CHAPTER XVII.

_A Lady who has led Society for many Years--A Grand Dame

indeed--The Patriarchs a great social Feature--Organizing the F. C.

D. C.--Their Rise and Fall--The Mother Goose Ball--My Encounters

with socially ambitious Workers--I try to Please all--The Famous

“Swan Dinner”--It cost $10,000--A Lake on the Dinner-table--The

Swans have a mortal Combat._

As a rule, in this city, heads of families came to the front, and took

an active part in society when they wished to introduce their daughters

into it.

The first Patriarch Balls were given in the winters of 1872 and 1873. At

this period, a great personage (representing a silent power that had

always been recognized and felt in this community, so long as I

remember, by not only fashionable people, but by the solid old quiet

element as well) had daughters to introduce into society, which brought

her prominently forward and caused her at once to take a leading

position. She possessed great administrative power, and it was soon put

to good use and felt by society. I then, for the first time, was brought

in contact with this _grande dame_, and at once recognized her ability,

and felt that she would become society’s leader, and that she was

admirably qualified for the position.

It was not long before circumstances forced her to assume the

leadership, which she did, and which she has held with marked ability

ever since, having all the qualities necessary,--good judgment and a

great power of analysis of men and women, a thorough knowledge of all

their surroundings, a just appreciation of the rights of others, and,

coming herself from an old Colonial family, a good appreciation of the

value of ancestry; always keeping it near her, and bringing it in, in

all social matters, but also understanding the importance and power of

the new element; recognizing it, and fairly and generously awarding to

it a prominent place. Having a great fortune, she had the ability to

conceive and carry out social projects; and this she has done, always

with success, ever ready to recognize ability and worth, and give to it

advice and assistance. Above all things, a true and loyal friend in

sunshine or shower. Deeply interested in the welfare of this city, she

lent herself to any undertaking she felt worthy of her support, and once

promising it her aid, she could be always relied on and always found

most willing to advance its interests. With such a friend, we felt the

Patriarchs had an additional social strength that would give them the

solidity and lasting powers which they have shown they possess. Whenever

we required advice and assistance on or about them, we went to her, and

always found ourselves rewarded in so doing by receiving suggestions

that were invaluable. Quick to criticise any defect of lighting or

ornamentation, or arrangement, she was not backward in chiding the

management for it, and in this way made these balls what they were in

the past, what they are in the present, and what we hope they may be in

the future.

The Patriarchs, from their very birth, became a great social feature.

You could but read the list of those who gave these balls, to see at a

glance that they embraced not only the smart set, but the old

Knickerbocker families as well; and that they would, from the very

nature of the case, representing the best society of this great

commercial city, have to grow and enlarge. Applications to be made

Patriarchs poured in from all sides; every influence was brought to bear

to secure a place in this little band, and the pressure was so great

that we feared the struggle would be too fierce and engender too much

rancor and bad feeling, and that this might of itself destroy them. The

argument against them, the one most strongly urged, was that they were

overturning all old customs; that New Yorkers had been in the habit of

taking an active part in society only when they had daughters to bring

out, _lancée-ing_ their daughters, and they themselves taking a back

seat. But that here in this new association, the married women took a

more prominent place than the young girls; _they_ were the belles of the

balls, and not the young girls. This was Europeanizing New York too

rapidly.

Hearing all this, and fearing we would grow unpopular, to satisfy the

public we at once got up a new association, wholly for the young girls,

and called it The Family Circle Dancing Class. Its name would in itself

explain what it was, a small gathering of people in a very small and

intimate way, so that unless one was in close intimacy with those

getting up these dances, they would have no possible claim to be

included in them. Any number of small subscription parties had been

formed, such as “The Ancient and Honorables,” “The New and Notables,”

“The Mysterious,” and “The Fortnightlies.” All had been most enjoyable,

but short-lived. The F. C. D. C’s. were to be, in fact, “Junior

Patriarchs,” under the same management, and were to be cherished and

nourished by the same organization. They were given at first in six

private houses. The first was held at Mr. William Butler Duncan’s; the

second at Mr. Ward McAllister’s; the third at Mr. De Lancey Kane’s; the

fourth at Mr. William Astor’s; the fifth at Mr. George Henry Warren’s,

and the sixth at Mr. Lewis Colford Jones’s. I gave mine in my house in

West Nineteenth Street, and then saw what it was to turn a house inside

out for a ball, and how contracted everything must necessarily be in a

twenty-five foot house, to receive guests in it, give them a _salle de

danse_ and a supper room, and then concluded that we must go in most

cases to a good-sized ball-room to give an enjoyable dance.

