§ 130 Putting Depew in His Place
There was a big dinner one night in London and Senator Depew, then at the head of the New York Central system, delivered the principal speech. Joseph Choate, our ambassador to the court of St. James, sat at the guest table flanked on either side by a serious-minded member of the British nobility, neither of whom had ever been to America.
As Senator Depew got into his swing one of Choate’s neighbors said to him:
“Your fellow-American is a most captivating speaker, eh, what? Curious I never heard of him before. To what station in your American life would you assign him?”
Choate’s gift of humor was brightest on the spur of the occasion.
“The Grand Central Station,” he replied promptly.
“Ah, yes, I see,” spoke up his neighbor on the other side, “what we call in England the great middle-class.”