DEAR AUNTY,--There has been a regular deluge of balls in Paris this
winter. The Minister of Marine gave a gorgeous one, the _clou_ of which
was the entrance at midnight precisely of _Les Quatres Continents_, being
four long _cortèges_ representing Europe, America, Africa, and Asia.
I was quite provoked that they did not ask me to be in the American
_cortège_. I should have loved to have been an Indian squaw, except that a
blanket is a rather warm _toilette de bal_. They wanted me to take a
costume of a Spanish lady in the _cortège_ of Europe, but I refused; if I
could not be in the American I did not want to be in any of the others.
Taking part in the _cortège_ meant waiting till midnight before appearing,
and then, being in it, you did not see it. I had a banal and not a correct
costume of an Amazone Louis XIII., and stayed in the ballroom all the
evening, and saw the procession when it came in. It was very interesting
and really beautifully arranged.
Africa (Mademoiselle de Sèvres) was brought in on a camel fresh from the
jungle of the Jardin des Plantes, and followed by quantities of natives of
every variety of shade, from sepia to chocolate, as near to nature as they
dared go without spoiling their beauty. Some of the costumes were very
fantastic. Ladies dressed in skirts made of feathers, and beads hanging
everywhere, copied after well-known pictures, and especially after the
costumes of "l'Africaine," of the Opera. The men wore enormous wigs made
of black wool, and black _tricots_, blacker than the most African of
negroes.
Asia (Baronne Erlanger) was standing on a platform carried by menials
hidden from view and smothered under tiger and other skins. She was poised
with one foot on the head of a tiger, one hand was clutching a date-tree,
and the other hand clinging to the back of a stuffed leopard, it must have
been difficult for her to keep her balance; her platform seemed very
shaky, and the date-tree waved as if it had been in a tornado. The natives
who followed her were more beaded and feathery and multicolored than the
Africans, otherwise they looked much alike.
America was represented by a pretty girl (a Miss Carter, of Boston). She
was brought in reclining in a hammock of gay colors. The American natives
were not of the kind one meets in New York and Boston; they were mostly
the type taken from the most popular books. There was the sedate Puritan
from Longfellow's "Evangeline"; the red Indians from Cooper's books;
Hiawatha and Pocahontas, of course; and the type most beloved in the
European market, that of the plantation tyrant who drags his victim to the
whipping-post with pointed stakes and cudgels, _à la Oncle Tom_, and
lastly the Mexican types with slouched hats and picturesque shirts and
leather leggings, pistols bulging from their belts.
Europe (Madame d'Arjuson) was seated in a Roman chair, and looked very
comfortable, in comparison with the other Continents; the platform on
which she sat was loaded with flowers and dragged in on wheels. All the
national costumes of Europe were extremely pretty and varied. The German
peasants in great variety, the Italian _ciociara_, the Spanish toreador,
and the Dutch fisherwoman with her wooden shoes--all were complete.
Worth and Bobergh had not slept for nights, thinking out the different
costumes and worrying over the details. Worth had the most-brain work, and
Bobergh was the sleepy partner.
The cotillon was superb; it commenced at two o'clock and finished at the
break of day. The favors were of every nationality, imported from all over
the world, and tied up with every imaginable national color. I danced with
the Count Vogüé, who is by far the best dancer in Paris. He got masses of
favors and gave them all to me, and I also received a great quantity; so
that when I went to the carriage I almost needed a dray to carry them.