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Show II BillionJtollar Revelry By Night In IIIOcqoi, Remarkable B j I f0eSUS' ' H I !' MRS. 0. H. P. j Men and women whose wealth I combined would exceed the bllllon- j, dollar mark, danced the tango, ex- J hlblted a couple hundred thousand j dollars' worth of newest Parisian creations in clothes and wore a ' cool million In jewels at a ball I given on the Imperator on its last I trip across the Atlantic. J These facts are obtained from a j! crank who figures statistics on every Imaginable subject Includ- I Ing the number of hazel-nut tarts I required to reach from a Dutch j delicatessen to the moon. 1 This man got over In a corner of the lounging room off the roso ball room of the Imperator, and jj busily plying stub pencil on pad. figured with a few deft twists of " - j eyebrows and said pencil that he 1 saw a billion dollars wriggling. I stooping and wringing Itself into pretzel curves on the ball room 1 floor before him. j Being but a poor chap himself, I say, not worth more than ten millions mil-lions it was quite some occasion for him. I And this happened almo.it 421 jj years to the day from the October - I 12. 1492, that Christopher Colum- I bus otherwise Chiist-carrylne- I ij dove, the literal translation of his I I name "sailed the ocean blue" and I 1 discovered this America that has j netted tho sroup of Americans who . danced llsht-heartedly on the Im- H perai.or, their mountain-high stacks , ' ; of dollars. ' j Also this billion-dollar ball hap- Hj pened on the rame ocean, but in a . J different path across Its wide cx- , ,' J panse. that had, a day or two pre- . - l viously, swallowed more than a I I I hundred victims from the Ill-fated I . 'il Volturnp. I J This revelry by night was much " 'J the same sort of revelry that Is r- I I s ported as having occupied the at- tentlon of the first-class passengers 'I'M on tne nitrht the Titanic went down. 'rlM As with the last ball on the H "'J Titanic, grr-M wealth was repre- " Vj sented by the guests, and It was tho I : L4 last gathering on board before the I 1 steamship cleared port and the pas- , .Vj! sengers separated to go to their : totn or county homes. I 11 19 n0t wltnout significance thai i ' "1 r- ' tflc mor? than a hundred p r- j.'- sons who were lost In the Volturno ' . i'tj disaster, two-thirds were lmml- 4 4 grants going to the "free land" to -j'i seek their fortunes. 1 Leaving One Land of 1 Oppression for Another. SSK&m! Being foreigners unskilled 1a-borers 1a-borers they wore but leaving the i.&jSI suppression of tax-ridden empires iffi-aa! on one side of the great sea for tho "Rgfi& ,an1 where they would havo learned tho suppression that la tho JwNtrn Inevitable result of a billion or jEmlXsfl more of wealth being controlled by fitrB a group of persons whose number SmSU Is so limited that tho first-claaa list 55jM9 of ono steamship can contain tho tjfcjpSSk names of all. jgjigHI To return to particulars of tho SSkB ball it was probably the most re- HBbB markablo revelry by night ever MBCm held upon the high seas, and was 891 BELMONT. of the deep tho Imperator. About 500 Americans, dnncers and spectators, crowded the ship's ballroom for the final festivity before be-fore the arrival in New York The fortunes of this half thousand thou-sand persons have been estimated as reaching the enormous total of f 1 000,000,000. For look who traveled on tho Imperator. Put Judge Klbert II Gary and Mrs. Gary first. Judge Gary alone, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the United States Steel Corporation, has a personal per-sonal fortune estimated at $50,-000.000. $50,-000.000. He has an interest In banks, railroads and industrial corporations, tho aggregate capitalization cap-italization of which Is up in the billions. Then we have Mr. and Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney and their pretty young daughter, Miss Flora YVhit-m YVhit-m y Whitney Is understood to have Inherited no les3 than $40,000,000 from his father. One of his fel- JOHN N. low passengers was the broker, B. Haruch, widely known on the street as "Barney." who is bent be-nt ed to havo taken some $20,000 -ooo out of the stock market. Another An-other well-to-do broker and society man, who probably would have led the cotillion at the billion dollar ball if they'd had one, Is James Cutting of New York and Newport Cutting has frequently been reported re-ported as engaged to the wealthy and beautiful widow, Mrs. William r T r rr WILLYS. Also on the passenger list were Louis C. Tiffany, of the celebrated Jewelry establishment, whose father's fath-er's estate wa.s estimated at $30,-000,000. $30,-000,000. The major part went to Louis. Charles T. Crocker, tho grandson of a California '40er, has been credited with a fortune of $20,000,000. including what his wife brought him. The great wealth of John R. Drexel. tho Philadelphia banker, and of Oscar Straus, tho merchant prince, needs no com- r-ir. T?fV 9r" nl IS- ffv I'e "SvJ " ' ' ' Mrs. Harry Pay no Whitney and her children, John Hay and Flora. Anc So was Harry S. Black, formerly former-ly the active head of the "Sky-B "Sky-B raper Trust." The United States Realty Company, of which ho was president, owned t"'e Hotel Plaza. According to reports. Black paid the lump sum of $0,000,000 at tho time of his divorce from the woman who later was married to Tyler Morse. Jules S. Bache a rich hanker, returned re-turned on the Imperator. So did tho lawyer, James Deerlng, fr years the private counsel of Charles P. Murphy. So did John N". Willys of the Willys 0erland Company; John H. McCollough, Fran- is Wil-man, Wil-man, George M I-uidcr. Do Witt Toimage and many other men of wealth and note. Nor was all the money repre-fented repre-fented at tho billion dollar ball In tho hands of men. