. This was
to be held at the Great Northern Hotel in Chicago on February 12th,
1899, but as several of the delegates expected had failed to put in an
appearance an adjournment to the following day was decided upon.

When this meeting was called to order by temporary President Quinn there
were present Hecker, Harlan and Spink, of St. Louis; Quinn, Havenor and
O'Brien, of Milwaukee; McGraw and Peterson, of Baltimore; Regar and
Richter, of Philadelphia, and myself representing Chicago. Tommy
McCarthy, of Boston, was said to be somewhere on the road, though Quinn
held his proxy, and Col. Whitside of Louisville was on hand to represent
the Falls City in case it should be taken into the fold.

Numerous telegrams failed to locate Navin of Detroit, and as the
Louisville people proved that they had the necessary backing it was
finally decided to take them in. Detroit's assurance that everything was
lovely there came too late, Navin not returning home until after the
meeting was over, while McCarthy of Boston did not materialize until
after the meeting had adjourned.

A permanent organization was finally effected and officers elected as
follows:

President, A. C. Anson, Chicago; Secretary-Treasurer, Phil Peterson,
Baltimore; Directors, C. S. Havenor, Milwaukee; Geo. D. Shaefer, St.
Louis; W. J. Gilmore, Philadelphia; it being left for Boston to name a
member of the Board at a later date.

Richter had come to the meeting firmly convinced that the office of
Secretary-Treasurer was to be his for the asking, and he was decidedly
put out when turned down, and was disposed to be decidedly ugly. That he
had not gotten over it for some time afterward was shown by the attitude
of his paper, which indulged in indiscriminate abuse of every one who
failed to agree with him.

After the adoption of a constitution and by-laws the meeting finally
adjourned, though not until McGraw and Peterson had been appointed a
committee to look into the standing of Philadelphia and to select an
eighth city in the East, the seven cities making up the circuit at that
time being Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Louisville in the West, and
Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia in the East.

It was also decided to open the playing season on April 16, the matter
of arranging a schedule being left in my hands. The Philadelphia end of
it had a decidedly fishy look to me, even then, and McGraw was by no
means as enthusiastic as he had appeared at Philadelphia.