The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-30

taurants in New York has waged a
constant battle against Americas ma
tional ACKNOWLEDGMENT IL was not
always the same DelmonicO who pre-
sided over the establishment. but the
same traditions prevailed, whichever
member of the family was there.
Though DelmOnico's has changed its
location often, it has not changed its
habits. What an interchange of expert
enceS and expressions of emotions there
must have been among the ghosts OF
the "Old Guards Monday night as a
gloomy waiter bowed out the last guest
and closed the place forever, 1t will no
doubt give place to a slyscraper or a
tailor'S shop or a saloon. Already real
estate men are shifting around it and
calculating.
Wright Sanford. one of the few Beau
Brummels America has Tgoduced. was
leader of Delmorieo's 'Old Guard" He
never did a stroke of work in his life.
He and John Hoey. Jose Mora, Abra-
ham II. Hummel, James Keene, Frank
Work Frederick Gerhard and Charley
Osborne. the father of Howell Osborne,
made up a brilliant company of SOur-
NETS that has never been beaten in the
art of knowing how to eat.
1t was to Sanford that Mrs Langtry
was consigned" when she came to this
country. but she soon found some one
who was more attractive. She was a
frequent visitor at DelmonicO's. In the
fine dining hall was served the Holland
dinner. the Chamber of Commerce din
ner and the annual police dinner.
Though many of the men who ate the
latter did not know ham and from
truffleS, the dinner was always the best
of the year. and the policemen had
gourmet guests.
In private rooms on the upper floors
there We're held some of the biggest
poker games on record. For years one
little coterie-"Abe" Hummel was in it
met every Saturday night, and the
very biggest kind of play took place
Thousands were won and lost. No one
would ever say how much. as it is bad
form in New York to name the amounts
of card losses.
In the restaurant the sporting mil
lionaire hobnObbed with his jockeys.
following out the dictum of Admiral
Rouss that "all men are equal on thel
turf and under it,
One of the invariable points about
Delnonico's has always been it's cleant
reputation. When Offenbach. the French
= leratic composer. had rooms in the.
I4wenty-siXth street place he wished to
give dinners to women members Of the
company that produced his music, but
he did not provide for chaperOnes. The
NbuUltTUldIlueQ
management. Offenbach moved in a.
rage to the Hotel Brunswick and short
ly afterward went back to France and
wrote indignant letters to the papers
there denouncing American Puritanlsn.
Delmonico's never had any better adj
vertisement.
During the last four or five years the
sporting element made its headquar-
ters in the restaurant more than ever
before The Wall street mon who had
clustered there so long transferred their
trade at about the same time to the
Waldorf-Astoria- where it now remains.
The sporting crowd will no doubt go
back again now to the Hoffman house.
More appetites have been cultivated,
anywhere else that American good liv-
ers can suggest. At the downtown
places there was always q long, low
counter laden with tarts. at which,
sandwiches and other hurried lunches
could be had but in Twenty sixth
street the dining was more dignified
and formal 1t is a notable fact that
Delmonico has never sued a customer
for food supplied. A man we'll recon-
mended can get credit for a month.
After that. if he fails to pay, the ac-
count is closed. y woman of doubtful
bearing will be treated politely there.
The waiter will deferentially take her
order-and never come back. If a sec
ond waiter is pressed into service he,
too gets lost. Very soon the customer
disappears, too. All the European cell
ebrities who have visited US good and
bad. have been seen there by the hab-
itues of DelmOnico'S in Twenty-sixth
street. Lord Vaudeville. Lord Lonsda1e.
the Duke of ELECTROMAGNETIC present
and the last-were its guests. One Of
the few families whose members were
rarely seen there was the Vanderbilt
family.