Capering & Kickery

A Leap Year Ball, Nevada, 1880

Moving back to the frontier, specifically to Carson City, Nevada, this is my absolute favorite of my little collection of leap year ball descriptions.  The ball was held on Friday, January 30, 1880, and the description published in the Morning Appeal on Saturday, January 31, 1880.  It apparently went to press while the ball was still in progress, but that did not prevent it from being one of the lengthiest writeups of a leap year ball that I've yet found.

The absolute highlight of the article is the following of the same convention as at the 1892 Providence leap year ball: only the "escorted sex" got their outfits described.  In this case, that meant the men, the "gentlemanly belles".

But before getting to the funny part, let's look at the background.

Leap Year Cotillion Figure

For a change of pace, here's a leap year-themed cotillion (dance party game) figure from H. Layton Walker's  Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912).  I think the only "leap year" element in it is that the ladies pursue the gentlemen, rather than the reverse. 

Here's the original text:

LEAP YEAR FIGURE
For this figure you will require one more gentleman than you do ladies.  An extra man is required to put on a paper shroud.  This figure can be used for any number of couples, but it is always necessary to have an extra gentleman up.  Couples up and dance.  When they have danced a little while, form a circle, and grand right and left, the leader getting into the circle and when all dance the leader must secure one of the ladies.  This will leave one of the gents out.  He is "It," and goes to the centre to receive this paper suit.  The ladies all receive a large ring having a tissue covering over it.  Get another lady who is not in the figure, so that you will also have an odd lady up.  She also receives one of the hoops.  Now ask the ladies to catch a man.  As there are not enough men for all the ladies the one who does not succeed in getting a man will have to contend [sic] herself by dancing with the dummy.

It took me a moment to sort this out because of how badly written the instructions are.  The first three sentences can be ignored.  Here's how it works:

A Leap Year Ball, Providence, 1892

Moving from the American frontier back to the east coast and into increasingly amusing descriptions of leap year events, here's a very upscale event held in Providence, Rhode Island, on Monday, February 29, 1892, and reported in The Providence News on Tuesday, March 1.  This was a much more glittering affair than the frontier balls in Montana and Wyoming.  According to the article, subscriptions to the ball cost $25 for eight invitations, and the German (cotillion) favors cost an estimated $900.  In today's terms, that is around $700 for the tickets and an eye-popping $25,000 for the favors, which were always an opportunity for conspicuous consumption among upper-class society.

The ball was held at the brand-new Trocadero (1891), which, according to Providence's inventory in 1980 for the National Register of Historic Places, was a restaurant and dancing parlor owned by local businessman Lloyd Tillinghast, who also provided the ball supper, served on "small and beautifully decked tables" by waiters brought in from Boston and New York.  The Trocadero no longer stands, alas.  Two bands were engaged: Reeves' Band and the "Hungarian band of New York", who alternated playing. 

Sadly, no dance list was included in the article, but the cotillion was described briefly:

Miss Goddard and Miss Gammell, who arranged the ball, led the cotillon.  At least eighty couples participated and the figures and the favors were greeted with equal admiration.  Flowers, ribbon bows and streamers, bells, odd bits of jewelry and bright-hued balloons were among them.

 

A Leap Year Ball, Wyoming, 1888

Continuing to roam around the late nineteenth century American frontier, where a surprising number of newspaper descriptions of leap year balls originate, here are some excerpts from a burbling account of a ball in the small town of Douglas, Wyoming.  Like Sun River, it was founded in 1867 and was probably extremely small.  The 1890 Wyoming census recorded only 2,988 people in all of Converse County.  The ball was described on page five of Bill Barlow's Budget on Wednesday, February 8, 1888, as having taken place the previous Friday evening.  The newspaper title is interesting; more about the paper and its colorful founder, Merris C. Barrow, may be found at the Wyoming Historical Society's Wyohistory site.

The ball was held at the Douglas opera house and was described as "the most successful and enjoyable affair of its kind in the history of Douglas."  Balls are generally described in newspapers as successful unless some sort of disaster occurs, but in a town whose history stretched back only two decades, it might actually have been true.

Leap year elements:

• the committees were all-female: five married women for invitations, five for reception, three unmarried and two married women for "floor", and two married women for finance (the ball had a $5 surplus)
• invitations were issued to ladies for "yourself and gentlemen"
• ladies "attended to every detail of the ball and supper"
• no gentlemen ("male biped") was allowed unattended on the floor
• a gentleman suggesting refreshments for his lady was given a "stony stare"

Wine, Tobacco, and Wallflower Angst

Here's something a little bit different: three of the Charles Dana Gibson drawings from his "In Leap Year" series, circa 1894.  The first two are not directly related to balls, but they show the leap year role reversal taken further than the norm, with the ladies actually drinking and smoking.  I'm fairly certain these are purely satirical...

IN LEAP YEAR.
THE GENTLEMEN LEAVE THE LADIES TO THEIR TOBACCO AND WINE.

A Leap Year Ball, Montana, 1876

On Monday, February 14th, 1876, the ladies of the frontier town of Sun River, Montana, held a leap year ball, as recorded a few days later in The Benton Record.  Sun River had been established less than a decade before, in 1867, and probably wasn't very large at the time -- the entire population of Montana was under 40,000 as of the 1880 census, and it had not yet been admitted to statehood.  According to Montana census records, the population of all of Chouteau County (which I believe Sun River was part of before Cascade County was split off) was 3,058 in 1880.

The frontier location is relevant: there apparently was, unsurprisingly, a surplus of men in the area, putting the women in a more powerful position regarding courtship and marriage than they might otherwise have enjoyed.  Women living in a small settlement in Montana were also probably strong characters to begin with; it wouldn't have been an easy life.

The article describing the ball was headlined "The Bells [sic] of Sun River" with subheadings including "Lady Beaux" and "How She Did It".

"A Leap-Year Ball", 1884

"Are you engaged?"

On Saturday, March 22, 1884, The Illustrated London News published a set of sketches of an imaginary leap year ball, accompanied by a short article on the topic.  The sketch above shows the central conceit of such a ball: gentlemen lounging on seats with their dance cards while the ladies move around asking them to dance.  Role reversal was the idea:

Dancing to "Leap Year", 1793

Since 2020 is a leap year, here's an appropriate tune and a very generic dance to go with it.  The tune and figures were published in London in Thompson's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1793.  These little books of country dance tunes were generally published late in the previous year, so this tune probably dates from 1792, another leap year.  I don't have permission to republish the original image, but here is the tune in modern format: