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Faculty and Proctors
"lost provinces" and
revanche.
For the German waiters,
it was an evening of triumph, just as it was for every
German and German-American in New York. At this
distance, one is not able to ascertain just whether the
Frenchman called the brother of the Kaiser that day's
equivalent of
boche,
or whether the German had assumed
an offensive by vaunting the merits of the guest of the
evening, or of his Imperial brother. Nor is it certain as
to who struck the first blow. Even at the time, inves–
tigation failed to establish that fact to the satisfaction
of everybody concerfled. But before anybody else real–
ized what was going .on, Frenchman and German were
1
at each other's. throats, and hammering away at each
other's noses-br wherever untrained fists could find
lodgment on a rival's anatomy.
'
But the incident was like the touch of a match, and
when the French combatant shouted,
"A moil"
and the
German yelled,
"Um Gottes Willen!"
other Frenchmen
and other German waiters piled in. Italy, represented
also by a good sized portion of those present, tried to
be neutral for a time. But not for long. Its subjects on
the scene soon took a
hand~r
rather a fist or two–
on one side or
th~
,other, their choice dictated, perhaps,
not so much by considerations of nationality as by per–
sonal friendship.
In
less time t_l;an it takes to tell, the
whole room was in a furore, with everybody milling
everybody else. The
ma'itre d'hOtel,
after one glance,
summoned all the house detectives within call and these
jumped in, separated the belligerents and restored
peace. The Prince never knew how nearly his great
banquet had been marred.