“The firemen’s ball, for the benefit of the widows and orphans’ fund of the old department, which took place at the Academy of Music last evening, was per se a brilliant affair, being also the occasion of a brilliant assemblage. The decorations for the occasion were few and appropriate, but not fanciful, expressing the meaning of the festival and appealing to the benevolence of New York in letters of gas jets. The attendance, notwithstanding the fall of sleet and rain, which froze as it fell, was unusually large, demonstrating that the votaries of fashion have no objection to being benevolent provided a pleasant combination of benevolence and pleasure can be effected by those who appeal to their pockets. Doors were open at wight o’clock, after which time began a roll of wheels through fourteenth street in the direction of Irving place, which having deposited their frieights of fair women and brave men, were ordered into line by the police to reappear at a later hour of the evening. . . . The music was under the experienced direction of C. S. Grafulla, and consisted of a web of sweet sounds, woven together from the works of Strauss, Parlow, Wiegand, Hermann, and that Puck of music, the composer of the Opéras Bouffes. The dancing was kept up until quite midnight, and the wee small hours came dropping in by ones and twos before the last carriage took up its freight of fashion and was driven off into the lamplight.”