The most difficult rooms to decorate are those at Delmonico’s; but this establishment is unequaled in London or Paris in that it gives under its roof incomparable balls, banquets, and dinners. So we resolved that talent, taste, and money should be expended in an effort to design and give there a superb ball. The house had the advantage of having a large square room, all that was required for a dance of three to four hundred people. On this occasion we were to have seven hundred, and for so large a number we had to provide two _salles de danse_. The upper supper room we turned into a conservatory. Its ceilings were low, but covering them with creeping plants, making around the entire room a dado of banks of flowers and the walls themselves decorated with plaques of roses, introducing the electric light and throwing its jets through all the foliage, we had an improvised bower of flowers and plants that tempted all to wander through, if not to linger in it in admiration of the artistic skill which produced such a result. One room we converted, with Vantine’s assistance, into a perfect Japanese interior. Once in it, we felt transported to that country. Here were served tea and Japanese confections, and over all shone the electric light with charming effect. The _salon_ known as the Red Room had its walls decorated with sheaves of wheat, in which nestled bunches of _Marechale Neil_ roses, the background of scarlet bringing these decorations out strikingly. This, with a new floor, was converted into a _salle de danse_. The large hall into which all these rooms opened was superb, for on all sides of it, from floor to ceiling, were hung the finest Gobelin tapestries of fabulous value. To obtain their use we had to telegraph to Paris, and were required to insure them for a large sum. Servants in light plush livery, pumps, and silk stockings, with powdered hair, stood on either side to direct the guests. Having the whole house, we supped in both restaurant and café, and as we had given an unlimited order had an elaborate and exquisite supper. For a small ball of seven hundred people, I have always felt, and still feel, that this New Year’s Ball, as given at Delmonico’s, was in every sense of the word the handsomest, most complete, and most successful thing of the kind that I have ever attempted in New York City, and I find I am not alone in this opinion. It was as much a feast for the eye as the elaborate supper was for the palate, being complete in every detail, luxurious in adornment, as to its rooms--and epicurean in its feasting.