tm GRGGK GLUB CRG OGin Yom 1883 ^8'O.U THE GREEK CLUB. I N December, 1857, Professor Drisler, of Co- lumbia College, and Professor Crosby, of the New York University, meeting at a barber’s shop in Sixth Avenue, the second door south of Twenty-second Street, having discussed the propriety of uniting the classical scholars of New York City in a society for mutual pleasure and profit, resolved to call a meeting for the establishment of such a society. The meeting was accordingly called, and was held in the Council Room of the New York University at ii A.M. of Wednesday, Decem- ber 30, 1857. Sixteen persons were present, who then and there formed themselves into a society with the name of “ The CLASSICAL Reunion.” The meetings were at first held fortnightly. After a few years the Society gave up its more formal character, as well as its name, “ The Classical Reunion,” and 'began to meet every week simply as a Greek club, reading together the Greek authors. In this form it has con- 285921 4 THE GREEK CLUB. tinued to this day, and is generally known by the name of “ The Greek Club.” WORK DONE. During the earlier years of the Club, careful essays on a variety of subjects were offered to it by the members at its meetings. But this practice gradually fell into disuse, and for more than twenty j^ears the regular order of business at each meeting has been the reading, with comment and discussion, of some ancient Greek author, with rare excursions into the Latin classics. The principal books read in that time have been the extant works of HESIOD, H-ERODOTUS, PINDAR, THUCYDIDES, ^SCHYLUS, THEOCRITUS, SOPHOCLES, ANTIPHON, A R ISTOPH AN ES, LYSIAS, Also of — PINDAR — The Olympia and Pythia. PLATO— The Republic, Timasus, Leges, Gorgias, Protagoras, Apologia, Crito, and Pheedo. ARISTOTLE — The Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Poetics, and Rhetorics. EURIPIDES — Seventeen Tragedies. At this time, December, 1882, the Club is engaged in a consecutive reperusal of the Attic tragedians, and during the last year has care- fully read the seven known Avorks of Aischylus, ^ and four of those of Sophocles. IS.EUS, ANDOCIDES, ISOCRATES, 4ESCHINES, DEMOSTHENES. THE GREEK CLUB. The original sixteen members were : JOHN PROUDFIT,^ WM. H. CROSBY, jpHN J. OWEN,* BENJ. N. MARTIN, HENRY DRISLER, THOMAS B. STIRLING,^ DAVID BENDAN, PROF. SPAGGIARI, J. McELLIGOTT,* JESSE A. SPENCER, WILLIAM IRVIN, ELIE CHARLIER, GEO. W. COLLORD, B. S. HEDRICK, JAMES C. ADAMSON, * HOWARD CROSBY. There have been since added the following ; BENJ. W. DWIGHT, CHAS. M. NAIRNE,* JOHN C. OVERHISER, JOHN PL RAYMOND,* TAYLER LEWIS,* WM. H. LEGGETT,* ALEX. J. COTHEAL, E. A. JOHNSON, WALTER M. FERRISS, CHAS. D. MORRIS, JOHN MCMULLEN, Prof. SCHMIDT. GEO. F. ALLEN,* TALBOT W. CHAMBERS, WILLIAM WALTON,* WM. P. PRENTICE, ROBT. B. MINTURN, A. DUNCAN SAVAGE, SETH LOW, ERNST SIHLER, AUSTIN STICKNEY, THOMAS R. PRICE, JOHN COLE, HENRY HADLEY,* HENRY M. BAIRD, FRANCIS FOWLER, JAS. M. B. DWIGHT, T. ROMEYN BECK, MARSHALL HENSHAW, EUGENE LAWRENCE, DANIEL W. FISKE, ROBERT HOLDEN, JAMES QUINN, THEODORE W. DWIGHT CHARLES A. BRISTED,* EUGENE SCPIUYLER, CHARLTON T. LEWIS, DUANE S. EVERSON, J. H. MORSE, FRED. C. WHITEHOUSE, JOHN W. BARROW, JULIUS SACHS, MYTTON MAURY, ISAAC H. HALL, WILLIAM C. SIMMONS. Total, 6i ; deceased (marked with asterisk) 13 ; present attending members, 17. 6 THE GREEK CLUB. On December 22, 1882, the Club held its twenty-fifth anniversary. There sat down to"^ dinner at Martinelli’s, corner of Fifth Avenue and Sixteenth Street, the following ; - WM. H. CROSBY, HENRY DRISLER, ERIE CHARLIER, GEO. W. COLLORD, HOWARD CROSBY, JOHN C. OVERHISER, CHAS. D. MORRIS, HENRY M. BAIRD, WM. C. SIMMONS, THOMAS R. PRICE, . JOHN W. BARROW, DUANE S, EVERSON, FRED. C. WHITEHOUSE JAMES H. MORSE, ISAAC H. HALL, MYTTON MAURY, TALBOT W. CHAMBERS, SETH LOW, CHARLTON T. LEWIS, A. DUNCAN SAVAGE, ROBT. B. MINTURN, ERNST H, SIHLER, WM. P. PRENTICE, JULIUS SACHS, ALBERT HARKNESS, JACOB COOPER, MARVIN R. VINCENT, WM. M. SLOANE. The evening was spent in much enjoyment, each person present indulging in happy re- marks concerning the Club and its history. One of the number, as quasi Secretary, read the following report : THE GREEK CLUB. 7 Report to the Club at its Tiventy -fifth Anniversary , December 22 , 1882 . Orpheus addressed his music to the trees, Amphion his to stones, Arion’s lyre Gave to the sportive dolphin answering leaps ; But I to neither trees, nor stones, nor fish Dare touch the strings, but only to a club, Not, like those minstrels, to arouse withal, Lest my poor head might meet a club’s revenge. But rather to subdue to sweet repose And give a sound excuse for snoring sleep. I sing not arms — nor yet of legs or head. But of a body without head or limbs, Which yet had brains and motion, and achieved Doings redoubtable , by calling up The ancient worthies with a wizard’s spell, Bidding them speak again, and testify Of Hellas, of her glory and her shame ; A body, which, tho’ headless, yet could talk. And eat and drink with weeldy energy— A body sole, and yet with many souls. I sing a circle, tho’, if squarely put. Without a centre or circumference. Yet where a line between two points thereof Would prove