It happened exactly as H. R. had told Bishop Phillipson. Each charitable
person thought of his particular ticket and looked for his individual
guest among the 12,137.
Each charitable person felt that his twenty-five cents had made possible
the entire feast. At that moment H. R. could have been elected to any
office within the gift of a free and sturdy people.
The guests began to eat more slowly.
The hosts, filled with kindliness and the desire to help their
fellow-men by getting their money's worth, began to shout:
"Keep it up!"
"Go on!"
"Eat away!"
"Fill up! Fill up!"
"It's free! It's free!"
Charity is not dead, but sleepeth. When it awakens, it is ruthless.
Presently men and women at the tables, who had thought they were in
paradise surrounded by angels, began to throw up their hands and shake
their heads helplessly.
A storm of hisses greeted the ingratitude. Fat hosts began to shout:
"Fakes!"
"Fraud!"
"Take 'em out!"
In self-defense some of the guests began to rub their paunches. Here 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: