The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1899-08-04
BANQUETS FOR men ONLY.
HISTORY SHOWS THIS HAS AL
WAYS BEEN THE CASE.
Long Before the Lords supper and Ever
Since 1t Has Been Customary
to Exclude the
Weaker Sex.

When the last supper was partaken
OF by the Lord and his disciples no
woman participated, although the
great teacher numbered many among
his friends. This was In strict ac-
cordance with the law of the pass
over, which forbade women attending
their feasts. And the last supper was
eaten on the eve Of the passover, ac-
cording to the synotic gospels.
Going further afield into the remote
past we find women are not permitted
to sit at meat with the philosophers at
their Utopian banquets. Socrates i'm
proved the opportunity to speak his
mind freely concerning Xantippe, for
1t was on one of these occasions when
he made his cynical remark that he
married Xantippe in order that her
society might inure him to the trials
Of life. An after-dinner speech that
has never been equaled for meanness.
Hawthorne, is describing his at
tendance at some public banquets in
England. has this to say of one given
by the Lord Mayor Of London:
Zone very pleasant characteristic
which l never met with at any other
public dinner was the presence of
ladies'"
He does not tell Us what they did
or said, but confines himself to the
gastronomic features Of the banquet.
He says:
There fell to my lot three delecta-
bic things-a red mullet, a plate of
mushrooms, exquisitely stewed, and q
part OF a ptarmigan."
And then the Lord Mayor passed
the loving cup, and 1t Is easy guessing
the delight Of Hawthorne at seeing
that dignified and ancient custom for
the first time.
At the head Of the civil banquents
stands the inaugural entertainment
at the Guild hall on November 8, to
which the wives and daughters are
invited, and at which the lady May
Dress presides. A masculine descrip-
ton of this yearly banquet, which is
provided for by the government, says
that 1t is the most "vague, aristocrat-
ic, unsatisfactory and uncomfortable"
Of all the public banquets given with
in the sound Of Bow Bells" Query.
Because women are present? Be that
80 or no, that particular banquet in
terests all London. At IL the women
retire to the ballroom and a scene of
noise and gormandizing ensues, and It
is early next day when the last ban
queter departs.
Fraternity, masonic and civil ban
quets cling to the old idea that wom-
an, being "the lesser man." has no
place at their feasts. That argument
does not hold good in these days, and
Is simply begging the question. The
women can retort with justice and
truth: I'VE know why you want us
TO absent ourselves from your ban
quet. You desire to smoke freely,
drink till you drown your sorrows,
and tell risque stories. Well, have
these special occasions once a year,
but do not ask us to sit in the boxes
and galleries, so near and yet so far,
that We merely choke and blink and
watch you through the incense, won
dering why people are always at their
worst when feedingw
Apropos of which Is the story of an
old Scotch woman who listened to her
minister quoting Solomon, where he
says: zone man among a thousand
have I found; but a woman among
those have l not found"
moo, Sister McCleish, hoo do We
understand thotw asked the parson.
''I'm sure its simple ENOUGH" was
the quick answer, ma respectable
woman would ha' been seen speaking
VT Solomon"
so perhaps the highest compliment
the average banqueter could pay his
womankind Is to invite them not to
attend his banquet but to leave TO
their vivid imagination the scene
which, beginning with the feast Of
reason and flow Of soul, degenerates
into a hilarity that Is neither humor-
Gus nor entertaining and ends with a
roar that has a hint Of the cracking
of thorns under a pot, vide the laugh
ter Of fools. How do we known We
listened in the corridors, being fearful
Of a catastrophe.-Chicago Times
Herald.
TzxH