New York, 19th of October, 1881.
Some of the distinguished guests of the Nation were M. Max Outrey, Ministre Plenipotentiare de la France aux Etats-Unis, M. le Marquis de Rochambeau, General Boulanger, le Comte de Beaumont, and le Comte de Corcelle, representing the Lafayettes, and Colonel A. von Steuben, representing the family of Major-General von Steuben.
FAMOUS NEWPORT BALLS.
CHAPTER XXV.
A Famous Newport Ball—Exquisite effect produced by blocks of Ice and Electric Lights—The Japanese room—Corners for “Flirtation couples”—A superb Supper—Secretary Frelinghuysen in the Barber-shop—I meet Attorney-General Brewster—A Remarkable Man—I entertain him at Newport—A young Admirer gives him a Banquet in New York—Transformation of the Banquet-hall into a Ball-room.
The next great event in the fashionable world was a Newport ball. A lady who had married a man of cultivation and taste, a member of one of New York’s oldest families, who had inherited from her father an enormous fortune, was at once seized with the ambition to take and hold a brilliant social position, to gratify which she built one of the handsomest houses in this city, importing interiors from Europe for it, and such old Spanish tapestries as had never before been introduced into New York; after which she went to Newport, and bought a beautiful villa on Bellevue Avenue, and there gave, in the grounds of that villa, the handsomest ball that had ever been given there. The villa itself was only used to receive and sup the guests in, for a huge tent, capable of holding fifteen hundred people, had been spread over the entire villa grounds, and in it was built a platform for dancing. The approaches to this tent were admirably designed, and produced a great effect. On entering the villa itself, you were received by the hostess, and then directed by liveried servants to the two improvised salons of the tent. The one you first entered was the Japanese room, adorned by every conceivable kind of old Japanese objects of art, couches, hangings of embroideries, cunning cane houses, all illuminated with Japanese lanterns, and the ceiling canopied with Japanese stuffs, producing, with its soft reddish light, a charming effect; then, behind tables scattered in different parts of the room, stood Japanese boys in costume, serving fragrant tea. Every possible couch, lounge, and easy-chair was there to invite you to sit and indulge yourself in ease and repose.
Leaving this ante-room, you entered still another salon, adorned with modern and Parisian furniture, but furnished with cunningly devised corners and nooks for “flirtation couples”; and from this you were ushered into the gorgeous ball-room itself,—an immense open tent, whose ceiling and sides were composed of broad stripes of white and scarlet bunting; then, for the first time at a ball in this country, the electric light was introduced, with brilliant effect. Two grottos of immense blocks of ice stood on either side of the ball-room, and a powerful jet of light was thrown through each of them, causing the ice to resemble the prisms of an illuminated cavern, and fairly to dazzle one with their coloring. Then as the blocks of ice would melt, they would tumble over each other in charming glacier-like confusion, giving you winter in the lap of summer; for every species of plant stood around this immense floor, as a flowering border, creeping quite up to these little improvised glaciers. The light was thrown and spread by these two powerful jets, sufficiently strong to give a brilliant illumination to the ball-room. The only criticism possible was, that it made deep shadows.
All Newport was present to give brilliancy to the scene. Everything was to be European, so one supped at small tables as at a ball in Paris, all through the night. Supper was ready at the opening of the ball, and also as complete and as well served at the finish, by daylight. Newport had never seen before, and has never since seen, anything as dazzling and brilliant, as well conceived, and as well carried out, in every detail.