The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1882-03-08
WASHINGTON DINNERS.
The President as a Iiner-Out-He is Riy.
and IL Takes n Good Deal to Fill Him.
Younoss Taftar a. e.

| and IL Takes n Good Deal TO Fill Him.
~. R. Young's Letter In the Starl
This giving of dinner parties is going on al
| tremendous rate, and there is going to he
| a heap Of indigestion among our Congress
men and public functionaries before Lent
sets IN. don't know that there is going to
| be any let-up when Lent comes. but i will
place that time as the limit for the best de-
veloped eases of dyspepsia 10 show them
selves. The President, who is good feeder,
i.gures prominently III this dinner business
h 9 10 big fellow and consequently requires
a deal of food. and he likes il good. He is
not going to take ham and eggs for breakfast
when he can get nice delicate lamb chops
or liver and bacon when there is on the
table nice, tender, juicy sirloin steak, say
an inch thick, underdone, without being in
the least degree raw. His dinner is simple,
but how nice Tor this time of the year-a
dish of consOmme, piece of Potomac shad
with cucumber salad, a eanvas-back' duck,
accompanied by plate of choice celery and
a small dish of hominy. terrapin, a small
bottle OF POmmery Sec, a cup of black coffee
and a Reina Victoria cigar Probably a man
couldn't struggle through with such meal,
say twice a week.
IL is usual Tor the President TO accept in
vitations To dine out He is at liberty to re-
fuse an invitation without leaving any hard
feeling, but an invitation from him must be
accepted, admitting Of no excuse. imagine
the reason he has been accepting of so many
invitations 10 dine out OF late is that being a
widower, and his children off at school, he
is fearfully lonely in that big barn of
White House. He gives dinner parties but
having no hostess, he is compelled to invite
only men. Now if he were allowed to select
men without regard to their positions in
public life, he could have good time, but
his dinners must be OF semi-official char
acter, which means he has to haveon hand at
every dinner a lot of stupid people, si.nply
because they hold place or are prominent in
politics.
These old roosters, instead of sitting down
at the table with the desire and intention of
having a merry time with their good meal,
make themselves heavy and dull by assum-
ing a dignity and reserve which they i'm
agine is required of them by reason of their
official position, or else they absorb the con-
versation and talk about themselves. The
President has not obtained the relief he ex-
pected in dining outside of the White
| House. He finds the invitations to dine
crowding in on him at such rate that he
will be compelled to call halt. Just where
| to draw the lines in his acceptance is mat
ter which is troubling him. He asked
prominent statesman and society man the
! other day how he was going to arrange the
| matter. He didn't care to withdraw alto
gether from dining out of the White House,
| and at the same time ne did not care to give
| Offense. The man of craftsmanship and So
ciety said:' Draw the line on Senators.
| This will shut out the horde in the House,
and there are not over fifteen Senators who
will ever ask you or any one else to dinner"
| He has accepted the suggesti0n.SO that here
| after he dimes with no one in official life be-
| low a member of the Senate.
| | have been trying to find out who the
| fifteen Senators are who are in the habit OF
4 L
| was a royal diner, but he Is dead, and so
| don't count. Don Cameron, Jones, of Ne
| vada, and PendletOn, of Ohio, give the most
dinners and probably the best. Edmunds
| Bayard, Allison and Window give dinners
frequently, bat they have the number few
at time. Hale, sherman, Malone, Davis,
of Illinois, Hill, of Colorado, Fair, Miller, of
The Southern Senators rarely fail to accept
an invitation to dinner, but l have never
heard of one giving a dinner. Malone is
the only exception To the rule.
Flower. the man who beat William Wal
dOrf Astor for Congress in New York City
last fall, is the champion dInner-giver this
winter. He has three a week, and he takes
good care that the newspapers are acguaint'
ed with the fact and are furnished with list
| OF the guests He is a wealthy banker and
has an ambition to be the Democratic can
didate for Governor of New York next fall
and like Sam Ward, the celebrated lobbyist,
he believes in the idea that the easiest and
surest way TO capture man is through his
stomach.
Old David Davis gives series of fine din
ners during the winter. The old man has
some object in view. for he has always been
put down as close and penurious. When
old lame Mary kept the cake and apple
stand in the Senate corridor, Davis took his
lunch there. This used TO consist of three
apples for five cents, a glass of milk and
five cents worth of cakes, or two ham sand
witches at five cents apiece. I have heard of
him growing at Mary, saying that five cents
was too much TO charge for three apples, as
no apples were worth over a cent apiece.
Old Davis lives at the National, a sort OF
shabby-genteel hotel, but he gives his din
ners at Weicker's, one of the swell restau-
rants of the city. Felter, the proprietor OF
Weicker's, keeps the Senate restaurant, and
the keeper of the Senate restaurant is the
appointment of the Vice President, or,
when there is no Vice President the Presi-
dent pro TEN. of the Senate. So imagine,
as Felter is DAVIS appointee, he has made
it an object for the old man to give his din.
ners at his swell restaurant.