Show written for thit paper ll LI HUNG BANQUET copyrighted by frauk frank G carpenter 1894 I 1 HUNG CHANG has been stripped of his yellow jacket he has lost his three eyed peacock V feather and the report has been disseminated semina ted that he has beela degraded from his high position few people in america realize how high his position was and the wonderful pomp with which he has been entertaining his friends at his vice regal capital tien tsin the crude ideas that we have concerning the chinese make us think of them as ignorant poverty stricken and barbarous and few people realize the luxuries with which some of them are surrounded I 1 cannot better show the real state of the richer classes in I 1 china than in describing a banquet which I 1 attended a few months ago in in one of li hung changes palaces the ile dining room was as large as that of thee the white house and it was gorgeously decorated with golden scrolls chinese k pictures and bunting the menu comprised at many courses and hundreds of dishes were served during the feast the birds nest soup for each guest costa cost I 1 venture 5 a plate with shark fins that were worth their we weight h t in A silver and the chinese nobles NO who sat with us were dressed in silks and satins gatins as costly as those worn at our presidential receptions and we ate with ivory chopsticks chop sticks tipped with silver the dinner was given in honor of gen john W foster foste r our ex secretary of state who was then on hi his way round the globe and who was treated by the chinese with the same honors which they accorded to secretary steward and to gen grant the most st king of these favors appeared in this banquet chinese custom keeps woman in the background you seldom meet the wives ot of the nobility and at big dinners chinese ladies are never invited and foreigners are not expected to bring i their wives As soon as secretary foster arrived in tien tsin tain li hung chang called upon him he w was intro 41 daeng his hia visit s fedt foster to her nieces the who jawert with secretary faster idoria his tour of the bodd the great viceroy was charmed with the ladies and when he spoke of the he banquet he said he would make a great innovation in chi nese custom and would ask them to honor him with their presence ot of course they accepted and the viceroy took mrs foster to the table on his arm the dinner was given at the ad morality mira lity palace on the edge of tien tsin and this was decorated with thousands of chinese lanterns and the gardens about it were ablaze with light all of the streets leading to it shone with red paper lanterns and upon the sidewalks were companies of li hung chanas famous soldiers who with modern rifles guarded the incoming guests during the feast which lasted for hours some of the finest of the chinese bands pla played ed american airs outside the palace alythe and the strains of yankee doodle hail columbia and the star Sp spangled anglea ban ner floated in through the windows toasts were made and responded to by celebrated secretary foster talked through an interpreter of the good relations which out to obtain be tween abeen china and america and li hung chang responded in the same way in a 1 speech full of compliments to the united states I 1 wish I 1 could describe the dinner it was so different from anything that we have in america that I 1 despair of giving you an accurate picture the invitations were on cards larger than one of the pages of our magazines these cards were of crimson and the invitations were engraved upon them in letters of gold the chinese dragon and what I 1 suppose is li hung chang chanas Ps coat of arms were at their head and under this the words stating that the viceroy of china grand secretary of state and president of the imperial admiralty requests the honor ot of my company at dinner in the naval secre on tuesday at 6 p m these golden words were bordered with an engraved golden border and accod lanying them was the card of li hung chaar chang which was as big is as a sheet of note e paper and as red as the pressed bricks which made up the city of wash ington agton in going to dinner I 1 had to have my own chinese card carried before me by a servant in official livery aad I 1 rode in a blue silk chair borne upon the shoulders of four servants who were gorgeously dressed up for the occasion and who charged me by the way just a 2 in silver tor the job we passed through court after court of this admiralty palace and my card was carried in through a crowd ol of chinese officials and I 1 I 1 was motioned to follow the secretary of the navy met me at the door and then mr tseng laisun the old confidential secretary of the viceroy took me in hand and led me in to his excellences presence I 1 was in evening dress but I 1 felt very shabby in comparison with the gorgeously clad men at out me laisun for instance was clad in a silk gown of light blue lined with the finest of ermine he had on boots of black silk and his skirt was of the richest yellow satin A costly sable hat covered his head and valuable rings sparkled upon ids his long thin fingers he is da now sixty eight years yean of age but be bespeaks speaks the english as well as any american and alter after presenting me to the viceroy he took melanth me with him into the banqueting table and