FREAK ENTERTAINMENTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12487, 13 March 1909, Page 4

FREAK ENTERTAINMENTS.

Two of the weird entertainments which occur occasionally in America, a&& seldom elsewhere, took place in New York recently. - The hostess, a well-known' iheatrical lady, with a millionairs husband, had arranged the details of the first freak affair with such conspicuous success that the important daily papers dare not dismiss the event under a one-colurrin descriptirn. She called it an "International Sunday Brealifast," but it was held on a Sunday night in a most fashionable cafe, and coffee was the rarest of the many liquors served. Leading first-nighters were the invited guests, and they, all came in the most fantastic garb lmaghiable. The host was attired as SJi Indian princess in a green and gold gowii, and her bi s-haim appeared as a rajah. Half a dozen Salomes wera present and evsty ecpntric character with which the theatre ami opera have made New Yorkers familiar recently was also represented. Two men acted the role of drunken sailors with dramatic fidelity. Faiitastie characters of all nations were represented f There was hardly a woman present who had not sought to look as girlish as ptJseiWei by wearing short skirts. High jinks were' first initiated when winsome Odette j Valere, premiere danseuse of the Manhattan Opera House, danced a sort of Salome "turn" with Mr Wilson Mizner.once known to .fame as the husband of Mrs Yerkes. This soldier of fortune was garbed partly in evening clothes and partly in straw. Others present were just as quaintly dressed. The "supper-breakfast," as it was called, was served just before midnight. The second freak entertainment has secured less publicity, but it was an even more conspicuous success. It was a Tammany affair, and was attended by "Big Tim" and "Little Tim" Sullivan, the statesmen who largely "boss" New York's municipality,' The .Rathskeller, in which the "£2OOO be-efsteafe dinner" was served, was icicle-lined for the occasion, and . the whole place was transformed into | what looked like a wholesale butcher's ■ refrigerating plant, with imitation ammonia pipes, frosted ceiling, papier ■ mache steaks, painted tin cutlets, and all so natural that "Big Tim" Sullivan s teeth chattered as he shook hands with "Diamond Jim" Brady. , The. favours were £10 silver mugs and -the guests, who sat m wooden benches, ate off tables which were imitation cakes of ice. Beaf steak was the least expensive of the viands served to the 300 guests. Having discarded their furs, and locked up their jewels in the safe, the ; diners put on aprons, the men wearing ones just like an ordinary retail butcher s, and the women doning an attire of long aprons and stran hats that gave them the appearance of, rural milkmaids.

These frfek entertainments are hailed by the press as straws indicating that the American metropolis has -recovered from the recent commercial depression. . . "