Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-23
POURING OUT GOLD.
The Stream That Flows at the Capt.
tai Ever Growing Larger.
SOME MODERN EXTRAVAGANCES
Thousands for Single Banquet and Millions
in Ladys Jewels.
METHODS OF SHODDY 4RlST0CRACl


grafed In w Wash1ngton this season. One
stationary firm tells me that it has turned
out 800, 900 in the last two months, and the
money spent here on pasteboard during a
season amounts TO tens of thousands of
dollars. The most ordinary card costs a
cent apiece after the plate is made and some
OF the dinner invitations sent out cost $40 a
do zen. A prominent item on the expense
account of Washington belle is her en-
craving, and printing. and society ladies
who give dinners, spend at times hundreds
OF dollars upon the stationary for a feast.
Mrs. Leland Stanford lately paid SS5
for so cards to be used as menus for
one of her big dinners. The map of the
United States was stamped in silver on the
cards, and the drawing and engraving were
exquisite. AT the dinner which General
breckenridge gave a week or SO ago the
cards cost 81 apiece; and Mrs. Justice
Blatchford gave not long ago a luncheon
the cards for which were carved by hand, at
cost OF SIS dozen. No one thinks of Civ
lEg big dinner without something fancy in
the way of cards, and a great many of the
menus are hand-painted. Some of the cards
are in raised silver and gold. They look as
though the gold and silver had been melted
and poured into letters on the cards. They
cost 70 cents apiece. Others are drawn in
black, and it is quite the thing to make the
name-card which goes with each plate so
pretty that it may be carried away as q
souvenir.
FEAsTs IN CoLoRs.
Society runs to colors this winter, and it
is the fashion to have dinners and teas of
nn h11n feA A1,a, .,,,1- Al
red tea and the orange-hued luncheon.
Each dinner must have flowers and hang
ings of the color after which it is named.
and Roswell P. Flower gave violet dinner
at which even these name cards each bore
hand.painted violet. A red dinner at the
Normandie had a table in the center of
which was an immense mat of red tulips
The candelabra glowed under red shades, and
the dining room was one mass of cardinal.
At an orange tea on X street for the News
boys Home the fashionable receiving party
were clad in yellow. The tearoom decora-
tions were of golden, and one table had an
immense center piece of yellow tulips, while
the other contained big jars OF jonquils.
There were yellow shades over the
gas and yellow globes under it. There was
orange cake, orange ice, orangeade and
everything which tended to destroy the
some faces horrible. Postmaster General
Wanamaker gave state dinner, IN which
all the decorations were of white and green.
The centerpiece of the table was an oval
vase which rested upon silver-rimmed
mirror. About this was laid circle of cut
lilies of the valley, and outside of that a
circle of maidenhair ferns. Around the
table were four high vases piled with mar
guerites and lilies of the valley, and across
the cloth were strewn fronds of fern and
below the board the tablecloth was festooned
: WITH ASPARAGUS VINES.
at each plate was a bouquet of white
violets and lilies of the valley, and these
were tied with white ribbons The white
tapers cast soft light through white shades
as they burned in silver candelabra, and the
decorations OF the room were all in white
and green. Another of Wanamaker's din
ners was in red and yellow, and the table
had spiral center of red and yellow tulips.
Senator Jones, of Nevada, the silver mill
lonaire, gave dinner on the 1st of March
at which the decorations were of white and
gold, and silver by the pound was used to
furnish part of the white. Silver filigree
dishes stood at either end of the table and
these were filled with jonquils. The silver
candelabra were low and they bore gold
and white shades. The candy dishes
were OF white and gold and the
only green about the table was an oval
mound of maidenhair ferns which rested in
Its center. Mrs. Senator Stewart, the wife
of the uther Nevada millionaire, gave a pink
feast not long ago, and at each lady's plate
there was bunch Of La France roses. and
the candelabra cast soft light through pink
shades. The dinner souvenirs were hand
painted menu cards tied with bright pink
ribbons, on which each guests name was
traced in gold. At a dinner given to the
Pan-Americans in February the decorations
of Massachusetts avenue mansion were all
in red and yellow, and Mrs. Representa-
tive Scranton, during the same month,
gave yellow luncheon at which the bullion
was served in gold cups and the buttonhole
bouquets were of jonquils.
FLORAL ExTRAvAGANCEs.
The flowers at these dinners cost their
weight in silver, and Senor Mendoza. of
Brazil, gave dinner on Washipgton's
Birthday, at which his house was decorated
with orchids brought from Brazil, and at
which he honored the United States by dec
Grating the table and dishes with red. white
and blue. One of the plants at this dinner
contained over so flowers. Mrs. Senator
Cockrell gave an orchid lunch this month.
and at many dinners and receptions of the
past season roses have been used by the
bushel 1t is impossible to describe the
grandeur of the floral decorations of the
White House at a state reception or dinner.
The flowers used cost several times an ordi-
nary mans monthly salary, and were it not
for the fact that Uncle Sam furnishes the
most of them they would make quite a
hole in President Harrison's expense
account. The corners of the various rooms
are filled with palms. The windows and
CRATES look like section of an Oriental
garden and the mantels of the room are
banked with these roses, bright-hued tulips
carnations and other choice flowers. The
dinner decorations are exquisite and a pri-
vate citizen could not purchase the plants
in the White House at one of these feasts
for thousand dollars. Every year society
grows more extravagant in such matters and
there are a number of gold services now
used in Washington. The Mexican Lega-
tion has one and there is hardly noted
family at the capital which has not its own
supply of solid silver. Mrs. Stanford now
and then gives luncheon at which she uses
gold tea seat, and some of the dinners of
Washington could not be more expensive if
their pepper and salt were grains of gold
dust.
SENATOR PALMER's S35 PLATES.
hear that Senator Palmer has been en-
tertalning magnifcently at Madrid and
Washington is delighted to know that he is
coming back to this country. Mrs. Palmer
is millionaire and she and the Senator are
the most accomplished entertainers at the
capital. Their house here cost them
S85, 600, and they have a china dinner ser
vice worth its weight in silver. Senator
Palmer bought this at Paris just before he
came here to take his seat in the Senate and
General Cutcheon was present at the house
at the time this china was opened. He saw
that it was very fine and he asked how much
the plates cost. The Senator replied:
II paid S35 apiece Tor them, and when I
bought them in Paris Mrs Palmer objected,
saving: Thomas, do you think we can afford