An enthusiastic Centurion, writing of the club at the time of Bryant's death, when it had been in existence thirty-one years, spoke of it as having drawn together the choicest spirits of that generation of New York.

"Without formality or design, it had become an institute of mutual enlightenment among men knowing the worth of one another's work, likened by Bellows, more than half seriously, to the French Academy.

A sure result of this communion was absolute equality among those who shared it.

No true Centurion ever assumed anything, each standing in his real place.

The atmosphere killed pretension and stifled shams.