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COPY OF NEWSPAPER ITEM

St. Valentine's Day.
Dinner and Ball at the G. O. H.

The East of itself is beautiful, but the hand of man can even improve on that beauty. The truth of this statement was visibly apparent to every one who dined at the G. O. H. last, where St. Valentine's Day was celebrated in a unique manner. Casting aside the orthodox custom of serving dinner in the spacious dining hall, the management set the tables in the lovely palm garden, where the diners had the unusual experience of enjoying an excellent repast with the firmament as a canopy. This in itself was a delightful sensation, but the arrangements by no means ended there. To say that the grounds represented an oriental fairyland will, to a certain degree, convey an impression of what the garden was like. A description of it would be extremely difficult: the beauty, fascination, and charm of everything had to be seen and witnessed to be realised. The nicely decorated tables, placed in the shade of the palms, the beautiful dresses of the ladies, intermingling pleasingly with the more sombre garbs of the gentlemen; electric lamps, representing a rainbow in the number of their tints, could be counted in their fifties and were peeping from every conceivable corner, some hanging from the highest branches of the trees, others illuminating the stems and lower branches; while many were casting their radiance on the lowliest of the garden shrubs. Electric lamps and Chinese lamps were everywhere, and it was these that actually gave the grounds the appearance of Fairyland. The soft and mellow rays had a soothing effect and brought a restful feeling of ease and comfort and freedom from care and worry. Add to that music, tables adorned and surrounded with plants supporting Chinese lanterns, the noiseless moving to and fro of the stewards and podians manipulating Bombay fans, and there is a collection the aggregate of which for picturesqueness it would be very had to surpass. Fully 200 people sat down to dinner in this Eastern paradise, and thoroughly enjoyed a menu which was specially prepared in honour of St. Valentine. Amongst those who dined were Mr. Titoff and party, Mr. Trevanion and party, Mr. A.E. Gow and party (7)., Mr. Dyer, Mr. Wardrop, Mr. Baker, Mr. C.M. Wight, Capt. Legge, Dr. Milton, Messrs. Denny, Cox, Prouse, R. Davidson and Erdos.

The first part of the celebrations concluded at 9-30, at which hour an adjournment was made to the dining-hall. In this capacious room, the floor of which is recognised as one of the best in Ceylon, dancing was started and continued to the strains of the Hotel orchestra until the early hours of this morning. The success of the al fresco dinner was in a large measure due to the indefatigable work of Mr. and Mrs. Loosen, who have every reason to be satisfied with the result of their additional labours.