On March 26 occurred what was not only the most expensive party ever given in America to that date, but one which may still hold the record for conspicuous consumption in a single evening. Mrs. William Kissam Vanderbilt gave a fancy-dress ball at her new house on Fifth Avenue and Fifty-third Street. It was estimated at the time that she spent at least $250,000 for costumes, flowers, carriages, hairdressers, music, food, and drink. An equivalent sum today would be about $3 million. But after all, as The New York Times observed in a headline, it did mark “the end of Lent. ”

The Times produced some excess of its own. The day after the festivities its report ran to more than ten thousand words, all but a few devoted to the elaborate costumes worn by the great names in attendance. The day before the party a long article speculated on what might be worn: “Miss Marion Langdon will soar as a golden butterfly, while one of her ardent admirers will pursue her as an entomologist.” The most cryptic sentence in this preliminary account was: “Miss Kate Bulkley will congeal into ice.”

On the night of the party, the hostess appeared as a Venetian princess and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt as the Electric Light, in white satin trimmed with diamonds; and there was “a well-known young lady who represented a Cat. The overskirt was made entirely of white cats’ tails sewed on a dark background. The bodice was formed of rows of white cats’ heads and the head-dress was a stiffened white cat’s skin, the head over the forehead of the wearer and the tail pendant behind. ” Throughout the ball, remarked the Times , music wafted from some upper gallery and, “in the words of Emerson, ‘poured on mortals its beautiful disdain.’”