Year: 1871

The DemOcratiO Festivities.


The Americus ball at the Academy Of Music
and Irving Hall opened the gay season with
great display Of canary birds and orange bios
SONS on Thursday night. Canaries from all parts
of the Canary Isles (and no doubt from Sing
Sing) and canary birds from other places, I'M
ported for this occasion only, were swinging
about In their gilded cages from the walls and
domes and flies and wings Of the halls, singing,
whistling and chirping as merrily and sweetly
as If the dread warriors of Tammany were
not dancing their most terrible war dance
directly underneath them, and as il they had
no idea that the catacombs OF the Academy
would ruin their voices, as they have SO
often ruined the voices of sweeter singers
than themselves. The great men of
the city, the ponderous politicians of Tam
many, the immense leaders of the local gov
ernment, the gorgeous women Of the metropo-
lis, were there In astonishing array The
onerous duties of the legislative session, the
overwhelming hardships Of the Mayors Office
and the City Council Chamber, the cares of
the city judiciary, the heavy labors of the
Public Park and Public Works Commits
sioners--even the life-sapping drudgery of the
in the more congenial pleasures of society or
lost In the misty mazes of the dance. Happy
and merry s'cusses," to be able to lay aside,
even for so brief period, the corroding cares
that are eating away the hearts of our
Twseds and O'Briens and Hoffmans and
Halls-to shake off the dust Of official
slavery with their twinkling feet and to shuttle
of their political coils in double shuttle
More happy. doubtless, than the wretched
Sweeny, whose only hours Of official recess
are bound up in another duty, even
more imperative-one that consults not the
political welfare of his city alone, nor even
looks merely to the supplying of food or coal
for the voting families of his ward-but ex-
tends beyond that, and includes in one grand
object the health and cleanliness of his cen
stituency. He is building Turkish bath in
the rear of his house-the first, no doubt, of q
great series all over the city for the washing
of the hitherto unwashed democracy, and even
in his leisure hours he has no time for
dancing. When it is not work with him it is
wash


The two bathrooms connected by an arched
passageway, laid with Corporation carpet and
covered with silk bunting, were resplendent
with fair women and brave men. A view
from the balconies presented dazzling vistas
n ci nd -
shoulders, and dress coats and lavender
pants and starry shirt bosoms. The crash of
the music set the whole buzzing hive In
motion, and then the great brilliants, borrow
ing even greater brilliancy from the grand
lights overhead, flashed and sparkled and
intermingled like the Drummond lights
Of a thousand locomotives coming into
sudden collision on the Erie Railroad.


The shutting feet on the floor, the
hum of words, and the shrill carollng
of the million canary birds Gagged all about
the room, battered the ear until each indi-
viduals ear-drum ached worse than the head
of Grafulla's bass drums and the flash of the
calcium lights upon the diamonded shirt fronts,
the more modest electric sparks suspended
from fair nesks and the sudden fare of Fisk's
Drummond light as he whirled corners in the
quadrille dazzled and panied the eye 80 that
smoked glasses could have been sold in great
profusion by the opera boys in the Hobbies, if
those thoughtless urchins had only supplied
themselves with more than they needed for
their own personal protection In this dread
full dance the tigers Of Tammany opened their
gay season, and it was not until long after
the initial hours of the new day that the
democratic elite of the State ceased driving
the dull care of politics away with the steady
tripping Of the light fantastic toe.