Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-01-06
PARIS REyELRIEs.
Msddeu.ns scenes az an opera BalI

MaddeDtng scenes at an Opera Bali.
The first grand opera ball is an
nounced for December. Gay Paris is
in ecstacies. Arban is to direct one
hundred musicians; City thousand peo-
pie anxiously await the great event. the
cafes surrounding the Academy are
preparing for the approaching orglesi
glove-makers, florists. costumers, are
in iubilation, aud even the cabbies aud
garcons are. delighted with the prospects
of numerous and princely remunera-
tions, so, allons clowns, and dominoes,
sports and grisettes, students and
columbines, chicards and cocottes,
don your costumes, masks, and
false noses, prepare your chalk and
rouge, your pumps and wigs, your With
est Jokes aud most winning smiles, for
the first great, grand, grotesque, glori-
Gus rendezvous under the mammoth
chandelier of the spacious ballroom.
where the golden glare Of one thousand
gas lights, shaded by the crimson velvet
of the boxes, pours down its floods OF
sheen upon your eager and expectant
faces while awaiting Arban's magic sig
nal to lead and goad you on in the vo-
luptuous mazes of the quadrille. Then,
inspired by the brazen harmonies OF the
orchestra, how you whirl and turn, rush
and mingle with the buoyant throng; how
the Jolly rcvclcfs and ,nasic-drnhk BAG
chantes delight to sing and shout with
deafening voices, blending their delirious
strains with the fcbrile crash of hundred
instruments. How the masked cavaliers
and begemmed sirens hirt and talk, buzz
and prattle on every side till the ball
has fairly commenced, when the boxes
are filled and the immense floorf is
iammed with an animating, palpitating
mass of dancers. Then the celebrities
arrive, visits from box to box are paid,
the elite of Partisan society smiles upon
the scum from the cushioned solicitudes
of the proscenium, waltzes and redowas
succeed quadrilles and polkas, mazurkas
follow reels, gavots and improvised sara
bands the atmosphere becomes more
stirring, sheThets and ices are in de-
mand. champagne corks begin to fly, sup
per attracts many; the gaiety, mirth and
good humor continue; with iron vim and
energy the masqueraders dance and
dance, figure after figure, until stimu-
lated to frenzy by music, wine and heat,
the leader gives them repose, while to
prepare them for the coming frolcs the
Quadrille d'0rphee is announced in huge
black letters, and tumultuous cheers
which invariably greet its appearance
have barely ceased when the superb
canean begins to the infinite delight Of
the brawling, oscillating crowd of semi
inebriated vntaries Of Terpsiehore, who,
spurred on to lunaey by the stirring
movement, flushed, rapt, reckless, yearn..
ing for motion, with savage cries of
satisfaction, mingling with the shouts Of
/" Vivi Arban," bravo, bravo, dance and
romp, howl and shrek till, inert and
voiceiess, they stop from sheer exhaus-
ton. unless an encore for the fourth
figure reyives their nerve and courage,
whom the same scene is enacted till the
igure abruptly terminates In the orge,
and the dense throng is turned out into
the cold streets, where the carnival is
Continued in the cafes and restaurants
till daylight.