A SCENERY DINNER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3035, 15 May 1912, Page 77

A SCENERY DINNER.

The American craze for novel dinner effects reached a climax the other night at a costly “progressive banquet of the seasons, ” given at the Hotel Astor, New York, to 16 persons comprising six different nationalities. The guests on arriving were ushered into a reception-room, ■where they were entertained by Venetian musicians. Presently the dinner was announced, an da group of four persons was ushered into the banqueting hall and seated at table. The centre of the table was occupied by a four-sided miniature mountain, of which only one side was visible at a time. The "four diners, led by Count and Countess Sobesky, were seated before the side of the mountain representing an autumn scene—a hillside covered with autumn foliage, with, at its base, a cosy farmhouse, a field of golden wheat, and an orchard with ruddy apples on the boughs of- the trees. On the bridge crossing a stream of real water were miniature figures of fishermen catching miniature fish.

The four diners who were seated in front of this scene ate their oysters and soup, and then moved on to the second side of the mountain, which showed the same hillside during the winter. Smoke came from the farmhouse chimney, and skaters and an iceboat moved by electricity passed over the frozen stream. This scene was set with the fish and entree courses, while a second group of diners filled the autumn places just vacated. The two groups again moved onward, and a third group entered, while the first continued dinner before the hillside as seen in spring. The trees showed faintly tinged green leaves, a sail-boat floated down the stream, while a woman at the farmhouse door waved to her children who were departing to school. While the last group began its progress round the table the first finished with ices and coffee before a summer scene, in which mechanical boys in endless succession dived into the stream, while other swung in hammocks under the fruit trees in full foliage. As the diners finished* they passed into a third room, where they listened to operatic singers until joined by the others.

The dinner is the most elaborate ever given in New York. The host spent £2OO in electrical effects alone for his scenic table decorations.