Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-05-30
ECHOES OF NEW YORK.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE AUTHORS
CLUB AND ITS MEMBERS.
Its Fees and Dues, Its shining Names.
The Cost of Living in New York a. Com
pared With L"ndon-Thrce Celebrated
Newspaper Correspondents


Newspaper Correspondents
'slseiar Cvrr,,rs,nIrnrrI
NEw YORK. MAY - The Authors club
the sole organization Of the kind in Anne
rica, Is, contrary 10 general expectation.
quite tiourIshIuE. 1t hyEan IN Novem-
her, lNN2, with fifty members. and now
has nearly $50, Viii, h Is fixed as Its
limit The chief difficulty of such an asso-
citation is to make 1t self su ,tainIn- and at
the same time 10 keep its financial burdens
light enough for the imky trIh,. naturally
POSSESSED Of small means, 70 hear them with
out discomfort At the outset the initiation
fee was SIS. the annual dues wer,' so ThcS,.
were found INSULT eut, and they have re-
spectively hS'n increased to 50 and SIS
which seem t" answer the purr'S.. The club
has floor in a house in Twenty fourth street
west of Fifth avenue. where II holds fort
nightly mcetingS-thev are mainly for social
communion-every other Thursday night
A pla collation. Is served, with punch
tobacco and pipes. and over thee with
plenty Of conversation, remrni>,pnce and
anecdOte, the members pass che evenings
very pleasantly.
The title OF the club. which NAV appear
somewhat pretrntiou> was chosen 50 As to
diStingu ~h between journalists simply. and
men who arr literary One OF tn, articles of
the constitution reads: No person shall le
eligible % menIh r~hip whn l. not tha author
of a published book proper to literature or
who has not a rrcu-nIz,-d position in other
kinds o! dIstinctIvely literary work Al
though the members are more or less con
nectei with newspapers, not one of them is
exclusively writer for the press Nearly
every man of literary reputation in the city
belongs 10 the club and many authors in
other parts Of the country Among the
best known name, are thns,. Of Henry Jane.
William ID HuwellS Thomas Rail,,y Aid
rich, Samuel l. Clemens, tirorge William
Curtis, Edward E-glestnu Parke Godwin,
X Watson Glider, Julian Hawthorne. Bron
son Howard, Gorge Parsons Lathrup, Eli
mund Clarence St.rlman. Richard Henry
Stoddard, Charles Dudley Warner and Ell
ward l. GoumanS. The only three honorary
members are Matthew Arnod. Jane. Rus
sell Lowell and john & Wuitticr The club
has neither president nor vIcr-pr,-Nidrnt Its
government Is vested IN an executive council
of nine members, who eject from their ow II
number a secretary and treasurer and also
appoint the committee on membership Can
didateS are considered in regard 70 their |
character aS well 10 their pro
fessiOnal eligibility. Naturally there has |
been much discussion and considerable dis |
agreement about various littera,curs whose |
names have been put up, AMI not a few have |
he2n rejected on personal grounds alone |
Still, the club has, on the whole b-en har-
monious, far more - than would have Leen |
anticipated, when the svnsltivencss, prrju-
If X-f-ls. ful
acc unit
Many of the members are Young men who
have lately hloS>omel into reputa ton. like
I. A Jamier Ivory Black, Frederick J.
StempSpn, George f lgar Montgomery.
Brander Matthews, W Hamilton Gibson.
Harry Harland Sidney Luskal. Arlo
Bates and Others. There are veterans. too,
almost forgotten, like William 5. Mayo, in
his 1ith year. His ''kHloolah.' and The
Bsrber," romanc.S Of adventure were
widely read and admired thirty or forty
years ago. Thomas Dunn English Is also a
member Little has he n hard of him
lately. but he was quite prominent in the
first half OF the century He i the author
Of once popular ballad, Ben Bolt, and Of
divers novels, plays etc. Pc attacked him
In his volume Of The Ljlerati, where he
spoke of him Thomas Dunn Brown He
with himself
Moncure ID. Conway. now permanently |
settled here, after more than twenty years
residence in England. finiS prices in the
United State, notably in this city. exceed
ingly high While he admits that man can
arm more here than there, he still thinks the |
difference wholly in favor Of London. He |
holds that one can live there for less than
two-thlrds OF what il costs here Conse- |
quently, 1t is a better place of residence for
a writer whose manuscripts are in demand | {
Americans who are tempo arily in London
find II very dear: but permanent residents .
get on with far more economy. New York I
is undeniably the most expensive of capitals ,
on either side of the sea.
Albert NJ Palmer, of the Madison Square ,
is one of the very few mana gers who max
no contract with players He says that il Is
useless, for they hardly ever keep their part
Of the contract, while they invariably hold
the manager most vigorously TO his part
He simply tells them what he will do. and
they accept without reluctance his word as a
man Of integrity and means. This plan 4
saves him IA deal of vexation and trou ble,
and indeed works we'll all around
Ii is now very doubtful | understand,
whether Edwin Booth will attempt to fulfill
his contract next season with Lawrence Bar
rett He has been 50 weak and i'll this sea !
son that he does not think he can pos,iblv ,
gain sufficient strength and health between
this and the coming autumn TO perform so )
ong an engagement a. 3J0 nights. u, Is callei -
ior. His friends have urged him against
he endeavOr, which will certainly end in :
breaking him completely down before itS
ermination His recent appearances with
Salvini have shown conclusiv ely that he needs
very long rest 1t Is not unlikely that he
nsy retire permanently from the stage
At a recent reception up town three gem
lemen were present who many years ago, d
we're the Columbus o, correspondents Of 4
The Cincinnati Gazette and they had sue u
eeded one another in that capacity They Il
' sre William d. Howe.lN William Henry =
smith, agent Of the Associated Press, and n
" hItelaw Reid, who are near the SAM age Il
bout 80, and who have ever since that time n
zen close friends Howells is at present "
arning more monay with his pen than any "
American writer From all sources he has h
II income Of from SISODI TO so, 900, which II
5 fully four times what the clevereS, Of our n
tterateurs can usually command How long Z
his will continue one can say. He has
njoyed this exceptional fortune only few
months. JUNIUS HENRI BROWNE
The sundAy-CIosing Act in Wales
The WplSLmru Uhp ia, u,t oDpr,,-o ~ IL