Evening star., 1925-03-03
HISTORY OF INAUGURAL BALLS /
DATES BACK TO MADISON'S DAY
BrilIidnce Has Marked Fetes, Whict Haze Witnessed
Steadily CrO,Ung AHendance-Staging Erent
for Charity Has Met With Success

to the Court OF ST James, gave e.
few fourishes to his inaugural ball
and the band, the Germania, is en-
tered in the annals as performing
music never heard before. The
bachelor Presidents charming young
niece, then Miss Harriet Lane, after
ward Mrs. r. NJ. Johnston, was his
partner at the grand ball staged as
usual In the temporary building in
Judiciary Square. What Is termed "a
united democracy made this ball n
marvel in ceremony, in attendance
and all its accessories. Neither of the
balls held on the evening of Lin
coins inauguration days were up 10
the previous standards. Public tenn
per was not set for enjoying such
light pleasures and though Gov.
Alexander r. Shepherd. John w.
Thompson and a long list of other
Washington business men and bank
ers spent large fortune erecting a
suitable building and financing the
ball, it was but sparseIy attended. and
the promoters had to meet a large
deficit The second ball was attended
with but little more success.
President Grants inauguration
struck more cheerful note, and both
balls were in a way epochal in social
chronicles. AS in almost every ac-
count Of the events of March i since
liiGS e Dteh Stdheu along the 70
tomac, the opening sentence is 1.-The day
began gloomily'' with snow or rain
or violent winds, but the Grant in
augurations hold the records for dis
! turbances and hardShips caused by
the weather.. The first Grant ball
was held in the nearly completed
wing OF the Treasury, and there were
some 40 feet square. Even then the
crowd was oppressive and dancing
almost impossible, though there
were three bands playing the same
music, prompted by electric regula-
tors. The hero of Appomattox and
his lady and Vice President Colfax
and his party stood to receive the
guests at the foot of the grand stair
way, but Gen. Hawley. afterward
Senator from Connecticut, who was
major domo, shouted in q stentorian
voice to those entering, Don't stop
to shake hands; just take look and
step on"
Pension Office Used.
| March 4. 1873, The Evening Star
records one of the coolest bits of weather
in the history of the city and calls 1t a
| polar wave and the trials and
/ tribulations endured at the solemn
ceremonies Of the noon and later at
the ball I'LL columns of that issue.
At the ball 1t proved impossible even
to take the chill off the air in tenn
porary building erected on judiciary
Square, the site OF the present Pension
Office. So the guests were rushed TO the
supper room and given the cheering
drinks of those good old times, and were
at once seated to supper at which so
proudly were consumed, the news q
! papers Of the day state, 200 roasted
capons, 5000 picked oysters, 10000
| gallons of oysters prepared in other
| ways, a carload Of rolls and 20 gall
| Ions of coffee. After this the COM
| pany felt quite in the humor for the
| "galop" the polka" the lancers and
| ouadrilIes, at which Gen. Grant led
| out Mrs. Colfax and the second gen.
| tleman of the land the first lady, and
| all went merrily. But perhaps the
| saddest casualty of the evening was
some 100 or more canaries, sent as
! special compliment to Gen. Grant
from the West Indies. and loosed In
the nower-decked rotunda. The poor =
little songsters were too miserable
to sing for they had no hot supper,
and nearly all died OF the exposure.
! Gen. Tecumsen Sherman was chair
man of this second Grant ball.
The Cleveland ball Of 1885 was held
in the new Pension Building and was
a brilliant affair. at which the Old
South turned out in elegance and
| great numbers. Benjamin Harrison's ,
ball marked a return to the Pension
| Office, then better heated, and all the
balls thereafter, until they ceased,
| were staged in that rotunda.
| Gorgeous Decorations Used.
| Reams of description have been ex-
! pended on the marvels of interior
decoration performed TO transform
the bleak walls of the big Pension
Office into a salon worthy of the oc-
| casion. "Nero's Golden House" had
been dragged from Roman history TO
| furnish a mark for draping the walls
with yellow bunting and masses OF
| flowers and the pillars and balconies
| garlanded with vines and blossoms
have on occasion presented a gor-
geous classic aspect. But though
! thousands Of dollars were spent and
| the result wonderful and impressive,
| all inaugural balls of recent memory
have been densely crowded, and the
guests were lucky to avoid accidents
| to their gowns or their persons. They
did not even, for the past 20 years
at least, make any attempt to dance,
| and since 1897, when William Nc
Kinley and Garret A. Hobart were
| fnaugurated there has been no grand
march and no effort to have the Chief
| Magistrate greet the guests. So that
/ it is most probable that il other con-
1 siderations did not enter the case, the
| inaugural balls of the old order es-
| tablished in 1909 must have passed
| out for the reason of the increasing
| crowd of guests and the impossibility
| of making them comfortable.
1t was Mrs. John Allen Dougherty,
| a leader in child welfare work of the
| District. who urged the idea of giv7s
| ing for charity what had been aban- /,
| doned for mere ostentation, and shez
| interested the proper civic authortr,
| ties in her ideas, with the result THAR
| the first ball for charity held on
! March 4, 1921, at the New Willard
| was an overwhelming success.
! So the old order passeth and the
| new dispensation is established. a
splendid prospect opens before the
| hosts of devoted workers for the suit
| cess of this ball and for it's slogan.
| Let us sing of battles with disease
and victories over pain and DEATH
| This cannot fail to appeal to every
visiting governor and henceforth
/ every chief executive elected in his
| commonwealth may begin his term In ,
! the social way by a charity ball plan7
| ned on similar lines, for, as Mrs
Dougherty reminded her aides at the
first meeting for this inaugural ball:
| TT was wise man who said. A na-
| tion progresses on the feet of its
| children.
DECISION FOR WELLER.
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