Society Turns Out at Titanic Benefit

Caruso and Other Artists Aid Immense Affair at Metropolitan Opera House.

Thousands of men and women high in New York’s society paid their respect to the memory of the heroes and heroines of the Titanic at the benefit performance at the Metropolitan Opera House last night in aid of the families of the victims of the disaster. Approximately $12,000 was realized from the sale of seats, programmes and post cards.

The success of the benefit was almost wholly due to the painstaking efforts of the members of the Executive Committee. This committee was composed of Amos R. E. Pinchot, chairman; Mrs. William Astor Chanler, Mrs. Henry Clews, Mrs. Benjamin S. Guinness, Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, Mrs. John Leslie, Mrs. Amos R. E. Pinchot, Miss Elsie de Wolfe, Bourke Cockran, Rawlins L. Cottenet, Frank Damrosch, Archer M. Huntington, Rinaldo Stroppa-Quaglia and Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy.

The evening’s programme opened with excerpts from Brahms’ German requiem “Lord, Make Me Know” and “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place,” sung by the chorus of the New York Oratorio Society, with Gwilym Miles as the soloist, and conducted by Frank Damrosch.

This was followed by the funeral march from “Lobetanz,” by Thuille, the orchestra being conducted by Alfred Hertz. The Oratorio Society then sang one of Bach’s chorals, after which Mr. Cockran delivered a commemoration speech.

The audience joined in singing “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” after which the orchestra gave the intermezzo from “Cavalleria Rusticana,” with Giuseppe Sturani wielding the baton. Miss Mary Garden sang two songs impressively, followed by a piano concerto, D minor, by Ernesto Consolo. Mme. Bella Alten sang Mendelssohn’s “Jerusalem, Thou That Killest the Prophets,” from “St. Paul.” Miss Kathleen Parlow came next with a serenade melancholique, for violin and orchestra, the orchestra being conducted by Mr. Damrosch.

Mme. Lillian Nordica sang impressively Gounod’s “Ave Maria” and was obliged to respond to an encore. Mmes. Bernice de Pasquali and Andrea de Segurola sang in excellent style Martini’s duet, “Plaisir d’Amour.” The gem of the programme was Signor Caruso’s rendition of Sullivan’s song “The Lost Chord.”

A committee of young women of society sold programmes at twenty-five cents each in the parterre row, with Miss Marjorie A. Curtis as treasurer. Her assistants were Mrs. Edward L. Tinker, Miss Ruth Draper and Miss Gwenfra Williams. There was another committee of programme vendors in the main corridor composed of the Misses C. Van Lennep, Madeleine and Dorothy Howard, Dorothy Mills, Marjorie Jacquette, Ruth Douglas, Marie Louise Vietor, Dorothy Fox, Gertrude Newcombe and Virginia Duane.

Many well known men and women were in the audience. In box No. 1 were Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mr. Robert Bacon, the erstwhile Ambassador to France; Mrs. Bacon, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson and Mr. L. F. Holbrook Betts.

In box No. 25 were the Misses Hewitt, Mrs. Richard Irvin and Mr. Frederick H. Baldwin.

In box No. 11 were Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goelet, Miss Hare and Messrs. William F. Whitehouse and Rawlins Lowndes Cottenet.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clews, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Parsons and Mr. Henry Clews, Jr., were in box No. 18.

In box No. 16 were Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Alexander, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and the Misses Harriet and Janetta Alexander.

The party in box No. 9 included Mrs. Cadwalader Jones, Mrs. Jordan L. Mott, Jr.; Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram and Mr. Nicola Tesla.

Professor and Mrs. H. Fairfield Osborn and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Sanger were in box No. 29. In box No. 24 were Mr. and Mrs. Norman Hapgood, Mr. and Mrs. Amos R. Eno Pinchot, Miss Marjorie A. Curtis, Mr. T. Chesley Richardson, Jr., and Captain Philip M. Lydig.

In box No. 35 were Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee and Dr. Asa B. Davis. With Miss Leary in box No. 2 were Mrs. Ferdinand Wilmerding, Mrs. James R. McKee and Miss Maria de Barril.

The party in box No. 8 included Colonel and Mrs. John Leslie, Mr. and Mrs. W. Bourke Cockran and Mrs. Francis J. Carolan. In box No. 12 were Justice James W. Gerard, Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., and Mr. Sumner Gerard.

The late Colonel John Jacob Astor’s box, No. 7, in the parterre row, was unoccupied.

Others in the audience were Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles, Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. Cravath, Mrs. Richard Stevens, Mrs. Felix M. Warburg, Mr. Frank Garvan, Mrs. Ralph Thomas, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Collier, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Mott Warner, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin S. Guinness, Prince and Princess Troubetzkoy, Mr. and Mrs. E. N. Breitung, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Iselin, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Hunt, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Pratt Huntington, Justice and Mrs. Henry Bischoff, Mrs. Daniel S. Lamont and the Misses Lamont.