"In addition to doing the work shown on plans, changes were made for further accommodations and improvements amounting to over $20,000, so that the Building Committee feels that it has a credit coming to it of about $25,000.

"The cost of interest charges during construction, legal expenses, permits, etc., have somewhat exceeded the estimates originally made, on account of the various delays in carrying out the work; but the combined estimate of the Building Committee, on a grand total of $850,000 for building and land complete, including all expenses and charges, will be practically realized.

"Also, our good friends the House Committee 'worked' us for a complete new outfit. We have furnished the new House in all its details, have provided them with much extra crockery, glass, silver and hardware, bedroom and other linen, and various other necessities.

"This, members of the Boston City Club, is an account of our stewardship. The Building Committee, to a man, from the first believed in the City Club-in its principles, its future growth, and in the great loyalty of its members. We started to build for a finality of 5,000 members; to-day we have 5,200 members, and 1,800 on the waiting list; so our effort to build to the limit for accommodations has proven to have been wise and proper.

"Mr. President, on behalf of the Building Committee, I hand you the keys of the Boston City Club House; a House we, the Building Committee, are proud of; and we shall get our reward for the years of labor spent on this work, in the knowledge and belief that we are turning over to you a building worthy of our Club, its ideals and purposes, and of the founders and all the men who by their generous support and loyalty have made this Club and building possible.' (Loud applause.)

The President. "Mr. Chairman of the Building Committee, I accept this bunch of keys to the Boston City Club and renew my expression on behalf of the Club of gratitude to your Committee. Gentlemen, the House is not going to be locked against 5,000 or 6,000 good fellows that are entitled to come in.

(At this moment Governor Walsh entered as the orchestra played, "Hail to the Chief.")

"We are honored by the presence of His Excellency, the Governor. We wish that we might have seen him earlier in the evening, but there is no doubt whatever that his obligations are such that we should be grateful for his remembering us at this time. (Applause.) He knows the City Club and we know him, so I have no words of introduction except to present His Excellency." (Loud applause and cheers.)

HIS EXCELLENCY, GOVERNOR WALSH

"Mr. Chairman, Members of the City Club. This occasion is so memorable that I desire what I have to say shall be said with caution and with precision. And I am going to ask your indulgence while I read what I have prepared for this occasion.

"I am glad to be permitted to extend to you the congratulations of Massachusetts, for I feel that the State has at least equal reason with yourselves to rejoice in the great prosperity and vigorous growth of such an organization as this.

"I believe that I voice a widespread sentiment in saying that we have a surfeit of partisan politics. Too many candidates for office, too many elections turning on personal and selfish issues. Our views of public questions are too often distorted and our interest in the common welfare obscured by animosities and prejudices that are an inheritance from across the sea, and that are sure to fade away when men of different stock meet day by day as you meet here and learn as you do by personal contact how much better the other fellow really is than you had been led to expect to find him. (Applause.)

"And so I say that it is a great thing for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that we have here these daily gatherings of strong and intelligent men, men of affairs, whose interest in the common welfare is broader and more unselfish than that of the politician, and whose interchanges of opinion are more effective in respect and mutual liking which must inevitably result from such familiar meetings.

"When I recall the topics taken up by you for discussion in your former quarters, the long list of eminent men of all shades of opinions who have from time to time been invited to address you, it seems to me that you might, if you chose, lay claim to a conspicuous place among the educational institutions of the State. (Applause.)

"Men of national and of international reputation as the ablest exponents of conflicting theories, political, social, and economic, have welcomed the opportunity to submit their views to your consideration and your criticism. You have had the benefit of the best thoughts of our day, on public questions, ranging from city planning and better housing conditions for wage-earners and similar matters of primary local concern to the tariffs and currency problems, the control or disruption of the trusts, the transportation situation, the proper use of the Panama Canal, our Philippine policy, our relations, commercial and political, with Mexico and the rapidly advancing South American States. On most or all, in short, of the great questions of the hour which our local, State, and national Governments are called upon to answer and which will be answered rightly only under the impulse and direction of an intelligent public opinion. (Applause.)

