The Three Fishers " and other poems 
 he had a high place among her poets, and as a 
 
 preacher and reformer he had advanced 
 Kingliey ^^^ cause of human brotherhood. His 
 
 response to a felicitous speech of wel- 
 come by President Reid was altogether unique, 
 full of personal disclosures, and as it was very 
 short, here it is in full ; " Gentlemen, I am not 
 accustomed either to such a reception or to such 
 kind words as these, and I am very glad of it. I 
 wish that every one here knew me as well as I 
 know myself. If I have other such receptions as 
 this in America, I shall get out of it as soon as 
 possible for fear you should find me out. I am 
 very easily found out. They say there is a good 
 deal of the fool in every man, and I never have 
 known a man in my life that had more of it than L 
 I have learned in fifty-five years' experience never 
 to go into a room without saying to myself, ' You 
 may be the most foolish and may be the worst 
 man in this room ; therefore treat all you meet 
 with precautionary respect ; as to what I may be 
 or what I may or may not have done, it is no 
 
30 THE LOTOS CLUB. I87* 
 
 matter.' One of the ' kind wishes the chairman 
 has just done, me the honor to give me is a long 
 life. Let him ask anything for me except that. 
 Let us live hard, work hard, go a good pace, 
 get to our journey's end as soon as possible j 
 then let the post horse get his shoulder out of the 
 collar, and let him get his corn and hay ; let him 
 get rubbed down if he deserves it. If not, get a 
 rifle and put a bullet through his head, and so save 
 him the trouble of going any longer. I have lived 
 long enough to feel like the old post horse, very 
 thankful when the end comes. But in the mean- 
 time, gentlemen, joking apart, one thing I have 
 to say, that you have paid me a very delicate com- 
 pliment, and one that has gone home to my heart 
 this evening, in coupling my name with the two 
 men with whom I have grown up, and with whom, 
 through thick and thin, wind and storm, I have 
 lived and loved, and the two men whom I love 
 best on earth now — Anthony Froude and Thomas 
 Hughes. As long as you do me the honor to put 
 my name in as a third — your chairman made a 
 great mistake in putting me in as a better third, 
 both are better than myself at every point ; and 
 if you would know these two men as I know them, 
 learn from them as I have learned, you would 
 know and believe what I say ; that as long as you 
 put me in as a third, I shall consider you have 
 done me quite honor enough in America without 
 mentioning any foolish books of mine." 
 
 Subsequently Canon Kingsley made a longer 
 speech full of charm and originality. Henry 
 
1874 WELCOME TO CHARLES KINGSLEY. 3 1 
 
 Ward Beecher was among the invited guests, but 
 wrote that, were not Saturday an impossible night 
 for him, he would even undergo even a reception 
 and a dinner for the sake of meeting Charles 
 Kingsley, that he (Kingsley) ought to have come 
 hither twenty years before in order to see a coun- 
 try which is, in fact, England broke loose and 
 growing in the open air. The company gathered 
 to meet Mr. Kingsley omitted no element of dis- 
 tinction. A few among the prominent gentlemen 
 present were the Hon. William M. Evarts, John 
 G. Saxe, James Parton, Rev. Dr. Henry C. Potter, 
 John Bigelow, Rev. Dr. Montgomery, Hon. Wm. 
 E. Dodge, Benjamin K. Phelps, George Ripley, 
 John Taylor Johnston, Bret Harte, John Hay, 
 Manton Marble, David G. Croly, Wm. H. Apple- 
 ton, John Bell Bouton, Judge Charles H. Van 
 Brunt, Theo. D wight, Judge Gilbert M. Speir, 
 John Brougham, Wm. J. Florence, Geo. Fawcett 
 Rowe, E. W. Stoughton, Chauncey M. Depew, Dr. 
 Alexander E. Macdonald, Dr. William A. Ham- 
 mond, Dr. Charles Inslee Pardee, Sinclair Tousey, 
 Sanford R. Gifiord, William Hart, William H. 
 Beard, William A. Seaver, P. S. Gilmore and Rev. 
 Dr. Henry M. Field. The speakers who followed 
 the guest ol the evening took their cue from his 
 personal and unpremeditated style. Mr. Evarts, 
 always apt in his after-dinner oratory, was very 
 fine and eloquent. John G. Saxe, the witty Ver- 
 monter, was heard for the first and only time in 
 the Lotos Club. Rev. Dr. Potter, now Bishop 
 Potter, made an excellent address. The canon 
 
32 THE LOTOS CLUB. ism 
 
 had dined in the club and dined well. He enjoyed 
 the wine and the company, and by his capacity in 
 every direction which could be explored in one 
 evening, he excited the wonder of his entertainers. 
 About eleven o'clock the president accompanied 
 him to the Century Club, nearby, where he was 
 received by Mr. William CuUen Bryant and others 
 who had gathered to meet him. It was at this re- 
 ception that Canon Kingsley expressed his regret 
 that Westminster Abbey did not contain the dust 
 of some eminent American to cement the two 
 nations more closely together. Some one re- 
 marked that the Lotos Club of New York had an- 
 ticipated the verdict of posterity on Charles 
 Kingsley. It was, at any rate, a happy thing to 
 have given the great Englishman a generous taste 
 of the splendid fame which he has always enjoyed 
 in America. 
 
 On the evening of May 6 the club gave a ladies' 
 reception, for which occasion the Academy of 
 Music and the club house were united. Over 
 three thousand tickets were issued for this enter- 
 tainment. The musical programme was rendered 
 on the stage of the Academy. The guests were re- 
 ceived by President Reid and a committee headed 
 by Dr. Alexander E. Macdonald and Wm. Appleton, 
 Jr., in the club house. The two buildings were 
 connected by a covered way the width of the 
 sidewalk, which was carpeted and richly hung 
 with silk flags and drapery gracefully festooned. 
 The stage of the Academy presented the appear- 
 ance of a tropical garden. The musical pro- 
 
18T4 DINNER TO BROUGHAM. 33 
 
 gramme, under the direction of Mr. George W. 
 Colby, was executed in a most charming manner. 
 Mile, di Murska sang her two great show pieces, 
 arias from " Dinorah " and the " Magic Flute," 
 and there were many other well executed num- 
 bers. The reception was in every respect a bril- 
 liant success. 
 
 In June, 1874, a dinner was given to Mr. John 
 Brougham. Mr. Brougham anticipated an early 
 departure for Europe, and the dinner was in the 
 nature of a leave-taking. Whitelaw Reid presid- 
 ed, and among the many friends of Mr. Brougham 
 who participated and made speeches were S. L. M. 
 Barlow, Lawrence Jerome, Lester Wallack, Wil- 
 liam Winter, Harry Beckett, John McCuUough, 
 William S. Floyd and D. R. Locke. Mr. Winter 
 read a poem which was interrupted four several 
 times during the reading, the whole company of 
 seventy-five rising from the table and interrupt- 
 ing the poet with prolonged cheers and waving 
 of handkerchiefs. Mr. Brougham was one of the 
 first members of the club and had acted as pre- 
 sident on many occasions. His gentleness, amia- 
 bility and brilliancy of mind had endeared him to 
 every member. He was Uncle John Brougham 
 to one and all. The expression of feel- 
 „ ■'"'l" ing on this occasion was so intense that 
 
 Brougham. o 
 
 the recipient of the honor was entirely 
 overcome. He tried to take it in his usual cheery 
 and jaunty way, but the expression of love and 
 admiration on the part of his old friends was too 
 much for him. He never forgot this tribute, and 
 
34 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1574 
 
 it was one among many of the consolations of 
 the last days of his life. He did not go to Eng- 
 land, a thing which he referred to afterward with 
 much amusement. Shortly after the dinner to 
 Mr. Brougham, the celebrated English comedian, 
 Mr. John L. Toole, was entertained at the Lotos. 
 Mr. Brougham presided and speeches were made 
 by Joseph Jefferson, William Stuart, John T. Ford, 
 Isaac H. Bromley, William Winter and others. 
 
 There had been many exchanges of civilities 
 with the Savage Club of London, an English club 
 of journalists and artists, antedating the Lotos and 
 formed on similar lines. Many members of the 
 Lotos had availed themselves of the privileges of 
 the Savage when in London, and had found there 
 very kind and generous hospitality. Members of 
 the Savage had also been received and entertain- 
 ed in the Lotos. Mr. J. L. Toole was a represen- 
 tative member of the London club, and Mr. Ste- 
 phen Fiske, and Mr. Howard Paul, and Mr. 
 Joseph Hatton, all of whom were entertained 
 upon their arrival in this country. 
 
 On the 28th of December, 1874, the Lotos Club 
 entertained His Majesty Kalakaua the First, King 
 
 of the Hawaiian Islands. A number of 
 Kailiuua members of the Lotos had visited the 
 
 islands and had been received and en- 
 tertained at court. Their presence made the king 
 feel very much at home. Among those present 
 were Peter Cooper, Algernon S. Sullivan, Royal 
 Phelps, Dr. Fordyce Barker, Abram S. Hewitt 
 and W. E. Dodge. A large number of other guests 
 
,875 RECEPTION TO KING KALAKAUA. 35 
 
 and members thronged the club house. Mr. Reid 
 said to the king : " We are aware that our harsh 
 winter has left your Majesty unable to attempt 
 any response to our greetings, but we venture to 
 declare that wherever you may travel over our 
 continent, the King of Hawaii will find nothing 
 inhospitable except the climate." Three cheers 
 from the members and a number of introductions 
 followed the very informal reception ; pleasing 
 the king mightily by its very informality. King 
 Kalakaua was very much taken with the pictur- 
 esque appearance of the eccentric journalist Mr. 
 John Swinton, and enjoyed his forcible conversa- 
 tion very much. Governor Dominis accompa- 
 nied him. 
 
 In February, 1875, the club gave an Artists' Re- 
 ception and Exhibition of unusual interest. As- 
 sisted by the managers of the Ladies' Christian 
 Union, the Art Committee had borrowed pictures 
 from the private galleries of H. C. Fahnestock, 
 A. T. Stewart, J. H. Sherwood, Fletcher Harper, 
 S. P. Avery, Marshall O. Roberts, John H. Hall, 
 Samuel Hawk and others. All the great foreign 
 and American artists were represented. The ex- 
 hibition was open for a week, and the public ad- 
 mitted by card. 
 
 The club's Fifth Anniversary was celebrated by 
 a Ladies' Reception in the Academy of Music and 
 club house, connected for this occasion, which 
 compared in brilliancy with any social reunion of 
 the season and surpassed in multitude and perfec- 
 tion of incidetits all prior similar assemblages of 
 
36 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 1875 
 
 the club. The musical entertainment was under 
 the direction of Mr. "George W. Colby, and was 
 signalized by the first appearance of Miss Ade- 
 laide Phillips and Miss Violeta Colville and Mr. 
 Tom Carl in Flotow's new opera, " L'Ombra." 
 Selections from other favorite operas were also 
 given, and the entertainment was most successful. 
 The programmes were printed on silk woven for 
 the occasion, and furnished to each lady an in- 
 teresting souvenir. 
 
 The entire cost of this entertainment was 
 $1,600. The members were entitled to three 
 reserved seats free of all charge, but the boxes 
 were sold, and these, taken by members, realized 
 sufficient to meet all expenses. 
 
 The Lotos Club, though largely composed of 
 artists of the chisel, brush, pen and buskin, is very 
 shrewd and worldly sagacious. The members 
 have always -managed their affairs excellently, 
 bearing any extraordinary expenses they might 
 incur as individuals, instead of putting them upon 
 the organization. This accounts for its uniform 
 prosperity and sound condition. 
 
 Mr. John T. Raymond, an old member of the 
 club and a delightful man and actor, had made a 
 great success at the Union Square Theater as 
 Colonel Sellers in Mark Twain's play of 
 Raymond. " ^he Mighty Dollar," and on the eve 
 of his departure from New York to play 
 in other cities, his friends gave him a dinner. 
 This was notable for the large number of actors 
 and managers present, including Harry Palmer, 
 
,876 DINNER TO JOHN T. RAYMOND. 37 
 
 Maurice Grau, Max Strakosh, C. Chizzola, George 
 Fawcett Rowe, Barney Williams, John Broug- 
 ham, John Wyman, William J. Florence, Charles 
 De Young, William B. Somerville, S. S. Cox 
 and William Winter. Mr. F. A. Schwab presided. 
 This dinner brought out a most remarkable speech 
 from the guest of the evening. He had played the 
 part of Colonel Sellers until he had in a measure 
 lost his own individuality in that of the character. 
 There was a kinship between the two which un- 
 doubtedly contributed to his success, so his speech 
 was a delightful mixture of humor and extrava- 
 gance. He referred to the time when din'ners were 
 not given to him, a time, he said, when he could 
 have appreciated them. " It would not," he said, 
 " be honest to myself to say that I was ever a bad 
 actor, but I have been an infernally poor one. I 
 have tried to avoid even the appearance of evil. 
 Talk about giving a thousand dollars for a foreign 
 play. Why, gentlemen, I expect to pay fifty, yes 
 a hundred thousand, for my American play. I 
 don't know whether Mark Twain will call this 
 charity, but I mention it as a shining example. 
 Nor has success spoiled me. No, sir ; if any of 
 those humble but worthy members of my profes- 
 sion, Mr. Booth or Mr. Jefferson, should cross my 
 route or play in the same city with me, do not 
 think for a moment that I would look down upon 
 them. To pity the unfortunate is one of the 
 noblest traits of the actor." John Wyman made a 
 capital speech, and William Winter read a poem 
 to his old comrade. 
 
38 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 1875 
 
 On the 2ist of November, 1875, a dinner was 
 given to Lord Houghton, better known as Rich- 
 ard Monckton Milnes, the English poet. This 
 brought together a great gathering of literary 
 
 men. The dinner was made as simple 
 nou^°hton ^"^ informal as possible, but the splenr 
 
 did speech of the guest excited so much 
 enthusiasm and brought out such a response that 
 the affair proved a most elaborate and interesting 
 one. Lord Houghton referred to the reception 
 of Mr. Froude and Canon Kingsley and mentioned 
 the fact that the promise of future English states^ 
 manship in young Lord Rosebery had also been 
 entertained by the club. He knew, he said, that 
 he was adressing the Lotos Club, a society whose 
 fundamental principle had been expressed in the 
 melodious voices of one of the first but not least 
 of our poets, Joaquin Miller, and quoted two 
 verses as follows : 
 
 It seems to me that Mother Earth, 
 Is weary of eternal toil, 
 And bringeth forth by fretted soil, 
 
 In all the agonies of birth ; 
 
 Sit down ! Sit down ! So it were best, 
 That we should rest, that she should rest. 
 
 I think we then shall all be glad, 
 
 At least I know we are not now ; 
 
 Not one. And even earth, soniehow, 
 Seems growing old and overset. 
 
 Then fold your hands ; for it were best 
 
 That we should rest, that she should rest. 
 
 But somehow or other, he hardly thought his 
 
1878 DINNER TO FLORENCE. 39 
 
 present audience was quite so purely contem- 
 plative. He was followed by Bayard Taylor, who 
 made a brilliant speech. Among the guests were 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman, Colonel John Hay, 
 Governor Gardner, of Massachusetts, and Chaun- 
 cey M. Depew, some of whom made speeches. 
 
 A little later in the month Dr. Hans von Bulow, 
 the pianist, who had come to this country to 
 give concerts, and Theodore Thomas were enter- 
 tained. 
 
 On December 20th a complimentary dinner was 
 given to Mr. Florence, who had contributed so 
 much to the- life and enjoyment of the club, and 
 who was such a general favorite. Mr. 
 ^loreMe""' Brougham presided at this banquet, 
 which was extremely jolly, made so by 
 the delightful talk of the guest of the evening, and 
 songs by Mr. John Gilbert and John Brougham, 
 and speeches by Gen. Custer, George Fawcett 
 Rowe, Harry J. Montague, Lawrence Jerome and 
 John Wyman. All the actors and managers were 
 present at this dinner, anxious to honor their 
 friend and professional brother. 
 
 Mr. Moncure D. Conway paid a short visit to 
 this country in January, 1876. He was a Virgin- 
 ian who had freed his slaves and gone to England, 
 and one of the principal objects of his visit to this 
 country was to visit the colony of freedmen he 
 had founded in northern Ohio. Mr. Conway was 
 a literary, scientific and philosophical writer, and 
 had done honor to his country in England. He 
 was a man of high principle and great attainments. 
 
40 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 16!B 
 
 He was entertained at dinner at the Lotos Club 
 by a very distinguished company, Mr. Whitelaw 
 Reid occupying the chair. 
 
 On the 29th of January, 1876, a dinner was 
 given to the mayor of the city, Mr. William H. 
 Wickham, the first of a series of dinners to the in- 
 coming and outgoing mayors, which has 
 
 Wick™"' ^^^" '^^P* "P ""*^^ *^^ present day. 
 The mayor proved himself a most de- 
 lightful guest. His remarks on the necessity of 
 surrounding his mayorial dignity with greater 
 official state excited satirical comments in the 
 newspapers. One said: "He is, as everybody 
 knows, a white glove and silk stocking mayor, 
 the bright particular ornament of public and 
 private feasts, and the representative of what the 
 editor of the ' Tribune ' calls ' the culture of 
 the city.' " A suggestion that a fund should be 
 allowed to the mayor for hospitality was met with 
 the suggestion that it would be just as well for 
 him to pay for his dinners to foreign potentates 
 out of his own pocket. The gallant Colonel 
 Henry Mapleson, the London impresario, came 
 over this year, and naturally found a home and 
 much hospitality at the Lotos Club. 
 
 In March, 1876, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, who had 
 served the club so well as president for three years, 
 declined a re-election, and Mr. John Brougham 
 was elected in his place. Shortly after the elec- 
 tion, Mr. Reid was the recipient of the well-de- 
 served compliment of a dinner at the Lotos, which 
 was very largely attended and characterized by 
 
1876 DINNER TO JAMES T. FIELDS. 4 1 
 
 great enthusiasm and hearty good feeling, which 
 was highly gratifying to Mr. Reid. 
 
 In May of 1876 the French composer, M. 
 Jaques OfEenbach, made a second visit to this 
 country, and his reception at the Lotos Club was 
 a most agreeable reunion of the musical circles of 
 the city. The gathering included all the musi- 
 cians, musical critics and managers. Max Maret- 
 zek declared Offenbach the most popular com- 
 poser in the world, and Mr. Chauncey M. Depew 
 bore witness to the benign influence of his music 
 upon domestic life. M. OfEenbach was highly 
 pleased, and sent an account of the afiair to the 
 Paris " Figaro," giving his own speech on the 
 occasion. 
 
 Martin Farquhar Tupper was entertained at 
 dinner at the Lotos on the 30th of October. Mr. 
 Tupper relieved public apprehension by disclaim- 
 ing any intention of writing a book about Ame- 
 rica. Some very genial and pleasant speeches 
 were made, and the poet of proverbial philosophy 
 read three of his lyrical poems. 
 
 On the 2oth of December a dinner was given to 
 Mr. James T. Fields, of Boston. Mr. John Elder- 
 kin, who acted as chairman, referred to 
 ^rIms^ the important services of the guest in 
 promoting literary culture and to his 
 contributions to literary history and criticism. 
 Mr. Fields made a thoughtful and eloquent res- 
 ponse. Few men could speak better* of the great 
 writers of our English tongue. Mr. Bayard Tay- 
 lor and Mr. Stedman paid hearty tributes to 
 
42 THE LOTOS CLUB. I877 
 
 Mr. Fields ; Mr. Taylor giving aA interesting ac- 
 count of his long acquaintance with Mr. Fields 
 and Mr. Longfellow. Mr. George A. Frink con- 
 tributed to the gayety of the occasion by singing 
 " Simon the Cellarer," made famous in New York 
 by the late Henry Drayton. 
 
 On February nth, 1877, a complimentary din- 
 ner was given to Mayor Ely, at which Vice-Presi- 
 dent Noah Brooks presided, and which was 
 enlivened by a delightful speech from Judge 
 Brady. 
 
 The art exhibitions and special entertainments 
 for ladies on ladies' days were maintained with 
 a rare degree of success. The " Illustrated 
 Weekly" of April 14th, 1877, in an article on the 
 Lotos Club, said : " Wives who would not think 
 of letting their husbands belong to any other club 
 make an exception in favor of the Lotos, for they 
 say, very naturally, when they visit its elegant 
 parlors and see the walls covered with beautiful 
 paintings, and note the general air of aesthetic 
 culture which pervades the rooms, that the Lotos 
 is nothing like those horrid clubs where the mem- 
 bers find nothing better to do than to smoke, 
 drink, play cards and talk scandal." 
 
 On May ist, 1877, the Lotos Club removed 
 from the old house in Irving Place to the Bradish 
 Johnson mansion, corner of Fifth Avenue and 
 Twenty-first Street. This house was in every 
 way adapted? for the uses of the club. The rooms 
 were broad and comfortable, and furnished in- 
 creased facilities for the receptions and dinners 
 
LOTOS CLUB HOUSE, 
 No. 149 Fifth Avenue. 
 
1S77 REMOVAL TO FIFTH AVENUE. 43 
 
 which were such a great feature of the functions 
 of the club. The members realized that the old 
 house in Irving Place fell far short of meeting the 
 requirements of the increased membership and 
 their guests. An enthusiastic house warming 
 was given on the 22d of May, which was dis- 
 tinguished by the exhibition of pictures of 
 unusual excellence, and followed by an entertain- 
 ment on ladies' day, at which the president, Mr. 
 John Brougham, delivered a humorous address, 
 referring handsomely to the " angelic, charming 
 and delightful sex," and much more that was 
 agreeable and inspiring. The Saturday night 
 entertainments were continued with great enjoy- 
 ment and overflowing attendance. 
 
 Mr. B. L. Farjeon, the English novelist who 
 had married a daughter of Joseph Jefferson, paid 
 a visit to this country in November, 1877. The 
 Lotos Club, which has always delighted to honor 
 Mr. Jefferson, hastened to invite his son-in-law to 
 enjoy its hospitality. He was entertained at 
 dinner on November nth. Mr. Farjeon made a 
 
 short speech, full of graceful and kind 
 Parjeon allusions, and gave the palm not only to 
 
 American oratory, but to American oys- 
 ters, sweet potatoes and canvas-back ducks. The 
 speech of the evening was made by Joseph Jeffer- 
 son, who gave amusing illustrations of unsuccess- 
 ful speakers, related anecdotes connected with the 
 stage and made shrewd and humorous observa- 
 tions on managers. All this flowed so freely from 
 his lips, and was told with such an expression of 
 
44 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1878 
 
 innocence, that the company was convulsed with 
 laughter from the beginning to the end of his 
 remarks. Mr. Farjeon's speech was a fine tribute 
 to American literature, and excited a great deal of 
 interest at the time. 
 
 Mr. Henry Watterson, who is always wel- 
 come at the Lotos Club, was a guest at dinner on 
 November i8th. Many of his newspaper friends 
 and contemporaries were present and the gather- 
 ing was a notable one. Mr. D. R. Locke (Nasby) 
 made some original remarks about Kentucky and 
 its valuable products — horses, women and whisky. 
 General Preston, an old Kentucky man and an 
 officer of the Confederate service during the war, 
 paid a high tribute to Mr. Watterson. 
 
 Mr. John McCullough, the actor, was the- re- 
 cipient of a dinner on the nth of February, 1878, 
 at which Mr. William Winter, in response to the 
 toast of the dramatist, paid an earnest tribute to 
 
 j^^^ the simple kindly character, broad and 
 Mccui- generous mind and successful career ot 
 
 lough. ^^ McCullough, whom he had long 
 known and whose success he had foretold. 
 Speeches were also made by Isaac H. Bromley, 
 Dr. A. E. Macdonald, and the enjoyment was un- 
 interrupted for four hours, when Mr. McCullough 
 was obliged to leave the table and take the night 
 train to Boston to begin an engagement. 
 
 On the 1 8th of February, a fire took place in 
 the Lotos Club, seriously damaging the lower 
 floors of the house and burning many valuable 
 paintings. Repairs were hastily made, however. 
 
1878 DINNER TO JOHN GILBERT. 45 
 
 to prepare the house for a dinner to Hon. Bayard 
 Taylor, who had been appointed Minister to 
 Germany. Mr. Taylor had been present at many 
 dinners as a guest of the Lotos Club and his de- 
 lightful fluency and amiability had made him a 
 great favorite. A splendid company gathered to 
 do him honor and the speech-making lasted until 
 a late hour. During the evening Mr. Taylor 
 made a number of speeches and recited a number 
 of his most delightful poems. Judge Noah Davis, 
 August Belmont, Thomas C. Piatt, Governor Cor- 
 nell, Leonard Jerome and other public men were 
 guests of the club on this occasion, as well as 
 many of Mr. Taylor's lifelong friends and com- 
 rades, such as J. Q. A. Ward and Charles Dudley 
 Warner. 
 
 The fiftieth anniversary of John Gilbert's en- 
 trance into the theatrical profession was celebrat- 
 ed by a dinner at the Lotos Club. Mr. Whitelaw 
 Reid, who had been re-elected president, presided. 
 Scattered throughout the dining room were all 
 the prominent actors of the time who were then 
 in the city. Mr. Gilbert made a speech so full of 
 delightful personal allusions and reminiscences, so 
 naive, modest, and with so much sweet dignity, 
 that it ranked with his very finest performances. 
 He spoke of the time fifty years ago 
 ^M?''"* when he made his debut in Boston in a 
 
 uilbert. 
 
 first-class tragedy part. He spoke of 
 his disgust and indignation at finding himself cast 
 as an old man at the age of nineteen. He did it, 
 however, and received considerable applause, and 
 
46 THE LOTOS CLUB. lg,» 
 
 found at last that that was his strong point. In 
 1862 he had been invited to join Lester Wallack's 
 Theater by his friend's (pointing to Lester Wal- 
 lack) father, who, he was particular to say, was 
 his friend and dramatic master. He was followed 
 by John Brougham, Chauncey M. Depew, Dr. 
 Montrose Fallen, and William Winter, who read 
 a poetical tribute. A fine recitation by Frederic 
 Robinson brought the banquet to a close. 
 
 The annual dinner to the mayor, this time to 
 Mr. Edward Cooper, took place on the nth of 
 January, 1879, and was made specially interesting 
 by the presence of John Kelly, his opponent, who 
 made an excellent speech, in which he com- 
 miserated Mr. Cooper on the treatment which he 
 was certain to get from the newspapers, no matter 
 how he fulfilled the duties of his position. The 
 venerable Peter Cooper, the mayor's father ; Dr. 
 Isaac I. Hayes, the Arctic explorer ; Gen. Thomas 
 L. James and Augustus Schell were among those 
 present. The " Tribune " remarked next day 
 that " The savageness of our controversies is one 
 of the great hindrances to an elevation in the tone 
 of American public life, and it is surely a sign of 
 healthy progress when Edward Cooper is wel- 
 comed into office by Augustus Schell and magnates 
 of the Union League Club and a speech from 
 John Kelly." 
 
 In February, 1879, ^ dinner was given to Hon. 
 Richard C. McCormick, American Minister to the 
 Paris Exposition, who gave an interesting account 
 of the result of that great show, which was sup- 
 
1879 DINNER TO GILBERT AND SULLIVAN. 47 
 
 plemented by the speeches of ^Tr. Leon Chotteau 
 and Gov. Bullock, of Massachusetts. 
 
 In June of this year, 1879, Mr. John Brougham, 
 who had been in failing health for a long time, 
 died. His death was the occasion of mourning 
 at the Lotos Club. The funeral, at the Little 
 Church Around the Corner, on Twenty-ninth 
 Street, was attended by the members of the club 
 in a body, and Mr. Noah Brooks, vice-president, 
 acted as one of the pall bearers. 
 
 Messrs. W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, 
 authors of " H. M. S. Pinafore," were entertained 
 at dinner at the Lotos Club on November 8th, 
 1879. " Pinafore " had been played in this coun- 
 try, but the authors had derived no benefit from 
 it. They did not complain of this, as there existed 
 Gilbert "° international copyright act, but their 
 
 and object in placing " Pinafore " upon the 
 Sullivan. American stage was to give the authors' 
 idea of it, Mr. Gilbert humorously adding that he 
 did not see why he and Mr. Sullivan should be the 
 only ones not permitted to produce the piece. 
 Chauncey M. Depew amused the guests of the 
 evening by declaring that when information of the 
 approach of Gilbert and Sullivan arrived, it was a 
 matter of doubt as to whether they ought to be 
 met by a torpedo" boat or a delegation from the 
 Lotos Club. Col. John Hay made a delightful 
 speech. He is not so well known as an orator by 
 the public, but the old members of the Lotos re- 
 member his occasional addresses as among the 
 best at their dinners and receptions. Judge Gran- 
 
48 THE LOTOS CLUB. isso 
 
 ville P. Hawes was also among the guests and 
 speakers on this occasion. 
 
 Charles G. Leland had been absent from his 
 native land for a number of years, but the popu- 
 larity of the author of " Hans Breitmann " had 
 not faded. His poems in the Dutch dialect were 
 read by everybody. Mr. Hepworth Dixon re- 
 cited them with great effect to some friends on 
 the occasion of his visit to America, and they 
 were often given in the club by professional 
 reciters. Mr. Leland was given a reception on 
 his return from England, March 31st, 1880. No 
 more wholesome nature or manly character could 
 be found in the world of literary men than 
 Charles G. Leland, and when he sat down to 
 dinner at the Lotos he was surrounded by all the 
 best that the club could summon to greet him. 
 Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the president, paid a fine 
 tribute to the literary men of Philadelphia, nam- 
 ing Horace Howard Furniss, George H. Boker, 
 Henry C. Carey, Henry C. Lea, Rebecca Hard- 
 ing Davis and others. Mr. Leland told some 
 Irish anecdotes to illustrate the good memory of 
 his friends in recollecting him after his long 
 absence; one of the Irishman whose immediate 
 ancestors had been absent from the country for 
 two hundred years, but he had so kept the features 
 of his race that his relatives had immediately 
 known him by the " illigant resimblance to the 
 family." Mr. Leland said : " That I am still 
 known in America has touched me more than 
 anything else." Gen. Horace Porter, who can 
 
1880 DINNER TO DE LESSEPS. 49 
 
 speak for himself or for any good cause on any 
 occasion, was called upon to speak for the Penn- 
 sylvania Dutchman, which he did by giving a 
 description of an attempt to use his 
 '^L'eiandf' Pennsylvania dialect upon the original 
 Germans. It struck home when Gen. 
 Porter tried it on a railway official, who flung a 
 look and a sentence in German at him which he 
 had not forgotten. Then the official addressed 
 him in English, and asked him what " tam fine 
 kind of German " that was which he was speak- 
 ing. Prentice Mulford, Chauncey M. Depew and 
 Dr. Macdonald also entertained the company with 
 remarks. 
 
 The events in connection with the Panama 
 Canal project had brought Count Ferdinand De 
 Lesseps to New York this year, 1880, and his ap- 
 pearance then was by no means youthful. There 
 was, however, an easy self-possession and facility 
 which showed his mental and physical vigor. M. 
 De Lesseps, attended by his engineers and secre- 
 taries and Lieutenant Bonaparte Wyse, were en- 
 tertained at dinner at the Lotos Club on the 28th 
 of February. Among other guests on this occa- 
 sion were Levi P. Morton, Nathan Appleton, of 
 Boston, Herr Dirks, Consul General Breuil, F. F. 
 Marbury, Paul Du Chailluand Chief Justice Daly. 
 Mr. Reid, the president, in his speech of welcome 
 said : " We extend our hospitality to a great man 
 who has done a great work to the world and mar- 
 ried the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. We 
 drink to this wonderful young-old man, who, after 
 
so THE LOTOS CLUB. isso 
 
 seventy-five years of such a career, is still seeking 
 for new worlds to conquer." Count De Lesseps, 
 who had spent so much of his life in Egypt, re- 
 ferred to the emblem of the Lotos, the Egyptian 
 
 flower, saying that under its shade he 
 De*i^'"se"s. ^0""^ ^^st and repose. He explained 
 
 that his great desire was to interest the 
 American people in his great scheme of cutting 
 the Isthmus of Panama. Nathan Appleton, who 
 was a promoter of this great enterprise, made a 
 most interesting speech. If the Lotos Club could 
 have aided in any way to bring about the success 
 of Count De Lesseps' enterprise by drowning its 
 promoters in champagne and apostrophizing them 
 in eloquent periods, it stood up worthily to its 
 work. At the conclusion of the entertainment, 
 Count De Lesseps rose and said : " I wish to reply 
 to the generous and broad views of the speakers. 
 The opponents I have had are two — the people 
 and the Isthmus. One of these I have conquered, 
 and the other I will fight as long as I live in the 
 interest of commerce, progress and civilization." 
 The club celebrated its tenth anniversary by a 
 dinner on the 28th of March, at which the presi- 
 dents of eleven other city clubs were guests. At 
 this dinner Mr. Reid gave a brief sketch of the 
 club's history. Mr. Daniel Huntington, presi- 
 dent of the CentQry Club, gave an interesting 
 account of the history of his club and paid a fine 
 tribute to the Lotos. Joseph H. Choate, presi- 
 dent of the Union League Club, paid his com- 
 pliments to the reporters, whom he characterized 
 
1880 THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY. 5 1 
 
 as the bane of modern society, and said that 
 the Lotos Club excited his wonder that it had 
 survived their constant and unintermittent atten- 
 tions for so long a period. He remarked that 
 while the club was only ten years old, he saw 
 about him many whom he remembered as much 
 younger men, glancing at his old friend Col. 
 Richard Lathers. " But," he said, " we members 
 of older clubs congratulate you on having sur- 
 vived all the trials, and reached this successful 
 period of a triumphant career, which I hope is to 
 endure as long as the Century, of which you have 
 just heard from Mr. Daniel Huntington." After 
 the president of the Union League had spoken, 
 Aaron J. Vanderpoel, president of the Manhat- 
 tan Club, said : " We had supposed and believed 
 that the object of the Lotos Club was to remove 
 to America all the relics of Egypt and the East, 
 but it had dawned upon him since he had been in 
 the club that it was organized for quite another 
 object." Gen. Lloyd Aspinwall responded for the 
 Army and Navy Club, and Mr. Edward Lauter- 
 bach for the Harmonie. Later a silver loving cup 
 of the capacity of two quarts was passed, and 
 there were toasts to all the clubs and a good time 
 generally. The Lotos Club was in the best possi- 
 ble humor with itself. 
 
