Not having any more convenient descriptions of cotillion (dance party game) figures with leap year themes in books of such figures, I have to take them where I find them -- in this case, in a description of a society leap year ball attended by no fewer than seven foreign ministers of different nations held in Washington, D. C., on March 24, 1892. The ball was described briefly in The New York Times on March 25, 1892. The majority of the short article is taken up by lengthy lists of all the important people who organized and attended the event, but in between, there is a description of a cotillion figure. Interestingly, it was led by two couples simultaneously, from "opposite ends of the hall".
Dancing was general until 9:30 o’clock, when the cotillion began, led from opposite ends of the hall by Miss Richardson with Mr. William Slack and Miss Stout with Mr. Clifford Richardson. In the selection of the favors the greatest ingenuity had been exercised, and the laughter-provoking devices were highly satisfactory.
Perhaps, sensible of the number of people attending, they were actually running two cotillions in parallel?
The listing of each lady's name first in the leading pairs hints at leap year role-reversal; usually a cotillion leader was a gentleman with a female partner to assist.
The figure description:
A novel figure, which proved to be the feature of the evening, was the Post Office figure, which carried out in spirit and in letter the idea of a leap-year entertainment. A large mail bag carried by the leaders was filled with envelopes directed to the different men who took part in the cotillion. Inside were square cards decorated in each corner with ribbon bows, respectively in red, blue, yellow, and pink. Over each, finely written, were appropriate leap-year couplets. On receiving his letters from the Post Office each man in turn took off the card whichever bow would convey the sentiment desired and gave it to the young woman whom he imagined had sent him the leap-year declaration. Of course, as there were no names signed, the selection of the various senders of these epistles was pure conjecture, and the many mistakes made were ludicrous in the extreme.
This is oddly similar to the 1891 Valentine figure in the delivery of cards from a mailbag. But instead of Valentine sentiments, we have "appropriate leap year couplets", which I wish they had given some examples of. And instead of voting on the best Valentine sentiments, the gentlemen are made to guess who sent their cards and bestow upon that lady (often the wrong lady) a symbolically-colored ribbon. The figures are just close enough to make me wonder whether this one is a modification of the earlier one. Or perhaps Post Office-type figures were just a general trend at this time.
Other than having themed couplets, there is no reason to consider this a leap year figure in particular. The gentlemen being made to guess a lady's identity (or vice-versa) was a common element in other cotillion figures in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and was not specific to leap year.
Naturally, the cotillion included a conspicuous-consumption element: the fancy favors distributed in each figure:
Souvenir favors were photograph frames in filigree silver. The other favors, only one kind of which was distributed in the course of a single figure, were shirred poke bonnets, brakemen’s lanterns, rosettes of shaving paper in all colors, which were worn as boutonnières; paper roses, and money boxes from which ferocious looking monkeys popped up when stray coins were deposited in the slot. A large screen held the natural flowers which were used as favors.
The silver frames are likewise oddly reminiscent of the Valentine figure, which included them on its list of favors. Coincidence or copying? Or perhaps silver frames were just the trendy favor of the early 1890s.
A full transcription of the article is below. The "Mi-Carême" in the first sentence refers to a French mid-Lent holiday, described briefly here and, in French, here. One suspects that either the reporter or her source was showing off their Parisian connections by using the term, since there is no indication that the ball had any special theme beyond leap year. Easter fell on April 11th in 1892, so March 24th was approximately the middle of the Lenten period.
Happy Leap Day!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times
March 25, 1892
p. 5
MERRY TIMES IN WASHINGTON.
THE LEAP-YEAR BALL IN THE MASONIC TEMPLE.
WASHINGTON, March 24. Mi-Carême was appropriately celebrated to-night by a leap-year ball given at Masonic Temple by the smart set of the fashionable world. In every sense the ball was a success. Mrs. John Lee Carroll received the guests in place of Mrs. Morton, who, owing to an attack of neuralgia, was unable to be present. The chaperones were Lady Pauncefote, Mrs. Nelson Brown, Mrs. Wallach, Mrs. R. R. Hitt, Mrs. Richardson, and Mrs. Eugene Hale.
