I just got 6 of this great engraved poker chip. Thanks to the internet I found this neat information about "The Family," a famous old San Francisco high society civic club that exists today. Its had such famous members as Herbert Hoover, President of the United States; General of the Armies John J. Pershing; Ty Cobb, famous baseball player; Arthur Fiedler, conductor; Colbert Coldwell, founder of Coldwell Banker; et al.
The club logo appears on the chip -- a large bird and its four babies in a nest, surrounded by a buckled belt that reads "The Family · · Keep Young · ·"

The Family was formed in 1901 by a group of 14 original members of the Bohemian Club (reporters, editors and others), who resigned in protest over the Bohemian Club's ban of Hearst newspaper from the premises. In 1901, Ambrose Bierce wrote a poem that seemed to predict or even call for President William McKinley's death by an assassin's bullet, and the Hearst chain ran the piece. When McKinley was assassinated shortly thereafter, opponents of Hearst created a furor over the poem's publication, ending William Randolph Hearst's ambitions for the US presidency and causing the Hearst newsmen to resign from the Bohemian Club in protest over the Bohemian Club's banning of Hearst newspapers from the premises.

The Family flourishes to this day, letting all kinds of people in and supporting a hospital in Nicaragua. Its new members are called Babies, and the president is the Father. "There is no mother," a member said. "The babies are brought by the stork."

Robert