The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-29
THE WEAR AND TEAR OF BAN-
 DUETS. A Popular Former Mayor of Baltimore Tells How to Withstand It.

DUETS.
 A Popular Former Mayor of Baltimore
 Tells How to Withstand It.
 n these days. when many of the ills
 which flesh is heir to are said to be at
 tributable directly to the eating of too
 much good food or the drinking of too
 much good drink, it Is difficult to find
 man who, in the course of two de
 cades in public life, has attended, at a
 conservative estimate, not less than 600
 banquets and still maintains com
 fortable avoirdupois and shows no i'll
 effects of an ordeal which might well
 make many gourmand shudder, Such a man, however, is ex-Mayor Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe. For fourteen years he sat in the mayors
 chair, and during all that time he was subject to an unwriten law, which de- clares a part of a mayors duties is to go to banquets. Before he was ever
 electer mayor of Baltimore he was a public official, having. been speaker of the house of delegates, and held other offices, and during that time his quota of banquets was not small. And since he has retired to private life his friends, who, during seven years as mayor had honored him with invitations to ban quets, have not forgotten him, and he has continued to grace the tables which have known him in his official capacity. Say, then, that there are twenty years during which Gen. Latrobe has been a regular guest at public banquets. He himself says that he must have ttend- ed at least thirty a year during that +1so tD1 Af En0 banquets. What is the secret of doing this without shattering health and happiness; without even being inter ested in the Zurich, Switzerland, oper- ation of having ones stomach re moved? Perhaps 1t would be best to give 1t inhis words:
 1T never found the task arduous, ]" said he yesterday. T have attended all kinds of banquets and dinners, at which the dishes of many distinctive nations were served. But the fact is that I never ate much and seldom drank anything but mineral water. I would always eat a good dinner before I left home, and would, when arrived at the banquet table, partake of per- haps a few things and then sit still and enjoy myself until 1t came time for me to respond to that abused toast, 'The City of Baltimore
 A mayor can make no greater mis- take than to try to go to two banquets in one night. This is a thing that never did. When I received an invita- | tion wrote 1t down, and if another came informed the second corners that was already engaged to eat and | drink. As far as the speechmaking was | concerned that never bothered me
 much. When the time came to talk I would get up and tell my hearers some thing about the city government, which, must confess, knew a great deal about at one time"
 l It struck Gen. Latrobe as rather fun ny when the national complexion of the | banquets which he has attended was called to his attention. There were the l German celebrations, for instance, with very Teutonfc dishes and wine and beer. Then there were the meetings of l the Hibernian society, where the sons 1 of the sod of Erin had the catering in ! charge. The St. Andrews society 1 served him haggis piping hot and equally hot Scotch whiskey and. the St. | Georges society stuck to the roast beef or OlQ EiilSldilu dHu OtIlcI Iliil5S WHiSii I go with 1t.
 All of these Gen. Latrobe attended as- siduously and regularly, and there were others. There was the banquet of the l Hebrew Benevolent society, where the dishes of the prophets met the eye, the banquets of the City college, and other l educational institutions, and last, but 1 not least, the annual gathering around 1 the festal board of the Merchants and ! Manufacturers association, where ora- tors of national fame usually discourse 1 upon topics of timely interest.
 'T really enjoyed it all," continued the ex-mayor. q liked to go, not only to the banquets which you have men, 1 toned, but to many others. I always had good time wherever went But l I didn't eat much--banquet-g -goers
 should remember that--and didn't l drink much, and that is why have not l developed any of those many diseases which are lurking in the atmosphere surrounding the gourmet.
 "A public man must need to attend
 a great many of these functions, but l at all of them he is almost sure to meet
 number of people whom he knows, l and it always pleasant to talk to ones ] friends. Thus man may combine | pleasure with duty which might at times seem disagreeable on account of l it's frequent occurrence, but if he would l peace of body and avoid surgeons, who
 have hankering to remove stomachs, | he should follow my example-never eat | much and never drink much. ."-Balti- more Sun.
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