Balls and Dinner Dances
The Most Expensive Entertainments Given in New York

About the most expensive diversions of modern fashionable society are dinner-dances and balls. For the last ten years the costliness of those "social pleasuring" has been on the gradual increase until now a sum that would make the eyes of any blue-blooded Prince glisten goes out of New York's fashionable ex-chequers into the pocketbooks of the florists and the caterers from the 1st of September to Ash Wednesday.

There are scores of new York clubmen who can recall the time when the bare walls of the fashionable ballroom were only relieved by an occasional evergreen and camellia tree, and when small, stiff bouquets of carnations and violets took the glare away from the white tablecloth. A clubman who has been in the whirl of society for thirty years said, while a reminiscent mood soon after the last Patriarchs' ball:

"When I think of the be-palmed and be-flowered rooms at Delmonico's at the ball the other night, it seems to me as if the Patriarchs must have had their first dance twenty years ago in a barn. It was not the custom then to decorate so elaborately. When the Patriarchs used to arrange their dances then, the question of dinner was the leading item, but the question of floral decorations was hardly considered and quickly disposed of. But now, with the increase of wealth and the change of custom, a dazzling display of out flowers and a small forest of palms is a necessary feature of the dances. The more elaborate the decorations of flowers the more successful the ball."

Among the guests at the last dance of the Patriarchs', on the evening of Jan. 9, at Delmonico's was a foreigner with a longer genealogy than bank account. After the "guest of honor" had run the gantlet of the Patriarchs and wrung them all by the hand, the decorations in the hall and adjoining red room caught his eyes. Before glancing at any of the people about him the foreigner carefully inspected the banks of roses at the bases of the mirrors and the garlands of roses over them, the groups of palms springing out of beds of hyacinths, and the portieres of orchids and smilax in the doorways. Then, turning to one of the Patriarchs, he said, with a sweep of his hand.

"What a fine exhibition of flowers you have here to-night." The Patriarch answered with some embarrassment, that it was not an exhibition of flowers, but simply a floral decoration.
Persons outside the pale of the "inner circle" of society may be interested to learn that enough money is spent in New York each Winter for flowers and catering to give every citizens of the city one good table d'hote dinner, and for flowers alone as many dollars are expended as would pay the salary of the President of the United States for sixteen years. A prominent florist of the city is authority for the statement that at least $800,000 will be exchanged for American Beauty roses by the opening of the Lenten season.

Since the first ball of the Patriarchs, arranged by Mr. Ward McAllister in 1872, those "American aristocrats" have expended for their annual entertainments of the beau monde nearly $100,000. The average cost of a Patriarch ball is about $6,125, which means an assessment of $125 for each ball from each of the Patriarchs. Usually there have been but two dances each year, but this season the Patriarchs will amuse polite society with three dances, the expense of which will make short work of $20,000.

Mr. Bradley Martin is very free with his money when a social entertainment is on hand. It may not have occurred to any of the guests at Mr. Bradley Martin's dinner at Delmonico's two years ago that the affair cost the host over $8,000. But Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Martin entertain more elaborately in London during the season there than on this side of the Atlantic. About $10,000 is the average price of a Bradley Martin dinner-dance in London. A conservative prediction has been made that if Miss Martin is to be married to Lord Cravan in this city, $25,000 will barely cover the general expenses of the wedding.

The most expensive dance ever given in this city was the New Year'
s ball of 1890 in the Metropolitan Opera House. The floral decorations of the auditorium were on such a scale as actually to give an air of coziness to the great interior. When the Executive Committee of the ball came to foot up the expenses they found that $14,859.19 was the actual cost of the "diversion" of a few hours. Only $14,000 had been subscribed by the patrons, and Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mr. Byam K. Stevens, and Mr.. Ward McAllister made up the deficit. It is justice to Mr. Vanderbilt, Mr. Stevens, and Mr.. McAllister to say that most of the bills incurred by the ball were paid two days after the dance, and every obligation had been met within two weeks.

The New Year's ball on the evening of Jan. 13, 1892, though larger than its predecessor, was not as expensive. A trifle over $11,500 covered the expenses of the dance.
In arranging a small dinner or a dance today the question of the floral embellishment is the first item considered. The refreshments are left almost entirely to the judgment of the caterer or the chef, but the decorations the hostess chooses to suit her taste. To make an effect in an average Fifth Avenue mansion, exotics 10 and 15 feet high are needed. Taller palms are very scarce in this section, and when a twenty-foot palm is ordered for a certain location the quick-witted florist can manufacture a most imposing sago palm from the stump of a palmetto tree and a few sage leaves and plant the exotic in a tab to the complete satisfaction of the unsuspecting customer. Such "crooks" of the trade are, however, few, except on occasions of large decorations for weddings, funerals and Christmas celebrations.

In the description of the Christmas decorations in one of the large up-town Episcopal churches a daily paper mentioned "two immense sage palms brought up from the tropical regions of America to grace either side of the chancel." The palms had all the grace of the natural plant, while in reality they spoke well for the ingenuity of two boys in a large florist's establishment.

Table decorations for luncheons and dinners are as numerous in variety almost as the number of orders given to florists during the season. Every lady decorates with her favorite color, after her own particular fancy, in her favorite flowers, and the more versatile the artistic nature of the florist the more successful he is. Several well-known persons in fashionable society, as Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Mck. Twombly and Mr. and Mrs. William B. Dinsmore, are able to draw upon their own conservatories for their cut flowers, but the majority of society people are willing to pay from $100 to $500 for their luncheon, dinner, or supper decorations.

Mr. and Mrs.. William R. Vanderbilt, spend more money than any other two New Yorkers for social entertainments in the course of a year. The Bradley Martins and the William W. Astors follow next as the most lavish entertainers among the residents of this city. Mr. and Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan, ex-secretary and Mrs. William C. Whitney, and Mr. and Mrs. I. Townsend Burden are next in order as the liberal hosts of New York society.

A prominent society lady, when asked what became of all the cut flowers after one of her private entertainments answered: "What the butler does not send to his sweetheart and the up-stairs girls to their mothers and sisters are given to the hospitals and the day nurseries."

Source: New York Times Jan 22, 1893. p. 12