Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/253

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PRESIDENT JUDGE

organized the Philobiblon Club. Among them were James MacAlister; Clarence H. Clark, whose specialty was extra-illustrated or Grangerized books; Ferdinand J. Dreer, who had made an unusual collection of autographs which he later gave to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Horace Howard Furness, the celebrated Shakespearean scholar; and John Thomson. Furness, a kindly, genial and most attractive man, with a ruddy complexion, a little stout, who always carried an ear trumpet, the sort of man whom everybody likes, established a reputation for literary attainments which extended very far. What he did, however, was only to make a sort of catalogue of the labors of a very famous person, a task which can hardly be regarded as the creation of literature. In my view Charles R. Hildeburn did a much more important work of the same character in the preparation of his Issues of the Press of Pennsylvania and the sources of information were much more obscure. Dr. William Pepper became the first president of the club and at his death I succeeded him and I have been re-elected each year since. Its most important reproductions have been the Magna Charta of William Penn, and the Chronicles of Nathan Ben Saddi. I wrote the preface to two or three of its publications and have made one address upon some book topic to the club each year.

About this period began the organization of patriotic societies, as they are called, composed of the descendants of those who participated in events of consequence in American history.

I was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolution. The earliest president, William Wayne, a descendant of Anthony Wayne, who, in order that the name of Wayne might be maintained, changed his from Evans, was followed at his death by Richard M. Cadwalader, a descendant of Colonel Lambert Cadwalader, and a sweet-tempered, deaf and delightful gentleman, who has seven sons and who in his earlier years wrote a book

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