Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-12-12


| other ladies We're handsomely dressed,
but it remained for the two Jewish la
dies to exhibit fine diamonds in eX-
trava CANT numbers.
In such mixed assemblage it was
almost impossible to establish anything
like sociability. and the poor hostess
| grew haggard with the effort The
| Turks looked on with preternatural
gravity and bowed with exceeding POI
| likeness on all occasions. The Persian
| ambassador might have been Il wooden
| image for all the expression on his
face. The Albanian stood in n corner
in solitary grandeur. his stiffiy starched
fustanelle standing out like a ballet
dancers skirt. The Japanese consul
smiled and bowed right and left with
praiseworthy impartiality. The Eng
lishmen stood in a group. while the
Greek. French and Armenian got ito
gether and were soon talking with ami
nation, while the word ''parades' fell
from their lips as if money was the
only thing worth mention. The Rus
sian. Spanish, Italian and German gen
tlemen paid strict attention 10 the la
dies, who sat in the two upper parlOrs.
while the men appropriated the main
room.
Miss Laffan-Hanly, the very pretty
daughter of the host and hostess, play
ed Christmas carols on the piano. but
nobody listened, and it was a relief
when dinner was announced. 1t was
understood that this dinner was to be
representative of the Christmas in Eng
land, and so there was Il roast of beef
of astonishing proportions following an
enormous boiled fish on wooden tray.
Two monstrous turkeys and chicken
pie filled the table. with the vegetables
and small things. such as pickles,
olives, etc. Everything was put on to-
gether save the dessert. Wines there
were and pure water for the Turks and
Persians.
At last everybody was seated. The
service was well done by three men
from the big hotel. The Greeks and
ArmenianS had come to dinner and
they did full justice to it. The rest of
the guests were more circumspect or
had smaller appetites. The amount OF
bread they consumed was astounding.
The Persian ambassador was the
guest of honor, with Hadji Rassim
Effendi opposite. The hadji was an
orthodox Turk of the old school. Fuad
PaSha was the same, but he was in
some ways not so strict in his ObServ-
ances, so he took a little wine. AS the
first hunger passed, the wine began to
loosen tongues and one would have
imagined oneself in a new Babel. JestS
and couplets were made and toastS
passed back and forth i'll all the thir
teen languages spoken.
The dinner lasted nearly three hours.
The dessert consisted of great plum
pudding covered with blazing rum and
several fine mince pies. The Turks
seemed to have an instructive fear of
pudding blazing with Satanic blue
lights and took mince pie or fruits.
As so much of Turkish cookery is
based on minced meats the Turks
thought the mince pies were safe. The
Greeks and Armenians managed both
pie and fruits and ate with a good
coming appetite everything offered
them. Then came coffee and cigars,
and the ladies went back upstairs.
Mr.. Laffan-Hanly had his cue to
bring the gentlemen all up as soon as
he could, SO that they might have some
Christmas games. They had become n
little more sociable among themselves,
but as soon as they were back among
the women the different elements sep
arated again into their component
parts, and it was desperate work to get
them interested in snapdragon. The
Turks seemed to fear the flames of al
cohol and would not even try to pull
out the plums.
Finally one of the Greeks sang one
of the native seesaw caterwauling
songs, and after that the games were
given up in favor of an impromptu
dance. The Persian and the Turks
looked on gravely while the rest dance
They maintained their impossible grav@l
ity until Hadji Rassim- Effendi signi-4
fed that he wanted to go home. RE
was i'll. He had. secure in his belief
of the innocence of the pie, eaten three
big pieces. And the crust was short
ened with the fat of the ''unutterable
fieshr'
His departure broke up the party.
Not one of them had understood any
thing of the object lesson on an Eng
glish Christmas in spite of all the Ian
guages spoken. 49,
The poor hostess hair turned white
that night. and next week her hus-
bands newspaper type was distributed
in the BOsporuS Hadji Rassim was
the press censor.
GLADYS GEORGE JAMES.
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