The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-19 00:00:00

. ,
they can form for thems.lves an opinion on Mr. Sala's
descripq.ve rebilitY-Z
BAL MASQVE AT THE GRAND OPERA, PARIS.
• A noise to which that of Vabel let lari,e would have been
comparative silence—a howling, turielting, leaping,
capering, struggling- mob —a tohte-bnliu eXtrategant
sounds—a whirl of human beings of both sexes arraydd
in every variety of incongruous costume—monks, cava-
liers, African kings, Itlingrelian princesses, Russian
boyards, North American Indians, fisliivonien, &bar-
ileum and rit'botedotses, marquises, sailors, savages,
ballet-dancers, contaelire; Pierrots,.: Eastern sultans,
negroes, "John Bills," Jewish Rabbis, field-marshals,
griffins, devils, quack doctorS, grenadiers of the
First Empire, crusaders, men-at-arms, Punches, Nola-
retafres gril,HighlEinderg, trotthadours, heralds, gipsies,
lazzaroni, Queen Elizabeths' Henri Quatres, Exancois
Premiers, court jesters, Robert Macaires, old women,
and Robinson Crusoes, were all pent up-together in the
expanse of the boarded pirferre of the AcarMitie Ilizpe-
tiale de Musique. But it is not to be assumed that the
whole of ,:the audience were in fancy dresses. A very
large propottion—the ladies—were in variously-coloured
dominoes : a still larger proportion—the gentlemen—
were in plain evening dress, similar to the unpretending
attire patronisA by Philip Leslie ; some wearing masks
with lace fall bathes, as the' French call them ; others
disdaining eves that transparent disguise, and walking
about unconcernedly, as they would have walked about
the saloons of the Tuileries, or the sky-blue halls of
Almack's in. England.
All the lobbies were full of maskers—not one of them
tipsy vet, as their compeers at an English masquerade
would have been two hours before; • but making far more
noise over their goblets of lemonade and overbrimming
bumpers of orgeat, kir frantic excesses of candied cho-
Colate, and their Heliogabalian debauches of sugar-
plums, than any like number of Angle-Saxon Baccha-
nalians, already deep in their tenth tumblers of strong
toddy, and making their minds up now to steady drink-.
ing. There were noisy girls and noisy young men. There
was; gabbling, shouting, romping, capering, joking ; and
all this was thought to be dissipation, the wildest frenzy
of carnivalic excitement. So a neophyte might have
thought, and so many, doubtless, thought that night,
ignorant of how readily, Sugar-and-water gets into
French people's heads, and what a racking headache
over-indulgence in barley-sugar will bring on the morn-
ing after. But so thought not certain Men with' tanned;
yellow, tired features—men with loose wrinkles hinging
flaccidly beneath their eyes and round their hollow
cheeks—men in black suits; patent leather boots—irre-
proachably white,cravatt ed, faultlessly-white-kid-gloved;
sometimes wearing moustaches, twisted, waxed, and
beneath
owphbneeelehn tomfooleries
tar
firvasoece,
variously-coloured
bste(
singled
uoounor
tuttekg.
ssdfei
rlriedaypiotdapramwie
oeor
iimvhugnbohaes:tr'yeit ipvefitdl
theoowehprondtetyeer
irormorneciuetml'
ill-disguised
chntdseei
;ire:
ns
treacherous
a si; frequentlyeia:sdndewddue,obiactgacpirt:noeyinssgeelleoyirm gliding
pinnautaa
sgyenuickr
dpr
necks and
figures
ni
instanter—menuut
.rer theoerl
rsv.
;riaaynfdaiisylipspterdickbehits
woitfhpfaapuesr,
o
rn:gtithicaordsft;i:ltahusseti,lseroelllitilerensfetdes,bo
;efstinqo
ocgl. squeezed by
o,es bbyhgl,
oonldvidteistesl,oe
xnylbhfipuonetslglecilnyr
blood-compelling
irteicehponviiteiwotritaetlysdwe
d
rivalled ih4t of an English bull-dog.
Our space will not permit us to do justice to the
merits of this splendid novel ; but with one more
extract, which we consider one of the best, we must con
elude this notice—