National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-03-07
A GRAND BALLROOM.
APPEARANCE OF THE MUSEUM HALL.
Scene Never to be Forgotten Three Acres OF
Magnificent Yistas-Besutlfui Effects Pro-
duced by Combined Light, Deco
ration, Music, and Life.

Leaving the brilliant and complete
splendors of the outside view you entered through
covered archway, and at once the full glories of
matchlessly beautiful scene burst upon your
| pleased and satisfied gaze. Stretching out before
you almost as far as the eye could reach, and on
| either SIDE appeared bewildcrag series of Wis
| tas lit up with thousand jets of aamc aud green
with countless garlands, in whose emerald strands
| bloomed hundreds of gorgeous flowers that simu-
| lated nature with marvellous accuracy and beauty.
! The light aud graceful roof, illuminated by the
clear soft white radiance of the electric lights
sumed an ethereal appearance, in which tho deli
cate lines of the iron girderS aud the countless
bleS of green garlandS stretching in mid air bore
prominent and beautiful part. Right i'll font o
| the'main entrance, and halfway down to the south
| door, in the center of the rounda,
THE STATUE
epresenting America rose up from base deeply
| banked in trOpic plants, whose glossy green hue
and quaint forms gave picluresqueness to the
| seeming white marble that was at once beautiful
| and imposing. The figure Of America held in her
! left hand the American shield, in her right
| torch, from which the intense yet serenely glow
ing electric-light, like great calm, steady eye.
| shone with magnificent brilliancy upon dome and
| pillar and balcony and floor. Above. and in front
| of the statue, a stronger and larger electric
| light poured its splendors in wave on wave
of snowy glitterancs. The effect of these
| lights upon the scene was beautiful i'll the ex
| treme. The huge ropes of green garlands stretch
ing like the cables of ship from girder to girder
across each hall with one vast sweep, interlscng
each other like vines in trepic forest encircling
pillars dropping in graceful falls from balcony
and arch, shOne with an intensely vivid green
under the steady blaze of the electric lights.
| Turn in any and every direction You would the
decorations flashed back the different hued lights
in thousand refractionS, and intensified at
every glance the charming aud graceful
effect they originally produced. You did
| not think of their simple style articial fabric
in the marvellous gleam and play of colorS that
their tasteful arrangement produced upon you.
Each pillar of the rotunda was banked in great
| masses of tropic foliage. increasing and prolouS
ing the effect of the decorations above Tall. grace
ful ferns leaned over toward dagger bladed cacti,
if to soften the savage mood of those edged and
irate shrubs Here and there amid the deep banks
of emerald foliage were plants with blossoms just
bursting into fiery blaze or parting in smiles OF
white bloom.
As you entered and advanced 10 the rotunda
down the central aisle the eve was caught by ell
liptical panels of plaster placed upon the outside
of these central pillars, bearing device conse-
Grated to amusement. On one was a guitar, en-
circled with flute and bassoon and all inscribed in
garland of flowers, surrounded by deep-sreen
deep, dark scarlet cloth, and above each were the
entwinng folds silk American flags. On the in
side of the pillars, looking from the rOtunda,
were similar panels, bearing embiems of
art in painting sculpture, and architecture, agri
culture, industry, science commerce, and law. Tn
der each panel glowed the glossy green of trOpic
plants in almost every shade of emerald hue. At
convenient intervals elsewhere were also arrayed
collections of exotic flowers. Each balcony was
beautifully draped in artistically arranged folds
of red blue, and white cambria, and the pillars
also were similarly decorated. Over these balcO
MES curtains of huge American flags. The
monograms of Garfield and Arthur are set in many
of the pillars on blue ground encircled by a
bronze rim.
THE PILLARS.
Each pillar in the building IS adorned with
shield, bearing the heTadc embems of each State
and Territory, and also of the larger and more
important cities in the country. These graced
Oh either side by national and State flag and
with cavalry, artillery and infantry standards, the
whole forming an effect exceedingly beautiful even
in the daylight and at night under the brilliant
white golden, and silver rays of the gas, calcium
and electric lights, were magnificent and gorgeous
in the extreme. The rows of gas jets extend from
arch to arch at height of some thirty feet above
the floor and form bows about the rotunda. In
addition to these decorations fine mirrors are
placed at intervals along the pillars, thus multiply
ing the effects and making still stronger the impress
sion of ethereality which the combined features
of the rooms have already impressed upon the be-
holder at his entrance No words depicting the
decorations and describing the general appear
ance of the hall can convey any idea of ths daZ-
zlngIy beautiful and magnificent effects produced
by the combined influence of light, decoration.
music, and rapidly moving thousands OF human
figures on this grantlest ball night thai Washing
ton has ever seen.
THE CENTRAL DOME
seemed to swing in mid air with all the delicate
and graceful tracery of lines and arches aud cling
ing garlandS. The whole scene Of an
chantment. It bewildered the eye in the attempt
to take i'll all its superb splcndOv at onca You had
to take it in arch by arch, vista By vista, column
by column Over three acres of space shut i'll
picture by its frame b. yaulted ceilings and
bright tinted walls. adorned by decorated pillars,
oyerhung by sweeping arches, all lit up by hun
dreds of flaming seOnceS, and filled with thousands
Of elegantly dressed people, from theatre whose
mere verbal description conveys adequate idea
Of its surprising beauty and of The magnihcence of
effect produced, not merely upon the fancifui
gazer but upon the coolest, most prosaic mind.
And when to these things arc added the witching
strains Of waltz music whose delicious melody is
sotened by coming through flower banked
arches, and the harm DnOuS movements to that
music OF these crowds of animated, joyous men
and women radiant with health, overlooking
with the wine of life clad in all the destinations
ofbewitching and tasteful toilets, there is awak
sned and prolonged that indeanable magnetism
which makes the soul Of The ball room and holds
the key to the intoxication of the dance.
The supper annex was comfortably full from ten
o'clock onward. The menu an eminently
satisfactory one, and consisted of salads, picked
oysters, celery, pickles, sliced cold meats and |
fowls, sandwiches. with fruit dessert, ice cream,
waite. ices and coffee. novel feature of the &C.
casion that the supply until a very late hour |
was amply adequate TO meet every demand, aud !
every one left the tables fully satisfied.