Ward McAllister Quotes
A dinner invitation, once accepted, is a sacred obligation. If you die before the dinner takes place, your executor must attend.
McAllister, Ward. Society as I Have Found It. Cassell Publishing Company, 1890.
He was criticized by the right wing extremists of the Repuplican Party for serving a Democratic President (Obama) as Ambassador to China. He was the most qualified person for the job as he was an experienced politician, spoke Chinese fluently and was very knowledgeable about Chinese culture and history. The President had asked him rather than many people of his own party. Huntsman’s quotation is probably the most patriotic and eloquent statement of national service ever made.
Samuel Ward McAllister was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of late 19th-century America. He was widely accepted as the authority as to which families could be classified as the cream of New York society (the Four Hundred). But his listings were also questioned by those excluded from them, and his own personal motives of self-aggrandisement were noted.
