A MODERN CALIGULA.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11637, 15 August 1905, Page 4

A MODERN CALIGULA.

Sdme few weeks ago Mr George A. Kessler, an eccentric American, dazzled tho Londoners by ordering at the Savoy "the costliest and most gorgeous dinner ever given at an hotel." He merely stated that he desired to have a record dinner, something absolutely original and unique,and left all. the details to the proprietors of the hotel. Those gentlemen wero quite equal to the occasion, and on 'the following evening a magnificent banquet awaited Mr Kessler and his twenty-three guests. In the dining-room there hung from 3 purple sky groat patches of, carnations and Chinese lanterns, caught in festoons of smilax. The room was- decorated to represent a Venetian courtway, 'with the full moon shining over, the Cathedral of St. Mark. The floor was floodod with water to a depth of six inches, and "n the centre thoro rested a great white gondola, outlined and banked with' roses and carnations. White ducks swam around the gondola, while white doves fluttered over the gauzy canopy that covered tho vessel. In the gilded reception room every inch of 'the walls was covered with blossoms. Groat baskets of roses and orchids hung in various positions, and pink carnations adorned the green trellis work that was used in place of screens. The guests passed through this reception room, and stepped across a crimson landing-stage into the gondola, where the table was laid, and the waiters stood . dressed in Venetian boatman's costumes. The banquet of sixteen courses included two special inventions by tho Savoy master chef, and a wonderful cake five feet high, lit with electric lights and carried to the tablo on the back of a baby elephant. A

second gondola was filled with gaily dressed singers, wlio supplied the music, and the great Caruso sang after dinner for a fee of ,£450. The dinner as a whole cost Mr Kessler something over ,£4OOO. At the same time social workers were struggling hard to collect money to relieve London's starving- poor.