Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1904-03-24

trophy-hung dining room was so great
that even director of the London, |
Chatham & Dover Railroad company
would have acknowledged that for once
in his life he had met with genuine
case of oyercroWding. So democratic |
a Notwithstanding the fact
that the future king of England and
emperor of India sat i'll the midst
is net often to be seen. At the Ish-
mael, brains and good fellowship
are counted greater righteousness than
"Coir' or a coronet. Within its walls
all men are equal To a good fellow.
the right hand Of fellowship is readily
extended. The stick" will find him
self as readily cold-shouldered and
the assumer of side" may think him
self lucky if he be allowed to depart
Undated. To see the Ishmaelites
trail a sufferer from "swelled head"
is to undergo incubation against tn at
fell malady. The author who has sud
denly found public and as suddenly
lost himself, or the moneyed nobody,
who has made a successful bid for
baronetage by placing his thousands
at the disposal of his political party,
elsewhere than at the Ishmael. When
such a man is known to be in the
house, the word goes round, and to
! him these trusting children of ma
| ture come to be instructed in the Sc.
cret of his greatness. They sit at his
| feet and drink in his words of wisdom
as IL hoping thereby one day to follow
be it ever SO humbly-in his foot
steps. They ask him artless questions
| about himself, and when he cOnde-
sends to crafty their very natural
| desire to be informed upon so inter-
esting a subject they tell each other
audibly what great man he is, or sit
| listening with unconcealed wonder and
| admiration in their eyes They beg
| to be allowed to present to him this
or that friend or member who will es-
| TEEN it a privilege to know so distin-
| euished a person, and when their vic
| tim is most swollen-like a human
wind bag-with gratified vanity and a
sense of his own Importance, they un-
| ostentatiously produce the necessary
| pin, and what is left of him when they
| have done with him is scarcely
worth the trouble of sweeping up, not
to say of interment.
With the Ishmaelites the heir ap-
parent had always been prime favor
| ite. Whatever their faults may be-
| they are at least not flunkeys, and his
popularity with them is in no sense at
| tributable to his exalted position, but
TO their regard for him as a man. If
there is one man in all England who
may be pardoned for allowing a fiat
| terer to get the blind side of him, it
| is surely he whose every wish >or
| whim it is the business of those about
him TO humor. Yet if there is one
man in England who is absolutely in
| accessible to fiattery, it is the genial.
| generous, but keen-eyed prince. This
the Ishmaclites know well, and the?
love him for it, just as they hail him
prince of good fellows, and the best
and most honest hater of sham and
| humbug in the country.
Hence the dinner which was being
| given in his honor was the most bril-
liant and at the same time the heart
lest function that the club house has
ever witnessed. Brains, pluck and
| Observation-Disclosures are what the
lshmaelites most delight to honor;
but being a British club, they put
| bravery before even brains, and at the
high table that night sat wearers OF
| the Victoria cross, leaders of foTlorn
hopes. admirals who had saved life as
well as fought the enemy at sea, ex-
| plOrers, travellers and soldiers who
with q handful of men had held an
impossible position or not hesitated to
face thrice outnumbering foe.
| Everything had gone without q
! hitch, and there was no denying that
the function was a magnificent success.
| The prince, still pale from his recent
illness, was, it was easy to see. both
touched and gratified by the genuinely
enthusiastic and affectionate greeting
which had been accorded to him; and
never had he looked more thoroughly
at home than when hobnobbing with
| the Ishmaelites.
Dinner being finished, and the per-
mission, Brother Ishmaelites, you
may smoke!" having gone forth and
been received with the customary yell.
the chairman rose in his place to
make the speech of the evening. by
proposing the princes health. An
other yell greeted the placing of the
ten-minute bell before him, and yet
another the setting of the machinery
in motion. Then he began his speech
Nothing of the sort could have been
happier, for there was not false note
| throughout. He claimed for the prince
only that illustrious personage's due;
and yet he referred SO sympath etically
to his illness and paid so graceful a
tribute to his qualities as a man, a
sportsman and good fellow, that the
lshmaelites interrupted him again and
again with ringing cheers.
The announcement-the unexpected
announcement-that the prince had
that evening expressed his wish to be-
come a member of the club and a
Brother Ishmaelite, brought the en-
thusiasm to the eliminating point; but
the welcome words had scarcely passed