San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-12-18
NEARLY SPOILED THE BANQUET
Misfortune to a Printer Caused Confusion
at Dinner Given to Stanley.

NEARLY SPOILED THE BANQUET
Misfortune to Printer Caused Confusion
at Dinner Given to Stanley.
Mention of the present visit of Henry
NJ. Stanley to this country brought
about the narration of an amusing,
though somewhat annoying, incident in
connection with the American dinner"
that was given to the explorer in Lon
don on his return from the Emin
Pasha relief expedition. The incident
also serves to show how a very slight
accident may precipitate confusion in
dinner party. The American dinner TO
Stanley was the idea of Henry S. Well
come, an American business man of
London, who was not only personal
friend of Stanley, but a member of the
firm of druggists who fitted out the
Emin Pasha relief expedition. Through
Mr.. Welcomes energy almost every
American in London subscribed Tor
tickets to the dinner, and on the nightit
came off covers for over three hundred
people were laid in Evans assembly
rooms. One table, on a dais, was re-
served for Stanley and the more dis
tinguished guests, and there were
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 place at the
end of one of the subsidiary tables, and
others were given seats near each other
who had expressed preference. Mr..
Welcome gave minute attention TO
these details, 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 guild
ance of the diners in taking their places.
When the hour of $3.50, which had
been fixed for dinner, had arrived, the
500 hundred guests were assembled in
the reception-room. Stanley was there,
and SO was Consul General John c.
New, who was to preside, and so were
some of the most distinguished men in
England. But there was no diagrams
of the dining-room, and the reception
committe were anXiously waiting for
Mr.. Welcome to arrive with them. At
S:35 o'clock Mr.. Welcome few in, in his
business clothes, with a smudge of
printers ink on his nose and more on
his hands. He agonizinly informed the
reception committee that the printers
had pied the type or the 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 confusion that
everybody was turned from the dining
room back to the reception-room and
brilliant scheme was suggested. There
was the original list of the names of the
diners, with their respective places,
that Mr.. Welcome had rescued from
the printer, in the possession of the re-
ception committee. The POSTMASTER
was stationed on a chair at the door of
the dining-room and instructed to read
the list of names, each man to pass out
and take his place at the table when
bis name was called. The POSTMASTER
was a fine, big Englishman, with a
stentorian voice. He did as he was told.
"New-Consul General John c." he
shouted, and Mr.. New went through
the door. "Stanley-Henry NJ" bel
lowed the POSTMASTER next. There
was roar of laughter and that scheme
for seating the guests was dropped.
Finally everybody went in again and
searched for his place and found it or
otherwise, as best he might. Several
of the guests designed for the principal
table were rescued from inferior posi-
tions below, and some ambitious ones
were degraded from the table of rank;
but the dinner went on merrily and
ended similarly, though itbegan an hour
later than the time it had been set for,
and all because of the accident to the
diagrams.-N. Y. Telegram.