 In November, the Lotos Club entertained Gen. 
 Ulysses S. Grant, President-elect of the United 
 States, for the first time. It was found impossible 
 to accommodate all the members who desired to 
 be present. One or two of the large rooms up- 
 
52 THE LOTOS CLUB. isso 
 
 stairs were filled with those who could not find a 
 place in the dining room and many were turned 
 away altogether. On this account the number of 
 invited guests was small, but it included the 
 governor of the State and the mayor of the city. 
 After the dinner, when the speaking began, those 
 
 who had dined upstairs entered the par- 
 "'arant.^' 1°^^. Mr. Whitclaw Reid, the president 
 
 of the club, in welcoming General 
 Grant, made an interesting and eloquent address. 
 General Grant's speech was altogether delight- 
 ful. During the five minutes which it occupied 
 he proved entirely the truth of Mr. Reid's state- 
 ment that he was able to make a speech. Gene- 
 ral Grant said : " Now in regard to the future 
 of myself which has^ been alluded to here. I 
 am entirely satisfied as I am to-day. I am not 
 one of those who cry out against republics and 
 charge them with being ungrateful. I have 
 every confidence in the American people as a 
 nation, and have every reason under the sun, if 
 anybody has, to be satisfied with their treatment 
 of me. I have many years yet to live. I am in 
 vigorous health (forty-eight years of age), and 
 have been for the last ten years, and if I can render 
 my country any service in any way, I should cer- 
 tainly be very happy to do so, but as I am of the 
 age of forty-eight years, as I say, I am beyond the 
 period of volunteering ; and if I am ever wanted in 
 any way, I shall have to be pressed into the service. 
 I wish to make one more remark. I have been sit- 
 ting by the side of your president and have heard 
 
1881 SPEECH BY GENERAL GRANT. 53 
 
 messages coming to him from all parts of the board 
 saying that they wanted to speak. I have yet 
 fifteen minutes of my own time left and I will con- 
 sent to give it to these volunteers." General 
 Grant was followed by Governor Cornell, Mayor 
 Edward Cooper, Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, General 
 Horace Porter and Mr. Isaac H. Bromley. Dr. 
 Montrose Palen, who had been the subject of 
 unjust accusation during the war, made a very 
 eloquent speech, paying a great tribute to General 
 Grant for the just and considerate treatment which 
 he had received from him, and expressing the 
 sentiment of the whole club of respect, admiration 
 and gratitude for his great military services to his 
 country. The occasion was a memorable one in 
 the club's history. Gener^ Grant was called upon 
 again and again for a speech and was greeted with 
 unbounded enthusiasm. At its conclusion he slyly 
 remarked : " I should think, after the experience 
 of this evening, you would not ask me again." 
 
 On January 30th, 1881, the club entertained the 
 new mayor, Mr. William R. Grace, and ex-Mayor 
 Edward Cooper. The gathering of the members 
 of the club and their friends was large. Noah 
 Brooks presided, and speeches were made by ex- 
 Mayor Cooper, William Dowd, Judges 
 William R. Richard O. Gorman and Noah Davis, 
 
 Grace. ' 
 
 Dr. A. E. Macdonald and Chauncey M. 
 Depew. Mayor Grace made some very happy 
 remarks at this dinner. He said: "While I be- 
 lieve in party government, as a true way to fix 
 responsibility, yet I do not believe in considering 
 
54 THE LOTOS CLUB. jssi 
 
 measures proposed for the State's government 
 from a mere partisan point of view. I am con- 
 vinced that men of all parties should unite in 
 earnest and honest effort to secure for the city 
 the right of self-government, and to protect all 
 rights provided to corporations from interference 
 from without. We would thus be enabled to 
 manage our own affairs." Mr. Dowd, the defeated 
 candidate, was very happy in his response. He 
 said : " I am thoroughly satisfied with the way 
 things are going on. My family hates Grace. We 
 are deliberating in my house whether we shall 
 permit ' Grace ' to be said any more. I hope a 
 kind Providence will look over you and permit the 
 streets to become navigable." (The streets at this 
 time were in a very tjad condition, as they have 
 been frequently since.) 
 
 Commander Gorringe, who had successfully 
 landed the Egyptian Obelisk, which now stands in 
 Central Park, was entertained at dinner at the 
 Lotos Club on the 27th of February. As the 
 Obelisk was regarded as very dear to the hearts of 
 the artists as well as to antiquarians, Mr. F. A. 
 Bridgeman, the artist, was associated with him as 
 a guest ; also Mr. Daniel Huntington. T. Addison 
 Richards, J. H. Beard, J. F. Cropsey and other 
 artists were invited to meet them. Commander 
 comman- Gorriuge said that he was in the habit 
 
 der of making his speeches through a speak- 
 Qorringe. ing trumpet. He said: " Some, I am 
 sure, have found great fault with me for having 
 brought this monument from Egypt at all. The 
 
J832 DINNER TO SIR HENRY PARKES. 55 
 
 way it happened was this. Some years ago the 
 Khedive proposed to the merchants of Alexandria 
 that if they would subscribe half the cost of re- 
 moving it from its dangerous position in the city, 
 he would pay the other half. He could not find a 
 merchant in Alexandria who w'ould subscribe one 
 dollar to remove it. When an enterprising Ame- 
 rican asked him for it, he said: ' You may take it, 
 for if you don't it will fall into the sea, and I don't 
 want to see it broken.' " Other speeches were 
 made properly appreciating the work of Com- 
 mander Gorringe, and also some delightful artistic 
 reminiscences were listened to from Daniel Hunt- 
 ington and others. Mr. Chauncey M. Depew 
 spoke for Mr. William H. Vanderbilt, who had 
 paid the expense of bringing the Obelisk to this 
 country. 
 
 Sir Henry Parkes, Prime Minister of New 
 South Wales, was entertained by the Lotos Club 
 at dinner on the i8th of February, 1882. Tributes 
 were paid to the guest of the evening by the presi- 
 dent of the club, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, Gen. Horace 
 Porter, Thomas R. Pickering, late 
 Sir Henry United States Minister to the Australian 
 
 Parkes. 
 
 Exposition. Mr. Reid said, in propos- 
 ing the health of Sir Henry Parkes, that his per- 
 sonal career was so thoroughly like many of our 
 most successful men that he might almost call him 
 more American than the Americans. Sir Henry 
 Parkes made an excellent speech. He closed by 
 saying : " I am one of those who thoroughly be- 
 lieve in the Anglo-Saxon race." Mr. Pickering 
 
S6 THE LOTOS CLUB. ^^ 
 
 said, " The hospitality that has surprised Sir Henry 
 Parkes in America is, I am sure, merely a reflec- 
 tion of his own character and of his fellow citizens 
 in New South Wales, as I know by experience." 
 Gen. Porter, as usual, gave the right tone of levity 
 and sincerity to his remarks which made them 
 most delightful to listen to. Among other things 
 he said : " One of the greatest products of New 
 South Wales is sheep, I hear. Sir Henry Parkes 
 might learn something of shearing the woolly 
 members of the flock, however, from Wall Street 
 men, although they are more acquainted with 
 colic than with the bucolics, and are only sure of 
 the fact that hydraulic rams produce watered 
 stock." 
 
 At the annual election this year, 1882, the fol- 
 lowing officers were elected : President, Whitelaw 
 Reid ; First Vice-President, Dr. A. E. Macdonald ; 
 Second Vice-President, Gen. Horace Porter ; 
 Secretary, Thomas W. Knox ; Treasurer, Fred- 
 erick B. Noyes ; Directors, Douglas Taylor, Rich- 
 ard Lathers, William E. Webb, John T. Hand, A. F. 
 Tait, Montague Marks, John A. Foley and Henry 
 A. Marriott. The club was in a very prosperous 
 condition. The list of resident members was at 
 its constitutional limit, namely, four hundred, and 
 the non-resident membership quite large. There 
 was also a good balance in bank and numerous 
 applications for membership. 
 
 On May 7th, 1882, Mr. William T. Carleton, an 
 old and honored member of the Lotos, was enter- 
 tained at dinner by many of his friends in the 
 
1^ DINNER TO BRONSON HOWARD. 57 
 
 club. It was a most delightful occasion. Mr. 
 Carleton sang the " Village Blacksmith " and 
 selections from " Patience." It was specially 
 interesting as a gathering of old members. 
 
 Mr. Bronson Howard, whose successful career 
 as a dramatist began with the production of the 
 play of " Saratoga " in 1870, about the date of 
 his joining the Lotos Club, was entertained at 
 
 dinner with his friend and brother-in- 
 nlTard" 1^^^> Mr. Charles Wyndham, the Eng- 
 
 lish comedian, who was about to begin 
 his third professional tour in this country. Among 
 those present were Lester Wallack, C. H. Webb, 
 Dr. L. L. Seaman, Brander Matthews, Gen. Rush 
 C. Hawkins, John T. Raymond, S. S. Packard, A. 
 Wright Sanford, Oscar Wilde, George Clarke, 
 Samuel Shethar, John T. Hand and David Scott. 
 Mr. Howard was one of the most popular mem- 
 bers. He had succeeded by dint of sheer ability 
 and hard work. In response to the toast of his 
 health, he said : " My fellow members and other 
 friends here : I have never at any time in my life 
 realized so many causes for pride as I feel this 
 evening. In the first place, as a member of the 
 Lotos since 1871, I remember wondering whether 
 I should ever do anything for which my fellow 
 members here should feel called upon to extend 
 such an honor as this to me. Another source of 
 pride is m}' connection with New York journalism 
 and with the ' New York Tribune.' I remember 
 on the night before my first success, ' Saratoga,' I 
 felt dizzy, and Mr. Reid asked me into his sanctum 
 
S8 THE LOTOS CLUB. wi 
 
 to lie down upon the sofa. Our lamented friend 
 Bayard Taylor was talking with Mr. Reid, and as 
 I lay half dozing, I heard him say that in looking 
 back over his past life he knew of nothing that 
 had given him better experience as a literary man, 
 that had done more to develop whatever brain 
 power he had since exercised, than his experience 
 in editorial work, and I now in a more humble 
 way can say the same thing, although I never had 
 any such responsible work as Bayard Taylor, or 
 any such salary." Mr. Charles Wyndham was not 
 only an actor who had played in this country, but 
 he had been a surgeon in the army during the war 
 — facts which were referred to by Mr. Reid in his 
 brief introduction. Mr. Wyndham responded, pay- 
 ing hearty tribute to Mr. Lester Wallack as a man- 
 ager and an actor. Mr. Lester Wallack and Mr. 
 Oscar Wilde also made speeches. Mr. Wilde had 
 the bad taste to seize the opportunity to abuse the 
 American press, but the refreshing manner of Mr. 
 Reid in his subsequent references to Mr. Wilde 
 turned the matter into a subject of general mirth. 
 Mr. John T. Raymond, toward the close of the 
 evening, recited Col. John Hay's poem " Banty 
 Tim," with great effect. 
 
 The club next had the pleasure of entertain- 
 ing a distinguished artist, Mr. Francis Seymour 
 Haden, the English etcher. A collection of fifty- 
 
 Prancis ^^^ frames containing from one to four 
 Seymour etchings each of Mr. Haden was dis- 
 
 "■"'"• played in the gallery. The etchings 
 were loaned by Mr. Frederick Keppel, and the 
 
)882 RECEPTION TO SEYMOUR HADEN. 59 
 
 collection was said to be the largest in America. 
 Mr. Haden said he could not have gotten together 
 such a large collection himself. A very delight- 
 ful party gathered to meet Mr. Haden, including 
 nearly all the artists and artist etchers, as well as 
 amateurs and collectors. Mr. Whitelaw Reid in- 
 troduced Mr. Haden, who, in his response, gave 
 an interesting account of his impressions of the 
 country. He said if he had not known that he was 
 in America, he should have thought he was in the 
 Tagus, Portugal. The color and character of the 
 scenery were very similar, and New York, which 
 he saw in the distance, reminded him very much 
 of Lisbon. The city impressed Mr. Haden as a 
 sort of Paris with practical ways about it. The 
 colors, however, were Dutch. In coming to 
 America, Mr. Haden said in conclusion, " My 
 great aim is to illustrate the engraver's art as 
 practiced by the old masters, which is commonly 
 called painter engraving." Mr. Haden's etchings 
 were examined with added interest from the pres- 
 ence and with the assistance of the artist. This 
 reception in honor of Mr. Haden brought to- 
 gether a number of eminent men of the medical 
 profession, of which Mr. Haden was an honored 
 member. 
 
 Despite a fire and very serious damage to the 
 club in the morning, in which several paintings 
 were destroyed, the club gave an art. reception 
 and exhibition on November 26th. At the recep- 
 tion, no evidences of the fire were visible, other- 
 wise than in the case of a few paintings, which 
 
6o THE LOTOS CLUB. isss 
 
 were blistered and somewhat defaced. A fine 
 portrait of Mr. Peter Cooper by W. M. Chase, 
 owned by Mrs. Abram S. Hewitt, and pictures of 
 Carolus Duran and J. W. Alexander were the 
 only pictures which were seriously injured. 
 
 On January 13th, 1883, Mr. Franklin Edson, the 
 newly elected Mayor of the city, was entertained 
 in company with ex-Mayor William R. Grace and 
 Mayor Seth Low, of Brooklyn. 
 
 Mr. Edson in response to the toast of his 
 health, said : " In tendering you my hearty and 
 sincere thanks, I express but feebly the gratitude 
 I feel to you, gentlemen of the Lotos Club, for es- 
 tablishing this time-honored custom of complet- 
 ing the inauguration of the new mayor of the 
 city. There is no city in the world in which the 
 acts of the executive are so apt to be misunder- 
 stood, or if understood, so apt to be misconstrued, 
 as in the city of New York." The mayor con- 
 tinued, giving his views of the possibilities of his 
 position and the limitations of his power. He 
 was followed by ex-Mayor Grace and Mayor 
 Low, of Brooklyn, both discussing municipal 
 affairs from a point of view of knowledge and ex- 
 perience and both giving suggestions of great 
 practical utility to the new incomer to office. 
 Gen. Horace Porter, Chauncey M. Depew and 
 Aaron J. Vanderpoel continued to discuss and 
 enliven it .with many brilliant and picturesque re- 
 marks. President Reid closed the entertaining 
 discussion by expressing the hope that Mayor 
 Edson might not prove so bad an officer as had 
 
18K OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES'S VISIT. 6 1 
 
 been expected and that he might go out of office 
 bearing with him universal respect and the warm 
 congratulations that were given to his retiring 
 predecessor. As usual after a Mayor's dinner, 
 the speeches were the subject of unlimited com- 
 ments in the newspapers. For this reason prob- 
 ably the inauguration dinners at the Lotos Club 
 had come to be looked upon as part of the neces- 
 sary ceremonial of the assumption of the office. 
 
 About eighty members of the Lotos Club had 
 gathered at an informal dinner on the 15 th of 
 April, 1883, which was originally intended to be a 
 sort of reunion. Joseph Medill, editor of the 
 " Chicago Tribune " and ex-mayor of Chicago, 
 came in about nine o'clock. About an hour after- 
 ward Dr. Fordyce Barker and Dr. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes appeared. These gentlemen had just ar- 
 rived from the house of Cyrus W. Field, by whom 
 a dinner had been given in honor of Dr. Holmes. 
 The members of the club rose to their feet as Dr. 
 Holmes entered, and continued cheering until he 
 Oliver ^^^ taken his place at the president's 
 Wendell side, when he bowed his acknowledg- 
 o mes. nient and took his seat. After a few 
 moments spent in general conversation, the com- 
 pany was called to order and the distinguished 
 guests were presented by Mr. Reid to those as- 
 sembled. Dr. Holmes responded in a charming 
 speech, which he asked the reporters not to print. 
 At this late day it may not be amiss to give a por- 
 tion of Dr. Holmes's remarks. He said : " The 
 best thing I can do in answer to this wholly unex- 
 
62 THE LOTOS CLUB. ^gss 
 
 pected reception is to speak to you from my heart, 
 such words as come to my lips. I have been stag- 
 gered, I have been stunned, by my reception in 
 New York. I had no idea, not a thought for the 
 moment of rising to-night, and you really do not 
 know what a helpless creature you have before 
 you. 1 never trust myself on an occasion of this 
 sort, without, like the ancient Briton, bringing a 
 shield to hold up before me ; for generally about 
 this time I slip my hand into my pocket and draw 
 out something that looks very much like a little 
 copy of verses. In thinking of what I should say, 
 I would bring a few reminiscences of the Saturday 
 Club, of Boston, to which, for the last twenty-five 
 years, I have belonged. It has been in its time a 
 very instructive assemblage of men. At one end 
 of the table always sat Longfellow, with his sweet, 
 benignant, classic countenance. It was a mild, . 
 kind, natural light, for he was a man lovely to look 
 upon and listen to ; but as compared with the other 
 end of the table he was moonlight with the flash- 
 ing of the meteor, for there was the round, hearty, 
 athletic form of Agassiz, with that splendid laugh, 
 and of all the gifts to a man at a table perhaps a good 
 laugh, aided byja tolerable corporation, is the most 
 effective thing in the long run, and Agassiz's laugh 
 used to ring from the other end of the table. That 
 was for twenty years we had this. Then we had 
 Mr. Emerson with his mild, critical, observing look, 
 always almost in his place. Then we would have 
 our great mathematician Peirce sitting there. 
 Then we had Lowell, full of satirical wit, and full 
 
1883 DR. HOLMES'S SPEECH. 63 
 
 of kno wledge and information also. Then we had 
 my beautiful friend Motley, one of the finest-look- 
 ing creatures that ever was in the world, and who 
 interested everybody. Sometimes he came in 
 among us, then rarely, but once in a while Haw- 
 thorne sat among us. I used to get near to him if 
 I could. Mr. Tom Appleton, some of you know 
 the name almost as well as you know the name of 
 Travers, isn't it ? That is the man you have here, 
 in New York, I believe." At this point Dr. 
 Holmes discovered the reporters, and exclaimed : 
 " Oh, my ! I don't want to be reported." He con- 
 tinued : " So much for the Saturday Club. It was 
 one of the greatest privileges of my life to meet 
 with them. Met once a month. It was an eco- 
 nomical club. But I tell you what that club was to 
 me in the feeling that doubtless this club is the 
 same to many of you. It was a gamut of human 
 intelligence. There, I knew I could touch the 
 note I wanted and find its chord. In all my experi- 
 ence with the Saturday Club throughout a quar- 
 ter of a century, I do not remember anything of a 
 formal or stuck-up character except on two occa- 
 sions. Now, gentlemen, I have said all that I 
 ought and a great deal more. I could only add 
 that at the period of life at which I have arrived, 
 it is naturally a very gratifying thing. I expect 
 nothing more like this reception so long as I live. 
 It never will be repeated. Never can be repeated. 
 It is an unparalleled thing. I go home with my 
 heart full — not only of New York associations but 
 of American associations. I am here in a repre- 
 
64 THE LOTOS CLUB. ism 
 
 sentative city, and I know that if there are kind 
 hearts here, I shall find them everywhere." A few 
 things are omitted here, but this is the substance 
 and covers almost everything that Dr. Holmes 
 said on this occasion, and there is certainly nothing 
 which he would object to see in print were he liv- 
 ing to-day. A poem by Edmund C. Stedman, 
 written for Dr. Holmes's birthday, was then read 
 by Mr. A. P. Burbank. Brief addresses were 
 made by Hon. Joseph Medill, R. Swain Gifford, 
 Dr. Macdonald, and Junius Henri Browne. 
 
 Henry Irving, who had made such a success in 
 England in the character of Charles the First, 
 paid his first visit to America in the fall of 1883. 
 The first recognition of Mr. Irving's presence in 
 
 America was a dinner tendered to him 
 irwng. by ^^^ L°t°s Club on April 27th. One 
 
 hundred and forty members and guests 
 were present. Behind Mr. Irving was an easel, 
 on which rested his portrait in the character 
 of Shylock. Among others present were : Law- 
 rence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, William J. 
 Florence, Bram Stoker, Joseph Hatton, R. W. 
 Gilder, Frank R. Lawrence, Robert Laird 
 Collier, Dr. Fordyce Barker and Gen. Winslow. 
 President Whitelaw Reid gave the guest of 
 the evening a hearty welcome. In response to 
 the toast in his honor, Mr. Irving made a very 
 interesting speech, referring, in a happy man- 
 ner, to the circumstances of his first appear- 
 ance in America, and to many of his con- 
 temporaries. Among other things he said : " Our 
 
1884 FIRST DINNER TO IRVING. 65 
 
 art is cosmopolitan. Every actor has his own 
 methods and every painter his own method and 
 every writer his style. The best actor among 
 us has a great deal to learn. It is only at the 
 end of his career that he can find how short 
 his life and how long his art. London is now 
 talking of your great tragedian, Booth, and your 
 great comedian, Jefferson. I hate the words 
 tragedian and comedian, but call them actors. 
 Mr. McCuUough and Clark and my friends 
 Florence and Raymond have had among us the 
 heartiest of welcomes." He was followed by 
 Joseph Jefferson, Chauncey M. Depew, Gen. 
 Porter and others. Gen. Porter referred to our 
 familiarity with the name of Irving in America, 
 and the welcome which Henry Irving was sure to 
 get from the land of Washington Irving. Dr. 
 Robert Laird Collier, of Chicago, told a humor- 
 ous story of Western life. Mr. Jefferson quoted 
 Charles Lamb's saying that there were only two 
 classes in the world, one the poor and the other 
 the rich. And so there were two classes of speech 
 makers, one portion born to get into it and the 
 other to get out of it. He belonged to the latter, 
 but would do it cheerfully. He then said some 
 very pleasant things of Mr. Irving. Mr. Irving 
 said that the only complaint he had to make of 
 Mr. Reid was for his intimation that he reminded 
 him of Oscar Wilde. Mr. A. Oakey Hall made a 
 witty speech. Among the interesting pictures on 
 the walls of the Lotos Club, exhibited for the first 
 time this evening, was a very fine landscape called 
 
66 THE LOTOS CLUB. m& 
 
 " Forest and Stream," by Joseph Jefferson. If Mr. 
 Jefferson had not been born to be a great actor, 
 he would certainly have been a great painter. 
 During the intervals of his professional duties he 
 has devoted himself entirely to painting, and he 
 is known as one of the best connoisseurs in the 
 United States. 
 
 Mr. George Augustus Sala, of the " London 
 Telegraph," while on his way to Australia, spent 
 a few days in New York in January, 1885. The 
 Lotos Club took advantage of his presence to en- 
 tertain him at a dinner, which took place on the 
 loth of January. Mr. Sala was^ personally well 
 known to many of those present, and it was to him 
 like a great gathering of his American friends. 
 Among those present were President {Whitelaw 
 Reid, Lawrence Barrett, Horace White, Lester 
 Wallack, S. S. Packard, Francis S. Smith, Henry 
 L. Alden, Frank R. Lawrence, Chauncey M. De- 
 pew, Algernon S. Sullivan, Henry W. Cannon, 
 Gen. Horace Porter and Joseph Pulitzer. Mr. 
 Sala spoke in clear, resonant tones and in a delight- 
 ful vein, in response to the pleasant introduction 
 of the president of the club. He gave an account 
 of his first visit to America during the war twenty 
 years before, when he had made the 
 Augustus mistake, in common with hundreds of 
 
 *"'■• thousands of his countrymen, of think- 
 ing that the Union had been destroyed, and that 
 henceforth the United States was to be no longer 
 one nation. His apology was accepted. No one 
 could quarrel with such a bluff, hearty, honest Eng- 
 
1885 DINNER TO G. A. SALA. 6^ 
 
 lishman as George A. Sala. His speech was full 
 of happy reminiscences. Mr. Sala corrected the 
 statement that he came here to try and make 
 some money in the United States, saying : " Bless 
 your hearts and souls, gentlemen of the Lotos 
 Club, I assure you that I have no such idea." 
 Following Mr. Sala, Mr. Depew delivered a genu- 
 ine oration, in which he paid a splendid tribute 
 to the guest, and among other things, said : " I 
 have thought as I sat here to-night what a congre- 
 gation it would be if all the eminent men who 
 have been received by the Lotos Club were gath- 
 ered in one room. It would be an intellectual 
 kaleidoscope that at every turn would illustrate 
 and present the best form of genius. We have re- 
 ceived here these men who, in letters, in arms, 
 and in statesmanship, have illustrated all that is 
 greatest and grandest of our time in this and other 
 countries. And the receptions which have marked 
 our history would illustrate the manner in which 
 in one sense the country which our guest repre- 
 sents sought to capture this great and growing 
 empire. . . . But while we could resist her 
 armies and her navies, while we could withstand 
 the metrical and musical assaults of her Sullivans 
 and her Gilberts, there is a point that we feel that 
 there is a necessity of our not surrendering — that 
 is, when the British lecturer appears." Hon. 
 Joseph Pulitzer, Horace Porter and Mr. Winter 
 made brief addresses, and Mr. Sala made a second 
 speech, which was very fine and full of good feel- 
 ing. Mr. E. C. Stedman made some amusing 
 
68 THE LOTOS CLUB. isss 
 
 comparisons of London and New York, as these 
 must have forced themselves upon Mr. Sala, so 
 known for " his grip upon facts and impressions." 
 
 Francis S. Smith was an old and valued member 
 of the club. For many years he had edited a 
 popular weekly journal and had written and pub- 
 lished his own stories and poems. He had been 
 the architect of his own fortune, and pos- 
 ''smith^' sessed rugged strength and honesty. 
 Everybody liked " Brother Smith." In 
 January, 1885, he returned from a long trip to the 
 Pacific coast, coming by way of Portland and Yel- 
 lowstone Park and doing the journey over the 
 Sierra Nev-ada mountains by stage coach. Ac- 
 counts of his trip had reached the club, and when 
 he arrived a dinner was gotten up for him of a 
 unique character. The dining room was festooned 
 with buffalo skins, bows and arrows, interspersed 
 with spears and guns and heads and horns of deer 
 and buffaloes. Caricatures of Mr. Smith, posing as 
 an Indian with war paint and weapons, and every- 
 thing suggestive of a bloody campaign, decorated 
 the walls. The dinner took place January 17th. 
 The whole thing was an inspiration, and the sur- 
 prise and delight of the guest was a great treat to 
 witness. A few of the participants were Frank R. 
 Lawrence, George A. Frink, Col. Knox, Frank 
 Robinson, A. P. Burbank, Dr. Montrose Fallen, 
 John A. Foley and Edward Moran. 
 
 On January 2Sth, 1885, Hon. William R. Grace, 
 the new Mayor, and ex-Mayor Franklin Edson, 
 were the guests of the club. At this dinner a 
 
1885 
 
 DINNER TO MAYOR GRACE. 69 
 
 very large number of prominent city officials of 
 all shades of political opinion, commissioners, 
 judges, lawyers and journalists, were present. 
 Mayor Grace made a weighty and interesting ad- 
 dress in response to a toast in his honor proposed 
 by President Reid. Mr. Depew, following out 
 the suggestions of the Mayor, spoke at length of 
 the necessity of so amending the laws as to give 
 the chief executive of the city greater powers in 
 the matters of appointments and control. Later 
 in the evening the gathering was enlivened by a 
 highly humorous speech by Mr. RoUin M. Squire, 
 whose career as Commissioner of Public Works 
 was so suggestive of Gilbert and Sullivan on the 
 stage of municipal life. Hon. Elihu Root, United 
 States District Attorney, made an eloquent speech 
 near the close of the dinner. 
 
 The death of William Appleton, Jr., February 
 15 th, at Albany, at the early age of 37, was the 
 cause of sincere sorrow. Mr. Appleton had been 
 treasurer of the club, and was one of the most 
 popular of the circle of fine young business men, 
 which included Albert Hall, John T. Hand, the 
 brothers Charles Hathaway and William E. Webb, 
 Fred. B. Noyes, T. B. ShOaff, David Scott and 
 others of the early members. 
 
 On the election of Mr. William M. Evarts as 
 Senator, he was honored with a dinner at the 
 Lotos. Mr. Evarts had often been a guest of the 
 club at receptions and entertainments in honor of 
 distinguished foreigners, and it was esteemed a 
 privilege by the members to join in a tribute to 
 
70 THE LOTOS CLUB. isgs 
 
 him. Among those who gathered to greet Mr. 
 Evarts were the president, Mr. Whitelaw Reid ; 
 the vice-presidents, Gen. Horace Porter and 
 Frank R. Lawrence ; Aaron J. Vanderpoel, Sam- 
 uel PlimsoU, the English member of Parliament so 
 famous in connection with English shipping and 
 English seamanship ; Chauncey M. Depew, Ed- 
 wards Pierrepont, John A. Foley, Eugene Steven- 
 son, Samuel Shethar, Dr. Norman W. Kingsley, 
 Abraham Kling, George H. Story and W. Hart 
 
 Smith. The speeches at this dinner 
 iyTEvarts. "^^^^ delightful. That of Gen. Horace 
 
 Porter was especially eloquent and 
 amusing. "Our party," he said, "ought to pull 
 some feathers from the wings of the fancy and 
 stick them into the tail of its judgment." Speaking 
 of Mr. Evarts, Gen. Porter said, " The only reason 
 he had not been elected as Judge instead of a Sen- 
 ator was that the evil classes combined against 
 him in fear of his long sentences." Mr. Reid 
 made a very felicitous introduction. Mr. Evarts 
 said in his reply, " 1 have never been able to un- 
 derstand the Lotos Club. I know that you have 
 no debt ; and that shows of course that you have 
 no credit. I know that you have no wealth ; and 
 I know that poverty in this world is the best in- 
 centive to genius and growth ; but these traits 
 have marked many men and many associations ; 
 and I have looked to find the charm that has 
 made you the most popular, most prosperous, 
 most charming, most useful, the most graceful 
 and the most powerful association in this city." 
 
1885 RECEPTION TO HERR SONNENTHAL. 7 1 
 
 Mr. Raid's reference to Mr. Depew, " Whatever 
 happens to Depew, we have one Senator 
 now," excited great laughter. In responding to a 
 toast, Mr. Depew said : " If the success of this 
 club is due to the fact, as Mr. Evarts says, that it 
 has no principles, then it is evident he was de- 
 signed by nature to be a charter member of our 
 organization." General Porter said that " This 
 dinner is another proof of the eminent wisdom 
 of tendering dinners to distinguished candidates 
 after, rather than before election." 
 
 The distinguished Austrian actor, Herr Son- 
 nenthal, was given a reception on the evening of 
 March 15th, 1885, on which occasion there was an 
 unusually interesting art exhibition, for which a 
 large collection of the Barye bronzes were loaned 
 by Messrs. Cyrus J. Lawrence, Robert Hoe, Jr., 
 and W. Baumgarten. On this occasion also. Dr. 
 Norman W. Kingsley, the dentist and amateur 
 sculptor, presented to the club a bronze bust of 
 Whitelaw Reid of very great excellence. 
 
 Very funny things often happened in the Lotos 
 Club. During several years it was stirred up by 
 that practical joker, George Crouch. Crouch 
 was a power in the old days of Gould and Fisk in 
 
 the Erie wars. Whenever he saw a 
 crouch* chance to play a practical joke, the 
 
 temptation was irresistible and he never 
 properly considered the consequences. At one 
 of the elections, when the opposition party was 
 rather too large for him, he drew up a paper in 
 the form of an injunction, sent it in by a police- 
 
72 THE LOTOS CLUB. igss 
 
 man, got it read, made no end of trouble and some 
 expense before the election was allowed to pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 A distinguished statesman died a few years ago, 
 and next day the members of the club were in- 
 formed that his remains were lying in state in the 
 large room up stairs. The light was too dim for 
 a close inspection, and it was not until a late hour 
 in the afternoon that it was discovered to be a 
 deception, merely a coffin-shaped structure with 
 a cloth thrown oVer it, and the well-known mask 
 of Shakespeare that hangs in a frame upon the 
 Lotos Club walls arranged to look like a deceased 
 person. The author was never discovered. 
 
 When Auguste Bartholdi, the French sculptor 
 of the great statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island, 
 first visited this country, he was entertained on 
 September i6th, 1876, at the Lotos Club. He had 
 just finished the statue of Lafayette which adorns 
 Union Square. His great project of the statue of 
 Liberty then engrossed him, and how to 
 Auguste realize it was the dream of his existence. 
 
 Bartholdi. 
 
 He received warm encouragement and 
 sympathy from members of the Lotos, and when 
 he came to this country in 1885, among the first to 
 greet him were representatives of this club. On 
 the 14th of November he was entertained at din- 
 ner in the club house. His name was now as famil- 
 iar to Americans as any of their own citizens. A 
 distinguished company gathered to meet Mr. Bar- 
 tholdi, and he was received with unbounded 
 enthusiasm. In his response to the greeting of 
 
1886 DINNER TO BARTHOLDI, 73 
 
 the president, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, he (Bartholdi) 
 said : " You are the first society by whom I have 
 been received, and I recognize among you many 
 whom I had the pleasure of meeting nine years 
 ago. At that time I had here the advantage of 
 making some powerful friends when it was neces- 
 sary to me to be assisted. Since that time we 
 have had many difficulties, which have all been 
 overcome. I shall take only my share of the 
 .cordial feeling you manifest, and shall report to 
 my countrymen and the friends of whom I am 
 the representative." In the absence of Senator 
 Evarts, Mr. Richard Butler responded for the 
 pedestal committee, and was followed by the Hon. 
 Joseph Pulitzer, who, through his great news- 
 paper, the " World," had done so much to secure 
 voluntary contributions from the people at large 
 for the preparation of Bedloe's Island and the 
 erection of the pedestal for the great statue. Gen. 
 Horace Porter, Frederick R. Coudert and 
 Chauncey M. Depew also paid eloquent tributes 
 to the distinguished French guest. Mr. Bartholdi 
 had won a high place in public estimation by his 
 sincere and successful efforts to strengthen the 
 ties which bind America to France, and by his 
 own exalted character and talents; In conclusion 
 Mr. George Alfred Townsend recited a spirited 
 poem. 
 
 Lieutenant, now General, A. W. Greely, the 
 famous Arctic explorer, was the guest of the Lotos 
 Club on January i6th, 1886. Vice-President Hor- 
 ace Porter presided, and among the guests were 
 
74 THE LOTOS CLUB. isss 
 
 Chief Engineer Melville, of the Jeannette expedi- 
 tion; Com. Winfield Scott Schley, who com- 
 manded the expedition which rescued 
 ^'aTZ"* ^^^"*- Greely and party; Chief Justice 
 Charles P. Daly, Gen. C. F. Winston 
 and Judge Richard O'Gorman. Gen. Porter paid 
 a high tribute to the courage and heroism of 
 Lieut. Greely. In his response Lieut. Greely said: 
 " It was a mistake to suppose that the expedition 
 went to seek a northwest passage. It went for 
 scientific work. There \*ere only twenty-five men 
 in the expedition, and only $25,000 to pay ex- 
 penses ; but they had gone forward in the name of 
 science, and had done their best." He spoke in 
 high praise of Lieut. Lockwood, who went further 
 north and further west than any other man. 
 Speaking of their trials, he said : " They lay for 
 five months in the dark, and although three men 
 were together in one bag, they could not see each 
 other's faces fOr a week at a time." Judge Daly 
 said that no Arctic expedition had been com- 
 manded with greater ability. The sledge journey 
 of Brainerd and Lockwood to Cape Washington 
 was a greater one than ever before accomplished. 
 Com. Schley and Chief Engineer Melville made 
 interesting speeches. Com. Schley said : " Like 
 Greely, I came back from the Arctic regions very 
 charitable, realizing that those who are capable of 
 judging Arctic explorers are those who have had 
 similar experiences. When I found Greely he 
 had a short lease of life, but the first ' man of the 
 party that I met staggered to his feet and saluted. 
 
1886 DINNER TO WILSON BARRETT. 75 
 
 It was to its preservation of discipline that the 
 safety of that party was due." Speaking of the 
 endurance of man, Engineer Melville said : " I be- 
 lieve that man is the greatest animal on the face 
 of the earth, and can endure more ; and with men 
 like American sailors, it is no telling what we can 
 do." The last toast was to Dr. Ames, of the navy, 
 who accompanied the relief expedition. 
 
