IT'S TIME ONCE again to play our In The City version of Lost and Found.

This week's discovery comes to us from Marilyn (Goodwin) Soper - she of the Goodwin Funeral Home Goodwins - who approached me last week with an ominous looking, black metal tube that would certainly have been a weapon of some sort if my life were a James Bond movie.

Fortunately, Marilyn is friend, not foe.

Instead of something sinister, the tube contained a bit of Manchester history she would like to see returned to a proper and rightful heir.

Inside the tube was a rolled parchment scroll from the New Hampshire Medical Society. It was a formal induction document - not unlike a diploma - for Dr. John Hiram Gleason. It was dated June 2, 1896, which is precisely when Dr. Gleason opened his medical practice here.

In the century-plus that has passed since then, the scroll somehow found its way into storage space - it's a long story - in the elegant carriage house on the grounds of the Goodwin Funeral Home, and now Marilyn wants to get it back to the good doctor's family.

Good doctor?

Yes, he was, and I base this claim on the fact that Dr. Gleason had surgical privileges at the Elliot, Notre Dame and Sacred Heart Hospitals - that constitutes a major medical hat trick in Manchester - and consider also this quote about him in a book called Stearns Genealogy:

"Dr. Gleason each year spends two months in medical centers in order to obtain the latest and best ideas relative to the practice of his profession," it said. "His skill, manner and conduct as a medical practitioner and gentleman have made him popular and successful."

Dr. Gleason and his wife, the former Ethel Eastman, were very prominent on the Manchester social scene and Marilyn is hoping to make contact with their two children, or if necessary, their children, to see that the document finds its way back to the family.

I'm the go-between.

If you can help, call me at 668-4321 or e-mail me at jclayton@unionleader.com.

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Incidentally, among her many civic activities, Dr. Gleason's wife Ethel was most proud of her membership in the Thimble Club - better known today as the Elliot Hospital Associates - which was the topic of a column a few months back.

Now we focus on another local women's club.

This club has been operating in Manchester since 1881. Its stated mission is, "The Lessening of Ignorance Through Enlightenment," and the club in question is called "The Interrogation Club."

Speaking as a man of the male persuasion, that name terrifies me. Some nights, I wake up in a cold sweat, imagining that my wife and I have the following conversation:

COLLEEN: "Honey, I'm joining a new club."

JOHN: "Really? What club?"

COLLEEN: "The Interrogation Club."

JOHN: "NOOOOOOOO..."

Most men would be equally terrified to learn that their wives were signing up for something called The Interrogation Club - visions of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib leap immediately to mind - but the lovely and charming Anne Zachos was good enough to set me straight on the organization

A booklet that was published for the club's centennial in 1991 lays out its raison d'etre.

"The Interrogation Club is an association formed by women for their own improvement," its by-laws state. "It aspires to awaken in its members a desire for personal growth in the direction of whatever is noble, beautiful, just and true."

Toward that end, the members of TIC took on a remarkable variety of topics. Members would research the weightiest intellectual issues of the day, and then make formal presentations to the entire group for their shared edification. Sample topics from 1891? How about:

• The Bering Sea Controversy
• Explanation of the Australian Ballot System
• History of the U.S. Navy
• The Indian Question, and
• The New Orleans Complication

Heck, we could use their help on that last topic today, and today - 116 years after it was founded - The Interrogation Club remains a vital, if little known, community treasure in Manchester.

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I know what you die-hard golfers are going through right now. You look out the window and you see the snow and you continually heave these heavy sighs.

Well, try this one on for size.

Since you're in desperate need of a dose of golf in any guise, you should know that there's an auction under way involving one of golf's all-time greats and his link to an important local charity.

In his playing days, Gene Sarazen was known as "The Squire." Among his many achievements, he was first golfer to win the career Grand Slam and he was among the first class of inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974, but more importantly - if your approach shots are anything like mine - his place in heaven was made secure when he invented the modern sand wedge.

He brought that club to the Manchester Country Club.

He did so for eight years, from 1982-1989, when he served as honorary chairman of the annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Golf Classic.

During that period, "The Squire" engaged in regular correspondence with my very close personal friend, Bob Stanton - not that Bob Stanton, the other Bob Stanton - who served as director of the CF Tournament. Now, Bob has put three pieces of their correspondence up for bid on the internet at www.rrauction.com.

The handwritten notes are a rarity for golf fans. They were composed and posted from Sarazen's Florida home on Marco Island, and in addition to the letters, the auction will also include a leather-bound biography called "The Squire; The Legendary Golfing Life of Gene Sarazen" that's signed by the author, John Olman, and also signed by his famous subject.

What are these things worth?

As with any auction, the items are worth what a buyer thinks they're worth. That having been said, there's a $200 minimum bid for each of the items, and best of all, according to Bob Stanton, all of the proceeds from the sale will go to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The bidding will be open until April 18.

R&R Enterprises in Amherst is administering the auction, and catalogs can be had by calling 1-800-937-3880. And if you add up the digits in that phone number?

I'd take that score on the front nine.

John Clayton is the author of several books on Manchester and New Hampshire, including the recently released "You Know You're in New Hampshire When" His e-mail is jclayton@unionleader.com