People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1897 — THIS TREE BORE COIN [ARTICLE]

THIS TREE BORE COIN

THE COSTLIEST CHRISTMABCELEBRATION IN AMERICA. Spectacular Christmas Party of Hew York Society People to Whom the Havemeyers Distributed Golden Gifts Prom a 910,000 Tree In a Gotham Palace. The smart folk who luxuriate in the gilded gardens of swelldom are supposed to be so thoroughly satiated with pleasures of every kind that a Christmas tree burdened with holiday gifts would seem to have few attractions for them. Yet eaoh year there is a Christmas tree party in one of the flue houses in New York whioh many socially ambitious millionaires, their wives and sons and daughters would give almost anything for the privilege of attending and joining in the revels. This Christmas tree is a wonder of its kind. It probably ranks pre-eminent among the hundreds of thousands of Christmas trees set np in all parte of the world. It is a small tree, not more than 6 feet high, and the average Child would not regard it with as much pleasure as a tree bedecked with dolls and drums, Noah’s arks and blooks, candy and popoorn and lighted with candles. Ten dollars will make the ordinary tree a very attractive aflatx. But it takes SIO,OOO to decorate this particular tree with trinkets and toys. Six or seven yean ago Mrs. Theodore Bavmeje*. at the mum fcinai

gave Civ first Christmas eve party, and since then it has been the great holiday event of swaggerdom. Her Madison avenue bouse, of plain brick, with scarcely the shadow of exterior ornamentation, is credited with being the fines* house in New York, and that is saying a good deal when the palaoes of the Astors, the Vanderbilts and the Goulds are remembered. Mrs. Havemeyer is an Austrian, not only an Austrian, but a native of Vienna, and that city is considered to be the happiest on earth. A Viennese sits up nights thinking over Dew ways to squeeze a little more happiness into existence. He is happy in poverty, but with money in his pocket his joy is ae wide as the world. Mrs. Havemeyer has this trait, peculiar to her native land, developed to perfection. She has money by the vanload at her command, and what is more, she knows how to spend It. It is an old story among the shopkeepers that she never asks the prloe of anything. If she fancies a wrap, a bonnet, a bit of jewelry, a painting, a piece of statuary, a roll of laoe, she says, “Send it homa ” An English shopkeeper barely escapes fainting from joy when he receives a royal command to take his wares to the palace and exhibit them to the queen, and his New York brother has emotions of the same kind when he sees Mrs. Havemeyer’s carriage driving np to his door. Mrs. Havemeyer’s Christmas tree party this year was attended by 60 guests. Every woman of note In New York society has her own particular set, and Mr*. HavenMffWs Is the WesttoH? BS9»IP

who spend ten"months in the ycay golfing, hunting, yachting, skating, tobogganing, polo playing and following the other pleasures erf outdoor country life. A dash into the oity for a few duya, a week or a month two or three times in the town season and then back again to the beloved oountry, that is the life of this particular set. The Christmas tree Is sot in on- corner of the great ballroom, whore every - thing is white and gold.' The walls ore of glistening white marble, with delicate tracings of gold. At one etui is a great pipe organ built into the well. The organ is ail white and gold, ('attains of white satin and white Volvet, ornamented in gold, hang from the windows and doors. Tiny gilt cotillon chairs, upholstered in white, are scattered along the sides of the room. The ceiling is painted in white and gold; the woodwork, with the exception of the polished flooring, is white and gold. Golden brackets jut out * rora the walls, holding bulbs of softened electric lights. The wide doors look oat upon a wide hallway, all marble and gold. A marble stairway, growing broader with each upward step, leads to a wide platform half way to the upper floor, and from this platform the way leads into the big conservatory, bigger than the conservatory of any other house in New York. This is the place where the Christmas tree guests assembled on Christmas eve. The fun did not begin until 11 o’clock, when the hostess grouped the guests about the Christmas tree. There they found Mr. Havemeyer, costumed like the conventional Santa Clans. He oglled off a name, and the owner walk-

ed up and Teooived a tiny sflVsEbcEihg if she were a woman, or a papier maohe pig or cow or horse if a man. Inside the stocking was a small pair of scissors, all solid gold, or a gold hand mirror, or a gold scent bottle. If a man, the fancy pig or other animal had stowed away in its interior a gold matchbox, a pockotknife with a gold hanj die or a small pipe ehoathed in gold. Everything on tho tree was of gold, lustoad of the regulation caudles there wore bulbs of electric lights in lamps of varying Lraoa. The little tree was a muss of electric wires, and they ran out on every twig and branch. When flanta Claus Havemeyer had called the last name and bestowed tho last gift, Supper was served in the dining room, and when this feast was over j the ballroom was again visited, where | the grown np ohildreu danced' into several hours of Christmas day.—Washington Post. * j