Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-02-17
A New York Feast

which Has Never BeenlEqualled IN TINS
Country for LavIshness and Novelty
Cost $3.50 Per Plate for 40 People, or
$4,000.
The feasts of Nero were outdone In de-
corum and nearly equaled in lavlshness
and novelty at the Waldorf Astoria hotel
in New York Saturday night, when Az
men and women gathered at the invitation
of Randolph Guggenheimer, president of
the municipal council. At the appointed
hour the door to fairyland was opened.
Hundreds of electric lights were turned on
at that moment, and the air was filled with
the notes of nightngales, blackbirds and
canarles. 1t was like sunrise in the
spring, and the fash of light to the birds
like the opening of another dawn.
The guests walked down a garden path
amid beds of tulips and roses and banks OF
ferns. There were hedges of hrs, and at
the end of the path summer house, hall
hidden in thicket of palms. The arbor
was twelve-sided, rs feet in diameter, and
here, surrounded by vine.clad trellis, the
guests sat down
The vines hung loosely, and full, round
punches of grapes, as big as plums, were
olSptuutu ONtIucdu anu al Luc olhOo VI VIZ
arbor, Lights came from Venetian Ian
terms and tiny electric globes behind me-
dallions of glass. In the centre of the Ia
bic laughing bronze boy, leaning against
stork, supported a puring fountain
whose sparkling jet rose to within two
feet of the lamp at the bowers roof. On
all sides were rare blossoms. Beneath was
the green sod Walls, ceiling, floor, had
disappeared.
The dishes were in gilt and the glasses
were trimmed with gold. There was no law
ish display of silver. Wherever the eye
fell there were roses and violets, tulips,
lilies, hyacinths, palms and ferns. The
palms were growing, the grapevines had
been transplanted from lighthouses with
their own earth. The fruit was plucked
as in the orchard. Orange trees with their
beautiful golden spheres banked one side of
the aTbor.
The walters came and went silently.
The music of the birds was not silenced by
the clatter of plates. Toward the close Of
the dinner stringed instruments played
softly in the distance. Then six Neapoli-
tans in their picturesque costumes entered,
! playing upon guitars and mandolins. They
| passed around the table and then took up
position among the palms unseen.
The menus for the men were painted in
! gold on cocoanuts, which had been scraped
! and polished For the women there were
| golden fans, on which the list of wines and
choice viands was painted. The favors
were dazzling. For the women there were
beautifully enFossed vinaigrettes, and for
their husbands jewelled match boxes,
studded with diamonds, emeralds and ru-
| bies.
The wines were the rarest to be found,
including the Madeira which came to this
country in 1853 and lay in the cellars of
the Charleston Jockey club long enough to
become famous and almost priceless.
The green turtle and the diamond back
terrapin were selected especially for this
feast. The mountain sheep and the ru Idly
duck were brought TO the city by express
in small portable refrigerators. The vege-
tables we're the choicest products OF
the dollhouse. The pastry and CONNECTIONS
were the triumphs of the imported chef.
1t was feast TO enjoy slowly and the
guests sat at table for five hours.
The cost of this feast was $4,000, or
$3.50 plate. Mr. Guggenheimer is mil
| lionaire lawyer, at the head of law firm
which has engineered several big financial
deals in the past few years.