The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-12
A JAPANESE BALL
AS SEEN AND DESCRIBED BY A
YOUNG AMERICAN.
Royal Princesses in Court Dress-Chinese
Minister and Suite-An Kinds of
Dancing on the Floor
The Supper.
rpnvate Letter in New York 20

LErIVaDS LeLCeF IN new 1OEA 1OoLi
And now for the people. wish l
could give you a good idea of the scene
the ballroom presented, dressed with
gayly-colored flags and filed with crowd
In which were mingled nearly all the ma
tionalities of the world. It looked as
imagine some huge fancy fair or ball
might, but then the people all had the
advantage of being in their own costume,
and carried them off better than any mas
querader. First, the Japanese officers
and gentlemen in gold coats, really very
little exaggeration, for most of them had
such profusion of gold lace that you could
see little cloth, and this little was COW
cred with insignia and orders as a rule
The four royal princesses. dressed in the
panied by six or eight maids of honor in
the same dress.
This court dress consists of loose Grim
son trousers, which are so wide that
they look like loose skirt, and loose
jackets of gorgeous material with i'm
mense sleeves; the hair is done in two
broad, fiat plaits, which stick out on
either side of the head and join in single,
rather careless twist which hangs straight
down the back. Altogether. it IS very
ugly and unbecoming Only the prin-
cesses and their train were dressed in
this style Many of the japanese ladies
wore beautiful European costumes, but
they do not look well in them, having
neither the height nor the figures neces.
sary for them. The japanese ladies
dressed in their own ordinary style of
costume of costly and beautifully material
looked very picturesque and pretty,
much better than their sisters in the at
tempt at foreign style, to my mind.
Their dresses consisted of the ordinary
kimona, made of elegant silk crepe of a
soft shade of grey, with a simple white
ffahfI of the throat and nlqifS of
soft white material at the feet, where
the skirt separated slightly in walking.
The Chinese minister and his suite in
their court costume were walking gravely
and slowly about with their red buttOned
hats and most elegantly brocaded silk and
satin garments, looking for all the world
as If they had stepped off the pedestal of
some tea-shOp sign. Koreans with high
hats made of something that looks like
wire gauZe; Russian, French and English
naval and military officers. in handsome
uniforms; one or two United States naval
men, In plain blue with brass buttons,
looking rich and well to me, compared
with the scarlet coats and profuse gold
lace, and mass Of undistinguished hui
mapity in the regulation black dress suit
made up the remainder of the assemblage
All kinds of dancing could be seen on
the floor. Some of the Japanese ladies
and gentlemen had been practicing for
some weeks, and went through the square
dances we'll A few essayed the waltz,
and one naval officer, with the facility in
dancing hat seems to go with all naval
men, got on remarkably well. One little
Jap girl danced the lancers in good style
with the regular japanese clogs on-a
rather difficult feat, / think. The Ger
mans spun around, the French hoped
mp and down, the English walked Sc
dately round each other, and the Ameri.
cans danced. But the supper-room was
perhaps the most strange and curious
sight of the evening. The supper itself
was very fine, being supplied with an art
istic French cook, and consisted of every
thing imaginable in the edible line The
Japs swarmed about the tables like flies,
and Selling q plate would shovel upon 1t
everything within reach, oysters, salad,
ice-cream, boned turkey, jelly, cold
fowl, Charlotte de Russo, etc., and then,
elevating the plate to about the level of
their mouths, cram the food down in an
indiscriminate mass.
AS soon as they had eaten all they could
possibly hold, they put the plate down on
the floor wherever they happened to be
and left it there. Champagne flowed
freely, and the Japs seemed very fond of
it, gllping it down glass after glass, and I
saw one or two navigating the polished
floor among empty plates, with great diff
iculty.
Many of the Japs, after having eaten all
they CO Id, filed their pockets with the
most easily carried viands, doubtless for
o'clock to take the special train back to
Yokohama, and so did not see the finish
but imagine some of the Japs must have
become rather tipsy if they kept on as
they were going when l left the supper
room