 Alexander Henderson, the English manager, 
 Major Charles E. Pease, H. G. Brooks and Moses 
 Mitchell, the well known broker, old and popular 
 members of the Lotos Club, died this year, 1886. 
 There were now only twenty-eight of the original 
 members left in the club. 
 
 Mr. Wilson Barrett, the English actor, was 
 entertained at dinner on the loth of October at 
 the Lotos Club. Mr. Barrett paid a high tribute 
 to American actors, whose performances he had 
 witnessed, who, he said, showed great and excep- 
 tional ability. American companies would com- 
 pare in ensemble and general fitness with those of 
 any theaters in England or on the Continent. He 
 then gave his first histrionic effort in America, 
 reciting Will Carleton's poem, " Gone with a 
 Handsomer Man." 
 
 On November 28th Henry M. Stanley was en- 
 tertained at dinner for a second time. Mr. Stan- 
 ley sitting on the right of the president, Mr. 
 Whitelaw Reid, and Major A. W. Greely, the 
 Arctic explorer, on the left. It was fourteen years 
 since Stanley had first been entertained at the 
 Lotos Club, fresh from his discovery of Living- 
 
•]6 THE LOTOS CLUB. jss? 
 
 stone. Time had only added polish and dignity 
 to his appearance. His hair was still dark, his 
 mustache worn in the French style and his mili- 
 tary air made him look like a French marshal. 
 The speeches of Mr. Stanley and Major Greely 
 were of the most interesting character, crammed 
 full of information and stories of their adventures. 
 Mr. Stanley had just returned from Congo land, 
 where he had been commissioned by the King of 
 the Belgians as a sort of viceroy, and where his 
 expenses amounted to $700,000 per year. Gen. 
 Horace Porter, Chauncey M. Depew, Algernon 
 S. Sullivan and Col. Richard Lathers were among 
 the other speakers. 
 
 Lester Wallack, the Dean of the American 
 theatrical profession, and one of the most accom- 
 plished of a distinguished family of actors, was a 
 well-known figure at the entertainments of the 
 Lotos. He was the intimate friend and manager 
 of many of the actor-members. On the fiftieth 
 anniversary of the opening of the elder Wallack's 
 theater in New York, on December iS^h, 1887, 
 Mr. Lester Wallack was entertained at dinner. 
 One hundred gentlemen, whose names were 
 
 known in every circle of artistic proclivi- 
 w^iiMk *^^^' joi'^^'i in this tribute. It was like 
 
 the entertainment of a dear friend at a 
 big family party. Mr. Whitelaw Reid presided. 
 Mr. Wallack sat on his right and Mr. John Gil- 
 bert on his left. Among those present were Judge 
 John R. Brady, Messrs. A. M. Palmer, Augustin 
 Daly, Steele Mackaye, William Winter, Hon. 
 
1887 DINNER TO LESTER WALLACK. 'jy 
 
 Watson C. Squire, John Russell Young, Chandos 
 Fulton, Col. E. C. James, Edward Moran and 
 Arthur Wallack. In toasting the guest of the 
 evening, the president referred to the long and 
 honorable career of the Wallack family from the 
 days of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the greatest 
 theatrical manager England had had since Shake- 
 speare, who had engaged the elder Wallack in 
 his Drury Lane company. When the elder Wal- 
 lack opened his theater in New York he called it 
 the National and subsequently Wallack's. It 
 started in lower Broadway. In fifty years it 
 gradually moved upward to Thirtieth Street and 
 kept close to the heart of New York all the time. 
 In conclusion, Mr. Reid said : " Combining in him- 
 self the gifts of a finished actor and most careful 
 manager and a successful writer of plays, he 
 (Wallack) gathered about him a company long 
 without a rival, and whose members served him 
 with a sympathetic zeal drawn largely from 
 his inspiring comradeship." The enthusiasm with 
 which Mr. Wallack was received when he rose to 
 respond recalled the warm greetings that had 
 often been bestowed upon him in his own theater. 
 Mr. Wallack said many happy things ; among the 
 rest, he said : " I presume you must have seen in 
 my past career something to deserve the honor 
 you have done me. I have pride in knowing that 
 Wallack's theater has counted among its artists 
 some of the best and most eminent, and, I will say, 
 the most loved of American actors and actresses. 
 Some remain, one sitting at this table rich in years 
 
78 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 ISSS 
 
 and in honor, my old comrade, my friend in art, 
 John Gilbert." Mr. Wallack was followed by 
 John Gilbert in a most touching and sympathetic 
 address, in which he referred to the twenty-five 
 years in which he had occupied delightful rela- 
 tions with Mr. Wallack in the histrionic field, how 
 many times he had been " his son, his nephew and 
 his indulgent father." Judge Brady delivered a 
 delightful speech full of witty remarks, saying to 
 Mr. Wallack : " May you be six months in heaven 
 before the devil knows you are dead." William 
 Winter paid a great tribute to Mr. Wallack as an 
 actor and manager, and closed by reading a beau- 
 tiful poem. 
 
 On January 29th, 1888, the club entertained 
 Morgan J. O'Brien, an old member, who had re- 
 cently been elected Justice of the Supreme Court. 
 This dinner was the occasion of a large gathering 
 of members of the bar. Judge Barrett, ex-Judge 
 Hilton and Judge Brady made speeches very com- 
 plimentary to the guest of the evening. Gen. 
 Porter said : " If we want good men in office in 
 this city, why should not all the officers be 
 selected from the Lotos Club ?" Daniel Dougherty, 
 of Philadelphia, brought the proceedings to a close 
 by eloquently reciting an Irish story. 
 
 Early in the following year Mr. Whitelaw Reid, 
 who had been president of the club for the past 
 fourteen years, resigned, in order to accept the 
 mission to France, and at the annual election in 
 March, 1 889, Mr. Frank R. Lawrence was elected to 
 succeed him. On the 27th of April Mr. Reid was 
 
FRANK R. LAWRENCE. 
 Photo by Fredericks. 
 
1889 SPEECH OF WHITELAW REID. 79 
 
 given a farewell dinner by the Lotos Club. The 
 house was unable to contain the members and 
 guests who crowded to do him honor. Mr. Law- 
 rence, the new president, acted as chairman, and 
 among the guests were Hon. Charles A. 
 ^rIw'.'* P^"^' Ho"- William M. Evarts; ex-Sen- 
 ator Warner Miller, Frank Hiscock, 
 Col. Elliott F. Shepard and William Winter. Mr. 
 Lawrence, in his speech, paid a high tribute to his 
 predecessor in office, whose loyalty and eminent 
 services to the club were worthily commemorated. 
 In his response Mr. Reid said : " The Lotos Club 
 has always been the home where friends sur- 
 rounded and constant good will pursued me." He 
 made a hearty acknowledgment of the constant 
 kindness and consideration which he had received 
 from his fellow citizens of New York, and the 
 value which he placed upon the approval which 
 his appointment as Minister had met with from 
 the entire press of the city. This indorsement of 
 his fellow workers was to him a priceless remem- 
 brance. He then paid a brilliant tribute to the 
 land of France, quoting Dr. Holmes's beautiful 
 rhymes : 
 
 The land of sunshine and of song, 
 Her name your hearts divine, 
 
 To her this banquet's vows belong. 
 Whose breasts have poured its wine. 
 
 Our trusty friend, our true ally. 
 Through varied change and chance ; 
 
 So fill your flashing goblets high, 
 I give you, Vive la France ! 
 
80 THE LOTOS CLUB. issg 
 
 Mr. Reid was followed by Chauncey M. Depew, 
 who made a brilliant address, in which he said : 
 " There is nothing in this world that amounts to 
 much unless it have a paradox ; and the paradox 
 of to-night is that the old friends and associates of 
 Mr. Reid are here in the wildest hilarity, the very 
 extreme joy, to bid him good-by. We bid him 
 good-by with joy ; we say hail and farewell with 
 happiness, because he has received a decoration 
 which is an honor to him, and we know that at the 
 end of the four years he will come back." That 
 popular and excellent representative of France, 
 Viscount d'Abzac, was introduced by Mr. Law- 
 rence, and made a delightful speech, assuring Mr. 
 Reid of the cordiality with which he would be 
 received by the Republic of France as the repre- 
 sentative of the United States. Mr. Evarts made 
 an elaborate %ddress, and brief speeches were 
 made by Col. John A. Cockerill, Gen. Horace 
 Porter, Senator Hiscock, ex-Senator Warner Mil- 
 ler and Col. Elliott F. Shepard, the editor of the 
 " Evening Mail." . 
 
 The collection of portraits owned by the club 
 had become large and interesting. Hubert Her- 
 komer had painted Mr. Whitelaw Reid. Felix 
 Moschelles had presented to the club an admirable 
 portrait of President Frank R. Lawrence. Jan V. 
 Chelminski had painted a portrait of Vice-Presi- 
 dent Gen. Horace Porter, on horseback, in full uni- 
 form, leading a brigade on the march. George 
 H. Story had painted Mr. John Gilbert. There 
 were excellent portrait busts of W. J. Florence and 
 
1889 RECEPTION TO MR. AND MRS. KENDAL. 8 1 
 
 of Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, the latter presented 
 by the sculptor, Launt Thompson. There were 
 also crayon portraits of John Brougham, John Mc- 
 CuUough, as Othello, Col. Thomas W. Knox, and 
 many framed photographs and engravings of 
 famous actors and authors, as well as plaster casts 
 of Charles Dickens, Artemus Ward (Charles F. 
 Browne), Lawrence Barrett, T. W. Robertson and 
 John T. Raymond. 
 
 Mr. George Fawcett Rowe, who was dis- 
 tinguished both as an artist in water colors and as 
 an actor, and who had given many pictures to the 
 club, died in August of this year. His " Micaw- 
 ber " will not soon be forgotten. It ranked with 
 Mr. Jefferson's Caleb Plummer and Mr. Florence's 
 Capt. Cuttle. Mr. Rowe was greatly esteemed 
 both as an actor and as a man by his fellow mem- 
 bers. 
 
 The Kendals paid a visit to America for the 
 iirst time in the fall of 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Ken- 
 dal were the guests of the Lotos Club at the 
 ladies' reception, which took place October 28th. 
 Mrs. Kendal's fair English face was wreathed in 
 smiles to greet the ladies who crowded the club 
 parlors to meet her. There was the ad- 
 
 '■ . "' ditional attraction of a fine exhibition of 
 
 Kendal. 
 
 paintings. Among those who gathered 
 to meet Mr. and Mrs. Kendal were Gen. William 
 T. Sherman, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jefferson and 
 Mr. and Mrs. Bronson Howard. 
 
 On the 23d of March, 1890, the Lotos Club cele- 
 brated its twentieth anniversary. The gathering 
 
82 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1390 
 
 was a numerous one, and included nearly all the 
 members of the year 1870 who were still left. 
 Among expressions of regret was a dispatch from 
 Minister Whitelaw Reid. The souvenir menu 
 contained four photo-engravings of scenes in the 
 history of the club drawn by Henry W. Ranger 
 and Edward Moran. President Lawrence, who 
 had recently been re-elected, made a very inter- 
 esting address, and expressed the hope that when 
 the club celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary it 
 would be in a home of its own, a hope which has 
 been realized. Judge Gedney, who enjoyed the 
 distinction of being the oldest member, made an 
 eloquent speech, drawing upon his recollections 
 of old days and old comrades, arid exciting great 
 interest and much feeling. Col. Robert IngersoU 
 made an eloquent speech, almost pathetic in its 
 earnestness, but so full of admiration of all the 
 noble spirits who had been received and welcomed 
 and listened to in the club, in so broad and mas- 
 terful a style, that its effect was most impressive. 
 Speeches were also made by Col. Knox, Senator 
 Squire, Dr. Pardee, Gen. Schofield, Noah Brooks 
 and Capt. William Henry White. 
 
 Mr. Murat Halstead, a journalist of national 
 
 reputation, who had made the Queen City of the 
 
 West a center of ideas and influence as 
 
 Murat ^jjg editor of the Cincinnati " Commer- 
 
 nalstead. 
 
 cial," and had found that pent-up Utica 
 too contracted for his powers, had thrown over 
 journalism in the West and taken up journalism 
 in the East. There is a good deal of the Irish- 
 
1890 DINNER TO HALSTEAD. 83 
 
 man in Mr. Halstead's aspect ; one looks to find a 
 shillelah hidden somewhere about his person, and 
 his weather eye is always out as if expecting some- 
 thing to happen. He is one of the most amiable 
 and handsomest of men. His picturesque and 
 leonine head had become pretty familiar in past 
 years in the corridors of the Lotos, and more than 
 one good story is told of him and Henry Watter- 
 son. It was considered an appropriate thing to 
 give Mr. I^alstead an official welcome ; so he was 
 entertained at dinner on the i8th of May, 1890. 
 President Lawrence presided, and the guests 
 included St. Clair McKelway, Horace White, 
 Judge Brady, Moses P. Handy, Thos. L. James, 
 Robert G. Ingersoll and Ashbel P. Fitch. Mr. 
 Halstead was finely received. He said : " I came 
 to this part of the world a few weeks ago 
 with a very strange and amusing notion in 
 my mind. I had determined to become a literary 
 character. I was for several reasons a shade 
 tired of being a politician. I had never been 
 a candidate for anything in the world, but some- 
 body would be running me for something or run^ 
 ning after me for something nearly all the time, 
 so I drifted to this part of the world, where I 
 met a gentleman who thought that journalism in 
 Brooklyn had reached that stage of development in 
 which it was thought if I would only join I might 
 find it to my advantage, and he believed the move- 
 ment would be applauded." Mr. Halstead had 
 become the editor of the " Standard-Union," and 
 Mr. Lawrence called upon Mr. McKelway of the 
 
84 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 1890 
 
 Brooklyn " Eagle " to speak. Mr. Lawrence 
 quoted the newspaper "Judge," which had said in 
 its last issue, " We agree with the generally ex- 
 pressed opinion that St. Clair McKelway can 
 knock out Murat Halstead in four rounds, merely 
 stipulating that the use of adjectives shall not 
 be forbidden. In point of fact, McKelway can 
 talk his adversary to death and never sweat a 
 hair." Mr. McKelway rose and proceeded to 
 demonstrate that the writer in " Jadge " had 
 made no mistake in his estimate. The dinner 
 broke up at midnight. 
 
 On the 19th of April Mr. Herbert Ward, one of 
 the companions of Stanley, entertained the club 
 with a talk on the " Cannibal Tribes of 
 "w^r the Congo," illustrated with his own pho- 
 tographs and sketches. Mr. Ward was 
 previously entertained at dinner. He was a cour- 
 ageous young Englishman, who had done some- 
 thing and had something to say. He became a 
 popular figure at the club. 
 
 On the 8th of November, 1890, a reception and 
 dinner was given to G. H. Boughton, the 
 Albany artist, who had lived a long time in 
 England, and Mr. E. S. Willard, the English 
 actor. A great many of the old friends of Mr. 
 Boughton were present, and the dinner, although 
 informal, was made delightful by speeches, songs 
 and stories. Oliver Dyer made a serious speech on 
 poetry, which was counteracted by a humorous 
 disquisition on the press by Mr. McKelway. 
 
 On the retirement of Judge Richard O'Gorman 
 
1891 DINNER TO JUDGE O'GORMAN. 85 
 
 from the bench of the Superior Court, he was 
 entertained at dinner. Judge O'Gorman appre- 
 ciated this compliment of his old friends very 
 highly. He was welcomed by Frank R. Law- 
 rence, the president, and speeches were made by 
 Charles A. Dana, Abram S. Hewitt, Judges 
 McAdam and Daly, who eulogized the work and 
 life of their friend, the guest. Judge O'Gorman 
 made one of the most eloquent speeches in re- 
 sponse to the toasts. 
 
 Frederick Villiers, special artist and war corre- 
 spondent of the London " Graphic," gave an in- 
 teresting illustrated lecture on " Vicissitudes of 
 Campaigning," on the 7th of March, taking his 
 audience with him in recapitulating his tours in 
 Servia, India, Africa and Australia. 
 
 Sir Edwin Arnold, the poet of the " Light of 
 Asia," the accomplished journalist and traveler, 
 had come to America in the fall of 1891 to read 
 from his works, and incidentally to see the coun- 
 try. As the editor of the London " Telegraph " 
 he had a special claim upon the hospitality of 
 American journalists. Whatever may 
 ^ArMid!" ^^ ^^^ estimate of posterity of his 
 poems, in the world-wide fame and popu- 
 larity of the " Light of Asia," no question can be 
 raised as to the verdict of his contemporaries. 
 He was entertained at dinner at the Lotos Club 
 on the 31st of October. Both in the number par- 
 ticipating and the high character of the addresses 
 made on this occasion, it was generally conceded 
 that it was never surpassed in brilliancy in the 
 
86 THE LOTOS CLUB. - ugi 
 
 history of the club. President Frank R. Law- 
 rence occupied the chair, with the guest of honor 
 on his right and President Seth Low, of Columbia 
 College, on his left. About the guests' table sat 
 George W. Childs, Richard Henry Stoddard, 
 E. C. Stedman, Gen. Horace Porter, Paul 
 Dana, Murat Halstead, E. B. Harper, W. H. 
 McElroy, Arthur F. Bowers, Robert Edwin Bon- 
 ner, Ballard Smith, Walter P. Phillips, H. L. 
 Ensign and Col. Thomas W. Knox. Sir Edwin 
 wore on his breast his decorations. He had re- 
 ceived the order of the White Elephant from the 
 King of Siam. As it happened, the only two 
 Americans who had ever received this decoration 
 were Gen. Haldeman and Col. Knox, both mem- 
 bers of the Lotos. President Lawrence, in pre- 
 senting the guest of the evening, referred to his 
 many titles to distinction : 
 
 " If there be one thing more than another," 
 said President Lawrence in proposing Sir 
 Edwin's health, " which is worth preserving in 
 connection with the Lotos Club, it is our boast, 
 for more than a score of years, to strive to be 
 among the first to welcome to New York men of 
 genius from foreign lands. This happy custom 
 has brought to our club many happy moments — 
 none more happy than this. And so, when it be- 
 came known that Sir Edwin Arnold was to visit 
 our shores, it followed that the Lotos Club was to 
 welcome him. As to his eminent graces of mind 
 and heart, I need not tell you or any other Eng- 
 lish-speaking people. 
 
,891 SPEECH OF PRESIDENT LAWRENCE. 8/ 
 
 " He is, perhaps, best known to us as a poet. I 
 should not say ' perhaps,' but that his many esti- 
 mable qualities confuse me. He, more than any 
 other man, has brought us near Asia — the Asia ot 
 which we knew so little. We hear it said that the 
 Laureate is in his declining days. We hear it 
 asked, ' Who is to succeed him ? ' We know that 
 the high standard of English poetry will not 
 die while the author of ' The Light of Asia ' lives. 
 
 " Yet, gentlemen, it is not alone as a poet that 
 we meet and greet him to-night, but as a journal- 
 ist as well. Well do we remember his services as 
 a moulder of public opinion in England. It was he, 
 on behalf of the London ' Daily Telegraph ' and 
 in connection with one of our own good Ameri- 
 cans, who sent Stanley in search of Livingstone — 
 all honor to that humane undertaking. As a poet, 
 as a journalist and as a scholar; as one who might 
 talk to us, if he chose, in many mystical tongues, 
 we welcome and we greet Sir Edwin Arnold." 
 
 The health of the club's guest was drunk, every- 
 body rising and cheering. Sir Edwin, on arising, 
 was enthusiastically received. His speech was a 
 wonderful tribute to America. He was aston- 
 ished by the lavish opulence of welcome and by 
 the too generous warmth of praise with which the 
 president had mentioned his name. He touched 
 upon the noble community of language which 
 Britain and America possessed. Referring to 
 America, he quoted the old poet, who sang : 
 
 Her likeness and brightness do shine in such splendor, 
 
 That none but the stars are thought fit to attend her. 
 
88 THE LOTOS CLUB. ism 
 
 His speech was a mine of acute observations on 
 literature, poetry and contemporary authorship. 
 Scarcely a great writer from the time of Chaucer 
 to our own James Russell Lowell but came in for 
 notice. He repeated conversations with Lord 
 Tennyson, who had said to him, " It is bad for us 
 that English will always be a spoken speech, since 
 that means that it will always be changing, and so 
 the time will come when you and I will be as hard ■ 
 to read for the common people as Chaucer is to- 
 day." He then quoted Artemus Ward on Chau- 
 cer, "the admirable poet, but as a spellist a de- 
 cided failure." He referred to the perfection of 
 the lyrics of Edgar Allan Poe, and the glorious 
 dithyrambs of Walt Whitman. Nothing in America 
 seemed to have escaped him. In closing he said : 
 " Heartily, gratefully, and with a mind from which 
 the memory of this glorious evening will never be 
 effaced I thank you for the very friendly and 
 favorable omens of this banquet."* E. C. Stedman 
 followed, paying a fine and appreciative tribute to 
 his brother poet. Pres. Seth Low referred to the 
 connection of the guest of the evening with the 
 cause of education, he having been at one time a 
 college president. Paul Dana responded for the 
 press. Gen. Porter spoke as the all round man of 
 the world, soldier, statesman and orator, in a 
 speech full of wit, humor, anecdote and hearty ap- 
 preciation of the guest. St. Clair McKelway made 
 one of his brilliant and voluminous speeches, carry- 
 ing the audience with him to a height of feeling 
 
 * Sir Edwin Arnold's speech is printed in full in the Appendix. 
 
1891 DINNER TO AN ITALIAN POET. 89 
 
 and amusement rarely equaled. At the close of 
 the banquet Sir Edwin Arnold read his now famous 
 poem of "Potiphar's Wife," the manuscript of 
 which he donated to the club as a souvenir of his 
 visit. It is framed and hangs with his picture on 
 the wall of the club house. This banquet will 
 remain in the history of theliterary events of New 
 York one of the most notable, and one of the 
 brightest pages to be recorded in the history of 
 the Lotos Club. 
 
 On November 28th a very pleasant dinner party 
 was given at which Signor Commandatore Giu- 
 seppe Giacosa, the Italian poet and dramatist, 
 was the guest. He had come to America to con- 
 duct the production of one of his dramas, " La 
 Dame de Challant," for Madam Sarah Bernhardt. 
 Among others present were Mr. William Dean 
 Howells, the author of " Venetian Days," and of a 
 book on modern Italian poetry. As the guest of 
 the evening could speak no English, Mr. Howells 
 acted as interpreter, and made several delightful 
 speeches on his own account, as well as speeches 
 for the guest. On this occasion there was an ad- 
 mirable exhibition of paintings collected by the 
 art committee, Edward Moran, C. Harry Eaton 
 and Henry W. Ranger. The Saturday evening 
 entertainment was notable for a rich programme. 
 Among the contributors were Fred. Emerson 
 Brooks, Harry Pepper, Sgr. Spagarillo, Sgr. 
 Sapio, Charles Conor, James Rosche, Sgr. Enrico 
 Scognamillo and Mr. Murray, of the Murray 
 Opera Company. 
 
90 THE LOTOS CLUE. iggi 
 
 Under the efficient management of Mr. Ran- 
 ger, chairman of the entertainment committee, the 
 Saturday Nights of the Lotos Club had been main- 
 tained with all the old time perfection and bril- 
 liancy. Never were more superb evening enter- 
 tainments given than during recent years. 
 
 In December, 1891, a dinner was given at the 
 Lotos Club to Edward W. Nye and A. P. Burbank, 
 two members of the club who had been traveling 
 together over the country lecturing. Mr. Nye's 
 account of their experiences was most amusing. 
 He had broken his arm in Yazoo City, Mississippi, 
 in an accident, and had to travel to New Orleans 
 in a freight train before he could have it set. 
 This furnished him only with material for fun, but 
 Mr. Burbank, who gave a serious version of the 
 affair, put it in a somewhat different light. But 
 all's well that ends well, and nobody begrudged 
 the humorist Nye his cheerful philosophy. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence Barrett, who died in 1891, had 
 been one of the early members, but had resigned 
 on the founding of the Players Club by Edwin 
 Booth. The last time at which he was present 
 was at the dinner to Mr. George Augustus Sala. 
 He was playing an engagement in the city and 
 was among the late comers. When he 
 ^^Zlltt^ appeared he was called upon for a 
 speech. In responding he said that it 
 was a pleasure for him to speak upon this occa- 
 sion. He felt certain that the speakers who had pre- 
 ceded him had done justice to Mr. Sala's abilities 
 and achievements, but no one had spoken for the 
 
1892 ANECDOTE OF EDWIN BOOTH. 9 1 
 
 actors. To the actors in his own country Mr. 
 Sala had always been kind and cordial. The 
 speaker had never heard a speech of greater 
 warmth and tenderness than Mr. Sala's appeal for 
 the poor and unfortunate members of the theatri- 
 cal profession, which he delivered while presiding 
 at the Dramatic Fund dinner in London a few 
 years before. On behalf of American actors Mr. 
 Barrett thanked Mr. Sala for the generous cour- 
 tesy which he had always extended to members of 
 the profession from this side of the water. It was 
 not alone for his sagacious judgment and his criti- 
 cal acumen that the speaker admired Mr. Sala, 
 but for his kindness, his tenderness and his warm- 
 hearted sympathy. 
 
 Mr. Edwin Booth was also one of the early 
 members, but rarely came to the club. Chandos 
 Fulton remembers seeing Mr. Booth in the club 
 only once, and then D. R. Locke (Petroleum V. 
 Nasby) was telling a good story and enjoying it 
 himself as much as anyone present. Edwin Booth 
 enjoyed the story, observing, when the burly hu- 
 morist had finished, " I wish I could tell a story." 
 
 An important project now occupied the attention 
 of the Directory of the club. For nearly two years 
 a change of location had been mooted and a building 
 committee consisting of the vice-president, William 
 Henry White, the treasurer, E. B. Harper, the 
 secretary, John Elderkin, Dr. Charles I. Pardee 
 and F. L. Montague had been engaged in search- 
 ing for a suitable property. On the evening of 
 the i6th of January, 1892, this committee reported 
 
92 THE LOTOS CLUB. i^ 
 
 that the property on the west side of Fifth Avenue, 
 twenty-five feet south of Forty-sixth Street, with 
 a frontage of fifty feet and a depth of one hundred 
 feet, covered by two houses, built together, sub- 
 stantially alike, sixty-five feet deep, leaving a space 
 of thirty-five feet by fifty feet upon which an ex- 
 tension could be erected, thereby providing all 
 necessary apartments for the club's purposes, 
 could be obtained , at a reasonable cost, and the 
 necessary alterations completed by May ist, 1893. 
 The report was adopted and the Directory was 
 authorized to buy the property. Shortly after, at 
 a dinner of representative members in honor of 
 President Lawrence, $48,500 was subscribed. The 
 property was purchased, all the money necessary 
 to pay for it with alterations, and to furnish it, was 
 subsequently raised by members of the club who 
 took the bonds which were issued for the purpose. 
 The new house was not, however, to be ready for 
 occupancy for a year, and the club remained in its 
 old home, where its characteristic entertainments 
 continued to be given. 
 
 In the spring of 1892, Mr. Whitelaw Reid re- 
 signed his position as American Ambassador to 
 
 France and returned home. The Lotos 
 ^rIw?^ Club gave him a fitting welcome. He 
 
 was entertained at a banquet April 30th, 
 1892, at which there was an overflowing attend- 
 ance of members, many being obliged to occupy 
 seats at tables on the second floor of the house. 
 It was a home greeting such as would have 
 warmed th^ heart of any man, and was fully ap- 
 
1893 WELCOME TO WHITELA.W REID. 93 
 
 preciated by the recipient. The cordiality and 
 good feeling manifested toward Mr. Reid was the 
 seal of fourteen years of friendly association. Mr. 
 Frank R. Lawrence presided. At the guests' table 
 were the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, Charles Stew- 
 art Smith, D. O. Mills, William Winter, Gen. 
 Wager Swayne, Murat Halstead, St. Clair Mc- 
 Kelway, Capt. William Henry White, J. W. Alex- 
 ander, W. H. McElroy, Col. Thomas W. Knox, 
 Paul Dana, Viscount Paul d'Abzac, Arthur F. 
 Bowers, Robert Edwin Bonner, John Elderkin, 
 Collin Armstrong and F. B. Thurber. At the 
 other tables there were seated S. S. Packard, E. 
 B. Harper, J. Ensign Fuller, C. I. Pardee, John 
 Stanton, S. Shethar, C. H. Coffin, T. Henry Mason, 
 T. F. Mason, R. J. Moses, Jr., A. S. Luria, John W. 
 Vrooman, F. P. Morris, W. H. Jaques, C. F. Doane, 
 Stanley A. Cohen, W. S. Johnston, J. T. Dutcher, 
 W. H. Bulkeley, Howard' Lock wood, F. L. Mon- 
 tague, C. N. Wayland, T. H. Wood, A. E. J. 
 Tovey, E. C. James, C. W. Ferris, Henry Maple- 
 son, R. Glover, G. R. McChesney, C. A. Gerlach, 
 Dr. L. L. Seaman, J. E. Milholland, H. W. Can- 
 non, Carson Lake, S. W. Wray, I. N. Seligman, 
 A. R. Kling, C. T. Catlin, William Hart Smith, 
 George H. Jones, R. B. Roosevelt, A. P. Burbank, 
 H. N. Alden, A. T. Hills, R. A. Witthaus, Edward 
 Moran, H. F. Locke, F. W. Brittan, W. F. Pippey, 
 A. P. Dudley, M. Hendricks, R. J. Dean, W. S. 
 Kahnweiler, H. L. Ensign, J. T. Hand, A. C. 
 Haynes, Franklin Fyles, V. P. Gibney, M. H. 
 Robertson, A. Frank Richardson, F. B. Wilson, C. 
 
94 THE LOTOS CLUB. im 
 
 W. Price, A. Boskowitz, C. F. Macdonald, George 
 Breck, C. H. Webb, Eben Plympton, A. F. Tait, 
 George H. Story, Henry Watterson, W. C.Davis, 
 
 B. B. Valentine, W. P. Phillips, S. A. Robinson, 
 E. F. Phelps, William Crawford, W. Parsons, L. 
 Windmuller, A. O. Hall, E. V. Skinner, G. W. 
 Stockley, Chester S. Lord, T. R. Pickering, T. W. 
 Bracher, R. M. Phillips, D. Bonanno, A. E. Mc- 
 Donald, Finley Anderson, J. Van Glahn, F. D. 
 Yuengling, G. F. Victor, W. T. Evans, James Ras- 
 cover, J. H. Johnston, Charles Chamberlain, E. F. 
 Hoyt, Julius Chambers, F. A. Burnham, George 
 Evans, T. H. Howell, L. C. Waehner, C. H. Les- 
 ter, M. Vaissier, W. S. Logan, C. G. Buckley, T. 
 Saunders, F. T. Murray, M. C. Sternbach, A. C. 
 Rand, John Achelis, E. H. Roberts, J. E. Munson, 
 R. Martin, J. M. Ashley, Jr., George H. Daniels, 
 William H. Bradley, Martin Zimmerman, D. B. 
 Sickels, Col. Richard Lathers, J. B. Pond, J. M. 
 Barney, Uriah Welch, J. S. Abecasis, J. William 
 de Inge, G. P. Benjamin, J. H. Sprague, E. B. 
 Brown, J. F. Postlethwaite, E. P. Stephenson and 
 
 C. Schutte. 
 
 The decorations consisted of an oil painting of 
 Mr. Reid, full length, on one side of which was 
 the flag of the United States and on the other that 
 of the Republic of France. On the opposite side 
 of the room was a painting of the steamer La 
 Champagne, on which Mr. Reid returned from 
 France, and above it was the inscription : " She 
 brought our guest over the sea from honors 
 abroad to greater honors at home." 
 
1892 WELCOME TO WHITELAW REID. 95 
 
 Mr. Lawrence made an eloquent address of 
 welcome. He said : " The gentleman in whose 
 honor we assemble to-night requires less than 
 any man an introduction to the members of the 
 Lotos Club. The charter of the club, by the 
 Legislature of the State, was granted some twenty 
 years ago to Whitelaw Reid and other gentlemen, 
 Mr. Reid's name being the first upon the list. 
 From then until now he has been actively identi- 
 fied with the club, and has always held a foremost 
 place in the regard of its members. 
 
 " Since his return from abroad Mr. Reid has been 
 publicly entertained, first by the society composed 
 of the sons of his native State and then by that 
 greatest association of merchants, the Chamber of 
 Commerce of the City of New York; and upon 
 those occasions much, though by no means all that 
 might be said, has been uttered in his praise. 
 
 " To-night he has come home. He would no 
 more expect a formal greeting here than at his 
 own fireside ! 
 
 " Yet even here, where we are not always seri- 
 ous, some serious words should be uttered to show 
 that not merely as friends, but as citizens who par- 
 take in all that adds to the glory of our country, 
 we honor and rejoice over the great public ser- 
 vices of Mr. Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 " To his services to commerce, the merchants of 
 the country have already given testimony. Of 
 his earnest and arduous labors, the treaties be- 
 tween this country and France stand as monu- 
 ments. Yet what he has done in the direction of 
 
96 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1392 
 
 bringing more closely together the people of the 
 two countries is perhaps as great a service as any ; 
 and there are many gentlemen present to-night 
 who can tell from personal experience how de- 
 lightful was the relation established and main- 
 tained by Mr. Reid among the people of the great, 
 brave and talented nation in whose country he has 
 lately resided. 
 
 " It is occasionally suggested by those who favor 
 extreme simplicity in our government that diplo- 
 matic establishments abroad are useless to a coun- 
 try like ours, and should not be maintained. That 
 suggestion finds its complete and perfect answer 
 in the diplomatic career of Mr. Reid. 
 
 " We hear it said, upon the other hand, that the 
 United States should dignify its diplomatic service 
 by bestowing more sounding titles upon those who 
 represent it in foreign countries, in order that the 
 Minister of the United States at a foreign court 
 may no longer be outranked by the ambassador 
 of every foreign power. To us this seems of little 
 moment ; for it is a happy circumstance in the his- 
 tory of our government that in a great number 
 of instances those who have represented it in for- 
 eign countries have been men who rise superior to 
 rank or title; our greatest and our best. We 
 recall with pride that the Ministry to France, 
 which Mr. Reid has just laid down, was earliest 
 held by Franklin and Jefferson, while almost con- 
 temporaneously in diplomatic service with our 
 guest here to-night was the lamented James Rus- 
 sell Lowell. 
 
1892 SPEECH OF WHITELAW REID. 97 
 
 " Mr. Reid has resigned his Ministry to France 
 and returned among us, the same genial, kindly, 
 unaffected gentleman as in years gone by, and he 
 would have us think that he has laid down public 
 office for good and all. Yet, whatever may be his 
 belief or desire, I ask you, without attempting to 
 cast an augury, might it not prove another instance 
 of the happy destiny which so long has ruled our 
 country if, in the future, so typical an American 
 citizen, possessed of character so pure and ability 
 so splendid, should be called to serve his country at 
 home in a station more exalted than that which he 
 has lately occupied abroad ? 
 
