The Washington herald., 1909-07-18

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palace ht for queen.
There are fifty servants in the great house, and
the monthly bills for provisions and groceries are
enormous A great part of the household supplies
come from the famy's own farm In the country
Including milk from Jersey COWS of registered
lineage. and eggs laid by pedgreed hens The
cooking plant of the Vanderbilt place is similar to
that of hotel. and attached to IL is refrigerat
ing room lined with compartments chilled with
ice from above There is "cold room" for the
manufacture of ices and pastry and spacious
wine closet connects by an elevator with the wine
cellar
The kitchen is walled with white porcelain tiles
and lighted by electricity. The range is thirty
feet long and miniature railroad carries the coal
ashes out of the house The chef a Frenchman
with a salary of $4,000 year. is absolute auto
crat of the culinary department, and has under
him skilled pastry cook and number of women
assistants.
OF all the people employed for the serving of
big dinner. perhaps the head buffers duty is the
most exaCting. There is servant for every three
guests, and another in the pantry runs in the
courses. The butler communicates with the chef
by electric signal and there is not an instants
delay, each successive course appearing and van
ishng with the utmost celebrity. Not more than
eighty-fve minutes elapse from the seating of the
guests until the ladies leave for dinners are much
shorter now than they used to be, and the number
of courses is limited. An ordinary dinner eXclud-
ing Wines costs about SIS head, and at that fig
ure, Mrs. Vanderbilt can provide a repast that
would have made Lucullus and his fastidious table
Cronies dellrious with joy.
Freak dinner fads.
u UT the fads of multmillionaires of a certain
~ class have brought to pass the hundred-dollar.a
plate dinner-a function which depends more for
its upon artists and mechanical geniuses
than upon the marvellous creations of Monsieur
Francois. Even nghtingales tongues washed down
with the rarest and costest wines would not total
up such fabulous amount as hundred dollars
for each guest.
At a millionaire residence not long ago there
was given a dinner in which the guests seat
ed in a corner of Venice. The doors along the
corridor at the side of the great dining room
were removed, and in their places balustrades
were set to give the appearance OF venetian bal.
comics. Beyond stretched transparency $50 feet
long and twenty feet high, showing most reasti'
cay a street in the city of canals Between this
and the dining room was a waterway on which
gondola with party of troubadours, who
played and sang they passed to and fro At
one end of the in which the tables
placed a beautiful garden of growing palms and
flowers had been laid out, with fountain in the
center which tossed its light spray almost TO the
ceiling. Thousands of tinted electric lights shed
a soft blue illumination over the whole giving the
effect of italian twilight
Mrs Herman Oerichs recently gave white
ball in her pretty Newport villa of white plaster.
The invitations commanded the guests tc wear
vhite The effect startngly beautiful, as
most of the women wore white wigs and the
eighteenth century fashions were revived
Not all selhshness.
u UT it is by means true that Newport is given
- up to selfish amusement. There many char
liable fetes held in the grounds of the summer
colony, where prominent society women may be
seen selling cream and butter from their OWE
dairies and dainty baskets of fruit and flowers.
and there many charity concerts at the Casino.
Children's parties are a conspicuous feature oil
the Newport Everything is carefully ar
ranged before hand an expert "amuser" being
usually engaged to conduct the entertainment
Unfortunately, the children given many
prizes that they grow to expect them at every
step and come home loaded with gifts as to
suggest the wisdom of hiring wagon to carry
their possessions.
On Bellevue avenue every pleasant afternoon,
there is a magnificent display of vehicles of every
description but there is not one Of them approach
ing in splendor the extraordinary turnout Of
millionaire, now dead, and whom / will not name
out of respect for his democratic relatives.