| | | | ____________ | | | | Anniversary Dinner | | In Honor of the Birth Of | | | | THE HUMANITARIAN MESSIAH | | | | April 15, 184- | | | | _______ | | | | Admit One | | N.B .-- Only half a bottle of wine per head | +------------------------------------------------------+ "I do not share the opinions of the disciples of this Messiah," said Rodolphe to himself, "but I will willingly share their repast." And with the swiftness of a bird he covered the distance separating him from the Barriere de la Villette.
When he reached the halls of the Grand Vainqueur, the crowd was enormous.

The dining room, seating three hundred, was thronged with five hundred people.

A vast horizon of veal and carrots spread itself before the eyes of Rodolphe.
At length they began to serve the soup.
As the guests were carrying their spoons to their lips, five or six people in plain clothes, and several police officers in uniform, pushed into the room, with a commissary of police at their head.
"Gentlemen," said the commissary, "by order of the authorities, this dinner cannot take place.

I call upon you to withdraw." "Oh!" said Rodolphe, retiring with everyone else.

"Oh! what a fatality has spoiled my dinner." He sadly resumed the road to his dwelling, and reached it at about eleven at night.
Monsieur Benoit was awaiting him.
"Ah! it is you," said the landlord.