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FIRE IN THE EARTH
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of
February 10, 1897) said the jewels that Mrs- Bradley-Martin alone wore
were worth upwards of $100,000. She appeared as Mary Queen of Scots,
wearing a bodice of black velvet lined with cerise satin, an overdress
opened over a white satin petticoat, a richly jeweled stomacher, a
pointed cap of silver, and a cluster of diamond grapes, once the
property of Louis XIV, around her neck.
It
was heralded that family jewels were borrowed from the past/ the
Oglethorpe gems from Georgia, the Fairfax diamonds from Virginia—all
the famous gems in the country seemed to be converging upon New York
for this event All this so aroused the public, still reeling under the
impact of a depression or "panic," that the Bradley-Martins were
threatened. There were rumors that bombs had been placed near their
home and that infernal machines would be thrown through the Waldorf
windows, so the windows were boarded up.
But
the party went on. The dinner cost $116.28 per plate and, as the" New
York World pointed out, "there were gowns that spoke of Paris
ransacked; there were diamonds enough for an emperor's ransom and to
spare; there were enough diamond crowns to fit out all the crowned
heads of Europe and have some left over for Asia and Africa; there were
necklaces worth $100,000 apiece on several throats. It was a delirium
of wealth and an idyll of luxury and magnificence."
The
resentment of the public was reflected in the newspapers here and
abroad: "The power of wealth with its refinement and vulgarity was
everywhere . . ." wrote F. Townsend Martin of his impression of the
ball in his memoirs. "We congratulate New York Society on its
triumph," cried the London Chronicle on its front page, "for it has
cut out Belshazzar's feast and Wardour Street and
(194)
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