of Admiral Dewey. From a vantage point
at Thirty-fifth Street he witnessed the passing of floats in the
Hudson-Fulton celebration. But there was one day on the Avenue, perhaps
the greatest and most inspiring of them all, in which he did not share.
That was the day that saw the visit of the Allied Commissions, the day
of the coming of a Marshal of France. About the time that the guns on
the warships and land batteries at Hampton Roads were thundering out
their message of welcome to the distinguished guests, the writer in
company with six other Americans who had been with the Commission for
Relief in Belgium was entering French territory, after a
never-to-be-forgotten journey through Germany. How such of us who
claimed New York as our own thrilled as we pictured three thousand miles
away the city's greeting to the grave, silent man whose cool genius had
hurled back the Teuton hordes at the very gates of Paris! How we built
up on the limited descriptions that had been cabled across the Atlantic!
We saw the sweep of the procession up the Avenue, the thousands upon
thousands of flags, the densely packed throngs lining the sidewalks, the
eager faces in the windows of the tall buildings, and in the motor-car,
for which all eyes were searching, the smiling, saluting Marshal.

"About now," said one of us, "he should be passing Madison Square."

"I can see the people on the sidewalks and crowding the windows and the
housetops," said another.

"And I," said a third, "can hear the roar that goes up from the Avenue
when the people catch sight of him."

"When he hears that roar," said a fourth, "he will recall the guns of
the Marne as gentle zephyrs."

To that last statement and sentiment we all proudly agreed. For despite
the three thousand miles of intervening ocean it was our New York and
our Fifth Avenue.

CHAPTER VII

_Some Avenue Clubs in the Early Days_

Some Avenue Clubs in the Early Days--The Invention of the Club--Cato or
Dr. Johnson?--The Judgment of Thackeray--The Union--The Prolific
Diedrich Knickerbocker--Omens of 1836--The Century--Its Descent from the
Sketch and the Column--Old-Time Austerity--Leaders of the Talk--The
Lotos--The Union League--The Manhattan--The First of the College
Clubs--The Columbia Yacht--The New York Athletic--Rise and Fall of the
Traveller's--The Arcadian.

"Presuming that my dear Bobby would scarcely consider himself to be an
accomplished man about town until he had obtained