The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-03-03

these notables experienced In getting to Washing
ton, but the balls held in later years made a less
enviable record. Probably the ball held to cele-
brate the second Inauguration Of President Lincoln
was one of the most notable for the universal dis
tress it caused.
Mary Clemmer Ames, in her book Ten Years
in Washington" says of this exciting carnival:
'The air throughout the entire building was
perforated with a fine dust, ground until you felt
that YOU were taking in with every breath a
myriad homeopathic doses of desiccated grind
stone. The agOnies of that ball can never be writ
ten. There are mOrtals dead in their graves be-
cause of it. There are mOrtals who still curse.
and swear, and sigh at the thought of it. There
are diamonds, and pearls and precious garments
that are naught to their owners because of it. The
scenes in those cloak and hat rooms can never
be forgotten by any who witnessed them. The
colored messengers, called from their posts in
the treasury to do duty in these rooms, received
hats and wraps with perfect facility, and tucked
them in l%oopholes as it happened.
But to give them back each to its owner. that
was impossible. Not half of them could read
numbers and those who could soon grew be-
wildered, overpowered, ill-tempered and imperti-
nent under the hosts that advanced upon them for
cloaks and hats.
Picture 1t! Six or more thousand people
clamoring for their clothes! In the end they were
all tumbled out 'promiscuous' on the floor. Then
came the siege! Few seized their own, but many
snatched other peoples garments-anything, some
thing, to protect them from the pitiless morning,
whose wind came down like the bite of death.
Delicate women, too sensitive to take the property
of others, crouched in corners and wept on win
dow Lodges, and there the daylight found them.
Carriages, also, had fled out of the scourglng blast,
and men and women who emerged from the mar
bile halls, with very little to wear, found that they
must foot It. to their habitations. One gentle
man walked to Capitol hill, nearly two miles, in
dancing pumps and bareheaded; another per-
formed the same exploit wrapped in a lady's SON.
tag.
Poor Horace Greeley, after expanding his
wrath on the stairs and cursing Washington anew
as a place that should be Immediately blotted out
of the universe, strobe to his hotel hatless. The
next day and the next week were consumed by
people searching for their lost clothes, and Gem
eral Chapman says he still receives letters de-
handing articles lost at that Inauguration ball"
One would suppose that the lesson of the Lin
coin ball would have resulted in great reforms
when the inauguration ball, which welcomed Pres
ident Grant, four years later, was held. One re-
form was notable, n complete checking system for
wraps was devised, but on this occasion not a
guest parted with his wraps! They did not dare,
for as it was, noses and ears were frozen.
The Grant inaugural ball cost 100000 and great
things were expected of it. A pavilion $50 feet
long, with a ballroom 300 by 100 feet, was built
in judiciary square. This pavilion was made of
light boards, rooted with tar paper and sealed
with pink and white muslin. THE mighty Ameri-
can eagle" to quote the official report, spread his
wings over the presidents platform and from his
pinions spread streamers 100 feet long, caught
up on either side by coats of arms. The presi-
dents reception platform was 60 feet long and 80
feet wide. Twelve ~pilasters supported alternate
gold figured, red and blue stands, which held pots
of blooming flowers. Platform and steps were
richly carpeted and thousands of canary birds
were placed toward the ceiling to add their chorus
to the music. Tickets to this magnificent enter
tainment cost $40.
Then came Inaugural day with a blizzard and
cold wave so severe that marchers in the inau-
gural procession dropped by the way, overcome by
coldl The north wind swooped down on the
muslin palace and ratified its fimsy grandeur I'M
til the roof was swaybacked In one place and bal
looned out In another, while the tar paper and
loose boards rose in the gusts and ratified down
far and wide.
President Grant recovered sufficiently from the
exposure of the inauguration to spend a short time
at the ball, arriving at IL o'clock in the evening.
He and his brilliant suite of guests, many of them
foreign diplomats, and their brilliantly clad ladies.