546 THE JOURNEY TO PALESTINE 
to propose to a man to join, and he were to say, Well, what 
is your object ? I should have to reply like the needy knife- 
grinder, ' Object, God bless you, sir, we've none to show.' 
The matter at last was wittily disposed of. No proposition 
of the kind was to be entertained ' unless the name of the new 
member contained all the consonants absent from the names 
of the old ones. In the lack of Slavonic friends this decision 
put an end to the possibilities of increase.' 
After the death, in February 1892, of Hirst, a most devoted 
supporter of the club, who * would, I believe, present it in his 
sole person rather than pass the day over,' only one more meet- 
ing took place, in the following month. With five of the six 
survivors domiciled far from town, meeting after meeting fell 
through, until the treasurer (Hooker) wrote, * My idea is that 
it is best to let it die out unobserved, and say nothing about 
its decease to any one.' 
Thus it came to pass that the March meeting of the club 
in 1892 remained its last. No ceremony ushered it out of 
existence. Its end exemplified a saying of Hooker's : ' At 
our ages clubs are an anachronism.' 
END OF VOL. I. 
AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS 
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