Evening star., 1924-04-24
SURVIVORS OF X. F. R.
HAVE REUNION HERE
Club Formed by Boys in Grants
Administration Has Thirty
Seven Members Left.

Fourteen of the surviving members
Of the X. F. r. will hold their fifty
third annual reunion at the Army
and Navy Club tonight. The organ
ization known by these mystic letters
(no one not in the society has ever
understood their signifcance) was
founded during President Grants sec
ond administration by Jesse Grant
and a coterie of boy friends.
The first meeting place of the So
ciety was a little shed in the White
permission, and there the members,
seventy-six in number, held debates
and other functions and laid plans for
the widely-varied literary, dramatic,
athletic, civic and charitable activi
ties which distinguished the organ
ization throughout it's early years.
Has Thirty-seven Members.
There are but thirty-seven living
members. Only a few of them now
live in Washington. But every year
they have "A reunion and in 1921, the
semi-centenary of the club, they had
specially elaborate one, members
coming for it from all parts of the
country.
The remarkable thing about the
K +. Il. Is its persistence. Boys
abs spring up, bloom and die away
usually in a few months. or at most, a
few years. But so successful was the
early history of the club, and so
strong was the bond uniting it's mem
bers, that these. boys. as they grew
into manhood, kept the old club run
ming and thereby preserved their boy
ish friendships and conserved their
youthful enthusiasm. 1t is thought
that this record OF club longevity is
equaled by no other similar organiZa-
tion.
Grant Cannot Attend.
Jesse r. Grant, the first president.
he whose diplomacy obtained the use
of the toolShed as meeting place,
now lives in New York and cannot
attend because of the serious illness
of his wife.
Among the "old boys" now distin-
guished men. who will be present to-
L. 5. N, president of the club; Ben
jamin Miller, its historian; Albion X.
Paris of this city the sec
retary, whose interchangeable labors FOR
many years have kept unsavered the
bond uniting the scattered members;
former Senator Blair Lee, \. =. Addi-
son, Mai. Gist Blair. Edward w. Cady,
DR.. Middleton F. Cuthbert, Col. Will
liam c. Borden, Henry 4. Davis. Judge
Robert u. Harris, United States dis
trict attorney at Boston; Capt. Au-
gustus c. AImy, L. 5. N; William B.
Chiffon and Frank b. Mactin.
All of these men spent their boy
hood days in Washington, most of
them being born here
OF the members who were active at
this time last year the following have
been claimed by death: George w.
Upton, Walter Hill Chew, Commo-
dore S. Lawrence Heap. United States
Navy, and DR.. Francis NJ Nesmith.
Absent Members Write.
Those residing on the Pacific coast
and at other points too far away to
permit them to make the journey here
have written letters which will be
read to the gathering. number of
short talks are on the program, but
all are of an informal nature.
The oiginal six members were: Jesse
Grant his cousin, Baine Dent; Albion
Paris, Walter Chew, Henry Cults
and Frank Bolles. The first meeting
was held on Chris tmas day, 1871, and
the club records exist in unbroken
sequence from 1872 to date, although
the last active" member was elect
ed in 1888.
The first death of member, many
years ago, drew all the rest of the
boy comrades closer together, and
succeeding deaths have intensified the
bond