Story of the Celtic

THE CELTIC CLUB 17
for the Club, but the lure of gold made things different,
and we found that many really good men placed the
cash first, and one can hardly blame them.
The insecurity of an ordinary working club was not
quite sufficient for those who had to bear the worries of
working the Celtic.
Various schemes were devised to put the Club on a
sound business footing, but each year saw the best efforts
of the real managers of the Club thwarted by the change
of new men, who had neither the knowledge nor the
time to keep the Club up to standard, being elected to
the Committee. Again the financial question came in,
and with John Glass and a few of the Committee signing
overdrafts the position became acute, when it was found
that certain people wanted power without any financial
liability. They were quite content to leave this to others.
The matter came to a head when at a special meeting
called in 1896 to consider the Club's financial position,
the " Heads " stated distinctly that the Club must be
put on a sound footing or else close down.
A member pooh-poohed this idea and stated he could
get £500 in five minutes as a beginning of security. He
was taken at his word, and next day two members of
the Committee, by appointment, waited for this man to
fulfil his promise. He never appeared, and at a meeting
of Committee later said he was only joking. Thereafter
the men who actually made our Club proceeded to put
it on a real business footing. They felt the Club must
expand and the only way to do so was by making it a
limited company, and so Celtic became such with a capital
of � z 0,000.