More Disgusting Feasts Given in the Smart Society.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue I, 2 January 1904, Page 61

More Disgusting Feasts Given in the Smart Society.

The equestrian dinner given recently in New York, at which the guests dined on horseback, has had many rivals in point of eccentricitiy. A little over a year ago Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Meyer, of 32 West Ninety-sev-enth street, New York, gave one of the most remarkable entertainments on record. The meal began at 11 o’clock on the morning of March 3, 1902, and lasted until 4 a.m. the following day. The guests numbered twenty-six, and they all arrived in full evening dress. The table was spread with a typical American breakfast, consisting of grape fruit and tangerine oranges, buckwheat cakes and maple syrup, cafe-au-lait, etc. Toward 1 o’clock, however, the meal began to resolve itself into a luncheon, at which game, cold meats, and champagne were served. This was followed by coffee and liquers over which the guests spent several hours in speechmaking and general conversation. As the hour of 4 p.m. struck the doors were thrown open to admit “the ladies,” who were each given a cup of tea by Mrs. Meyer. It is hard to believe it, but that cup of tea eked out with much “talkee-talkee,” lasted until 9 o’clock, when the meal once more underwent a change, finally settling down into a very sumptuous dinner, in which all the guests joined. The last course was served at midnight, the remainder of the time up to 4 a.m. being occupied with coffee and more conversation.

Though this remarkable seventeenhour breakfast is said to have been “very successful,” the fact remains that no one has since been found with sufficient courtesy to follow Mr. and Mrs. Meyer’s example. A gruesome dinner was that given a year ago by the Franklin Experimental club at Newark. It was called a “death feast,” from the fact that everything connected with the decorations of the able was symbolical of death. A dozen human skulls each fitted with a small electric bulb, hung over the table, and shed a weird glow over the guests. The goblets were also formed out of skulls, while the plates were decorated with the same dread emblem,, together with cross bones.

Even the spoons and forks were fashioned with handles typical of some portion of the human skeleton, while the salt-cellars were human skulls in miniature. The feast, which began at midnight, concluded at dawn, when the lights were switched off and the blinds raised, the effect of early day breaking upon the death feast being more weird even than the glow which had previously shone from the sockets of the twelve skulls.

A very pretty idea for a dinner party was lately carried out by the “Oozoo” club of New York. It was held in the

drill hall of the armoury, and the diningtable used was probably the biggest piece of furniture ever employed for the purpose, being twenty-five feet wide and forty feet long. Only a strip of the board one foot deep from the edge of the table was set out, the centre being left uncovered. When all the guests were seated and the first course was in progress, Mlle. Ernani, a celebrated American danseuse ..appeared on the table, and entertained the diners with some remarkably clever and graceful dancing. At the conclusion of the feast, the young lady, sitting on a bank of cushions placed in the centre of the curious stage, was toasted by the gentlemen, the ladies meanwhile showering upon her strips of various coloured ribbons. This charming form of entertainment was repeated subsequently in several parts of the States. “Swan” dinners have been popular in America for many years, though they have not yet made their appearance in England. In the centre of a huge table is a miniature lake, ornamented with natural grasses. On the water live swans float preening their feathers and stretch ing their necks toward the diners. The “monkey dinner” given by Henry Lehr of Newport last year is still remembered, while at an entertainment, at which De Reezkes. Mme. Nordiea, and Mme. Eames were present the novelty of the banquet consisted of chubby little coloured baby, which was brought in on a silver tray and placed on the table before the astonished guests.