Show washington soda social hows hours cold turkey hot gossip by BAUKHAGE new news analyst and commentator washington washington cocktail parties and other social gatherings have been widely publicized as makers and breakers of reputations national candidacies and international policies not all of these affairs may forge or fracture the destiny of nations but many often bring together as great a variety of human ingredients as are to be found at any one place at any one tune time anywhere for example I 1 have just return returned from lunch I 1 probably should say luncheon con dering si what it must have cost my red headed college mate host whose excuse for giving it was the fact that he was celebrating his birthday but whose real rea sons lay beyond distant frontiers the bearded ital ian scientist on his left reminded him that the occasion BAUKHAGE was unique ique be cause it was bard hard ly likely he would celebrate a simi lar occasion 55 years hence A little macabre I 1 thought but no one seemed to take it that way least of all the fellow citizen of dante who was enjoying himself immensely over his cold smoked turkey and doubtless became lyric over the lira and other important transalpine institutions before we were through on the bearded ones one s left was a representative of the state depart ident who gave me a disappointing ly eye witness and ac count of the recent parliament ses sion slon of one of our south american neighbors a session which I 1 had judged from previous dispatches would be punctuated by revolver shots we had heard rumors of mys tenons shootings there which were supposed to have made up in 1 political significance what they lacked in marksmanship also there had been hints of cabinet changes due not only to mistakes in policy but to hasty burials I 1 asked my fellow guest about it oh no he said there were no cabinet changes but what about these terrible rumors of graft and corruption 9 well the president in his ad dress did make particular reference to the evils of political corruption and to the importance of selfless loyalty on the part of the servants of the state but tut was that all alla I 1 persisted I 1 0 io o names addresses or telephone numbers that was all he insisted it was a very quiet session further more there was none of the proto col we observe at a joint session of the two houses of the american con grees gress this parliament was called to order the president came in spoke his piece and went out at this point my host broke in m he ile insisted that I 1 repeat the story of the opening of this sum mer s special turnip session of congress which nobody outside of a few million radio listeners who happened to be tuned in had heard before legislative faux pas de style this july 26 when a very angry house of representatives was called to order it was known that the regu lar chaplain could not appear so when a stranger took the rostrum the less somnolent members rose bowed their heads as is the custom to listen to the prayer the first words they heard resounding through the chamber were where as the public interest requires that the congress of the united states should be convened at 12 0 dock clock noon on monday the twenty sixth of july 1948 1943 to receive such commini cation as may be made by the ex now therefore I 1 harry S truman president of the united states and so on gradually the members real iced that the man addressing them was not the substitute for the absent chaplain of the house but the substitute for the equal ly absent reading clerk whose duty it Is to read bills and rial cial communications it wa was most embarrassing the voice they were hearing was not the voice of a man repeating the word of god it was the voice of the sub statute clerk repeating the procia procla mation of the man at whom they were maddest the members didn dian t like to make public admission of their error by sitting down and so they had to stand through the pain tul word pronouncement which had torn them from the bosom of family and constituency and brought them back to beat heat ridden washing ton next to the state department cial who had unwittingly provided the excuse tor for my anecdote was the consul general of the philippine re public who happens to be the son of another college classmate of mine he ile like the rest of his fam ily had outlived the japanese oc cu pation and with his sister had participated in the effective philippine underground memories of which made this day s current trag edy of the philippines the eruption of volcano on Ca casiquin island a decidedly minor concern on my left was a prominent wash ington lawyer during a lull in the discussion of international if not cosmic affairs he suddenly asked what was your mother mothers s maider name alice blood I 1 replied yes he nodded in satis satisfaction fao my aunt clara brown often told me about your moth er they were classmates lagham ingham university 78 and she was a bridesmaid at your mother s wedding in la salle illinois to skipping your correspondent around the table we an arl ve at a famous scientist we exchanged reminiscences too for he also was a graduate of the same college As we talked I 1 remembered an anee dote about him I 1 had heard from a mutual college friend A check by any other name not many years after his fradua tion this scientist and his young wife arrived in the city where our mutual friend was in business and called on him the businessman recognized the scientist scientists s face im mediately but for the I 1 fe of him coulden t remember the man s name during their lunch the scientist remarked that he was going on an extended trip into canada and had unfortunately run out of money he wondered could he get a check cashed at the businessman s bank the businessman gladly acquiesced th nimg that when he saw the sig nature on the check he would rec re cognize the scientist scientists s name er they went to the bank the aist wrote the check and the two men went to the cashier cashiers s window but as the scientist handed in the check all the businessman could read was the name of a bank in a very distant city and the amount five hundred dollars he had already said to the cash ler ier I 1 want you to meet my friend but could get no further ter bibly embarrassed he turned to the scientist and said I 1 in sorry but ican I 1 can t recall your name of course the cashier r overheard this remark and with the natural caution of the banker said to the businessman this will be fine mr X but will you please endorse thisel clr mr X turned it over noted the name but did not recognize it trem bled to think of what would happen to his bank account if it bounced and he was sure it would and signed farewells were spoken the scientist departed day after day the bust awaited the call from the bank in fact he told me he had picked out a space on the wall where he intended to frame the paper so that he could call attention to it casu ally should some other vaguely identified caller request a similar favor nothing happened A month or so later another col lege friend came to town the busl related the story describe ing the scientist and his occupation unaccountably his listener burs into laughter didn dian t y you on know he said between gasps that man s technical as well as scientific anfor mation which he acquired at school along with his ars mag ister made him a cool million the year after he was bradu abed at the luncheon there was also a chinese oil expert who merely lis bened and an ERP representative who left early and now back to my redheaded host he related the adventure of one of the guests who had been un able to appear it seems this gen tieman had formed a corporation called world development inc I 1 or something very similar when my host heard his glow glowing ing pros he said aren arent t you cover ing mg a lot of ground oh no said the pramot promoter who v since had acquired consider considerable able in ln fluence in international abfal affairs rs this is just a subsidiary of the in ter planetary corporation then I 1 had to go so I 1 never knew what master plan for the rebuilding and exploiting of the nation ohp world or the sidereal spaces were discussed or consummated but I 1 have no doubt you can go a ions lont way in washington start starting ilig with cold turkey |