Johns Hopkins University - Hullabaloo Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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bachelor rooms. I was one of the last presidents,and had a peculiar satisfaction in rescuing a lbw things from the auction-sale of club property and in seeing that our debts were all paid. The new University Club, at IOOS North Charles Street, is the historic successor of the old Kneipe on Garden Street. Dr. Edward M. Hartwell, a president of the johns llopkins Club, was one of the most active organizers of the new institution, of which he became the Hrst secretary. The older and younger members of the lfniversity, together with professional men, graduates of various colleges, and other residents of Baltimore in close sympathy with the University spirit, nowjoined forces for the establishment ofa good club. Pro- fessor B. L. Gildersleeve, its first and only president, has lately written a brief sketch of the University Club for Benzon's Black Book, a History of the Clubs of London, Baltimore and Washington. He says: The University Club of Baltimore was set on foot for the furtherance of social relations and intellectual interchange among those members of the community who are in sympathy with university views and university methods. The membership, it is true, is not restricted to the graduates of universities and colleges, for it was thought that such a restriction would exclude too many men of high intelligence and broad culture who could not meet the formal requirement ofa diploma, but care was taken to perpetuate the university idea, by giving the preponder- ance in the management to university and college graduates. The growth of the club, which was first projected in the early summer of 1887, and which held its first regular meeting in its own house on Thanksgiving Day of the same year, shows that the plan and the methods meet the wants of an important class, for, under the steady pressure of applications for membership, the limit has been enlarged from ISO to 300, and, which is still more important, the privileges of the club are better and better appreciated and the attendance is steadily increasing. To promote the social life of the club, the Friday nights from October I to july l are specially set apart, the second Friday night of each month being known as Field night, the others as Club nights. On the Field nights some topic of general interest, literary, scientific, or'social, is presented in an informal way, now by members of the club, now by specially invited guests, and the entertainment is followed by a simple collation provided at the expense of the club. These meetings have been largely attended, and many of the members who have little or no turn for club life are thus brought into IT

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Those resolutions led to the formation, in 1879, of the Johns Hopkins University Club, which continued to flourish for eight years, until the formation, in 1887, of the new University Club on North Charles Street. The old club was on Garden Street, on the ground floor, back of Stabler's grocery, near Montgomery's oyster beds. We hired two rooms and furnished them simply, with a long pine-table and plenty ofchairs, with numerous small tables, a few pictures, and a book- case for song-books. We employed avenerable colored steward to keep an open Ere and an open house for all members from 9 A. M. until I2 P. M. We had the prominent newspapers and magazines. In fact, our club was used chiefly as a reading-room. Through the medium of our faithful steward we could get at all times from neighboring restaurants good refreshments. Saturday nights were our field-nights. Then our members turned out in force. Some played whistg others sang songs, made speeches, in German or English, to their hearts' con- tent. On Christmas night, or other holiday occasions, we made the colored man speak, for in his own peculiar way he was a very enter- taining orator. Saint 'Denis was authority for the conservative statement that the colored people of Baltimore believe the statue of George Washington upon the Monument represents the father of his country, not in the act of resigning his commission, but of delivering his farewell address and saying, with emphatic gesture, Keep the nigger down l Peabody professors of music belonged to our club and sometimes contributed to our entertainment. The fellows and younger instructors were nearly all in the society. One night a German professor, Dr. Von Holst, was present. After a delightful musical evening we escorted him home in academic fashion, singing a student song. A certain associate in Sanskrit, now a Harvard professor, and an asso- ciate in history, whom modesty forbids me to name, were acting as right and left-hand men for the distinguished professor at the head of the procession, when a policeman, unaccustomed to living in a university town and not appreciating midnight music, arrested two of the leading singers and said we had better be more quiet. We sang sweet and low for a little time until we reached the next street corner, when the entire chorus struck up again and we marched Von Holst through Georgia, until he reached the Mt. Vernon Hotel in perfect safety. Well, those Bohemian days are over. The Kneipe is no more. Its musty records are preserved in the historical department, and some of the clubls antique furniture and Oxford pictures now adorn my 16

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relation with the more active elements of the circle. The Annual Ladies' Reception is also a popular feature. On the Club nights, on which a supper is served at a moderate Hxed price, the attendance is much smaller, but the conversation is more intimate and the feeling of a common life is distinctly fostered. The material equipment of the club is modest, and the pressure for space, on Field nights especi- ally, has given urgency to the demand for more commodious quarters, but the present rooms are' cosy and attractive and contain all the usual appurtenances of club life. The liberality of a late member of the club and his representatives has adorned the walls of the house with choice specimens of an unrivalled collection of etchings and engravings, and similar loans from others have enhanced the quiet charm of the surroundings. No attempt has been made to form a library, beyond a small collection of works of reference, but a sub- scription to the New York Mercantile Library puts within the reach of the members the best current literature in English, and by an arrange- ment with foreign booksellers the most important new works in French and German are laid on thetables for inspection and a fair proportion bought for the use of the members. Witli periodicals, American, English, French, German, in all departments of pure litera- ture and the fine arts, the reading-room is supplied as few club libraries in the World are supplied. In these various ways the club has worked towards the fulfilment of its purpose with a fair measure of success. It has no motto, no watchword. It is not set to solve important questions of state, it is not set to manufacture jollityg but in the atmosphere of ease and quiet which reigns in the University Club, grave lives are made brighter, and gay lives are not made less gay by grave suggestions. The new University Club is far better and more comfortable than the old johns Hopkins Club, but members are required to be over twenty-five years of age, so that the younger academic element is practically shut out. The annual dues of the new University Club are 330, six times those of the old Hopkins Club, which served its modest social purpose economically and well in those early days of our academic life. Those days can never be lived again. Times have changed and men have changed with them. After all, the old Kneipe was never quite adequate to student social needs in this University. The old club never embraced the whole student body, and it cost more than some men could afford. There is still room in connection with the johns Hopkins University for the development of student societies 18