ere and
there those who remembered close experiences with Christian mobs rose in
their benches ostentatiously, let out their belts, and sat down again
determinedly.

The hosts clapped madly. They understood, and therefore forgave. Then
the hosts began to think that fifteen cents would have been enough.

The bugle blew. Dessert was served. It was determinedly put away.

Having convicted themselves of both charity and extravagance, each host
felt that he was not only a philanthropist but a New-Yorker.

The bugle blew again. The paper dishes were gathered up, and also such
of the knives and forks as the guests had not put in their pockets. The
trays were whisked away by the traveling-cranes.

Suddenly all the lights went out. With the utter darkness a hush fell
upon the vast audience. Then from all the bands came a mighty crashing
chord. Instantly there blazed an electric sign that stretched from one
side of the Garden to the other above the stage.

And both hosts and guests saw an American flag in red, white, and blue
lights, and below it, in letters ten feet high, they read:

AND THE GREATEST OF THESE

IS CHARITY

H. R.

Everybody cheered, for everybody agreed with the sentiment. Some even
thought it was original.

Then all the lights were turned on again. The tables were carried away
by the cranes. The guests, directed by H. R.'s lieutenants, formed in
line and paraded around the Garden. The lame, the old, the young, the
hopeless, the wicked, the maimed--all who had hungered--marched jauntily
round the vast arena that their benefactors might see who it was that
really had made the Mammoth Hunger Feast a success. They carried their
heads erect, proudly, conscious of their importance in the world. The
benefactors thereupon cheered the beneficiaries. By so doing they showed
what they thought of the benefactors. It was none the less noble!

The reporters looked at their watches. A full page on Saturday night is
no laughing matter to the make-up man. One of them rose and asked H. R.:

"Is this all? We've got to write--"

"It is _not_ all!" answered H. R., and motioned to the trumpeter, who
instantly blew the Siegfried motif. The crowd looked stageward. The rear
drop-curtain showed in high letters:

DANCING!

The guests hesitated.

The curtain was lowered a few feet. Above "Dancing!" the crowd now read:

FREE OF CHARGE!

Everybody started for the floor.

H. R. left the stage and walked into