 " But, gentlemen, you are eager to hear our guest. 
 As citizens, companions, friends, we greet him ; 
 the Lotos Club welcomes him home. He will find 
 some changes here, but there can be no change in 
 the affection of the members of the Lotos Club 
 for Whitelaw Reid." 
 
 Mr. Lawrence closed his remarks with a hint 
 that something higher might be in store for the 
 guest. When Mr. Reid arose he was heartily 
 cheered. He said : " It is evident that the tradi- 
 tions of the Lotos Club are preserved. We al- 
 ways praised our guests^sometimes too much ! 
 It is a great pleasure in returning home, after a 
 long absence, to find that one's place has been 
 kept for him, that he has not been forgotten, and 
 that, while the procession has certainly moved on 
 without him, it can still give him room in its 
 ranks. It is a peculiar pleasure to be received 
 here. What reminiscences do not the place and 
 
98 THE LOTOS CLUB. mj 
 
 the surroundings call up ; what memories of this 
 hall, and of the older one in Irving Place, next 
 door to the Academy of Music, when life was 
 young and joy was unconfined. There we greeted 
 Canon Kingsley and Lord Houghton and Rubin- 
 stein and the King of the Sandwich Islands — but 
 one of them left now, and he a sovereign in art. 
 Here we greeted Froude and Matthew Arnold 
 and Henry Irving and Count de Lesseps, and 
 William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, and 
 what a host beside ! And to name only three of 
 our own people, can any one fail to remember, 
 with a tender reverence, our last dinners here to 
 John Brougham, Lester Wallack and John Gil- 
 bert ? Ah, me ! — in spite of the Lotos Club, the 
 world is growing old ! "* 
 
 When Mr. Reid resumed his seat, Mr. Lawrence 
 introduced ex-Mayor Hewitt. Mr. Hewitt made 
 one of the most delightful speeches of the evening. 
 He is always at his best at the Lotos Club. The 
 affection with which he is regarded may in a meas- 
 ure account for this. Mr. Hewitt possesses both 
 scholarship and originality, wedded to eloquence 
 of a high order, and there is always in his speeches 
 the note of conscience and conviction. He closed 
 his remarks by saying : " If it should happen that 
 the people of this country should, in a spasm of 
 extraordinary intelligence, recognize the enormous 
 advantage which it would be to them by securing 
 in the highest executive office of the land the ser- 
 vices of so trained a diplomat, so wise a statesman 
 
 * Hon. Whltelaw Keid's speech is printed in full in the Appendix. 
 
1693 SPEECH OF COL. T. W. KNOX. 99 
 
 as Mr. Reid, there is at least one Democrat in 
 this broad land who will not say him nay, and who 
 will feel that virtue has had its reward." 
 
 Charles Stewart Smith paid a high tribute to Mr. 
 Reid's services to the commercial interests of the 
 United States as French Minister. He was fol- 
 lowed by Murat Halstead, whose speech abounded 
 in humor and characteristic personal disclosures, 
 paying high honor to Mr. Reid as a journalist, be- 
 ginning with his career as a long-legged youth 
 from Xenia, the author of the Agate letters, in 
 one of which Mr. Reid was the very first to pre- 
 sent the name of Abraham Lincoln as a possible 
 President of the United States. He was followed 
 by St. Clair McKelway, who made a brilliant ad- 
 dress, full of spirit and humor, justifying by his 
 own speech his claim that " the Lotos Club is the 
 clearing house for intellect, conscience and taste." 
 Speeches were made by Gen. Wager Swayne, 
 James W. Alexander, president of the University 
 Club ; WiUiam Winter and William H. McElroy, 
 of the "Tribune" staff, and Col. Thomas W. 
 Knox, who spoke for the old members, declaring 
 that they were all young, and noting that it was 
 exactly twenty years to a day since Mr. Whitelaw 
 Reid, on the 30th of April, 1872, was put up as a 
 candidate for membership. Mr. Winter read a 
 poem, of which the following is the first verse : 
 
 Dark streamers of the eastern gale, 
 
 Blown far across the desert sea, 
 Your wings have filled the snowy sail 
 
 That bears my comrade back to me ! 
 
lOO THE LOTOS CLUB. 1392 
 
 Through, glistening surge and flying foam, 
 Your stormy pinions waft him home.* 
 
 The secretary read letters of regret from 
 President Harrison, Mr. Coolidge, Mr. Reid's suc- 
 cessor at Paris; M. Patenbtre, the French Min- 
 ister at Washington ; George William Curtis, Col. 
 John Hay, Charles A. Dana, Isaac H. Bromley, 
 Horace White, Edmund Clarence Stedman and 
 others. Mr. Reid took occasion to express his 
 appreciation of the sentiments conveyed in these 
 letters. 
 
 On April 22d, 1892, Harry Furniss, the eminent 
 artist of London " Punch," was entertained at din- 
 ner. A number of well-known American illus- 
 trators and literary men were present, among 
 whom were Thomas Nast, T. W. Wood, president 
 of the Academy of Design ; W. L. Frazer, of the 
 " Century Magazine ; " R. Swain Gifford, C. D. 
 Gibson, of "Life;" and Archibald Clavering 
 Gunter, the novelist. In his response to the toast 
 in his honor, Mr. Furniss said : " I was told that I 
 would be well treated, and I have been over- 
 whelmed with a blizzard of kindness.' ' He frankly 
 admitted the superiority of American magazines, 
 but he found our streets the worst in the world, 
 disfigured with telegraph poles and high-priced 
 cabs. Eight reporters asked him his impressions ' 
 of America just as he landed. In spite of all he 
 came an Englishman, but he returned an Ameri- 
 can, in sympath)'. 
 
 F. Marion Crawford, after spending his youth 
 
 * Jdr. Winter's poem is printed in full in the Appendix. 
 
1S92 DINNER TO F. MARION CRAWFORD. lOI 
 
 and early manhood and making his reputation as 
 a novelist abroad, finally found his way home to 
 America. Both of Mr. Crawford's parents were 
 New Yorkers, and he did his first work in this 
 city. At the dinner given in his honor at the 
 Lotos, Mr. Lawrence presided, and among those 
 present were Messrs. Parke Godwin, 
 Cra"!l^ord". ^t. Clair McKelway, George F. Seward, 
 ex-Minister to China; Frederic Bon- 
 ner, Murat Halstead, Samuel Shethar, Julian 
 Rix, George W. Hall, Col. E. C. James, E. J. 
 Glave, one of the companions of Stanley in Africa ; 
 H. K. Burras, W. E. Tunis, T. Henry Mason, 
 Ormond G. Smith, T. H. Wood, Lorenzo Wood- 
 house, Judge George M. Van Hoesen, George 
 H. Jones and R. Guggenheimer. Mr. Crawford 
 made a very pleasant speech. He said : " It is 
 now ten years since I was here last, and I am 
 struck with the change in ideas about living and 
 in artistic taste. Business men used to eat lun- 
 cheons in their hats and overshoes. Now they 
 have down-town clubs and spend an hour over 
 the meal. A change has come over the art and 
 literature. We have not begun our great century 
 yet, but I hope we are laying the foundation on 
 which the men of the future will build the great- 
 est literature the world has ever seen." 
 
 Mr. Lawrence next called on Parke Godwin, 
 who spoke entertainingly on the reality of fiction, 
 and on its powers of survival. St. Clair McKel- 
 way was never wittier than in his mock jealousy 
 of Mr. Crawford and his boasts about Brooklyn. 
 
I02 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1392 
 
 Murat Halstead, Mr. Seward and others also 
 spoke. 
 
 The great services to the cause of good music 
 of the Damrosch family ar^ known and recognized 
 in this metropolis. The elder Damrosch was an 
 honored guest of the Lotos Club on more than 
 one occasion. Walter Damrosch was this year 
 entertained at dinner. Owing to the absence, on 
 account of illness, of the president, Capt. William 
 Henry White, the vice-president, acted as chair- 
 man. About the guests' table were 
 Damrosch Seated Andrew Carnegie, H. E. Kreh- 
 biel, Horace B. Fry, Reginald de Koven, 
 Gen. Horace Porter, Oscar B. Weber, Robert 
 Edwin Bonner, R. Swain Gifford, Col. E. C. 
 James, George F. Spinney and William L. Mal- 
 colm. Capt. White, who is a delightful orator, 
 made a felicitous speech of welcome, to which 
 Mr. Damrosch responded, saying : 
 
 " I wish I had the music of tongue necessary to 
 enable me to adequately express my thanks to you 
 gentlemen for your hospitality, which is, I assure 
 you, far in excess of my deserts. I am but one of 
 many Americans who are doing their share toward 
 the development of the musical resources of this 
 country." 
 
 Mr. Damrosch then spoke of the great strides 
 taken in American music in the past two decades. 
 
 " Things always grow fast here," said he. " I 
 recently received a very illiterate letter, which 
 said : ' Dear Sir : Some of the men wat plays in 
 your orchestrer don't earn their money. They 
 
1893 DINJMER TO WALTER DAMROSCH. IO3 
 
 only plays wen you looks at them and shakes your 
 stick at them, particular them that plays the drums 
 and horns. I don't think much of such players. 
 Why don't you give them the sack ? ' In another 
 year that man will write me asking for the per- 
 formance of some particular symphony." 
 
 Gen. Horace Porter followed Mr. Damrosch 
 with a short address, and other speakers were 
 Horace B. Fry, John S. Wise, Andrew Carnegie, 
 Frank Damrosch, Oscar B. Weber, Plunkett 
 Greene and Morris Reno. Mr. Carnegie's speech 
 was characteristic of the man, hearty, generous 
 and forcible. The occasion was rendered especially 
 pleasant by the admirable musical programme pro- 
 vided by the entertainment committee. 
 
 Patrick S. Gilmore, the conductor of Gilmore's 
 famous band, died in September, 1892. He was 
 an honorary member. He joined the Lotos early 
 in its career. He was an enthusiast in every- 
 thing, and among his club friends and associates 
 was full of life and expansive gayety. He con- 
 ceived the National Peace Jubilee which was held 
 in Boston in 1872, with a chorus of 20,000 voices 
 and an orchestra of 2,000 instruments, with can- 
 non and anvil accompaniments. He frequently 
 serenaded the club and his services were always 
 freely at its command. By his death the members 
 lost a true friend and genial comrade. 
 
 The first dinner of the new year, 1893, was in 
 honor of Thomas F. Gilroy, the new mayor of the 
 city. About one hundred members of the club 
 participated. Among others present were ex- 
 
104 THE LOTOS CLUB. ^^g 
 
 Mayor William R. Grace, Edwin Einstein, the de- 
 feated candidate, Judge Morgan J. O'Brien, Ran- 
 dolph Guggenheimer, Chauncey M. Depew, Capt. 
 William Henry White, E. Ellery Anderson, Gen. 
 C. H. T. Collis, Hon. Joseph Hendrix, Samuel 
 Shethar, Erastus Wiman, George W. McLean, 
 Charles H. Coffin, Theodore W. Myers, Walter 
 S. Logan, Chester S. Lord, Leander H. Crall, 
 Clinton W. Sweet and Treasurer Edward B. Har- 
 per. President Lawrence made a cordial speech 
 of welcome. Mayor Gilroy, when he arose to 
 repond, was greeted with generous applause. He 
 said : " I feel profoundly touched by this recep- 
 tion and by the words of your president. I shall 
 remember this night during the entire course of 
 my administration, and it will be an encourage- 
 ment and an incentive in the performance of the 
 high duties to which the people of this city have 
 called me." Mr. Einstein paid a hearty tribute to 
 the new Mayor as former Commissioner of Pub- 
 lic Works. He started out by telling a story of 
 one O'Flanagan who was about to die and called 
 in the services of the priest, who asked him about 
 his understanding of the position he occupied. 
 The priest told him there were only two places 
 in the future world, and wanted him to choose 
 which of the two he wanted to enter, and he re- 
 plied that he had friends in both places. He had 
 the consolation of plenty of company, both among 
 those elected and those defeated. 
 
 Ex-Mayor Grace, Chauncey M. Depew and E. 
 Ellery Anderson made speeches, and the new 
 
isaj DINNER TO LIEUT. PEARY. 10$ 
 
 Mayor was not happily launched on his career 
 until long after midnight. 
 
 On January 28th, 1 893, Lieut. R. E. Peary, who 
 had just returned from his first Arctic expedition, 
 was entertained at dinner. Over the president's 
 chair hung an oil painting by Edward Moran 
 representing the relief expedition of Leif Eriksen, 
 setting sail a thousand years ago to discover 
 America. On the opposite side of the room was 
 a large canvas, showing the Santa Maria, Pinta 
 and the Nina, and called " The Even- 
 
 ieut. J Before Columbus Saw the Land." 
 
 Peary. & 
 
 In the corridor were two large photo- 
 graphs of pictures of the rescue of Lieut. 
 Greely, who had been entertained on January 
 1 6th, 1886. Mr. Lawrence, the president of the 
 club, acted as chairman. The menu card drawn 
 by Mr. Julian Rix was very beautiful. At the top 
 was a picture of an iceberg with a vessel close to 
 it. In the clouds appeared a globe with the words 
 North Pole marked on it, and the flag with the 
 letter P in the field, signifying that Lieut. Peary 
 had not yet discovered the North Pole, but hoped 
 to on his next expedition. President Lawrence 
 made a delightful speech welcoming and lauding 
 the guest. He said : " To-night we greet a man of 
 action ; in these weak, piping times of peace it is 
 well that we should be reminded that the spirit of 
 adventure is not dead. While there remains upon 
 this continent a single square mile unexplored, the 
 work of the early Norsemen, of Leif Eriksen, of 
 Drake, of Frobisher, the work of Columbus, re- 
 
Io6 THE LOTOS CLUB. im 
 
 mains uncompleted. Our guest of to-night has 
 added materially to the world's knowledge of the 
 Arctic region, and, like every man who has fallen 
 under the strange fascination of the frozen pole, 
 no sooner has he returned to his home than he 
 has again determined upon a fresh journey of dis- 
 covery. 
 
 " The attainment of the North Pole should, it 
 seems, be within the bounds of possibility, and 
 should that strange distinction fall to the lot of 
 any man of our generation, may we not hope that 
 the fortunate discoverer will be one of the most in- 
 trepid of American explorers, our guest to-night." 
 
 Lieut. Peary said in reply that he did not con- 
 sider himself a first class article in the way of an 
 Arctic explorer. There were greater men pre- 
 sent who had done much more than he, among 
 them Capt. Schley. The work of the last Arctic 
 expedition was interesting because it was carried 
 out on lines of economy, simplicity and effective- 
 ness. 
 
 Other speakers were Com. Henry Erben, com- 
 mandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard ; ex-Chief 
 Justice C. P. Daly, president of the American 
 Geographical Society ; Capt. Winfield Scott 
 Schley, former commander of the Greely relief 
 expedition ; Assistant District Attorney Henry D. 
 Macdona and Major J. B. Pond. Among those 
 present were Capt. Gloster Armstrong, of the 
 British army ; Gen. John A. Halderman, Albert 
 Operti, James G. Cannon, George W. Munro, 
 Andrew Little and G. P. Riva, the Italian consul. 
 
1S93 DINNER TO PADEREWSKI. I07 
 
 The furor which the pianist Paderewski had 
 created in musical circles had not escaped the 
 notice of the Lotos, and he was entertained at 
 dinner on the 8th of April, 1893. It was an occa- 
 sion of great interest and much artistic enthusiasm. 
 Paderewski proved himself a man of varied ability 
 and accomplishments. The menu card exhibited 
 him in all the glory of his wonderful hair, in com- 
 pany with Liszt and Rubinstein. In the absence 
 of the president, the vice-president, Capt. William 
 Henry White, acted as chairman. Throughout 
 the dinner, Paderewski chatted with the members, 
 ignace J. many coming up to be introduced. All 
 
 Pade- were charmed with his simplicity and 
 rews 1. boyish frankucss. There was something 
 rare and fine about him in addition to his striking 
 and picturesque appearance. He was introduced 
 by Vice-President White, who said : " We are gath- 
 ered here to lay at the feet of one of the sweetest 
 of the muses the tribute of our sincere homage. 
 The welcome of the club never went out more 
 heartily, more spontaneously, than it does to our 
 guest of this evening." Paderewski arose, holding 
 a glass of wine in his hand, and clinked glasses with 
 all those who were near him. Then he took a 
 seat. 
 
 There were loud calls for a speech. At last he 
 arose, placed his hands on the table, leaned for- 
 ward, and in a low, soft voice said : " Gentlemen : 
 Your language is not very familiar to me. I only 
 know a few words and I have very little idea of 
 how to use them. But still, noblesse oblige, I am 
 
I08 THE LOTOS CLUB. isss 
 
 here and must try to say something. You have 
 heard a wonderful speaker who told you very 
 many beautiful and pleasant things on my account. 
 I heard with foreign ears, and with what was quite 
 a genuine blush. I do not deserve the great 
 honor; it is really above my merits. I am not 
 better than some other pianists who have visited 
 this country. I claim no superiority, unless it is 
 that I have learned not to be afraid of you. I 
 came here with deep regard and respect for your 
 critics. I was told in Europe that your habits 
 here were a little wild, but I did not believe it. 
 You have excellent musicians and excellent 
 orchestras and excellent critics. Your audiences, 
 even in the smaller cities, like and understand good 
 classical music. Another claim upon my affection 
 is in the fact that here hundreds of thousands of 
 Poles are living freely and enjoying liberty. It is 
 the only country in which the national army, a 
 small part of it, bears the name, simple but beauti- 
 ful, of Kosciusko." Speeches were made by Reg- 
 inald DeKoven and H. E. Krehbiel, the musical 
 critics. After they had finished Paderewski asked to 
 be allowed to say something in French. He arose 
 smiling very amiably, and in a language of which 
 he had perfect command proceeded to give his 
 estimate of critics with a good deal of freedom, 
 greatly amusing every one who understood him. 
 
 The Fellowcraft, a club of artists and journalists 
 not dissimilar to the Lotos, had existed in the city 
 for some years. Mr. Richard Watson Gilder, of the 
 " Century Magazine," was the president, and many 
 
1893 THE FELLOWCRAFT MEMBERS. IO9 
 
 of his staff were members. The Fellowcraft was 
 not very prosperous, and some of its leading men 
 made overtures looking to its incorporation with 
 the Lotos. These overtures were received in a 
 friendly spirit, and when it became evident that a 
 large majority of the Fellowcraft desired it, a reso- 
 lution was adopted authorizing the admission to 
 the Lotos of all the members in good standing 
 without the usual initiation fee. A great many 
 availed themselves of this privilege and became 
 members of the Lotos, and the Fellowcraft dis- 
 banded. This brought a considerable strength to 
 the literary and artistic element and has proved a 
 decided advantage. Mr. Chester S. Lord, the 
 well known journalist, who was vice-president of 
 the Fellowcraft, is now secretary of the Lotos, 
 and one of its most popular members. 
 
 Mr. Frank R. Lawrence had accepted the presi- 
 dency of the club at a somewhat critical period of 
 its history. Through some slips in the management 
 and internal difficulties, its financial soundness had 
 been impaired and its membership decreased. 
 He brought to the performance of the 
 . "^"^ ■ duties of his office experience and sound 
 
 Lawrence. ^ 
 
 judgment, as well as a brilliant intellect. 
 He possesses a spontaneous and attractive elo- 
 quence and a happy faculty of turning every- 
 thing to instant advantage by his genial and 
 unaggressive wit; and in addition to these ad- 
 mirable qualities, he was loyally devoted to the 
 highest interests and purposes of the club. As a 
 chairman he has reserve and dignity, and the alert- 
 
no THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 1893 
 
 ness and decision which make a model presiding 
 officer. The Lotos has been fortunate in having 
 had for a period of over twenty years two presi- 
 dents, Mr. Reid and Mr. Lawrence, of singular 
 distinction and capacity. It has showed its con- 
 servatism and sense of the value of their services 
 by re-electing each year after year — Mr. Reid for 
 fourteen years, until he resigned, and Mr. Law- 
 rence from that date until the present time. 
 
 The necessity of a change of location to one 
 farther up town had forced itself upon Mr. Law- 
 rence from the moment of his acceptance of the 
 presidency, and he made the placing of the club in 
 a suitable location, in a handsome house to be its 
 own property, a project constantly to be kept be- 
 fore the attention of the Directory. When the 
 houses numbers 556 and 558 Fifth Avenue were 
 finally secured and all the alterations fitting them 
 for the occupancy of the club completed, to him, 
 more than to any other, belonged the credit. 
 
 The remaining officers of the club for this year 
 were : William Henry White, Vice-President ; John 
 Elderkin, Secretary; E. B. Harper, Treasurer; 
 and Walter P. Phillips, Henry \V. Ranger, Ed- 
 ward Moran, C. Harry Eaton, C. H. T. Collis, L. 
 L. Seaman, F. L. Montague, Chester S. Lord and 
 Uriah Welch, Directors. 
 
 Capt. William Henry White has been a con- 
 siderable figure in the club for a number of years. 
 He has served on the house and building com- 
 mittees and displayed great ability and devotion. 
 His wit and unbounded good nature make him 
 
LOTOS CLUB HOUSE, 
 Nos SS6-S38 Fifth Avenue. 
 
1898 REMOVAL TO NEW CLUB HOUSE. Ill 
 
 the leader in every form of fun and jollity. He 
 is a read}'^ and eloquent speaker. His training as 
 an engineer made his services as chairman of the 
 William building committee especially valuable. 
 Henry Edward B. Harper, the Treasurer, is 
 ^'"**" well known in connection with large 
 enterprises. He has looked carefully after the 
 financial interests, and the club has been well 
 served in all matters relating to its income and 
 expenditures, including the extraordinary outlay 
 for its new home. Of the other members of the 
 building committee, Dr. Charles Inslee Pardee 
 and F. L. Montague rendered valuable services 
 in promoting judicious plans for altering and 
 decorating the new house ; and the club secre- 
 tary, who was also a member of the committee, 
 exerted an influence in the direction of economy. 
 Dr. Pardee joined in 1870. He held the office of 
 vice-president, with few intermissions, from 1872 
 to 1888. No member has served the club with 
 more ardor and industry. 
 
 The club removed from the old house at the 
 corner of Twenty-first Street, which it had occu- 
 pied since 1876, to its new house early in May, 
 1893. Trial quickly demonstrated its perfect ad- 
 aptability to all the club's uses. The art gallery, 
 with its fine skylight, proved an admirable im- 
 provement over anything heretofore possessed by 
 the club; Even when in use for exhibition pur- 
 poses it makes a most attractive dining room. 
 Before leaving the old house the members en- 
 joyed a free and easy farewell dinner, which was 
 
112 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1893 
 
 remarkable for almost boyish high jinks and hilar- 
 ity. Col. Knox, who lived in the house, and who 
 retired earlier than some twenty years ago, was 
 visited in the early hours of the morning and 
 made to head a procession which paraded through 
 the halls and parlors singing various convivial 
 songs and rivaling the Clover Club of Philadel- 
 phia in good humored invasion of the proprie- 
 ties. 
 
 The first formal dinner in the new club house 
 took place on November nth, 1893. Several 
 private dinners had been given, and every- 
 thing about the house was in perfect order. The 
 guest of honor was Samuel L. Clemens, better 
 known as Mark Twain. Only twice during 
 the evening was he referred to by his 
 ^"^ real name. The guests sat at a semi- 
 circular table placed between the din- 
 ing room and the parlors on the main floor, 
 which were all occupied. At the guests' table, be- 
 sides President Lawrence and Mr. Clemens, were 
 seated Charles Dudley Warner, William D. How- 
 ells, Richard Watson Gilder, Edmund C. Stedman, 
 Charles A. Dana, Gen. Horace Porter, Seth 
 Low, St. Clair McKelway and John Brisbin 
 Walker. Over two hundred members found 
 places at the other tables, and these included all 
 the regular frequenters of the house and many 
 others. In introducing the guest of the evening 
 President Lawrence said : " To-night the old faces 
 appear amid new surroundings. The place where 
 last we met about the table has vanished, and to- 
 
1893 DINNER TO MARK TWAIN. II 3 
 
 night we have our first Lotos dinner in a home 
 that is all our own. 
 
 " It is peculiarly fitting that the board should 
 now be spread in honor of one who has been a 
 member of the club for full a score of years, and 
 it is a happy augury for the future that our fellow 
 member whom we assemble to greet should be 
 the bearer of a most distinguished name in the 
 world of letters : for the Lotos Club is ever at 
 its best when paying homage to genius in liter- 
 ature or in art. 
 
 " Is there a civilized being who has not heard 
 the name of Mark Twain ? We knew him long 
 years ago, before he came out of the boundless 
 West, brimful of wit and eloquence, with no 
 reverence for anything, and went abroad to edu- 
 cate the untutored European in the subtleties 
 of the American joke. 
 
 " The world has looked on and applauded 
 while he has broken many images. He has led 
 us in imagination all over the globe. With him 
 as our guide we have traversed alike the Missis- 
 sippi and the Sea of Galilee. At his bidding we 
 have laughed at a thousand absurdities. By a 
 laborious process of reasoning he has convinced 
 us that the Egyptian mummies are actually dead. 
 He has held us spellbound upon the plain at the 
 foot of the great Sphinx, and we have joined him 
 in weeping bitter tears at the tomb of Adam. 
 
 " To-night we greet him in the flesh. What 
 name is there in literature that can be likened to 
 his ? Perhaps some of the distinguished gentle- 
 
114 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1593 
 
 men about this table can tell us ; but I know of 
 none. Himself his only parallel ! " 
 
 When Mr. Clemens rose to respond he was 
 greeted with hearty cheers and applause, and 
 when he began to speak in his customary drawl- 
 ing voice every face was ready to break from 
 smiles into laughter. He said : 
 
 " Mr. President, Gentlemen and Fellow-Mem- 
 bers of the Lotos Club : I have seldom in my 
 lifetime listened to compliments so felicitously 
 phrased or so well deserved. I return thanks for 
 them from a full heart and an appreciative spirit, 
 and I will say this in self-defense: While 1 am 
 charged with having no reverence for anything, I 
 wish to say that I have reverence for the man who 
 can utter such truths, and 1 also have a deep rev- 
 erence and a sincere one for a club that can do 
 such justice to me. To be the chief guest of such 
 a club is something to be envied, and if I read 
 your countenances rightly, I am envied. I am 
 glad to see this club in such palatial quarters. I 
 remember it twenty years ago when it was housed 
 in a stable. 
 
 " Now, when I was studying for the ministry 
 there were two or three things that struck my at- 
 tention particularly. x\t the first banquet men- 
 tioned in history, that other prodigal son who 
 came back from his travels was invited to stand 
 up and have his say. They were all there, his 
 brethren, David and Goliath, and — er, and if he 
 had had as much experience as I have had, he 
 would have waited until those other people got 
 
1893 CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER'S SPEECH. II5 
 
 through talking. He got up and testified to all 
 his failings. Now, if he had waited before telling all 
 about his riotous living until the others had spoken, 
 he might not have given himself away as he did, 
 and I think that 1 would give myself away if I 
 should go on. I think I'd better wait until the 
 others hand in their testimony ; then, if it is neces- 
 sary for me to make an explanation, I will get up 
 and explain, and if I cannot do that, I'll deny it 
 happened." 
 
 President Lawrence called upon Mr. Dudley 
 Warner to make the first reply to what he de- 
 scribed as Mr. Clemens's " logical and consecutive 
 address." Mr. Warner said that he felt that he 
 was called upon to explain the inexplicable. " I 
 can only say," he added, " that there is a difference 
 of opinion about Mr. Twain. A great many peo- 
 ple think that he is the greatest man in the uni- 
 verse. Others know that he is from Missouri. Now, 
 I am like that distinguished clergyman who took 
 the position that, while some say there is no God, 
 and some say there is a God, he decided to take 
 the middle course. I have known Mark Twain a 
 great many years. I have never traveled in any 
 part of the habitable globe without meeting some 
 person who knew him and said he had been there. 
 Some years ago, when I was in Algiers, I met a 
 young Arab, a lad about twelve, who acted as my 
 guide. He said I was like Mark Twain. I asked 
 him when Mark had been there, and from his 
 answer I discovered that it must have been about 
 four years before the boy was born." 
 
Il6 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1595 
 
 Mr. Warner had had a similar experience in 
 Egypt, and he said it would not be surprising that 
 if in the far future the traveler should find in one 
 of the Oriental countries a tomb erected to Sheik 
 Mark Twain. In Cairo he met a young Arab who 
 had a donkey that was named Mark Twain. 
 
 " Any fool," added Mr. Warner, " would know 
 that in all America there is no donkey by that 
 name. In England I was assured that there was 
 no judge on or off the bench who can go to sleep 
 without reading ' Mark Twain.' In India he is 
 just as well known as in Hartford, and I think a 
 little better, for there they don't have to collect 
 taxes from him. Another fine thing about him is 
 that he doesn't care who he associates with. In 
 Germany I found that he dined with the Emperor. 
 In New York he dines with the Lotos Club. 
 There's nothing proud about him. The demo- 
 cracy of the man is genuine. I see before me 
 many people, including myself, whothiilk he is 
 clever, and underneath all this I like him, even 
 though we are next-door neighbors." 
 
 The fire of speeches, of which Mr. Clemens was 
 the, object, was kept up at a lively pace. Gen. 
 Porter, St. Clair McKelway, Charles A. Dana, 
 President Seth Low, of Columbia, all had their 
 bright and genial words of welcome and appre- 
 ciation, interspersed with fun at the guest's ex- 
 pense. Finally loud cries for " Twain ! " brought 
 him to his feet, looking even more serious than 
 before. He said : " I don't see that I have a 
 great deal to explain. I got off very well, con- 
 
1893 A SPEECH BY MARK TWAIN. II7 
 
 sidering the opportunities that these other fellows 
 had. I don't see that Mr. Low said anything 
 against me, and neither did Mr. Dana. How- 
 ever, I will say that I never heard so many lies 
 told in one evening as were told by Mr. Mc- 
 Kelway, and I consider myself pretty capable ; 
 but even in his case, when he got through, 1 
 was gratified to see how much he hadn't found 
 out. By accident he missed the very things that 
 I didn't want to have said, and now, gentlemen, 
 about Americanism. 
 
 " I have been on the continent of Europe for 
 over two and a half years. I have met many Amer- 
 cans there, some sojourning for a short time only, 
 others making protracted stays, and it has been 
 very gratifying to me to find that nearly all pre- 
 served their Americanism. I have found they all 
 like to see the flag fly, and that their hearts rise 
 when they see the Stars and Stripes. I met only 
 one lady who had forgotten the land of her birth, 
 and glorified monarchical institutions. I think it 
 is a great thing to say that in two and a half years 
 I met only one person who had fallen a victim to 
 the shams — I think we may call them shams — of 
 nobilities and of heredities. She was entirely lost 
 in them. After I had listened to her for a long 
 time I said to her : ' At least you must admit 
 that we have one merit. We are not like the Chi- 
 nese, who refuse to allow their citizens who are 
 tired of the country to leave it. Thank God, 
 we don't.' " 
 
 But this did not end the speeches. Messrs. 
 
Il8 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1693 
 
 Howells, Gilder and Stedman all delivered eulo- 
 gies on Mark Twain, and finally Mr. Clemens 
 begged the privilege of making a third speech, 
 and he proceeded to give a very humorous account 
 of his experience with these magazine editors, tell- 
 ing how they declined his manuscripts, and when 
 they did accept them, the trials he endured from 
 the proof reading. Mr. William T. Carleton then 
 closed this delightful evening with a couple of 
 songs. 
 
 Henry Irving paid a second visit to America in 
 1893, and on December 17th, he was entertained 
 at supper by the Lotos. The guests took their 
 seats at eleven o'clock. Mr. Irving sat at the right 
 hand of President Lawrence, and among others 
 seated at the tables were Parke Godwin, Alexan- 
 der Salvini, Henry E. Abbey, Gen. 
 irvrng. Horace Porter, Edward B. Harper, 
 Hon. Joseph C. Hendrix, W. E. 
 Bryant, E. S. Willard, Francis Wilson, Mont- 
 gomery Schuyler, A. M. Palmer, William 
 Terriss, Henry Marteau, Bram Stoker, Joseph 
 Slavinski, Carl Martin, F. Emerson Brooks, 
 William Schutz, Andrew Carnegie, Capt. 
 William Henry White, Gen. C. H. T. Collis, 
 Chandos Fulton, John W. Vrooman, Dr. L. L. 
 Seaman, Washington E. Connor, Robert Edwin 
 Bonner, George F. Spinney, Major Moses P. 
 Handy, H. Walter Webb, T. W. Bracher, Foster 
 Coates, Richard Neville, George H. Wooster, C. 
 Harry Eaton, George H. Story, Edward Moran, 
 Henry W. Ranger and Julian Rix. 
 
,883 A SPEECH BY HENRY IRVING. 1 19 
 
 When supper had been served, President Law- 
 rence made a brief address, in which he said that Mr. 
 Irving was an old friend of the club, and recalled 
 the fact that his first appearance before an audi- 
 ence in America was at the dinner table of the 
 Lotos ten years ago. From the festive board of 
 the Lotos he went forth to conquer the American 
 people. Mr. Lawrence spoke of their guest as a 
 man who, by his genius, industry and indomitable 
 will, had ineffaceably stamped himself on his 
 generation. Among the rarest tributes paid to 
 Mr. Irving was that of the dying Tennyson, the 
 greatest of the nineteenth century poets, who had 
 expressed his satisfaction that his play of "Becket," 
 then in preparation, was to be produced by Mr. 
 Irving, because he would do it justice. 
 
 The president referred to the fact that Mr. 
 Irving was the friend of Lawrence Barrett, John 
 McCullough and William J. Florence, deceased 
 members of the club, and more especially was the 
 friend — the great and generous friend — of the 
 lamented Edwin Booth. Mr. Lawrence paid a 
 rich tribute to the genius of Mr. Irving, whose 
 reply was : 
 
 " I feel among you to-night somewhat like a wan- 
 derer who has come home to rest. When I first 
 came to America, you were the first to bid me 
 welcome ; you seemed to strike the keynote of 
 American hospitality and good-fellowship which 
 has ever since made such varied music in my ears. 
 What can I say to thank you for your welcome, 
 and your distinguished president for his more than 
 
I20 THE LOTOS CLUB. I8a» 
 
 gracious words — words which have filled me with 
 gratitude and wonder — but which compel me re- 
 spectfully to demur — ^gently and persuasively to 
 demur — to the extravagantly kind things which he 
 has said, and which you, under the influence of 
 Lotos, have recklessly indorsed ? , And yet, gen- 
 tlemen, this is the place, of all others in New York, 
 where I am glad to have an opportunity of ac- 
 knowledging the heartiness and generosity with 
 which the public have welcomed my dear friend 
 Ellen Terry, my fellow-workers and myself to 
 your city, and we have had the good fortune to 
 come back and find your interest in our work 
 keener than ever. A friend of mine who is an 
 enthusiastic traveler once showed me a map of 
 the United States, across which he had written 
 one word in red ink — that word was ' hospitality.' 
 And, bearing this geographical definition in my 
 mind, if I were asked to name the heart and center 
 of the American Union, I think I should be disposed 
 to answer the Lotos Club." 
 
