The reunions were so much enjoyed that the number of the members soon increased rapidly, and it became necessary to hire a public room for their accommodation. So great is the present popularity of the club, and so great the demand for admission to membership, that every few months a larger room is needed to hold all these people eager to enlighten themselves on the questions of the day which interest the thinking world.
The association proceeds in a manner as simple as it is practical.
Is it decided to pass an evening in discussing Socialism, for instance? The President invites a well-known Socialist to come and explain his views before the members of the club; he invites also an anti-Socialist of talent to answer him.
The XIXth Century Club opens its doors, as the North American Review does its columns, to all new ideas anxious to pierce through to the light.
One evening, last winter, was devoted to the discussion of Sectarianism. The President of the Club invited a Catholic priest, an Episcopalian and a Presbyterian minister, a Unitarian and, unless my memory misleads me, an agnostic. All were listened to attentively, and each had his harvest of applause.
Another night, the subject chosen was, "The Triumph of Democracy." The first orator, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, set forth that everything is for the best in that best of Democracies, the American one. The second, on the contrary, brought forward much eloquence and many figures to prove that the governmental system of America was worthless and rotten.
Mr. Carnegie, having gone from Scotland to America with the traditional half-crown in his pocket, and, by his talents and industry, become one of the richest men in the United States, it was quite natural to see him standing up for the American institutions, and waxing eloquent over the superiority of America to the rest of the world.
Thanks to their vivacity of mind, the Americans have a special talent for making the most arid subjects interesting. All these debates are enlivened with humorous remarks, anecdotes, flashes of wit, and clever repartees. Needless to say that they are conducted with the utmost courtesy. The most trenchant weapons employed at these tournaments are sarcasm and banter, and the Americans are adept in the use of both.
In America, such is the respect for the opinions of others, that the wildest, most incongruous, ideas did not raise a murmur: the audience would smile and seem to say, "What a droll idea!" and if the droll idea was expressed wittily, the orator was applauded.
In the course of a debate upon "International Copyright," I remember hearing one American calmly express the opinion that authors have no right to their own ideas, and that therefore they have no right to any remuneration for their work. He developed this strange statement with a great deal of cleverness, and at the end of his discourse was greeted with a round of applause as hearty as it was ironical.