Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1896 — NEARLY SPOILED THE BANQUET [ARTICLE]

NEARLY SPOILED THE BANQUET

Mlsfertuaa ta a Mowr C ased Confasloa at a Dinner Given to Stanley. Mention of the present visit of Henry M. Stanley to this country brought about the narration of an amusing, though somewhat annoying, Incident in connection with the “American dinner” that waa given .to the explorer in London on hia return from the Emin Pasha relief expedition. The incident also serves to show how a very slight accident may precipitate confusion in a dinner party. The American dinner to Stanley was the idea of Henry S. Wellcome, as American business man of London, who was not only a personal fiiend of Stanley, but a member of the Arm of druggists who fitted out the Emin Pasha relief expedition. Through Mr. Wellcome’s energy almost every American in London subscribed for tickets to the dinner, and on the night it came off cover* for over three hundred people were laid in Evans’ assemblyrooms. One. table, on a dais, was reserved for Stanley and the more distinguished guests, and there were a dozed other long tables facing this one. Mr. Wellcome attended personally to the arrangement of the seats, and each man who had subscribed to tbe plate that was to be presented-to the guest of the evening was given a place at the end of one of the subsidiary tables, and others were given Beats near each other who had expressed preference. Mr. Wellcome gave minute attention- tos.theee details, and, the first thing on the morning of the night of the dinner, he took his completed plan of the table* and seats to a printer in order to have the usual diagrams ready for the guidance of the diners in taking their places. When the hour of 8:30, which had been fixed for dinner, had arrived, the :00 hundred guests were assembled in the reception-room. Stanley was there, and so waa Consul General John C. New, who waa to preside, and so were tome of the most distinguished men in England, But there was no diagrams of the dining-room, and the reception oommitte were anxiously waiting for Mr. Wellcome to arrive with them. At 8:85 o’clock. Mr. Wellcome flew in, in his business clothes, with a smudge of printer’s ink on his nose add more on, biihands. Heagoniewdy informedAh* reception committee tho.t the printer* haj pied the type or the diagrams of the tables at the hut moment, and that they would be compelled to do without them. It may seem an easy matter for 300 men to find their places at tables, when their names are at their plates, but it brought about so much confusion that everybody was turned from the diningJ room back to the reception-room and a brillirr.t schemo wa3 suggested. There was the original list of the; names of the diners, with their respective places, that Mr. Wellcome had rescued froin the printer, in the possession of the ception committee. The toastmaster was stationed on a chair at the door of the dining-room and instructed to read ihe list of names, each man to pass out and take his place ot the table when his name was called. The toastmaster was a fine._ big Englishman, with a stentorian voice. lie did as he was told. “New —Consul General John C.,” he ''■shouted, and Mr. New went through the doer. “Stanley—Henry M.,” bellowed the toastmaster next. There was a roar of laughter and that scheme for seating the guests was dropped. Finally everybody went in again and searched for his place and found it or otherwise, as best he might. Several of the guests designed for the principal table were rescued from inferior positions below, and some ambitious ones were degraded from the table of rank; but the dinner went on merrily and ended similarly, though itbegan an hour later than the time it had been set for, and all because of the accident to the diagrams.—N. Y. Telegram.