New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-14
WAS
THE WATCHWORD
AND GROTESQUE
WERE THECOS-
TUNES AND
PROCEED
INGS. q,
Bv ALFRED KREYMBORG-

-0HE grcat dance of the season has come
and gone. For weeks past you have
heard the question everywhere; AZ
art galleries, at the academies, among
the painters, illustrators and art Students
among men Of the pen, and ladies, In the
baurts Of Bohemia and Bohemian restaurants,
in the haunts of the highbrow and aristocrst,
as well as the plain ordinary; Are you gong
to the XII. Kats!" And woe betide your repu-
tation and your experience as New 1ofHei
II vou dared the response: What Is inc n"
Kats2"
Won might have fallen into The easy sup
position that KIT Kats was a new pfano oi
tomato ketchup or a new make OF sutoaoone
or the latest war implement or new "Ven-
,ion m borubdom or some other OF the many
urcant1y things the crazy mind OF man IS Gre
s.ine in these days when activity blows more
,vildIv than any east wind But the enemy
would have attacked you further with: Don't
vor know about the annual SHELTER OF the Kit
Kats9" and an accompanying scorn OF eye
Hurubly you would have questioned: ana
what is a skelter?" With DardaneNian Joy
vour enemy would have pounced upon you
with: IF you don't know what KIT Kat Is
YOU can't know the meaning OF SHELTER, De
zane. K;t Kat is SHELTER and SHELTER Kit Kat
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KIT
KAT AND SHELTER.
And he explains to you with the austere su-
nerioritv of any savant the relationship OF
K;t Kat and SHELTER. That Kit Kat is IA
nous art club, over thirty years OLD, Win
headquarters in an ancient building IN East
Fourteenth Street, or Hans Wagner throw
bevond Washington Square and MacDougall
Allev. and SHELTER the dance given by those
Genial. generous souls to the world at large
and any with the price Of admission and the
price of costume.
Vaguely you recall having read sign all
over town: "Groteska." And bold black
faced edict TO the effect that guests would
have to appear in harmony with the character
as suggested by the title, Groteska, that cos
trr,es must be costumes in good faith and
that NO costumes were to be had at the hall
and that no one was to be admitted in domino
or evening dress.
You decided to accept the enemys invita-
ton. You looked up Groteska in your velVet
bound dictionary, discovered that it meant the
uncouth in art. the fantastic, the barbarous'
and proceeded to invest some of your magma
ton and gold in the nearest department store
With the assistance of your wife's tape meas
ure and shears you fitted your 1.-THE physique
in a madly designed cut of green, yellow blue
and gold cheesecloth, demolished an old derby
and painted it vermilon, pinned paper roses
on your old carpet slippers, curled your hair
and dyed it purple and pasted your face with
signs of the zodiac. Then you presented your
self at the Palm Garden. You were pro-
nounced grotesque by the madmen at the door
You were allowed to enter the sacred precincts
Of the Kit Kats. A blare of noise met your
ears, wonderful riotous intoxcation OF color
vour ewes. And you knew what a Kit Kat
SHELTER was. You have not done enthusing
since
THE MOST MEMORABLE OF ALL KIT
KAT UPHEAVALS.
AS matter of fact, the most recent of Kit
Kat upheavals was the most memorable in
the twenty fve-year history of such entertain
ments. There were more than two thousand
persons packed away along the floor, in the
balcony and in the wine gardens of the happy
domice Of pleasure. Celebrities galore, ar
fists cartoonists, sculptors, illustrators, funny
paper humorists, editors, pen-pushers, must
clans, dancers in the professional sense, art
students, novelist or two, playwrights and
even those shy, shrinking ghosts, poets. And
the ladies' Never in the experience OF the
most blase old dancegoer was there such an
exhibition of beauty in feminine charms. 1t
proved beyond the question OF jealous argu-
ment that Manhattan Island still grows the
most luxurious the most exotic flowers that
America can boast Of And at no ball of re-
cent years was more beautiful, more joyous
dancing seen. Liberty tina never degencrated
into license, grace that was almost too
common to be distinctive, and tirelessness