The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-06-05

More than ever before has ii beer
fashionable this winter and spring &c
give dinner parties, writes Clara Belle.
ard more than ever have table and
room decorations in honoro of the event
been popular. A dinner party in New
York's fashionable quarter means
something more than merely putting
food before guests and letting them
eat and run off somewhere else. Ii
involves, If the dinner be up to the
standard, a p~rofuse decoration of the
rooms with flowers and CORRECTION
pieces, the distribution of bouquets
and favors to each guest, and the gem
eral entertainment of the party until
such time as it breaks up. So much
of preparation does it involve that
many prefer to take guests TO Del
monico's or the Brunswick, or to some
of the other places where they are in
the business. Or it may be that the
Fifth avenue resident may decide tc
give his entertainment at his own
home, and may put the entire charge
of it in the hands of Delmonico, who
will furnish everything that is TO be
used. and will cart it all away the next
day. He limits the expense to Sc
many hundred dollars, and Delmoni
co.'s assistants do the rest. Oftener,
however, the Fifth avenue man has a
chief to whom he gives a large salary,
and of whom he is very proud, and he
takes an especial pride in the dinner
and in its surroundings. He loads the
table with flowers, and he puts them
on the walls in the greatest ~profusion.
There is a trick in setting a wide din
ing-table by laying a strip of mirror
lengthwise down the center and firing.
ing it heavily with flowers. 1t has
then the appearance of being a minia-
ture lake, and the gaslight dancing on
it gives off most beautiful effects,
Then there are half a dozen CONNECTION
pieces, worth $40 either on the table
or looking down upon it from brack-
cts on the wall. : They, too, are dec
grated with flowers; indeed, in mod
ern dining-rooms, the flowers formthe
chief item of expense so lavishly are
they used. Nine times out of ten
when the guests march into the BAN
quet iaall they do so to the soft strains
of an orchestra stationed in an ante
room or hidden behind shrubbery in
the back hall or parlor extension.
Then come the two or three hours re.
CURED to do justice to the twelve
courses and the ten kinds OF wines.
The party gets very merry and conf.
Dental at the end of the first hour,
and quite hilarious and noisy at the
end of the second, and almost para
lived and incoherent at the close of
the third. All hands, from the host
down, are convinced that 1t is the
finest dinner of the season, and a
fresh supply of champagne Is ordered
to clinch the conviction. At mid
night the orchestra is yet at work.
Half a dozen persons are trying TO
waltz in the parlor, and the host Ia
urging the gentlemen to slip back to
the table for just one more taste OF
benedictine or brandy. The flowers
are torn down to be taken away IS IA
vors, and the CONNECTIONS have been
smashed 60 pelt one another with the
pieces. BY | o'clock they have all
gone. The host surveys the wreck
and goes to bed. Next day be gets
his bill. 1t looks something like this:
Florist, for flowers and services In dec
| Grating $AUt
Orchestra, ten pieces. .............,. Sc
connexions. "
Dinner for fifteen, with wine at $50 q
plate ot
Extra walters. Y
Extra wine. u
Miscellaneous expenses. .............. ~
--
Total .s67t
And TO the furnisher of everything
save Che music the profit is more than
100 per cent. But the host cares not.
He has given q successful dinner, and
-: .sA LII LII ahoIat liz. a.. .