SENTIMENTS SUGGESTED BY A TOAST
Years ago a speaker provoked a controversy (maliciously and with no good excuse) which scarcely came short of blows, by proposing as a toast the name of a general of high rank, but who was unfortunate in arms. He was a candidate for office. Added to the toast was the sentiment, "May his political equal his military victories." This was in bad taste, indeed, but it shows the use that can be made of the sentiment, when added to a toast, in fixing attention in a certain direction.
The number of sentiments suggested by the common and standard toasts is unlimited. Take the toast "Home," as an example.
Home: The golden setting in which the brightest jewel is "Mother."
Home: A world of strife shut out, and a world of love shut in.
Home: The blossoms of which heaven is the fruit.
Home: The only spot on earth where the fault and failings of fallen humanity are hidden under a mantle of charity.
Home: An abode wherein the inmate, the superior being called man, can pay back at night, with fifty per cent. interest, every annoyance that he has met with in business during the day.
Home: The place where the great are sometimes small, and the small often great.
Home: The father's kingdom; the child's paradise; the mother's world.
Home: The jewel casket containing the most precious of all jewels—domestic happiness.
Home: The place where you are treated best and grumble most.
Home: It is the central telegraph office of human love, into which run innumerable wires of affection, many of which, though extending thousands of miles, are never disconnected from the one great terminus.
Home: The centre of our affections, around which our hearts' best wishes twine.
Home: A little sheltered hollow scooped out of the windy hill of the world.
Home: A place where our stomachs get three good meals daily and our hearts a thousand.