Bisbee daily review., 1907-11-24
EXPENSIVE BANQUETS.
Dinners Costing s1oo a Plate
 Are Not Uncommon.
PADS THAT SWELL THE BILL.
Artistic and Scenic Effects and Lux urious Surroundings Help to Pie Up the Priee-Metheds of the Manager of Modern Dining Palace.

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 How would you like to pay s100 fol
 single meal? There was a time
 when this question would have seemed
 absurd. but now. with our rapidly l growing wealth. It excites little com.
 ment Yes. S1o0 plate banquets are 1 not uncommon among the Four Hun.
 dred. and $40. $50 and S6o plate are 1 quite ordinary charges for twentieth
 century banquets. To the ordinary
 mind. however. it is not easy to imas inc a list of delicaeies expensive
 enough to foot up such an amount or
 an appetite 50 expensive as to desire
 them. Nightingales' tongues and hum ming birds wings. washed down with l the costliest wines. would not satisfy
 the up to date diner. however. The I caterer does not depend entirely upon 1 his chef and his steward for the sue
 cess of great functions" Artists aud mechanical genuises are his chief as-
 sistants. He must be able to trans
 fern New York banquet hall into a ! plaza in Venice, 8 corner Of old Japan l or an ancient Greek or Roman palace.
 as his guests taste or whim may die l tate
 I Pads of millionaires and the fancies of clubs and societies always seeking i the unusual have brought to pass the l s100 plate dinner. The production l of the surroundings they demand ne. 1 cessitates the outlay of thousands of 1 dollars for each separate banquet It l would never do to have two banquets
 alike. as goes without saying.
 There was recently given in a new hotel in New York a bachelor dinner at which the guests were seated In a
 corner of Venice. The effect was a masterpiece Of scenic art and electrical ingenuity. 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 balustrades were i tian balconies Beyond stretched q transparency I50 feet long and twenty feet high. showing most realistically a
 street in the city of canals. Between this and the dining room was wa terwsy on which piled a gondoia with party of troubadours. who played and sang as they passed to and fro. The tables w@re 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 q fountain which tossed its light spray almost to the ceiling. Thousands of tinted cleo tric lights shed q soft blue illumination over the whole. giving the effect of Italian twilight One could scarcely realize that shut out only by the stur- dy walls of the hotel and thick hang ings were the glare and rumble of Longacre square.
 But there Is an endless variety of elaborate and picturesque effects ere ated for the twentieth century diner. New York furnishes the most striking examples and the most numerous. though London and Paris vie with her for the honors Of extravaganza. Mme Madeleine Lemaire's dinners are per haps the most notable of Paris She has special fondness for the an- cient in effects. and in Grecian court her guests sit at a Greek feast and nIl the room with their singing. An ether striking effect followed a supper to notable visitor from abroad. The guests were led to room which had been arranged to represent a pastoral scene, with growing turf and foliage. aud running about among the trees wsre several little lambs. Overhead wHs suspended & huge bah which sud dezly burst and shswered American Besuty rsses on those beneath 1t.
 The banquet itself is gigantic un- dertakizg. for under the managers su- Feryision comes the selection of dish es. theIr cooking. the silver. glass and china. the mode Of service and the hundred and one ether details. great dining palace seats from i.5o0 to 2.0o0 persons ali of when must be served sim uItsnesusiy aHe each es whom must be served sS If be alone were to se considered This gives some idea perhaps of the banquet managers task.
 Ths oE1ce of this modern magician suggests. with it's roll top desk. it's typewriter and its telephone. the office of any manager Of large enterprises. Here he meets the people playing the part Of hosts and goes over the details of the entertainment with them. He suggests. consuitz. advises and decides on each item not only of the menu, 1 but Of decorations and of service. Ere quently and particularly in the case of l :lubs sHd societies be is offered a fixed Ggure and must lay out scheme l to come within its limits.
 When the commercial arrangements. so to speak. have been made he sits | down to map out his campaign, 4 i typewritteD plan is sent to the steward i showing just what his department may i be required to do. another to the deco rator. another to the electrician. one to the head waiter. one to the chef. one to the wine keeper and one to the [ "eonfectioner of souvenirs" These { are the banquet managers trusted iientenants. without whom hls success es would be little more than frant.c endeayors.-New York Letter in What To Eat.