The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-02-21
THE NAPIER BALL.

The following extracts are taken from the letter
of the Washington correspondent of the N. York
Times.
At about 9M o'clock, the ups and do,rns of Good
Save the Queen" announced the arrival of the
guests of the night and Lady Napier entered. lean
ing on the arm of the veteran Secretary of State.
May his burdens never be less agreeable! Lord Ma
pier followed, escorting Mrs. Howell Cobb, and ac
companied by Mr.. Erskine, the accomplished and
half American Secretary of the British Legation,
in whose hand, the old poets say, came the par
ous Iul"s, the young heir of the Envoy, bright
faced boy, with all his mother shining in his pure
clear eyes. Lady Napier was welcomed with the
warmest congratulations, and led to a sort of dois,
one of the absurdities of the tcte on which she,
with a variety of other ladies, paraded for in
spection through large part of the evening"
Lord Napier acknowledged the greetings Of the
company with the quiet, subdued good feeling
which belongs to him. He looks the ''smart''
Scotchman and Napier that he Isl and his blue coat
and white wastcoat were quite relief in the pan
demonium of sable suits which men facetiously
call ''full-dress ball.
Lady Napier, strangely enough, bears strong
resemblance to a certain class of New England la
dies, descended from high English or Scotch fami-
lies, and now as rarel met with a true Titan,
but who form, when met, the best society in the
world. Her native sense of the beautiful relieves
her from the restraint which often belongs to the
New England school, and she seems to enter with
out thought into the instructive feeling of what is
gentle ard fair. The forehead, so lovely feature
in woman, is high and smooth and arched in match
less symmetry by Its own beautiful draDery of
chestnut hair. The face, with its grave pure lines,
has simple and somewhat saddened dignity espe-
cially interesting. 1t looked face to wear the
classic fillet of Cassandra She wore a white silk,
richly watered, and relieved with three founces of
white tulle, pulled and trimmed with black Brussels
lace; corsage to MATCH and headdress of scarlet
velvet, with pearls and white ostrich feathers
Everything about her costume was delicate and
fresh. You did not hear ladies say of her. as of so
many others, "What splendid dress-how much
did it cost p When will women learn that to
beauty and perfection of attire cost is but small
essential. The true lady, like Lady Napier, studies
her own type of person, and what is becoming to
that, and, as the poet of her own land and of hu-
manity sings:
There's something in her gait,
Cars ony caes look weel."
After of presentations had been got
through with, the ball was opened with quadrille,
in which Lord Napier danced with Madame Van
Leinberg, (late Miss Bell Cass,) Mr.. Ledyard and
Mrs. Seward, Jr., being their vis-a-uis. In the
same quadrille were Senator Seward and Mrs. Con-
rad, Of Georgia, whose has become so famil-
lar to the friends of Jenkins; and Mr. Dandy Sey-
mour, NJ: r., with the handsome and accomplished
niece of Senator Dixon, of Connecticut This
quadrile took the place of the formal quadriHe
dhonmeur with which State balls are usually begun,
and the ceremoniousness of the evening went no
further.
There is something original, so amusing, so
gypsy-like in the gathering, that it seemed to me
almost invented for the special torment of conven-
tiona Jenkinses, for all the estimates which guide
| at naught Some of the jams of Fifth avenue ap-
proach the Babylonian school of architecture, but
Washington beats Babel badly as Banagher
SO many different States, each of them Euro
pean kingdom in itself, and many races were re-
presented, that know not what to compare it to
for picturesque contrasts, of the fairs of
Nishni-N ovegored, which takes place on the con-
| fines of Europe and Asia, and bring together from
both sides the curtains that hangs between strange
| and motley crew.
There is strange contrast for instance:-side by
side, stand the slim, elegant figure of the Count de
Sartiges, and the bury form of Wilson, of Massa-
chusetts, the the quntessence Of ten centuries
of soroirtare, the other type of New England
| frugality and industry.
New York here, also Philadelphia and
| especially Baltimore. Will any chemist have the
kindness to anayze Baltimore, and discover what
its secret potences for enchanting the 'female
| form divine" Meanwhile, descending upon the
snbluary fact of toilette, | am forced to say that,
| though there were, of course, some charming ex-
| ceptions, the ladies as rule did not dress WE'LL
One lady from New York appeared like a snail with
all her fortune on her back, Her naturally hand
some presence was positively obscured with jewelry,
and she looked dingy with diamonds and canoes.
| But standing the crowd of distinguished
persons who thronged the room tonight, rendering
itperhaps the most brilliant ball that w ashington has
SEEM 1t would be idle battery not to state that the
gathering lacked that peculiar chacet which marks
similar occasions in Europe where such reunions
comprise the soveregns of the nations in rank and
mind. But here the people are their own sover
eigns, and officials at Washington, with some ex-
captions, more resemble clerks than statesmen
There is about the men of ciphering off.
handedness than of the aroma of cultivated society.
Madame Cavaignac, the widow of the celebrated
general animated by high chivalrous feeling, has
given up the entire portion settled on her by NJ.
Oder, her father, 2Oo,o0Oir to his creditors, be
having unfortunately become bankrupt. In TAX
ing this step she says she feels certain that she
fulfilling what would have been the wishes of her
late revered husband and is performing an act due
to her sons name and her own.
| The undoubted nephew of the great John Phpot
Curran is at present. and has been for some time,
an inmate of a work-house in his native county oil
Cork. A movement is on foot with view of col
lecting sum of money sufficient to keep him indie
pendent of public charity for the rest Of his life,