The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-12-12
A FAMOUS DINNER.
1t Was In Honor of Stanley, and the Guests
Got Mixed.

American dinner" that was given
to Henry M. Stanley on his return
from the Emin Pasha relief expedi-
ton. The incident also serves to
show how very slight accident
may precipitate confusion in din
ner party. The American dinner to
Stanley was the idea of Mr.. Henry
S. Welcome, an American business
man of London, who was not only
personal friend of Stanley, but
member of the firm of druggists
who fitted out the Emin Pasha re-
lief expedition. Through Mr.. Well
comes energy almost every Ameri-
can in London subscribed for tickets
to the dinner, and on the night it
came off covers for over 800 people
were laid in Evans assembly rooms.
One table on dais was reserved for
Stanley and the more distinguished
guests, and there were a dozen other
long tables facing this one.
Mr.. Welcome attended personally
to the arrangement of the seats, and
each man who had subscribed to the
plate that was to be presented to the
guest of the evening was given q
place at the end of one of the subsid-
larry tables and others were given
seats near each other who had ex-
pressed preference. Mr.. Welcome
gave minute attention to these de-
tails, and the first thing on the
morning of the night of the dinner
he took his completed plan of the
tables and seats to printer in order
to have the usual diagrams ready
for the guidance of the diners in
taking their places.
When the hour of $50, which had
been fixed for dinner, had arrived
the 300 guests were assem- bled in the
reception room. Stanley was there,
and so was Consul General John G.
New, who was to preside, and SO
were some of the most distinguished
men in England. But there were no
diagrams of the dining room, and
the reception committee was anx-
iously waiting for Mr.. Welcome to
arrive with them. AT 8:35 o'clock
Mr.. Welcome flew in in his bust
ness clothes, with smudge of print
ers' ink on his nose and more on his
hands. He agonizingly informed
the reception committee that the
printers had pied the type for tho
diagrams of the tables at the last
moment, and that they would be
compelled to do without them.
1t may seem an easy matter for
300 men to find their places at tables
when their names are at their plates,
but it brought about so much con-
fusion that everybody was turned
from the dining room back to tho
reception room, and a brilliant
scheme was suggested. There was
the original list of the names of the
diners, with the respective places,
that Mr.. Welcome had rescued from
the printer, in the possession of the
reception committee. The toast
master was stationed on a chair at
the door of the dining room and in
] structed to read the list of names,
each man to pass out and take his
place at the table when his name
was called.
The POSTMASTER was a fine, big
Englishman with stentorian voice.
He did as he was told. NEW, Con-
sui General John c." he shouted,
and Mr.. New went through the door.
Stanley, Henry NJ" beloved the
POSTMASTER next. There was a roar
of laughter, and that scheme fol-
seating the guests was dropped
Finally everybody went in again and
searched for his place and found il
or otherwise as best he might. Sew
eral of the guests designed for the
principal table were rescued from
inferior positions below, and some
ambitious ones were degraded from
the table of rank, but the dinner
went on merrily and ended similar
ly, though it began an hour later
than the time it had been set for,
| and all because of the accident to
the diagrams. New York Telegram.