The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-11-14

smartest Dinners are Costly and Jolly Too-More of Them Given Than Ever Before-Europe Outdone by
 America.
 Is New York society less given to frivoIity than in former years? This question was suggested by statement that fewer large dinners were given now than formerly. A little inquiry showed that whatever New York's con- dition as regards frivolity might be, the statement concerning dinner giv- ing was not well founded.
 "Once upon a time large private dinner with extravagant trimmings given at a restaurant was an event. Now 1t is almost of nightly occur renee" was the comment given at Dei- monico's.
 Of course the definition of a large dinner may vary. In the restaurants, for instance, a large dinner means anything above twenty-eight or thirty persons. In private houses dinner Of tWenty-four covers is called large. Frequently, however, society dimes two or three times that number of persons at one time.
 It did the same thing fifteen years ago, but not so often, perhaps; and then, as now, dinners of this size took place at a restaurant, with this differ enee, that formerly the dinners were less elaborate than those given to-day. It is easy enough to trace the increas- ing sumptuousness of large dinners in the last half a dozen years even, and to cite case after case of more recent date in which the dining room was converted into fairyland.
 These dinners include many stag dinners, a type which grows more common more eXtravagant, every year and the cost of which is repeated with something like awe even by the waiters-and it is not easy to awe a New York waiter.
 No, the most famous restaurants here do not seem to be uneasy when the decadence of the large pUblimc din- ner is mentioned.
 Society dimes, oftener in it's own house now than 1t did fifteen years ago. at which time comparatively few private dwellings included a good sized dining room, but it also dimes far of tener in a restaurant; and although when compared with the number or small dinners given every winter the very large dinners are few, that does not prove that very large dinners were ever more numerous than now," said Louis Sherry.
 But after all the question of the re- latiVe size of dinners given by fash ionable folk in the past and present sink Into insignificance beside this question: whether the changes in din- ner giving, if changes there be, fndi- cate that high societyis is turning cold shoulder to frivolitT
 On this point the opinion of the man. agar of a Fifth hvenue restaurant at : \ -sT1ifci fas laiuna5fe New York frequent ly dimes is of interest. Said this man:
 As copared with the dinners given by smart society to-day those given by older generations of fashionables were Puritan simplicity and as dull as dictionary The stately dinner is a thing of the. past.
 No matter how large a dinner may be, or how small, the giver, first of all, wants 1t jolly. In these days all sorts of stunts are introduced, to promote hilarity at the dinner table, and small dinners generally lead off In fun.
 Almost any one who dimes out much knows that the larger the dinner the more formal it is apt to be. If society is less frivolous than formerly, don't ha b1xyF hn fnY 1t gives''-and the manager smiled reniniscently.
 A social leader, one of the crowned heads, so to speak, of New York socie- ty, said, when the topic was broached:
 It would be impossible to prove that society is getting to be less frivolous by the dinners it gives, Why, every one who travels and has the entree to Fashionable society, knows that Amer ica spends more money on it's private dinners than does any other country in the world.
 Last spring I had the pleasure of entertaining some of the German rep reaentatives of the Kaiser who were here in connection with the yacht race for the Kaisers cup. These men had s been GflI6fEalHe0 SQou u6dl at OIG time and another by Americans.
 'Oh, your dinners!' one of them ex- claimed. We cannot keep up with you in Germany We have not the money
 Ion another occasion when Lord and Lady Blank of England were spending a few weeks in New York they were entertained at dinner pretty nearly every night and at luncheon every day. Once when dining here Lady Blank expressed her amazenent at the surmptuousness of the dinners she had attended.
 "etIn England,' she said, such din- ners are really only given to royalty h the very finest houses the dinners are comparatively plain when con- trasted with those given night after night by the same New York hostesses to their friends The decorations, the music, the souvenirs as well as the menu, are of the costliest description and at nearly every one I have attend ed there has been some sort of an af- ter programme
 'tIn my opinion there is this differ- enee between the dinners of to-day and fifteen years ago; modern dinners arg much more frequent, much more splen- : %aSNE& HS-s