Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 269, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1911 — PAST OUR LIMIT WHEN $10 PLATE WAS ESTABLISHED. [ARTICLE]

PAST OUR LIMIT WHEN $10 PLATE WAS ESTABLISHED.

Indiana Society of Chicago Wfll Have Saw Buck Banquet la Gold Boom of the Congress HoteL Talk about the high cost of living, why, dem my buttons, all a Hoosier has to do is to move to Chicago, write a poem or draw a picture or loan a few thousand dollars of some other fellow's money to some sucker that don’t mind paying 50 per cent interest, join the Indiana Society, and he’ll wake up some morning to find his bed quilt plastered with |SO bills. I remember as a boy how delighted I wap when I landed a job'driving a

free bus to the Makeever hotel and got to eat what was left after the commercial tourists and the regular boarders had cleaned up. And 1 remember when I was old enough to go to Chicago and eat a 65 cent meal at the Boston Oyster House. Oh, I felt big. I just thought that was the finest thing on earth. Then I attended a banquet at |1 a plate and read of one held over in New York at $3 per and I. couln’t see how they could get it all on the' table, much less eat more than 98 cents worth. Then people went to bowling about the high cost of -living and began to boycott the ’butchers and form societies for the

.reduction of the expense of feeding hungry faces. People howled about the trusts, the middleman, the retailer, the manufacturer, the producer. and the fellow that didn't greet you with the expression, “Laws, halnt livin’ high” was an oddity. People talked about the time the butchers used to give the livers away and when any farmer would haul you in a load of pumpkins to get rid of ’em. And now, right in the face of a Hoosier effort to reduce the high cost of living along comes the Indiana Society of Chicago and puts on a banquet at $lO a plate and makes us feel bad by sending us invitations with a “pay your own freight” clause.

Our own former townsman, William B. Austin, who, once upon a time, ran barefoot along the banks of the Iroquois, with nb knowledge of anything finer in the eating line than a 25-cent meal at the hotel, is the chairman of the invitation committee. The invitation reads:

“The Seventh Annual Banquet of the Indiana Society of - Chicago will take place at the Congress Hotel on Saturday evening, DecStober Ninth, Nineteen Hundred Eleven. The speakers of the evening will be: Reverend Father John Cavanaugh, President of Notre Dame University; Ex Mayor Charles Bookwaiter, of Indianapolis; Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, now of Washington, D. C, and Governor Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana. Among the guests of the Society on that evening there will be present Mr. W. S. Gillilan— “Then fame came and. boarded with Gillilan, ’’ He’d proved a true Indianian— And Richmond grew famous in less . than a night Through owning a poet who sat down to write The rhythmical story of Finnegan Who penciled the mesage to Flannigan Off ag’in, on ag’ln.

Come ag’in—“Finnigan.” and Mr. Cy Warman, whose poem, dedicated to the Indiana Society of Chicago—has been set to music to be sung for the first time before the society on that evening. It is enopgh to say that we all know “Sweet Marie.”

The souvenirs for the evening will be most unique and valuable, consisting of a set of eleven original books written especially for the Society by James Whitcomb Riley, George Barr McCutcheon, Robert Alexander Wason, Marjorie Benton Cooke, Gene Stratton Porter, Merideth Nicholson, Charles Major, Kin Hubbard, John T. McCutcheon, George Ade, and “Who’s Hoosier” by Wilbur D. Nesbit The edition will be limited and no other opportunity will be afforded to secure them. The Purdue University Glee Club, which this year is equal to any College Glee Club in the West and consists of over twenty-five members, will furnish the music, assisted by a full orchestra. Bach member will be entitled to take a guest, and as the . comfortable seating capactiy is limited to three Xdred, those members who wish to b guests are expected to apply to the Invitation Committee at once. The price of tickets will be ten doldars each. Respectfully,

WILLIAM B. AUSTIN

Chairman Invitation Committee,

35 South Dearborn Street Chicago, November Tenth ~3, \ Nineteen Hundred Eleven