ut its best foot forward" for the
occasion. "Certainly, Monsieur," was the retort, "for the simple reason
that it is what we are in the habit of doing every day." Old-time
patrons of the Fourteenth Street corner will tell you that such a reply
might have fittingly come from the _maitre d'hotel_ of the "Del's" that
was. But conceding the quality of the everyday service there were famous
dinners that have stood out in the annals of the house. Here, for
example, is the menu of what was known as the "Swan Dinner" held the
evening of February 17, 1873.

Potages.
Consomme Imperial. Bisque aux crevettes.

Hor d'oeuvres.
Timbales a la Conde.

Poissons.
Red Snapper a la Venetienne.
Eperlan, sauce des gourmets.

Releve.
Filet de boeuf a la l'Egyptienne.

Entrees.
Ailes de canvas back, sauce bigurade.
Cotellettes de volaille Sevigne.
Asperges froide en branche.
Sorbet a l'Ermitage.

Rotis.
Chapon truffes. Selle de mouton.

Entremets.
Choufleurs, sauce creme. Carbons a la moelle.
Petits pois au beurre.
Poires a la Richelieu.
Gelee aux ananas. Gaufres Chantilly Sultanne.
Gateaux a la Reine. Coupole a l'Anglaise.
Pain de peche Marechale. Gelee au fruits.

Dessert.
Delicieux aux noisettes. Biscuit Tortoni.
Fruit glaces.
Petit fours. Bonbons.
Pieces montes.

The musty inn of mid-Europe will boast till the end of time of the
two-hour visit within its walls of a certain Elector and his suite in
the year sixteen hundred and something or seventeen hundred and
something. There is not a hostelry in England dating back to Tudor times
without a bed in which Queen Elizabeth is reputed to have slept. But for
famous guests, authentically established, there is probably no other
hotel in the world that is to be compared to the Fifth Avenue. When the
boyish Prince of Wales played leap-frog in its corridors at the time of
his visit to the United States in 1860, he began a distinguished
procession. Every president of the nation from the day the hotel was
opened until it closed at some time stayed there. That meant Lincoln,
Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, McKinley, and
Roosevelt. At the time of Grant's funeral in August, 1885, the
immediate family, the relatives, President Cleveland, Vice-President
Hendricks, former Presidents Hayes and Arthur, the members of the
Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court, the
Diplomatic Corps, and