The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-05
BY pFc,,rn

is the correct word to suagos,
approach of one of these 81 ~s
pheasant-rendings - he will fsn-
the Gridiron club as much =, .7,''
own convenience and nor.]
pique. The Gridiron dln,or.
become too important for ~ lave
OF the club itself, too expang S9o1
most of the members, and !0'
tough on the nerves and .r, 10
OF practically all concerned ''''s'
The Gridiron club is -
old, and is a distinguished or Se'.s
cation in the stuffy sense Of ea @
world, which is to say, fiat 1e
it is composed of first-class %~4+s
nallsts of the Washington coro s'4''
dinners have becme grim nd IS' .5
occasions. F'"''NsI
Out of Hand
circumstances beyond tho cr,s,
control have been ~responsibIn '.'
this unintentional change in -. ~.
character of an occasion wbiob az
gan in fun. In the last 10 yosr, W
so the Gridiron dinners. Of WIKI, y.
there are two each year. have az.
ten out of hand. The club : as'
elusive and selective, THOUGH w w.
snobbish, and its members non "
days are under great pressure f,,s
their respective publishers to aTr.
their invitations to advertisers e ars
political and industrial biz sbo.'
without regard for their own sori.1
preferences.
Long before the date Of A dinro,
the scheming and Wire.pulIing h.,
gins to obtain bids for men v%n
feel that the souvenir program
with the printed seating aryspgs.
ment is a diploma certifying then
Importance, and it is well knop,
that some of the members bava
had to yield the position Of has
to become, in a manner of Sneak
ing, ticket-boosters for their en-.
ployers.
The presidency of the Gridirm
while still a social and, to a les
degree, a professional honor, is an
economic pain in the neck 10 any
member except a few who draw
+ large salaries. Not only must The
President dig up the price of inv.
tations or tickets for an extra ouo.
ia of guests but recent custom re.
; quires him to hire a hall and heaye
hangover party on the Sunday
l afternoon following the dinner a.
. which several hundred ladies and
: gentlemen stand around absorbing
. sedatives and swapping at little
5 patches of toast lathered with may.
: onnaise and other coo, which runs
into money fast.
+ Eminent physicists in the gov.
eminent service have given Re.
peated warnings that if all the
souvenirs of the helling : around
;. which always follows a gridiym
: dinner until along toward dawn,
! were to do their shaking in unison
! at one Of those gawd-how-I.Sufte
: parties, they would whip the needle
; Of the Georgetown Seism0grapi
right out of the building, Even
shaking free-style they once
sWayed a stout old hotel bulldln:
a foot out of plumb.
Complicated
Mrs. Roosevelt also has compl
: Gated the social problem Of III;
: Gridiron by one of her bright ideas
She gives a thing called a GridlroL
Widows party which appears ID
E be a development of an old-taS.
Toned taffy pull and masquerade
by the inmates of an eXclJSN
< young ladies' boarding school Bl
l invitations are available only L
out-of-town women who are Icga4
married to out-of-toWn gentlea''
who are the dinner guests an'
also the house guests OF acu''
members of the Gridiron.
You can imagine what coHPa'
d cations that causes because, can
didly, there are som GIoto-
= widows who are not very lol''!
: with Mrs. R.. and who THEREFOR
have to 60 into hiding for the o1a
ton of the emergency. so thal 1sl
) will not be required 10 put IN .,
White House bids for out-ol'o"1
females whom they have As'''
met.
And it surely is not indelIca.'
to say that many ladies no"@oo.
get very, very puny out on a So|-%'
evening if they have to speho Nv,
or five hours without an occ0slo-S
dish of grog, but Mrs. H. ns NV.
breaks out anything which %o s-
be likely to steal ava me q Is5s
or corrupt the morals OF any .'I.
guest, and consequently so5-s /,
+ the babes, and particularly .n' NJ
ones, are likely to choke W d
time they escape. Then tn N. n 4
; tearing down the long wan A il.
: across that park and otf IN a4 +,sr
rections to the saloons, Wleie ori
collapse in quivering heaps ..s,
. pant weakly for 7uoLe Sv ~, IA.
, and, as life returns, remalh Ike
they have never seen anylnlNs
it in all their born days, ,...rs
In the little matter Oh ss!
hunk with the dirty !ep0 Wy III
;. Mrs. Roosevelt has easily N
the highest individual score u ii.
whole administration WIN W. hen
|ish get-togethers, but II nas a1g
noticed that there is never ,se..
lack of new victims, 6ecaQso sr7.
Iare so many who viii endul Tx ssy
thing once just so taeI g G[+-
they bit meat in the WhlIe ras,f