From the first, these dances were very popular. They gave the Patriarch

balls the relief they required, and were rapidly growing in favor and

threatened in the end to become formidable rivals of the Patriarchs. The

same pains were taken in getting them up, as were given to the

Patriarchs. We had them but for one season in private houses, and then

gave them at Dodworth’s, now Delmonico’s. Later on, when this house

changed hands and became Delmonico’s, we gave them all there, with the

exception of one winter when we gave them in the foyers of the

Metropolitan Opera House. We made the subscription to them an individual

subscription, each lady and gentleman subscribing $12.00 for the three

balls. One of them at Delmonico’s we made a “Mother Goose” Ball. It was

a species of fancy dress ball, powdered hair being _de rigueur_ for all

ladies who did not wear fancy costumes, and the feature of the occasion

was the “Mother Goose” Quadrille, which had been planned and prepared

with much skill and taste. This Quadrille was made up of sixteen

couples and was danced at eleven o’clock. As those who danced in it

passed you as they marched from the hall into the ball-room, you found

it a beautiful sight truly. Many of the men wore pink. Some of the

characters were droll indeed. Among others, “Tom, Tom, the Piper’s son,”

with his traditional pig; “A man in the moon, who had come down too

soon”; one lady as “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”; “Mother Hubbard,” in

an artistic costume of scarlet chintz; “Mary, Mary, quite contrary”;

“Little Bo-Peep,” “The Maid in the garden hanging out the clothes,”

“Punch and Judy”; “Oranges and Lemons”; while M. de Talleyrand appeared

as a _mignon_ of Henry the Second. “Mother Goose” herself was also

there. The feature of the evening was the singing of the nursery rhymes.

The second was the “Pinafore” Quadrille introducing the music of that

operetta. All the men who danced in it were in sailor’s dress. Then

followed a Hunting Quadrille, in which every man wore a scarlet coat.

I little knew what I was undertaking when I started these F. C. D. C.

Balls. From the giving of the first of these dances, out of a private

house, to the time of my giving them up, I had no peace either at home

or abroad. I was assailed on all sides, became in a sense a diplomat,

committed myself to nothing, promised much and performed as little as

possible. I saw at once the rock on which we must split: that the

pressure would be so great to get in, no one could resist it; that our

parties must become too general, and that in the end the smart set would

give up going to them. I knew that when this occurred, they were doomed;

but I fought for their existence manfully, and if I could here narrate

all I went through to keep these small parties select, I would fill a

volume. My mornings were given up to being interviewed of and about

them; mothers would call at my house, entirely unknown to me, the sole

words of introduction being, “Kind sir, I have a daughter.” These words

were cabalistic; I would spring up, bow to the ground, and reply: “My

dear madam, say no more, you have my sympathy; we are in accord; no

introduction is necessary; you have a daughter, and want her to go to

the F. C. D. C’s. I will do all in my power to accomplish this for you;

but my dear lady, please understand, that in all matters concerning

these little dances I must consult the powers that be. I am their humble

servant; I must take orders from them.” All of which was a figure of

speech on my part. “May I ask if you know any one in this great city,

and whom do you know? for to propitiate the powers that be, I must be

able to give them some account of your daughter.” This was enough to set

my fair visitor off. The family always went back to King John, and in

some instances to William the Conqueror. “My dear madam,” I would reply,

“does it not satisfy any one to come into existence with the birth of

one’s country? In my opinion, four generations of gentlemen make as good

and true a gentleman as forty. I know my English brethren will not agree

with me in this, but, in spite of them, it is my belief.” With disdain,

my fair visitor would reply, “You are easily satisfied, sir.” And so on,

from day to day, these interviews would go on; all were Huguenots,

Pilgrims, or Puritans. I would sometimes call one a Pilgrim in place of

a Puritan, and by this would uncork the vials of wrath. If they had ever

lived south of Mason and Dixon’s line, their ancestor was always a near

relative of Washington, or a Fairfax, or of the “first families of

Virginia.” Others were more frank, and claimed no ancestry, but simply

wished to know “how the thing was to be done.” When our list was full,

all comers were told this, but this did not stop them. I was then daily

solicited and prayed to give them the first vacancy. I did the best in

my power, found out who people were, and if it was possible asked them

to join.