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont was "among those p resent" res-ent" aud her husband is supposed to have left her $5,000,000. Mry W. K. Vanderbllt was on the passenger pas-senger list, too. and Miss Laura A. Braun of Chicago, admitted that she was nt least $200,000 richer than when she went abroad. She played baccarat wisely and well at Enghlen. the resort near Paris. So you see. it was really some Party, and vou can t blame the canny ones for getting Into cor- -i-t 4 .(..- nut tb 4.. w ; i ': l 'Mn' ' '" 1 '" ' "' :--'i"'t : I' ' ir.nigh the PS: '''"., ' 'l'- 1 ' :i u Is try modeled ceiling. ' ' JajB J Tho dec orations for the ball were 'it5gk'r ' TC' simple, but effec tive. The big pl.it- ixBmmmMtL M. (orm at the rear, reserved for tho HHHlfc. ship's orchestra, was banked deep In ' KCTwIr 'h pale pink and laender asters, with SfBmw f'THs and palms sprinkled amotig ' . &'&?ix&&5&L them. There really was no other ' t space for flowers, as every inch of H and those who sat around the sides &Btflr ot (be room and looked on. Dancing began at 0 o'clock. Through Mrs. Degemhart. the social director of the Imperator. thf Ilam-burff-Amerlcan Company offered five beautiful prizes, one to tho best - dancer of the tango, two to the two couples who one-stepped most gracefully and two to tho two best LtCxwMkma&tz'' i pairs of waltzers. The judge were VVKAg SfiMiM ' Mra l ;: Maurice, the BjMH fSBmW professional tango dancer, and his Yit'i wife. HBP MSB? For about an hour there was gen- TM&i JBnff i 1 era dancing on a floor as smooth as HARRY PAYNE WHITNEY. total,' as Manlallnl would call It; And what Is a t)jn;on dollar ball like? Really, tho short and simple summary loved by the village newspaper news-paper fits this party, too "a good time was had by all " The affair took place in the rose ballroom, a large and beautiful apartment Just opposite the restaurant. It derives Its name from the fact that carpet, chairs and sofas are all In the nist plowing shade of rose-red. Costly t glass, and to Inspiring music. party In tho most exclusive Fifth avenue residence could show more wonderful costumes or a more extraordinary ex-traordinary display of costly Jewelry. Jewel-ry. Iany of the women wore for the first time frocks which they had Just purchased In Paris for the coming com-ing season. There was no Informality, Informal-ity, no vketrhiness of costume, because be-cause the dance wns on shipboard. And here's n fushlon Up from ihu AM B. LEEDS. observant eyewitness, every one l the wealthy and beautiful womfl present wore a slit skirl" But though they tangoed briikly.) they were most dl?creet and raodtft about it No standards of propriety were set at defiance. And a little-after little-after 10 o'clock chairs and carpt i hanged the ballroom back to a concert con-cert room After the concert prop came a linnl treat. On a little caM peto.l square In the center of ttj room Maurice and his wife fhoei the ery. verj latest tanco slepa a brand new skating waltz n.Ks .-ere applauded enl h'J?lastleanj. Then he ,'ae out the prizes to 14 fortunate terpsl'.horeans. And a title ti-tle after 11 o'clock the billion doW ball was m er Oh, yes, though :he ball ws) to every firs' class passenger, twj took up a subscription for the members mem-bers of the crew And the crt wouldn't mind having a wm dollar ball on every voyage. - i British Channel Tunnel J The project of tunneling tne OTJ lsh Channel, so as to bring En"jH and Fran-- Into lan. I communis tion with each other, is recdW Just at this tune such stronj port In both countries that lesw be fairly assumed that the Will actually he undertaken In i Immediate future. f The London Chamber of tJJ merce has already K'ien 113 '3 approval to the project, and H the Associated Chambers olf meree hold their annual '";'D ntv.erp this month the drle from London will urse Internaiw-i approval of the plan. A deputation of members 0in llament waited upon the ?t102 short time since and urged I0" ate a tion by the roiernment w" offl lal approval of the PrJclt-: Premier ao-sured the com that the government's lndor7 would have been gl-en """cJ'r but for the fact thit It "aS Ban to devote some unh.f & tl0n to the question whrtW' tunnel might te a s-ur- c- of m l danger to th kincd-m Tn j sideratlon has. how ever. aim " tirelv lost its wt-lght of recen . The enKlneerlng and the ends of the project hove Mtes OUghlj canvassed and neltne r . cms an) diitu uitu-s. i"nc coHi. i.- thai the tunnel will cost g U00 and will take ten ' complete. The estimated business which would v-3 It would pay 4 vcr cent on i and leave a substantial mar. . No dlflcultiea are antiflP" raising this amount. "Jf construction be undert; tKtd tV purely commercial chem out government nsltnC It either side of the ehann believed that the tunnel rrfl tore the larger share of u business across the channe . distance la but t hlrty " were th tunnel through. ney between r'onJtf" , , f would be a matter of b"' ' ( |