Capering & Kickery

A Ballroom Basilisk, 1897

I'm just going to leave this story here without any commentary.

Happy Halloween!

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GONE WITH A BASILISK.

A LURID SHORT STORY.

BY G. L. Calderon

Reginald passed his hand wearily over his aching brow, and glided languishing between the purple portières.  Within was a chaos of whirling muslin and hungry faces swimming on a sea of passionate, throbbing music.  There was a mist before his eyes; grinning heads floated restlessly by, gibbering in the shell-like ears of painted women.  Amid the fevered maelstrom, one figure loomed large and close upon his attention.  It was the hostess.  A hot wet hand pressed his.  “Law! what a squash!” he murmured in her ear, then plunged into the stream, and was borne away to the other side of the room.

"The Fancy Ball", 1837: the tableaux vivants

So turns my memory to that brilliant sight
When wit and beauty held their festal night;
When the thronged hall its glittering groups displayed
Of Nature’s loveliness, by art arrayed;
Of graceful forms that mocked the sculptor’s art,
And eyes whose glances reached the coldest heart,
Of all that beauty loves or taste admires,
Of all that valor warms or genius fires.

While ideas for tableaux vivants, the "living pictures" that often opened a ball in the nineteenth century (or interrupted it, as at this ball in Heidelberg in the 1840s) are easy to come by, it's rare to find a detailed description of a whole series of them at a ball.  The poem "The Fancy Ball", from which the above lines are excerpted, devotes over half its length to poetic descriptions of the tableaux vivants performed at a ball held in Savannah, Georgia, in 1837, three of which are easily identifiable scenes from the works of Lord Byron or Sir Walter Scott.  I haven't been able to identify the other scenes, but hope to figure them out eventually.

The poem was written by Henry Bowen Anthony, a Rhode Island politician who spent some time working in Savannah as a young man.  During that time, he attended a fancy dress ball held in mid-March of 1837 by Godfrey and Julia Barnsley at Scarborough House, Julia's family home, now in the possession of her and her husband.  The ball was an extravagant one, and is quite well-documented.  It certainly made an impression on Anthony!

After returning from Savannah, Anthony became a newspaper editor and eventually entered politics, serving as a U. S. Senator from Rhode Island for twenty-five years and dying in office.

"The Fancy Ball" was written when Anthony was only twenty-two and was privately published at the time.  It was reprinted, unrevised, in an edition of only one hundred copies in 1875.

Wings, 1912

Here's a costume-oriented cotillion figure from Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) that is missing its dance instructions:

Wings.
These are to be about two feet long and made on wire of crepe paper, painted with gold, and as they are made in all colors, it is intended that they should match the color of the gown of each dancer and so present a perfectly harmonious ensemble.  A heavy hook is fastened where the two wings join, so that they may be attached to the end of the decolletage of the black [sic] of the bodice of each terpsichorean flower, thus prematurely precipitating these mundane possessors into their angel (so-called) possessions.  Crimped paper in every shade is made to assimilate the neck ruches of liberty silk and mousseline de soie, now so much worn, and these also make a pleasing medium of exchange of friendliness, yes, of something stronger oftimes. among those participating in the dance.  Silver and gold pencil holders are also used for this purpose, making not only an ornamental but a useful present to ladies as well as to gentlemen.  The gold ones have a jewel in the end in place of the rubber, and the silver ones have rubber.  The latter are also made with the distinctive features of the colleges and universities.  Harvard to have a crimson enameled flag bearing the letter “H,” in white as its decoration.  Yale, the flag to be in blue and white, while Princeton, the black and orange colors, etc.

There's quite a bit to unpack here: what did the wings look like?  What were the crimped-paper neck ruches?  And the pencil holders?  How was the figure danced?  

Hygeia Hotel Grand Fancy Ball, 1858

"The Grand Fancy Ball at Old Point Comfort-- All the F. F. V.'s out in their Native Splender [sic]", an article covering a fancy dress ball held at the Hygeia Hotel in Old Point Comfort, a seaside town in Virginia, was published on page five of The New York Times on August 30, 1858.  The "F. F. V.'s" were the "First Families of Virginia," the wealthiest and most socially prominent families; more discussion of the term and its history may be found here.  All quotes below are from the Times article unless otherwise credited; a full transcription is at the end of the post.

The Hygeia Hotel, shown above in an image from c1861 (click to enlarge), courtesy of The Library of Congress.  (The Hygeia is the long building with the colonnades.)  It was originally built in 1822 as housing for construction workers at Fort Monroe.  The original hotel was razed during the Civil War and a new hotel built on the site, which was then demolished in 1902.

