Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-02-19
JOURNALISTS
HIGH J|NKS
The Gridiron Club Gives
Another Banquet
CHARACTERISTIC ORGIES
Shafts of Wit Find Vulner-
able Points in Armor of
Distinguished G. ue S t S !.
Hosts do Not Escape I'm
scathed From the Fray.

Washington. Feb. 1S-That unique
organization of newspapermen, the
Gridiron club. entertained its friends
at dinner tonight, and Il would be
hard to tell which got the most fun
out of the varied melange of wit and
humor; of sense and nonsense, that
was poured forth-the guests or the
hosts There were many men of
high degree among the former; men
of stern visage with faces lined with
the burdens of great public charges
and responsibilities: yet they laugheie
like school boys and chuckled and
chortled with mirth at the merry
quips and jests of the scribes that I'M
failingly played upon the foibles of
some of their number or hit off in a
roaring skit some fatal weakness in
the party policies.
And the hosts had that keen sense
of enjoyment that comes from a
knowledge that one has purveyed sue
cessfully to the utmost demands of
mind and matter and has supplement-
ed a repast of the most exquisite
viafds with a feast of mingled humor
and satire calculated to add infinite
zest to the entertainment.
Gridiron dinners differ from most
other formal affairs Of the table in
the fact that guest does not wade
drearily through heavy course din
ner clear down to the coffee am
cigars and only then. with brain more
or less dulled. have an opportunity
to listen to floods OF oratory No: at
one OF these banquets the fun begins
with the very seating of the guests
and sparkles and crackles through the
dinner. and interrupts courses in a
fashion calculated to drive a WE'LL
meaning chef to distraction.
Tonight's dinner was no exception
to the rule for almost at the outset
there was what offered 20 be a bitter
row over the Inauguration Of Richard
v. Oulahan. publisher of the New
York Sun. as president to preside
over the dinners OF the Gridiron club
for the next year. Quite unaware of
opposition, he had taken his seat at
the very handle of the Gridiron
when he was fiercely beset by the
famous democratic committee of fif-
teen" Because they had undertake
en- to run the business of the house
of representatives relieving of all
responsibility the unfortunate speak
er (Champ Clark whom they exhib-
tied i'm shackles to demonstrate what
a rules fight in one congress can do
to a perfectly good speaker in the
oxtanHad THAR m
bilious designs and demanded to be
inaugurated as president of the Grid
iron club
Scarcely had the committee been
placated by being resolved into a
'hog combine" and order restored
when a Japanese spy was unearthed.
Papers of the most compromising ma
ture were found upon his person.
such as a diagram showing where
Honorable Cummins will place a step
ladder on the back porch of the
White House." BLUE print of Hon
Tafts mind when Hon. Hitchcock re-.
fused to be impelled with toe of boot
out of republican national committee"
"Phonograph record showing long in
tervals of silence at Oyster Bay
and measurements of Honorable hole
into which congress throws billions
of dollars each year" Just when the
ran highest II was discov-
cred that the pseudospy was Rich
mond Pearson Hobson-the Japanese
War Scare"
Blythe enough was the sprightly
clerk who announced to the diners
that the house had passed the recip-
rocity bill, which he held in hrs hand
But he cut an awful figure a few
later as ne emerged from the
doof OF the senate chamber. with his
clothes I'm tatters, his hat knocked
over his eyes and the parchment of
the bill in shreds-"all that was left
OF reciprocity"
Then for a moment the dining hall
with its exquisitely beautiful floral
was plunged into
biackness. and the great fiery grid
iron over President Taft's head faded
away. In sepulchral tones a lecturer
lifted his voice amid the chill silence
and discoursed mournfully. and then
in turn with pungent wit upon pub
lie men and measures. and shrieks of
laughter were heard as a remorseless
spot light was directed upon the
victims of his shafts of wit
as they were each in order disclosed
to their fellow guests.
Thinking that he had quieted all OPP
position in disposing OF the Com
mittee Of Fifteen" the newly installed
president of, the club. had been lulled
into false security. Before his very
eyes a big table was spread like