The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-12-26
A VANDERBILT BALL.
a Princely Entertainment to Society
In Honor of Their Son Alfred.

a Prince3y Entertainment to Society
In Honor of Their Son Alfred.
New York. Dec. 26.-NIr. and Mrs. Cor
nelius Vanderbilt will give a dance jan
uary in honor of their second son, Al
fred Gwynne Vanderbilt. 1t will be the
first large entertainment in the big pal
ace at Fifth avenue and Fifty-seventh
street since Mr.Vanderbtlts illness, two
years ago, and with the exception of
Mrs. AstOr'S ball, on January g. will
probably be the most notable affair of
the season.
The greenhouses of Mr. Vanderbilt's
Newport home will be taxed to supply
rare orchids and other flowers for the
occasion, to add beauty to the most
beautiful home in New York. Giant
ferns and palms and tropical foliage
will probably be arranged in the great
corridors and splendid salons done after
the style of Louis XIV.
Will Inherit $4,000, 600.
The wealth of flower land will be ad-
ded to that of art, to do honor to the
son who is generally looked upon as the
heir to the bulk of the Vanderbilt mill
lions. Unless Mr.. Vanderbilt should re-
lent and restore his Oldest son, Cor
nelius Vanderbilt Jr., who married Miss
Wilson against his wishes, to his place
in the family, Alfred Vanderbilt will be
its representative and eventually con-
troll its vast fortune. He will inherit at
least $50 000, 900.
Mr.. and Mrs. vanderbilt entertained
for him in Newport last summer, where
they gave the largest dinner at The
Breakers which the fashionable summer
colony remembers. Fifty-Six guests sat
around the table. After the banquet
about one hundred additional friends
arrived to enjoy the dancing which fol-
lowed.
There will probably be number of
dinner parties on the night of the COM
ing dance, given by the leaders of the
exclusive set, who will attend 1t with
their guests. Mrs. Vanderbilt's daugh-
ter Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, will
probably help her in receiving, and her
sisterS-in-laws Mrs. William Douglas
Sloane and Mrs. Hamilton NICK.
Twomb1y, may also assist, as they did
at the Newport dinner.
May Wed Miss Elsie French.
Mr.. Alfred Vanderbilt is now in his
twenty-f1rst year, and, according to
those who claim to know, has already
selected the future Mrs. Vanderbilt. She
is Miss Elsie French. daughter of the
late Francis OsmOnd French. She made
her debut two years ago at a tea given
at Shery's, and since then has been
one of the reigning bellies of the young
er set, and as popular as she is pretty.
She is at present abroad with her moth
er.
Before his parents returned from Eur
ope last summer, Alfred Vanderbilt
crossed the ocean, so it is said, to ask
their consent to his marriage. Mr.. Cor
nelius Vanderbilt, said a friend of the
family yesterday, told his son to wait
until after he graduates from college
next June before becoming engaged. If,
when the young man leaves Yale, he and
Miss French still wish to marry, Mr.
Vanderbilt promised to sanction the
match. That they will, few of their
friends doubt, for their courtship dates
back almost to babyhOod. They were
playmates in Newport.
Young Vanderbilt resembles his faith
er in appearance. He is ShreWd, but
less fond of business than his younger
brother, Reginald.