The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1900-10-17
$4,000 GUESTS AT BANQUET
President Loubet's Historic Din
ner to Mayors Of France.
HELD IN GARDEN OF TUIIIRIBs.

Five Miles of Tables Spread Under
tbe Trees Nearly Twenty-Five
Thousand Guests Are Served by ~
Great Army of Walters.
Nobody can conceive what an army
10000 people make until he has seen
that number closely assembled, as vas
the case at the feast given by Presi-
dent Loubet in the garden of the Tui-
leries 10 the mayors of the municipall-
ties of France in honor of the eXposi-
ton. says the special correspondent OF
the New York World.
The exact number of guests served,
counting all officials and newspaper
men, was 23.446.
There were about 1900 head walters,
each commanding some Is men. In
Guiding the walters, the wine servers,
the dishwashers and the ice cream
men. the total number Of employees
en- the caterers pay roll, including the
wagon drivers, the cooks the silver
caretakers and the detectives, amount
ed to exactly -t,OoO.
The fact that there was more than
one man to each guest will be easily
understood when it is explained that
everything had to be taken to the
TuiIeries garden for just one meal.
Nothing was cooked on the spot.
Everything arrived in its dish ready to
he placed upon the table. Even the
ice cream came portioned out in dainty
manor molds. In these it was frozen
on the grounds by u refrigerating ma
chimes that started operations when
lunch began.
The service was admirably organized
by the experts Potel & Chabot the lar
gest catering firm in France.
Although everybody felt nervous lest
the banquet should be marred by con-
fusion and disorder, everything soon
went without hitch.
The system adopted was ingenious,
but simple Under long, lofty and
tastefully decorated tents supported by
light iron structures about five miles
of tables had been arranged in six par
alIel rows. Between the ends OF the
tables were passages for service.
Alongside each dining tent, and of
exactly the same length, there was all
other simpler tent, which constituted
the pantry. Running through the mid
die of these pantries stood shelf work
six shelves high. Upon each shelf one
course was arranged ready in dishes,
with pilates, knives, forks and the re-
naming essentials necessary for sery-
ing it.
The top shelf for instance, showed
an uninterrupted line of salad dishes
as far as the eye could see. On the
lower shelf roast fowls, garlandod with
colored iellies. stood side by side, ex-
tending for nearly mile in length.
AS this shelf arrangement was parti-
toned off by squads of men, when the
electric signals came to change the
plates and serve the next course each
head waiter dispatched three of his IS
men to each of the six tables directly
opposite his shelf section with dishes
and the accompanying wines. The soil
ed plates were handed to the helpers,
who piled them up on the counters, no
attempt being made at dishwashing.
The coffee making in one great brass
urn by sections and the cream freezing
and the wine opening were the only OPP
erations that were performed upon the
grounds.
Besides serving what had been
brought prepared, the strictest precau
tons had been taken against any part
of the service being slurred or any
single guest being neglected. The wait
ers had been hired upon the distinct
understanding that they could be dis
charged on the spot without appeal
and without pay upon the least sign OF
misbehavor or incapacity.
There was n reserve of 300 strong