ships were formed and new interests awakened and
New York began to be called home. When the pro-
prietors of the St. Nicholas opened the Windsor Hotel
uptown, we took up our residence there and up to the
year 1887 that was our New York home. Mr. Hawk, the
proprietor, became one of our valued friends and his
nephew and namesake still remains so.

Among the educative influences from which I de-
rived great advantage in New York, none ranks higher
than the Nineteenth Century Club organized by Mr.
and Mrs. Courtlandt Palmer. The club met at their
house once a month for the discussion of various topics
and soon attracted many able men and women. It was
to Madame Botta I owed my election to membership --
a remarkable woman, wife of Professor Botta, whose
drawing-room became more of a salon than any in the
city, if indeed it were not the only one resembling a
salon at that time. I was honored by an invitation one
day to dine at the Bottas' and there met for the first
time several distinguished people, among them one who
became my lifelong friend and wise counselor, Andrew
D. White, then president of Cornell University, after-
wards Ambassador to Russia and Germany, and our
chief delegate to the Hague Conference.

Here in the Nineteenth Century Club was an arena,
indeed. Able men and women discussed the leading
topics of the day in due form, addressing the audience
one after another. The gatherings soon became too
large for a private room. The monthly meetings were
then held in the American Art Galleries. I remember the
first evening I took part as one of the speakers the sub-
ject was "The Aristocracy of the Dollar." Colonel
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was the first speaker.
This was my introduction to a New York audience.

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