 Mr. E. S. Willard, the English actor, who was 
 among the guests, paid a hearty tribute to his 
 great contemporary, in which he said : " When I 
 first came to this country Mr. Irving, without tell- 
 ing me of it, wrote to his friends on this side that 
 I wasn't a bad sort of fellow and they might look 
 after me a bit. Before leaving England 
 wiiM-d ^^ gathered around me, the night be- 
 fore I left London, some of the most 
 charming friends whom he knew I would . like to 
 meet. As I started to leave he took me aside 
 
1893 A TRIBUTE TO THE ACTORS. 121 
 
 and said : ' If you find when you get to the 
 other side that plays don't carry, or that the 
 American public doesn't take well to them, just 
 cable me one word. Here is my new play at the 
 Lyceum, a beautiful success, and you can have it, 
 words, music and all, as soon as the boats can get 
 it to you.' " 
 
 In the course of an eloquent speech, Mr. Parke 
 Godwin said : " I am proud to repeat here what I 
 have said on so many occasions, that among all the 
 friends I have made, many to be admired for their 
 genius, to be loved for their friendly qualities, I 
 have never found any who were more solidly 
 true and reliable in their friendships than the 
 members of the theatrical profession." 
 
 Gen. Horace Porter, Hon. Joseph C. Hendrix 
 and others spoke, and there were songs and music 
 to complete the pleasures of the night. 
 
 The recent Saturday night entertainments, 
 which are one of the most characteristic features 
 of the life of the club, have been rendered bril- 
 liant and attractive by such performers as the vio- 
 linists, Henri Marteau and David Mannes ; Hans 
 Kronold, violoncellist ; and by such distinguished 
 instrumentalists and vocalists as William T. Carle- 
 ton, Signor Tagliapietra, Purdon Robinson, Mor- 
 gan Goldschmidt, Orton Bradley, Eugene Cowles, 
 Harry Pepper, Franklin Sonnekalb, Plunkett 
 Greene, Fred. Emerson Brooks, Walter Jones, 
 John Peachy, E. S. Belknap, Gregory Patti, 
 Thomas • Evans Greene, Robert Hilliard, E. W. 
 Nye, George Grossmith, and many others. 
 
122 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1594 
 
 In recent years Mr. Henry W. Ranger has taken 
 a very active part in the musical entertainments 
 and the artistic exhibitions of the club. He is a 
 man of broad sympathies in art. His own work 
 in landscape painting is characterized by great 
 charm of atmosphere and color, and poetical senti- 
 ment. He has studied the Dutch painters, and 
 frequent visits to Holland have borne 
 "^'^^ fruit in many fine works illustrating the 
 cloudy skies and vapory atmosphere of 
 that land of dikes and windmills. With Inness, 
 Wyant, Miner, Martin, Sartain and Tryon, Mr. 
 Ranger belongs to the representative American 
 landscape school of the present time. 
 
 The artists of the club were spurred to renewed 
 activity by the excellent provision for exhibitions 
 of paintings in the new house. A strong commit- 
 tee, composed of Edward Moran, Henry W. Ran- 
 ger, Williani T. Evans, W. Lewis Eraser and 
 Henry T. Chapman, Jr., took things in charge. 
 These gentlemen planned a series of monthly ex- 
 hibitions, each to be under the management of a 
 member of the committee, to be devoted to a 
 branch of art especially favored by him. The first 
 of these displays, which was opened Eebruary 22d, 
 1894, was composed of drawings and paintings in 
 black and white, selected and arranged by Mr. 
 Eraser, whose connection gave him an unusually 
 good opportunity of getting together a capital 
 collection. All the favorite artists who have made 
 the fame of our illustrated journals and m'agazines 
 were represented, including E. O. C. Darley, 
 
1894 EXHIBITIONS OF PAINTINGS. 1 23 
 
 Joseph Pennell, Remington, Reinhart, Smedley, 
 Frost, Blum, Louis Loeb, Gilbert Gaul, Howard 
 Pyle, Wilson de Meza, Irving R. Wiles, Albert E. 
 Sterner, C. D. Gibson, and many others. In fact, 
 the list of contemporary American draughtsmen 
 of the first rank was very nearly complete. 
 
 A second exhibition was given in March under 
 the management of Mr. William T. Evans, and 
 was a very fine display of landscapes and marines 
 by American artists. Mr. Evans is known to be 
 one of the best judges of art and most liberal 
 collectors in the city. Many of the pictures ex- 
 hibited were from his own gallery. There was a 
 very fine landscape by Homer Martin, a scene in 
 Normandy; R. A. Eichelberger's "Surf at East 
 Hampton ;" " Rocky Ledge," by A. H. Wyant, 
 loaned by T. W. Bracher ; " Moonlight and Frost," 
 loaned by George A. Hearn ; " In the Adiron- 
 dacks," from Mr. Evans' collection ; and pictures 
 by George Inness, D. W. Tryon, Thomas and Ed- 
 ward Moran, George H. Bogert, Henry G. Dearth, 
 Ochtman, Dewey, Thayer, Minor, Boggs, Weir, 
 Coffin, Ryder, Piatt and Ranger. It included two 
 fine marines and a forest scene by Edward Moran. 
 Mr. Moran has been prominently identified with 
 the artistic interests of the club for 
 MoTM many years, and his magnificent paint- 
 ings illustrative of Columbus's discov- 
 ery of America were, during an entire year, ex- 
 hibited in the club house, where they attracted 
 much attention. 
 This exhibition of American art was followfed 
 
124 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1894 
 
 in April by an exhibition arranged by Mr. H. T. 
 Chapman, Jr., of paintings by English artists of 
 the last century, including in the exhibition five 
 admirable pictures by Richard Wilson, the por- 
 trait of Mrs. Way by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Wil- 
 liam Etty's " Genius of Morning," two pictures by 
 Thomas Gainsborough, Hogarth's beautiful por- 
 trait of Peg Woffington, and admirable works by 
 Constable, Vincent, Barker, Price, and Gilpin ; a 
 " Venice" by J. M. W. Turner, loaned by J. W. 
 Bouton ; two paintings by " Old " Crome, and a 
 rare picture by his son John Bernay Crome; a 
 portrait of Kemble the actor by Sir Martin Archer 
 Shee, " Family Sorrows," by David Wilkie, " The 
 Farm," by Calcott, loaned by George A. Hearn, 
 and "First Mail Coach," by John F. Herring, 
 loaned by J. C. Hoagland. Three pictures by 
 George Morland, one a masterpiece called " Pigs," 
 loaned by Mr. Chapman, and a marine by Bon- 
 ington, loaned by Knoedler & Co. This exhibition 
 was deeply interesting and attracted many lovers 
 of art to the club house. 
 
 The art committee arranged a permanent loan 
 exhibition of American paintings of very fine 
 quality, which remained in the club house during 
 the entire summer of this year. 
 
 Two members of the art committee, while on a 
 visit to Montreal, prevailed upon several owners 
 of fine collections and a few prominent art dealers 
 to loan to the Lotos some fine examples of the 
 old masters of early English and Continental 
 schools. The chief owners of these works were 
 
1894 THE MONTREAL PAINTINGS. 12$ 
 
 Sir Wm. C. Van Home, R. B. Angus, David Mor- 
 rice and W. G. Learmont. Three pictures by Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds, and the " Judgment of Paris," 
 by Etty, were among those loaned by these collec- 
 tors. 
 
 Other pictures were contributed by Messrs. 
 Arthur Tooth & Sons and Wallis & Son, of Lon- 
 don, and Mr. Catholina Lambert, of Paterson, 
 N. J. The pictures were viewed by a large com- 
 pany on Ladies' Day, October 22d, and were kept 
 on view for the benefit of members and their 
 friends for several days. This has been done in 
 the case of nearly all the exhibitions lately given 
 by the Lotos, in order that a better opportunity 
 might be afforded of seeing and studying the fine 
 works than was possible in one afternoon and 
 evening. Very much is due to the committee in 
 charge of these exhibitions. The members have 
 spared no trouble in securing works of the high- 
 est artistic quality. Mr. W. T. Evans has pre- 
 sented to the club a fine picture by Arthur Parton, 
 and jointly with Mr. George A. Hearn an impor- 
 tant work by Homer Martin. A fine example of 
 the great Spanish artist, Ribera, was the gift of 
 George Fawcett Rowe. With the many fine pic- 
 tures received from artists for initiation fees and 
 these donations, the paintings now owned by the 
 club form a permanent collection of great value. 
 
 In November Mr. Wm. T. Evans arranged an 
 exhibition of American figure pictures of great 
 interest, including rare works by T. W. Dewing, 
 Siddons Mowbray, J. G. Brown, H. O. Walker, 
 
126 THE LOTOS CLUB. 189, 
 
 Will H. Low, Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer, 
 Walter Shirlaw, F. S. Church and Gilbert GauL 
 Pictures for this exhibition were loaned by Stan- 
 ford White, John Gellatly, Samuel T. Shaw, 
 Henry Burgoyne Wilson, Thomas B. Clarke, W, 
 F. King and Edward D. Adams. 
 
 In January of this year (1895) Mr. George A. 
 Hearn placed on exhibition his fine specimens of 
 the old Dutch, Flemish, Spanish and Italian 
 schools. The twenty-seven paintings embraced 
 fine works by Myndert Hobbema, Zuccarelli, 
 Albert Cuyp, Soloman Ruysdael, Cornelius Huys- 
 mans, Gerard Dow, Joseph Ribera, Nicolas Pous- 
 sin and Francesco Guardi. 
 
 These representative collections afford invalu- 
 able assistance to the amateur studying the art of 
 the past and give the artistic character of the club 
 genuine distinction. 
 
 Dean Hole, of Rochester Cathedral, England, 
 had contemplated a visit to the Uriited States for 
 nearly a year, and the secretary of the Lotos had 
 received a communication from him accepting an 
 invitation to dinner on his arrival. He came in 
 the fall of 1894, and on the 27th of October he 
 was entertained by the Lotos. Dean 
 Dean Hole. Holc's reminiscenccs had made him 
 widely known as the friend of Dickens, 
 Thackeray, Leech and other great Englishmen of 
 the past generation. A distinguished company 
 gathered to meet him, including the president, 
 Frank R. Lawrence, Rev. Dr. Arthur Brooks, 
 Rev. Dr. David H. Greer, Rev. Dr. George H, 
 
1S94 DINNER TO DEAN HOLE. 1 27 
 
 McArthur, Rev. Dr. George R. Vandewater, 
 President Schurmann, of Cornell University ; 
 Gen. Wager Swayne, Rev. George H. Bottome, 
 Hon. Joseph C. Hendrix, Col. Richard Lathers, 
 Robert Edwin Bonner, George P. Benjamin, E. K. 
 Wright, Henry W. Cannon, Edward B. Harper, 
 William T. Evans, Horatio N. Eraser, George W. 
 Munro and T. W. Bracher. In introducing the 
 guest, Mr. Lawrence said : " Two occasions come 
 to my mind this evening — the Lotos Club's re- 
 ceptions to Charles Kingsley and Dean Stanley. 
 To-night we are equally honored in the privilege 
 of meeting Dean Hole. We cannot greet him 
 without recalling the facts which his reminiscences 
 have made familiar here. We recall him as one 
 who clasped hands with Thackeray and was the 
 friend of Dickens; but it is his own individual- 
 ity as a man and author that makes him dear 
 to us." 
 
 Even at his advanced age Dean Hole looked 
 stout and lusty. He is six feet three inches in 
 height, and his body is built on the typical lines of 
 John Bull. His head is large and covered with a 
 mass of silvery gray hair. His features are strong 
 and have an expression of benevolence and good 
 humor. Dean Hole then arose and spoke in part 
 as follows : 
 
 " I can assure you, gentlemen, that when I re- 
 ceived your invitation, having heard so much of 
 the literary, artistic and social amenities of your 
 famous club, I resembled in feelings — not in fea- 
 ture — the beautiful bride of Burleigh, when 
 
128 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1S94 
 
 A trouble weighed upon her, 
 
 And perplexed her night and morn, 
 
 With the burden of an honor. 
 Unto which she was not born. 
 
 " I could have quoted the words of the mate in 
 Hood's ' Up the Rhine,' when, during a storm at 
 sea, a titled lady sent for him, and asked him if he 
 could swim. ' Yes, my lady,' says he, ' like a 
 duck !' ' That being the case,' says she, ' I shall 
 condescend to lay hold of your arm all night.' 
 ' Too great an honor for the likes of me,' says the 
 mate. 
 
 " Even when I came into this building — though I 
 am not a shy man, having been educated at Bra- 
 zen Nose College, and preposterously flattered 
 throughout my life, most probably on account of 
 my size — I had lost this sense of unworthiness ; 
 but your gracious reception has not only reassured 
 me, but has induced a delicious hallucination that, 
 at some period forgotten, in some unconscious 
 condition, I have said something, or done some- 
 thing, or written something, which really deserved 
 your approbation. To be serious, I am, of course, 
 aware why this great privilege has been conferred 
 upon me. It is because you have associated me 
 with those great men, with whom I was in happy 
 intercourse, that you have made my heart glad 
 to-night. 
 
 " It has ever been my ambition to blend my life, 
 as the great painter does his colors, ' with brains, 
 sir,' and I venture to think that such a yearning 
 is a magnificent proof that we are not wholly 
 
,894 A SPEECH BY DEAN HOLE. 1 29 
 
 destitute of this article, as when the poor wound- 
 ed soldier exclaimed on hearing the doctor say 
 that he could see his brains : ' Oh, please write 
 home and tell father, for he has always said I 
 never had any.' Be that as it may, my apprecia- 
 tion of my superiors has evoked from them a mar- 
 velous sympathy, has led to the formation of very 
 precious friendships and has been my elevator 
 unto the higher abodes of brightness and fresh- 
 ness, as it is to-night. 
 
 " Yes, my brothers, it is delightful to dwell ' with 
 brains, sir,' condensed in books in that glorious 
 world — a library — a world which we can traverse 
 without being sick at sea, or footsore on land ; in 
 which we can reach the heights of science without 
 leaving our easy chair, hear the nightingales, the 
 poets, with no risk of catarrh, survey the great 
 battlefields of the world unscathed ; a world in 
 which we are surrounded by those who, whatever 
 their temporal rank may have been, are its true 
 kings and real nobility, and which places within 
 our reach a wealth more precious than rubies, for 
 all the things thou canst desire are not to be com- 
 pared with it. 
 
 " In this happy world I met Washington Irving, 
 Fenimore Cooper, Hawthorne,' Willis, Longfel- 
 low, Whittier, and all your great American 
 authors, historical, poetical, pathetic, humorous, 
 and ever since I have rejoiced to hold converse 
 with them. Nevertheless, it is with our living 
 companions, with our fellow men, who love books, 
 as we do, that this fruition is complete, and so it 
 
I30 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1394 
 
 comes to pass, in the words of one whose name I 
 speak with a full heart, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
 that ' a dinner table made up of such material as 
 this is the last triumph of civilization over bar- 
 barism.' 
 
 " We feel, as our witty Bishop, afterward Arch- 
 bishop, Magee described himself, when he said, 
 ' I am just now in such a sweet, genial disposition 
 that even a curate might play with me.' We are 
 bold enough to state with Artemus Ward of his 
 regiment, composed exclusively of major gen- 
 erals, that ' we will rest muskets with anybody.' 
 
 Linger, I cried, O radiant Time, thy power 
 Hath nothing else to give. Life is complete 
 
 I<et but the happy present, hour by hour, 
 Itself remember and itself repeat. 
 
 "And yet one more quotation, wherewith to make 
 some amends for the stupidity of him who quotes 
 lines most appropriate, by Tennyson, from ' The 
 Lotos Eaters,' and repeated by one who has just 
 crossed the Atlantic : 
 
 We have had enough of action and of motion we, 
 
 Tossed to starboard, tossed to larboard, when the surge 
 
 was seething free. 
 And the wallowing monster spouted his foam fountain on 
 
 the sea ; 
 I^et us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind. 
 In this hollow I,otos land to live and lie reclined 
 (Here where the Queen of Clubs so royally we've dined), 
 On the hills, like gods together, careless of mankind. 
 
 " And now, gentlemen, let me give 
 
 " Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor.' 
 
J894 DINNER TO CONAN DOYLE. I3I 
 
 Then President Schurmann, of Cornell, wel- 
 comed the Dean on behalf of the universities. 
 He was followed by Dr. MacArthur, who made a 
 fine speech and paid a splendid tribute to the 
 guest of the evening. Mr. Brooks was the next 
 speaker. Dr. Greer raised many a laugh by his 
 witty remarks. One of his stories was of a man 
 who in making a speech on the Old Testament 
 prophets went into great detail and was extremely 
 prosy. He got through the major prophets and 
 came to the minor ones. 
 
 " Now, my friends, where shall we place 
 Hosea?" A man at the back of the room said : 
 
 " Here, sir ; you may give him my place." 
 
 The popular novelist, Dr. A. Conan Doyle, was 
 the guest of the Lotos Club, November i8th. Dr. 
 Doyle is not more than thirty-five years of age, 
 closely fulfilling his own conditions of the man most 
 to be envied — " a writer of romances who has not 
 passed his thirty-third year." He comes of a fam- 
 ily of artists and literary men, his grand- 
 ^Do^ie"" father having been a famous caricaturist, 
 and one of his uncles the famous Rich- 
 ard Doyle of the early days of London " Punch," 
 and another, James Doyle, the historian. He 
 studied medicine, and at nineteen went to the 
 Arctic regions as medical officer of a whaler. On 
 his return to Edinburgh he continued his medical 
 studies and there met Dr. James Bell, the eminent 
 surgeon, the man who suggested " Sherlock 
 Holmes," his most famous character. Two hun- 
 dred members and guests of the Lotos gathered 
 
132 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1894 
 
 to greet him. President Lawrence made a highly 
 flattering address of welcome, and, when he pre- 
 sented Dr. Doyle, he was blushing at the kind 
 things said of him. In responding, among other 
 things, he said : 
 
 " There was a time in my life which I divided 
 among my patients and literature. It is hard to 
 say which suffered most. But during that time I 
 longed to travel as only a man to whom travel is 
 impossible does long for it, and, most of all, I 
 longed to travel in the United States. Since this 
 was impossible, I contented myself with reading a 
 good deal about them and building up an ideal 
 United States in my own imagination. This is 
 notoriously a dangerous thing to do. I have come 
 to the United States ; I have traveled from five to 
 six thousand miles through them, and I find that 
 my ideal picture is not to be whittled down, but 
 to be enlarged on every side. 
 
 " I have heard even Americans say that life is 
 too prosaic over here ; that romance is wanting. 
 I do not know what they mean. Romance is the 
 very air they breathe. You are hedged in with 
 romance on every side. I can take a morning 
 train in this city of New York, I can pass up the 
 historic and beautiful Hudson, I can dine at Sche- 
 nectady, where the Huron and the Canadian did 
 such bloody work ; and before evening I have 
 found myself in the Adirondack forests, where 
 the bear and the panther are still to be shot, and 
 where within four generations the Indian and the 
 frontiersman still fought for the mastery. With 
 
1894 A SPEECH BY CONAN DOYLE. 1 33 
 
 a rifle and a canoe you can glide into one of the 
 black eddies which have been left by the stream 
 of civilization. 
 
 " I feel keenly the romance of Europe. I love 
 the memories of the shattered castle and the crum- 
 bling abbey; of the steel-clad knight and the 
 archer ; but to me the romance of the redskin and 
 the trapper is more vivid, as being more recent. 
 It is so piquant also to stay in a comfortable inn, 
 where you can have your hair dressed by a bar- 
 ber, at the same place where a century ago you 
 might have been left with no hair to dress. 
 
 " Then there is the romance of this very city. 
 On the first day of my arrival I inquired for the 
 highest building, and I ascended it in an elevator — 
 at least they assured me it was an elevator. I 
 thought at first that I had wandered into the 
 dynamite gun. If a man can look down from that 
 point upon the noble bridge, upon the two rivers 
 crowded with shipping, and upon the magnificent 
 city with its thousand evidences of energy and 
 prosperity, and can afterward find nothing better 
 than a sneer to carry back with him across the 
 ocean, he ought to consult a doctor. His heart 
 must be too hard or his head too soft. 
 
 " And no less wonderful to me are those West- 
 ern cities which, without any period of develop- 
 ment, seem to spring straight into a full growth 
 of every modern convenience, but where, even 
 among the rush of cable cars and the ringing 
 of telephone bells, one seems still to catch the 
 echoes of the woodsman's axe and of the scout's rifle. 
 
134 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1595 
 
 " These things are the romance of America, the 
 romance of change, of contrast, of danger met 
 and difficulty overcome, and let me say that we, 
 your kinsmen, upon the other side, exult in your 
 success and in your prosperity, and it is those who 
 know British feeling — true British feeling — best, 
 who will best understand how true are my words. 
 I hope you don't think I say this or that I ex- 
 press my admiration for your country merely be- 
 cause I am addressing an American audience. 
 Those who know me better on the other side will 
 exonerate me from so unworthy a motive." 
 
 President Seth Low, Abram S. Hewitt, W. 
 Bourke Cochran, David Christie Murray, Bartow 
 S. Weeks and William H. McElroy also spoke. 
 
 The menu had in its upper right hand corner a 
 portrait of Dr. Doyle, and on its border were 
 characters and scenes from his novels. 
 
 On January 12th, 1895, a dinner was given to 
 Col. William L. Strong, the new Mayor. The ex- 
 citing incidents preceding the election had made 
 this inauguration dinner one of general interest, 
 and, as usual, it was an affair of public importance, 
 both as a gathering of representative persons and 
 in the utterances of the principal par- 
 stro" ^^^^ concer,ned. Two hundred and forty- 
 eight members and guests attended. 
 President Frank R. Lawrence presided in a most 
 genial manner at the guests' table. 
 
 On his right, in order, were : Mayor Strong, Gen. 
 Horace Porter, president of the Union League 
 Club, and ex-Mayor Abram S. Hewitt. On his 
 
1835 DINNER TO MAYOR STRONG. I35 
 
 left were Recorder John W. Goff and Judge Ed- 
 ward Patterson. The others at the table were 
 John A. McCall, Job E. Hedges, Chester S. Lord, 
 John A. Taylor, Capt. William Henry White, 
 Gen. C. H. T. Collis and C. C. Beaman. 
 
 Among other well-known people present were : 
 S. D. Brewster, ex-Gov. Lounsbury, Fred. W. 
 Brittan, R. E. Bonner, Samuel Shethar, C. N. 
 Wayland, C. H. Coffin, Surrogate J. H. V. Arnold, 
 George F. Spinney, Ellis H. Roberts, E. C. James, 
 Dr. A. M. Northrop, Dr. W. W. Walker, Andrew 
 Little, Francis B. Thurber, George H. Wooster, 
 Ruf us F. Cowing, Stanley Middleton, J. H. Flagler, 
 Geo.R. Gibson, Abm.Kling and John E. Milholland. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence said that the club had a pleasant 
 custom of asking new Mayors to dinner, and he 
 said that no Mayor was properly or legally in- 
 stalled until he had sat at their board, heard 
 their good counsel, told the club members in 
 strictest confidence all about his plans and had 
 profited by the sage advice that such an occasion 
 brought forth. Washington Irving, he said, re- 
 lated in his history of early New York that the 
 Burgomaster or Mayor used to be selected by 
 weight. New York in its latter days had chosen 
 a Mayor because he was Strong. He said that 
 without flattery he could say that no man was 
 better qualified to discharge the duties of the 
 Mayor's office than the honored guest of the club. 
 
 When the Mayor rose to respond he was heart- 
 ily received. He said in part : 
 
 " In my peregrinations around the world I have 
 
136 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 1S95 
 
 seen somewhere a picture of the lotos eaters. 
 That picture represents a sylvan garden, with 
 beautiful women and men all asleep. That does 
 not represent the Lotos Club. That must have 
 been painted many years before our day. The 
 Lotos Club favors good government, and that's 
 how I came to accept your invitation. You know 
 I am not much of a talker, and, to be frank with 
 you, I was somewhat afraid to come here to-night 
 on that account. Now that I am here, I am frank 
 enough to say that I suppose all you gentlemen 
 will be wanting an office or something else of me." 
 
 The Mayor related amusing incidents of how 
 different politicians came to him and told him he 
 belonged to them. Some of them, he said, were 
 women. He was inclined to give the women a fair 
 chance, and he said he had promised them some- 
 thing in connection with the Board of Education. 
 " I have been Mayor just twelve days," said he, 
 " and I never enjoyed any twelve days more in life. 
 I haven't offended any one, and the papers are sus- 
 taining me, except in the payment of $1.80 for a 
 lunch. Just what I'll do in the future I can't tell. 
 I wrote a letter to some friends on October 7th 
 last, saying that if they wanted me to run it would 
 be on a non-partisan basis, and that is just the 
 kind of an administration the Mayor of New York 
 will give you till the last day of his term." 
 
 Ex-Mayor Hewitt was next introduced. He 
 delivered an interesting and effective speech. 
 He said : 
 
 " I could have wished that it comported with 
 
1S95 SPEECH OF ABRAM S. HEWITT. 1 3/ 
 
 your sense of propriety to have left me in that re- 
 tirement to which I was consigned six years ago 
 by the citizens of New York. I don't believe the 
 genial humor of your Mayor will be disturbed if 
 
 he performs the promises he has made 
 "ttltTtt*" ^^^^ to-night. This is the only club 
 
 that has the power to compel me to 
 leave my house at night and enjoy the charm- 
 ing courtesy which you always furnish. I pre- 
 fer not to be a member, but always a guest. I 
 doubt whether Mark Tapley, at his happiest 
 period, was so optimistic as Mayor Strong is to- 
 night. Three years is plenty of time, however, 
 for him to change his mind in. After he has 
 made his appointments under the new Power of 
 Removal bill, it is just possible his popularity will 
 begin to wane. I was also promised a Power of 
 Removal bill when I was elected, but the Tamma- 
 ny managers said to me one day that it could not be; 
 for if the public, in a freak of frenzy, should elect a 
 Republican Mayor, it would be very damaging to 
 Tammany Hall to have so much power vested in 
 the Mayor. That has come to pass. Mayor Strong 
 will be able to turn out all the adherents of Tam- 
 many Hall and put in officials who will be able to 
 discharge their duties with more fidelity than 
 those now in office. From my own experience, I 
 doubt if the results will be as satisfactory as you 
 expect. The fact is, we are in a transition state at 
 the present time concerning municipal govern- 
 ment. We don't understand yet what it means to 
 govern 3,000,000 people. As we don't know yet 
 
138 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 1895 
 
 how to govern New York, we will hardly know 
 how to govern the Greater New York. The man 
 doesn't live who can make a better charter for 
 this city than the present one. If the Mayor is 
 equal to his position, he will have no difficulty, and 
 it will make no difference if thef e is not a single ad- 
 ditional act passed by the Legislature. Neverthe- 
 less, it will be well to strengthen his hands. As 
 one who has passed through this experience and 
 who managed to make every one his enemy, I ask 
 that the mercy be shown to him that was denied 
 to me. Great cities are characteristic of modern 
 civilization. We have got to enlarge our theories 
 to meet these new demands. Let us develop the 
 civic spirit, and if we get hold of a good man, let 
 us strengthen him, and if a bad man comes to the 
 front, he will disappear as suddenly as the Mayor 
 of New York did six years ago at the end of his 
 term." 
 
 Mr. Lawrence introduced General Horace 
 Porter, who said he was glad to get in among such 
 a whole-souled lot as the Lotos Club members, 
 " who believed in shortening their days by length- 
 ening their nights." The only way, he was afraid, 
 to break up such a company was to have a Power 
 of Removal bill passed. He said the " cerebral 
 picnic " always begins when a man is called upon 
 to make an after-dinner speech. 
 
 " Mayor Strong," said he, " is in the saddle, per- 
 forming the functions of his office. He has helped 
 to fix the estimates of the running expenses of the 
 city government for the next year ; he has outlined 
 
1893 GEN. HORACE PORTERS FUN. 1 39 
 
 his policy clearly, and he has gone so far as to fix 
 the price of his lunch." 
 
 He supposed that what Mayor Strong meant by 
 non-partisanship was that a man wouldn't have to 
 part with all the money he had in the world in 
 order to get an office. 
 
 He told of a German citizen who was asked if 
 he had been rated by Dun or Bradstreet, and 
 replied : " No; but I've been raided by dose Bark- 
 hurst peoples." 
 
 The following letter from Dr. Parkhurst was 
 read : 
 
 " Chester S. Lord, Secretary Lotos Club. 
 
 " Dear Sir : I regret exceedingly to say that cir- 
 cumstances with me are such that it is going to be 
 impossible for me to enjoy the honor of being 
 your guest at the dinner to be given to Mayor 
 Strong. I write this with deep regret, but I am 
 the victim of circumstances that are beyond my 
 control. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 C. H. Parkhurst." 
 The other speakers were Recorder GofF, John 
 A. Taylor, Charles C. Beaman, Job E. Hedges, 
 Captain William Henry White and Colonel Ed- 
 ward C. James. 
 
 Mr. Anton Seidl has long been known and hon- 
 ored in this community as an accomplished mu- 
 sician and conductor. He has been an apostle of 
 the music of Richard Wagner. To him is princi- 
 pally due the magnificent representations of the 
 
140 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 1895 
 
 Wagnerian operas which have placed New York 
 on an equal plane with the great centers 
 seid" °^ music in Germany. The Lotos Club 
 has frequently been favored by the 
 artists of the Metropolitan Opera House, and the 
 brilliant Saturday night entertainments of the 
 past few years have placed the club deeply in debt 
 to the accomplished musicians of the city. No 
 more delightful manner of recognizing this obli- 
 gation could have been devised than the banquet 
 to Anton Seidl which took place on February 2d. 
 The club house was tastefully decorated with 
 flowers and vines for the occasion. At the guests' 
 table were seated President Frank R. Lawrence, 
 with Mr. Anton Seidl on his right; Richard 
 Arnold, the violinist ; William T. Carleton, Joseph 
 HoUman, the violoncellist, F. Sonnekalb, R. Staven- 
 hagen, Herman Ridder, Col. Robert G. IngersoU, 
 Henry F. Finck, H. E. Krehbiel, Emil Fischer, 
 Almon Goodwin, E. Francis Hyde, Ashbel P. 
 Fitch, M. de Guerville and Secretary Chester S. 
 Lord. The president made a highly laudatory 
 address in introducing Mr. Seidl. He spoke of 
 his services to musical culture and his great in- 
 fluence in spreading knowledge and appreciation 
 of the works of Richard Wagner, and of the great 
 debt which the community owes to Mr. Seidl for 
 the high position it occupies in the world of music. 
 Mn Seidl was received with great enthusiasm. 
 He made an admirable speech, acknowledging his 
 pride and gratification at the appreciation which 
 had been shown him and the kind sentiments ex- 
 
1895 DINNER TO ANTON SEIDL. I4I 
 
 pressed in the introductory speech of the presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence then called upon Mr. Finck, who 
 paid a warm tribute to Mr. Seidl. Following 
 there was some music. In the course of the evening 
 Richard Arnold played several selections on the 
 violin, William T. Carleton and Mr. McKinley 
 sang and Joseph Hollman delighted everybody 
 with his violoncello performances. 
 
 Mr. de Guerville, who has recently returned 
 from the East, where he witnessed the fall of Port 
 Arthur, told some anecdotes of his travels. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence next introduced Col. Robert G. 
 Ingersoll, saying he had been away from the club 
 for so long that they almost looked upon him as 
 the prodigal son. 
 
 Col. Ingersoll had a hearty reception. He de- 
 livered one of the most eloquent speeches ever 
 listened to in the club house. He said that the 
 people who had helped to educate him 
 in'Trson were Robert Burns, Shakespeare, Rem- 
 brandt, Wagner and some whose names 
 he did not know, but who were responsible for 
 Greek sculpture. Nothing, he declared, would 
 ever be produced to surpass those marbles. No 
 dramatic author would ever write anything to 
 excel Shakespeare, and no music, in his opinion, 
 would ever be produced by a human brain 
 greater than the music of Richard Wagner. He 
 ended by saying that he considered Mr. Seidl the 
 greatest interpreter of Wagner's music there was 
 in the world. 
 
142 THE LOTOS CLUB. 1895 
 
 This entertainment closed in the happiest man- 
 ner the record of twenty-five years of dinners and 
 receptions. 
 
 From the beginning the Lotos Club has been 
 celebrated for its banquets. These have been given 
 to distinguished men in every walk of life. 
 Especially has it been the business 'of the club to 
 welcome those distinguished in literature and art 
 from foreign countries. These men come here ac- 
 credited by their contributions to the intellectual 
 possessions of the educated world, and have a 
 superior claim upon the hospitality and honor of 
 all who enjoy the pleasures of the mind. This 
 hospitality has made the club an international ex- 
 change where the social obligations of the com- 
 munity to authors and artists have been valued 
 and paid. Those who have attended these ban- 
 quets for a long period have a storehouse of pre- 
 cious memories and an abiding sense of the worth 
 of such associations as the club has cultivated. 
 
 Occasional articles meet the eye in current lit- 
 erature on the decadence of oratory. The writers 
 of these articles are apprehensive that there are to 
 be no more such orators as we read of in the 
 history of the last two hundred years. A course 
 of Lotos Club banquets is a good corrective of 
 these doubts. Some truth may lie in the assertion 
 that the influence of the spoken word has declined, 
 and that the universality of the reading habit has 
 rendered the voice of the orator less potential in 
 serious matters of business and politics ; but in the 
 arts which relax the strain of effort and render life 
 
,895 RECORD OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. 1 43 
 
 attractive, eloquence rivals in power if it does not 
 surpass in the highest qualities of intellectual effort 
 the gift of poetry. In the old days it used to be 
 said that at abolition meetings eloquence was 
 " dog cheap," and the same thing can be said of 
 eloquence at the Lotos Club. Even at the last 
 dinner recorded in these pages, there was an ex- 
 hibition of it that might rank, even if in a less 
 formal style, with the ancient specimens that are 
 contained in the old readers and recitations of the 
 country school. 
 
 An exhaustive history of the Lotos Club, which 
 should contain a full report of the speeches which 
 have been made at its brilliant receptions and 
 banquets, would require a volume of a thousand 
 pages. As this brief history shows, it has had the 
 good fortune to entertain nearly all the men of 
 ability and distinction who have visited New 
 York during the past twenty-five years, and it 
 has gathered at its board the first poets and 
 orators of the time to meet and do honor to its 
 guests. Mr. Whitelaw Reid was unsurpassed as a 
 presiding officer and speaker on these occasions I 
 and since he retired from the presidency the club 
 has had his sympathy and assistance, and still num- 
 bers him among its active members. Under Mr. 
 Frank R. Lawrence, who succeeded Mr. Reid, it 
 has prospered greatly, increased in membership 
 and resources, and in a house of its own has a bet- 
 ter guarantee of permanence than at any previous 
 time. As a presiding officer and after-dinner 
 speaker Mr. Lawrence has proved entirely worthy 
 
144 THE LOTOS CLUB. jggs 
 
 to follow his eminent predecessor in office. The 
 luster of its entertainments is undiminished. Its 
 recent functions, its dinners, receptions and art 
 exhibitions, have been fully equal to those of past 
 years, and there is every reason to hope that they 
 will so continue. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Speech of Pbesident Frank R. Lawrence at the Pare- 
 wmsL Dinner to Hon. Whitelaw Reed, April 27th, 1889. 
 
