become, before you know it, the leader of the evening.

It is not intended to give rules or directions for the order either
of drinking or feasting. That field is fully occupied. But the custom
of making addresses at the close of a feast has, been so thoroughly
established, and so frequent are these occasions, that a gentleman is not
fully equipped for a place in society, if he cannot gracefully offer or
respond to a toast, or preside at a gathering where toasts or other forms
of after-dinner speaking are expected. It is the aim of this manual to help
the beginner in this field.




AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES--ANCIENT AND MODERN


An idea of the real meaning of after-dinner speaking may be obtained from
the feudal feasts of earlier times. The old lord or baron of the Middle
Ages partook of his principal meal in the great hall of his castle,
surrounded by guests, each being assigned his place in formal order and
with no small degree of ceremony. This hall was the main feature of the
castle. There all the family and guests met on frequent festal occasions,
and after the feasting and the hour of ceremony and more refined
entertainment was over, retired to rest in comparatively small and humble
apartments adjoining, though sometimes they would simply wrap their cloaks
about them, and lie down to sleep on the rushes that littered the floor of
the great hall.

After the "rage of hunger was appeased"--which then, as in our day, and