Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-05-15
rHE sHAKEspEARE CLUE
Formally Opens IT'S New Quarters-The
Literary Exercises-New Onicers.

were formally opened, by appropriate cere-
monies. About thirty members were
present at o'clock and spent half hour
in examining and commenting upon the
rooms. The entire second hoor and por-
ton of the third. of the Busbey building,
have been secured and fitted up. The for
ward three-quarters have been converted
into one large room, to be used as a general
meeting room and club hall. 1t is carpet
ed heavily with beautiful Brussels and up
handsomely The walls are decorat.
ed with number OF fine engrayings, repre-
senting scenes from the writings OF Shaks-
peare.
A smaller room, in the rear, has been set
apart for a general card and game room aud
will be devoted to whist. chess, d. The
rules of the club prohibit any betting or
the presence in the room Of any liquors.
Altogether, the club is very costly and
tastefully housed and will no doubt spend
many pleasant hours there.
The exercises of Saturday night opened
with an address of welcome by Mr.. o. S.
Long, as follows:
Mr. LONGS ADDRESS.
Gentlemen of the Wheeling Shakespeare GLIB.
Upon me has devolved the pleasant duty
of welcoming you 10 your new home, the
first indeed that the Club has ever occupied
possessing any of the attributes OF home.
We have maintained an organized existence
of nearly eight years, but not until now
have we possessed apartments that We could
call our own; rooms in which We could as
semble with comfort to ourselves, or 10
which we could with any degree OF pleasure
conduct q friend of literary taste. We
might heretofore have been 'comprendet
as yagrom men" meeting for some time in
the private rooms of members, afterwards
in one public hall and still later i'll another
having no fixed abiding place, no sense OF
proprietorship, no special and peculiar
comforts; in a word no home. The Club has
been "a wanderer on the face OF the earth, J"
and upon many of its members the conyic-
ton forced itself several years ago, HAT I'M
less rooms for the exclusive use OF the
Club were secured, the association which all
loved and priced would, in the very nature
of human things, be disappointing and
ephemeral. Four or five years ago the
project of securing suitable rooms and
making the Shakespeare Club thenucleus OF
q literary and social organization, where
all men of literary culture might ind
pleasant place of resort, was proposed ana
discussed, and ever since the tirst concep-
ton of the idea il has been the dream and
the desire of many of the active members
of the club. Atlast. like most OF the great
blessings of mankind, il has been virtually
forced upon us The alternative was, ad-
vance or die Owing 10 some extent to the
cherries character of the physical surround
ings, and TO no less extent TO the somewhat
mode of the weekly readings
from Shakespeare, attendance at the regular
meetings of the club and interest IN It's
affairs has declined during the past two
years until, during the past winter. the
paucity of attendance brought the readi ngs
10 dead halt. At last some gentlemen who
would not willingly let die an organization
that had been productive of so much intel
lectual pleasure and profit, feeling that
such tide had come in the affairs OF the
Club that unless prompt action were had
all its remaining voyage OF life would be
bound in shadows and in misetieS, re-
solved to put into practical effect the idea
which had been long talked of and long
desired. In pursuance OF this plan pa
per was signed by large majority of the
members OF the Club, pltdging the signers
TO the payment of stipulated sum per
year for the purpose of renting and fur
nishing suitable apartments for the perma'
nent and exclusive use OF the Club, and
number of gentlemen not heretofore mem
beers of the Club, lending approval to its
new plan, have, after expression of their
desire in this respect been elected to men
bership and have contributed to the COM
mon purpose. The result is seen in the
and handsomely furnished
in which We are assembled to-
night, and which we can hencsforth call
our own.
It is matter of singular aud pleasant
coincidence that these rooms, the first that
we could call exclusively our own and in
which the club starts under so favoring
upon its new life, are in the
same building where the germinal exist
ence of the club began on the 18th of Oc-
tOter. 1874. The club has returned to its
birthplace. a. ii were, bringing the aCcu-
mutations o. seven years. Doctor Hull.
hens room in which the first meeting of
the association afterwards and still known
rs The Wheeling Shakespeare Club, was
held, was the front room in the third
story OF tie building where we now are.
Here, on that 18th day of October, came
DR.. Hullihen. Mr.. Dewey, Mr.. Mckee, Mr.
Captain Waller and mySelf,and
We read aloud, 10 our mutual interest aud
pleasure, some scenes from Ju-
Iius Cesar. The next meeting
was held in the hall of the
WeiSel Musical Institute: the next at the
room Of Dewey, Vance x Co.. on
Main street. Weisel Hall was then rented
for the weekly meetings of the club. new
members being from time TO time intrOduC-
ed and welcomed. When the Weisel Musi
,al Institute disbanded, the Shakespeare
club purchased the furniture and assumed
is lease of the hail. At the expiration Of
The lease, the hall was rented to the Hebrew
of Wheeling for use as a
synagogue and we removed to what is
II,ll ,H,.,,
,hristened a. New WeiSel Hall" however
he name did not seem to stick in the pOpu.
ar mind and never fully supplanted the
Did. 1t is not a very large room. bat it has
/ barn-like appearance from within; Il de-
pressing, cherries, unpOc;ical sort OF room
room that might be touched Off in the
Gilbert and Sullivan style as
An Un-.pSthetical
FlsbhGrli-Ia<ticll
Quite diSaGrciblc room.
The room had no furniture except such
IS the Shakespeare Club brought to il. and
here for three years the Club held tor en-
ieavored TO hOld) its regular weekly meet
ngS. If the Club had died there, rs its few
faithful watchers feared, its epitaph wnall
nave truthtully declared that it died OF
Nlozlrt Hail.
\ history of the Club from the time OF
,ital OF facts that now constitute pleasant
memories. Whatever discomforts, what.
.ver antagonisms, whatever controversies
may have occurred, have been covered by
lie soft grass of fOrgctfulneSS, and all that
vas pleasant and bright and beautiful
CLEANS upon us like bright hued flowers.
We ali remember the annual celebrations
ii the birthday OF the Poet that in 1873,
the first at the ST. James Hotel: in 1916
he celebration was omitted out of respect
or the memory Of Josiah +. Updegratf who
lied on Saturday, April -: in 1877 at the
IcLure House; in ISIS literary exercises
we're had in the hail and supper at Rolls
restaurant; in 1879 at the Mcclure House;
n 1850 at the Mcclure House; in 1881 at the
NcLure House. This year We
hoped to celebrate the anniversaryI
~ the opening of these rooms.
nut circumstances lin which general term
south Sea OF rearunS - included) have
orCed US tn consider this 18th day of May
he sd day OF April in our club calendar,
md TO mark this as the day of celebration.
Among those who contributed to the
pleasure of the early meetings of the club
md who gave to it cheerful and constant
erviCe, are several who have now gone be-
lind the veil which curtains this life from