114 LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



the dawn of our existence, and that we do not 

 quite know how or by whose genial creative 

 industry we first drew the breath of life, or even 

 how we acquired our name." The last, he 

 suggested, was chosen to mark the rebellion of 

 free-lances against society, or " to emphasise 

 the conflict between the methods of barbarism 

 and the conventionalities of civilisation." 



At the dinner held on November 10th, 1900 

 — the next Saturday after his eighty - fourth 

 birthday — when he took the chair and gave the 

 members the pamphlet of his " Reminiscences," 

 referred to in Chapter XIV., Tegetmeier told the 

 story of the founding of the club. This was my 

 first attendance at one of the famous " Saturday 

 Nights," and I well remember the occasion. 

 Standing up with a book in his hand, he said: 

 " In the year 1855 a number of Bohemians, of 

 whom I was one, for I left civilised society to 

 go into Bohemia, started a magazine that should 

 be a republican magazine. There was to be 

 no proprietor ; they appointed their own editor 

 and acted as their own management, spending 

 their own money in establishing it. It was 

 called the Train, and it was a ' First Class 

 Magazine.' The first number of it was published 

 in January, 1856, which meant that the matter 

 it contained had been written in 1855, so this 

 was the date of the foundation of the Savage 

 Club " — Tegetmeier averring that the club grew 