"You have been therefore and with your enlarged membership in this beautiful and commodious quarters, you will increasingly be a civic university as well as a truly democratic social centre, and an indissoluble bond of good fellowship.

"In the name of the Commonwealth I congratulate your founders who have made possible this institution for Massachusetts.

"I congratulate this organization because it means a better understanding between man and man; because it means that in Massachusetts, in the future, when men like you gather and assemble here to discuss

these public questions which are of supreme importance for the future welfare and prosperity of Massachusetts, the question will no longer be asked, 'Is it Democratic?' Or, 'Is it Republican?' Or, 'Is it Progressive policy?", but the question will be, 'Is it for the welfare of Boston and of Massachusetts? (Prolonged applause.)

"I congratulate the organizers of this Club and of this organization that no longer are men in Massachusetts or in Boston to ask the question, 'Is he wealthy or is he poor?' Or, 'What land did his fathers come from, or his ancestors?' Ör, 'Is he a Democrat or is he a Republican?' 'Is he Catholic, Protestant, or Gentile?' But the only question is, 'Is he a man who is loyal to Massachusetts?' (Prolonged applause.)

"And I know of no organization with greater possibilities of usefulness, with greater opportunities to help push Massachusetts and this great metropolitan city forward than this splendid organization.

"Men of all opinions, men of all parties, men of all races, men of all creeds, banded together for the welfare and the prosperity and the happiness of the people of our beloved community. (Applause.)

"And so I gladly and cheerfully bring here the greetings of Massachusetts, of all her people,-of all her people, nearly four million of them. and I bring to this Club the greetings and the good wishes of these people and I wish it unbounded success and prosperity, and express the hope in the name of Massachusetts and of its people that it will be an agency to assist and cooperate in solving the problems of our beloved State, and assisting in adding and contributing to all that may assist in giving a greater measure of happiness and of prosperity to Massachusetts and its people than they have ever enjoyed since the day our beloved Commonwealth was organized." (Tremendous applause.)

The President. "Gentlemen, you have all heard of the play, 'Hamlet,' out of which Hamlet had been left. I won't say that the Hamlet is left off the program to-night, of the speakers, but if that is the play of Hamlet, I am sure that either Hamlet or Polonius or Ophelia or the goat is left out because there is no reference on the program to one of the marked events of the evening, which is the dedicatory poem which you are to hear, written for us by a man of world-wide reputation who has traveled from North Carolina to Boston, and goes back to-night, for the purpose of being present and greeting you upon this occasion.

"He is a man of intense human sympathies, of a very keen intellect, and of tongue of gold. He is going to read his dedicatory poem, but, late as it is, I am very sure that we should all be delighted if he would do as much more than that as he chooses. (Applause.) We should welcome an exordium and we should welcome an aftermath; it is all in the hands of Mr. John Kendrick Bangs, whom I have the pleasure of presenting to you now." (Cheers and applause, the members rising.)

MR. JOHN KENDRICK BANGS

"Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Boston City Club. Great men don't care whether their names appear upon programs or not. (Laughter.) I accounted for the fact that my name had been omitted from the program to-night by the fact that the rest of the speakers were not in the same class as myself, and as I have listened to them stealing each other's thunder (laughter), each making the same speech that the other made only doing it backwards (laughter), I really felt that it was an honor to me that my name had been left off. (Laughter and applause.)

"Fortunately for me, Mr. Winship permitted me to know about three days ago who the other speakers were to be, and knowing their reputation for stealing each other's thunder. I had mine copyrighted. (Laughter, applause, and cheers.) That is, I had the title copyrighted.

