DINING AT THE OMAR KHAYYAM CLUB

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1908, Page 11

DINING AT THE OMAR KHAYYAM CLUB

A dinner given by the members of the Omar Khayyam Club is described In interesting fashion by an Australian at present In London (writes "Marcia," in the Australasian). "Few/ outsiders are invited to the Omar Khayyam dinners, which occur twice a year at a famous restaurant in Oxford-street. Amongst the members are many eminent men to whom ' the quatrains of th« Pvubaiyat particularly appeal. Scientists, artist 3, and authors belong to the- club, and at the dinner held recently Sir Alfred Lyell, Mr. Clement Shorter, Mr. Joseph Conrad, Mr. W. W. Jacobs, >Mr. ff. G. Wells, Mr. Anthony Hops, and Sir Francis Gould were amongst the clever and well-known men sitting round thr>' board. Sir Mortimer Durand, ex-British Ambassador at Teheran, described the fragrant Persian gardens (beloved of old Omar), where rosss arc still always blowing, and the nightingales in the branches of the trees yet sing, so that 'the night throbs with music' When in Persia, Sir Mortimer approached the lato Shah with regard to the proper fending of Omar's grave, but the Shah seemed surprised and amused that people could desire to perpe-tuato the memory of a poet so groatly tho inferior of Hafiz nnd other Persians. Has not Emei'son, in one of his essays, shown clearly where Omar 'comes in' in Persian literature. Simply nowhere, in his own country! Morning dress is worn by the members of the Omar Club at their biennial dinners, a tribute no doubt to the uncon ventionality of the "wicked old poet" (as he is termed by scoffei'3). Tho members wear the badge of the clvb — a red rose. Guests are presented as they arrive with a white rose. Red table decorations are used, red roses predominating, hyacinths, tulips, and other flowers immortalised by the Persian poet being mingled with "herbs of tender green" when possible. At every dinner, as the toast of "Tho Master" is given, each glass is drained, and then, obeying the final injunction in the Rubaiyat, all "•turn down an empty glass" upon tho table. Only red wines are allowed at these dinners. Several of the devotees at Omar's dhrine endeavour to uphold the doctrine that the "wine" and tha "cup" referred to by Omar are purely allegorical terms. Their protestations are naturally jeered at, and quotations hurled to upset the idealists and their "high-falutin' " theories.