Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Metrical Description of a Fancy Ball Given at Washington, 9th April, 1858
Doubtless some will criticise us for including the description of a fancy-dress ball under the head of scarce Americana - yet there is reason for it. The item itself was privately printed, and is. Now very scarce. It is a graceful and witty effusion, written by a young officer of the Army, and full of very interesting allusions to promi nent members of Washington society of the period; and all named are identified by foot-notes, while at the end are notes de scribing the costumes. To the original form of these we have added as much as possible; but have not been able to identify every per son in the list.
The period of the ball was one of such peculiar political interest that the event itself was of more than passing importance. The struggle in Congress between Freedom and Slavery was daily be coming more intense. A violence of language on either side, but particularly on the Southern, was indulged in, such as would be im possible to-day. The armed con?ict between North and South was rapidly approaching. In less than eighteen months John Brown was to appear at Harper's Ferry; in two years and a half South Carolina was to set the example of Secession; in three years almost to a'day from the date of the ball, Fort Sumter was to be fired on.
While it would be far-fetched to compare the Gwin ball to the historic ball of the Duchess of Richmond, the night before Waterloo, it is a striking coincidence that the opening lines of Byron's poem on that famous event are quoted at the beginning of the Notes. Well might any participant in the Gwin ball have quoted Talley rand's famous mot of 1830 We are dancing on a volcano.
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