I thanked my friend, assured him I was wholly and absolutely contented, and must respectfully decline his offer. A similar offer was made to me by my old friend, Commodore Vanderbilt, in his house in Washington Place. I was a great admirer of this grand old man, and he was very fond of me. He had taken me over his stables, and was then showing me his parlors and statuary, and kept all the time calling me “his boy.” I turned to him and said, “Commodore, you will be as great a railroad king, as you were once an ocean king, and as you call me your boy, why don’t you make my fortune?” He thought a moment, and then said, slapping me on the back, “Mc, sell everything you have and put it in Harlem stock; it is now twenty-four; you will make more money than you will know how to take care of.” If I had followed his advice, I would now have been indeed a millionaire. One word more here about the Commodore. He then turned to me and said, “Mc, look at that bust,”--a bust of himself, by Powers. “What do you think Powers said of that head?” “What did he say?” I replied. “He said, ‘It is a finer head than Webster’s!’” ENTERTAINING. CHAPTER XIX. _Success in Entertaining--The Art of Dinner-giving--Selection of Guests--A happy Mixture of Young Women and Dowagers--The latter more Appreciative of the Good Things--Interviewing the Chef--“Uncle Sam” Ward’s Plan--Mock Turtle Soup a Delusion and a Snare--The Two Styles of cooking Terrapin--Grasshopper-fed Turkeys--Sourbet should not be flavored with Rum--Nesselrode the best of all the Ices._ “We may live without love,--what is passion but pining? But where is the man who can live without dining?”-- Owen Meredith. The first object to be aimed at is to make your dinners so charming and agreeable that invitations to them are eagerly sought for, and to let all feel that it is a great privilege to dine at your house, where they are sure they will meet only those whom they wish to meet. You cannot instruct people by a book how to entertain, though Aristotle is said to have applied _his_ talents to a compilation of a code of laws for the table. Success in entertaining is accomplished by magnetism and tact, which combined constitute social genius. It is the ladder to social success. If successfully done, it naturally creates jealousy. I have known a family who for years outdid every one in giving exquisite dinners--(this was when this city was a small community)--driven to Europe and passing the rest of their days there on finding a neighbor outdoing them. I myself once lost a charming friend by giving a better soup than he did. His wife rushed home from my house, and in despair, throwing up her hands to her husband, exclaimed, “Oh! what a soup!” I related this to my cousin, the distinguished _gourmet_, who laughingly said: “Why did you not at once invite them to pork and beans?”