Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1915 — TALES of GOTHAM AND OTHER CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TALES of GOTHAM AND OTHER CITIES

Feast on the Grand Canal Served in New York

NEW YORK.—What is said to have been the most elaborate and expensive dinner given in New York in many years, the number of diners considered, took place recently at the Knickerbocker. The host was a downtown bank

president, and the guests were bis wife and four children. The feast cost more than 1500 a cover. The banker told James B. Regan, proprietor of the Knickerbocker, about his intention to give a dinner on his twentieth wedding anniversary. "My wife has been accusing mo for some time of having no sentiment left,” he said. “I want to show her she’s wrong. Now I’ll give you tho idea, and you needn’t stop at expense. I met my wife twenty years ago in a

gondola on the Grand canal in Venice. The name of her gondola, as I recall it, was ‘Thea.' Now I’ll leave it to you.” When the guests appeared on the evening of the anniversary, they were shown into a big room which was in semidarkness. In the background was painted a night scene on the Grand canal, with the windows of the palaces and houses showing lights. Below was real water, for on the floor had been placed a canvas tank, and into it had been pumped hundreds of gallons of water. A gangplank, whose end was near the entrance, led to a large gondola, with a hood, or loggia, with draped curtains, through which appeared the gleam from a green lantern, lighting up a table underneath. At the bow of the gondola the figure of a gondolier, a dummy, however, bent over an oar. On the near side of the craft was painted its name, “Thea.” Near by was a typical mooring post. A band was playing the tunes that are heard over the water in Venice, and as it was in another room, the music produced the effect of coming from a distance. A full moon peeped over the top of the scenery- Neapolitan singers gave the effect of singing from passing gondolas by varying the volume of sound. Sparrows, representing the pigeons of St. Mark, flew across the room., The waiters were Venetian fishermen, wearing picturesque costumes and long,; drooping mustaches, and the dinner was served on the gondola, under the canopy. A breeze was furnished by four electric fans, and the air was sprayed; to produce an imitation of sea atmosphere. Two other rooms helped in filling up the accessories. In the anteroom was the station, showing the Plaza of St. Mark in miniature and the Campanile. A sign on the entrance leading to the banquet room bore the inscription. "To the Grand Canal.” The dinner was served from this room, and in a third room the Seventh Regiment band occasionally played to represent the chimes of St. Mark.