The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-01
IT WAS TO
BE VERY WILD.
st. Louis Undertakes to Have
"French Ball.
That Was to be just as Shock
ing as Possible.
BUT IT WAS NOT so.
The Participants Drank Beer
Instead of Champagne.
And There Was Much Trouble
for the Police.

st. Louis, Feb. 1.-The first annual
| French BALI of the Twentieth Century
! club has come and gone. It was a sad
! affair to some who were induced to buy
/ tickets. To others it was one of the
] hottest rags" that ever came off in
] st. Louis.
The jewellers were not exclusive
] Tickets We're sold at a price within the
reach of everybody, and the conse-
quence was that the big hall and its
connecting WiperOOms were damned
with mixed mob of FOUNDERS, rag
gers" poolrOOm tOutS and young WOm-
en- who are seldom seen outside the fe-
yer district after o'clock in the even
ing.
There was no lack of beer, and an en-
tire absence of champagne, which is one
of the indispensable BILE trimmings of a
real French ball. A few knockdown
fights took place during the evening,
and battered noses and black eyes were
monotonous features of the all night
carOuSal.
1t was limited during the day that the
ball would be enlivened with profess
stOnaI dancers and a bevy of Shapely
and not overly Sedate young women
from a burlesque show which is now
playing at one of the st. Louis theaters.
This tip was literally handed around
and number of tickets were sold on
the strength of it. The purchasers of
the tickets declared they had bought
gold bricks after they had passed into
the ballroom and taken a general look
L
and professional dancers were missing,
and the visions of loneliness anticipated
turned to hideOus nightmare. The faces
of some of the women present We're
familiar to many of the FOUNDERS. They
can be seen at any time in a certain
section of St. Louis, and are more pre-
sentable under gaslight than in the day
time.
1t was a great disappointment to
those who expected a masquerade and
costume ball, with the accompanying
pop of champagne corks,. twinkle of
pointed toes high in the air, the swish
of dainty understands and all that sort
of thing one reads about seeing at real
French balls. This ball was nothing
more than "a cheap beer push'' as a
disguested spectator called it as he ell
bowed his way through the mob to get
out the door.
A delegation of young men from the
University club. each in full evening
dress, entered the ballroom at 1 O'Clock.
At 1903 the delegation filed back down
stairs, and for the first time in their
lives they understood what a really
fine thing fresh air was.
The orgy did not get well under way
until O'Clock. The grand march was
scheduled to come off at IL o'clock, but
the hall was too denseIy packed to per
init it. The space set apart for dane
ing was roped in after the fashion of a
prize ring, but the crowd broke over the
ropes and for time it looked as if
there wouldn't be any dancing at all.
By ? O'Clock enough people had turn
ed from the hall in disgust to allow the
floor managers to replace the ropes, but
the beer had begun to get in it's work,
and nobody seemed to care about a
grand march That's a way beer has
of affecting too generous imbibers. The
registering crowd had grown SOdden, but
the orchestra struck up a march and
the dancing space gradually filled up.
The march" was not remarkable for
it's figures nor for the grace of its par
Elephants.
One or two feeble efforts at high
kicking were made, and once or twice
some frisky nymph tried to sing, but
no one was encored, and the march was
a dismal procession which served only
to create a thirst for more beer.
It was after daylight when the last
dancers left the hall. Capt. O'Malley
had a detail of officers on hand to
squelch all riots, and Chief Desmond's
department was represented by a half
Several echoes of the inconglOmerate
and unholy carousal reached the city
dispensary before dawn, yawping for
surgical relief.
Dr. Edgar Thompson, who was on
night duty, had taken the precaution to
hold two ambulances in reserve for the
BALI guests, for he had had expert
ence in that line on former occasions.
Singularly enough the first ball victim
to be carried in was named French-Ed
French, a brawny young brass worker.
The left side of FTench's scalp was
traversed by a bloody seam, made by a
beer glass, and his uncrOpped, reddish
hair was matted with blood that squirt
ed out of the fOur-inch cash.
French and Ed Burke quarreled over
the favors of a f1ashily dressed young
woman, who had shown a disposition
to dance with the Frenchman rather
than the Irishman. Burke undertook to
decide the question by hitting French
on the head with a beer bottle, and that
did settle it, for French was placed
hOrS du combat and never returned to
the ball from the dispensary-
The next ball victim was Blanche Os-
borne, who left her boudoir on North
Jefferson avenue at 1870 O'Clock. She
was among the gayest in the dizzy
whirl for the next four hours, when she
felt like a glass of wine would revive
her from the fatigue of dancing. Lillian
Ulland, who lives nearby Blanche, has
been her mortal enemy for months.
Cause, a man. They met in the wine
room. Lillian was drinking beer
Blanche, slipping her sherry, sneered at
the plebian Lillian, who without word |
let fly the heavy beer glass. Her aim
was true. The glass landed on the eye
brow of Blanche.
She was knocked to the floor, blood |
poured from an ugly cash through the
penciled eyebrows, and Blanche was
borne away from the wild and festive |
scenes.
To Cure Cold in One Day.
Take Laxative Bromo Quinine Tablets. |