New Year’s Eve Employees Annual Ball: 25th

           “The Annual New-Year’s Eve Ball, which it has been the custom of the Messrs. Stetson, for twenty-five years past, to give to the employees, male and female, of their palatial establishment, came off last evening, in the grand dining-saloon of the Astor House with great éclat. . . . 

           . . . [N]owhere, perhaps in the world – no! not even in Paris, where all the classes mingle in the balls that precede and accompany the Jour de l’An – can a more agreeable spectacle be witnessed than was seen last night under the hospitable roof which has become identified with the recent history of the country through the many civic and military fêtes that it has recorded in its diary.  The satisfaction communicated to the worthy and estimable persons to whom this annual compliment is given, and the pleasant relations thereby cemented between employer and employe [sic], are sufficient proofs of its good taste and kindly influences.

           About 500 persons participated. . . . Quadrilles, polkas, waltzes and the Lancers, danced with great tact and spirit to the fine music of Dodworth’s Band, charmed away the hours, and with them the Old Year.”

“[A]n excellent band. The guests present numbered about three hundred, the majority of whom were servants in the hotel, a large number of army and navy officers, and others who are stopping in the hotel.”