gave me descriptions of everything concerning i the feast the other nobles in t the he rooms through which we passed were dressed fully as gorgeously and the viceroy had on his court clothes on li hung chanas head was a fur cap the brim of which was rolled up and he famous three eyed peacock feather which he has since lost stood out about afoot a foot behind it the losing of this roust must be by the way a great disappointment to li he is the only one outside of the royal family who has been permitted to wear it and it is the ve very highest of chinese decorations at t the y banquet he wore a gorgeous yellow gown light pink pantaloons and heavy black satin boots with white soles at least two inches thick his giant form towered above those of the french english german and other diplomats who surrounded him and as he reached down and took my hand he made me think ot of a giant in going out to the dinner he led the way secretary foster and the new french minister following and in taking his place at the table which reached through the center of a room almost as long as the east room of the white house he sat in the middle with mrs foster at his right and with the new french minister at his left just across the table sat secretary foster A little further down were the misses orr each of the young ladies being sandwiched between chinese nobles and miss emily orr at the left of lord li the viceroys vice roys son upon whom she evidently made a great impression just here let me give a word about the ladies dresses they were nearly as gorgeous as those of their chinese neighbors no mrs foster shone resplendent in a royal purple miroir velvet coat white satin vest and red gown this was decorated with louise quinz buttons and her diamonds were very fine miss orr was dressed in an embroidered cerise crepe du chine with chan tilli overdress and ruby and diamond ornaments miss martha orr wore a white silk embroidered with pink roses a bodice of pink chiffon and she carried cameo a bouquet of purple and green artificial flowers which was given her by a son of the viceroy outside of these ladies the only two of their sex who were at the dinner were mrs sheridan P read the wife of the american consul at tien tsin who wore a heavily corded black silk chith white antique lace and diamonds and mrs C D tenney the wife of prof tenney the head ol 01 of the famous school of tien tsin where the young chinese go to learn english the chinese took off on their coats as they sat down to the table nearly every one of them had a servant in gor geons livery with him and these took charge of his clothes and saw that he was especially well waited on during the feast from time to time these servants would hand to their masters white cloths claths rung out of boiling hot water and the nobles would wipe their lips with these and rub them about over their faces in order to refresh themselves between the courses li hung chang had two or three servants about him all the time and these assisted him in eat ing and in keeping his dress straight both the viceroy and all his guests had h ad their pipes and cigarettes cigarette sAit it by their servants for them and busst as the food was served in little bits wt mot larger than an ivory dice in order tp to be easily grasped by the ivory chopsticks chop sticks they had little else do but swallow there were about fifty guests at the table and both chinese and foreign dishes were used by my plate were knives and forks as well as chop sticks and quite a number of dishes on the bill ot of fare were foreign the dinner consisted of twenty one courses the menu was engraved in letters of gold on a red card a foot long and about six inches wide it was printed in both chinese and english and was as follows pigeon eggs soup fried fish champignon sauce birds nest soup meat pie red shark fins wild duck bamboo shoots fillet and vegetables stewed leg of mutton fungus in clear sauce pates de fois gras corean shrimp dumplings Dump lings turkey ham salad roast duck asparagus butter sauce fruit custard chinese cakes fruit jelly cousee ac fruit coffee the foreign dishes were served in american plates and the chinese in exquisite little bowls of the finest porcelain each holding about a pint of stew or soup at each plate there were six of the finest cut glasses for wine and two silver goblets for chinese liquors one of these was as big as an egg cup and the other did not hold much more than a thimble the first contained or rice wine this tasted like sherry and it was served hot the other contained a liquor made of sorghum this was as hot as boiling oil it was the color of amber and was more stimulating than char the wines were the regular ones which you find at any foreign dinner ranging from sherry to champagne I 1 ate most of the chinese dishes and found them not at all bad the pigeon eggs soup had little yolks of pigeon eggs floating about in it and the birds nest soup was served in bowls about the size of a large coffee cup and needed salt to make it pala table this is one of the greatest of chinese delicacies and the material from which it itis is made is perhaps the costliest cost liest eatable le found in the markets of the world it sells as high as thirty dollars a pound and china spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for it it is