The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-02-02
~(COntinued.)
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The PaIo Alto Ball.

The Palo Alto Ball.
A beautifui woman pleases the
eye, a good woman pleases the
heart; one is a jewel, the other a
treasure.-Napoleon l.
On the evening of that following
day in May the sun hung red and
round over distant unknown land
along the Rio Grande. In that
country, no iron trails as yet had
come. The magic of the wire, so
recently applied to the service of
man, was as yet there unknown.
Word travelled slowly by horses and
mules and carts. There came
small news from that faroff coun-
try, half tropic, covered with palms
and crooked dwarfed growths of
mesquite and chaparral The long
horned cattle lived in these dense
thickets, the spotted jaguar, the
wolf the Ocelot, the javelina, many
smaller creatures not known in our
northern lands. In the loan along
the stream the deer left their
tracks. mingled with those of the
turkeys and of countless water
fowl 1t was a faro1, unknown, I'M
valued land. Our flag, long past the
Sabine, had halted at the Nueces.
Now 1t was to advance across this
wild region to the Rio Grande
Thus did SNUG James Polk keep his
promises!
Among these tangled mesquite
thickets ran sometimes long ba-
yous. made from the overflow Of
the greater rivers-resacas, as the
natives call them. Tall palms some
times grew along the bayous, for
the country is half tropic. Again.
on the drier ridges, there might be
taller detached trees, heavier for
ests-palo alto. the natives call
them. In some such place as this
where the trees were tall, there was
fired the first gun of our war in
the southwest. There were strange
noises heard here in the wilder
ness. followed by lesser noises, and
by human groans. Some faces that
night were upturned to the moon
the same moon which swan so
gloriously over Washington. Taylor
camped closer to the Rio Grande.
The fight was next to begin by the
lagoon called the Resaca de la Pal
ma. But that night at the capital
that same moon told us nothing of
all this. We did not hear the guns
1t was far from Palo Alto to our
ports of Galveston or New Orleans.
Our cockaded army made it's own
history in its own unreported way.
We at the White House ball that
night also made history in our own
unrecorded way AS our army was
adding to our confines on the south
west, so there were other. though
secret, forces which added to our
territory in the far northwest. As
to this and as to the means by
which it came about | have already
been somewhat plain.
1t was a goodly company that as
semblcd for the grand ball. the
first one in the second season of
Mr.. Folks somewhat confused and
discordant administration. Social
matters had started off dour
enough. Mrs. Polk was herself of
strict religious practice, and l i'm
agine it had taken somewhat of
finesse to get her consent to these
festivities. 1t was called some
times the diplomats ball At least
there was diplomacy back of it 1t
was mere accident which set this
celebration upon the very evenirl,
OF the battle of Palo Alto, May 8,
1916.
BY 10 O'Clock there were many in
the great room which had been
made ready for the dancing, and
rather brave company it might
have been called. We had at leas:
the splendor of the foreign diplo-
mats uniforms for our background,
end to this we added the bravest of
our attire, each one in his own in
dividual fashion, | fear. Thus my
friend Jack cambridge was wholly
Respondent in new waistCoat of
his own devising, and an evening
coat which almost swept the floor
as he executed the evOlutiOns OF
his western style of dancing. 9th
er gentlemen were. perhaps, more
grave and staid. We had with us
at least one man. old in govern
ment service, who dared the sill,
stockings and knee breeches of an
earlier generation. Yet another
wore the white powdered queue
which might have been more suited
for his grandfather. The younger
men of the day wore their hair long
In fashion quite different, yet this
didnot detract from the distinction
of Nome of the faces which one
might have seen among them
some of them to sleep all too soon
upturncd to the moon in another
and yet more bitter war, aftermat)
of this with Mexico. The tall stock
was still in evidence at that time
and the ruffled shirts gave some
thing of Il formal and old-fashioneo
touch to the assembly. Such as
they were, in their somewhat var
led but not embarrassing attire, the
best of Washington were present
Invitation was wholly by card
Some said that Mrs. Polk wrote
these invitations in her own hand
though this we may be permitted
to doubt
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