The Oregon daily journal., September 13, 1908, Page 40, Image 40

nm o&egon sunday journal;. roaTumv sundat kohnino. septedjiu 13, iws
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' Bonds i of, $1000 each, to the amorrat of?
' $00,000, hare been Issued, two of the bonds be-; .
. ing allotted to every charter Member, who re- r
ceires, also, $1000 in ih ares of the $500,000 in
oommon stock constituting the aubsidiary issue,
r.-- The bondholders are the charter piembers, who'- ;
control the ' club administration. Associate V
; members, elected by two-thirda vote of the
board of governors wi. nav 6nlv $200 mi '
in dues. ' " :v-.,.
- "Bo. out of the forhmAii Tiri1rrAa tt men
' a home isijeingf formed which proved too vast
. for the fortune of one leader among, them.' So
; commodious is it, thatthe hundreds, and their
(friends, will find, it ample -for all the luxuries .
- they can demand of its resources r ,-
v Thereia .no ' other ' club anywhere in the
; world that has . so imposing a home none that
A has such a- Bpread of acreage. The land alone
'cost $100,000. r Originally farmland, it nnder
. .went at the behest of McCaU.a metamorphosis
' more ' marvelous ' than, the transformations ' '
wrought by fabled Aladdin with, his wonderful
, lamp. : ' -.; '. .-. 1
; Greensward, sweeping broadly, ' & restful
and seemingly boundless delight to the eye, em-t
braces within its verdant "vistas lakes that-are
green-blue , gems, v relieved :: by the white and ' .
gold of Tchaliced lilies. , v " : ' , f
.The artful terraces and walks limit or lead
; naturally " to the most attractive'; of old-world
' gardens. Half a -mile away , purl 'the 1 dying
waves of the Atlantic, shimmering blue to tho
r far- horizon, yet 'always -capable .'of Jts, mighty i-
storms, that aeq,d the diapason of their thun
derous breakers -: thrilling , through the air to .
N CALL
MA Nil ON, P LACE
OF TRAGEDY TO BE
MADt, A Isltri liAlJ3 r
OUTING RESORT JJ
I.4 ' ,
A MERICA has now the most beau
" tifult the most luxurious and
xvithout hyperbole the most mag
i nificent country club in the world.
It is the home of the Brook Lawn
Club, at Norwood Park, near Long
Branch, in New Jersey.
In its architectural beauty, in its splen
' dor of appointment, in its more than classic
elegance, and in the sweep of the broad
acres amid which its marble grandeurs glow
v whitely against the sapphire of the sky, ' it
is like some jewel of man's most ambitious
art one of those triumphs possible jonly
for a monarchy -or foi ' those families, whose;
resources were dynastic, like their antiquity.
,.. y.A jovial, gay clubhousetodaytlthe .
walls have had ' barely time to lose from
their echoes the footfalls of the man who
male it what it is and then' died of his re
verses and his chagrin.
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i.m wuiing, Bnflwereu
KcCall, smiling. ' L
He continued to be so will
ing that, what with the strong
f riends jhe speedily made
among influential - Republicans
apdtttKarpugh ' study of ; in
Burance lawtand the ? depart
ment's manageiment' which he '
made Z for t himself he ( rose to J)
the ipoflfvOf-vrexaminer'of 'dep
uty superintendent, : and, in
1884, of superintendent.
Two. years later he became '
comptroJer " of the Equitable
Lifeat $15,000 a year. Within
six years he was president of
the New InV life Insurance
Company,,with a salary of $75,
000, increased k to $100,000 in :
1001. V, .
They say that, from the
time he ilrst surmised the poasi
bilitiea of his career, he cher-
ished the vision of the home he
should live "in when he should
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He shall return no tnor to hU houM, neither
- v shall hia place know Wm any more."
Old Testament.
T HEBE was a lad named John A. McCall
in Albany, X. Yin 1867, who, like most
other Albany-boys, had to hustle for a
living. His peculiar bent for hustling
took him promptly into that field which all its
. ' devotees deem the sovereign nepenthe for hustle.
Politics, gave him. a $15 a -week job as a
( clerk in the old assortment house for state cur
?rency, at Albany. In 1869 politics advanced
him to $800 a year as messenger in the State
Insurance Department.
t . : He had a wife and child dependent on him
' and his little ; clerical salary, when -one of the
. New York overturns in politics, which have
kept it among the most influentikl as well as
the most doubtful states of the Union, put in a
,'Bepublican- Governor, with a Republican su-
Erintendent of insurance as the natural corol
rj. . The clerk, Mi-Call, was a Democrat, but
very wide. .between the ryes, as physiognomists
constantly remarked later in his career.
" The njw- superintendent signed dismissals
for all the Democrat, and devoted himself 'to,
other details of official cleanliness with the ar-
dor characteristic of th new political broom.
. He' discerned a reprrhf-nsihle waste of gas at
night in the offices, and went down one evening
to investigate personally.
He found McCall, obnoxious: Democrat,
poring over the books and wrestling , with the
office work like Gotch holdin d-.Wn a Hacken
achmidt on the mat. The guih if the gas was
solved. But'- , .
"What are yon doing here, this time of
ti'fV.t f the superintendent demanded. "Every
bo!v's one home long aio."
