Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-04-08

! emDoYory tnefe 10 no nero, NeruB, or
: UeI;ocolus here to lavish from two
bnndre and forty thousand to four hun
dred ousand dollars on single ban
ouet Jut il is astonishing to recall that
the ,Aner given by the Erie directors to
sir orton Pictou in this plain, steady
: re,blic should have cost seventeen thou
ssi five hundred dollars. IL was given
sDelmonico's and included floral de-
Jrations and all the accessories of a
Gene of epicurean revel. The Roman
tragedian dstopus, we are told, paid
more than four thousand dollars for a
single dish OF singing birds, and this
cannot be matched by any tale of New
York gluttony, but there have been ban
quets here which cost from two hundred
to three hundred dollars head, and
this Is doing very we'll for an enlightened
age. There are men here who habitually
pay fifteen dollars a bottle for MADEIRA,
eight dollars for caret, and proportion
ate prices for other wines plenty Of
wealthy smokers pay fifty cents for every
cigar they light, and some pay as high
as two dollars. The very best cigars
known cell at wholesale at one thousand
and sixty dollars thousand, and, of
course, come from Havana. Americans
are the most extravGgant smokers in the
world. They take the bulk of the Cuban
crops In Spain the people are too poor
20 use the leaf from the Pearl OF the An
TILES, and the cigars are wretched.
Plenty OF wealthy persons here are always
ready TO pay a dollar apiece for the
earliest peaches, which we see wrapped
in cotton like veritable jewels, or hot
house strawberries at price that amounts
to twenty-five cents for each berry.
These, indeed are trihing items, mere
straws on surgipg stream Of what seems
like riOtous extravaganza.
EXPENSIVE HOUSES.
"Think OF the expenses to which a
man is put in the city," said n banker
with whom / talked the other day. ut
is an easy matter for o house with Its
decorations, pictures, and furniture to
cost half million dollars, and you know
the late William II. Vanderbilt's cost
three millions d. o. Mills paid four
hundred thousand dollars for the deco
ratiOns OF his house. Then the cost of
living. 1t runs from say thirty thou
sand to one hundred thousand dollars a
year. which includes estables, entertain
ing, and help Five thousand dollars
was expended on one occasion simply for
the flowers at big banquet. Generally
4 man entertains at his own house,
but occasionally it is at Delmonico's.
Your pictures cost from fifty thousand
to two hundred thousand dollars; the
decorations from fifty thousand up to
four hundred thousand, though two hun
dred thousand is generally the outside
limit: your stable without horses is a
piece Of property worth from twenty TO
sixty thousand dollars the horses cost
like the mischief. Robert Bonner paid
forty thousand dollars. you will remem
Der, for "Maud s." Then there is the
help. chefs and good cooks are usually
paid from sixty to one hundred dollars a
month the ten thousand dollars for
William X. Vanderbilt's chef and five
thousand for that of one Of the Astors
are exceptional cases. Coachmen are
from fifty to seventy dollars month,
and the other help costs accordingly.
First you have to have a chef or chlei
cook then two buffers, an assistant but
Ter. third man to attend to the furnace,
clean sidewalks and windows. and do err
rands and odd jobs coachman, first
and second groom, which includes the
footman, or in all at least seven men.
Then YOU must have eight or ten female
servants. including a lady's maid, a par
lor maid, two housemaids, two kitchen
maids. one laundress, and if you have
children, a French governess, an Eng
lish governess, and if the children are
small you must have one or two nurses
eoU1Ds DETECTIVES.
This is a formidable list but il does not
include all tho "help." For hours be-
fore the arrival of Jay Gould from Flor
da on a cold Saturday night recently re-
poyters waited in the vestlbule OF his
Fifth-avenue mansion eager to get few
words from him on various topics of In
terest. They waited there until they
were nearly frozen, freely expresslngth then
opinion OF the magnate in the hearing
Of three men who seemed also to have
business with Mr. Gould. Finally
the reporters received a Telegram
from one of their brothers OF the
pen at Jersey City that Mr.. GoulC
would not arrive until midnight. IheI
the light. hearted but half-frozen newspG
per-men stepped over to the Windsor n o
tel and PLAYED billiards until it was time
10 expect the "hero" OF Erie, Kansas Pa
cific. Union Pacific, Texas Pacific, Man
haitian, Missouri Pacific, Missouri, Kan
sas aud Texas, and other crippled rehctl
of Gouldism, and then they went bach
TO the brownstone mansion, where
they found the three strange mel
again, silent as though frozen, eX
cept when relaxing into a grr
at the reporters maledictions upoI
Mr. Gould for keeping them uptown sc
late. After the door had closed on Jay
Gould one OF tho reporters hurried
around the corner to the house OF Georg'
Gould and there suddenly found at hl
side one Of the three strange men, aiull
bearded Englishman, with stoopint
shoulders and look and manner o
slimv craftiness. "WhO are yOu?" de
manded the newspaper-man, splrlte.
Young fellow from well-known luml
nary. "Why arc you following me
Who are you ?"
"Don't you know me ?" returned TIT
stoop-shouldered, crafty-looking man
peering closely into the reporters eyes
"Oh, see who you are, said the re
porter, "you are one of Gould's detec
/ tives.'
Detectives are another item in the ex
penses of some New York millionalres.
THE LATEST DRAMATIC NEWS
The production of Partners at thu
Madison Square Theatre Is the man
dramatic incident of the week. 1t is al
adaptation by Robert Buchanan OF Dau
diets novel, "Fromont Jeune ct hlsle
/ Aiue." 4 dramatic version entitled