of-doors. There was more or less preliminary talk on the subject, and it was finally agreed that meetings should be held in one another's studios, every Wednesday evening, and that those participating should possess each in turn the results of one evening's work. It was determined, in an informal sort of fashion, to adopt the title of the "Tile Club," and to maintain it as a body without officers, limited in the number of its members to twelve, and to dispense altogether with entrance fees or dues of any description.

It was understood that the tiles for each evening were to be supplied by the person to whom when done they would accrue; and the same person was permitted to supply some other things, but under rigorous restrictions. Cheese and certain familiar species of crackers were admissible. Sardines were not prohibited. Clay or corn-cob pipes and tobacco, and stone bottles of cider, and a variety of German ink not unknown to commerce completed the list. Upon one occasion, when a rash member ventured to produce hard-boiled eggs and sandwiches, he was visited with a reprimand -after they had all been eaten that he will remember to the last day of his life.

A LITTORAL TILE.

THINGS.

The tiles that it was decided to use were those of Spanish make, of a cream-white color, glazed upon one side and in size eight inches square. Designs drawn upon them in mineral colors are subsequently "fired" in an oven and permanently glazed in. This process changes some colors en

tirely and it greatly improves the design by the brilliancy it imparts to the color and the manner in which it softens the outlines.

The first meeting of the Tile Club was called and was attended by two persons, whose feelings may be imagined. They painted two tiles, but as there is no record of those objects of art their authors are supposed to have relieved themselves by throwing them at each other. These two primeval tilers were known respectively as the "Gaul" and the "Grasshopper," titles which have in them more of pertinence than it is the purpose of this writing to disclose. Both have preserved a severe reticence upon the subject of the meeting in question, but, with a persistency that did equal credit to

who suggested that the club should appear in evening dress of Wednesdays only escaped expulsion by an abject apology and the payment of a fine of twelve bottles of ink.

It was not at any time prescribed what manner of tiles should be produced. Each member of the club proceeded just as his fancy dictated, and it was very seldom that any one did anything that was premeditated or studied in its character. To this fact may probably with justice be ascribed a certain freshness and simplicity of design, and an original and speculative quality, which gave to the products of each evening's labor a charm which was none the less distinctive and real for being more apparent to its individual authors than to any one else. Keenly alive to a sense of modesty as the writer undoubtedly is, yet should it be far from his purpose to say aught that even the most jealous or designing reader could construe into a reflection upon the tiles of the Tile Club, or their artistic quality. What it is sought to convey is merely that this artistic quality is so difficult of definition or accurate description that it had best be left to a discriminating and judicious public to discover

and to admire. If the club could speak for itself, it would hasten to declare that such a proceeding on the part of the aforesaid public would secure its lasting gratitude.

The fact that there occur in these pages what purport to be presentments of some of the tiles of the Tile Club might, at the first glance, appear to conflict with the spirit and tenor of the preceding remarks. It is, however, only necessary that the discerning reader should bestow upon each a proper consideration and scrutiny, when he shall at once arrive at an adequate estimate of its true character and merit.

There had not been many meetings of the club before it had become apparent that, with the decorative disposition of its members, there was mingled, more or less, a tendency to drop into music. In the studio in which the meetings had been held, there was a piano that had gained a fair reputation as a side-board. It had done duty as such, in an apologetic fashion, and it had not occurred to any one to question if there were any further direction of its utility. One evening, however, the "Chestnut," in an unguarded moment, opened it, and