1 1 a wide ilcCall brow turned toward him, im
ratr.t tf the ictermption:
"Wt!i, there's a good deal rf-work to be .-
nr..'.'. d h're. I want to aeel, wba I quit, that
it c' e." .
-l'. n You're about the otly Baa en the
f-r- i.o trus lo earn If vif. Seem te
e
have achieved the means of ita realization.
Between 1902 and 1904 he built at Nor
wood the palace of his dream. A couple of
years more and its builder waa dead, his for
tunes broken' by-the reverses incident to the
insurance investigations which held the at
tention"' of the nation month after month.
Under .that tremendous strain the powerful
will had ' collapsed. - John McCall, poor Al
bany, adventurer in politics, dreaming gran
deurs, haefctnade his dream come true; but he
perished in, the , winning of it
It waa one of these razing crashes which
are so prone to" befall the swiftly reared, and
more swiftly ruined, American fortunes.
"His place knew him no more," nor any peo-
11 Utter
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rucini try order fcr your Ls-
h. u !.- I ,
r.tr."-: "
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pie .who ,were his. A, speculator, dazzled by,
the splendors the millionaire had wrought,
clutched at the marble mirage, in the hope of
realizing the million : it had cost its creator.
But the weight . of ; the mere . shadow of its
possession was too ponderous . for specula
tion's 'momentary, feverish strength; it re-,
verted . to the Metronolitan Insurance Com
pany on foreclosure of mortgage when he de
faulted spon .the interest.
But its brilliant beauty was there, allur
ing others in its reality, as for somany ardu
ous yars the mere imagining of it had al- ,
lured , the great magnate . of the insurance f
world. Negotiations, begun two years ago by .;
a group of New York. bankers, brokers,. law- .
vers and othera endowed-with;large fortune
or modeaate wealth, have ended; in the' pur- .
chase of the entire Norwood property for the
purposes of the newly formed vBrook Lawn
Country Club. , ' .
The membership - includes such - well
known New Yorkers aa S. B. Guggenheim, of :
tfc Avnpriran'Rmeltini-and-Befining Com-
rany; E.F. a Young, rrent of .the Jir,t gJSE
National Bank; Myron iLOppenheim and P. f".b;"t?l!
Sanford Boss, government contractor, witi lu
others whose' activities are not cenierea ai
rectl in New York, like Uzal H. McCarter.
presiJent of the Fidelity Trust Company, of
Newark, N. J. , . ,
The servants am already at the club
house, and bungalows a score of them
corting in the aggregate net less than t-50.000,
are to be bnUt i or occupancy by. the families
of such members as wish to hava -summer
homet on the estate at & rental cf from $1000 ;
to $1500 per. year. , '
that near abode, in all the calm and peace of its
palatial security.
It rises up, enduring in ita marble white
ness amid the solidity of the granite pillars that
bound the estate, a -place of admirable loveli
ness, its broad piazzas, its many balconies, ita
roof garden and its promenades affording in
imitable views of the countryside,, inspiring to
day dreams with its visions of the ever mutable
sea. " !
Y: At night stately electric standards light the
ways, with , great Italian ; lanterns, in bronze,
' glowing at the porte-cochere. .; v
The. reception hall, in Italian . renaissance
and hung with rNile green silk richly embossed, ,
gives upon the great central court, soaring to a :.
superb glass dome at the roof, sixty feet above
It is, in reality, a vast apartment, seventy by ,'
eighty feet, whence springs the flying-stair,
twenty-five feet in width, which 'rises zo the :
, mezzanine floor that served the first, owner as a
" lounging room.
,; To the right and left the stair ascends, up
to the promenade balcony on the .second Hoor,
with a second promenade surrounding the court
on the third floor, the two promenades affording
access to the suites of sleeping apartments,
each with its'bedroom, dressing room and bath,
A soft ivory tone predominates throughout
the great hall, tinting the large, sustaining,
fluted pillars and the many, arches and balus
trades. At the right and left are immense fire
places, framed under mantels of deeply toned
.mahogany, twelve feet in width and fifteen in
height. The woodwork throughout is mahogany,
the bookcases included,, which are built into
the wall while the electrio lighting is in fix- j
tures of pale-green Pompeian bronze, with am
ber glass shades.
There is a noble dining room opening from
the left, its dimensions 80 by 40 feet The'
heavily beamed ceiljng is ivory tinted. The
walls, above the high wainscoting, are paneled in
silk of royal blue, the same rich color. showing
in the -tiles of the mantel, while portieres of
blue silk and leather - screens in blue carry out
the harmony of -the scheme. .
' Across' the hall vara the drawing room and
billiard , room. . They are in striking contrast
with each other, m-beautiful consonance with
their respective uses!
The drawing room,' in Nile green, silver and
ivory, with its large mirrors, ita mantelpiece in
Italian renaissance, and its exquisite cabinets
bric-a-brac, is almost femininely delicate in
aintr eWance. V .
Hie bilHard room, nearby, is virile in the
impression it gives of strength and solidity. It
hss the old English-Gothic design, in oak of
dark-green hoe. with the walla hung in red tapes
try. The woodwork is elaborately carved, the
ceiling heavily beamed. At the fireplace Colonial
andirons stand, with a gemroua log basket, both
in hammered bras. - ,
If 'is, in truth, each a palace as a poor
artiet might have dreamed in the t oh cf that
poverty which creates visions of luxury. -