New-York tribune., 1900-03-04
AN ARTISTS COSTUME BALL
THE PICTURESQUE MARDI GRAS FESTI-
VAL OF THE ARTS CLUB.

People with more or less distinct memories
Of awful stories or with indelibly distinct I
memories Of astounding scenes in the Latin
Quarter of Paris may DE apt to expect some
thing not only wildly hilarious but giddily Bo- /
hcmian an artists Nardi Gras ball in New /
York. There was hilarity enough about the .
fancy dress ball at The Old SawmilI in East /
Thirty thiTd-st, last Tuesday, but it was an
cminentIy proper affair. In other important |
feature besides its eminent propriety it differed /
from the festivities OF Paris at Shrovetde-
there were no masks, or, 20 be exact, masks
We're the rare exception. 1t differed from the /
usual social incident Of New York even the /
ordinary costume" entertainment in its
81 ater picturesqueness.
The Old Sawmill" is fairly described as to
The general effect of its interior 10y the adjective
'ramshackIe." 1t may be in perfectly good re-
pair, and Will it is to be hoped, yet last for
many generations. But the effect of an en-
trance hall open to the roof with open corridors
and dark stained wooden stairs winding above
ones head, and the doors of a stained glass
factory half open behind miscellaneous coec-
ton Of huge plaster casts, produces in the aver
age NeW-Y orkcr a picturesque Impression. Then
for a ballroom the committee had selected what
Is ordinarily used as 4 show room for the Glib
son stained glass manufactured in the basement
from designs prepared in studios stuck about
WAS organized by the Arts Club primarily OF
course, as a Shrovetde frolic but with the
Interior object of raising funds for the Artists
and Artisans Institute, which carries its
training of young artists in other studios up the
Winding stairs This institute makes COM
Ilaint about its degree Of success in the great
work of imbuing the manufacturing industries
Of the country with artistic principles but its
great work does not pay its way in merely
commercial sense. the expenses of teaching be
ing high and the students fees necessarily
small
What with alcoyes framed in dark Tudor
woodwork. what with odd turnings of stairs
Ialustrades recesses not apparently reasonable
Ia a constructive point of view, and judicious
distribution Of lights, palms and Asiatic hang
in2s the stained glass showroom made about as
effective a setting as could be imagined for such
4 gathering, and all the more effective because
So unlike the usual thing
The committee had given the preference to
seventeenth century costumes in it's circular;
"a a matter Of fact, there were not six costumes
II that Jcrod on the floor Many appeared in
TN modern snalioHtal. but these mtigated the
unlawful conycutiouaNty of their personal
,+Tc,ts' With bright coor,l Turkish caps other
wise it was most varied collection Of cos
Tunes Of mo- particular period or country. The
uutrlum,,IcJ variety produced brilliant gen
tral effect which was only heightened by the
nineteenth century black and white wandering
h,r" and there.
Generally speaking costume ball is nothing
much worth looking at until the dancing begins.
Last Tuesdays was worth looking at simply
as "a gathering Of men, and Of some women, too,
prominent in American art one Of the most
noticeable figures was that Of a well known
woman sculptor. Who wisely ignored the seven
te,uth century and gave an exhibition Of Greek