Seasonable Toasts

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 147, 19 December 1927, Page 31

Seasonable Toasts

At One Time a Social

Custom

Christmas and New Year festivities are tho excuse for the revival of many pleasant customs, none move so than that of a toast, In the midst of our gaieties wo like to think of those dear to us who are absent; to drink to their health and prosperity and to wish many of them a speedy return. Toasting was an art. It expresses itself in that lovely song:

"Let the toast pass, Dri»k to tlie lass, I warrant she'll pr'ovo 'An excuse for a glass."

What a triumph it was for a beautiful young girl or woman when she was a reigning toast... It was a more delightful sign of her social supremacy than, the frequent appearance of her photograph in tlio papers, which is the poor substitute homage a modern girl receives.

There are many attractive and amusing stories told of the (lays when toasting reigned supremo as a social custom.

Voltaire tells a_ very witty story about toasts.' Tho French Ambassadpr to the Court of St. James, the Dutch and- English Ambassadors to Louis XIV. were all dining together. The Frenchman, who was the senior in the Diplomatic Service, roso and toasted his master as tho "Roi Soleil," alluding to the all powerful and beneficent beams of the sun, without whose warmth and power the world could not survive.

The Dutchman, who spoko next, not to be outdone, toasted his master as the moon, and stars, and all tho other planets. Both of them sat down well pleased with -their efforts, which appeared to leave^little, if anything, for tho Englishman^ say about his King. Their discomfiture was complete when the English Ambassador toasted his master as Joshua, who commanded the. sun, the moon, and all the planets to stand still.

■ Torday toasts at public, diplomatic and political functions are often very dreary, long-winded affairs compared with the "wit and sparkling gaiety -at similar,, functions in' the seventeenth and eighteenth .centuries. . A few years ago a friend of mine (says a correspondent of an English paper) attended a semi-political diplomatic dinner. He sat-next to the Chinese Minister. N The speeches started early and were prolonged - interminably; Each speaker was more boring than the last. His Excellency sat impassive, with folded arms, throughout the evening. When tho last speaker' had finished the Celestial turned to my friend and said calmly, "In China we abolished afterdinner speaking just two thousand years ago."

Some local toasts arc very expressive of tho mentality of the people where they are current. In Yorkshire they say, "Here's tw'us, arl on us. May wo never want nowt, nano of us." InScotland there's a toast, "Here's tae us,,Tvha.'s rike:.us, gey few.". There's a personal note in the former which contrasts with tho clannishness of the Scots.

There are many toasts to women; some charming, a few very cynical. Most people know one which begins very prettily, "Hero's to the light which lies in a woman's eyes," but it goes on "and lies and lies and lies."

The most delightful toast to women which. I know hails from a land where the nien are noted for their chivalry to the ■weaker sex—America, It is the toasfeftf the .American navy to all womeri,:""Oui l arms' .your defence; 'y°ur arms our recompense."