e
various associated arts. The conception of this new club, which was to
be called The Players, had grown out of a desire on the part of
Edwin Booth to confer some enduring benefit upon the members of his
profession. It had been discussed during a summer cruise on Mr. E.
C. Benedict's steam-yacht by a little party which, besides the owner,
consisted of Booth himself, Aldrich, Lawrence Barrett, William Bispham,
and Laurence Hutton. Booth's original idea had been to endow some sort
of an actors' home, but after due consideration this did not appear
to be the best plan. Some one proposed a club, and Aldrich, with
never-failing inspiration, suggested its name, The Players, which
immediately impressed Booth and the others. It was then decided that
members of all the kindred arts should be admitted, and this was the
plan discussed and perfected at the Daly luncheon. The guests became
charter members, and The Players became an incorporated fact early in
January, 1888.--[Besides Mr. Booth himself, the charter members were:
Lawrence Barrett, William Bispham, Samuel L. Clemens, Augustin Daly,
Joseph F. Daly, John Drew, Henry Edwards, Laurence Hutton, Joseph
Jefferson, John A. Lane, James Lewis, Brander Matthews, Stephen H. Olin,
A. M. Palmer, and William T. Sherman.]--Booth purchased the fine old
brownstone residence at 16 Gramercy Park, and had expensive alterations
made under the directions of Stanford White to adapt it for club
purposes. He bore the entire cost, furnished it from garret to cellar,
gave it his books and pictures, his rare collections of every sort.
Laurence Hutton, writing of it afterward, said:

And on the first Founder's Night, the 31st of December, 1888, he
transferred it all to the association, a munificent gift; absolutely
without parallel in its way. The pleasure it gave to Booth during the
few remaining years of his life was very great. He made it his home.
Next to his own immediate family it was his chief interest, care,
and consolation. He nursed and petted it, as it nursed and petted and
honored him. He died in it. And it is certainly his greatest monument.

There is no other club quite like The Players. The personality of Edwin
Booth pervades it, and there is a spirit in its atmosphere not found
in other large clubs--a spirit of unity, and ancient friendship,
and mellowness which usually come only of small membership and long
establishment. Mark Twain was always fond of The Players, and more than
o