Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-05-27
Masked Balls in Paris.

\
The New York Courier and Enquire,
gives the following description of these eel
ebrated affairs:
"Were you ever, reader, spectator O
one of those Partisan exhibitions ave
mean, of course the better class of them
those which take place twice week dur
ing the winter, commencing at the houl
of midnight, at the Grand Opera, or the
Opera Comique. If SO, and you look up
on it with purged American eyes-as we
take it for granted you did-you have nc
need to be told that the masquerade is nc
entertainment for the virtuous daughters
of America-the voluptuous music on the
stage, the floor swarming with men and
women in extravagant costumes, dancing
swearing, laughing, quarrelling, speaking
words that should blister human lips, the
foyer, more elegant and rech'rche, hum
mingwith double entendres and every style
of intrigue, and in the boxes and Saloons
indecencies that beggar description and al.
most exceed belief. To aid the imagina.
ton of those who have seen nothing of this
we will cile a few passages from the pages
of an American writer, whose only fault is
that be under-colors.
ga lame man could hardly help dancing
to such music, but the French shouted and
danced; they danced with their feet; they
danced with their legs; they danced with
their arms; and their ewes danced most OF
all. Now the locks of a marquis brush
your face, and now to the toe of countess
comes within an inch of your nose, though
you be taller than she. A Pierrette
whirls you completely round, while per-
haps real danseuse from the Opera, in
performing one of her entrechats, carried
away by her enthusiasm for the dance,
falls into your arms. The scene was in
deed brilliant, for no lady is allowed to en-
ter unless masked and dominoed in traves-
ty, and no gentleman unless in travesty or
full dress; so, whatever might have the
character and standing of the individuals
of the assembly, their exteriors were GER
tainly always elegant and splendid. :
As the night wears on, and the blood
grows warm, the excitement and noise in
crease; everybody talks with everybody,
tutoyers everybody and ridicules everybody
They laugh at one another, and tread
on each others toes, or those they had new.
er seen
At three o'clock in the morning. the excite
ment reaches its height, the musicians nave
caught the general spirit, and play with
redoubled energy; the demand is for noise
as well as for music. One of them seems
occasionally to strike barrel, another a
tin-pan and another a gong, which certain
ly gives wilderness to the instrumental
tion in perfect keeping with the whole
scene.
A fine dust arises and fills the whole the
atre; it is just enough to dim little the
blaze of light, and impart hazy look to
the splendid array of beauty spread out on
all sides. The noise is deafening; shouts
of laughter in every key of the diapason
rise from five hundred voices at once; a
blaze of wit and repartee, stale enough in
Paris, when one knows it, but brilliant to
the stranger, flies about ones ears like the
popping of squibs. The third sex (for a
grisette must belong to that sex she can
hardly be ranked as masculine or feminine)
is now all animation; she clasps her little
hands and dashes in, performing the evolu-
tions with surprising dexterity. And now
what clatter of feet, and flashing of eyes,
and tossing of heads. How the tall plumes
wave in the air, and how the snowy white
locks of the marquis dance to the music,
and what a shaking of gaudy dresses and
laces and spangles and epaulets! What
beautiful white shoulders and bosoms fit
under your eve. What taper forms are
bounding about you, and rivaling all the
positions of the graces! Surely they are
all intoxicated with pleasure, and perhaps
a few thimble-fulls of Cognac.
Here in the buffet a scene presented itself
such as can never be witnessed elsewhere.
Tim tables were strewn with Champagne
bottles, smoking hot punches, havaroises,
cigar stumps, broken cigaretts, cofee-cups,
liqueur glasses, and in short, every imagin-
able drink or utensil that could be servica-
bic In Bacchanalian rout; while around
the table, and on the table sometimes, were
closely grouped hundred fantastical forms
and shapes of ever color twisted into every
possible position, and all talking or rather
shouting, at the same time. The air was
filled with dense smoke from the cigar
etts of fifty pretty lips and the cigars of
their companions, and if there was any
thing they did harder than drinking and
smoking, it was the jingling of glasses,
banging of chairs, and general efforts see
who could make the most noise.
For an instant was completely lost in
in reflections. Never had l been present
at scene of create: APPARENT gaiety-nev-
er were appearances more deceptive. Near
ly all the gaudy, gilded exteriors concealed
hearts that were, or ought to have been,
but short life and merry one
seemed to be the universal aim, and so they
danced themselves into misery and death
danced themselves so far away from true
happiness as the quiet of family fireside is
removed from the boisterous mirth Of mask
ball"
AnnecdOte of Henry Clay.