A COSTLY FEAST, IF TRUE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 286, 1 August 1888, Page 6

A COSTLY FEAST, IF TRUE.

The following details of a dinner which was given cho obher day by a Kew iTork lady may be read with interest liy people who want Lo know the latest thing in the way of American extra\agance :—: — The dinner fable was ananged about a miniatuie lake, in which pulnxs, lilies and ferns appeared to be growing, while tropical tieeb ro«e from the bank**, amid mimaUue partenes of flower-. Small electric lights, with vaii-colouicd globes, were arI'tnijed about the lake, and electricity was introduced under the water of the improved lake and caused to dance about in imitation of vari-coloured fish. There was a fountain in the centre of the lake, and a coloured glass, ball, lighted by electiicity, spurted up and down a jet of crystal water. There was no cloth on the table, "and each of the twenty couises served at the dinner was plar ed before the guests on a natural palm leaf. The wall and loom decoration? — some of which came from Floiida and South America — generally weie of s>milax, ferns, ivy and palm, mandarin, banana, oiange, and other tiees. Hanging among them were hundreds of very small coloured electric lights. The decorations of each plate co-t §30, the favours ipbO and, the menus were painted to older at #10 a piece. The trufiles came from Fiance and thebtiawbenies cost $7.05 per bunch of live berries. Roman punch was .seived in oranges hanging on the natuml trees, the pu p of the fruit having been deftly lemoved, bo that the guests picked the oranges horn the branches. — ' London Court Journal.'