 Gtentlemen of the Lotos Club : The lotos plant gives forth 
 fmits to-night, for we meet to do honor to one who holds the 
 warmest place in onr regard. It is almost a score of years 
 now since a little band of good fellows — a:Ctors and artists and 
 journalists, and with here and there a lawyer and doctor — 
 formed the Lotos Club. Some of them were already tnown 
 in the world beyond, and among those was our guest of this 
 evening, who became a member of the club in its very earliest 
 days. He has been its president during more than half the 
 period of its life, and his presidency embraces the most happy 
 and prosperous years of the organization to which all its 
 members are so much attached. He leaves us now for a time, 
 and although the position which he now assumes is not larger 
 or more important than that which he has long held in the 
 public eye, we feel that a new dignity goes with it. We feel 
 it an honor to have a member of this club, and one so well 
 identified with its history, as the ambassador from one to the 
 other of the two great nations of freemen upon the earth. 
 He goes, gentlemen, but he leaves behind him the kindest 
 memories and carries with him our warmest wishes. Surely 
 so long a course of training as he has had in this club, if a 
 man can but survive it, ought to fit any one for the highest 
 arts of diplomacy, and we shall hope to hear of his express- 
 ing that broad good-fellowship that he has learned within 
 these walls. We know, gentlemen, that in aU that he may 
 do in public life his course will tend to redound to the honor 
 and glory of the American name, and, speeding him now with 
 kindest good wishes, we feel assured that in his official career 
 there will be times amid the cares of state when he will re- 
 member the old careless companions of the happy days of the 
 Lotos Club, the days when it seemed always afternoon. 
 
148 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 Speech op Hon. Whitelaw Beid at the Dinnek in his 
 HoNOE, April 30th, 1893, on His Eetukn from France. 
 
 It is evident that the traditions of the Lotos Club are pre- 
 served. We always praised onr guests— sometimes too much 1 
 
 It seems to me that, in days gone by, I have sometimes 
 heard the Lotos spoken of also as the club where they always 
 entertain foreigners. I wish it distinctly understood that this 
 is no occasion of that sort. You are entertaining no foreigner 
 to-night. 
 
 Furthermore, you are entertaining a man who feels uncom- 
 monly at home. Several things have happened to inspire 
 such a feeling. I have ridden uptown hanging to a strap in a 
 Sixth Avenue elevated with the market basket of the woman 
 behind poking me in the ribs and the heels of the man in 
 front reposing on my toes. I have been invited to deliver a 
 lecture, and I have had an opportunity to make a political 
 speech. My friend the reporter has interviewed me, once or 
 twice, I think ; and I have even been asked to write for the 
 newspapers. 
 
 And then there are the same glorious sunshiny skies above 
 us, and the same electric air about us, whether in the atmo- 
 sphere or in the people. There is the same warm-hearted ap- 
 preciation for any little public service one may have been able 
 to render, and the same truly American readiness to pardon 
 mistakes in recognition of an honest motive. There is the 
 same open-handed hospitality from all classes of a community 
 that permits political differences to interfere less with its 
 social good-will and genuine friendliness than any other on 
 the face of the globe. 
 
 In this very club there are probably now, as there always 
 were in the past, more Democrats than Republicans. Politi- 
 cal critics were accustomed sometimes to point to that as a fair 
 measure of my personal influence. It seemed to me a fairer 
 measure of that broad-minded tolerance which characterizes 
 men of the large world, and which lies at the very founda- 
 tion of our democratic institutions, a genuine belief in the 
 maxim of the immortal Scotchman, that whatever the differ- 
 ence in birth, or in fortune or in faith, "a man's a man for a' 
 that." 
 
APPENDIX. 149 
 
 There is one advantage of a long absence from home that 
 furnishes a certain satisfaction. You come back to your own 
 conntry with fresh eyes. And it is amazing what things you 
 see, and how much better you see them. Never did I realize 
 so fully the beauties of our incomparable Central Park as 
 when I came to it, after a three years' absence, fresh from the 
 Bois de Boulogne. The man is a public enemy who would 
 deface or curtail it ; and I hope this club and all men of good 
 taste and good will in this whole community will support the 
 spirited young president of the Park Commission, and his 
 colleagues, in their resolute defense of it against every spe- 
 cious scheme of spoliation, from whatever quarter it may 
 come. 
 
 Then there is our architecture. We are apt, in a shame- 
 faced way, to say, " Well, New York must look rather crude, 
 after the splendid architecture of the great European capi- 
 tals." But the fresh eye tells a different story. It does not 
 deceive us by saying that we have here a Louvre or a Made- 
 leine, or a Placode la Concorde, or even a Hotel de Villa. But 
 it does startle us with the revelation of an unsuspected beauty 
 in such a shabby old gem as the City Hall ; it does make an 
 old newspaper man feel pretty well satisfied with Printing 
 House Square, to say nothing of Wall Street and Broadway ; 
 and it does show a variety and a beauty of architectural effect 
 uptown that begins to warrant us now in being as proud of 
 the exteriors of our houses as we long have been of their in- 
 teriors. 
 
 And do you know that, to a man who has been haunting the 
 old bookshops on the Quai Voltaire and behind it, or the bric- 
 a-brac shops beyond the Place de la Republique or the old site 
 of the Bastile, or who has occasionally, on nights of political ex- 
 citement, explored the heights of Montmartre or the byways 
 of the Faubourg St. Antoine, the streets of New York do not 
 look as badly, in many quarters at least, as he had expected. 
 We have imitated Parisian methods in asphalt to unexpected 
 advantage. If now we could only import the ef&ciency of 
 the Parisian broom ! 
 
 This morning I read in the newspapers that we were to 
 have the pleasure of the company here this evening of my 
 distinguished successor near the government of the Frencu 
 
ISO THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 republic. This afternoon he told me he had been summoned 
 to Boston. I should have heen glad to extend to him here 
 my congratulations and hest wishes. 
 
 When I saw him last he was in the midst of his successful 
 diplomatic work in the fruitful Pan-American Congress. I 
 wish him the same success and the same enjoyment in the 
 brilliant capital for which he is now nominated. And I take 
 this opportunity to reassure him as to any fears concerning it 
 which our newspaper dispatches for the last few days may have 
 aroused. He need have no apprehensions that Paris will be 
 blown up and scattered to the winds before he gets there. It 
 has been a long time building, and it will not be destroyed in 
 a hurry. Neither need he accept too literally the story that 
 a few explosions of blasting material have stampeded the 
 Parisians They have seen some serious things in their day, 
 and they are not easily stampeded. The city that went 
 through the Reign of Terror, that knew both the glory and 
 the downfall of the greatest soldier since Caesar, that- endured 
 the siege by the Q-ermans, and its own Commune, has learned 
 several things from this varied experience — among them, how 
 to deal with lunatics and mobs. Personally, I should feel 
 safer myself to-morrow in the company of my friend the 
 prefect of police in Paris than I should on one of the boats of 
 my other friend, John H. Starin, on the next Fourth of July 
 picnic. Whatever happens to-morrow — and most likely it 
 will be nothing — Mr. Coolidge will find himself, when he 
 presents his credentials, in what will be still the gayest, the 
 pleasantest, and the most beautiful city of the world, and he 
 will find there a welcome as cordial as the national friend- 
 ship it represents is old. 
 
 It is a great pleasure in returning home after a long absence 
 to find that one's place has been kept for him, that he has not 
 been forgotten, and that, while the procession has certainly 
 moved on without him, it can still give him room in its ranks. 
 It is a peculiar pleasure to be received here. What reminis- 
 cences do not the place and the surroundings call up ; what 
 memories of this hall, and of the older one in Irving Place, 
 next door to the Academy of Music, when life was young and 
 joy was unconfined ! There we greeted Canon Kingsley and 
 Lord Houghton and Kubinstein and the King of the Sand- 
 
APPENDIX. 1 5 1 
 
 wich Islands — ^but one of them left now, and he a sovereign 
 in art. Here we greeted Froude and Matthew Arnold and 
 Henry Irving and Count de Lesseps, and "William S. Gilbert 
 and Sir Arthur SuUivan, and what a host beside. And to 
 name only three of our own people, can any one fail to re- 
 member with a tender reverence our last dinners here to 
 John Brougham, Lester Wallack and John Gilbert? Ah 1 
 me — in spite of the Lotos Club, the world is growing old ! 
 
 I cannot thaiLk you too much, Mr. President,' or the club 
 you so worthily represent, for the kindness which has marked 
 every detail of this most gracious reception ; for the care with 
 which yt)u have gathered many old friends to meet me, and 
 for the effort to bring still others. Two of your letters to- 
 night, not to allude "to many others, have touched me pro- 
 foundly ; the most generous words of George William Curtis 
 and Edmund Clarence Stedman. 
 
 . But I must bring this rambling talk to a close. I am not 
 here to-night to entertain, even if I could, but to be enter- 
 tained. And besides, there has been just a little too much of 
 my voice heard in the land for the three weekp or more I 
 have been on American soil. I have no wish to wear out my 
 welcome, and I mean to stay here some time. Plainly the 
 hour has struck for a brilliant flash of silence from me. I 
 thank you a thousand times for all your good will and good 
 opinions — ^would that I deserved them better. I rejoice with 
 you in the prosperity of the good old club, an^ I drink to the 
 good health, happiness and long Ufe of its president and of 
 all its members. 
 
 THUBE ET PIDIBUS. 
 
 Poem Bead at the Banquet to Hon. Whitelaw Beid 
 
 ON His Bettjen from France. 
 
 By William Winter. 
 L 
 Dark streamers of the eastern gale 
 Blown far across the desert sea. 
 Your wings have filled the snowy sail 
 
 That brings my comrade back to me ! 
 Through gUst'ning surge and flying foam 
 Your stormy pinions waft him home. 
 
152 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 11. 
 
 Cold waves that beat the nniimnring shore- 
 Sad pulsing throbs of ocean's breast— 
 
 Your grieving cadence mourns no more, 
 Your sobbing requiem dies to rest. 
 
 When now, by all fame's banner fanned, 
 
 The laureled wanderer comes to land. 
 
 III. 
 No longer now our weary eyes 
 
 Gaze down the empty ocean track ; 
 No more we muse with stifled sighs 
 
 On ships that sailed and came, not back — 
 Glad hopes that flew on fancy's wing, 
 When all the world was love and spring. 
 
 ry. . 
 
 For now the hollow cave of night, 
 The silent deep of Time and Space, 
 
 Through many a rift of diamond light • 
 Yield up our argosy of grace ; 
 
 And all sweet airs of heaven enfold 
 
 Its silver sails and spars of gold. 
 
 V. 
 The lion heart that never quailed. 
 
 The patient spirit, sweetly wise, 
 The equal mind, howe'er assailed 
 
 -By grief that blights and Time that tries. 
 Those are the glories that she bore. 
 And those the riches come to shore. 
 
 VI. 
 There should be fairer flowers than these. 
 
 And aU the bells of joy should fling 
 Their music on the perfumed breeze 
 
 With sweeter songs than I can sing — 
 On whose frail harp the sunset ray 
 Of passion long has died away. 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 vn. 
 
 Yet once again its fragile strings, 
 Slow trembling to my trembling touch. 
 
 At least may wake to honor things 
 So precious and beloved so much — 
 
 Truth, valor, kindness — all that blend 
 
 To make the champion and the friend I 
 
 vin. 
 
 His world of hope he crowned in this I 
 Bloom 'round him, wheresoe'er he goes, 
 
 White lilies of perpetual bliss 
 Entwined with honor's fadeless rose ! 
 
 May all be his that love can give. 
 
 And all for which 'tis life to live I 
 
 Speech of Col. Thomas W. Knox at the Dinnkk to Hon. 
 WmTELAW Reid, April 30th, 1898. 
 
 There is a mistake in calling any one to speak for the old 
 members of the Lotos Club, and the mistake reminds me of 
 a little story. An old toper once heard a 'discussion in which 
 some one denounced a certain brand of whisky as bad ; when 
 he heard the remark, he interrupted the conversation by say- 
 ing : " Excuse me, gentlemen, there is whisky that is better 
 than other whisky, but there is no bad whisky." Now I 
 would say to our most worthy president : " Excuse me, there 
 are members of the Lotos Club that are younger than other 
 members, but there are no old members " 
 
 We are all of us young, especially when we meet as we are 
 met to-night. The guest oi the evening is a young man ; it is 
 true that he has a history and a past behind him, but he has 
 the capacity and the promise of a future that will make the 
 past seem very insignificant. I well remember my first meet- 
 ing with him. It was only a short time ago, just after the 
 battle of Shiloh, of which he had written one of the beet bat- 
 tle descriptions that appeared in the newspapers during the 
 war. His ambition then was to serve " The Cincinnati Ga- 
 zette " so well that it would send him to Washington as its 
 
1 54 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 correspondent after the war was oyer. He obtained his wish 
 and went to Washington as the "Gazette's" correspondent, 
 and from "Washington he came to New York, as we well 
 know. History is said to repeat itself ; perhaps in about ten 
 months from now he may get back to Washington again. 
 
 This dinner to-night is not only a welcome home for our 
 former president, but it is also an anniversary of which he may 
 not be aware Exactly twenty years ago to-day, on the 30th of 
 April, 1872, he was put up as a candidate for membership In 
 the Lotos Club. A little history may not be out of place by 
 way of information to our younger members and of reminis- 
 cence to some who are not so young In the second year of 
 the club dissensions arose, and the dissensions resulted in a 
 split. Every member was arrayed on one side or the other of 
 the fight, and some were on both sides of it ; we had elected a 
 president who refused to serve, and it was impossible to 
 choose a president from our number as it then wasi 
 
 In this emergency we decided to follow the example of dis- 
 tracted countries on the other side of the Atlantic wh^n they 
 invite a foreign prince to be their king. We determined to 
 go outside of the club and invite some gentleman who was 
 identified with literature, art or journalism, to become one of 
 us and immediately take office as our president. The invita- 
 tion was given to Mr. Reid, and I had the honor of bearing to 
 him the invitation on the 29th of April, 1872. He said he would 
 consider it and give me an answer on the following day. His 
 answer was favorable, his name was at once bulletined, he 
 was elected to membership on the 16th of May, and he was 
 elected president two days later, eighty-eight votes being cast 
 and all of them in his favor. An hour after his election he 
 was installed into office, and from that time onward there was 
 no more disunion in the Lotos Club. 
 
 Before his election the disgruntled malcontents started a 
 rival club, which had a strugging existence of a few years 
 and then became one of the clubs that had been. The effect 
 of the formation of the rival club was to stimulate the mem- 
 bers of the Lotos to do all in their power for its prosperity, 
 and there can be no doubt that the stimulus of opposition was , 
 of great benefit to us. 
 
 Those of us who have been members of the club from its be- 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 ginning eannot fail to regard the growth of the Lotos with a 
 good deal of satisfaction, and a considerahle share of that sat- 
 isfaction belongs to otix former president, whose counsels were 
 always prudent and at the same time showed his confidence 
 in the club's strength and ability. More than once he solved 
 in a few minutes questions that had puzzled the directory for 
 days aaid days together, and more than once in a meeting of 
 the club -he converted into the happiest of happy families 
 what had threatened to be a very turbulent bear garden. 
 
 There are not many now of the membership of twenty 
 years ago, but I contend, as I did when called to my feet, that 
 we are not to be classed as old members. We are all young 
 and adhere to the motto of the Lotos Eaters, which you will 
 find on the first page of the club manual : 
 
 " In the afternoon they came unto a land 
 In which it seemed always afternoon." 
 
 Speech of Sm Edwin Abnold at the Banquet in His 
 Honor, October 31st, 1891. 
 
 In rising to return my sincere thanks for the high honor 
 done to me by this magnificent banquet, by its lavish opu- 
 lence of welcome, by its goodly company, by the English so 
 far too flattering which has been employed by the President, 
 and by the generous warmth with which you have received 
 my name, I should be wholly unable to sustain the heavy 
 burden of my gratitade but for a consideration of which I 
 will presently speak. 
 
 To-night must always be for me indeed a memorable 
 occasion. Many a time and oft, during the seven lustrums 
 composing my life, I have had personal reason to rejoice at 
 the splendid mistake committed by Christopher Columbus 
 in discovering your now famous and powerful country. When 
 his caravels put forth from our side of the Atlantic he had no 
 expectation whatever, contrary to the general belief and 
 statement, of discovering a new world. He was at that time 
 thinking of and searching for a very ancient land, the empire 
 of Xipangu, or Japan, at that era much and mysteriously 
 talked about by Marco Polo and other travelers, but by a 
 splendid blunder he stumbled upon America. 
 
156 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 I have good reason to greet his name in memory apart 
 from certain other not nnimportant results of his error, ow- 
 ing as I do to him the prodigious debt of a dear American wife 
 now with God — of children, half American and half English, 
 Of countless friends, of a large part of my literary reputation, 
 and, to crown all, this memorable evening. Nox ccenaque 
 Deum, which, of itself, would be enough to reward me for 
 more than I have done, and to encourage me in a nluch more 
 arduous task than even that which I have undertaken. 
 
 I am to-night the proud and happy guest of a club cele- 
 brated all over the world for its brilliant fellowship, its 
 broad enlightenment, and its large and gracious hospitalities. 
 I see around me here those who worthily reflect, by their 
 weight, their learning, their social, civil, literary and art- 
 istic achievements and accomplishments, the best intellect of 
 this vast and noble land, and I have been pleasantly made 
 aware that other well-knowa Americans, although absent in 
 person, are present in spirit to-night at this board. Com- 
 prehending these things as I do, and by the significance 
 which underlies them, it is a special regret that I do not 
 command any such gift of easy speech as seems indigenous to 
 this country, for truly it appears to me that almost every cul- 
 tured American gentleman, and many that are not cultured, 
 are born powerful and persuasive orators. 
 
 How, lacking this, can I hope to give any adequate utter- 
 ances to the gratitude, the respect, the deep amity, the ar- 
 dent good will with which my heart is laden 1 An Arab 
 proverb says " The camel knows himself when he goes under 
 a motmtain," and if I have sometimes 'flattered myself that 
 much duty and long habitude with the world and its leaders 
 had made me in some slight degree master of my native 
 tongue, the tumult of pride and pleasure which fills my 
 breast at this hour makes me understand that I must not 
 trust to-night to my unpracticed powers, and rely almost en- 
 tirely on your boundless kindness and assured indulgence.- 
 
 Indeed, gentlemen, I think I should become at once inar- 
 ticulate and take refuge in the safe retreat of silence but for 
 that consideration of which I spoke in the beginning. One can 
 never teU what excellent things a man might have said who 
 holds his tongnie, and 1 remember with what agreement I 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 heard Mr. Lowell at the Savage Club in London remark that 
 all of his best speeches were made in the carriage going home 
 at night. 
 
 But "I have not the conceit to believe that your splendid 
 welcome of this evening is intended solely for me, or for my 
 writings. Li truth, although I say this in a certain confi- 
 dence, and do not wish the observation to go far beyond this 
 banquet chamber, I have no high opinion of myself. The 
 true artist can never lose sight of the abyss which separates 
 his ideal from that which he has realized. I am confidently 
 and joyously aware that in my comparatively unimportant 
 person, gentlemen, you salute to-night with the large-heart- 
 edness characteristic of your land and of the Lotos Club in 
 particular, the heart of that other and older England which 
 also loves you well,' and through me to-night warmly and 
 sincerely greets you. 
 
 Moreover, the lowliest embassador derives a measure of 
 dignity from the commission of a mighty sovereign, and the 
 conviction that supports me this evening is that in my un- 
 worthy self the men of letters of the cisatlantic and transat- 
 lantic lands are here joining hands, and that if I may in hu- 
 mility speak for my literary countrymen they also here and 
 now warmly salute those of your race, not the less warmly 
 because America has wholly decreed a signal deed of justice 
 toward English authors in her copyright act. Some years 
 ago I wrote the little verses in the preface of a book dedi- 
 cated to my numerous friends in America, which ran like 
 this : 
 
 " Thou new Great Britain, famous, free and bright, 
 West of thy West sleepeth my ancient East ; 
 Our sunsets make thy moons, daytime and night 
 Meet in sweet morning promise on thy breast. 
 
 " Fulfill the promise, lady of wjde lands. 
 
 Where with thine own an English singer ranks ; 
 I who foTmd favor from my sovereign hands 
 Eiss them and at thy feet lay this for thanks." 
 
 Your Legislature has since rendered my statement abso- 
 lutely true, afld has given full citizenship in this country to 
 every English author. Personally I was never a fanatic on 
 the matter. I have always rather had a tenderness 'for those 
 
158 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 buccaneers of the ocean of books who, in nefarious bottoms, 
 carried my poetical goods far and wide, without any charge 
 for freight. 
 
 Laurels, in my opinion, for they can be won, are meant to 
 be worn with thankfulness and modesty, not to be eaten like 
 salad or boiled like cabbage for the pot. and when some of 
 my comrades have said impatiently about that more thought- 
 ful work that writers must leave, I have, perhaps, vexed 
 them by replying like an old friend who said " Harquis Je ne 
 vols pas la necessity." An author who aspires to fame and an 
 independent gratitude bestowed for true creative service to 
 mankind should be content, I hold, with those lofty and ines- 
 timable rewards, and not demand bread and butter also from 
 the high Tnuses, as if they were German waitresses in a coffee 
 house. Other ways of earning daily bread should be fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 If profit comes, of course, it is to men, poets and a^ithors 
 welcome enough, and justice is ever the best of all excellent 
 things, but the one priceless reward for a true poet or sincere 
 thinker lives surely in the service his work has done to his 
 generation and in the precious friendships which even I have 
 found enrich his existence and embellish his path in life. But 
 this excursion in the literary rights now equitably established 
 leads me to touch upon the noble community of language 
 which our two countries possess. 
 
 I am not what Canning described as the friend of every 
 country but his own. Rather in the best and worst sense of 
 the word, I am "a dam Britisher, who rejoices to think that 
 her Majesty, the sovereign, is the best and noblest of all noble 
 ladies, and that the " Queen's morning drum beats around the 
 world," But it was an American who first uttered that fine 
 phrase, and your greatness also marches to the glorious re- 
 veille. ; You, too, besides your own ample glories, have a 
 large part by kinship and common speech in the work which 
 England has done and is doing in Asia by giving peace and 
 development to India, in Africa by fostering commerce and 
 preserving order, in Egypt by opening the Dark Continent, 
 as well as peopling Australia and many a distant polony with 
 her industrious children. . 
 
 Half of all this I consider is America's, as I also claim a 
 
APPENDIX. 159 
 
 large and substantial part in the spread of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race throngh this vast New World under that lovely and hon- 
 ored banner, about which I must think our old poet was 
 dreaming when he sang : 
 
 " Her lightness and brightness do shine in such splendor 
 That none but the stars are thought fit to attend her." 
 
 Beyond all I saw we share together that glorious lan- 
 guage of Shakespeare which it will be our common duty, and 
 I think OUT manifest destiny, to establish as the general 
 tongue of the globe. This seems to be inevitable, not without 
 a certain philological regret, since, if I were to choose an old 
 tongue, I think I would prefer, for its music and its majesty, 
 the beautiful Castilian. Nevertheless, the whole world must 
 eventually talk our speech, which is already so prevalent that 
 to circumnavigate the globe none other is necessary, and even 
 the by-streets of Japan, the bazaars of India and China, and 
 the villages of Malaya on half their shops write up the name 
 and goods in English. Is not this alone well nigh enough to 
 link us in pride and peace? The English poet Cowper has no- 
 bly written : 
 
 " Time was when it was praise and boast enough, 
 In every clime a traveler where we might. 
 That we were bom her children ; fame enough 
 To fill the mission of a common man. 
 That Chatham's language was his native tongue." 
 
 Let us all try to keep in speech and in writing as close as 
 we can to the pure English that Shakespeare and Milton and, 
 in these- later times, Longfellow, Emerson and Hawthorne 
 have fixed. It will not be easy. Conversing recently with 
 Lord Tennyson, and expressing similar opinions; he said to 
 me : " It is bad for us that English will always be a spoken 
 speech, since that means that it will always be changing ;" and 
 so the time will come when you and I will be as hard to read 
 for the common people as Chaucer is to-day. You remember, 
 gentlemen, what opinion your brilliant humorist, Artemus 
 Ward, let fall of that ancient singer. " Mr. Chouser," he ob- 
 served casually, " is an admirable poet, but as aspeUist a very 
 decided failure." 
 
 To the treasure house of that noble tongue, the United 
 
l6o ' THE, LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 States have splendidly contributed-. It would be far poorer 
 to-day ■without the tender cares of Longfellow, the serene and 
 philosophic pages of Emerson, the convincing wit and clear 
 criticism of my illustrious departed friend, James Russell 
 Lowell, and the Catullus-like perfection of the lyrics of Ed- 
 gar Allan Poe, and the glorious large-tempered dithyrambs of 
 Walt Whitman. These stately and sacred laurel groves grow 
 here in a garden forever extending, ever carrying further for- 
 ward for the sake of humanity the irresistible flag of our 
 Saxon supremacy, and leads one to falter in an attempt to 
 eulogize America and the idea of hpr potency and her prom- 
 ise. The most elaborate panegyric could seem but a weak im- 
 pertinence which would remind you, perhaps, too vividly of 
 Sydney Smith, who, when he saw his grandchild pat the back 
 of a large turtle, asked her why she did so. The little maid 
 replied: " Grandpapa, I do it to please the turtle." "My 
 child," he answered, " you might as well stroke the dome of 
 St. Paiol's to please the Dean and Chapter." 
 
 I myself once heard in our zoological gardens in London 
 another little girl ask her mamma whether it would hurt the 
 elephant if she offered him a chocolate drop. In that guarded 
 and respectful spirit it is that I venture to tell you here to- 
 night how truly in England the peace and prosperity of your 
 republic is desired, and that there is nothing except good 
 will felt by the mass of our people toward you and nothing 
 but the greatest satisfaction in your wealth and progress. 
 
 Between these two majestic sisters of the Saxon blood the 
 hatchet of war is, please God, buried. No cause of quarrel, I 
 think and hope, can ever be otherwise than truly out of pro- 
 portion to the vaster causes of affection and accord. We 
 have no longer to prove to each other or to the world that 
 Englishmen and Americans are high-spirited and fearless ; 
 that Englishmen and Americans alike will do justice, and 
 will have justice, and will put up with nothing else from 
 each other and from the nations at large. 
 
 Our proofs are made on both sides and indelibly written 
 •on the page of history. Not that I wish to speak platitudes 
 about war. It has been necessary to human progress ; it has- 
 bred and preserved noble virtues ; it has been inevitable and 
 may be again, but it belongs to a low civilization. Other 
 
APPENDIX. l6l 
 
 countries have perhaps not yet reached that point of intimate 
 contact and rational advance, but for us two at least the time 
 seems come when violent decisions, and even talk of them, 
 should he as much abolished between us as cannibalism. 
 
 I ventured when in "Washington to propose to President 
 Harrison that we should some day, the sooner the better, 
 choose five men of public worth in the United States and five 
 in England ; give them gold coats if you please, and a hand- 
 some salary, and establish them as a standing and supreme 
 tribunal of arbitration, referring to them the little family 
 faUings-out of America and of England whenever something 
 goes wrong between us about a sealskin in Behring Straits, a 
 lobster pot, an ambassador's letter, a border tariff, or an 
 Irish vote. He showed himself very well disposed toward 
 my suggestion. 
 
 Mr. President, in sacredly hoping that you tate me to be 
 a better poet than orator, I thank you all from the bottom of 
 my heart for your reception to-night, and personally pray for 
 the tranquillity and prosperity of this great and magnificent 
 republic. Under the circumstances, one word may perhaps 
 be permitted before a company so intellectaal and represent- 
 ative as to my purpose in visiting your States. I had the in- 
 clination to try this literary experiment, whether a poet 
 might not, with a certain degree of success, himself read the 
 poems which he had composed and best tmderstands them as 
 the promulgator of his own ideas. The boldness of such an 
 enterprise really covers a sincere compliment to America, for 
 that which was possible and even popialar in ancient Greece 
 could be nowhere again possible if not in America, which has 
 many great characteristics, and where the audiences are so 
 patient, generous and enlightened. We shall see. 
 
 Heartily, gratefully, and with a mind from which the 
 memory of this glorious evening will never be effaced, I 
 thank you for the very friendly and favorable omens of the 
 banquet. 
 
1 62 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 A Lotos Satukdat Night in the Old House in Irving 
 Place. 
 
 I From the Boston Courier.] 
 
 There is in the marvelous city of New York a social cIuTj, 
 the name of which warms one's heart at the mention. There 
 is a host of other more mighty and more wealthy organiza- 
 tions — clubs of sect, clubs of party, clubs of taste, clubs of 
 aristocracy, clubs for enjoyment, clubs for study, clubs for 
 research, clubs for reform, clubs for' conservatism, but the 
 club I speak of is "a club for fun. 
 
 Its charter does not say this. It sets forth that it is a con- 
 clave for social intercourse ; but every clubman knows that 
 this expression is too often another name for social discord, 
 perpetual bickerings, childish strife and unsocial companion- 
 ship. In fact, most clubs are places of perpetual discussion 
 and not of divine peace and joy, as our sisters and mothers 
 would fain suppose But the sisters and mothers might well 
 feel anxious at the superiority of the attractions of their cozy 
 homes over the pretty little parlors of the respectable. Lotos. 
 This is the club of which I speak. It is not yet grown to its 
 full proportions, yet it is a lusty young giant of a couple of 
 years. It does not yet occupy a huge separate building, with 
 a detached roof ; yet within its circumscribed area it blossoms 
 and flowers with great luxuriance.' 
 
 It has a modest house on Irving Place, just out of East 
 Fourteenth Street and next to the Academy of Music. As 
 one enters the latter store, he finds a pretty reading room on 
 the left filled with all papers of the day and week — English, 
 French and American — and many comfortable chairs and 
 tables, and, if it is winter, a bright fire dispensing a grateful 
 heat. Here are posted the various club notices and many 
 subscription lists and the names of those requesting to be 
 made members. In the room beyond this is the refectory or 
 restaurant of the club. There many small tables set in rows, 
 furnished both in all the glory of white cloths and brilliant 
 crystal. The floor is tiled, and at the end of the apartttient 
 are large windows of colored glass. Banged around upon 
 the walls are large photographs of celebrated actors— Jeffer- 
 son, Gilbert, "Wallack, Miss Henriques, Mrs. Sefton, Creswick, 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 Brougham, Marie Seatack, Mme. Eistori and of many others, 
 whose presence here, either in person or in counterfeit, must 
 always be happily consistent with the atmosphere of the 
 place. Upon the next floor are the parlors, which occupy 
 the entire flat, and which always excite the admiration of 
 English visitors on account of the richness and luxury of their 
 fittings. The carpets are of a warm color ; all the windows 
 are hung with handsome curtains, and upon the walls are 
 many pictures of excellent merit. Bronzes ornament the 
 mantels, and the furniture is heavy and has a comfortable 
 hue. Pretty and delicate tables stand here and there, and a 
 fine piano gives promise of much melody. In a rear apart- 
 ment are more tables, more pictures, more hangings and more 
 rich carpets, together with writing desks and reading chains. 
 Upon another floor still is a blue room, which is the library. 
 Poor Walter Montgomery gave the club a splendid set of 
 Knight's Shakespeare, with his name written in a flowing 
 hand across the fly-leaf ; and never does a Lotos man lay his 
 eyes, upon the gilded volumes but he sighs and laments the 
 generous heart that gave them. There is also a fac-simile of 
 the Stratford bust of Shakespeare, all in flesh. color, with 
 black eyebrows, red lips and scarlet dress, which sadly puz- 
 zles quidnuncs of the club. 
 
 Throughout the day the club house seems to have no special 
 life. At about four in the afternoon the upward flow of city 
 men begins and visitors become more frequent. In the eve- 
 ning it is again deserted, as all the men are at the theaters. 
 But about half past ten the rooms fiU up rapidly and the place 
 becomes interesting. The critics rush thither with their heads 
 full of praises or condemnation ; and they sit down in some 
 quiet comer and dash oflE a few slips ready for the morning 
 papers. Loud voices arise, and in the lower rooms the crowd 
 becomes thick and smoky. In the front apartment a dozen 
 gather aroimd. the tables, and punches are in order. Half a 
 hundred men sit and chat and smoke here and there, and the 
 waiters fly hither and thither on their errands of cheer. 
 
 But it is on Saturday night that all the heroes are abroad, 
 and the welkin rings with the efforts of genius to amuse their 
 audience. The Junior Garrick Club has its Saturday dinners, 
 and they are noted throughout London for their joUity and 
 
1 64 ' THE,, LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 good humor. Therefore, the Lotos men, always eager to emu- 
 late what is comfortable and good, contemplate the inaugura- 
 tion of similar feasts. First, however, they seek to improve 
 on the plan of their English brothers by having a supple- 
 mentary entertainment ia their parlors, to be given by volun- 
 teers from among their members or guests. This pleasant 
 feature of Saturday evenings was instituted when the club 
 was started, and has proved a great success. A huge bowl of 
 punch is brewed at half past nine o'clock and set upon the 
 sideboard in the restaurant, while upon a table nearby is a 
 little spread of a salad and biscuit. Ever since Saturday 
 night existed there has been a deep appreciation of it by all 
 mankind. The Lotos Eaters like it and flock to its celebra- 
 tion as if It were a sense of duty. On such occasions every 
 man wanders to Irving Place before ten o'clock and speculates 
 upon what is to amuse him for the next three hours. Every 
 member has the privilege of inviting a limited number of 
 friends, and, as there are many actors in the company, it fol* 
 lows naturally that most of the artists who are strangers in the 
 city will be present on such occasions as the Saturday Nights. 
 And the expectation is fully gratified ; for as one drops in at 
 eleven o'clock, perhaps, he wiU find Himself among famous 
 company. 
 
 Below stairs all will be smoke and laughter, chat and con- 
 fxision ; while above stairs there will be a, decorous company 
 sitting in parlors listening to what is going forward. There 
 will be a thin cloud exhaled from the cigars, and all the faces 
 will be turned toward the piano, where perhaps Mr Sloper, 
 of the Dolby Troupe, is playing some beautiful air of Schu- 
 man's. It is to be wished that the mothers and sisters ifew 
 men here are supposed to have wives) could look in upon their 
 manly relatives and watch the manner in which they conduct 
 themselves when they compose an audience. No whispering, 
 no talking, no movement. All is quiet as the most sensitive 
 performer could wish, and all critical and appreciative. The 
 chances are that there will be many celebrities in the groups 
 of listeners. You will see, perhaps, the delicate-featured, 
 long-haired Linton, the engraver, sitting as quiet as a rabbit, 
 with his hands in front of him and with his ear toward the 
 piano.* The blithe and compliant Levy, with his magical 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 cornet, may enter from the rear room all smiles and bows. 
 Colby ■will accompany him, and, after all that preliminary 
 fingering, he will taike a pull at his coat front, extend his 
 elbows wide, draw a long breath, and begin the witcheries of 
 his famous Mabel Waltz ; and every clubman will straight- 
 way yearn for the polished area of the waxed floor. 
 
