Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-01-06


dagen den -"
"Kol7."
Which. being interpreted, is:
''Mr. II. gives himself the honor to
invite" &c. &c.
"Seven o'clock"
At the time appointed arrived at my
friends house, for 1 purposely came
early in order to be able to scrutinize
the company. And here, at the outset,
/ must remark that l was extremely
taken with the Norwegian ladies,
especially the young ladies. Not that
they were beautiful our English ladies
far surpass their Norwegian sisters in
respect of good looks. But, in the first
place, / refer to their "get up," of
which, for my lady readers. I will
endeavor to give true, though fear
not scientific description. Nearly all
of them were dressed in muslin, white
or colored, with appropriate head
dresses of flowers or ribbons There
was scarcely an expensive dress in the
whole room. Sensible girls ~ 1 solil-
oquized 81 wonder what it would cost
my sisters to turn out for a ball like
this ? should like some of our Eng
lish young ladies to be here to take a
lesson in dress. Here is a good effect
produced for very little money" But
here my reflections were directed into
another vein by bevy of young men
students, officers, and SO forth-who
came In hat in hand. What on earth
do they bring their hats into ball
room for All perhaps they are afraid
of losing them. Not bad idea But
1 wonder what they will do with them
when the dancing begins? Surely not
put them on? However, after having
paid their respects to the host, they
proceeded carefully to place them in
Out-of- the-way corners while others,
who did not, suppose, mean dancing,
kept theirs in hand for the rest of the
evening.
just then the folding doors of an
adjacent room were thrown open aud
supper was announced.
Another surprise for me. What !!
Supper before dancing So it was.
And an excellent plan, to-, I'm inclined
to think.
The supper was an elegant affair; but
a standing up one, as is universally the
case in Norway. AS / had only just
dined, I became passive spectator. /
observed that the gentlemen, as soon
as they had handed their partners
in, left them to shift for themselves,
while they looked after No. 1. But the
dear creature seemed quite used to such
treatment. There were no sweets on
the table; all the dishes were savory
dishes. (By the way, Russian peas
seemed very popular.) But in another
little room were laid out ices, jellies,
creams, cakes, fanked by numberless
bottles of champagne. The ladies
had the first entree into the Cham
Der of Sweets, and it was not till
they turned out that we turned in.
The band now began to strike up in
the ballroom, signal for the gentle
men to adjourn thither.
"You dancer said my host.
"Oh, yes; certainly p
"Come, then, I'll introduce you to
that girl in pink; she is dying to dance
with an Englishman.
She was an uncommonly charming
girl, the daughter of pastor in the
Loffoten isles, and had never been in
Christiana before. She rejoiced in the
name of Kattuka. I naturally thought
she might be shy, as this was the first
time she had erer been in town. Not
bit of it ! She had plenty to say for
herself; could talk English very well,
though she had never heard it spoken
by an Englishman before, and was
thoroughly well up in Engli b litera-
ture. @Nt ~
/ never danced SO much, nor enjoyed
an evening so much as did this eve
ming. my first in Northern Europe. 1t
is quite impossible to help likiEg the
young ladies'. They are simple, unre-
served, conversational, well-informed
and uncoquettish. 1919 =
Dancing was kept up with spirit till
twelve, when another edition of supper
ON a minor scale made it's appearance.