Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1879 — A Dinner Excuse. [ARTICLE]

A Dinner Excuse.

Apologies for poor dinners are generally out of place. But when a lady has a forgetful husband, who, without warning, brings home a dozen guests to sit down to a plain family dinner for four, it is not in human nature to keep absolute silence. What to say and how to say it, form the problem. Mrs. Tucker, the wife of Judge Tucker, of Williamsburg, Va., solved this problem many years ago She was a daughter or niece (I am uncertain which) of Sir Peter Skipwith, and celebrated for her beauty, wit, ease and grace of manner. Her temper and tact were put to the proof one court-day, when the Judge brought with him the accustomed halfscore or more of lawyers, for whom not the least preparation had been made, the Judge having quite forgotten to remind his wife that it was court-day, and she herself, strange to say, having overlooked the fact. The dinner was served with elegance, and Mrs. T. made herself very charming. Upon rising to leave the guests to their wine, she said: “ Gentlemen, you have dined to-day with Judge Tucker; promise me now that you will dine with me to-morrow.” This was all her apology, whereupon the guests declared that such a wife ■was beyond price. The Judge then explained the situation, and the next day there was a noble banquet. Moral: Never worry a guest with apologies.

The Convict-Lease System in Georgia. A report of the Penitentiary Committee of the Georgia Legislature has startled the State, and a resolution has been introduced to abolish the lease of convicts which was made for twenty years. The report shows: 1. That there have been 25 to 40 per cent, of escapes, against 7 per cent, under the old system; and that there are 525 escaped convicts now roaming through the State of Georgia- 2. That in some camps the men and women prisoners are chained together indiscriminately in sleeping bunks, and that the State is actually raising a camp of felons, as there are twenty-five children in the penitentiary, bom of mothers who are in shackles. 3. That the death-rate is 10 per cent, per annum (omitting the Dade coal company), and that in two camps it has averaged 16 per cent, per annum for two years, and in another it was, for four months, 10 per cent, per ipopth, or 40 per cent, for four months,