Evening star., 1901-02-16
A CHEAP IMITATION
The New York French Ball is Not
the Real Thing.
In CONTRAST TO OTHER YEARS
Theaters That Stand in With the
Ticket Spectators.
A PROFITABLE BUSINESS
PROFITABLE BUSINESS
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

| special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, February IA, 1901.
Perhaps the swift decline of the so-called
French ball in this town may be taken as
an indication of developing sanity in the
heads of the New York populace. Or II
may be that shamelessness is in these days
so general throughout the town that the
persons of the hectic flush do rot feel the
necessity of attending a set, cut-and-dried d
| function for the purpose of "entoying"
| themselves. But, whatever may be the rea-
son, the fact remains that the French ball
OF tnls DAY and date is on it's last legs IN
new YORK. In truth, the French ball of
other days has so far lost its distinctive
ness that it is now difficult TO ascertain,
even through the process of attending them
all, which IS ''the" French ball of the sea-
son that may be safely accepted as apprcx-
| imately the real thing
These French balls follow each other so
| thick and fast at the Madison Square Gar
den that, at the beginning of the season
| when the trumpeted announcements are
made, one is puzzled to single cut which of
| them Is supposed to be regarded as "thc"
french bail-which one of them he is sup
posed 10 go into training for To the hest
OF this writer's remembrance there have
been some six and sundry French balls
pulled off-which is very excellent
phrase In this particular connection-pulled
on since the first furry of snow in New
| York And many more are vet in abev-
ance OF the coming month and the month
| after that. Numerous Circles of Harmony
ana other organizations of mercurial Gal
lie cooks, not to speak of MANY endless
chain clubs of wine agents still have
French ball dates to fulfill at the Garden
before the fragrance of the lilacs begins
TO beseech our pastoral reflections Yet,
| they are all to be French balls Yet in ad-
| Qlt1On, to read with unbiased
| critical eye the prospectuses Of the balls
promoters, each of them is to ne the
| French ball. None of the other French
| balls that have gone before or that are to
come afterward-to consider, again, the
| claims of each prospectus-has had or will
| have the real blown-n-t the bottle brand
! and trademark.
| All Deadly Dull.
| Nevertheless, the fact remains that every
French ball of this season that has now
passed into the domain of the SHOWS of
yester-year has been deadly dull, stupid,
badly vicious and utterly wearying func-
ton, and there is not the least ground for
doubt that those that are yet to occur
| shall partake of the same general charac-
| teristics. 1t must be that the day Of the
| French ball has quite passed, or else
| lapsed, to await a revival of the French
| ball spirft-the French ball spirit in the
| days that are no more used to animate
| both the youthful and the elderly or aged
male bosom of New York as the set date
for the night of deviltry drew nigh.
Now, at the last French balI-Whch hap
| pened on last Monday night, or, better, on
| Tuesday morning-yOu would have had
| some difficulty in picking out single man
| on the floor of a greater age, say, than
| thirty. Perhaps three-ffths of the lads
| skylarking about were under twenty-five.
| They were a vealy. smOothfaced lot, of a
| truth, this last batch of male French ball
roysterers. Scattered here and there in
I hn fay- mid 3trp1 or oil
! derly men, but they all seemed to be yawn
| ing cavernously, and none of them ap-
peared to remain much after 1 am.
! The lads, however, seemed to be enjoy
| ing themselves wonderfully They respond
| ed to the batteries and toadyisms of the
scores and score of professional wine
| agents, who 1t is more than suspected,
| had organized the frivolous occasion, and
| they did themselves enormously proud
| when 1t came to a matter Of "opanin' wine"
| until the milk carts began 20 clatter
| through the streets.
A Striking Contrast.
But where were the real, srre-enough,
seasoned men VINO used to thread the mazes
at the old Madison Square Garden on these
French ball nights? There used to be such
royal aggregation of Major Pendennises
and Lord Steyns romping at the French
ball Of other days. There used to be so
many gray waxed mustachios and mus
| tachios that had been dyed for the occa-
sion! There used to be so many staid,
paunched and otherwise respectable mil
| lionaireS drifting, like caStaWays, for one
night only, through the old French ball
| throngs.
| But now 1t is all for the boys. And even
the boys appeared to be somewhat wearied
with 1t all. They seemed to drink wine ex-
cessively fof the mere purpose of drowning
their remembrance of what a stupid affair
they had involved themselves In. Their
general attitude seemed to be- Regard me
al w tba
company I'm keeping! Am I not having a
dickens of time eh? See dance the
swift fandango, and then tell me if you do
not think l am wicked, wicked thing
This is the French bail and l am here.
and I've got to be wild and careless and
rollcking-and don't you really think I'm
making spectacular success of 1t? Don't
care If do have head when / wake up
| Just look at me now, that's all Pl ask you
| to do'
It's Meat for Him.
Meanwhile the champagne boomers smile
greasly and twist their fve-carat blue
white diamonds around their fingers with
the air Of contentment. But hold! There is
one other participant in these French balls
who appears. on each and every OCCASION
to actually enjoy himself. He Is an inspec-
tor of police of this city-a little man of
about feet inches in height, who is said
to have broken the hearts of more cops
since his elevation to his present rank than
any other police officer of his stature on the
globe. This police inspector attends each
and every French ball, not in full uniform
but in the mufti of costermonger. That
is to say, he makes his appearance on the
floor in miserable wrinked brown suit, a
plugugly 'longshoreman's cap, hob-nailed
boots and red bandanna tied around his
neck. Now, this is no mere masquerade
scheme on his part. The inspector Is above
all mere masquerading. His idea in going
about the floor in such disguise is to have
partly intoxicated young men say things to
him. His queer makeup is simply bait
Wherewith he wants to entrap Woozy young
gentlemen into making harmless funny re-
marks to him. When a young gentleman
is thus entrapped the police inspector fero-
ciously attacks the offender with his bare
fists, and then the bodyguard of three or
four sx-foot detectives accompanying the
inspector also jump the young man and
cause him to wish the while he is being
trampled on by the whole police outfit that
he had expired in his earliest infancy. This
police inspector, in fact, simply attends the
| balls at Madison Square Garden for the
purpose of seducing inoffensive young men,
or even men Of family, into mixes with him
and his pretorians. 1t cannot truthfully
be said that the spectacle afforded by an
inspector of police, garbed as described
above, engaged in mauling dress-coated