 In the audience is the Saxon-blooded Lord Campbell, with 
 his nervous face and slight figure, furtively looking here and 
 there, and listening attentively. Beside him is the immortal 
 Sothern, fresh from the plaudits of the patrons from Niblo's, 
 vigorously smoking, and possibly regretting his friend Wales. 
 He looks little like Dundreary, with his sandy mustache, red 
 face, iron-gray hair and positive eye ; he is also a good 
 listener, and regards Levy with wondering eyes. There is the 
 vice-president of the club, the tall, handsome, Russian trav- 
 eler. Colonel Knox, who can write a book and make tea in 
 his brazen teapot with equal facility. Beside him is the 
 dramatic critic of the " Tribune," the sensitive but spirited 
 Winter, who has come, with his mighty stick and wide-awake 
 and Spanish cloak, all the way from Staten Island to spend an 
 evening, or part of one. with these rare companions. Behind 
 him is the great Sir Peter Teazle (John Gilbert), with his 
 huge frame and beaming face, ready to laugh and joke with any 
 good man. He is an old-school actor and an old-school gentle- 
 inan. and the work of his many years has told but little upon 
 him. Kow, after Levy, comes the strange-visaged Bandmann, 
 who is welcomed as he richly deserves. He recites the solil- 
 oquy of the moody Hamlet ; and after him comes, perhaps, 
 the broad-chested, manly-looking Stanley, the baritone, from 
 whose deep chest there rolls such melodious thunders that 
 enthusiasm awakes, and the Lotos Eaters arouse themselves 
 to a man and applaud until all Irving Place needs must hear. 
 Then there appears Wehli, the pianist, all gloved and prim, 
 before whom the witty Brougham dashes, and, usurping the 
 oflB.ce of the committeeman, introduces him as the " Panta- 
 loonatic." By this time the smoke grows a little dense ; for 
 all the cigars and cigarettes are at work ; and when, after the 
 pianist, the handsome and good-natured Tom Karl comes for- 
 ward and seats himself at the piano, he looks a little doubt- 
 fully at the cloud. But, notwithstanding, he breaks into Pat 
 
1 66 THE LOTOS CLUB. 
 
 Malloy, and trolls out the pretty, pathetic little song wltli so 
 sweet a. voice that the cigars all go ont from neglect, and 
 exclamations of delight break from every mouth. He is a 
 great favorite, and it devolves upon him to sing again. After 
 him again, there may come the slight-framed and sober- 
 looking Sarasate, with his wondrous violin. All who have 
 heard him know him right well. May he never break a 
 string, and may his elbow never stiffen. But it was little 
 Percy Roaelle who made us cry. Henri Drayton read Hubert 
 in King John, and the little English lad recited the lines of 
 the unhappy prince with so much fervor and truthful energy 
 that it was not a reproach to manhood to weep. 
 
 Then comes the famous John Brougham, fresh from Wal- 
 lack's, with the bloom of Captain Murphy McGuire scarce 
 brushed from^his cheeks, and with the same gravity that he 
 had twenty-five years ago. When he turns his back toward 
 you, then you can see that the common enemy has taken a 
 stout hold on the veteran's neck, but his face tells no tales and 
 his wit is as bright as ever. He comes forward and gives a 
 satirical poem of his own making. The Hymn of Princes, 
 and a strong piece of verse it is. 
 
 But at last the smoke grows thick and the hour grows 
 small, and the noise of the outer door now and then breaks 
 upon the ear. There are a few more songs, a poem or two, a 
 little strong drumming upon the piano, and all the good men 
 are fain to go below, and the gallant colonel will brew them 
 a pot of — TEA 1 'Tis a polite .way of intimating that the 
 evening entertainment is done. 
 
LOTOS 
 
 *' In the afternoon they came unto « land^ 
 In which it seemed always afternoon,"" 
 
 1894-3 
 
 CLUB HOUSE : 556-558 FIFTH AVENUE 
 NEW YORK, 
 
PRESIDENTS. 
 
 *DE; WITT VAN BUREN, . 
 
 •. 1870 
 
 A. OAKEY HALL, 
 
 . 1870-187I 
 
 WHITELAW REID, 
 
 . 1872-1875 
 
 *JOHN BROUGHAM, . 
 
 . 1876-1877 
 
 WHITELAW REID, 
 
 . 1878-1888 
 
 FRANK R. LAWRENCE, . 
 
 . 1889- 
 
 * Deceased. 
 
 
VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
 
 F. A. SCHWAB 
 
 . 1870 
 
 THOMAS W. KNOX, . > 
 
 . 187I 
 
 *JOHN BROUGHAM, 
 
 1872-1874 
 
 C. I. PARDEE, 
 
 . 187^-1874 
 
 JOHN BROUGHAM, 
 
 • 1875 
 
 THOMAS W. KNOX, 
 
 187s 
 
 F. A. SCHWAB, . 
 
 1876 
 
 GEORGE H. STORY, . 
 
 . 1876 
 
 NOAH BROOKS, . 
 
 . 1877-1881 
 
 C. I. PARDEE, 
 
 . 1877-1881 
 
 A. E. MACDONAL-D, . 
 
 . 1882 
 
 HORACE PORTER, . ... 
 
 . 1882-1885 
 
 FRANK R. LAWRENCE, 
 
 . I 883-1 88s 
 
 C. I. PARDEE, 
 
 . 1886-1888 
 
 JOHN H. BIRD 
 
 . 1889 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY WHITE, 
 
 . I 890- I 893 
 
 EDWA'RD MORAN, 
 
 . 1894 
 
 There were two Vice-Presidents from 1872 
 
 to 1886. 
 
 * Deceased. 
 
 
SECRETARIES. 
 
 *GEORGE W. HOWS, . 
 
 . 1870-1871 
 
 J. H. ELLIOT, 
 
 . 1871 
 
 CHARLES H. MILLER, 
 
 . 1872 
 
 A. F. TAIT, 
 
 ■ 1873 
 
 C. I. PARDEE, 
 
 1873 
 
 A. E. MACDONALD, . 
 
 . 1874-1875 
 
 J. H. HAGER, 
 
 . 1874 
 
 JOHN ELDERKIN, 
 
 . 1876 
 
 *FREDERICK B. NOYES, 
 
 . 18.75-1876 
 
 JOHN ELDERKIN, 
 
 1877 
 
 A. E. MACDONALD, . 
 
 • 1877 
 
 A. E. MACDONALD, 
 
 . 1878-1879 
 
 THOMAS W. KNOX, . ... 
 
 . I 880-1 889 
 
 JOHN ELDERKIN, 
 
 1890-1893 
 
 WALTER P. PHILLIPS, 
 
 • 1893 
 
 CHESTER S. LORD, . 
 
 . 1.894 
 
 There were two Secretaries from 1873 to 1877. 
 * Deceased. _. 
 
TREASURERS. 
 
 ALBERT WEBER, 
 
 '. . . 1870-187I 
 
 *WILLIAM APPLETON, 
 
 . 1872 
 
 C. McK. LEOSER, 
 
 ._ . . 1873-1874 
 
 *C. E. L. HOLMES, . 
 
 ■ 1875-1879 
 
 M. C. BOUVIER, . 
 
 . 1880-1881 
 
 *FREDBRICK B. NOYES, 
 
 . 1882 
 
 FREDERICK A. BROWN, 
 
 1883 
 
 *CHARLES G. LINCOLN, 
 
 ... . 1884 
 
 GEORGE A. FRINK, . 
 
 . 1885-1888 
 
 CHARLES H. COFFIN, 
 
 . 1889 
 
 EDWARD B. HARPER, 
 
 . 1890- 
 
 * Decea 
 
 sed. 
 
OFFICERS. 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 
 FRANK R. LAWRENCE. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 EDWARD MORAN. 
 
 SECRETARY. 
 
 CHESTER S. LORD. 
 
 TREASURER. 
 
 EDWARD B. HARPER. 
 
 DIRECTORS. 
 
 Class of i8g'/. 
 
 W. T. EVANS, GEORGE H. WOOSTER, 
 
 A. M. PALMER. 
 
 Class of i8g6. 
 F. L. MONTAGUE. 
 
 Class of i8g5. 
 H. W. RANGER, FREDERICK T. MURRAY, 
 
 JULIAN RIX, W. W. WALKER, 
 
 CHANDOS FULTON. 
 
CHARTER. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM LAWS OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Chap. 426 of the Laws of 1873, entitled " An Act 
 to Incorporate the Lotos Club," as amended by- 
 Chap. 510 of the Laws of 1881. 
 
 The People of the State of New York, represented in. 
 Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : 
 
 Section i. — Whitelaw Reid, John Brougham, 
 Thomas W. Knox, William Appleton, Jr., J. B. Bou- 
 ton, J. Henry Hager, Daniel Bixby, C. F. Chickering, 
 Charles H. Miller, Charles Inslee Pardee, Thomas E. 
 Morris, and such other persons as are now, or may 
 hereafter become associated with them, are hereby 
 constituted a body corporate by the name of the Lotos 
 Club. 
 
 § 2. — The said corporation shall have power to 
 make and adopt a constitution, by-laws, rules and 
 regulations for the admission and government of its 
 members as. well as for their continuance, suspen- 
 sion and expulsion, and further, for the election of 
 its officers, and defining their duties, and for the safe 
 keeping, management and disposition of its property 
 and funds, and for any other purpose of this corpora- 
 
10 CHARTER. 
 
 tion. It may also, from time to time, alter or repeal 
 such constitution, by-laws, rules and regulations. .No 
 person ceasing to be a member, or- his legal represen- 
 tative, shall have any rights, privileges or ownership 
 in, or in regard to the said corporation, or its property 
 
 by reason of his former ownership. 
 
 / 
 
 § 3. — The said club is hereby authorized and em- 
 powered for the purposes of its corporation, but not 
 otherwise, to lease, purchase, take, hold and convey 
 real and personal property, and mortgage the same, 
 to secure the payment of any debt, bond or bonds 
 which the said club may contract, make or issue, but 
 shall not hold real estate exceeding in value, at any 
 time of its acquisition, five hundred thousand dol- 
 lars. 
 
 § 4. — The said corporation shall also possess the 
 powers, and be subject to the restrictions and liabili- 
 ties contained in the third title of the eighteenth 
 chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes. 
 
 § 5. — This Act shall take effect immediately. 
 
CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 Section I. — This Constitution is made and adopted 
 pursuant to the Act of Incorporation of the Lotos 
 Club. 
 
 Sec". II. — The primary object of this Club shall be 
 to promote social intercourse among journalists, art- 
 ists and members of the musical and dramatic pro- 
 fessions, and representatives, amateurs and friends 
 of Literature, Science and the Fine Arts ; and at least 
 one-third of the members shall be connected with said 
 classes. 
 
 Sec. III. — Any gentleman shall be eligible for mem- 
 bership, whatever his vocation. 
 
 Sec. IV. — There shall be three classes of members : 
 Resident, Non-resident and Life Members. 
 
 Sec. V. — The number of resident members of the 
 Club shall be limited to six hundred. 
 
 Sec. VI. — Members residing in the City of New 
 York,- or within the radius of thirty miles of the City 
 Hall, shall be classed as resident, except when classed 
 as life members. 
 
12 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Section I. — The Officers shall be a President, Vice- 
 President, Secretary, Treasurer and nine Directors, 
 who together shall constitute the Directory in which 
 shall be vested the government of the Club. 
 
 Sec. II. — Seven of said Directory shall be selected 
 from representatives of Literature, Science, the Fine 
 Arts or the learned professions. 
 
 Sec. III. — On the third Saturday of March, 1892, 
 an election shall be held for a President, Vice-Presi- 
 dent, Treasurer, Secretary and three Directors, to 
 hold office for one year ; three Directors to hold office 
 for two jears, and three Directors to hold office for 
 three years. And on the third Saturday in March of 
 every year thereafter, an election shall be held for 
 officers whose terms are about- to expire, at which 
 election all officers chosen shall hold office for three 
 years, except the President, Vice-President, Treas 
 urer and Secretary, who shall be elected annuaUy. 
 The election shall be determined by ballot, by a 
 majority of the votes actually cast by resident mem- 
 bers present at such meeting. Officers chosen at 
 any election shall begin their official terms on the 
 first Monday of the following April. 
 
 SeC. IV. — In case of a vacancy in either of the 
 offices above named, except the office of President, 
 the Directory shall, at one of its meetings, select by a 
 majority vote a resident member of the Club to fill 
 
CONSTITUTION. 1 3 
 
 such office until the first Monday of April next suc- 
 ceeding, but in case of a vacancy in the office of Presi- 
 dent the Directory shall call a special meeting of the 
 Club for the purpose of holding an election to fill 
 such vacancy ; notice of such meeting shall be given 
 by mail, and by being posted upon the bulletin board 
 at least fifteen days before the day of i-uch meeting. 
 The term of office of the person elected as President, 
 pursuant to the terms of this provision, shall com- 
 mence-immediately after such election , 
 
 Sec. V. — Only resident members whose indebted- 
 ness to the Club, or for supplies obtained in the Club, 
 does not exceed the sum of five dollars shall be enti- 
 tled to vote at any election, but no voting by proxy 
 shall be permitted. 
 
 Sec. VI. — It shall be the duty of the Directory to 
 call a Special Meeting of the Club to be held on the 
 third Saturday of February in each year, and at which 
 meeting there shall be elected, by ballot, by a major- 
 ity of the votes actually cast by the resident members 
 present at such meeting, a committee of seven from 
 the body of the Club, which shall be known as a 
 Nominating Committee, whose duty it shall be "to 
 nominate Officers and Directors to be voted for at 
 the next election. 
 
 Such committee shall be elected by ballot, and tell- 
 ers shall be appointed to canvass the votes ; and it 
 shall be the duty of such committee to post the 
 names 6i the candidates selected in a conspicuous 
 place in the Club House, at least fifteen days previ- 
 ous to the election. 
 
14 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 Section L — The President shall preside at all 
 meetings, have the casting vote in case of a tie, and 
 appoint all committees, at meetings of the Club. 
 
 Sec. II. — The Vice-President shall preside at all 
 meetings of the Club or Directory, in the absence of 
 the President ; and in case of a vacancy occurring in 
 the office of President, shall act as President until 
 the office shall be filled as herein provided. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 SECRETARY. 
 
 The Secretary shall attend all meetings of the Club 
 and of the Directory, keep minutes of all proceedings 
 at such meetings, issue all necessary notices, sub- 
 scribe all correspondences and execut-e such business 
 as he may be instructed to perform. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 TREASURER. 
 
 The Treasurer shall cause to be collected, and shall 
 receive all fines, dues and moneys of the Club, keep 
 a regular account thereof, and pay all .bills author- 
 ized by the Directory. He shall also at each regu- 
 lar meeting of the Directory and at the" annual 
 meeting of the Club, present a written report of 
 all financial transactions, accompanied by sugges- 
 tions. He shall promptly report to the Directory 
 
CONSTITUTION. 1 5 
 
 the condition of any member's account, when the 
 same shall remain unpaid beyond the time pre- 
 scribed in Article X., Section III. He shall also on 
 the first day of March, in each year, prepare and 
 post on the bulletin board an account showing the 
 receipts and expenditures during his term of oflSce, 
 and the liabilities and cash assets of the Club. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 DIRECTORY. 
 
 Section I. — The Directory shall hold regular meet- 
 ings on the last Monday of each month, and upon the 
 request in writingjof three Directors the Secretary 
 shall call a special meeting of the Directory. 
 
 Sec. II. — The Directory shall have a general super- 
 vision of the property of the Club, make all pur- 
 chases, and authorize and incur all necessary ex- 
 penditures. 
 
 Sec. III. — It shall be the duty of the Directory to 
 inquire rigidly into the character of all persons pro- 
 posed for membership, and act upon them in the 
 order in which they have been presented. 
 
 Sec. IV. — The Directory shall fix penalties not 
 provided for in this Constitution, and shall have 
 power to remit all penalties and dues of members, 
 except that it shall not have power to remit the pen- 
 ality of suspension provided for in Section III. of 
 Article X. 
 
 Sec. V. — The Directory shall also appoint from its 
 members five Standing Committees, as follows : 
 
 I St. — On Art ; to consist of three members. 
 
l6 CONSTITUTION.' 
 
 2d. — On Literature; to consist of three members. 
 
 3'd. — Oh Entertainment ; to consist of three mem- 
 bers. 
 
 4th. — On Management of the House and Finance ; 
 to be called the House Committee, and to consist of 
 five members. 
 
 Sth. — On Admissions ; to consist of three members. 
 
 These Committees shall at each regular meeting of 
 the Directory make a report of their action. They 
 shall be subject to the control of, and may be reor- 
 ganized by the Directory. 
 
 Sec. VI. — The Directory shall appoint for each elec- 
 tion, members of the Club not me^mbers of the Direc- 
 tory, who shall act as Inspectors and Canvassers of 
 Election, not exceeding five in number. 
 
 Sec. VII. — A member of the Directory who shall 
 absent himself from three consecutive regular meet- 
 ings provided for in the Constitution, or shall leave 
 one of its meetings at which there shall be a quorum 
 without permission or excuse, shall thereupon cease 
 to be a Director, and a vacancy shall exist. 
 
 Sec. Vlll.^Seven members of the Directory shall 
 constitute a quorum. 
 
 Sec. IX. — The Directory may adopt such By-Laws 
 and Rules as they may deem necessary for the proper 
 management and discipline of the Club ; provided 
 the same are not in conflict with this Constitution, and 
 shall make and enforce By-Laws or Rules regulating 
 the admission of strangers and visitors to the. privi- 
 leges of the Club, and prescribe a penalty for any 
 violation of such By-Laws or Rules. 
 
CONSTITUTION. ' 1/ 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 COMMITTEES. 
 
 Section I. — The Art Committee may expend such 
 sums as may be appropriated by the Directory or ob- 
 tained by contributions from members for procuring 
 and exhibiting Works of Art, and shall have general 
 supervision of Art exhibitions. 
 
 Sec. II. — The Committee on literature shall have 
 charge of the Library and Reading Room, with 
 authority 1;o .expend such sums of money upon the 
 same as may be appropriated therefor by the Direc- 
 tory, or procured by voluntary subscriptions from 
 members. 
 
 Sec. III. — The Co i mittee on Entertainment, from 
 October to April inclusive in each year, shall pro- 
 vide and supervise entertainments or receptions at 
 least once in each month, and may expend such sums 
 of money upon the same as may be appropriated by 
 the Directory or procured by voluntar3- subscriptions 
 from members. 
 
 Sec. IV. — The House Committee shall manage the 
 Club House, engage and dismiss employes, regulate 
 prices, expend such sums of money as may be appro- 
 priated to their use, and enforce such By-Laws and 
 Rules as may be prescribed by the Directory. It shall 
 also be their duty to inquire into and report to the 
 Directory all infractions or violations of thf rules or 
 regulations of the Club, accompanied by such recom- 
 mendations in each case as it shall deem advisable. 
 The said Committee shall have power to preserve 
 order in the Club House. 
 
i8 c(3nstitution. 
 
 Sec. V. — The Committee on Admissions shall make 
 examination and inquiry respecting the character 
 and qualifications of each individual proposed for 
 membership, and report at every regular meeting of 
 the Directory' the names of such persons as they 
 may deem eligible, and shall report the names of all 
 persons proposed whenever required by the Direc 
 tory. 
 
 The proceedings of this Committee shall be secret 
 and confidential. And no member thereof shall be 
 questioned as, to the action of said Committee. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 Section I. — Names of candidates shall be entered 
 in a book to be kept in the office' of the Club. After 
 such entry is made aAd signed by the proposer and 
 seconder, the name of a candidate shall b6 posted on 
 the bulletin board for at least two weeks before be- 
 ing acted upon by the Directory. 
 
 The proposer of a candidate for admission to the 
 Club is required to send to the Committee on Admis- 
 sions a letter giving the name and place of residence 
 of the candidate, his profession or occupation, and 
 such statement of his qualifications as the proposer 
 may deem proper. A letter of recommendation is 
 also required from the seconder. 
 
 Sec. II. — The Directory shall vote by ballot for 
 -each person so proposed, whose name shall have been 
 reported by the Committee on .Admissions, and such' 
 person shall be declared elected, unless two ballots 
 are cast in the negative. 
 
CONSTITUTION. 19 
 
 Sec. III. — Life members maybe elected in the same 
 manner as active members, and shall enjoy the same 
 rights and privileges. They shall be exempt from all 
 dues. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 Section I. — The initiation fee fqr Resident and 
 Non-resident members shall be two hundred ($200) 
 dollars ; but if the candidate is a professional Actor 
 or Musician, the Directory may, in its discretion, 
 remit any portion of that sum. 
 
 Seo. II. — The initiation fee for lif^ members shall 
 be one thousand ($1,000) dollars. The Direct6ry 
 may, however, elect not more than thirty life mem- 
 bers, each of whom shall pay an initiation fee of five 
 hundred dollars ($500). 
 
 Sec. III. — Each resident member shall contribute 
 the sum of sixty dollars as yearly dues, payable quar- 
 terly in advance ; non-resident members shall pay 
 one-half the amount paid by resident members as 
 dues ; life members shall be exempt from dues. 
 
 Sec. .IV. —Any artist who shall be elected a member 
 of the Club may contribute, in lieu of initiation fee, 
 a work of art of the value of- at least $200, to be esti-' 
 mated by the Directory. 
 
 Sec. V. — Commissioned officers of the Army and 
 Navy of the Unite;! States may be admitted to mem- 
 bership without payment of initiation fee. 
 
 Sec. VI. — The Directory may, by a vote of two- 
 thirds of its members present at a regular meeting, 
 reduce the initiation fee for resident members to one 
 
20 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 hundred ($ioo) dollars. The Directory may also re- 
 duce the initiation fee for non-resident members 'to 
 not less than twenty-five (*25) dollars. 
 
 ' ARTICLE X. 
 
 penalties: 
 
 Section I. — The Directory shall have power to 
 suspend, fine, or by two thirds vote of members pres- 
 ent, expel any member charged with conduct which 
 endanger^ or which may endanger the welfare, inter- 
 est, or character of the Club. , 
 
 Sec. II. — All charges against members must be pre- 
 sented to the Directory, in writing, by the House 
 Committee, to whom all complaints must first be 
 made. Upon the request in writing to the Directory 
 by any person who has been expelled from member- 
 ship, or by any member on whom a penalty has been 
 imposed, accompanied by a demand subscribed by 
 five resident members, the Secretary shall call a meet- 
 ing of the Cliib to hear any appeal from the decision 
 of the Directory. At such meeting, the action of the 
 Directory may be modified or annulled by a vote of 
 two-thirds of the resident members present. 
 
 Sec. III. — The account of every member who is in- 
 debted to the Club in any amount shall, with a copy 
 of this secdon, be sent to him by mail at his last 
 known address, on or before the- fifth day of each 
 month. The name of every member who shall have 
 failed to pay such indebtedness, exceeding $5, by or 
 before the fifteenth day of the month, shall on that ' 
 day be conspicuously posted in the Club House, and 
 
.CONSTITUTION. 21 
 
 shall so remain until the account is paid. No mem- 
 ber while posted shall receive supplies. Any member 
 while posted as aforesaid may, in the discretion of 
 the Directory, "be suspended from the privileges of 
 the Club, or, by a two-thirds vote, may be dropped 
 from the roll of membership. Notice of any such 
 action shall be posted on. the bulletin board. The 
 House Committee may at any time limit or suspend 
 the credit of any member. 
 
 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Card games may be played in such rooms as shall 
 be designated ; but the games of poker, loo, and 
 others known as round games aftd games of hazard 
 shall not be permitted in the Club House. 
 
 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 MEETINGS. 
 
 . Section I. — The annual meeting of the Club shall 
 be held on the first Monday of April. 
 
 Sec. II. — Special meetings of the Club to consider 
 specific subjects may be called at any time by the 
 Directory, and shall be called by the President on the 
 ' written request of twenty members. 
 
 « 
 Sec. III.— Notice of every Club meeting shall be 
 
 posted on the bulletin board, and sent by mail to 
 each member, at least five days prior to the date fixed 
 . for holding the same. Twenty-five members shall 
 constitute a quorum. 
 
22 CONSTITUTION.. 
 
 ARTICLE XIII. 
 
 AMENDMENTS. 
 
 This Constitution shall only be abrogated or 
 amended at a meeting of the Club, by a vote of two- 
 thirds of the resident members present thereat ; and 
 before any proposition to abrogate or amend shall be 
 considered, such proposition, subscribed by at least 
 five' resident members, shall be posted on the bulle- 
 tin board thirty days prior to the date of the meeting, 
 and a copy thereof sent by mail with notice of such 
 meeting. 
 
BY-LAWS. 
 
 MEETINGS. 
 
 Section I. — The rules and orders of Gushing' s 
 Manual of Parliamentary Laws shall govern the meet- 
 ings of the Club, so far as they are applicable and 
 not inconsistent with these By-Laws. 
 
 Sec. II.— Any motion or resolution offered at a 
 meeting of the Club shall, at the request of any mem- 
 ber, be reduced to writing before it-is acted upon. 
 
 Sec. III. — At meetings of the Directory the follow- 
 ing shall be the 
 
 ORDER OF BUSINESS : 
 
 I St. Calling the roll. 
 
 2d. Reading the minutes of the previous meeting. 
 3d. Reports of Treasurer, Secretary, Standing and 
 Select Committees. 
 
 4th. Motions and resolutions. 
 
 5th. (At stated meetings) Balloting for members. 
 
 6th. General Business. 
 
 NOMINATING COMMITTEE. 
 
 Sec. VI. of Article II. of the Constitution shall not 
 be construed to prevent the nomination of other 
 tickets than that presented by the Nominating Com- 
 
24 BY-LAWS. 
 
 mittee ; but no candidate shall be eligible whose 
 name shall not have been posted conspicuously in 
 like manner as hereinbefore provide^, at least five 
 days previous to the election. 
 
 ENTERTAINMENTS. 
 
 Section I. — All receptions and other entertain- 
 ments shall be given in the Club House, except when 
 members, at a meeting of the Club, shall otherwise 
 direct. 
 
 Sec. II. — At public receptions and entertainments 
 each guest must be provided with a card bearing his 
 name and that of his introducer, signed by a member 
 of the Directory ; such card to be delivered to the 
 Club Doorkeeper. No member shall be entitled to 
 more than two cards of invitation to any entertain- 
 ment at the Club House. 
 
 visitors. 
 
 Section I. — Members may introduce persons, not 
 members, residing more than thirty miles from the 
 c.ity, to the Club House, for one day only. 
 
 Sec. II. — Members may introduce, as a visitor, for 
 one day only, a resident of the city ; such privilege, 
 however, being limited to two visits of the same indi- 
 vidual in the course of one year. The names of all 
 visitors shall be inscribed on the Register. 
 
 Sec. III.; — At the request of a member, the Direc- 
 tory may, by vote, extend to distinguished strangers 
 the privileges of the Club for a period not exceed- 
 ing three months. 
 
BY-LAWS. 25 
 
 Sec. IV. — Any Director may, upon application of 
 a member, invite to the privileges of the Club House, 
 for two weeks,,£tny non-resident; but such invita- 
 tions shall not be renewed within six months, except 
 by order of the Directory. 
 
 Sec. y. — Menibers introducing visitors to the CIuTd 
 will be considered responsible for their conduct 
 while in the house, and for any debts that may accrue 
 on their account. 
 
 Sec. VI. — Visitors admitted to the privileges of 
 the Club House are expected to settle all indebted- 
 ness when corttracted. 
 
 Sec. VII.— Members of the Yorick Club, of Mel- 
 bourne ; of the Johnsonian Club, of Brisbane ; and 
 of other clubs having reciprocal relations with the 
 Lotos, may have the privileges of the Club House-for 
 three months from the date of the presentation of 
 their credentials. The Directory may, at its discre- 
 tion, extend for an additional three months the privi- 
 leges of such visitors. 
 
 Sec. VIII. — Upon written application of two mem- 
 bers and on payment of I25, the House Committee 
 may grant the privileges of the Club for three (3) 
 months to a non-resident visitor. This grant may be 
 renewed for an additional three (3) months at the dis- 
 cretion of the House Committee. 
 
 dues. 
 
 Section I. — Quarterly dues are payable in advance 
 on the ist of January, April, July and October. 
 
26 BY-LAWS. 
 
 Sec. I]^ — Full dues shall be charged all members 
 coming in the Club before the middle of the quar- 
 ter, and half dues after that period. 
 
 Sec. III. — Gentlemen elected members of the' Club 
 must pay their initiation fee within three months after 
 the date of such election and notice, otherwise they 
 will be considered to have forfeited their election. 
 
 CANDIDATES. 
 
 Candidates failing to be elected by the Club shall 
 not again be proposed within six months. 
 
 Former members desiring reinstatement must be 
 bulletined and balloted for in the same manner as 
 new applicants for membership. 
 
 RESIGNATIONS. 
 
 All resignations must be made to the Secretary in 
 writing. 
 
 DONATIONS. 
 
 No picture or other object of art shall be accepted 
 except with the approval of the Directory. 
 
HOUSE RULES. 
 
 I. — The Club House will be open daily from 8 
 o'clock A. M. until 2 o'clock A. M., but members in 
 the house at any time are not to be influenced as to 
 their departure by this rule. 
 
 2. — No subscription paper shall be circulated, ad- 
 vertising placards exhibited, nor any article exposed 
 for sale in the Club House, without the permission of 
 the House Committee. 
 
 3. — No book, pamphlet, newspaper or other prop- 
 erty shall be mutilated or removed from the Club 
 House. 
 
 4. — Crockery, glassware, furniture or other prop- 
 erty of the Club, broken or injured by a member, 
 shall be paid for by him at the time. The amount 
 will be determined with'reference to the cost price of 
 the article injured or destroyed. 
 
 5. — Complaints, requests, and suggestions must be 
 made to the House Committee in writing. No indi- 
 vidual officer shall, under any circumstances, enter- 
 tain any complaint, request, or suggestion unless 
 presented in accordance with this rule. 
 
 6. — In the Card Rooms members shall not engage 
 in conversation or otherwise disturb the players. 
 
28 HOUSE RULES. 
 
 7. — No refreshments from the general lunch table 
 shall be served in the Parlors,^ibrary or Card 
 Rooms during the regular Saturday Evening Reuni- 
 ons,- nor in the Front Parlor at any time. Smoking 
 is not allowed in the Restaurant until after 8 P.M. 
 Gentlemen will not smoke pipes in any public room 
 except those upon the Billiard Room floor. Private 
 Dining Rooms, for not less than four persons, will 
 be furnished at an extra charge for attendance. 
 Smoking is prohibited in the Front Parlor during 
 the entertainments. 
 
 8. — Servants are forbidden to serve supplies, except 
 on the written order of a member, who, if he pays at 
 the time, must write on it the word " paid," with his 
 signature or initials ; if he fails to do this, the amount • 
 will be charged to him. 
 
 No one, while posted, shall receive supplies. 
 
 9. — Dogs will not be admitted to the house. 
 
 10. — Twice a year a member may extend to a friend 
 living in the city the privileges of the Club House 
 (the Card Room excepted); or to a friend living 
 more than thirty miles from the city, he may, by a 
 card for the purpose, 'signed by a Director, extend 
 all the privileges of the Club for two consecutive 
 weeks. By a vote of the Directory, a distinguished 
 stranger may receive a four weeks' card. 
 
 No one living or doing business in the city or sub- 
 urbs shall be admitted as a visitor more than tyvice 
 during the calendar year, except to dinners in the 
 private Dining Room. 
 
 For special occasions the Directory may rescind 
 the rule limiting the number of visits of a stranger 
 to the Club. 
 
HOUSE RULES. 29 
 
 The name of each visitor shall be entered on the 
 register, with the name of the member introducing 
 him, on the occasion of each visit to the house. 
 
 Gentlenien simply calling on members shall be 
 shown into the Reception Room. 
 
 Only by permission of the House Committee may 
 a visitor give an entertainment or dinper in the pri- 
 vate dining rooms. 
 
 II. — Overcoats, hats, umbrellas and canes must be 
 deposited in the places provided for them, but the 
 Club's responsibility of them ceases after 24 hours. 
 
 12. — Members shall not give, and servants are 
 strictly forbidden to receive, gratuities. 
 
 13. — No games will be allowed in the Billiard Room 
 on Sunday. 
 
 14. — The names of members expelled for flagrant 
 violation of the rules, non-payment of indebtedness, 
 or other conduct unbecoming a gentleman, shall be 
 exposed on the Club bulletin for thirty days. 
 
 15. — The comfort and convenience of all members 
 'of the Club demand strict observance of the By-Laws 
 and House Rules. Repeated violation by any mem- 
 ber shall be deemed sufficient ground for suspension 
 or expulsion, and the Doorkeeper shall not admit any 
 person who has. been expelled or any member who 
 has been suspended. 
 
 16. — All loud, boisterous, profane or vulgar con- 
 versation or conduct tending to disturb the peace and 
 good order of the Club, shall be deemed to come 
 within the provisions of Article X., Section I., of the 
 Constitution, and shall subject the offending member 
 
30 HOUSE RULES. 
 
 to the penalties therein provided. . Upon complaint 
 of any member, it shall be the duty of the House 
 Committee, or any three members thereof, after due 
 consideration, to send a printed copy of this Rule to 
 members whose conduct may have come within its 
 scope. 
 
 17. — Gentlemen accepting the privileges of the 
 Club House as visitors are deemed to subject them- 
 selves to all the Rules of the Club and to the disabili- 
 ties created thereby ; and in case of any misconduct 
 on the part of any visitor, the Directory may take the 
 same action, as far as practicable, as is provided by 
 the Constitution, By-Laws and Rules of the Club 
 with regard to members. 
 
 Members of corresponding clubs are deemed to be 
 within the provisions of this rule. 
 
 The privileges granted by a three months' card do 
 not entitle the holder to a member's right of issiiing 
 a two weeks' card. 
 
