Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-07
THE EVENT OF THE SEASON.
Last Nights Military Ball Largely At
 tended and Brilliant Affair.

Last Nights Military Ball Largely Att
 tended and a Brilliant Affair.
 The festivities incident to and contempor- ary with the twenty-irst annual encamp- ment of the Grand Army of the Republic, of Connecticut, were inaugur- ated at City Hall last evening with grand military ball. The City of Waterbury | deemed it a high honor that she should be selected as the place where the State En | should be held in 1888, and her citizens, with their proverbial hospitality, set about to entertain the visitors in roy al manner. The ball was proposed as a fitting opening of the festivities to follow. The Governor and staff and many military men of the State brigade were induced to become guests of the city on this occasion, and last night in fulfllment of their prom ises were among the throng that constituted one of the finest parties ever given in this city.
 City Hall, dressed in carpet of white and gayly decorated with national colors and emblems, looked her best. The ladies, elegantly attired, some in costumes that were designed to exhibit their physical charms, some in robes studiously modest but none the less enchanting than those of their more daring sisters, and others in dresses minus the open work, but rich in material with a wealth of trim mings, fairly glistened under the gas light Then there were the conventional claw hammer coats and the expansive shirt bosoms, the fashy uniforms of the field and staff officers, the bright red continental uniforms of the Foot Guard, the gray of the Horse Guard and the blue regulation uniform of the privates of the local companies, which, mingling with the varied colors worn by the ladies, presented a captivating scene as viewed from the gal leries, where the more democratic patrons of the ball contented themselves with being witnesses of and not participators in the giddy whirl. But democracy could not be concealed even in all the splendor and bril- liancy on the dancing floor. Here and there the Prince Albert was noticeable, oc- casionally cutaway was visible, and the wearers were not at all disconcerted with all the empty show anc vanity that sur rounded them.
 It would be impossible to assemble so large party as that last night and have it purely aristocratic. To the beholder it
 was not Q select party. One mans five dollars was as good as another's, and he | who possessed character, whether he
 gained his livelihood in an elegantly fitted
 banking house or at the anvil in the dusty
 forge room, was entitled to a place in the
 brilliant throrg. But the common people
 were not conspicious in that gay crowd of
 dancers. The private who faced defeat
 at Fredericksburg and Charlottesville,
 and who rested on his arms on the victori-
 ous battle fields of Vicksburg and Antie-
 tam was lost in the blaze and glory of car
 pet knights of the sword. There was
 nothing in the beautiful femininity or the
 flashing masculinity indicative of the
 memories of the WAT, or of the valor of the
 dead and living heroes of that awful strug-
 gle, not a reminder that it was the prelude
 to the annual assembly of scared and
 grey haired veterans to-day. The stars 1 and stripes were silent emblems of the deeds of the volunteers, but conspicuous above all, suspended over the stage, blazed forth in gas jets the letters,