Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1882 — Dining With Giants. [ARTICLE]

Dining With Giants.

New York Man. Captain and Mrs. Martin Van Buren Bates, thp giants, enterained some friends at dinner in Brooklyn, last night. As the giants reached the door of the dining-room they bowed, an act which was at the Same time a greeting and a necessary preliminary to entering. It was a question whether both could sit at one end of the table, but they managed It. The first course consisted of small oysters on half-shell. It waa pleasant to behold the grace with which Mrs. Martin Van Buren Bates conveyed the small oysters from the plate away off to her lips. “This table,” said the Captain,' “ought to be about three feet higher, and these chairs high in proportion. When I was in the war I had a very hard time to get accommodations to suit my size. For instance, if I was ying down beside a camp fire in winter my head and body might be warm enough, but my legs might be in an atmosphere below srero.” “Didn’t the enemy make a target of you?” “Not so much as you might think, though my Colenel used to make toe lie down and form the men behind me out of the enemy’s sight. Later in the evening some one happened to mention Parson Brownlow. v “Oh. I knewhimwell said the Captain, “There was only a mountain between his house and mine. I used to look over the mountain and talk with him.” Captain and Mrs. Bates are small eaters. They were served yesterday with the same portions as their guests. One of their intimate friends said this was not a point ofetiquet,.hiit that they were always a« abstemious. Mrs. Bates is a trifletaller th an the Captain, but she rarely refers to the fact for fear of wounding her husband’s feelings.