The original Hygeia grew and grew:

Over the following 25 years [after 1833], the owners constructed wings housing more than 200 rooms, as well as various detached buildings for billiards, pistol shooting and bowling. Guests such as President John Tyler and Edgar Allan Poe came for the healthful sea breezes, sea bathing and seafood, not to mention a social scene so fashionable that Old Point became a favorite setting for short stories and novels.

By 1858, the Hygeia was entertaining more than 5,000 guests a year.

-- "Hampton Archive: The South's Best Resort", October 4, 2009

Among its more famous guests was Edgar Allen Poe, who stayed there a month before his death in 1849, famously reciting his poems, "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and "Ulalume" in the moonlight from the hotel veranda.

Mr. Palmer comes of age, Yarmouth, 1831

Moving a bit forward in time, the coming of age ball of Mr. Samuel Palmer, junior, on Tuesday, March 1st, 1831, was accorded detailed coverage the following Saturday, March 5th, in The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette.  The family seems to have been a prominent one, since they convinced then-Mayor Edmund Preston to lend them a hall and the whole town to deck itself out in celebration of their son's birthday.  And, of course, they were wealthy enough to throw a ball for several hundred guests.  Piecing together public records, I am reasonably certain that the birthday boy's full name was Samuel Thurtell Palmer (c1810-1850), whose parents were probably Samuel and Susanna (Thurtell?) Palmer.

Most of the article was, as usual, devoted to lengthy lists of guests and their costumes, but there were some interesting tidbits here and there.  The transcriptions below include all of the article with the exception of the lists that just named the attendees and their outfits.

York Fancy Dress Ball, 1824

There were fewer detailed descriptions of masquerades and fancy dress balls published in the first few decades of the nineteenth century than there were during Victoria's long reign, when such balls became enormously popular.  But the fancy dress ball held in the York (England) Assembly Rooms on Tuesday, March 23rd, 1824, was given a substantial writeup the following Saturday, March 27th, in The Yorkshire Gazette.  Most of the coverage was reprinted exactly on Thursday, April 1st, in The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser.  All excerpts below were transcribed from the article in The Yorkshire Gazette.

As, apparently, the first public fancy dress ball ever held in York, the preliminaries and the efforts of the ball's nervous organizing committee were described in unusual detail, along with much back-patting about the success of the event. 

This novel and anxiously expected entertainment, was held on Tuesday evening in our magnificent Assembly Rooms and was attended by upwards of five hundred persons.  It being the first public Fancy Ball that had ever taken place in this county, the Committee felt no little anxiety respecting the ultimate success of their undertaking, and exerted themselves to the utmost, in making all the fit and proper arrangements for the fairy scenes of the evening — the expectation that had been held out, did not fall short of the reality, and we are most happy to have it in our power to state, that, on no former occasion, as a more splendid, brilliant, and amusing assemblage been collected; there was a freshness and gaiety of appearance which delighted all, and the grotesqueness of the scene was irresistible.

Masquerade Prizes, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1882-1883

Once again, October is fancy dress ball, masquerade, and general costumed silliness month at Kickery!  

While digging through the Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website at the Library of Congress for dance references, I came across an interesting announcement of a post-Easter masquerade ball held in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1883:

Masquerade Ball.
The union depot employes [sic] give a masquerade ball at Market hall on Tuesday evening next.  The remembrance of the great success of their ball last year will draw many new faces the current season.  There will be a grand street parade on Tuesday afternoon, which will be led by Prince Carnival and his cavaliers.  One of the features of the evening will be the awarding of the following prizes:

1. For the most graceful round dancing couple will be awarded the championship and two beautiful gold medals.
2. For the most elegantly dressed lady will be given a handsome silk plush dressing case.
3. For the most comic dressed lady will be given an elegant toilet set.
4. For the most elegantly dressed gent will be given a very rich hammered water pitcher set.
5. For the most comic dressed gent will be given a fine cut glass wine set.
6. For the best clown will be given a large cabinet mirror.
7. For the best masqued group, $10 gold piece.
8. For the most natural and complete animal masque, $5 gold piece.

The prince and princess will be appointed and are not entitled to a prize.

--- from The St. Paul Sunday Globe, Sunday Morning, April 1, 1883, p. 5, under "Social World"  (original page at Chronicling America)

The timing of this ball is interesting, as it took place nine days after Easter, which was on March 25th that year, rather than before Lent like a traditional Carnival event.  

More intriguing was that the ball incorporated a costume contest, which is something I don't recall seeing before, and something of a dance contest as well, with a prize for "the most graceful round dancing couple".