Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-02-25


Al correspondent Of the New Orleans Pic
svane writes from Paris a description of
dinner at Eapoleon's palace at Compeigne.
He alindes to the Emperor and Empress
taking their places, and says:
After they are seated the other guests take
their places, without standing upon order of
etiquette. ! except the eight persons seated
upon their Majesties' right and left. The
officers Of the Imperial household, being at
home, leave the best places to their masters
guests, and take seats at the extremities of
the table. The guests retain their hats until
they are seated, when footman takes these
articles and places them on chairs behind
the owners. The dinner table ON these oc-
casions contains one hundred guests. There
is never any vacant place, as the guests are
requested to inform the Adiutant General
if they cannot be present. In this way all
disagreeable breaks" are avoided. There
are at least one hundred and ten or one hun
dred and twenty servants in attendance on
the table. The Emperor and Empress are
served by their private footmen the ushers
and ordinary footsnen serve the other guests.
There are likewise in attendance the master
controller, the master of the silver plate, the
master carver, tile master butler, ETC.; in
fine, the master OF all the services who SUI
perintend the meuials in their several de-
partments- These masters have the rank of
gentlemen, and it would be extremely ILL.,
bred to address them without styling them
Monsieur. The whole dinner service, plates
as well as dishes, is Of silver plate; the des-
sert is served on Sevres porcelain, more
costly than silver plate, fer every dish con-
tains a picture or pictures by first rate
artists.
The table is dressed beautifully, In the
center is surtout" Of silver, which cost
S250000 and is an exact copy of the favor
lite "s1rtout" of Louis XIV. 1t repre-
sents deer hunt; the meet .witE the pack
of hounds; the whippers-in; the hunts
men; the discovery of the scent; sight of
the deer; the death; the quarry. The
whole series of scenes are executed on
scale of quarter of an inch to every foot of
life size This surtout is relieved by crys-
tai baskets, crystal shelves (Eaade of fat
plates of crystal which are secured in stands
of three or four plates high by silver stem
running through the center of them), crys-
tai basins (like the top basin of fountain)
containing flowers, the most luscious fruit
from the crown lighthouses; pineapples,
grapes, or oranges, lemons, pears, pome-
granates, apples, rendered still more tempt
ing by artificial moss, and vine leaves, holly
or orange leaves, and brilliant bonbons
while innnmerable silver candelabras shed
the soft light of wax tapers over the whole
scene-light which sparkles with something
of the diamond brilliancy as it dances on
crystal prisms and is colored with the rain
bows hues as it CLEANS ON the silver. Ina
CINE the noble dining-room; conceive the
dressers on each side of the table, which
groan beneath the weight of gold, silver,
porcelain, glass, fruit, wines, liquors; fancy
the one hundred and twenty people in CANDY
livery who are in attendance on the guests,
and the fifty or sixty ladies in full ball dress
then tell me, isn't the scene brilliantly In
an adjoining room the band Of the Impe-
rial Guard softly plays during the whole
dinner, throwing face OF harmony, more
beautiful than Brussels ever made with its
lissom fingers, over conversation.
Dinner ended, their Majesties rise. The
Emperor gives the Empress his srm at the
dining-room door, and the whole company
returns to the Maps Gallery, where coffee
is served The Emperor's half cup is served
on gold salver by the Palace Project of
Service After coffee, their Majesties remain
some time in the Maps Gallery walking
from gaest to guest and taking especial
notice of the stranger guests who do not
habitually belong to the court circle.
In the course of half an hour the En-
press tells the gentlemen they are at liberty
to go to the smoking room, and she retires
to drawing-room on the left of the Maps
Gallery. This is called the Family Draw
ing-room. The door remains open, and any
guest may follow her; but it is considered
good breeding not to go in there unless espe-
cially invited. She takes care to invite sue
cessively all the guests, and in the course Of
the evening she repeatedly returns to the
Maps Gallery TO talk with the persons she
does not invite to the Family Drawing-room.
The Emperor remains in the Maps Gallery
after the Empress disappears, rather he goes
into an adjoining room, whereare to be found
billiards with pockets, English billiards."
as they are called; the French tables have
none, Dutch tops, Ia table with small pins
of different value, among which top spins;
the game is wen by the player who knocks
down the most pins sliding boards, etc.
The Emperor's favorite game is the sliding
board 1t is familiar TO you. What visitor
to our Southern medicinal springs hasn't
killed time, sliding polished brass circular
weights over a sanded table?
The arrangement of our table is modified
slightly at Compeigne. There the sliding
table is made of highly polished mahogany,
some fifteen or twenty feet long; at the
fIrthest extremity is white point, sur
rounded by concentric circles; the eonten-
ton of the game is to place the most slides
or circular weights nearest the white point,
and TO dislodge SO many of the adversary's
weights as may be. At Compeigne the
weights are made of lead, and their bottom
is covered with wooden cloth to prevent
them from scratching the table and
from making a noise. Each player
has six or eight weights. The Emperor
is very skillful at this game his most for
midable adversary is the Princess Anna
Murat.
If you will remember that dinner is laid
on the table at seven o'clock, and is over
scarcely before nine or quarter past nine
o'clock, you will not be surprised when |
quit their cigars and the smoking room. As
they return in body, their temperance
makes a sensation and attracts the Empress
from the centre table, near which she is seat
ed in the family drawing room, playing, or
teaching her lady guests to play draughts,
patience, solitaire, or puzzle-rings, and at the
same time talking to the gentlemen around
her.
The evening now fairly commences, and
Her Majesty exerts herself to make it agree
able; there is chess in the corners of the
Maps Room for guests who like it. M.
Prosper Merimee, Marshal Valiant and the
Duchess de Bassano are devoted to this
game. There are the games just mentioned
tn the games rooms. There are draughts,
patience, solitaire, or puzzle-rings in the
family drawing room. There are coy cor
ners almost everywhere for takers. The
Emperor invites some eminent gentleman of
the guests TO walk up and down the adjoin-
ing long gallery, talking with him. Then
there is almost every evening dance. As
aJhired professional musician would mar the
pleasure of these familiar entertainments,
the Empress has placed in the drawing room
one of Duban's mechanical pianos A
board which looks somewhat like wool
carder, so covered with salient wires is in
troduced into an aperture Of the piano, and
a handle, like the handle of a hrnd organ, is
turned by the gentlemen present alternately.
The piano plays, in this way, anything de-
sired-polkas, mazurkas, waltzes, quadrilles,
etc. The Emperor and Empress frequently
take part in these dance; they always take
part in them when the guests determine to
dence La Boulangere, which is a sort Of Old