Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-30
Official Event of Hudson-FuI-
ton Celebration.
SETTING is MOST BRILLIANT
surpasses All Gatherings in Cosmo.
politan Character.
TIMELY SPEECHES ARE MADE
Hughes Presides and Sherman Is
There Among Representatives
Of Thirty-Five Nations.

NEW YORK. September 30.-1n the
city's newest and biggest ballroom the
representatives Of thirty-five other ma
tons, besides some 1900 Americans. New
Workers for the time being, came together
last night in the Hotel Aston for the Of
fetal banquet of the Hudson-Fulton cele-
bration. The great company met to ex-
change the greetings of the nations in a
room a full city block in length from
one end to the other
Such space was required. Those who
We'd with one another in doing honor to
the explorer of 800 years ago and the In
ventor. younger by two centuries. would
have found any less extensive place far
too small Soldier and sailor, executive
and diplomat and the plain citizens whose
spirit made the occasion possible filled
every nook and corner until the eye'passed
from one group to another without definite
impression and came only to regard the
big assemblage as a unit.
AS the gathering was among the largest
that the city has ever known. so 1t was
the most cosmopolitan. The names OF
Sid Laarby, Ben Zenhashi, Sid Monham-
med and Ben Abeldesiam, Ben Jelui, MO-
rocco, might have been taken from any
book of eastern romance or or stories
from the stormy North African coast, ana
quite as strange looked the men them
selves, shrouded in their white robes over
garb Of rich purple and gold.
But nearby sat such plain Americans as
Vice President Sherman-called Jim
wher he goes to ball games in Washing
ton, and who roots for the Giants because
they come from his native state. Herman
Metz, Patrick F. MCGOWAN, all the Dor
ough presidents and Little Tim Sullivan
might be called to the front II further
contrast were needed, and then again
taste of the orient could be added by
naming his imperial highness Prince
Kunt Of Japan and Manhattan's old and
inquisitive friend, his excellency WI
Ting-fang.
Brilliant Event Fittingly Staged.
So much for the variety of people.
When 1t came to inanimate things the
ballroom with it's trappings just revealed
to the public gaze for this event, the
smaller decorations, the souvenirs of his
toric import, the great organ and its
music all combined to create g. fitting
setting for the animate scene. The room
itself might we'll have been designed for
last nights festivities, so we'll did its ar
rangement lend itself to the purposes OF
the Hudson-Fulton dinner Though ats
newly wrought splendors had been de-
signed for the banQuets of many years
to come, yet they blended In entire har-
mony with the work OF the artists re-
tanned by the Hudson Fulton committee.
Inc result was the IIlOIc fIOldbiC UCS0ASS
the great ballroom, with its principal SUBJ
salaries, the rose room and the laurel,
comprises by far the largest banqueting
Place among the hotels of New York, and
presents an enormous problem to the deco
rator who would produce unity in the
whole scheme of things.
Look, then, upon the vast room in blue
and gray and gold, the floor crowded with
the tables of the diners. and the upper
tiers Of boxes, running three full stories
above, supported by piers with such archi-
tectural art that they seem to be sus-
pended from the walls. Above them is
an open terrace with balustrades overrun
with vines and flowers. it's alcoves franz
ing pictures Of distant hills, and, for last
nights feast, views of Holland whence
Hudson came-squat ships sailing behind
high bikes, and windmills and dwellings
with low Dutch roofs. These pictures
were executed for last nights banquet
alone, but they became so naturally q
part of the decorative scheme of the
Aston ballroom that they are likely to
stay.