 A two weeks' card does not entitle the holder to 
 introduce friends during its term, except at a dinner 
 in-a private dining room. 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 A 
 
 Abecassis» John 1876 
 
 Abendheim, S 1892 
 
 Achelis, John ^ 1882 
 
 Acker, John J 1891 
 
 Alden, Harry N 1870 
 
 Allen, F. S 1893 
 
 Anderson, Finle^- 1892 
 
 Andrews, J. R 1892 
 
 Arkell, W. S , 1886 
 
 Armstrong, Collin 1892 
 
 Armstrong, H. Gloster 1892 
 
 Arnold, J. H. V 1893 
 
 Arnold, E. M. ! '. _. . . . 1893 
 
 Asher, Albert 1881 
 
 Ashley, James M., Jr 1881 
 
 Atkins, Addison B 1892 
 
 Adams, J. L 1894 
 
 Adams, C. F. 1894 
 
 B 
 
 Bach, Joseph S 1892 
 
 Bacon, Henry 1874 
 
 Baker, C. O., Jr. 1894 
 
 Balch, Ernest Berkeley 1892 
 
32 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Baldwin, E. E 1 893 
 
 Ballard, L. A 1894 
 
 Ballard, L. Mortimer,. , 1872 
 
 Ballin, O. E 1879 
 
 Ballou, W. S 1894 
 
 Bandmann, D. E 1879 
 
 Barnes, W". D. . ■. i8go 
 
 Barney, James M 1882 
 
 Bartlett, J. R . . : 1880 
 
 Bates, H. W 1894 
 
 Beach, F. G 1888 
 
 Beecher, Jno. Preston 1888 
 
 'Beecher, J. S 1881 
 
 Beers, Charles 1 884 
 
 Behrens, E. H , 1893 
 
 Behringer, John J ; 1888 
 
 Belvin, W. W. 1892 
 
 Benjamin, George P ; 1892 
 
 Benjamin, William E 1 894 
 
 Benjamin, W. R .'...-. 1881 
 
 Bennett7 Charles A., Jr , 1892 
 
 Bennett, Clarence H ••■•.•• 1881 
 
 Bernard, W. R 1892 
 
 Bishop, J. A 1893 
 
 Bianchi, Frank :..... 1892 
 
 Bianchi, F., Jr 1 894 
 
 Blaisdell, Charles W 1889 
 
 Blumenfeld, R. D , 1893 
 
 Bodine, P 1 893 
 
 Bogert, George H 1890 
 
 Bogue, E. A 1893 
 
 Bonanno, D*. 1878 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 33 
 
 Bond, A. C ;. 1892 
 
 Boriham, Jno. M 1885 
 
 Bonner, Frederic 1891 
 
 Bonner, Robert E 1890 
 
 Bonynge, C. W . . '. 1893 
 
 Boskowitz, Adolph 1892 
 
 Bosler, Harry 1889 
 
 Bowden, James W 1892 
 
 Bracher, T. W 1892 
 
 Bradley, William H 1889 
 
 Bradshaw, A 1 894 
 
 Brady, Eugene F 1 892 
 
 Branson, David 1892 
 
 Break, George 1889 
 
 Brereton, J.J 1 892 
 
 Brewster, S. D 1888 
 
 Brisbane, James 1 883 
 
 Bristol, J. I. D 1889 
 
 Brittan, F. W 1870 
 
 Britton, J. W. , 1^93 
 
 Bronson, E. B 1 893 
 
 Brookfield, Wm 1 893 
 
 Brooks, F. Emerson 1891 
 
 Brooks. W. W 1892 
 
 Brown, A. S 1891 
 
 Brown, Edward B 1891 
 
 Brown, Jos. H 1893 
 
 Brown, Julius L 1891 
 
 Brown, Lyman .1 892 
 
 Browne, D. L. V 1892 
 
 Bryant, Jos. D 1882 
 
 Bryant, Walter H. 1885 
 
34 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Buchanan, C. P 1891 
 
 Buchman, C. M 1879 
 
 Bulkeley, W. H 1879 
 
 Burnham, F. A 1881 
 
 Burnham, George, Jr. ' 1892 
 
 Burras, Howard K.. 188 1 
 
 Burrelle, F. A 1892 
 
 Butler, E. H 1889 
 
 Bernheimer, L. C 1894 
 
 Baudoine, J. F 1 894 
 
 Bauman, Gustav 189S 
 
 C 
 
 Calhoun, D. R 1894 
 
 Calhoun, W. S 1892 
 
 , Campbell, C. G , 1893 
 
 Campbell, J. E 1893 
 
 Cannon, H. W .1891 
 
 Carden, Godfrey L 1892 
 
 Carey, W. F 1888 
 
 Caiman, Charles 1894 
 
 Carleton, W. T 1882 
 
 CarleJ', F. D 1883 
 
 Carnegie, A 1893 
 
 Carr, Wm 1892 
 
 Carroll, H 1893 
 
 Carty, Jerome 1891 
 
 Gary, H. N 1893 
 
 Catlin, C. T. : 1880 
 
 Chamberlain, Chas 1892 
 
 Chambers, Julius 1892 
 
 Chandler, G. W 1893 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 35 
 
 Chapman, H. T 1894 
 
 Chase, W. G 1894 
 
 Clark, Chas. F 1889 
 
 Clark, W. Campbell 1887 
 
 Clarke, Joseph I. C 1892 
 
 Clausen, G. C . 1893 
 
 Clemens, Samuel L 1873 
 
 Clift, G. D 1894 
 
 Coates, F 1893 
 
 Coffin, C. H 1880 
 
 Cohen, Wm. N 1892 
 
 Cohen, Stanley A 1881 
 
 Cohen, S. L 1873 
 
 Collins, Dr. J 1894 
 
 CoUis, Chas. H. T 1873 
 
 Combes, R. Carman 1889 
 
 Conner, Geo. L 1 894 
 
 Connor, W.E 1890 
 
 Converse, J. S 1894 
 
 Cooper, A. J 1892 
 
 Coryelle, J. R 1893 
 
 Cotton, Gilber.t P 1892 
 
 Cousins, L. M 1892 
 
 Cowperthwait, J. H 1893 
 
 Coyney, Weston 1892 
 
 Crall, L. H 1883 
 
 Crawford, William 1888 
 
 Crawford, Dr. Wm. H 1894 
 
 Creamer, J. G 1877 
 
 Cromwell, Chas 1892 
 
 Cropsey, J. F 1874 
 
 Curtis, M. B 1890 
 
36 ' LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Cook, C. W ~ 1894 
 
 Crombie, C. B 1894 
 
 Conover, J. Dey 1894 
 
 D 
 
 Dunn, Chas. B 1894 
 
 Daniels, Geo. H .,1889 
 
 Daniels, T. B 1893 
 
 Darling, Albert 1B89 
 
 Davis, Alex. H 1873 
 
 Davis, Henry C 1894 
 
 . Davis, Herbert J 1892 
 
 Davis, O. K 1892 
 
 Davis, Wm. C 1890 
 
 Day, Melville C 1892 
 
 Dazey, C. T 1894 
 
 Decker, T. W ^.....1893 
 
 De Cordova, Alfred '..... 1891 
 
 Deeves, R, 1893 
 
 De Grau, P. V 1890 
 
 De Grimme, C 1887 
 
 De Guerville, A. B 1894 
 
 Depew, Chauncey M • -1874 
 
 Dever, J. E 1893 
 
 Devereux, James H 1 892 
 
 Dickenson, Geo. H 1892 
 
 Dillenbeck, J. W 1892 
 
 Do^ne, C. F 1886 
 
 Dodson, J. E 1894 
 
 Doremus, H, P 1892 
 
 Dougherty, J. A '. 1887 
 
 Dl-ake, C. W 1893 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 37 
 
 Drysdale, John M 1891 
 
 Dudley, A. P 1890 
 
 Duneka, F. A 1892 
 
 Dunning, S. W 1893 
 
 Duval, H. C 1892 
 
 Du Vivier, Chas 1887 
 
 Davis, J. Chas 1895 
 
 Dearberg, R. E 1894 
 
 Dessar, L. A 1895 
 
 Dickey, C. H 1894 
 
 Downs, F. B 1894 
 
 E 
 
 Eastwood, John H 1886 
 
 Eaton, C. Harry 1892 
 
 Edey, A. R 1893 
 
 Edey, Chas. L 1894 
 
 Edie, G. L 1894 
 
 Einstein, H. L. . . , 1894 
 
 Elderkin, John 1870 
 
 Elkin, M. H 1893 
 
 Elkus. A. 1 1893 
 
 Elv^rson, J., Jr 1893 
 
 Elwood, Geo. M 1881 
 
 Englis, CM 1893 
 
 Ensign, H. L 1885 
 
 Evans, George 1874 
 
 Evans, W. T 1891 
 
 Elliott, A. R 1894 
 
 English, Geo. W 1894 
 
 Evans, W. G 1894 
 
38 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 F 
 
 Fairbank, CO 1894 
 
 Fairchild, Benjamin T 1892 
 
 Farmer, W. W 1893. 
 
 Fay, John E .' 1890 
 
 Fennessey, A. L 1 893 
 
 Ferris, L. M 1893 
 
 Ferris, R. M 1893 
 
 Ferguson, James F 1876 
 
 Finlay, J. J 1893 
 
 Fiske, H. Grey 1892 
 
 Fiske, Stephen .• . . 1875 
 
 Fitzgerald, C. J ^ . 1893 
 
 Flagler, J. H 1892 
 
 Fleitmann, F. T 1894 
 
 Foote, A. C. G. Wms 1894 
 
 Forbes, J. M 1894 
 
 Forsyth, James 1 893 
 
 Fowler, T. L 1893 
 
 Fox, Baldwin N., Jr .' 1891 
 
 Fraser, J. A 1894 
 
 Frazer, W. L 1892 
 
 French, T. H 1880 
 
 Frink, George A 1872 
 
 Fritze, Armin 1892 
 
 Fuller, E. C 1891 
 
 Fuller, J. Ensign 1891 
 
 Fuller, L. C ' 1892 
 
 Fulton, Chandos 1870 
 
 G 
 
 Gafney, John H 1873 
 
 f ' 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 39 
 
 Gardner, J. G 1893 
 
 Gerlach, Charles A 1889 
 
 Gibson, George R 1892 
 
 Gifford, Charles H 1878 
 
 Gilbert, W. E.. . . , 1881 
 
 Gildersleeve, C. H 1891 
 
 Gillam, B 1892 
 
 Gillig, Henry F 1883 
 
 Gilroy, J.J 1 893 
 
 Gleason, H 1893 
 
 Goodwin, A. T 1892 
 
 Gorman, J.J 1 893 
 
 Greaves, E. T 1887 
 
 Gross, T. C 1 892 
 
 Gregory, W 1893 
 
 Griswold, W 1 893 
 
 Gudebrod, C. E 1893 
 
 Guerrier, G. E 1893 
 
 Guggenheimer, R 1892 
 
 Gilhooly, Andrew 1895 
 
 Graves, George S 1 895 
 
 H 
 
 Hayden, H. R 1894 
 
 Hass, F ^. .. . 189s 
 
 Hagan, H. H 1893 
 
 Halderman, John A 1880 
 
 Hale, P. C 1891 
 
 Hall, A. Oakey 1870 
 
 Hampton, W. H 1893 
 
 Hamilton, Hamilton 1891 
 
 Hamlin, George E 188 1 
 
40 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Haiid, J. T , 1870 
 
 Handy, M. P 1893 
 
 Hanna, G. W 1893 
 
 Harbison, John P ; 1 893 
 
 Harper, E. B 1889 
 
 Harris, A. W ! . , 1881 
 
 Harrison, Louis R 1 892 
 
 Harvey, G. B. M 1892 
 
 Hasbrouck, F 1891 
 
 Hawkins, W. E 1893 
 
 Hawley, Frank W 1891 
 
 Hearn, G. A 1893I 
 
 Hearst, W. R 1886 
 
 Heermans, F 1893 
 
 Heidelbach, Louis 1888 
 
 Hellman, Theo 1884 
 
 Hendricks, Mort 1873 
 
 Henry, C. 1 1892 
 
 Herkdmer, Hubert 1888 
 
 Hermann, C. A. 1888 
 
 Hibbard, George B 1892 
 
 Hicks, Benjamin E 1891 
 
 Hicks, Radcliffe 1889 
 
 Higbee, W. H 1893 
 
 Hills, Arjhur T 1882 
 
 Hodge, John 1892 
 
 Holly, W 1892 
 
 Hosmer, C. R 1891 
 
 Hotchkiss, W. T 1888 
 
 Howard, Bronson 1871 
 
 Howard, Wendell S 1890 
 
 Hoyt, Charles H 1892 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 4I 
 
 Hoyt, Eugene F 1891 
 
 Howard, Josi, Jr. 1894 
 
 Hubbard, F. H 1886 
 
 Hughes, C. C 1893 
 
 Hughes, T. W. B 1892 
 
 Hume, William H 1892 
 
 Hume, F. T 1894 
 
 Hussey, H. P 1884 
 
 I 
 
 Insull, S 1 893 
 
 Ireland, Thomas A 1893 
 
 Isaacs, A. F 1893 
 
 Ives, W. J 1893 
 
 J 
 
 James, E. C 1886 
 
 Jaques, W. H 1888 
 
 Jefferson, Joseph .• 1883 
 
 Jenkins, H. E '. 1889 
 
 Jenkins, J. H 1893 
 
 Jenkins, Newell S 1894 
 
 Jenkins, Dr. Ralph 1894 
 
 Johnson, Eastman 1874 
 
 Johnson, W. S 1888 
 
 Johnston, J. H 1883 
 
 Johnston, Walter S , . 1885 
 
 Jones, Geo. H ^. 1881 
 
 Jones, H. C 1893 
 
 Jones, W. C 1891 
 
 Jones, W. O 1893 
 
42 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Jonge, J. Wm. de ^. 1892 
 
 Johnson, Wm. E 1895 
 
 K 
 
 Kahnweiler, W. S 1892 
 
 Keim, G. H 1893 
 
 Kessler, Count 1891 
 
 Ketcham, E. W 1893 
 
 Kingsland, W. Jaques 1 880 
 
 Kingsley, E. F 1893 
 
 Kingsley, Norman W 1880 
 
 Kinnan, A. P. W '. 1893 
 
 Kirkwood, Thos. S 1894 
 
 Klackner, C 1 892 
 
 Kling, Abram 1878, 
 
 Knevals, Caleb B 1894 
 
 Knight, F. E 1894 
 
 Knox, Thos. W , i8;o 
 
 Kreidler.'W. A , 1891 
 
 Kreischer, G. F : 1893 
 
 Kugelman, Julius '. . . ..1892 
 
 Kurtz, Chas. M . . . . 1892 
 
 L 
 
 Laing, Jno. M 1 891 
 
 Lamont, D. S 1893 
 
 Lapham, J. J , 1893 
 
 Lathers, Richard .' 1878 
 
 Lauer, W. E 1892 
 
 Lawrence, Frank R 1878 
 
 Lawrence, Isaac 1 880 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 43 
 
 Lawrence, R. H 1893 
 
 Leary, Wm 1892 
 
 Lee, T. H 1893 
 
 Leland, E. Jl 1894 
 
 Lent, Wm. M 1879 
 
 Lester, Chas. H 1888 
 
 Lewis, C. W 1880 
 
 Libby, W. H i8;6 
 
 Liebman,D 1893 
 
 Littig, J. Bond 1894 
 
 Little, A 1892 
 
 Locke, R 1894 
 
 Lockhart, Robert 1890 
 
 Loeb, J 1893 
 
 Logan, Walter S 1 890 
 
 LoUi, A. L 1894 
 
 Lord, Chester S 1892 
 
 Low E. H 1 89? 
 
 Luria, A. S 1890 
 
 Lustig, Arnold. 1890 
 
 Ludwig, E. D 1892 
 
 Lynn, J 1893 
 
 M 
 
 Macdonald, A. E 1872 
 
 MacDonald, Carlos F ,. . ..1888 
 
 Macy, W. S 1892 
 
 Magee, Geo. W 1888 
 
 Mann, W. D 1883 
 
 Manning, T 1893 
 
 Malcolm, W. L 1893 
 
 MaUon, G. B ". 1893 
 
44 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Mapleson, H 1892 
 
 Marble, E. M 1892 
 
 Markle, Alvan ". ; . . 1885 
 
 Marriott, E. E 1892 
 
 Margh, Frederic 1 892 
 
 Martens, Geo. F 1892 
 
 Mason, Thos. F 1889 
 
 Mason, T. Henry 1871 
 
 Mathez, F. L., Jr 1871 
 
 Mayer, Marcus R 1892 
 
 Maynard, G. V 1893 
 
 Mendham, M. B v . . . ; 1892 
 
 Mertens, W. . . . 1893 
 
 Middleton, Stanley 1894 
 
 , Milholland, J. E 1892 
 
 Miller, Chas. H 1881 
 
 Miller, Francis 1878 
 
 Milsted; W. N ' 1893 
 
 Minor, R. C 1880 
 
 Mitchell, H: W 1894 
 
 Mitchell, J. Q 1894 
 
 Moffitt, J. F 1 894 
 
 Montagu, N. M . ; 1893 
 
 Montague, Frank L 1887 
 
 Montgomery, John C 1892 
 
 Moore, Jno. G... 1881 
 
 Moore, O'Brien 1892 
 
 Moore, R. E 1874 
 
 Moran, Edward 1874 
 
 Moran, Thomas 1893 
 
 Maguire, W. H 1894 
 
 Morgan, W. L ; 1894 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 45 
 
 Morrell, R. W 1894 
 
 Morris, F. P 1891 
 
 Morrison, E. A., Jr 1893 
 
 Moscheles, F i885 
 
 Moses, R. J., Jr 1890 
 
 Mullen, E. H 1892 
 
 Munro, George W 1890 
 
 Munro, John 1891 
 
 Munson, James E 1 873 
 
 Murray, Fred. T 1872 
 
 Murray, R. I ' 1892 
 
 McAneny, George B 1881 
 
 McAlpin, E. A 1893 
 
 McAlpin, George L 1894 
 
 McChesney, George R 1891 
 
 McCracken, W. V 1883 
 
 McDonald, William 1892 
 
 McLaughlin, F 1893 
 
 McManus, F. P 1892 
 
 McMillin, E 1 893 
 
 McMunn, S. W 1893 
 
 McQueen, R. F 1 894 
 
 McQueen, H. B 1 894 
 
 McCay, J. R 1894 
 
 N 
 
 Neagle, H . . . .' _. 1892 
 
 Neely, Wm 1892 
 
 Neilson, W. S 1893 
 
 Newell, E. A 1893 
 
 Nettleton, Charles H 1892 
 
 Neville, Richard L 1892 
 
46 LIST "OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Newell, Wm. A 1888 
 
 Nichols, Wm. T 1892 
 
 Northrop, A. L 1893 
 
 Nye, Edgar A 1891 
 
 O 
 
 O'Brien, Mqrgan J 1882 
 
 O'Brien, M. M 1893 
 
 O'Day, Daniel 1893 
 
 Ogden, J. G. 1891 
 
 O'Gorman, Richard 1879 
 
 Oliver, J. F 1893 
 
 Orr, D. A 1893 
 
 P 
 
 Packard, S. S 1875 
 
 Pain, H.J 1893 
 
 Palmer, A. M 1893 
 
 Palmer, F. L 1894 
 
 Patterson, J. W 1893 
 
 Pardee, Charles 1 1870 
 
 Park, T. L 1883 
 
 Parsons, Willard 1890 
 
 Paul, Frank 1892 
 
 Paulson, Leonal-d, Jr 1892 
 
 Pearson, H. C 1892 
 
 Pease, G. C .,1892 
 
 Peck, Charles E.' 1894 
 
 Pepper, Harry. 1 892 
 
 Percival, James H 1893 
 
 Perkins, Richard C 1888 
 
 Perry, C. J 1892 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 47 
 
 Perry, S. G. 1893 
 
 Pheby, Thomas B 1888 
 
 Phelps, A. M 1888 
 
 Phelps, E. B ~. 1892 
 
 Phillips, David Graham 1892 
 
 Phillips, J., Jr 1890 
 
 Phillips, R. M 1889 
 
 Phillips, W. P 1877 
 
 Phipps, George S 1893 
 
 Picard, J. A 1872 
 
 Pickering, Thomas R 1890 
 
 Pierce, Henry B 1885 
 
 Pierce, James F. 1894 
 
 Pigott, J. W. S 1893 
 
 Pike, H. P 1892 
 
 Pike, Lawrence 1879 
 
 Piatt,- H. B 1893 
 
 Plummer, M 1 893 
 
 Plympton, Eben 1 886 
 
 Polhemus, M. F. 1893 
 
 Pond, J. B 1885 
 
 Poor, H. W 1893 
 
 Pope, J : 1893 
 
 Porter, Horace 1881 
 
 Porter, W. J 1881 
 
 Post, Charles H > . . . . 1894 
 
 Poste, Wm. A , 1892 
 
 Postlethwaite, George F 1891 
 
 Powell, E 1892 
 
 Pownall, W. D 1892 
 
 Price, C. W. 1892 
 
 Pyle, James T 1881 
 
48 LIST or MEMBERS. , 
 
 Q 
 
 Quarrier, H 189S 
 
 R 
 
 Radtke, G. A '. 1892 
 
 Raht, Charles 1 892 
 
 Ranger, H. W , 1892 
 
 Ransom, P. V 1 894 
 
 Ransom, R. S. 1893 
 
 Rascovar, James 1892 
 
 Rasor, P. E 1 894 
 
 Rawitser, L. F ' 1875 
 
 Raymond, George B 1 880 
 
 Read, W. G , 1892- 
 
 Redding, J. D 1893 
 
 Reid, Whitelaw 1872 
 
 Remington, F. A ■. 1893 
 
 Rice, Isaac L 1891 
 
 Richardson, A. Frank 1887 
 
 Richardson, A. L 1892 
 
 Richardson, Locke 1 893 
 
 Richardson, M 1875 
 
 Richardson, W. H .1888 
 
 Richmond, CM '. 1893 
 
 Riggs, Edward G 1 892 
 
 Ritchie, W. J 1893 
 
 Rix, Julian 1 892 
 
 Roberts, Ellis H '.., 1892 
 
 Robertson, M. H 1882 
 
 Robinson, Fred. C. P 1874 
 
 Robinson, Purdon. 1893 
 
 Robinson, S. A 1 890 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 49 
 
 Rockwell, F. H 1893 
 
 Rogers, H. H 1894 
 
 Roosevelt, Robert B 1870 
 
 Rosenfeld, B 1892 
 
 Rosenfeld, Sydney 1888 
 
 Rothwell, R. P 1880 
 
 Russak, Frank 1 892 
 
 Ryle, Wm. T 1885 
 
 Romeike, Henry 1894 
 
 S 
 
 Schnitzer, Jacob 1 895 
 
 Sander, Fred. E 1895 
 
 Salomon, W. J 1 892 
 
 Sass, Louis 1 891 
 
 Saunders, Thorndyke ':....... 1889 
 
 Schanck, Geo. E 1 893 
 
 Scheidler, T. M 1893 
 
 Schley, Grant B 1 891 
 
 Schutte, Charles . . . 1 892 
 
 Scott, A. B 1893 
 
 Scott, James W 1 892 
 
 Scudder, T : 1893 
 
 Seaman, L. L 1 88 1 
 
 Seaman, Frank 1 893 
 
 See, H 1893 
 
 Sefton, Frederic 1891 
 
 Seidenbergj-W. J '. 1891 
 
 Seligman, Geo. W 1891 
 
 Seligman, Henry. '. . ..1884 
 
 Seligman, Isaac N 1882 
 
 Seligman, Jefferson 1882 
 
so LIST OF MEMBERS.^ 
 
 Seligman, Theo. 1884 
 
 Shade, C. E 1893 
 
 Shaw, Chas. G 1875 
 
 Shaw, N. A 1893 
 
 Shear, B. E 1894 
 
 Shethar, Samuel. . j 1873 
 
 Shoaff, T. B 1874 
 
 Shoemaker, H. F 1893 
 
 Short, Joseph H 1 891 
 
 Sickles, D. B 1889 
 
 Sillcock, P. M 1882 
 
 Smith, E. R 1884 
 
 Smith, James R 1 874 
 
 Smith, Ormond G 1888 
 
 Smith, W. Hart 1891 
 
 Smith, Wilmbt H 1893 
 
 Smyth, A ^ 1893 
 
 Smyth, F / .1893 
 
 Somerville, Roy V 1893 
 
 Somerville, Robert 1872 
 
 Sommerville, W. B 1893 
 
 Sonnekalb, F 1894 
 
 Soper, A. W .' 1892 
 
 Southerland, A. F 1892 
 
 Speer, Wm. M 1892 
 
 Speyer, James 1885 
 
 Spinney, Geo. F 1 892 
 
 Sprague, John H 1891 
 
 Squire, Watson C 1870 
 
 Stanton; John 1888 
 
 Starbuck, W. H 1893 
 
 Starkweather, G. C 1890 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 5 1 
 
 Stein, Edward 1891 
 
 Stephenson, E. P 1891 
 
 Sternbach, Maurice C 1891 
 
 Stevens, A. C 1892 
 
 Stevens, Geo. E 1885 ■ 
 
 Stevenson, Eugene 1879 
 
 Stewart, Geo. P 1890 
 
 Stewart, T. E 1870 
 
 Stewart, Wm. P ." 1889 
 
 St. John, W 1893 
 
 Stockley, Geo. W 1891 
 
 Stoddard, J. M 1894 
 
 Stokes, J. O 1894 
 
 Storm, G 1893 
 
 Story, Geo. H 1872 
 
 Street, W. G., Jr. : 1885 
 
 Stuart, L. A 1893 
 
 Suesman, A. L 1891 
 
 Sutherland, W. A 1892 
 
 Sutherland, W. J 1891 
 
 Sutton, J. H 1893 
 
 Sweet, Clayton E 1880 
 
 Sweet, Clinton W 1870 
 
 Sweetser, H. P . . . '. . 1893 
 
 Sylvester, Jas. J 1887 
 
 Seybel, F. W 1895 
 
 Seidl, Anton 1895 
 
 Shaler, Ira A 1895 
 
 Simonds, E. A 1894 
 
 Smith, Wilson R 1894 
 
 Stern, Benj 1894 
 
 Schurman, J. G 1894 
 
52 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 T 
 
 Tait, A. F '. 1872 
 
 Talputt, James 1 889 
 
 •Taylor, C. H 1893 
 
 Taylor, Henry A 1891 
 
 Taylor, J. R 1893 
 
 Taylor, John Howard 1 892 
 
 Taylor, W. E; . . .• 1892 
 
 Terrell, Herbert L 1889 
 
 Thaxter, Samuel 1 884 
 
 Thompson, E. O., Jr 1893 
 
 Thompson, J. Walter 1885 
 
 Thomson, E. S 1893 
 
 Thomson, J. F 1894 
 
 Thurber, F. B 1891 
 
 Tilghman, F. B 1893 
 
 Tonner, J. A 1891 
 
 Trumble, Alfred 1892 
 
 Tucker, Frank 1 892 
 
 Tunis, W. E '. 1892 
 
 Turner, G. W 1892 
 
 Twitchell, F. H 1891 
 
 Tate, J. M ■ 1895 
 
 Thom, W. B ■ 1895 
 
 Tooth, Aug 1894 
 
 U 
 
 Untermyer, I '. 1893 
 
 Untermyer, S 1 893 
 
 Untermyer, M 1894 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 53 
 
 V 
 
 Vaissier, M 1 881 
 
 Vallentine, B. B 1880 
 
 Van Anda, C. V 1893 
 
 Van Brunt, C 1893 
 
 Van Glahn, J « 1892 
 
 Van Home, John 1891 
 
 Van Pelt, Wm. F 1885 
 
 Van Sickler, S. H 1870 
 
 Veit, R. C. 1893 
 
 Viator, George F 1888 
 
 Vivanti, F. A 1 893 
 
 Von Chelmenski, Jan 1 886 
 
 Von Volkenberg, T. S 1 893 
 
 Vreeland, S. S 1893 
 
 Vrooman, John W 1890 
 
 Van Duzen, A 1894 
 
 W 
 
 Wainwright, Ellis 1893 
 
 Waddingham, Wilson 1881 
 
 Waehner, L. C 1881 
 
 Walker, N. B 1870 
 
 Walker, W. W 1892 
 
 Wall, Frank T 1872 
 
 Wallace, Thomas H 1891 
 
 Walsh, J. R 1892 
 
 Walsh, Jas. Hall 1893 
 
 Ward, H. S 1891 
 
 Waterbury, J. 1 1894 
 
54 LIST OF MEMBERS. 
 
 Waters, F. A 1893 
 
 Watson, Thomas L 1892 
 
 Watterson, Henry 1880 
 
 Wayland, C. N 1874 
 
 Webb, Charles N 1873 
 
 Webb, H. W 1892 
 
 Webb, Gen. Wm. E 1872 
 
 Webb, W. E 1884 
 
 Weber, H. J 1893 
 
 Weber, O. B 1893 
 
 Weigley, F. S 1894 
 
 Welch, Uriah 1894 
 
 Wellcome, Henry S 1884 
 
 Wells, J. D 1890 
 
 Wemple, C. Y 1881 
 
 Wheeler, Obed 1894 
 
 Wheeler, Wm. B.. 1894 
 
 White, CredaE ' 1880 
 
 White, George Dana 1892 
 
 White, Wm. H 1884 
 
 Whitney, A. M 1893 
 
 Whitney, T. B ;j88o 
 
 Whittridge, Worthington 1872 
 
 Wickham, George S 1879 
 
 Wilcox, Robert M 1888 
 
 Wiles, Irving R 1 894 
 
 Wilkinson, J. B 1 894 
 
 Willard, E. S 1893 
 
 Wilson, Charles G 1889 
 
 Wilson, Floyd B , ,1886 
 
 Winans, W. G 1 892 
 
 Windmuller, Louis 1887 
 
LIST OF MEMBERS. 55 
 
 Witthaus, R. A ■ '. 1879 
 
 Wood, H. H.'. 1892 
 
 Wood, T. H 1891 
 
 Woodford, M. H 1893 
 
 Woodhouse, L. G . 1893 
 
 WooUett, Sidney 1892 
 
 Wooster, George^ H 1891 
 
 Wray, Samuel. 1891 
 
 Wright, J. E.. 1894 
 
 Wheatcroft, Nelson 1894 
 
 White, F. W 1895 
 
 Y 
 
 . Yandell, Charles R 1894 
 
 Young, John Russell 1881 
 
 Yuengling, D. G 1889 
 
 Z 
 
 Zimmerman, Eugene 1888 
 
 Zimmerman, Martin » 1881 
 
LIFE MEMBERS. 
 
 Arnold, Edwin 1892 
 
 Bacon, Henry 1 874 
 
 Carley, F. D 1883 
 
 Cropsey, J. F 1874 
 
 Dolph, J. H 1894 
 
 Eaton, C. Jlarry 1892 
 
 Evans, W. T 1895 
 
 Hall, A. Oakey 1870 
 
 Hart, William 1874 
 
 Herkomer, Hubert 1883 
 
 Jefferson, Joseph 1 883 
 
 Johnson, Eastman 1 874 
 
 Lafarge, John 1872 
 
 Macy, W. S ' 1891 
 
 Middleton, Stanley 1 894 
 
 Miller, Charles H 1881 
 
 Miiier, F 1886 
 
 Moore, R. E 1874 
 
 Moran, Edward 1874 
 
 Moran, Thomas 1887 
 
 Moscheles, Felix 1885 
 
 Picard, Joseph A 1 872 
 
LIFE MEMBERS. 57 
 
 Ranger, Henry W 1892 
 
 Somerville, Robert 1872 
 
 Squire, Watson C 1870 
 
 Stewart, Thomas E 1870 
 
 Story, George H 1872 
 
 Tait, A. F 1872 
 
 Von Chelmenski, Jan 1886 
 
 Waddingham, Wilson 1881 
 
 Wiiittredge, Worthington 1872 
 
NECROLOGY. 
 
 Van Buren, D. W 1870 
 
 Montgomery, Walter 1871- 
 
 Hagan, Theodore 1872 
 
 Baker, Frank 1873 
 
 Brelsford, CM 1873 
 
 Hayes, James E 1873 
 
 Miner, A. B 1874 
 
 Smith, Mark ^ . . .1874 
 
 Burling, Gilbert 1875 
 
 Stocking, W. P 1875 
 
 Cleveland, J. F. 1876 
 
 Dyas, Edward 1876 
 
 Montant, Louis B 1876 
 
 Sargent, Thomas D 1876 
 
 Williams, Barney. . .'. 1876 
 
 Richards, A. I, 1877 
 
 Elliott, H. A ....1878 
 
 Cheeney, Arthuf 1878 
 
 Scribner, J. Blair 1879 
 
 Weber, Albert 1879 
 
 Palmer, H. D 1879 
 
 Trotter, Van Vechten 1880 
 
 Leslie, Prank 1880 
 
 Ward, John A 1880 
 
 MacKeever, S. A 1880 
 
 Brougham, John 1S80 
 
 Smith, Green 1880 
 
 Bliss, E., Jr 1880 
 
 Jones, David 1881 
 
 Thorp, E. B 1881 
 
 Bidwell, H. C 1881 
 
 Hiltman, G. P 1881 
 
 Carroll, John W 1881 
 
 Hopper, Inslee A 1881 
 
 Mack, E. B 1881 
 
 Latham, Milton S 1882 
 
 Heyl, Henry C 1882 
 
 Minturn, W 1882 
 
 Cook, Baniel R 1882 
 
 Osgood, George.Aj, 1882 
 
 Seaver, WilHSH_;*L 1882 
 
 Smith, W. H .m0'. ««' ,. 1883 
 
 Hargous, Louis J , :'. 1883 
 
 Gwinner, H. W 1883 
 
 Copeland, W. P 1883 
 
 Johnson, Arthur B 1883 
 
 Cooper, James M 1884 
 
 Holtjies, C. E. L 1884 
 
 Donnelly, Samuel F 1884 
 
 Sibley, S. W 1884 
 
 Noyes, Frederick B 1884 
 
 Lincoln, Charles G . ^ 1884 
 
 Appleton, William, Jr 1885 
 
 Gorringe, H. H 1885 
 
 Gold.smith, M. M 1885 
 
 McCullough, John 1885 
 
 Mitchell, Mo'ses 1885 
 
 Henderson, Alexander i885 
 
 Seager, Charles L 1886 
 
 Pease, Charles E ■ 1886 
 
 Dennis, J. Frederick 1886 
 
 Stevens, Timothy 1886 
 
 Cohen, A. A, 1887 
 
 Chubb, Thomas C 1887 
 
 Brooks, H. G 1887 
 
 Mitchell, Alexander 1887 
 
 Raymond, John T 1887 
 
 Smith, R. Penn 1887 
 
 Smith, Francis S 1887 
 
 Sullivan, A. S 1887 
 
 Elmer, Richard A 1888 
 
 Leavy, Matthew 1888 
 
 Houston, Theodore , 1888 
 
 Barry, Henry A 1888 
 
 Bixby, Daniel 1888 
 
 Sanford, A. T^right 1S88 
 
 Savage, John., •. 1888 
 
 Cook, Seth .> 1889 
 
 Chapin, C. H ' 1889 
 
 Bradhurst; T. C. P 1889 
 
 KeideJ, H. P 1889 
 
 Purser,. George H 1889 
 
 Westell, Herbert 1889 
 
 McCoy, John W 1889 
 
 Mitchell, William J 1889 
 
 RDwe, George Fawcett 1889 
 
 Collins, Wilkie 1889 
 
 Dodd, A. S 1890 
 
 Lester, John T 1890 
 
 Tinker, Franklin H 1890 
 
 Walraven, Ira E 1890 
 
 Byram, H. H i8go 
 
 Salisbury, C. T 1890 
 
 Conover, C. IS 1890 
 
 Allen, H. Wilder 1891 
 
 Palmer, B. R 1891 
 
 Florence, William J 1891 
 
 De Lima, D. A 1891 
 
 Fitz, Benjamin R 1891 
 
 Stevenson, David, Jr 1892 
 
 Gilmore, Patrick S 1892 
 
 Lockwood, Howard 1892 
 
 Marfiotte, Henry A 1893 
 
 Powell, L. T 1893 
 
 Sterling, T. W 1893 
 
 D e Graff, Wm. H 1893 
 
 Somers, F. M 1894 
 
 Thomas, C. W 1894 
 
 De Witt, J. E 1894 
 
 Temple, Anson S 1894 
 
 Efner, Henry W 1894 
 
 Burbank, A. P 1894 
 
 Glover, Robert.' 1894 
 
 Yates, Edmund 1894