Friday, 31 December 1909

From the Indianapolis Star:

"Dancing Floors, Clubs and Cafes Will Hold Merry Crowds Till Late Hour"
Tonight is the night. When it is over the old year will have closed the door from the outside, the new year will have crowded it out. The infant 1910 is promised a livvely birth. Various activities have been arranged over the whole city.
In every church in the city, with the exception of those that have arranged for union services with other congregations, special services will be held. With religious song, the used-up year of 1909 will be ushered into past history and the new year will be welcomed with prayer.
Social activity will be at its height when the midnight gong is sounded. In all parts of the city gatherings of society folk will watch the departure of the old year and on almost every bit of waxed floor in the city gay dancing parties will still be dancing a few hours after the new year's arrival has been announced.
The cafes of the city will be ablaze with new year splendor. Tables have been engaged for months ahead in the big downtown hotel cafews and some farsighted revelers looking toward New Year's eve a year hence have deposited table fare for that date in the Denison cafe.
Special music has been arranged for at the Denison, Claypool, Hotel English and Hotel Kngston cafes. Each of the fashionable cafes will be decorated in keeping with the occasion. At the Claypool Hotel the Atrium will be the scene of one celebration. In the center of the room a "Goddess of Liberty" is to be reared, and a prize ring containg two pigs--a white one representing Jeffries and a black one, Johnson--will be arranged with the pig bending over the fallen black one. At the Hotel Kingston the new cafe is to be elaborately decorated with Japanese hangings.
A surprise, the nature of which would not be given out, is in store for those who have engaged tables in the big dining room of the Columbia Club.