Nursery and Child’s Hospital Charity Ball

Announcement from the Metropolitan Police governing rules for carriages, designated streets for entering or departing the Academy; fare ($1 regardless of distance); all carriages subject to inspection.

Little about music. “The Charity Ball.—Aside from the fact that the ball given last night at the Academy of Music was originated in benevolence, and was under the management of 244 Directors, there was little to distinguish it from its predecessors. It is commendable in the parties who first suggested the idea, that the funds obtained in this pleasant and social manner are to be devoted to the ‘Nursery and Child’s Hospital,’ an institution that appeals directly to the heart of every honest man and honorable woman, and deserves the hearty and continued encouragement of the general public.

It may be said of the ‘Charity Ball’ that many people who ordinarily decline attending such festivities, and shrink from enjoyment that is shared by the many, break through the ten-barred fence of custom and affectation, that they may participate in what they are pleased to term ‘the social event of the season.’ To a certain extent this is true, but it makes very little difference to the small sufferers at the Hostpial, or the tender children at the Nursery, whether the potent dollar comes from a wallet often shaken in the salutatory trouser, or from a purse that reposes in dignified and perpetual quiet among the keys and pocket equipments of a non-participant in the lazy.

Americans are much more interested just now in politics and the prceedings of Congress, not to mention the revelations of the Custom-house people, than in the details of costume and ball-room gossip. Indeed, it is doubtful if the two hundred and forty-four managers of the Charity Ball would care a [illeg.] this morning about the affair of last evening, if by the admission of its report, half a column of ‘Congressional intelligence’ must be excluded. Let us be content, therefore, with the brief but pleasant statement that in every essential sense the ball was a success. Very many tickets were sold, and a very appreciable sum secured for the benefit of those to whom every one is only happy to contribute. The beautiful Academy was gorgeous in its ensemble; the boxes were thronged with the beauty and wealth of our City; the ladies were dressed in faultless taste, with a display of brilliant toilettes, costly gems and rarest finery. The music was excellent, the supper very fair, the crush tremendous, and the closing hour a late one.”

“The new Academy of Music was all smiles and brilliancy last night, as is ever the case when the annual tribute to Charity is called for by the managers of the Nursery and Child’s Hospital. Of all the balls of the season the Charity ball is regarded as the most aristocratic and select, for on the occasion of its recurrence even the élite of the Knickerbocker element in the metropolis pay their homage to Terpsichore. Then, and only then, the substantial portion of the descendants of Peter Stuyvesant and his quaintly grave contemporaries is seen in public. The charitable character of the ball, the claims of the little ones left desolate and dependent on the good feelings of the worthy burghers of the metropolis and the admirable management of the annual charity ball are sufficient guarantees for the thawing out of the aristocratic ice that hedges in the aboriginal upper ten of Gotham.

the arrangements

for the ball last night comprised only the platform which concealed the seats of the parquet and the letters of fire which from many mouths of flame spoke the object of the assemblage…The amphitheatre on each side had its array of brass, reed and string instruments with Lander presiding over the dancing and Grafulla over the promenades.

[Sections follow describing decorations and police arrangements for the guests.]

the ball

commenced at half-past nine, after the overture to William Tell was played by Grafulla’s band. Groups of ladies and their attendant cavaliers chatted, promenaded and reclined on the seats as the charming music of Martha was wafted from the amphitheatre, and the buz [sic] of conversation mingled with the strains of the soul-stirring march of the Tannhauser. Wagner is certainly an unpromising caterer to the music of a ball, but in this march he puts on his grandest and most attractive dress and forgets the future in the present joy. [Provides names of the reception committee.]…[T]hrough foyer, room, box and aisle floated the strains of Grafulla’s band and Lander’s orchestra, calling up reminiscences of Strauss, Lanner, Gounod, Halevy, Donizetti, &c.”