means to relieve it in that direction and to formulate a plan for incorporation.

On December 26 this committee, in its report, proposed that since, in the judgment of the committee, it was expedient that the Club be incorporated, it be affiliated under the general act entitled "An Act for the Incorporation of Societies or Clubs for Certain Lawful Purposes," passed May 12, 1875, and the amendatory act, passed March 14, 1876.

It further reported and proposed that a committee of three be appointed "to enquire and report to the association into the propriety and expediency of the reorganization of the Club under an act of incorporation, and to ascertain on what terms and conditions the reorganization of the Club can be effected under the act incorporating the 'Hermitage National Association.' Steps already had been taken, July 1, 1876, towards the purchase of this Hermitage Charter from Mr. Smith Ely, who, with Messrs. Agnew and Ashley, was appointed on the committee of three recommended. On December 28 Mr. Agnew reported that the Hermitage Charter could be purchased for five hundred dollars.

On January 16, in connection with a report of the committee of fifteen, Mr. Cooper, seconded by Mr. Wilson, proposed the renewal of the lease of the four lots occupied by the clubhouse at a ground rent of four thousand dollars per year, under the general act already referred to, passed May 12, 1875, and the act amendatory thereof, passed March 14, 1876. Mr. Cooper further proposed that all the members of the Club as it stood should become members of the New Club without being elected or paying an initiation fee, at any time before the first of the following May, provided such member be free from debt to the Old Club. Should he have failed to pay the assessment, imposed on the Club by the Managing Committee, on or before the first of the coming April, he should have ceased to be a member of the New Club, being required to sign a stipulation to that effect.

On January 29, 1877, following Mr. Cooper's resolution touching the new organization, Mr. Coudert proposed the appointment of a committee of five to report the names of twelve persons to be inserted in the Certificate of Incorporation as managers of the New Club for the first year. This committee, as appointed, was composed of Messrs. F. R. Coudert, William E. Curtis, E. L. Gaul, Simon Sterne, and H. L. Clinton. For the twelve managers these chose August Belmont, Augustus Schell, Edward Cooper, A. J. Vanderpoel, W. E. Rider, Sidney Webster, Oswald Ottendorfer, Clarkson N. Potter, Peter B. Olney, William C. Whitney, Edward Patterson, and Smith Ely, all of whose names appear in the Certificate of Incorporation as the Board of Managers of the New Club for the first year.

The incorporators of the New Club were J. Augustus Page, George H. Purser, Edward Schell, August Belmont, Charles D. Burrill, Everett P. Wheeler, Richard Lathers, Mortimer Porter, Wilson G. Hunt, Augustus Schell, F. H. Bangs, B. Casserly, Edward Cooper, Aaron J. Vanderpoel, Edward Patterson, John R. Brady, Peter B. Olney, William E. Rider, Cyrus Yale, John T. Agnew, Thomas R. Fisher, Henry Wilder Allen, and Benjamin Hart.

The Certificate of Incorporation being sworn to on February 15, 1877, and signed by Secretary of State Bigelow on February 20, Messrs. Vanderpoel, Schell, and Cooper were instructed to prepare the new Constitution and By-Laws.

On March 14, 1877, these were read and adopted, conditionally to adoption by the Corporation, which on March 19 approved and ratified them. Accordingly, on March 20, the rules of the Old Club were adopted as the rules of the New Club where there was no confliction between the two constitutions, and notices were ordered to be sent out to old members offering membership.

According to the new Constitution, the object of the Manhattan Club was "to advance Democratic principles, to pro

mote social intercourse among its members, and to provide them with the conveniences of a club-house."

The officers elected for the New Club were August Belmont, president; A. J. Vanderpoel, vice-president; Peter B. Olney, treasurer; William E. Rider, secretary; and for the House Committee, Augustus Schell, A. J. Vanderpoel, and William E. Rider.

In regard to the members of the Old Club it was finally arranged that, if not in arrears to the Club, they could become members of the New Club by enrolling before June 1. They were then to be exempt from entrance fee and the annual half-yearly dues to March 1, 1877.

After June 1 the entrance fee could be remitted by the Board of Managers for those enrolling before September 1, and half of it for any who had resigned from the Old Club between January 1, 1875, and March 1, 1877, and wished to re-enter the New Club.

CHAPTER THE SEVENTH

Club Ups and Downs-Its Long and Arduous Financial StruggleGrievous Loss by Robbery-Final Adjustment of its Money Affairs

HE financial affairs of the Club from the first had given concern to the more careful members of the various committees having them in charge. The treasurer's report at the end of the fourth year of the Club's existence, proving how conscientious they were, was as follows:

Receipts

From October 1, 1865, to October 1, 1866.... $146,282.94

From October 1, 1865, to October 1, 1866. ... $122,435.64

Affairs, unfortunately, did not continue on this happy

basis, and from 1869 to the date of the reorganization a constant financial struggle seems to have been the rule.

As early as December, 1869, we find the treasurer being instructed to prepare a plan for payment of the $50,000 purchase money, then due upon the club-house. Four days later it was voted that a mortgage of $50,000 be executed to secure payment of bonds to be issued to that amount. At the same time the resolution of October 8, 1868, which conveyed the title of the property to Mr. Schell and the late Judge Robertson, as president and vice-president of the Club, was rescinded. The committee which had been appointed, June 9, made its report, and was instructed to obtain subscriptions to the amount of the mortgage and to issue fifty seven per cent. interest bearing bonds therefor.

On March 6, 1873, a special committee, consisting of Messrs. Webster, Marble, Tilden, Cranston, and Miller, with President Schell as chairman, was appointed to look into the financial affairs of the Club and report, which it did on March 21, 1873.

The committee, it seems, found the Club's affairs in the greatest disorder. One Jones, the steward, when confronted, confessed that, with the connivance and co-operation of certain other Club employees, he had systematically plundered tills, larders, and wine-cellar to the extent of $20,000.

The House Committee at once resigned, and on May 2, 1873, the members were assessed fifty dollars each to pay such Club indebtedness as was not covered by the mortgage, the treasurer being instructed to send out a report of the Club's financial state and its numerical strength to its members.

On June 6 the motion to assess the members was rescinded, and it was resolved that Judge Henry Hilton and Mr. William Butler Duncan, the assignees of the lease of the property on Fifth Avenue and Fifteenth Street, then occu