Omaha daily bee., 1919-03-30
Views and RevleaUs
Comment Suggested By General
Current NeWS Topics.

Comment Suggested By General
Current Ne,os Topics.
From handsomely red-leather-b bound roster
book issued by the Jacksonian Club in 1894, that
has come to the surface in Disadvantage
roundup came several reminders of the hey
day of Old Hickory politics in this neck O.
woods. just rs years ago. At that particular
by w. D. McHugh, president; w. S. Shoemaker,
vice president; Charlie Connoyer, treasurer; w.
F. Wappich, secretary; R. v. Montague CORE
spending secretary, and r. E. L. Herdman,
man of the executive committee, Jim Sheean
chairman of the membership committee, and
John Powers chairman of the campaign COM
mittee. In an appended statement information
is vouchsafed that the Jacksonian Club was or
gained on the 9TH day OF February, 1891, and.
democrat" it sought to emulate his exam
pie and to honor his~memory Dissatisfaction
with local conditions, want of party fealty
and lack OF organization. emphasized. the need
t-of such emulation political activity is made a
test of membership. The passive member is
displaced to be succeeded by one more active
and the interested party man is sought out and
recognized. Loyalty to party nominations is
respected and enforced" On the Sth of jan
uary of each year, the anniversary of the battle
of New Orleans, the Jacksonian Club has cele
brated the event by banquet. According to
the record incorporated into the booklet the
preceding banquet ha3 as the headliners: Hon.
J. Sterling Morton and Hon. John P, Irish, evil
IDENTIFY as antithesis-to the guest OF honor of
the year before, Hon. w. ]. Bryan incidentally
Mr.. Morton's subject was Truth Points out
the Proper Path in Politics; Right is Always
Expedient." 1t is history that the Jacksonians
nominations" When was St Jackson's day last
duly celebrated here with feast and fiery words?
would have to look il up in the guide book
1t has been noticeable that we have not had
so many banquets and dinners and toasts and
good-fellowship gatherings during the last two
years as 5efore. As rule this slowing-up has
been explained as due to the absorption of our
time and energies irI the multiplication of war
activities and we have forgotten that Nebraska
also went dry just about the same time the
country went into war. That it was the dry
ness more than the war has been more than
once hintcd, but it may give assurance to have
expert authority reinforce the proposition.
Readers who remember Sam Blythe's scintil-
have with us tonight" which made such Ia hit
because so true to nature, will therefore find
equal de]ectation in his forecast of the dis
appearance of after dinner oratory as a con-
sequence of the impending advent of "aridity"
After treating of other phases of the dry-wave
in his article in the current Saturday Evening
Post, he, expatiates:
Now desire to point out one great and
glorious benefcence that will attain to the
people therefrom. refer to the inevitable
lapse into despetude of that appalling Amer
lean institution, the banquet; and its CO.
related scourge, the afterdinner speaker. No
booze-no banquets: or at least far fewer;
for not even an amendment to the constitu-
ton can force the American people to go to
these affairs and listen to the turgid oratory
with he Sedu md
influence OF few drinks during the course
OF the dinner, and while the speakers are
pulling their ancient wheezes and subtracting
from the sum total Of human knowledge. 1t
can't be done. | have been to several dry
banquets in my time and l am here to say
that dry banquet is the form of human en-
tertainment-the amoeba of amusement.
The merry little qup that sounded great
because it was absorbed after sufficient
quantity Of drink had been absorbed to add to
its piquancy will fall like 16-pound lake fish
on marble slab at Fulton Market on De-
cember morning. The wheeze will die
a-bornin' and the peroration will be delivered
to harassed and sleepy walters. The only thing
that made most of these banquets endurable
was the drinks that were served, and now that
they will be on water basis it will be Kitty,
bar the door.
THE curse and calamity of American life
IS after-dnner speaking, preceded by formal
dinners. 1t has driven many men to crime
who were normally respectable citizens. 1t
has bored millions of our countrymen to that
extinction that was the forerunner of excess
by its pomposity its platitudes and its pih1e.
Prohibition will attend to the banquets. They
will die the death and the after dinner speakers
will undoubtedly expire-as we'll they may
from the That reminds me- and Two Irish
men one day. and Now, my friends, must
be serious for moment that will come to
great congestion and undoubtedly, and happily
cause them to explode into many pieces.
There will be no mourners"
So face the music, you Palimpsests and Fine
Artists and Knife and-F orkers. and figure it out
for yourselves The feast and the fun maker
are in danger OF divorce and the calamity, if it
be calamity, threatens not us in Omaha alone
but everybody. everywhere in the country-un-
less we devise and develop some other way to
serve the purpose satisfactorily.
The announcement that Ak-Sar-Ben will
transform its street carnival into an agricultural
exhibit and live stock show, with incidental rae
ing and amusement features and for that pur-
pose has acquired a tract of land near the West
Center street road, marks the completion of
circle back to the starting point. For be it re-
called tina, Ak-Sar-Ben was originally instituted
IN 1875 to furnish entertainment for state fair
visitors, the fair then being located here on
these very grounds, prepared and maintained
under an agreement to continue for five sue
ceSsive years. Three Of the annual state fairs
were held as stipulated, the fourth and fifth
being merged into the Transmissssippi expo
sition and its Greater America aftermath. Then
the institution was permanently relocated at
the state capital and Ak-Sar- Ben left to hold
The biggest drawback of the old state fair was
its inaccessbility, being reached only by spur
line of the street railway. There were no pave
ments within hailing distance and the roads