The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-10-10
A Lonely Banquet.

In 1862 ten young gentlemen of congenial
tastes and tempers boarded at a fashionable
boarding house in New York. They divided
up in parties of twos and threes and fours, and
attended theatres, lectures, and other places
of interest in the evening, and when they
returned they made it point to meet in the
parlor and talk over the business, pleasures and
adventures of the day before they retired to
their rooms. Their close friendship, and this
method of each communicating his experience
for the benefit of all, proved both instructive
and entertaining, and these daily. reunions
possessed local attraction enough to draw them
all together at regular hour in the evening.
At length the time came for them to separate
The country needed its young men, and called
for several of this party of ten. They had q
farewell dinner in their boarding house on the
10th of September, 1862, and grand time
feasting and talking and singing songs.
One remarkable feature of this celebration
was that. before they separated at 2 o'clock in
the morning, each arose in his place and made
solemn vow that, if living, he would meet the
rest of his companions at 8 o'clock in the same
place. and dine with them ten years hence, as
they had diued that night. Each one was TO
occupy the same seat, and as nearly as possi-
BILE, they were to have the same kind of din.
ner. So they bade each other good night and
separated. In the course of years the house
had changed hands. and set up the more pre-
tentious claims of a hotel. The dining room
remained, however, just as itwas, and probably
the old table and chairs were still on duty.
Some days ago Mr.. Edward K. Winship,
broker, "a Bond Street, called on the proprietor
of the hotel, and requested him to prepare dim
ner for ten gentlemen in the old dining-room
on the evening of September 10. Mr.. Winship
briefly narrated the circumstances of the COM
pact to explain his request and that, being the
eldest of the party of ten, he had been appoint
ed on the evening of their dinner in 1862 as
chairman. At precisely 8 o'clock on the even
ing of September 10, Mr. Winship entered the
dining-room, and the doors were quickly closed
behind him. No one else came. The table
was bounteously spread, three colored walters
were there, and nine empty chairs and inverted
plates and glasses at every chair. The meal
was begun and the solitary banqueter was
served with the prescribed courses almost IN
silence Mr.. Winship occasionally passed o
word with the head-waiter. "Poor boys !
They're all gone" said he. Gone went down
| in the Monitor in Mobile Bay, another was
drowned in the same waters. Two were shos
in Mobile. One lost both legs by ball, and
the. other was pierced through the heart
Another died in Philadelphia P and another died
in New York" He said that, while in Febru-
ary last he was walking up Broadway one
evening, he felt tap on the shoulder, and a
voice asked him whether he knew Mr.. -.
"I do" replied Mr.. .Winship: che died at
o'clock to-day" said the voice. Though Mr..
Winship turned quickly upon feeling the tap
and hearing the voice, he was unable to ascer-
tain who it was that had addressed him. He
afterward learned that one of the party of ten
had died that day and at the hour indicated.
Mr.. Winship said the oldest Of the party, next
to himself, was only 20.