"Like Mr. Storrow, I did not realize until this afternoon that I was to come here to-night (laughter), and these few halting lines which I am going to read to you in the name of poetry are simply a few memorandums of the much greater work which I hope to be able to deliver upon that great occasion when for its own good the State House is added to the Boston City Club. (Laughter, repeated applause, and cheers.)

"I have called my poem 'A Quest for Song,' written for and dedicated to the members of the Boston City Club in commemoration of the opening and dedication of their Temple of Brotherhood (applause), that temple devoted to confidence and cheer, to love and hope and faith in man, in forward quest of mutual respect and helpfulness.

(The reading of the poem was listened to with eager ears and rapt attention by the entire audience, and as the closing words of the reader died away, he was greeted with an ovation such as has seldom been witnessed in any gathering in this city. The members sprang to their feet, applauding loudly, cheering vehemently, sometimes together, sometimes in various sections of the room, and as these outbursts of enthusiasm continued each seemed to outrival in intensity the demonstration which preceded it. Round after round of cheers and tigers were proposed and given, Mr. Bangs came forward repeatedly and finally spoke as follows.)

"I do not like to repeat myself, gentlemen, but your kindness to me reminds me of a man of whom I told some of the members of the Club this afternoon while we were at luncheon. I arrived in the city of Duluth about three weeks ago with a raging toothache, and I went to a dentist to have it extracted. After he had pulled it out I turned to him and thanked him for giving me the first relief from pain after twenty-four hours. I said, 'How much do I owe you?' He said, 'Nothing at all.' I said, 'That is nonsense. I am a stranger to you and I owe you something for this service.' He said, 'Oh, no, you are no stranger to me, Mr. Bangs. I have been reading your books for twenty years, and it is a positive pleasure for me to pull your teeth.'" (Laughter and applause.)

One of the most pleasing features of the occasion was the singing of

the Boston Quintet, composed of Walter E. Anderton, Arthur Hackett, Robert Nichols, Dr. Arthur Gould, and Augustus T. Beatey. They sang several numbers at the luncheon, and were most enthusiastically received. During the dinner they sang in all of the rooms where members and guests were dining. When they appeared at the dedication exercises in the auditorium, they were given a great ovation by the members. The singing of the "Rosary," the "Toreador Song" from Carmen, and the "Quartet," from Rigoletto, was nothing short of remarkable, and will linger long in the minds of those who were fortunate enough to hear it. The Boston Quintet is an organization of which Boston is justly proud as it is doubtful if any other city can boast of a group of singers who do the classical and artistic work that is done by this organization.

Thursday, March 18

MR. LEWIS PARKHURST

INTRODUCING F. HOPKINSON SMITH

"Fellow Members of the City Club. Before attempting, even, appropriately to present to you our most welcome guest and speaker of the evening, may I take a moment-the first opportunity that has offered itself to express the very great pleasure which I derive from membership in this Club. To be one of five thousand selected men of Boston and vicinity, whose purpose is to know each other better and so to become stronger, better informed, and more useful citizens by this association, is to me a rare privilege; and when I think of the great service that we, as an organization, may do, not only to Boston and all New England, but to the Nation itself, even, in this time of great anxiety when she needs more than for a generation at least the calm judgment of cool and patriotic citizens, I am proud to be one of you.

"And may I also compliment the architect, the committees, and the various officers of the Club who together have so successfully planned and constructed for us this most charming gathering-place where every comfort and convenience known to modern civilization have been placed within the reach of every member. And all this has been accomplished in so thorough and businesslike a manner that it meets with the approval of the best financiers of our city.

"Particularly are we pleased that we are provided with this splendid auditorium, where more than a thousand may gather, week by week, to listen to statesmen, scientists, explorers, men of letters, and those famous in all the walks of life.

"To-night we have with us one who combines, to a degree rarely, if ever, found in a single personality, the accomplishments of engineer, builder, painter, lecturer, and man of letters; but it is as author and entertaining lecturer that we love to think of him. Many of you have already enjoyed an evening with him, for I am told that this is his third