Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-06-05
THE MILITARY BALL AT PARIS.

The Paris correspondent Of the New York Comm
Advertiser says that the Ball given by the Army to the
President Of France the night Of the 18th May was the
most marvellous te yet seen in Paris at least in
our generation.
~. bad been announced Che says) that the guests
would dance in tent That may have been the original
design but the tent swee under the tasteful hands Of
the architect into temple Of solid foundations and mas
siye proportions But this is not the beginning Of the
story AT half past ten the line Of Carriages Except
those OF official pers0nages which allowed tollov
closed to all others extended from the Ecole MI
itarethe scene Of the ball-across the Faubourc St.
GERMAN, the bridges the Place de 10 Concorde to the
Maison FOR, good two miles. 1t required ave-
rage three hours the distance from house to
the tent But every body appeared to think that the
suit was worth the effort, when they had fairly arrived
under the cover Of that miraculous marquee.
The Court of Honor Of the hotel had been covered
over and converted for the occasion series Of spa
cious saloons receive the company invited the
dancing taking place in the hall occupying the centre
The entrance for the guests by the large gate the
Place Fontenoy. The first was vestibule at the
corners of which plaster the base of each being
supported by four large pieces Of cannon the barrels up
right at each corner and between each cam
non surrounded by natural flowers The upper part Of
each pillar formed Of sabres, holster pistols and bat
tie axes
Sin the mu1ze of each cannon was placed large bon.
quet of fowers-geraniums instead Of grape Before the
door leading from this vestibule Of the stood
two knights horseback in complete aror with lance
in hand, if guarding the entrance Inside the ball
ROOM on either SIDE stood column six yards high formed
of cannon balls musket barrels and sabres the summit
being formed of lance heads with their pennOns and
crowned with bust Of the Emperor and the other
with that Of the President Behind these columns were
to be the Of the Legion of Honor and the
centyestablished military medal in colossal proportions
formed of military weapons of every description.
The ballroom seventy feet high, 400 feet long
by 240 wide. Down the whole length of the hall were
placed eighty pillars formed Of interaced rising
the roof and supporting large galleries. encrcling the
IN vyuiaQ ofair Tha
heat however rendered them completely untenable At
end was the public entrance and at the other that
served for the President and his immediate secretaries
and the corps dplomqhque slightly raised platform
constructed here, upon which were lofty columns made
Of gun barrels and trophies and dozen knights in
complete steel The draperies were Of red velvet
trimmed with gold and rich and heavy they that
it impossible to believe they had been put up within
the week. and would be removed before another senngh
Opposite and the public entrance the for
mdable dancing orchestra yet collected in Paris
three hundred and sixty instruments three church BELLS
and twenty Ave drums, led by Strauss
Such was the distance from the orchestra to the Pre-
sidents tribune that while Strauss conducting the
band with his wand in one hand, he obliged to hold
discover when Louis Napoleon arrived The ceiling was
hung with two hundred and fifty chandeliers bearing
twenty -four thousand lights. In the smaller rooms
twenty thousand candles The ladies' supper
room covered with fifty tables at which parties Of
six hundred ladies seated after the other The
whole space occupied this memorable night by pro-
menades and dances was no less than two and
half and into this space fifteen thousand people were
collected at moment-at two o'clock in the morning
The used in the decoration Of the consisted
Of twentyfour morars twenty cannons, ten thousand
bayonets, and twelve thousand muskets and pistols.
Persons who had neglected engaging carriage could
not procure one for love money three in the after
The President rode from the Eysee to the Ecole
Mlitaire by route strictly shut to oil but himself He
opened the ball with Mdme ST. Arnaud, wife Of the Min
ster Of War. In the same quadrle were st. Arnaud,
Gen. Magnan the Princess Mathilde Nine Bneau wife
Of the Minister Of Finance and Nine Turgot wife Of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs completes family party
the coup detat indulgng in little harmless amusement
The President at ten and retired ct His pre-
excited little enthusiasm, except among the
military and the dancing only commenced in good earnest
after he gone In short the ball Of the 18th Of May
very far exceeded all the highly anticpatonsi
that had been formed of it. and is by common consent
the most sumpuous entertainment offered
TO the lovers Of pleasure"