Weekly miners' express. (DuBuque, Iowa) 184?-1849, 1849-04-03
DUBUQUE, HOSyA, APRIL 3, 1S49.
THE GRAND INAUG DURATION BALL.

THE GRAND INAUG DURATION BALL
A correspondent of the New York Ex-
press thus describes this .fete. ==aa -s,s !
This ball eclipses anything Of the. kind
ever yet seen in this country, imagine,
not so much in its splendors, perhaps, as in
the oddities and novelties Of the spectacle.
l,O45 tickets were sold, at $40 each; and
rs each gentleman, it may be presumed
brought on an average two ladies, who cost
nothing on such occasions,) it may be set
down, as low calculation, that there were
over 5000 persons present. The ball room
though built expressly for the occasion, was
not half large enough. The supper room.
nearly all the time, was inaccessible from
the crowd and crush. The managers gave,
as fair excuse for the inadequacy of their
preparations, that, with the threats OF the
opposition ball hanging over them, they
dared not venture to incur the expense OF
larger adv g. their ball room alone cost
ing them, i, is understood, $500, or more.
Everything in the crowd soon became top
So turry. Nobody could be found, and no
thing could be seen. ingress and egress
were almost impossible. Ladies' dresses
were rent and torn-gentlemen's coats were
sprinkled nll over with broad cast botches
from the glazing spermaceti candles. The
heat was awful. However, the scene, the
picture, the excitement made all cheerful
From Texas to Maine, parties of both sexes
were there, grouped together; and these,
with the oddities of their costumes and va
rieties Of their fashions, though showing the
same people, nevertheless showed the ad-
vances of the fashionable or questionable
r,iliner. The lady of the Russian Minis
ter gli;te red in jewels beyond anything ev-
err seen in New York; and yet New York,
with her several different sets Of fashiona-
| bles; showed her proximate 70 Paris, in the
nicer care in costume Of the fair sex there.
But a ball is ball everywhere, and l will
not expand upon it. Gen Taylor was mar
Oh ed in between files of ladies', in the most
dasbing attire of their sex. Col. Bliss, in
uniform, and his lady. in o figured muslin
dress, were the exposures of all eyes. The
/ VIC. President, as we'll as the President,
we're presented with boquets by the ladies.
| General Tuy;or, it must be confessed, sus.
tains his part witt. a! the tact Of veteran
in the ball room, as we'll rs veteran IN
arms His manners and his tact are aam' :,
Fable, and very favorably impress ALL 'ao
the more, the more is seen OF him.
The most extraordinary part Of this ball
room matter, however, was the coat and hat
ROOM Some seven or eight hundred cloaks
and overcoats, as many hats, were tlcketed
and shelyed away in little seven by nine
room in the City Hall, where the ball was
held, and upon the strength of the tickets,
all had confidence that what they deposited
would be returned. But so many were the
numbers to be taken care of, that the scrv-
ants who had the custody of them got con-
fused, and soon confused everything, so that
hat nor coat could be found in proper place.
A rush then ensued, and coats and c!oaks
were tumbled promiscious]y together. Hats
were trodden under loot, garments were pill
ed up in heaps, and anon, the spectacle was
exhibited of these seven or eight hundred
men, eact. and all under their own guild
ance, seeking for their own property.
European Ministers Plenipotentiary, A
merican Ministers of State, Missourlan ano
Maniac. were hustling each other, side by
side, in the worst possbl humor. ali pull.
ing and hauling for themselves. Hats were
soon crushed into what printers call pi.-
Cloaks were so trodden in the dirt, or dis
figured, as hardly to be known by their pro
prietors, even if they could have the good
fortune to find them at all. A perfect pic
ture ofruin and despair was soon exhibited
Many left without their over garments, and
these were generally valuable, as most of
them were worn by strangers who had pu
on their best to come to Washington. The
search for hats was early given up, as eacl
' took what best suited, or was most conve
nent. The hatiess went home by hundreds
and the clonkless went not few. TO adj
! to the misery of all, the rain began to com
, down; and so much had been the enormou
:. price demanded foy carriages during the day
ten and twelve dollars that very man
: had no carriages engaged. The managers
n however, it must be confessed, did wha
they had to do we'll, and in very handsom
style; but their great error was the utter in
adequacy oftheir preparations for the crowd
THE N,EAI,IH OF l,HE MEST