The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-04-23
$5tO FOR STUDIO REVUL ROW
VINGUTS PARTY CREDITED WITH
THREE QUARTS APIECE,

which According 20 tho Plalntln's lawyer
Accounts for the Condition Mrs. smiths
Rooms We're Found ln-Estlmate Of
~ 900 for Wlne for 100 Persons.
1t was up to a jury in Part II, ofthe City
Court yesterday to say II eighty men and
eighty women could soak up 1000 quarts
Of champagne at a nights sitting, and II
such were the case what would be the
effect upon the furniture' II didn't take
the twelve peers long to find an answer to
each question, to the first, yes; TO the sec
ond, horrendous.
SO as the matter stands At present
Mrs. Gerrit Smith Of l42 East Thirty
third street, who rented her extremely
ornamental studio on January 20, 1901, TO
George + Vingut clubman, cross-country
rider and yachtsman, 30 that Mr.. Vingut
and seventy-nine gentlemen friends might
have a fancy setting for the party they
were throwing for Edna Goodrich and
Vivian Blackburn and Maize Toilette and
exactly sev~enty-seven other pulchritudi-
nous young women, has a little purse Of
$50 coming to her from Mr.. Vingut, Judge
Donnelly and the jury were not informed
whether Mr.. Vingut intended to make his
seventy-nine cohosts whack up Of the
damages, but IL Mr.. vingut collects from
everybody it will be only ta37i5 apiece,
On second thought If Edna Goodrich and
Nella Webb and Georgia Caine and all
the rest Of the girls dig down into their
salary it will be only t3ls75, a sum 30 in
significant that il oughn't fuss anybody,
even in these frightened times.
To begin with, when Mrs, Gerrit Smith
walked into her once lovely studio the
morning after that party, carefully lifting
her skirts and stepping over one gentleman
who was snOozing under the table warmly
wrapped in an orange hued silk un%dershirt,
| and observed by the cold light OF that
January sun what things had happened
to her porcelain bathtub, her mahogany
tables, her white enamelled desks and other
filings, she was inclined to think she was
out about 1880 iron men, Later, taking
stock Of cigarette burns and clipped enamel
and broken glassware, she decided that
' she would have 10 acquire SPA 70 square
I the account. The jury reduced the claim
to $40, having in mind however. the law
! which entities a plaintiff to treble damages
for wilful destruction OF property. SO
It mounts to $50.
The evidence was all>in by yesterday,
80 the lawyers used up the time summing
up. John Vernon Bowler, Jr., who with
Samuel Herman represented Mrs. Smith,
framed up some champagne statistics in
order TO make it quite clear to the jurors
hat there had been much doing the night
Mrs. Smiths studio was mussed up.
Now let's do a little figuring to see IL
we can't find out how orderly This little
! party was, said Bowler. The defendant
stated that there were about s~eventy-hve
participants who we're hosts and five other
men who we're guests and that the pro rata
! Of the guests was SIS. That would make
about $685. for the evening = entertainment.
We can put down $40 for food. The assump-
ton Is that the music cost $3.50. The rent
stood them 500. Cigars and cigarettes
came to perhaps $3.50, a liberal estimate;
The LIQUORS, sOdas and whiskey amounted
10 perhaps $50. Allow $3.50 for incidentals,
Then we AVE left out OF the gross sum
nearly 5000 applicable TO the purchase OF
vine"
The Jury began 10 sit up and take notice
| at this point and two or three followed Mr..
Bouvier's figures with their own pencils,
We'll, at 81 a quart this would show the
purchase OF 1000 quarts which, divided
among $50 p~eople-waiters and everybody
would provide something more than FIVE
quarts per person. Making allowance for
breakage, loss, theft and so on 1t would
seem that every ~reveller must have had
on an average about three quarts or more,
which, | hold, explains much II not all OF
the condition in which the rooms were
found on the following morning
1t took the jury about one pipeful all
around TO agree with Mr.. Bouyier's con-
c%l,lsions, whereupon Mrs. Smith, smiling
merrily, shook hands with her advocates
and gayly departed.