St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-03
The Drunken Debauchery
Disgraced the Elaborate
Affair.
Fair Ladies Were Insulted
and Brave Men Put to
Sleep on Ice.
BelshaZzap and Bacchus Must
Have Turned in Their
Graves.

centennial Oall IS over, people Wuo pitlu
from $40 to S25 apiece to participate in
it. and whose fun was represented by
the figure 0, are taking out the balance
in criticism. The tongues of the ball
goers were blistered with fault-6ndlng
yesterday. On all sides it was conceded
that the centennial ball was the biggest
executive failure OF the century. People
who were most competent to speak.were
loudest in declaring the bail monu-
ment of incapacity and vufgarity. AS
Ward McAilister read his private dis
patches in his Washington retreat. a
complacent smile overspread and soft
ened his features. The scenes in the
newspaper. NeverSince the palace Of the
Tuilleres was invaded in 1T79 by the
sans cu.ottes of the Seine department
have such startling contrasts been wit
messed i'll similar circumstances. When
it is said that the walters. policemen
and messenger boys drank most of the
free champagne, the situation at mid
Dight may be suggested. Justices of
the supreme court, governors, staff
officers, club men, lawyers, poets,
millionaires, with beautiful and refined
women, crowded blankly along the sup
per counter and demanded in vain the
attention they were accustomed to re-
ceive. The functionarieS around the
place showed undisguised contempt for
the free lunch fiends." Walters who
did not have to account for the unlim-
tied wine, took occasion to neg
lect the guests and treat them
selves. The excellent supper was
largely wasted. There was no re-
sponsibility for anything to anybody.
The ''gentlemen's dining room'' idea
was shown to be an utter fallacy. By
1890 p. m. the supper room had been
given over to people whose ideas of en-
jOyment had been learned IN free and
easy resorts. Drunken men invaded
the ball room, fiourishing bubbling bot
ties OF cbampagHe.s In the corridors
FREE FIGHTS
were of constant occurrence. Gam blers,
boOk-makers and women dozed or
made merry on the staircases. Never
once did an accredited officer of the
evening interfere to anybody's knOwl-
edge. The policemen who were
sober were helpless. They could
not tell the dress-coated walters
from the guests. BY l O'clock, most
the respectable element were making
frantic and supperless efforts to get
away. Even this privilege was denied
them. A line extending from the coat
rooms for 500 yards, and made up of
some of the leading citizens of this
town, surged for hurs against the feeble
and inadequate partitions of the coat
room. Gentlemen grew angry and des-
perate at the utter inadequacy of the
arrangements. With torn coats and
wrinkled shirt fronts, men, whose
names are known all over the union.
fought their way toward their coats un-
der the frequent clubs of the police,
the jeers of the mob outside and the
perdicious activity of the pickpOckets.
It was o'clock in the morning when
the last battered and ragged guest
reached his hack. In its executive as
poets the centennial ball was the
WORST OF IT'S SORT
ever known in the history of this city,"
said well known man about town yes
terdav. "The possibility of letting the
attendants get at all the wine they
wanted was enough to ruin any plans
which might have been made. left at
3 a. m. without my hat or coat. Two of
the checkers inside the coat room were
drunk. got my own umbrella by pay
ing 81 for one exchanged for it, in my
81 ght by the fellow who demanded the
dollar. OF the ladies met, ones dress
was ruined by plate of salad thrown
over it by drunken brute, and
the shoulder of another was cut from
a bottle which stranger had broken
upon it. l saw more respectable
women lnsulted in the supper room
than ever saw even accosted at the
French ball. l knocked down man
who tried to kiss the daughter of lead
ing lawyer here" The ticket takers
had no checks placed upon them, and
there is no question they made lots of
money letting in people who never
should have been there. The police
men lost toeir temper completely and
cleared people out at the end OF their
clubs. Hundreds of bottles of wine
walters and others. One man was
drunk. fell down stairs and was so
badly hurt, he had to be carried Off in
an ambulance. Many flags and potted
plants were stolen and some of the
boxes were shockingly soiled after their
first occupants had left. The supper
room was
CLEARED By CLUBS
shortly after o'clock. The lights were
turned out in the ball room long before
the crowd had left the building. DR..
John w. Gibbs said, at the Hoffman
house. last night: Il have just finished
a letter of congratulation TO Mr.. Ward
McAllister. The ball, as it went off,
was about the best answer he could
make to those who removed him. Mr..
Stnyvesant Fish may know something
about railroads, but he knows nothing
OfihOW to conduct ball."
ONE IN THE RIBS.