The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-01

s Tooker and Sidney Violet. New
/ fork's famous commissioner of street
cleaning Colonel George E. Waring is
also an active member. The official
titles OF the members have in nearly
each case a humorist twist. Colonel
Waring. for instance. is dubbed white
Wings" Peter H. Duryea is called
Bell Buoy. f. p Garrettson is the
Powder Monkey" and Dignifed Isaac
Townsend is the clubs Ballast"
Other designations, such as Sky Pilot"
Swab, Captain With a Cold Deck"
Wee Wee" and Fog Horn" are borne
with as much dignity as such titles
seem to require. At least S95, 600 goo is
represented in this grotesque circle of
make believe sailors. and they are
banded together for the sole purpose
of squeezing a drop of humor from
even the most melancholy fact or cir
cumstance.
MOUTH ORGAN PLAYERS.
The Harmonica club of Cincinnati is
an organization given over TO musical
recreations. The Harmonica club
means to develop the crude instru-
ment for which il is named, and hopes
some day to place it in artistic COM
petition with the best wind and string
instruments of range and power The
Is active members are all enthusiastic
performers on the mouth organ. The
most difficult compositions of the
masters are essayed and a concert in
which all the numbers will be played
upon the .harmonica is one of the cher
ished ambitions of this club.
There is a club of kite flyers, with
headquarters in Boston. Anything and
everything which concerns the en-
ployment of kites for scientific purposes
and especially the study of aerial navi-
cation are the subjects of constant dis
cuSsion in the rooms of this queer club.
The club is cozily housed in a modest
little building at the end of Boylston
street and the chief ornaments of it's
rooms are, naturally, kite and flying
machine models & I'D portraits of such
students of aerial matters as the late
Professor Lillienthal, Professor John
Eddy, Professor Maxim and DR.. VOL
fert. A valuable library of volumes
dealing with problems interesting TO
the members of the kite club shares
the affections of the latter with a per-
feet model in miniature of Andree's IA /
nous balloon ship now on its way to the |
heart of the Arctic circle. No club of /
purpose similar to that of the kite club /
is in existence outside of the hub to- |
day.
COFFINS, SUPERSTITION AND FA- !
TALLY.
Among eccentric CLUBS when nave
some kind of grewsome entertainment
as an excuse for being are the Toby
club, the Old Curiosity club. the Under
takers club and the Grave Diggers'
League of New York. The Toby club
has so members. The clubroom is on
the northeast corner of Charles and
West streets, New York City. The
main reception room is subterraneous
apartment, sepulchral and uninviting.
Collins are used for seats, and beer
barrels, with coffin lids for the tops,
furnish a grewsome substitute for ia
bles. 1t seems to be the special func-
ton of the Toby club TO scott at the
gloomy servitor Death. The members
regale themselves from beer laden
skulls and smoke from pipes carved
from human bones. The club is COM
posed of substantial business men of
middle age, who are listed in battle
against superstition.
The Old Curiosity club is, or rather
was, an organization of art enthusiasts
with no unwholesome motive, but with
a strange fatality that places it in the
fore rank of the freak clubs of A1neri-
ga OF the original IL members. eight
have died suddenly within the last two
years. One member was foully muir
iered, another ended his life in nos