The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-20

w. lively and clever, j. mild, intelligent and
elegant, V. as usual, quiet, sensible and self
complacent, l. as absurd, and as assiduous as
ever.
There was variety for you, and the three
last were undoubtedly listeners. In the
next paragraph she covers more ground
and this is most important.
Every one by a tacit convention sacrificing to
the "amour propre' OF his neighbor.
That Is an immortal phrase, for there
can be no pleasant dinner when this un-
seliIshness Is. not shown.
1t is said by witty Boston hostess that
she could never invite two Boston well
known diners out to the same dinner for
they always silenced each other.
You must not have too many good talk
ers. The listeners, the receptive listeners.
should outnumber the takers. How for
tunate this is.
In England, the land of dinners. they
have. OF course, no end of public, semi
official and annual dinners, as those of the
Royal Literary fund, the Old Rugbyans.
the Artists Benevolent fund, the regimen.
tai dinners, the banquets of the Liberal
and Golden clubs, and the nice little dim
ners at the Star and Garter. winding nm
with the annual fish dinner, and ali the
private dinners, which are endless.
Now, of all these, the most popular and
sought after is the annual dinner of the
Royal Academy.
Few qualifications are more desired bv
mortals than an invitation to this dinner.
The president, Sir Frederic Leighton, is so
handsome and so popular. The dinner is
representative in character, one or more
members of the royal family are present;
the church, the senate, the bar, medicine
literature and science, the army, the navy.
the city, all these claim their right to this
lllnstrious company.
Who would not say that this would be
m in
Intellect at its highest water mark is
present. The menu is splendid
But L have heard one distinguished
guest say that the thing is over freighted.
the ship is too full. and the crowd of good
things makes surfeit.
Dinners at the lord mayors are said to
be pleasant and line specimens of civic
cheer, also the grand nights at the Middle
Temple and others of the Inns of court
are occasions of pleasant festivity.
But We have nothing to do with these
excepting to read of them and to draw our
conclusions. | know of no better use to
which we can put them than the same re-
reading of Mrs. Jameson's well considered
menu:
Each individual really occupied with his own
role, but all apparently happy and mutually
pleased. Variety aud seltishness or indifference
or ennui well yelled under general mask of
good humor and good breeding, and the flowery
bonds of politeness ana gallantry held together
those who knew no common tie OF thought or in
terest.
1t requires very civilized people to veil
their indifference and ennui under a gen.
eral mask of good humor.
But to have unity, one must first have
units, and to make an agreeable dinner
party, the hostess should invite agreeable
people, and her husband should be good
host, and here, we must again compliment
England. An Englishman is churlish and
distant, self conscious and prejudiced
everywhere else but at his own table
There he is a model host and the most
agreeable guest. He is the most genial of
creatures after the soup and cherry. In
deed, the everyday English dinner is the
keynote TO all that Is best In the English
character. An Englishman wishes to eat
in company.
How unlike the Spanard, who never
asks you to dinner. However courtly and
hospitable he may be at other times, and
at other hours of the day, he likes to drag
his bone into a corner alone and gnaw it
by himself.
The Frenchman, elegant and finished
and witty, invites you to the best cooked
dinner in the world, but there is not much
of it. He prefers to entertain you at a
cafe than in his own house.
Country life in France is delightful, but
there is not that luxurious open-handed
entertaining which obtains IN England.
In Italy, one is seldom admitted to the
privacy of the family dinner. 1t is patri-
archal affair. But when one is admitted
they find much that is ''Simpatica."
The cookery Is good, the service is per-
feet, the dinner is short, the conversation
gay and easy.
In making up a dinner with a view to
its intellectual components avoid those
tedious takers who, having a theme, a
system, or fad To air, always contrive to
drag the conversation around to their
view, and with the intention of concen-
trating the whole attention upon them
selves.
One such man, called appropriately the
"bore constructor of conversation" in a
certain city really drove people away
from every house to which he was invited,
as they grew tired of hearing him talk of
that particular science in which he was an
expert.
Such a talker could make the planet
Jupiter bore, and if the talker be of the
feminine gender how one shuns her ver
bosity.
Il called on Mrs. Majoribanks yester-
day." said tree lance once, land we had
q little gossip about Copernicus."
We do not care to have anything quite
so erudite tor if people are really very in
innate with Copernicus they do not men
ton it at dinner.
1t is as impossible to say what makes the
model diner out as to describe the soil
which shall grow the best grapes. e leel
it, and We enjoy 1t, but we can give no
recipe for the production of the same.
But as history, with exemplary truthful
ness has always painted man as throwing
oil all the trouble of giving dinner on
his wife, why do not our clever women
appreciate the power of dinner giving III
politics. Why are not our women greater
politicians? Where is our Lady Jersey, our
Lady Palmerston. our Princess Belgloso2
The Princess Lieven, wife to the Russian
ambassador in London, was said to have
held the peace of Europe in the conduct
of her entrees" and countrywoman of
our own is today supposed to influence the
policy of Germany largely by her dinners.
From the polished and versatile memoirs
of the Ornaments, Walpoles, ID Azelios,
Sidney Smith and Lord Houghton how
many an anecdote brings on the efficacy of
a dinner in reconciling foes and in the
making of friends2 How many con-
spiracy was Matched. no doubt. behind an
"aspic of ploNers' eggs" or vol au vent
de volatile" How many a budding minis
try, according TO Lord Huntington, was
brought 10 full power over Wcll-ordered
table clOth2 How many a war cloud dis
PEELED by the proper temperature of the
Burgundy? II is related of Lord Iynd-
hurst, when somebody asked him how to
succeed in life. he answered: Give
good wine" French states
man would have answered: Give good
dinners" Talleyrand kept the most re-
nowned table of his day quite rs much
for political as hygicnlc reasons. At SO
wears of age he still spent an hour every
nornina with his chef, discussing the
dishes TO be served ut dinner. The en-