WELCOMING THE NEW YEAR.

Bush Advocate, Volume XX, Issue 939, 5 February 1908, Page 6

WELCOMING THE NEW YEAR.

A writer in Ch;unl>ers's .journal sees American influence in the way in which snme London restaurants usher in the Now Year. We are told that the old English method of keeping New Year's Eve is departing, and many wealthy people now like to experience some new kind of sensation at v restaurant. For instance, on New:. Year's Eve, 190G, the attraction at OUC of -the famous restaurants was a "mysterious neromobiliv' to see which over 1000 people took seats. A combination of a motor-ear and an airship, in which sat two ladies, supposed to be symbolical of the New Year, entered the great room on the stroke of twelve, and as it ran round among the guests gifts were showered from it on all sides. When it had run its course, a miniature of an old four-wheeler clattered away — the last of ,tlie old year. At another fashionable restaurant the pretty idea is annually carried out of attracting the diners' attention to the passing of the year by a distant sound of trumpets and church bells. In the last minute the sound of the trumpets becomes louder, and on the stroke of midnight the Royal trumpeters of the Guards enter and blow a fanfare, as if proclaiming the accession of the New Year. The good old custom of the watchnight service still has its vogue, but clergymen say that th<> popularity of these services is diminishing, and perhaps before long they will cease to be held except in a few places. The writer remarks how curious it is that people should enter on "a period of severe strife and likely difficulty in a mood of reckless abandonment to pleasures of a. peculiarly artificial and somewhat freakish character." The strangest of London's New Year's Eve gatherings is mi mi'lortakors' party. On tlio occasion referred to by the writer of the article the dining-room was draped in black, relieved by a few wreaths. There was a black border to the tablecloth, and the' design of the. ar* rangement in the middle that held the flowers "need not be specified." "Health to ourselves and prosperity to our businesses in the New Year" was a ghoulish toast that was well received, while certain members of the party sang such songs as "The Gravedigger" and "Down Among the Dead Men." The dinner was greatly enjoyed by 4 ho undertakers, so much so that the proceedings became quite hilarious.'