Dramatic Artists of New-York: Mammoth Festival and Pic-Nic

     Includes a lengthy description of the grounds and the order maintained by the police presence.  “The ‘Theatrical’ Pic-nic which came off at Bellevue Gardens, foot of Eightieth st., East River, on the Fourth, under arrangements made by Albert Cassedy, esq., was very largely attended.  At an early hour in the afternoon the grounds were crowded with pleasure seekers of both sexes, and mine [?] host, Frederick Rubenstein of the Bellevue Hotel, with all his waiters, had his hands full to supply all the demands that were made upon his stock of lager, Rhine wein, weis-beer [sic], etc.  The character of the participants in the affair was, to say the least, somewhat mixed.  It being a ‘Theatrical’ pic-nic, of course the histrionic profession was represented mainly by ballet girls and other subordinate performers, with probably not more than the usual sprinkling of thieves, pickpockets, rowdies and ladies, who are not altogether like Caesar’s wife.  Fast men and fast women were there; the scene was altogether a fast one, and only suited to the heyday of youth—the quick pulsations of blood and muscle, and the reckless enjoyment wherein the Bowery-boy and Bowery-girl are so charmingly at home.  Dancing began early.  The large platform in the rear of the hotel and overlooking the pleasant and breezy river is admirably adapted to the purpose.  Throned upon their dais, with huge flagons of lager at their elbows, the fiddlers struck up the tune
    
    ‘Which makes the old blood young,
    And the young so blithe and gay,
    That reason is thrown to the winds
    In the heat of the holiday.’
    
     Every one was in an excellent humor; there were plenty of pretty girls; there were plenty of ‘nice’ young men; they polked [sic], they waltzed, they spun round on their heels, they spun around on their toes, they hopped, they slid, they bowed and courtseyed, they smirked and smiled, they tripped the light fantastic in every imaginable style; they wove the misty maze of every complication; the swings in other parts of the ground were also in full blast, so were the hobby horses, the ten-pins and the shooting galleries, and so, very probably, were numerous love passages in more secluded and shady retreats, with only the twittering birds and whispering breezes as accompaniments, with perhaps a mellifluous cocktail, cobbler or julep to add
        
    ‘A dearer zest to love itself.’

     Lager was the exhilarant, warm blood and recklessness the staple of delight, and all went merry as a marriage bell until late in the evening.

     It is only just to say that, throughout the entire day, pretty good order was maintained. The presence of half a dozen policemen may have had something to do with this; but policemen are also in attendance at Jones’s Wood, where to pass a day without a fair sprinkling of free fights is a consumeration [sic] more often devoutly wished for than realized. The arrangements for this special occasion at the Bellevue appeared also to have been carefully made, and there was generally a [illeg.] and expensive time.”