The Portland daily press., 1892-04-05
NEW YORK LETTER.
Large Scale Doings and Happen
ings in the Empire City.
A Lesson for Senator HilI-Racy Criticisms
of Depew and Ingersoll-The Drsy-
ton-Borrowe-Astor AFFAIR
Funny Side Of 1t.
[oopyR1aHr, 1921

south, delivered an a1Ger-Olnncr speech
in Savannah, in which he paid rather
left~handed compliment to the profess
sional after-dinner speakers of the
country. The senator is not man
noted for his sparkling humor. /
think he enjoys good thing when he
hears it, but do not believe that he
ever told funny story to anybody in
his life, or that he has any apprecia-
ton of the bright side of existence. To
him all things are serious. / was,
therefore, surprised to observe that in
his Savannah speech he attempted to
be somewhat jocose. He suggested
that our negro minstrelsy had under
gone great change, and had practi-
cally lost its vitality, giving place, as
it were, to the humorous after-dinner
speaker. This is neither funny nor
true. Negro minstrelsy has died out
simply because we no longer have
artists who can depict the genuine AT
rican, who is, at best, q caricature on
the Caucasian race. But the best Of
our afternoon speakers are certainly
several grades above the best minstrelsy
that our times have known. am free
to say that have heard here in New
York speeches delivered at public din
ners such as, / believe, could not be
heard any place else in the world.
While men like Depew, Porter, Inger-
soil and Fellows manage to inject a
reasonable amount of hilarity into their
speeches, as is becoming when men are
to be entertained who have dined agree
ably, they also are able to transmit a
great deal of excellent thought. After
all is said. must admit that Mr.. Depew
is the best all-around after-dinner
speaker l have ever heard. There is
apparently no occasion to which he is
not equal. He generally manages to
introduce considerable fippancy into
the first half of his speech, but he never
fails to wind up with the expression of
some ideas which are worth carrying
away. Mr.Depew is very much more than
a superficial tallser. He is a man Of
knowledge. and he knows how to apply
1t. If he sometimes seems to lack
gravity it is because he knows that
there is nothing SO depressing as a dull
speech Of the English type after his
fellow creatures have dined. think
] observe tendency on his part to
temper the edge of his witticisms some
what, and / think that the whole coun-
try will eventually agree that 1t has no
better speaker than Chauncey Nd. De-
pew I am glad to hear that there is a
prospect that he will be heard at the
opening of the Columbian exposition in
Chicago. Col Bob Ingersoll is in great
demand as dinner speaker now, and
while he is always eloquent, poetic and
magnetic in his talk, he is somewhat
inclined to prejudice himself by inject
ing his agnostic beliefs into everything
that he has to say. / heard him at Del
monico's the other night, on the oc-
casion of the banquet of the repre-
sentatives of the United Musical So
cieties of the country, deliver an adj
dress on the subject of Music, which,
for beauty of imagery. grandeur OF
thought and expression, never heard
equaled- 1t was simply a magnificent
poem, and one deserving of publication
in every corner of the world. 1t was a
theme upon which the colonel could ex-
pand without the slightest restraint. He
is an enthusiastic lover of music, espe-
cially Wagners music. He used to be
found every night at the German opera,
and there is probably no man in this
city who will go farther now to hear
Eeidl or Damrosch concert. The colonel
cares very little for the dramatic side of
Wagner, or for German singing, which
he thinks, as rule, mars Wagnerian
operas, but to orchestration his whole
being goes out. To see him sitting in
front at the opera, his eyes closed, his
head thrown back, one might think
that he really possessed one of those in
situations known as a soul, and that it
was being taken out of him by the
wonderful harmonies evoked by the or
chestra.
HuMoRs OF THE TRAGEDY.
1t was an embarrassment Of riches in
the way of amusements to have Messrs.
Drayton and Borrowe arrive in town
the same week that the circus came to
us. Either one of these aggregations
of comicality would have been sufficient
to keep the town on a grin. But with
both Of them with us at the same time,
carlxing care had no Judgment in our
midst, SO to speak. There has been
nothing furnished to the public in
long time that has possessed the humor
Gus features of this Drayton-
Astor affair. First, we have Mr.. Dray-
toms suspicious aroused to an extent
which justified him in hiring detectives.
Then, fearing that the detectives might
not discover anything, he clears out of
the country in order. apparently. that
his presence might not be embar-
RAISING to any Of the parties in the case.
This seems to have been q wise
proceeding and matters were greatly IA
cilitated by it. At least that is the sup
position. The detectives made favor
able report and put Mr.. Drayton in the
way of confirming it. Then Mr.. Bor-
rowe begged almost with tears in his
eyes to be fatally shot and killed In
every respect. He is said to have opened
his vest as an inducement, and, at the
same time, to save that garment-but
all to no purpose. Mr. Drayton spared
his victim with view no doubt to in
ficting upon him still more terrible
punishment-snubbin him, perhaps, at