New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-05-04
hosts AND GEESTS.

Tie season of public dinners now drawing TO
= close. if il la, not been fruitful of the high
cs order of post -piandial cloqucncc nor added
much 10 the stoIchOusc Of chcStnutS. wherein
the humoi.tS OF on, generation lay up stock
Of side splitters for the next u draw on While
they in turn draw out and restore to clrcula-
ton the mcudy ones of ages gone, has Ger
iainly been noteworthy in one respect. ii has
Brought about a general discussion of the iela-
tons that do exist and those which ought TO
exist between the hosts and the gr.cts-be-
tween the entertainers and tho entertained.
Judging from the consequences which followed
some Of the more notable Of the entertainments
Of the last season. there has been heretofore
more or less misunderstanding a to the relation
between the men who get up ten, or fifteen
or twenty dollar dinner in honor of themselves
or their ancestors, or some great and good
cause or somebody who has been dead "A great
many years whom they know very little about
and care less, and the men whom they invite
TO respond to toasts and pour ont soothing and
inspiring sentiments in an eloquent and I'M
prcssivo manner. The theory on the part of
the entertainers is that it is great favor to
any man To give him a swell dinner for nothing
on some subject and get his name in the papers
This theory proceeds upon the assumption that
the aftcr-dinner orator is some such person as
the tramp who said t, the barkcepcr: IL tell
YOU what YOU d.. Just fill me up and have
some fun with me-" The Clover Club of Phila-
dclphia has always been conducted on that
basis.
On the other hand the aftcr-dinner orators
and merry makers appear during the last
son either TO have risen to the consciousness or
dropped on the fact-whchcvcr way it may be
put-that on the whole the entertainers have
rather tho best Of it when they get fifty
dollar speech for ten-dollar dinner 1t has
accordingly seemed 10 them that, SO far from
being under Obligations to the people who fill
them UP and have fun with them, tho obliga-
ton is on the other SIDE and that they furnish
more entertainment than they get compensation
for. They have consequently been turning the
tables on their hosts and been having fun with
the entertainers, In two or three notable in
stances which will readily be recalled by the
newspaper reader who keeps the run of these
intellectual jousts-ihc entertainers have re-
Scntod the change and risen up and kicked, not
like steers, but like the spoiled and codded
Mugwumr. Because Mr. Choate at the dinner
Of the Friendly Sons OF st. Patrick, after pay
Ing an eloquent tribute to the memory of all
the d ad Irishmcn whom he could call to mind
minated that, Tn the whole, they needed
perspective, great Indignation was rouScd and
tho entire municipal government felt insultcd
80 when our own Chaunccy over in Brooklyn
the other night INDUCED in playful illusions
to tho now methods of getting away with
municipal plumber which have been adopted
across the RIVER and Endorsed at Albany, several
persons felt hurt and went away angry. And
Channcey, innocent old boy, had not the slight
os' idea that dishonest dollar jinglcd in any
pocket round the bead. lie was only having
some fun.
we must have seine new rules to govern
post-praadial oIatory Either the Jokes and