hair, placed a dish of
oysters down before me with pride, and stood to watch my delight. I
beckoned to him to take them away. He seized the dish and examined the
oysters; got another dish, placed them before me. I again requested him
to remove them. This happened a third time. I then told him plainly and
emphatically that I did not eat oysters. By this time my host and his
guests were at their third course, and I and the head waiter were still
discussing oysters. My host did not notice this, as he was at the other
end of the table, and there were many floral decorations between us; but
I made bold to inform him of the fact that the waiter had not only taken
away my plates but had removed my glasses, knives and forks, and left me
with a bare cloth and no dinner. My host had to call the waiter out of
the room and remonstrate with him, but it required some time and a great
deal of persuasion before I, the guest of the evening, was allowed to
begin my dinner when they were finishing theirs. It transpired that the
humorous paper of Baltimore had published the impressions I would
receive on visiting their great city, and prominently was a caricature
of myself swallowing my first Baltimore oyster. This so interested the
waiters of the club that they selected the largest for me, and were so
disappointed at my refusing them that they punished me in the same way
as Sancho Panza was punished before me.

Perhaps the most extraordinary dinner I ever took part in was held in
New York on November 3rd, 1896, when twelve leading Democrats and twelve
Republicans sat down on the night of the most sensational election that
has ever taken place in the United States. English readers will hardly
realise what such a combination meant. The only parallel in this country
was probably caused by Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill, when leading
Liberals and Conservatives stood on the same platform. But that was the
result of a purely political question; political questions of that
national character do not interest the better-class American. For
instance, on my first visit to America I sat next to a very influential
New Yorker at dinner. At that time also elections were pending, and I
casually asked my acquaintance what he thought of the situation. He
raised his eyebrows with great surprise and said:

"Pardon me, sir, we take no interest in politics here; we leave that to
our valets."

I met that man the day of this dinner four years later. He was
po