pointed out to me a big plaster model of the State House, which
filled one end of the room, and two great figures, original
plaster casts, heroic in size, that Harding, the sculptor, had
modelled for either side of the entrance of the building; but
everything that smacked of T-square or scale was hidden from
sight. In their place, lining the walls, stood a row of standards
of red and orange silk, stretched on rods and supported by poles;
the same patterns of banners which were carried before Imperial
Caesars when they took an airing; and now emblazoned with the
titles of the several structures conceived in the brain of Holker
Morris and executed by his staff: the Imperial Library in Tokio;
the great Corn Exchange covering a city block; the superb Art
Museum crowning the highest hill in the Park; the beautiful
chateau of the millionaire surrounded by thousands of acres of
virgin forest; the spacious warehouses on the water front, and
many others.

With the passing of the flagons an electric current of good
fellowship flashed around the circle. Stories that would have been
received with but a bare smile at the club were here greeted with
shouts of laughter. Bon-mots, skits, puns and squibs mouldy with
age or threadbare with use, were told with a new gusto and
welcomed with delight.

Suddenly, and without any apparent reason, these burst forth a
roar like that of a great orchestra with every instrument played
at its loudest--rounds of applause from kettle-drums, trombones
and big horns; screams of laughter from piccolos, clarionettes and
flutes, buzzings of subdued talk by groups of bass viols and the
lesser strings, the whole broken by the ringing notes of a song