New-York tribune., 1920-01-02
Champagne Celebrators just
&c, a Good Start When
Most of Manhattan
Goes Home at 2 A. M.
Walters Share in Joy
aRosring Forties'' a Maze
Of Recklessly Driv e N
Autos at Early Dawn

whau all those dwellers on Manhat-
..r who had greeted the New Year with
.oos.s drunk in cider, one-tenth of l
Nor cent benzoate of soda. were in bed
shout o'clock yesterday morning,
those others who declined to celebrate
with anything bat champagne were just
eating good start in the restaurants
and cabarets in that region most folks
refer to when they say Broadway.
From the Knickerbocker grill to
Re;senweber's, from Murray's Roman
Gardens to the Ritz Carlton, it was
much the same, except that the shouts
we're more raucous in some of the
plsces, particularly those where the
haid on the trousers of the mems eve
ming clothes was most conspicuous and
where Monopole was given equal con-
sideration with Ciiquot, even though
both cost s35 bottle.
The wine had been deposited with
the hotel restaurants and cabarets soon
after its owners had arranged for table
reservations. 1t had been guarded in
the interim before New Years Eve
With the jealous care given jewels left
IL hotel safes.
Where They Got 1t Is a Question
All the restaurant proprietors de-
clare the wine either had been brought
or sent by the diners. Where the
diners acquired it no one attempted to
Al u
to know pretty we'll what it had cost.
tent with four or Ave bottles, who
brought their wine wrapped in paper
bundles, and the arm which in the old
pre-prohibition days would have as
sisted the slippered, evening cloaked
companion on December 81, 1919, was
wrapped protectively about the
bundle.
Some of the bundles contained bot
ties Of prepared cocktails (there were
no bartenders with the time or in
clination to mix drinks on such
night and others whisky. There we're
women who wouldn't trust even their
escorts, much less their chauffeurs.
to carry their pet bottles and cher
ished them in generously proportioned
handbags.
Gift Wine Only a Starter
The pint of champagne supplied by
the Claridge, the WaldorfAstoria and
the McApin to each couple in their
dining rooms at midnight, was simply
enough to dampen the toast for the
New Year. Those pints made small
impression on the seemingly un-
ouencha5le thirsts of the gatherings.
= J,,p%
have contained half the load that, bot
Of those restaurant rooms. On some
Of the tables were water pitchers
elled with whisky and cracked ice.
aad the opulent owners drank from
yarge goblets.
/. At two in the morning the green,
gold, purple and red paper hats were
S'orn with little regard for the law
4 gravity. Overhead hoated distended
sbber balloons, the currents Of air es-
sablished by the dancers beneath
5orsizg them from time to time to
Ynp their yellow and pink forms into
Re gi.ded beams O. the ceiling.
Serpentine ribbons Of colored paper
lay underfoot in hopeless tangle, or
tangled from chandeliers like fantastic
boards. Jazz bands that at an earlier
nour had played "Tell Me Why" ana
:.Dardanella" and other tunes, played t,
:monotonous repetition of "Vamping
Gady" at two in the morning and the
dancers bumped their way about WITH
' otter disregard for those with whom
they collided.
Walters Kept on the Jump
At that hour the walters were con-
tinually on the run between the tables
and those mysterious regions where
the wine was stored. At one table in
the ";azziest" restaurant up town each
time cork popped (corkage S2) an in
ebriated student OF eroticism shouted:
dust!"
1T was funny the first four times he
.ssid it, but, unhappily for his neigh
bors, there were two cases Of cham
payne, at $3.50 case, credited to the
party Of twelve of which he was q
member.
At the waiters-some Of them, any
way-were no longer dignified, and
cigarettes dangled from their lips as
',nsy poured the apparently inexhaust-
iose champagne.
servitors Get Their Share
HoI all lhe champagne was consumed
~ those who bought it. The walters
saa their share, and diners with suf-
ae'ent a'ent money whose supply of drink
disappeared before they were ready to
90 home occasionally succeeded in per-
:ssading their waiter to bring a bottle
rom rom the cases Of another party no
.snger able to exercise their ability to
count bottles.
Bottles when emptied were not car
..se away Instead, they were kept in
ssn., as testimonials of the spending
yasiisiea Of those who had emptied
l.. Dawn found the streets Of the "Roar-
fort'es" filed with recklessly
s..en s... iimousines and taxicabs. If
s.ss r. Impressions are lasting, the new
,s ssSt must be terribly worried about its
sssssspcnssnillties. One thing about the
s.sola,ion~ uniforms we're rare and