a chord of arc-haeology. Not such a circle as is writ in chalk s THE GREEK CLUB. Upon the school-room blackboard, nor, forsooth, Such as is made for locomotive use ; But rather such as on the noon-day sky The sun exhibits with his golden disk. Who, if he should obey the heav’nly rule And take the beams out of his brilliant eye. Would plunge the earth in dai’kness. So the disk, Which now 1 sing, with all due modesty. May raise a boast in boasting of its rays. While humbly saying “ disco'’’ all the while. I sing of nights, not the the chivalric thing In armor Clad, with mace and lance and plume. But nights that, like departing packet-ships. Have left the K — I mean Hellenic nights. Where Attic stars shone in the classic heav’n. And sparkling meteors flew athwart the sky, And dreams of old bewitch’d the truant mind — Nights calm and bright that lulled the soul to rest. After the glare and bustle of the day. Such is my theme. Take easy postures all. And prove the power of my lullaby. Twenty-five years ago, on the thirtieth day of Decem- ber, Sixteen scholars assembled to form a classic soci’ty. Men who believ’d in the profit and pleasure of mental attrition. Full of desire to search and study the lore of the an- cients. Eager to find a relief from the long day’s wearying routine. Knowledge and friendship combining to further the ra- tional pastime. THE GREEK CLUB. 9 Various plans were proposed, and talk was made in abundance ; Some were for meetings informal, and others for organi- zation ; Some wei'e for essays at length, and others for short dis- putations ; Some were for reading and comment, and others for careful translation ; Some, were for critical notes, and others for mere con- versation ; Soon such confusion arose that, in order to reach a de- cision. All were glad to agree to appoint a committee with power. Then the assembly adjourn’d to meet at the call o‘f the Chairman, Happy at what they’d achiev’d, and hopeful of future achievement. Call’d together again, they heard their able committee Tell of their vigils long by the lamp and oil of the mid- night. How the mountain had labor’d, and how it was bro’t to delivery. After this fitting preamble they offer’d a full constitu- tion Brimming with sections and articles, telling of office and function : President first to preside and keep the body in order ; Then the Vice-President next was he who by virtue of office Handled the President’s hammer in case of the Presi- dent’s absence ; Then came the Clerk, or the Scribe, who should put the proceedings on paper ; lO THE GREEK CLUB. Last, but not least, was the Treasurer, holding the com- pany’s purse-strings. Every detail was prescrib’d of meeting and speaking and eating, Methods were carefully plann’d for making the most of occasion. After which all came a string of accurate, bothersome by-laws. Thinking this wisdom’s workmanship, all with loud ac- clamation Greet the committee’s result, and accept the new con- stitution. Why make a short story long ? Either David in Saul’s, bulky armor. Or, if you wish a metaphor humbler, a greyhound in harness, Prov’d the young “ Classic Reunion,” clad in its grim^ constitution. Stiff and gawky and slow were all its solemn proceed- ings ; Essays were long, and speeches were stately, and spirits were weary ; Surely for this sort of pleasure the company never was gather’d. So, after months of red-tape and waddling in dignified torture. Bursting the by-laws and all with united and natural effort. Out the Society leap’d into comfort and freedom and new life, Each man a law to himself, yet conforming to general counsel ; _ Officers disappeared, and the great leather book, like a ledger. / THE GREEK CLUB. I I 'Soon was consigned to'the shelf of a curiosity cab’net, Whence to be only brought forth to adorn the jubilee meetings. Since that fortunate day, or rather night, of deliverance. All has work’d like a charm, and the whilom Classic Reunion Ever has been the delight as well as the pride of its members. Twice ten years and five have pass’d into History’s keeping — Years of eventful issues to governments, peoples, and nations ; Wars most fierce have been wag’d, and States have been thrown into mourning ; •Slavery here has been slain at the cost of the blood of our patriots. Young men dying in battle that fetters and chains might be broken ; Turkey has lost her provinces, Greece has extended her borders, Kaiser Wilhelmus has gather’d the Teutons in national union, France has buried the Empire, starting anew the Re- public, — Far away over the land and the sea, the strange island of Nippon, Forth from the rear to the front of thought and of civili- zation. Under America’s lead has rush’d with a haste occidental ; China has open’d her doors long clos’d to the priest and the trav’ler ; Art and science have gain’d a thousand glorious tri- umphs. ■All these wonders have crowded upon humanity’s vision 12 THE GREEK CLUB. Since that famous day in the okWniversity Building, Day when the sixteen worthies founded this classical comp’ny. Now since “post hoc propter hoc” states a truth uni- versal, ’Gainst w^hich no thinking mind would dare to make a denial. See what the great world owes to this blessed Club of Hellenes ! !