The sun., 1906-01-02
LIVELY NIGHT ON BROADWAY
NEW YE4R'SEVE BEGAN QUIETLY,
RTT TOJND UP IN 4 BLAZE.
Rector's Pieascd Its Crowd BY Turning
Out the Lights at IL, Sounding the
Hours on Bell, and Then Letting
Big Flag Drop Over the Diners Heads.

Save for the restaurants, the Tenderloin
was pretty well closed on New Years eve.
The plain p,cplr, unable to purchase their
beer or hgabaIs, too, their celebration
out in paraG:ng The streets and whooping
il up, but they who had tho price and had
had the forethought to engage tables went
TO the restaurants, where behind locked
doors they frolicked and chortled.
As early a. q clock Sunday night there
we're long lines Of people at the entrances
TO the big restaurants. In front Of Rec
tors at that time the line reached for half
q. block north and south. and the cabs
ian1med the street in front Of the place
Men and women pleaded with the door
keepers to he admitted 1t even at that
hour nobody could get !. who hadn't a
card Of admission Later IN the night the
press increts }d and the rests ur7nt was
fairly beseged
citizen who had two girls in tow pulled out
a roll Of yellow money, skinned off fifty
dollar bill and offered it to one Of the door
keepers merely to be let inside. The ex-
preston of agony that came over tha.
doorkeepers face as he shook his head
In refusal would be hard to describe,
At Martins, Shanley's, Jacks, the Hotel
Astor and the other centres Of night life
the crowds we're fully as large. At every
one OF these places tables had been engaged
for days and even weeks ahead At Mar
tins twenty tables had been reserved for
from one to SIX months. The proprietors
turned away far more people than they we're
able TO admit
After 10 o'clock nobody drank anything
but wine The Cafe Martin opened $500
quarts A. Rector's nearly 1000 corks
popped At the other big places the con-
sumption of champagne was in the same
proportion
The best of the evenings fun perhaps
was seen at the CATS Martin little before
and a little after midnight. al most every
body in the restaurant bad been there for
three or four hours and the fizz was getting
in its fine work. 4 man at least 65 hoped
the best looking Of the women IN the place.
He was moved 70 speech on the blessings
OF the old year, waving red garter in one
hand and dead bottle in the other. He
hadn't got far in his peroration when the
party at an adjpining table three me- men z, and
firmly and proceeded to anoint him With
wine.
The Metropoltan. Opera House stars
went to Martins for New Years eve.
SdIusp sat WIN n pd' " anu CHeeIeI Gu
Enthusiastically when the band played Italian
and French airs. Scott curled his little
black mustache and smoked innumerable
cigarettes Pol Plancon, black bearded
and imposing frowned amiably upon the
happy chaos David Belasco, looking like
a curate out for frolic. was at one table.
Blanche Bates with a party was at another.
John Drew was on hand. but left early.
Edna May, in blue silk and lace, was voted
by lot Of people to be the prettest woman
In the room.
At the Cafe Martin as in other restaurants.
the lights went out precisely at l2, and the
whole place was dark as cellar The
band PLAYED AUD ID, Lang u syne, syn or tried to-
swing and spirit and sang it through, then
went at it again and again. The lights