Chauncey Depew’s Big Day

New York City,
1890 

Although he led a very productive life, Chauncey Depew was particularly busy on February 17, 1890. In addition to being the president of the New York Central Railroad, Depew headed the so-called World’s Fair Committee, charged by New York’s moneyed interests with securing the upcoming Colombian Exposition for their city. It had been four months since they discussed the matter over dinner at Delmonico’s and time was now running out. It was Monday and Congress was expected to make a decision by the end of the week. And yet, even at this late date, New York’s political leaders were still divided as to whether they wanted to host such a massive event—the municipality was difficult enough to manage without having millions of additional people descend on it over a six-month period. During a long day marked by striking contrasts, Depew made one last effort to align the warring political factions; the newspapers seemed to report his every move. 

He was the right man for the task. A Yale-educated attorney, Depew was well-respected and persuasive. In addition, he was an outstanding orator, ranked in the top tier of New York’s public speakers, along with fellow-lawyer Whitelaw Reid, the retired general Horace Porter, and the preacher Henry Ward Beecher. In fact, Depew was such a popular after-dinner speaker that he often attended several banquets a week, sitting at the dais for hours before standing to deliver his witty remarks. Describing this as his hobby, he enjoyed the camaraderie and acclaim afforded by these speaking engagements, often slipping a banquet menu into his pocket as a souvenir. A few years ago, a box containing about fifty of his menus surfaced at a rural auction in the Midwest. Although most of them were from lavish banquets during the years 1888 to 1892, there were also two simple menu cards in the box, both dated February 17, 1890. Pinpointing his exact whereabouts on two occasions during that day, they provide a fascinating glimpse of the inner workings of the city’s ruling elite during the Gilded Age.

One of these menus came from the midday meal at The Lincoln, a middle-class hotel at Broadway and 52nd Street.1 Since it was reported that Depew met with politicians from Albany in the afternoon, it appears that Depew may have attempted to broker a deal over what might now be called a business lunch, or power lunch. The one-dollar “table d’hote dinner” shown below features the typical everyday fare served in such establishments during the late nineteenth century. Without knowing its provenance, or history of ownership, this unexciting menu from a now-forgotten hotel would be of no special interest. 

In the evening, Depew participated in a large public meeting at the Cooper Union where he gave a rousing speech promoting the fair. In response to charges that his railroad would profit from the Exposition, he asserted that the New York Central would only get about a million dollars of additional revenue, a modest portion of the windfall expected to roll into the city. It was a masterful performance, and with that, the newspaper accounts of Depew’s activities that day ended.

Interestingly, the other menu shows that Depew later attended a ball sponsored by the Patriarchs, the wealthiest and most exclusive group in New York.2 Even though he was the president of a major railroad that was part of the Vanderbilt system, Depew was socially far removed from this assembly of aristocrats comprising old-money Knickerbocker families, and a few relative newcomers, such as the wealthy Astors. Since high society attended the opera on Monday nights during the season, this Patriarch’s ball began later than usual, allowing time for the horse-drawn carriages to bring everyone down to Delmonico’s on Madison Square after the performance. Flushed with victory, Depew was probably there to give them a first-hand report, during the intervals between the quadrilles, waltzes, and gallops. William Waldorf Astor, just then beginning construction on a large hotel on Fifth Avenue at 33rd Street, may have been especially interested in hearing what Depew had to say that evening.3

At a Patriarch’s ball, the dancing was temporarily interrupted at 12:30 a.m. for a buffet supper. Except for the usual crush around the small elevator, most of the crowd slowly filed downstairs from the large assembly room on the third floor to the dining rooms where fifty tables were waiting for them. The cold dishes were laid out beforehand, carefully arranged so that they could be seamlessly replenished during the service; the warm dishes were served continuously, a few at a time. Distinguished by an elegant red and gilded edge, the menu shown above is printed in a restrained version of the artistic style. This bill of fare reflects Delmonico’s at the peak of its eighty-year reign as one of the country’s most preeminent restaurants. 

Depew may have saved these menu cards because he thought that they marked a moment of triumph in his career. As things turned out, the double-dealing politicians from Albany had not negotiated in good faith and later worked quietly behind the scenes to raise doubts in the minds of the Congress. The World’s Colombian Exposition was subsequently awarded to Chicago. (Several menus in the box show that Depew visited the Windy City during the inter-city competition, presumably as a trusted intermediary.) Nevertheless, Depew’s work on behalf of the Exposition only served to enhance his reputation as the consummate insider. In 1899, he was selected as one of the United States Senators to represent the State of New York.4


Notes 
1. This hotel predated the much larger Lincoln Hotel (now named the Milford Plaza Hotel) which opened on Eighth Avenue in 1928. 
2. Established in the early 1870s through the efforts of socialite Ward McAllister, the Patriarchs comprised a committee of twenty-five distinguished gentlemen whose purpose was “to create and lead society.” In return for an annual subscription fee of $125, a Patriarch could invite four ladies and five gentlemen to each of their balls at Delmonico’s. These invitations were highly coveted by parvenus anxious to enter the upper echelons of society. The powerful Vanderbilt family, with whom Chauncey Depew had long been associated, was not granted membership until 1888, when Cornelius Vanderbilt II was admitted. The Patriarchs held their last ball in 1897. 
 3. John Jacob Astor III died five days later on February 22, 1890, making William Waldorf Astor, his son and only heir, the “wealthiest man in the world” according to the New York Times. Although New York failed in its bid for the fair, the 13-story Waldorf Hotel still opened in 1893, six weeks before the World’s Columbian Exposition began in Chicago.  
4. The New York State legislature chose U.S. senators until 1914.