Evening Journal

Dinner in New York city, at which the guests were to be a number of his comrades-in-arms, and other distinguished personages.

He knew he would be called on, and began to mentally prepare for the ordeal. He happened to recall an exceptionally good story which he had heard a Milford woman relate, and immediately called and had her repeat it.

The dinner came off in due season, and, amidst great applause, Torbert arose to respond to the toast to which he was assigned. He worked through the introduction, and was reaching a climax, when his mind became a blank, and every detail vanished.

There was much laughter at his dilemma as he sat down, and the guests proceeded to nag him, but nothing was sufficient to bring back the features he had forgotten. Finally someone proposed that the meeting adjourn, and the banquet be resumed the next evening, at which time the general be required to finish his story. The motion prevailed, and Torbert went to his hotel to study it out.

But the more he thought the less he knew about it; it almost seemed as though he had never heard it. After a time he decided that the only way was to go back to Milford, and have the woman repeat it. Consequently he arose at an unearthly hour, and, arriving in Milford about noon, burst in on the astonished woman with "For God's sake tell me that story again!"

This time he made certain of every detail, and when he appeared at the banquet in the evening and finished the tale, there was a roar of laughter and applause, which were ample reward for the long distance he had traveled to get it.

It is said that General Torbert used to tell this story of his disastrous lapse of memory, with huge enjoyment.