The San Francisco call., 1899-10-18
CAST
DEBTS HASTEN
THE DEATH OF
THEACMEC CLUB
1t Will Cease to Exist After
To-Day-Members Join
Other Clubs.
Oakland Office San Francisco Call,
Q0Q Rrna druaN- Oct II


90S Broadway, Oct. II.
The Acme Club will go out of existence
tomorrow. A constable will sell the per-
sonal property of the club to satisfy the
Judgment in favor of the landlords, and
the athletic organization which began
fourteen years ago in barn in a back
yard, with an old pair of boxing gloves
and with Dewitt Van Court for in
structor, will pass into history.
To-day President Fitzgerald of the Re-
lance Club received a little note from the
Sheriff apprising him of the sale and sug-
gesting that as the athletic furnishings
are not likely to cause much competition,
the Reliance Club might possibly become
a customer.
For several weeks" said President
Fitzgerald, "the boards of directors of
both clubs have been discussing the ad-
visibility of uniting. 1t has long been
apparent that two big athletic clubs can
not prosper in this city. When the at
a crisis was reached and as things are
at present about two hundred of the best
athletes of the Acme Club will come TO
us. There will be no need of any con-
solidatiOn, and it is better that there be
none. No matter which club went to the
other, the remaining club would have to
assume the Indebtedness of the other.
There will be no advantage in formal
union because each club has a thorough
gymnastic outfit and is well furnished,
and If We bought the Acme outfit we
could only store it to replace our own
in years to come. which would not be
good business policy.
members of the Reliance Club and since
we went into our present fine building
more than one-half Of our total Indebted
ness has been paid off With the big ad-
dttton we shall receive when the Acme
Club goes out of existence anticipate
no trouble in maintaining a splendid
organization that will win many honors.
In several contests, especially in wheel
contests, the Acme and Reliance clubs
the pick Of the two clubs we could have
done as We pleased, and that is what L
anticipate we shall soon be doing.
81 presume a certain number of the
Acme Club will join the new West Oak
land Athletic Club, but I cannot see that
this will in any way interfere with the
progress of the enlarged Reliance Club.
with only one big club in town CIV
ing boxing exhibitions we shall be able
to do better financially in more ways than
one. Our dues at present are $2 so and
we give about once a month first class
boxing contests, charging 81 for admis-
sion. Many men in town who joined the
club for the express purpose of seeing
these exhibitions quit their membership,
preferring to pay a dollar for each en-
able that we may limit these contests
entirely to club members"
The Acme Club has run in arrears on
its lease $2400. Abrahamson Brothers,
the lessons, after putting on an attach
ment, reduced the amount of the arrears
to $1,000 on condition that this sum should
ton they also reduced the rent from $175
to $125 per month. The Acme members,
however, who have carried along their
club so many years in the face of great
difficulties, decided that it would be use
less to prolong their agony, and that the
most practical and feasible thing to do
would be to join the Reliance Club
A committee from each of the clubs
was appointed and met this evening in
President Fitzgerald's Office. The Acme
members who intend to join the Reliance
requested that one or two of their in
structors who had been with the club
many years should be taken care of by
the Reliance. Some of these instructors
could have secured employment at the
Reliance Club any time they wished, so
this request was adjusted without diff
Guilty. President Fitzgerald admitted that
the records of the Acme Club, from
purely athletic standpoint, were some
what superior to those of the Reliance,
and said that with a couple of hundred
of the best members of the Acme added
to the Reliance it would guarantee athletic
and financial success in its management
and would relieve the club from the con-
tinual efforts that are necessary to main
tain its present high standing.
1t is expected that many of the Acme
members will go to West Oakland. Many
of these Acme boys live in that end Of
town. and as the new club has Just in
corporated it will doubtless receive quite
a boom by the going of the Acme.
At the meeting tonight of the Acme
and Reliance committees it was decided
that the Reliance should engage Boxing
Instructor Kitchen and Wrestling In
structor Paul Carroll of the Acme.