Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1908 — An Extraordinary Dinner. [ARTICLE]

An Extraordinary Dinner.

Sir Frank Lascelles had some exciting experiences In the course of his diplomatic career. He was with Sir Edward Malet in Paris in 1870 during the siege and the commune and told the story of an extraordinary dinner which they had at the embassy shortly after a cannon ball had driven in the front wall and reduced the kitchen to rplns. A general retreat was made to

the cellar. And here the two Englishmen solemnly arrayed themselves In dress clothes and sat down to dine In as much “state” as possible, amid a hopeless jumble of treasured bric-a-brac, valuables, clocks, china, etc., for not a scrap of the usual ceremony and etiquette was waived despite the incongruous surroundings. “It looked like the haunt of Sir Edward wrote to a friend, “who had Just ransacked a stately castle and brought the booty hither, while iu the center In vivid contrast of neatness with disorder was the table laid out for dinner, with its white tablecloth and silver candlesticks and, to crown incongruities, Frank Lascelles and myself in evening dress and white ties, waited on by the stately butler and embassy servants.”—London Tit-Bits.