76 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
chanan of the United States; Cyrus W. Field with his cable; 
Professor Morse, inventor of the telegraph; Dr. Benjamin 
Franklin; the telegraph instrument of the Metropolitan 
Hotel, where the dinner was served; the United States man- 
of-war Niagara; the Agamemnon and the Niagara paying out 
the cable; Cyrus W. Field surrounded by flags of all nations; 
the coats of arms of all nations, on a pyramid; Pocahontas with 
“real American design’; a temple of liberty; a grand orna- 
mental fruit vase; a temple of music; a frosting tower; a sugar 
tower with variety decorations; a flower pyramid; a white 
sugar ornament; a fruit basket supported by dolphins; a fancy 
decorated flower vase; a tribute temple; a pagoda pyramid; 
a mounted Scotch warrior; an Ethiopian tower; a floral vase 
decorated; a frosting pyramid; a mounted church; a pyramid 
of cracking bonbons; a Chinese pavilion; a triumphant 
temple; a sugar harp with flower decorations; a variety pyra- 
mid; a fancy sugar temple; an ornamented sugar tower; a 
temple of art; and a lyre surmounted with cornucopia of 
flowers. 
A study of this truly gorgeous banquet, feting a man who a 
month before had been ridiculed and pitied, reveals not only 
the spirit of the times, but something of the spirit of all time. 
The banquet itself reveals the naive desire for display and for 
the superlative that then characterized society. It also reveals 
something about the dietary on which Americans subsisted. 
