The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-24

who was to preside, would sit. EX-
tending around the four sides of the
room were festooned the flags of the
several states.
With peculiar ostentation, and next
to the national colors, flowed the BAN
ner of South Carolina, with it's palmet-
to and ttleSnake-Calhoun's emblem.
DO you see it," said the General
in low tone, as we approached our
places, do you see Calhoun's flag?
That serpent may rattle but it must
not strike"
And if it striker"
'If it strike, it dies"
Profusion and elegance were display
ed in the arrangements, with none of
that longdrawn foolishness of courses
so dear to Wings and Federals and
other imitators of an English nobility.
Black servants came and went to
shift ones plate and knife, of to aid
in carving at the call of a guest. At
hopeful intervals along the tables re-
posed huge sirlOins and smoking rounds
of beef; there We're quail, pies and
chickens fried and turkeys roasted;
there stood pies of venison and rab-
bit and pot-pies of squirrels; soups
and fishes and vegetables; boiled
hams and giant dishes of earthenware
holding baked pork and beans; roast
sucking pigs and each with a crab
apple in its mouth. There were corn
breads and flour breads and pancakes
rolled with jellies sideboards upheld
ddingS-Indian, rice and plum
quaking custards, and scores of kind
red dainties. Everywhere bristled
ranks and doubIa ranks of bottles
and decanters, and a widest range of
drinks, from whisky to wine of the
cape, were at ones call. There, too,
stood wooden bowls of salads on side
tables, supported of weighty cheeses;
and to close in the TANKS were pies,
mince and pumpkin and apple, with
final coffee. and slim long pipes with
tobacco of Trinidad for folk who would
smoke.
Before we were seated, and while we
stood to our places, the sentiment was
proposed:
THE memory of Thomas Jefferson"
The toast was drunk in silence; all
could agree on Jefferson; and then
with clatter of knife and fork, the
thirsty clink of glasses and the MUIR
murous hum of conversation over all,
the work of the night commenced.
AS the moments roved on, Nullif1ca-
ton and Secession became so much
the open objects of many present, and
were withal so loosely in the common
air that sundry gentlemen-more TIM
orous than loyal perhaps-made ex-
CuseS and withdrew
surprise to more than one; they could
not construe it. For himself, he car
ried it off as though his being there
were the most expected of possible
things. The General sat on the right
hand of the presiding Lee. 1 was,
myself, to the Generals right hand.
Opposite was Calhoun with that Cal
houn triangle of the cabinet, Berrien,
Banch and 1ngham. The quartet
got on most beamingly. The General,
as we came up, rendered them a sweep
ing bow which they might share among
them.
Calhoun" whispered the General,
indicating the Vice President with a
nod, lis, you see openly claiming his
half of my cabinet. I'll startle him
some day by making him a present
of the three"
An hour passed on; the banquet
reached that glass-an bottle stage
which Noah anticipated. There were
a round score of regular toasts; each
would smell of secession, while the
speeches were even more malodorous
of that viliainy.
I, with a hundred others, was mar
rowly watching the General, and, we'll
as L knew him, / wondered at the
calmnesS wherewith he maintained
himself. This man who had a genius
for anger, who went head free into
each debate, who offered you his last
thoughts in an unrestricted stream of
talk, would now be as impressive as
marble. The General, throughout these
wordy treasons of speech and toast,
showed cold and stern and master of
a dignity that became both himself
and the exalted character of his sta
ton.
The hour was hurrying towards the
late. Calhoun glanced across at the
General; there was questioning un-
easness in his look. Evidently the ur-
gent moment was at hand.
Calhoun offered a slip of paper to
Lee, presiding, and whispered word.
The Vice President proposes a
tcast," cried Lee.
There fell stiffness, laughter died
and talk was hushed. The Chairman
read:
g The Federal Union. Next to our
liberty, the most dear. May we all
remember that it can only be preserv-
ed by respecting the rights of the
states, and distributing equally the
benefits and the burden of the Union"
That stiffness of death continued,
marked and profound. Folk strained
and craned at both the General and
Calhoun as do ones who would observe
the effect of a shot. There were eyes
replete of interrogation, and If one
must have it truly told, defiance. to
be peculiarly turned upon the Gen
eral.
For his part, the General never wore
a loftier look. He scrubbed a quick
line and gave it to the chairman.
The President offers a toast" Then
solemnly, as one who feels it's i'm
port:
-" The Federal Union: 1t must be
preserved. "
The Generals glace was on Calhoun,
as pointed as a sword. His eye was
fierce with a sort of gray fury like
the eye of some fighting eagle. Cal
houn for a moment gave him look for
look then his glance fell his face whit
ened, he would seem to shrink and
scar and wither before the man of
fire. 1t was as though he saw the
futures danger, or felt some gallows
prophecy thereof. In the end he
sat like one under a blackness of shad-
ow.
The General 1t was who broke the
spell. Pushing back. he arose and
bowling to the chairman who still sat
with that toast OF menace in his hand