The Washington herald., 1907-03-24
FREAKS IN ENTERTAINMENTS
Eccentric HOspitalities Extended by
Some Wealthy American Hosts.
Mrs. Abram Heyyitt's SehOoIehiid
Party-Horses and other Animals
as Dinner Guests.

If there is any limit to the eccehtficitles
of hospitality. its must surely. one would
think, have been reached in some of the
freak" banquets recently given across
the Atlantic. remarks Tit-Bits.
Some time ago Mrs. Abram Hewitt. wife
of an ex-mayor of New York, gave a
highly novel party 20 a number Of her
ultra-fashionabIe friends Each guest ap-
peared in baby clothes-the ladies in short
skirts. with their hair In pigtails, and
the men beardless and wearing patched
breeches All carried dolls, states and
sponges. and recited their lessons 10 W.
X Vanderbilt and Mrs Coudert. who fig
ured as schOOlmasteT and schOOlmistress.
respectively while the proceedings were
further enlvened by a chorus of pro-
fessional singers dressed as monks and
nuns
.Romaine Pierson, a well-known Ameri-
can clubman. celebrated the tenth anni-
versary of his divorce by a dinner to
twenty-four of his friends at the Beach
Z Hotel, Chicago. The invitations 10 the
feast were Ornamented with designs rep
resenting broken hearts; the principal
toast was, Here's TO my mother-in-law.
Heaven may bless her. but ! don't insist, %
and the place of honor was occupied by
a gentleman whose furniture had been
seized by his former wife a few days
earlier
An eccentric feast was given recently
by Frank g. Balsito, of Brooklyn, to the
doctors and purses who had attended
The wines were drunk out of medicine
bottles, the tables were decorated with
antiseptie lint. and the ices were served
ia the form of human skulls
For originality it would be difficult to
beat the supper party given a few weeks
ago by Mrs Fiske-Grifiin at her home.
in a fashionable suburb of Chicago. Ten
of the leading members Of Chicago sOci-
ETY. escorted bird or an animal to the
supper table, the guests including a
guinea pig. a white pig, a rooster. rab-
Bit a dove, a parrot a lizard a terrier,
a cat, and a squirrel the pig having the
honor of being escorted by the hostess
herself. Covers were laid for twenty and
each fOuT-fOoted or feathered guest was
served with it's own pet delicacies-the
rabbit with llettuce, the lizard with flies,
the cat with a live mouse, and so on.
OF a very different order was the din
ner given by Andrew Carnegie at the
Stevens Institute. New York, not long
ago. at which the appointments were. as
processes and appliances used in q steel
factory. Thus the centerpiece was a min
iature blast furnace, four feet high,
around the edge of which ran a railway
forty feet long. Instead of molten metal,
however. the furnace poured out hot
punch into small ears which it conveyed
over tile line to the different guests. 4
small model of a Bessemer furnace SINH
larly dispensed pastry. while the bread
was shaped like locomotives and the ice
cream like railway ties
a. a pony banquet" given by Harvey
S. LadeW. at Glen Cove, L. l.. the guests
Of honor were two ponies, which had won
the principal prizes at the Piping Rock
Horse Show. The four-footed guests We're
installed in two horse boxes. draped in
silks and embOwered in roses; and be-
tween them sat the host at the head of
a. horseshoe table, at which forty more
human guests We're seated. Dinner was
served TO the ladies. gentlemen, and
ponies together, the latter feasting on
oats, carrots, and other de}icacies, served
in silver buckets, and drinking water lrom
gold-hoOped wooden pals.
At another banquet in honor Of a prize
Pomeranian, the canine guests were seat
ed on high chairs and fed by buffers with
veal outlets. sausages, chocolates, and ice
cream, with a liberal slice each of a birth
day cake, WHICH might nave graced a
royal table