Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-18

Written for The STIR.

Written for The STIR.
OF all the Thanksgiving dinners to which
Americas self-exiles-and there are many
sit down once a year. none can equal In
jolltty those of the art students In Paris.
These observances are marked by none
of the solemnity which usually hangs thick
as pail over the Thanksgiving dinners of
the American chambers of commerce In
Paris and Berlin and the formal dinner In
London to which British worthless are in
vited and long and tiresome speeches are
made. after an elaborate menu, generally
In French, has been more or less laboriously
run through to the coffee. The art stu
dents body are never a solemn lot,
and this fact is in evidence when they give
thanks for the mercies extended to them
since previous Thanksgiving.
Just to give some Idea of how the art
students observe the day, let me go back
to the time when the Students Club (the
American Art Association of Paris held
It's first Thanksgiving dinner. This was
about fifteen years ago, shortly. after the
clubs organization.
AS Thanksgiving day would be the first
national holiday to roll around the club
very much wanted to observe the occasion,
but how? No member had ever seen cran-
berries in French market the only pump
kin offered for sale was not in the shape
of pies, but in dried STRIPS for baking and
soups, and as for sweet potatoes, they were
as utterly unknown to the average French
man as were cranberries. True, French
turkey could be secured-a good turkey at
that-but what was turkey without the
trimmings?
Thanksgiving Dinner From Home.
When the club, In the depths of despair,
had about decided that it would be COM
PEELED by circumstance to forego good,
old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner, word
was received from the Art Students League
of New. York that 1t was going to present
the new association with a Thanksgiving
dinner that would recall the kind mother
used to serve up steaming hot on that
crisp, memorable day, back on the farm in
the years gone by. This message was soon
followed by a consignment of real Ameri-
can turkeys, all done to a golden brown
and all stuffed; enough cranberry sauce to
last the club for a month of SUNDAYS
seemingly, and pies, pumpkin pies, regular
New England pumpkin pies. You know the
kind.
The dinner was served in the little house
on the Boulevard Montparnasse, then occu-
pied by the club. The room was decorated
chiefly with the stars and stripes and the
tn color intertwined, but l believe l am
safe in saying this feature was not noticed
until the dinner was well over, for the eyes
OF every Yankee as he entered the room
we're on the table, sight of which brought
tears to more than one pair of eyes.
And how we ate! The first platesful bare
ly served, there arose on all sides demands
for more turkee" and "sose de cronberres"
The poor garcons were overwhelmed. What
We're these strange things the diners wished?
'"Turkee?" What was that? And "sose de
cronberres that? The dinner COM
lnittee, you see, had forgotten, in its ex-
element, to instruct the garcons concern
ing the names of the new dishes.
Howled for Turkey.
The howls became louder and louder the
confusion greater, with the walters run
ming helplessly about and offering the diners
everything but what they wanted. At last
some students. recalling the French word
for turkey, began shouting: "Dinde! dindei
dinde!' Others took up the chorus and the
6arcons. at last enlightened, soon had the
delicious birds going the way that all their
kind should go.
But there was at that time no word in the
French language for cranberry, and despite
the efforts Of the students throughout the
meal to associate the dish with the phrase
''sose de cronberres'' many comical situa-
lions resulted, all serving to heighten the
enjoyment Of the occasion. which at no
stage was less than intense.
After the coffee came. not set speeches,
but impromptu MISUNDERSTANDING, Bo-
hemian, straight from the heart and, with
one exception, all favored with the true
the exception was made by man born in
America of Armenian parents. Mellowed
by the most distinctive dishes of his fathers
adopted country and the strains of MY
Country, IT'S of Thee" his recountal Of the
atrocities practiced upon his relatives In
Armenia by the Turks SO worked upon the
sympathies OF his impressonable audience
that when he sat down all were on the point
of falling, weeping, his neck. 1t
touched the Armenian greatly to have such
deep feeling displayed for him by his sixty
odd fellow diners-but what the state Of
mind of the sixty-odd q few days later, on
discovery that the Armenian had told
monumental lie, simply to work up his hear
ers. can easily be imagined.
This violation of the spirit of the day was
the only thing that marred the banquet, and
it was soon forgotten came to be laughed
over. On the whole the banquet was so sue
cessful that 1t was determined to repeat 1t
every year. and this has been done.
Preparing the Dinners.
Except the initial dinner all have been pre-
pared in the clubhouse by the French chefs
that the club has had from time to time.
The average French chef knows how to
roast turkey to the traditional golden
brown; he usually does SO by means of
spit. There has been no need. therefore to
give any instructions IN this matter, put
with all the other things connected with
the cooking of a real Thanksgiving dinner
he has to receive help at all times.
For example. after a chef has been told
how to make 'sose de cronberres" he still
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