The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-02-10

The other night we attended the
annual banquet of the Spokane Cham-
Der of Commerce. 1t was some ieed'
not so particularly on account OF the
quantity and quality OF the viands pro-
vided, although they were abundant
and good enough, but because some
l.l32 people sat down TO the tables III
a single room and partook of the gas
tronomic and mental pabulum served
out. The banquet was served in the
upper floor store room of one OF the
tall buildings occupied by the largest
department store in the city the only
room in the city that would seat so
many at one time and leave space Tor
the caterers to serve. The Assembly
was composed of many OF the leading
business and professional men OF the
city with fair sprinkling of ladies
it was keen, clean cut, wide-awake.
energetic, well groomed lot of men,
banded together in laudable work
for the best interests of the city in
which they live. 1t was truly repre-
sentative body of the more progress
i've and pushing element of Spokane.
and it was an appreciated privilege
as well as a great pleasure to sit in
juXtaposition to such accomplished
gentlemen and charming ladies.
The proceedings of the evening
were not confined to the activities of
the knife, fork and spoon, as there
was musical program rendered
while the dinner was under way and
speeches followed the dessert. 1t was
probably more for the fringe and
frills than the substance in the meal
served that people turned out in such
numbers to this annual banquet. but
insofar as the program Is concerned
few were able to extract any enjoy
ment from the various numbers. The
singers and speakers stood at one end
of the vast room which is low cell
inged and broken up with large
number of heavy pillars, a combina-
ton fatal to the conveying of sound
and those who were on the outside of
the big audience might as well have
been down in the basement so far as
they could hear what was being said
by the speakers The vocal numbers
were given during the dinner. and
with the buzz of voices. the clatter of
dishes accompanying the gastronomic
exercises of some eleven hundred odd
diners only an occasional high note
ever reached the tables remote from
Il Al 70 ;oh
ers stood AS to the speeches the pa
pers the next day pronounced them
interesting and instructive. To those
on the fringe of the audience they
seemed painfully prolix. and could not
be followed. as understandable words
would filter through the smoke only
OCCASIONALLY. 1t is unfortunate that too
often in public affairs of this nature
the speaker does not know when to
reach his peroration An after dinner
speech should be short, snappy and
humorous, and when an address is
prolonged it becomes tiresome, and
no matter how exalted the speaker.
how prominent he may be in the
walks of public life, when he becomes
verbose, the crowd is inclined to for
get the courtesy due an invited guest
and display their lack of interest by
"a noisy restlessness From the
amount of applause that followed the
closing of the particular address re-
ferred to one was in a quandry to de-
eide whether the applause was given
so vOciferOusly as appreciation that
the speaker had exhausted his subject
or whether the speech was really con-
sidered so excellent by those sitting
within hearing distance that the dem
onstratiOn was one of whole hearted
approval.
To stranger attending this ban
quet the most interesting part was the
annual report of the officers of the or
ganization announcing what had been
accomplished during the past year,
showing as it did that the Chamber of