The Committee of Arrangements were Miss Carroll, Miss Rosalie Brown, Miss Pauncefote, Miss Aulieh Stout, Miss O’Donnell, Miss Blaine, Miss Edith Patten, Miss Wallach, and Miss Richardson.
Dancing was general until 9:30 o’clock, when the cotillion began, led from opposite ends of the hall by Miss Richardson with Mr. William Slack and Miss Stout with Mr. Clifford Richardson. In the selection of the favors the greatest ingenuity had been exercised, and the laughter-provoking devices were highly satisfactory.
A novel figure, which proved to be the feature of the evening, was the Post Office figure, which carried out in spirit and in letter the idea of a leap-year entertainment. A large mail bag carried by the leaders was filled with envelopes directed to the different men who took part in the cotillion. Inside were square cards decorated in each corner with ribbon bows, respectively in red, blue, yellow, and pink. Over each, finely written, were appropriate leap-year couplets. On receiving his letters from the Post Office each man in turn took off the card whichever bow would convey the sentiment desired and gave it to the young woman whom he imagined had sent him the leap-year declaration. Of course, as there were no names signed, the selection of the various senders of these epistles was pure conjecture, and the many mistakes made were ludicrous in the extreme.
Souvenir favors were photograph frames in filigree silver. The other favors, only one kind of which was distributed in the course of a single figure, were shirred poke bonnets, brakemen’s lanterns, rosettes of shaving paper in all colors, which were worn as boutonnières; paper roses, and money boxes from which ferocious looking monkeys popped up when stray coins were deposited in the slot. A large screen held the natural flowers which were used as favors.
Among the guests were Lady Brassey, Lady Murray, the Misses Leiter, Mme. Lottin, Mr. and Mrs. Emmons, Mr. and Mrs. William Lay, Dr. and Mrs. Dickson, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Gordon, Mrs. Wilmerding, Mr. and Mrs. McPherson, Mrs. William Slack, Mrs. Swann, Mrs. Redmond, Mrs. Jones, Dr. and Mrs. Chatard, Mr. and Mrs. Lowndes, Mrs. A. J. Parsons, Mr. and Mrs. Fred De Courcy May, Mr. and Mrs. Hendy May, Major and Mrs. Ferguson, Mrs. Slater, Mr. and Mrs. S. Slater, Mrs. Julian James, Mrs. T. B. M. Mason, Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Barney, Mrs. Colwell, Mrs. Butterfield, Miss Brice, the Misses Montgomery, the Misses Mendonca, the Misses Williams, the Misses Davidge, the Misses Petersen, Hoy, Todd, Robertson, Edie Williamson, O’Donnell, Bliss, Skae, Biddle, Hull of Baltimore, Cromwell, Bispam, Cameron, Batchellor, Wallach, James, De Peyster, Grace-Davis, Elkius, Condit-Smith, Ashford, Wilson, Almy, Boyd, Hazeltine, Yale, Freeman, and Coleman.
The Ministers of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, Portugal, Russia, and Belgium Baron Beck Fries, Mr. Saavedra, Mr. Des Prez, Mr. Depret, Mr. Botkin, Mr. Warder, Mr. Williams, Mr. Paul Hunt, Mr. Gaillard Hunt, Vauness Philip, Judge John Savis, Mr. Lee Phillips, Mr. Deshey, Mr. Beatty, Mr. Arnold Hague, Capt. Langley, Mr. E. Whiting, Mr. Demezey, Mr. Seagrove, Mr. G. F. Williams, Mr. G. McPherson, Mr. W. H. Phiillips, Mr. Montgomery Blair, Mr. Jack Webb, Mr. Woodbury Blair, Mr. Felton Parker, Mr. Morton Grinnell, Mr. Warren Smith, Mr. Biddle, Mr. Wallace, Lieut. Buckingham, Capt. Cowles, Capt. Warren Beach of New-York, Mr. C. J. Faulkner, Mr. Pierce of Winchester, and Mr. Alexander Krumthaar of Philadelphia.
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