74 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
‘The two-day carnival in New York concluded with a “Mu- 
nicipal Dinner by the Common Council of the City of New 
York to Cyrus W. Field, and Officers of H. B. M. Steamship 
Gorgon and U. S. Steam Frigate Niagara in Commemoration 
of the Laying of the Atlantic Cable.” The bill of fare of this 
epicurean banquet, served to six hundred guests, puts to 
shame even the kingly feasts of the courts of Louis the Four- 
teenth or Emperor Charles the Fifth. A modern reader of the 
extended courses and heavy foods is likely to wonder how 
any man could eat them and survive. Apparently New York- 
ers felt that, having shown scant faith in the cable during its 
laying, they must atone by the richness and sumptuousness of 
this dinner to Field. 
The affair began with oysters on the half shell, after which 
there were green turtle soup and gumbo with rice. Then 
came boiled fresh salmon with lobster sauce, and broiled 
Spanish mackerel with steward’s sauce. The boiled meats 
were turkey with oyster sauce, and leg of mutton with caper 
sauce. The roasts were young turkey, ribs of beef, ham with 
champagne sauce, lamb with mint sauce, and chickens with 
English sauce. 
Well launched now, the hungry guest could have under 
“cold dishes” such dainties as boned turkey with jelly, chicken 
salad with lobster sauce, patties of game with truffles, and 
ham sur socle with jelly. ‘The entrées were numerous: tender- 
loin of beef larded with mushroom sauce, lamb chops with 
green peas, chartreuse of partridges with Madeira sauce, forms 
of rice with small vegetables, timbale of macaroni in Milan- 
aise style, wild ducks with olives, breasts of chicken with 
truffle sauce, soft-shell crabs fried plain, stewed terrapin in 
American style, braised squabs with gardener’s sauce, larded 
sweetbreads with string beans, larded fricandeau of veal with 
small carrots, flounders stuffed with fine herbs, reed birds 
with steward’s sauce, broiled turtle steaks with tomato sauce, 
croquettes of chickens with fried parsley, larded tenderloin 
