The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1900-08-14
TESTING WITH THE DlGNITIES.

a banquet of the right sort is an
affair OF friends, a privileged occa-
sion where reserve Is dropped and
professional stiffness laid aside. 1t is
place for jest and repartee, for per-
sonal drives" and Jokes" where
cares and quarrels are thrown away
and give and take is the spirit of the
hour. No man in his senses gets angry
when epigrams are made over the
walnuts and the wine and no man of
good breeding shows anger II some
inadvertence seems likely to provoke 1t.
The ideal banquet means the good
fellowship of comrades. not the spirit
of the duello or the prize ring; and no
classes of people, as II rule, live up to
the ideal state better than lawyers.
They are accustomed to have fun at
each others expense in court and to
shake hands afterwards; and they of
all others are qualified and expected TO
do the same thing at the banquet
board. That tritling Jest should set
such rhetorical post graduates on edge
and impel three men of the standing of
judges to leave feast and frolic in n
huff, is incomprehensible. The incident
of Friday night suggests the servants
ball from which a lady's maid flew In
dignant to her mistress and said:
Mem, the young man who took me
out, grossly insulted mel"
How did he insult your" inquired
the mistress.
He asked me TO supper and when
we were through he said: Miss is your
program full2'"
The three judges who arose In such
awful dignity when Lawyer McClana-
han cracked n joke about the bench
are very new TO the ermine. two are
very young and one Is as eager as an
actress for the first time starred, TO
have his name mixed up in a daily
sensation. 1t was combination to
make the most OF fanced slight, the
more so because all three judges, sleep
ing and waking. seem to be burdened
with the majesty of their offices. To
them the veriest shadow of the crime
OF lese majestic is objectionable. Gray
haired jurists who have forgotten more
law than these novices ever learned
would have sat out the Bar Associa-
tons banquet Paul Neumann style,
and returned Jest for jest and quip for
quip; II remained for men whose judg
ments have not yet had time to be
overruled and whose ermine still sheds
hairs to look aghast at every fitting
witticism and when the omnipotence of
the bench--thelr bench-was lightly
touched with the breath OF raillery to
rise in stilted wrath ana walk impe-
riously out of doors. Upon what meat
hath these our Caesars fed that they
have grown 80 great?
Let the Advertiser commend to these
fresh but yet tumefied jurlsts a study
of the banquet speeches VI the Grid
Iron Club OF Washington, an an
naal function which makes sport
enough OF an evening 10 last the official
society OF the national capital until the
next circus. The Gridiron Club is no
respector of persons, let Its guests he
whom they may. II the President of the
United States happens To DE there. he
VIII see his gravest policy put In the
most ridiculous light ana lIe win take
II as good nRturedly as he would re-
nomination, II the Chief Justice and
the Associate Justices OF the Supreme
Court are there. as Is usually the case,
their most ponderous decisions will be
oarleatured amid Toars OF laughter In
which they always Join. The Cabinet