Evening star., 1899-01-30
MIRTH AND WLLITY
Fun Reighed Supreme at the Dinner
6f the Gridiron Club.
SURPAS&D ALL PREVIOUS EFFORTS
BurIesqsies on important Events and
IProminent People.
G { F SITS AND MEMBER S

The fourteenth ANNUAL dinner of the Grid
| iron Club was held Saturday evening in the
| big banquet hall of the Arlington and was
| attended by upward of 200 members and
| guests The dinner deserves to go down
| into history the most elaborate and sue
cessful affair of the sort the Gridironers
have ever undertaken. For the members
! of the Gridron Club to excel their efforts
OF the past means a good deal. but there
are SO many really clever men connected
with the organization that when they put
their heads together to think up something
novel and unique then something novel and
unique is sure to be forthcoming. But the
dinner last Saturday evening impoe~s a
difficult task upon the members of the club
Tor their next annual undertaking.
Rarely has such gathering of prominent
statesmen and brilliant men in other walks
OF life been seated about table as was
present Saturday evening when the ringing
of big, old-fashioned dinner bell an
nounced the opening of the festivities.
When the guests entered the banquet hal
the vision that met their eyes was one of
WondrouS beauty. Streamers of North Car
oilna laurel, tied with pink ribbons mag
hlhcent potted plants and thousands of rare
and beautiful roses and exotics made the
great room perfect bower, while the table
decorations were lavish in the extreme
Inc menu itself, it goes without saying left
nothing to be desired, including, as 1t die. .
the very best that the markets of WASH
lnSton can afford at this season of the year
when such delicacieS as oysters. shad
grouse and terrapin are available and at
their best But, after all, the dinner itself
Whlle by no means overlooked, paled into
comparative insignificance alongside of the
rare IeaSt OF Wit, wisdom and WhimSicality
that the members of the club had provided
for their guests. The fun began with the
very beginning of the banquet, and there
was no let-up until midnight came and all
was over. Many novel features of enter
tanment Were Introduced, such as bur
lesquing events of the day, touching upon
topics of general interest and numorously
1mpersonating prominent men who We're
guests OF the evening. The speeches and
features We're interspersed with songs by
the club quartet, solos and witty interrupt
tons and observations.
General Henry V. Boynton, the newly
elected president of the club. occupied the
head of the table. Grouped about him
were men, whose fame has extended Wher-
ever the English language is read and
spoken a blazing grtdiron just back of
the president threw "a luster over the scene
and was reffcted in the plate glass sides
of the rQam.
The menu gard was a calendar for 1899.
the MONTHS surrounding a jolly-looking
monk Who held gridiron TO his breast and
seemed to Invite enjoyment and promise
good chfer.r He stood at the opening of a
kitchen Fupon a doorsill marked with the
Ldtln WpfN LAX, as typical OF the peace
soon expected to come.
President Boynton'S patriotic Speech
President Roynton, in a patriotic utter
ance, opened with a toast to the President
Of the United States, an innovation which
he strongly commended saying:
In this rev time the Gridiron Club de-
sres to make. new suggestion concerning
toasts. to the President of the United States
There is an Anglo-Saxon race across the
sea whose boast for many decades has been
that'it rules the waves and that the sun
never sets on its dominion.
AT all its feasJs, whether in polar regions
or where palms wave within the tropics
the first toast is The Queen
''There is another Ang4e-SaXon nation this
side of the sea, upon whose flag of stars
the sun shines ncaasingiy 1t is as if the
trumpet of resurrection had sounded for the
nation, calling Il in the twinkling of an eye
to life. 10 wider responsibilities, %
broader fields Of patriotic effort. to a com
handing position among the powers of the
earth.
let Anglo-SaXon forms follow our drum
beat around the world, and al all our feasts,
whether where The ice breaks within the
Arctic circle. where temperate regions
smile or where the trOpic airs blow softly,
let the first toast be always The President
And tonight IL shall be to that President
under whose mastery guidance the marvel
Ous results Of The year have been wrought
out"
The Mormon Question.
The initiation of a new member, Mr.. Hen
ry Hall of the Pittsburg Times afforded an
opportunity for a play upon the Mormon