The little dances were most successful. Year by year they improved. They

were handsomer each season. We were not content with the small buffet in

the upper ball-room at Delmonico’s, but supped, as did the Patriarchs,

in the large room on Fifth Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street, and literally

had equally as good suppers, leaving out terrapin and canvasback. But

when the ladies organized Assembly Balls, we then thought that there

would perhaps be too many subscription balls, and the F. C. D. C. was

given up.

At this time, when the F. C. D. C.’s were in high favor, I received the

following amusing anonymous lines of and about them:

He does not reign in Russia cold,

Nor yet in far Cathay,

But o’er this town he’s come to hold

An undisputed sway.

When in their might the ladies rose,

“To put the Despot down,”

As blandly as Ah Sin, he goes

His way without a frown.

Alas! though he’s but one alone,

He’s one too many still--

He’s fought the fight, he’s held his own,

And to the end he will.

--_From a Lady after the Ball of 25th February, 1884._

Just at this time a man of wealth, who had accumulated a fortune here,

resolved to give New Yorkers a sensation; to give them a banquet which

should exceed in luxury and expense anything before seen in this

country. As he expressed it, “I knew it would be a folly, a piece of

unheard-of extravagance, but as the United States Government had just

refunded me $10,000, exacted from me for duties upon importations

(which, being excessive, I had petitioned to be returned me, and had

quite unexpectedly received this sum back), I resolved to appropriate it

to giving a banquet that would always be remembered.” Accordingly, he

went to Charles Delmonico, who in turn went to his _cuisine classique_

to see how they could possibly spend this sum on this feast. Success

crowned their efforts. The sum in such skillful hands soon melted away,

and a banquet was given of such beauty and magnificence, that even New

Yorkers, accustomed as they were to every species of novel expenditure,

were astonished at its lavishness, its luxury. The banquet was given at

Delmonico’s, in Fourteenth Street. There were seventy-two guests in the

large ball-room, looking on Fifth Avenue. The table covered the whole

length and breadth of the room, only leaving a passageway for the

waiters to pass around it. It was a long extended oval table, and every

inch of it was covered with flowers, excepting a space in the centre,

left for a lake, and a border around the table for the plates. This lake

was indeed a work of art; it was an oval pond, thirty feet in length, by

nearly the width of the table, inclosed by a delicate golden wire

network, reaching from table to ceiling, making the whole one grand

cage; four superb swans, brought from Prospect Park, swam in it,

surrounded by high banks of flowers of every species and variety, which

prevented them from splashing the water on the table. There were hills

and dale; the modest little violet carpeting the valleys, and other

bolder sorts climbing up and covering the tops of those miniature

mountains. Then, all around the inclosure, and in fact above the entire

table, hung little golden cages, with fine songsters, who filled the

room with their melody, occasionally interrupted by the splashing of the

waters of the lake by the swans, and the cooing of these noble birds,

and at one time by a fierce combat between these stately, graceful,

gliding white creatures. The surface of the whole table, by clever art,

was one unbroken series of undulations, rising and falling like the

billows of the sea, but all clothed and carpeted with every form of

blossom. It seemed like the abode of fairies; and when surrounding this

fairyland with lovely young American womanhood, you had indeed an

unequaled scene of enchantment. But this was not to be alone a feast for

the eye; all that art could do, all that the cleverest men could devise

to spread before the guests, such a feast as the gods should enjoy, was

done, and so well done that all present felt, in the way of feasting,

that man could do no more! The wines were perfect. Blue seal

Johannisberg flowed like water. Incomparable ’48 claret, superb

Burgundies, and amber-colored Madeira, all were there to add to the

intoxicating delight of the scene. Then, soft music stole over one’s

senses; lovely women’s eyes sparkled with delight at the beauty of their

surroundings, and I felt that the fair being who sat next to me would

have graced Alexander’s feast

“Sitting by my side,

Like a lovely Eastern bride,

In flower of youth and beauty’s pride.”

ENTERING SOCIETY.