Fergus County argus., 1906-05-15
- q =
BANQUET OF
MILLIONAIRES
WHERE MONEY GOES IN ONE
HUNDRED DOLLAR PER PLATE
AFFAIRS.

dollars plate may seem to most OF
us a rather extravagant dinner bill
yet it is by no means a rare one
Forty SO and 60 dollars a plate are
quite ordinary charges for twentieth
century banquets. Even the widest
imagination, of course. could hardly
conjure up a list of delicacles expen.
sive enough to foot up such an amount
and it would be difficult to conceive
of an appetite so expensive to sati.
ate.
Nightingale's tongues and humming
birds wings. washed down with the
costliest of wines, would not satisfy
the up-to-date diner. however. The
caterer does not depend entirely up.
on his chef and his steward for the
success of great functions" Artists
and mechanical geniuses are his chief
assistants; he must be able to trans
form a New York banquet hall into a
plaza in Venice. a corner Of old Ja-
pan, or an ancient Greek or Roman
palace. as his guests tastes or whims
may dictate.
Never Duplicate eanquets.
The fads of millionaires and the
fancies of clubs and societies, always
seeking the unusual, have brought to
pass the 500 a plate dinner. The pro-
duction Of the surroundings they de.
mand necessitates the outlay Of thous.
ands of dollars for each separate ban.
quet-it would never do to have two
banquets alike, as goes without saying.
There was recently given in the new
Hotel Astor bachelor dinner at which
the guests were seated in a corner
of Venice; the effect was a master.
piece of scenic art and electrical in
genuity and that, quite as much as
the rich viands, was what the host
wanted and was paying for.
The doors along the corridor at the
sides of the great banquet hall were
removed and in their places balus.
trades were set to give the appear
ance of Venetian balconies. Beyond
stretched transparency $50 feet long
and 20 feet high, showing most realis-
tically street in the city of canals.
Between this and the dining room was
waterway on which piled a gondola
with party of troubadors who play
ed and sang as they passed to and fro.
The tables were set about the room
at one end of which beautiful gar
den of growing palms and flowers had
been laid out, in it's center a fountain
which tossed it's light spray almost
to the ceiling. Thousands of tinted
electric lights shed a soft, blue il.
Elimination over the whole, giving the
effect Of Italian twilight. One could
scarcely realize that shut out by the
sturdy walls of the hotel and thick
hangings were the glare and the rum.
BILE of Longacre Square.
OF elaborate schemes and pictures.
que ecects created for the twentieth
century diner there is an endless va
riety. New York furnishes the most
striking examples and the most nun.
erous, though London and Paris vie
with her for the honors of extrava
gance. Madam Madeleine Lemaire s
dinners are perhaps the most notable
of Paris. She has special fondness
for the ancient in effects and in q
Grecian court her guests sit at 3
Greek feast carried out with faithful
literalness in every detail, even tc
the service of rose leaves. They wear
Grecian costumes and are attended
by walters arrayed in flowing robes OF
Athens who serve the dishes in the
old AtheNian fashion.
The dinner which most stirred Lon
don was given in honor of Barney
Barnato, the African millionaire. The
hall was arranged to represent {
South African mining camp and the
dinner was served in tents by kaffil
walters. Another London feast which
was unique in some ways was the
kessler dinner, at which the guest.
were on gondola floating in typica
Venetian scene.