The times., 1898-01-24
GETTING CLOSE TO GRIGGs.
Banquet In His Honor TO Cost 800
Plate


Plate.
President McKin1ey's selection for
Attorney General is considered all right
by persons able to pay 500 a plate at
dinner time. One hundred dollars will
buy good deal of food. 1t would,
frugally applied, keep one person a
year. Many family of six do not
expend SO much on their table in three
months.
But then most families of six de-
pend on labor of one sort or another.
and not on coupon-clipping, for a liv-
ing.
That is one reason why the average
man could not dine neW-hedged At
torney General of the cost were 800 a
plate or the one-twentieth of 800 a
plate. Besides, there is no reason why
the average man should dine him. His
activity on behalf of the average man
is but slightly felt at best, while the
burden laid If he be active against the
common people is indirect and hard to
prove.
1t was so in the days of Belshazzar
and it is so now.
President Hobart, actual head of the
Coal Trust and chief Stockholder in
many other concerns which the At
torney General should look into, but
doesn't seem TO, is to be leading spirit
in preparing the forthcoming banquet
which is to take place at the Waldorf
Astoria, where another notable banquet
was held something more than a year
ago.
AS 100 is to 13, so will the Griggs
banquet be to what the Chamber of
Commerce banquet was.
The announcement comes from New
York that the appointment of Gov.
Griggs, of New Jersey, 70 the Attor-
ney Generalship of the United States
Will be made the occasion for q dinner
10 him, which will take place at the
Waldorf-Astoria on February Is.
His hosts will be limited to thirty,
and each will be assessed 300.
In addition TO the feed, Mr.. Griggs
viii benefit in other ways. He will
be presented with silver service to
cost $1,000, and, in addition, he viii re-
ceiye silver-loying cup, to cost $500,
the money for which VIII be raised
among the various Republican office
holders and politicians.
1t viii be a memorable banquet.
Even in a city where elaborate fUnc-
tions of the kind are anything but
rare, a dinner that costs 800 a plate
is so infrequent as to attract much at
tention.
Gov. Griggs. however, has long been
the attorney of rich corporations. and
those whose prOtege he is are in a posi-
ton to spend this sum of money with
out feeling it. 1t is not expected that
every guest Will pay his share toward
the affair.
The cotton mill workers in New Bed
ford viii be Interested in this banquet
The Oldest worker, who is able TO make
six dollars week by the hardest kind
of labor, may find food for comment
in the fact that powerful political rulers
viii each eat and drink 800 worth in
few hours. The Old cotton spinner
would have to work 1000 hours to earn
that sum.
And those all over the country who
are out of employment will think about
this dinner and speculate upon how
much could be done with the money
expended on it. They will have diff
Guilty in realizing that single indi-
viduaI can consume 800 worth of food
and drink at single meal. That would
keep many a family in victuals for
three months.
And this money would go a long way
in Cuba, where thousands are lifting
terrible cry for food to save them from
death by starvation.
But the FEAST VIII no doubt take place
without thought of this suffering. The
thirty will sit at a table adorned with
beautiful flowers. violets. orchids and
roses. There viii be rare old vintage
wines with every course, The rarest
delicacies that can be found the coun-
try over win be placed before the hosts
and their guests.
There will be the rarest cunfections of
the WaIdorf-Astoria chef, and the
name of each will be set forth upon an
elaborate menu which few people can
understand, because a bill of fare in
French is one of the most wonderful
things in the world.
It will take four or five hours to do
justice to this dinner. and all the while
an orchestra behind tree ferns and
palms viii play. There viii be cigars
that cost one dollar each and all man
ner of extravagances. 1t is promised
that it shall be one of the most marvel
Gus banuuets that New York has
known.
And the host will have but recently
taken an oath to administer the Fed
eral Department of Justice in the inter-
eStS of the whole people.