The Price of Blood

The Price of Blood is a novel written by the American Illustrator Howard Pyle who is known for his famous illustration of Pirates and being the author of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire which narrated the story of English outlaw Robin Hood.  Howard has written many novels such as Men of Iron, Otto of the Silver Hand, The Wonder Clock, Pepper and Salt , and The Story of Jack Ballister's Fortunes.
Excerpts from "The Price of Blood".
There was at this period in the town of New York a number of young gentlemen possessed of very lively spirits and pretty ingenious tastes for folly. These gay rattlers about the town had gathered themselves together into a society known as the "Bluebird Club," in which they pledged themselves not only to eat a supper of oysters and to drink as considerable a quantity of rum punch as possible, but subsequently to perform all manner of extraordinary acts of folly. This assemblage of rakes, though it possessed no fixed place of meeting, usually resorted to an oyster-house of no good repute situate upon Front Street, maintained by a negro crimp by name Bram Gunn, whither it gathered once a month during the period that oysters were in season.