made from the birds nests of a swallow which is found in caves and damp places place of certain islands of the indian ocean the nests are of the same shape as those of a chimney swallow and they are made of sea weed the bird chews the seaweed and mixes it with its saliva and the soup is in fact made ot of this saliva the nests are carefully cleaned all the feathers and dirt being picked from them they have to be soaked thoroughly and then boiled until they are tender they come out the color ae 0 f trans transparent white jade stone they make a sort of a white jelly when they are mixed together on the top of these shreds of boiled ham are p placed aced and pigeon keon eggs below the soup is again boiled lied and when served it looks more like ike angels food than swallows spittle it t is said to be very invigorating and will give a man of sixty the vigor of twenty five the shark tins fins are said to have bave the same strength giving properties they are made of the splinters of the fin of a shark and are cooked into a soup and are served with a bit of ham bamboo shoots are the roots of the bamboo they taste like cooked nuts and make you think of white carrots these chinese are very fond of all kinds of fungus and that which was served at this meat meal was a sort of a jellylike mushroom all ali of the chinese dishes were served in such shape that they could be easily taken up with chopsticks chop sticks in place of salt each man had a little bowl of japanese soy into which he dipped his food before eating it the chinese consider dt barbarous to bring food on the table as we do they think that everything should be cooked in small pieces and they stew and boil almost everything such meats and vegetables as are fried are first cut up into the shape of hash and the only pigs which are cooked whole are those which are intended for sacrifices even the priests cut these into hash and them before eating an idea seems to prevail among foreigners that the chinese live on rice and rats there is no greater mistake in the whole dictionary of errors which are current concerning the chinese in the northern part of china where I 1 now am the common people are too poor to afford rice and they live upon millet wheat and corn A great deal of bread J is consumed but it is boiled instead of baked and as to the better classes they have as many dainties and as good food as we have the fish of china are among the finest of the world they have a shad which is fully equal to that ot of the potomac but which has not half so many bones you can buy quail and supe snipe and venison in the market here and d I 1 have never seen finer mutton than at that a t furnished by the fat tailed sheep of f north china there is no country in in the world where so many fowls are eaten and there are chicken farms duck farms and goose farms here there are duck villages in south china and goose boats which carry a thousand of these hissing birds along the lowlands of the river and stop for them to get off upon the mud flats and fatten on the worms and snails which they find there in very every chinese city you will find stores which do nothing but sell smoked ducks and geese and they have a way of drying ducks in the sun and of salting ing them so they will keep like we keep ham I 1 see many duck peddlers going through the cities carrying a bushel or so of these dried ducks in baskets swung from the two ends of a pole which rests across their shoulders and I 1 have ridden on boats filled with live ducks and geese going from one side of a river to the other oiher A great many other fowls are artificially hatched and the experience of ages is shown in the skill with which they raise fowl speaking of curious food the chinese sire are fond of 64 eggs about one hundred years brears old and old eggs here are worth about as much as old wine is in america they have a way of burying the eggs and it takes about thirty days to render a pickled egg fit to eat some of the old eggs have become as black as ink and oneff one of the favorite dishes for the sick is made up of eggs which are preserved in jars of red clay and salt water the chinese seldom eat soft boiled eggs and it is the regular custom to serve hard boiled eggs at birthday celebrations I 1 have seen no dogs rats or cats in tien tsin though I 1 have no doubt that some of the very poor eat them and I 1 was told the other day that rat flesh is often eaten by old women as a hair restorative As to the cooking this dinner of li hung changes was as well cooked and served as any dinner ever given at the white house the chinese chef after a few lessons in foreign cooking surpasses asses the french and they have the eest best of taste in table decoration it is much easier to give a big dinner here than in the united states A high priced cook might cost you perhaps haps twenty dollars in silver or ten dollars in gold a month and he would board himself for such a sum you would get a man who would take entire charge of a diplomatic dinner and who would serve you the finest of everything from soup to dessert your bills for the time same would be about one third what a similar dinner would cost coat you in america and all you VOU would have to say to the cook would be to mention the number of guests is as tor for instance john my sanchee number one |