The times., 1898-02-20
CLOUDED At ITS CLOSE
Many Invitations Recalled Because
Of the Counr,,'s Loss.
The Social Season viii Be Unusu-
ally Say After Lent Assembly
Ball Tomorrow.

| Two days more and Ash Wednesday will
and scatter ashes along the highways of
Vanity Fair. As both the opening and
close of the official season have been
clouded by the shadow of death, the sea-
son has necessarily been less gay than
is the custom during the first season of
4 new Administration. 1t Is prophesied,
however by those who are learned in
| the -rubics of society that the Eastertide
| viii be all the gayer for the present post
1 ponement of so many festivities will prob
I ably cause them to be given in the early
spring.
The annual ball of the Washington As
/ sembly, which will take place tomorrow
night at the Arlington, will bring the sea-
son to u brilliant close. The subscribers
4 include some of the most prominent rep
resentatives of official and social life,
and the gentlemen in charge of the affair
/ promise that il shall eclipse in splendor
amy previous function in the annals of the
! organization. The banquet hail and large
parlorS Of the hotel are ideally adapted
T for a ball of the magnitude contemplate
ed, and are TO be brilliantly Illuminated
with electric lights and decorated with
/ flowers and palms The guests will be
received by Mrs. r. II. Hit and the pre-
sentations viii he made by the president,
Judge John Davis. The cotilion will be
! led by Mr.. Frank Lee. The executive
/ committee Is composed of Mr.. Edward
McCauley, Major Joseph p. Sanger and
! Mr.. John c. Poor.
The assembling in convention of the
Daughters of the American Revolution
brings into prominence the fact that a
vast amount of ferreting into colonial
history and general digging at genoa
logical roots must have been done to en-
able the DANES, daughters and chiidres
of the various patriotic organizations to
be on such intimate terms with 1heIr
heroic ancestors.
Many members of these organizations.
of course, have the lineage of their
houses handed down so statistically from.
generation 10 generation, that it is
simple matter TO trace back to the par
ticular ancestors who gave the house it's
honored name; but there are not few
women whose forefathers are SO buried
under the weeds of oblivion that it takes
professional eye to locate them and eY-
pert pens and brushes to resurrect them
in proper shape, to fit them for eN-
hibition by their descendants of today
In speaking of her work Miss Nanny
Randolph Ball, who is widely known
throughout the country as a genealogist
and heraldic painter, said yesterday: ITO
. search in libraries for family pedigree.
colonial and revolutionary, is long
and tedious task; il means the unearth-
Ing of books never otherwise called for.
each suggesting others of their kind. Few
OF them are ndexed so volume after
volume has TO be gone through with
page by page. 1T often happened that
no printing press OF old has chanced
TO record the desired facts concerning
the ancestor in mind, so then the county
records must be investigated-old docu-
ments so discoloIed as to be almost
lllegible TO the modern eye; folios in fine
faded script, have TO be gone through
carefully. and perhaps after days of pa
tient investigation in these moldy rem
nants of the past the search has been
without avail
Miss Ball has Travelled through many
States in her work of county invests
cations and has furnished complete sets
Of highly desirable ancestors to persons
all over the country. She paints coats
Of arms on parchment and vellum which
is now the most fashionable material
for this purpose. and writes out an au-
thentic family chart to go with them, to-
gether with general explanations of her
search, for which she exacts remunera-
tion according to the time and trouble
involved.
These are busy days for the clever little
genealogist and her studio at the Ar; |
Students League is seldom without |
visitors from maids and matrons. who are |
anxious to get some tangible evidence
Of the existence of the grand danes and |
martial heroes who represent their ances- |
trail stock, and 10 find out just what they
did