brilliant protest, against the degradation of woman, and history would have done well to erase from her tablets the record of a dozen conquerors in order to inscribe there the name of the high-spirited prince who inaugurated this great social institution. We know of him only that he was an Italian, and that from Italy the ball traveled westward. In the chronicles of the middle ages the ball alternates with the banquet and the tournament, and marks the gradual progress of the race in all the finer arts of life. It was at a ball that the noble Order of the Garter grew up out of an act of prompt and kingly gallantry, adorned with words most knightly, just, and honorable; it was at a ball in Ghent that the queen of Philip the Handsome, of France, took such mortal spite, from the sight of the splendid dresses worn by the citizens' wives of Flanders, that she never gave her lord any peace till he proclaimed war against those rich and insolent parvenues; it was at a ball given by the Duchesse de Berri that the young King Charles VI., presenting himself, with six of his friends, masked as salvage men, was set fire to by the torch of the Duke of Orleans, and escaped with his life only to lose his wits more hopelessly than ever, and give his kingdom over more completely into the power of England; the lovely, witty, and accomplished Marguerite de Valois danced a minuet with such distracting grace, at a ball given by her brother Francis, that Don John of Austria, who had ridden post from Brussels to Paris simply for the pleasure of seeing her, went back too much crazed with admiration to talk of anything else for weeks, in private, or before the council of state. And the most splendid dances of the modern stage can hardly vie with the fantastic and brilliant imaginations which Braganzio di Botta summoned into existence to decorate the magnificent ball given by him, in 1489, to Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, on the occasion of his marriage with Isabella of Aragon. The story of this wonderful ball is to be read in all the cyclopædias, so we shall not inflict it upon our friends, but we beg to assure them that it is a story well worth the reading; for, from the festival of Braganzio, not only the fêtes champêtres of Louis XV. and the Regency, but the ballets of France, and Germany, and Italy, and the opera itself, may be considered to have borrowed no trifling portion of their lustre. So far were our forefathers from esteeming the ball to be a light and frivolous institution, that the council of the church assembled at Trent, in 1562, to decide upon the great questions which then convulsed the Catholic world, and to reorganize the shattered and shaken dominion of the Holy See, thought it best to open their proceedings with a superb and stately ball. The festival was put under the patronage of Philip II. of Spain, and that sovereign opened the ball in person. All the beauty of northern Italy was assembled, to delight and do honor to the prince of the church and the right arm of Rome. The Cardinal Pallavicini does not give us a very detailed account of the affair, it is true, but he satisfies us so far as to inform us that the supper was excellent and elegant, the costumes of the ladies enchanting, and the dancing kept up with spirit far into the night; which is, perhaps, as much as could be expected of a cardinal, though far less than would have been afforded to us by a reporter for the daily press. Much more precise and abundant are the accounts that have come down to us of the balls which fascinated and amused the court of the Grand Monarque, and of his dissolute successors, in the days when France began to lead the civilization of the world. In those gay and glittering times, the ideas of the ball and of the ballet were still very much confounded; and the first ballet, in which women ever appeared upon the modern stage, was performed in Paris, by personages of the highest distinction. The 'Triumph of Love" was worthily represented, we are told (and who can doubt it ?), by the most charming ladies of the court, who danced with the most accomplished of the court seigneurs. The Dauphin, the Prince de Conti, and the Duc de Vermandois, made up the corps de ballet with the Dauphiness, the Princess de Conti, Mademoiselle de Nantes, and Mademoiselle de Poitiers. 66 This was, no doubt, a most delightful spectacle, and it was with such spectacles as these that the favorites of the king sought to gratify their master. His own entertainments were of a more imposing but hardly of so amusing a character, and as we have spoken in rather disparaging terms of the gayety of our own balls, we ought, in com mon justice to Mrs. Smith, and our other ball-giving acquaintances, to set forth the unvarnished story of a regal ball in the time of Louis XIV, as an eye-witness has recorded it. The ball was given on the marriage of the Duke of Burgundy: "The gallery of Versailles was divided into three parts by two gilded balustrades. The middle part made the central ballroom, and there, on a dais covered with exquisite gobelin tapestry, chairs of crimson velvet, tasseled and trimmed with gold, were set for the king, the king and queen of England, the Duchess of Burgundy, and the royal family. On the other three sides of this central space were prepared rows of very rich arm-chairs for the foreign ambassadors, foreign princes and princesses, the dukes and duchesses, and the grand officers of the crown, while seats were arrayed behind them for the high personages of the court and of the city. To the right and left were amphitheatres filled with spectators; and, to avoid all confusion, every one entered by a small gilded turnstile. In a separate circle were arranged the twenty-four violins, the six hautboys, and the six flutes of the royal orchestra. The gallery was lighted by gigantic crystal lustres, and an immense number of golden girandoles, filled with enormous wax candles. Every one invited had been ordered to come superbly dressed; the least expensive coats worn by the men cost three or four huudred dollars; some being of velvet embroidered in gold and silver, and lined with brocade at fifty crowns the yard, and others of cloth of gold or silver. The ladies were still more splendidly arrayed--their jewels making a magnificent show. Leaning over the balustrade, opposite to the king, I counted abont eight hundred persons, whose costumes made up a most charming spectacle. "The Duke and Duchess of Burgundy opened the ball with a coranto, then she took the king of England, and the duke the queen of England, and the Queen of England took the king of France, and then the king of France took the Duchess of Burgundy, and so they went on changing and changing again, till all the princes and princesses of the blood had danced, each in the order of his or her rank. As there were not a few princes and princesses, this ceremony lasted a long time, and was followed by an intermission, during which the Swiss guard brought in six tables superbly served, and set them down, each one being at liberty to help himself during half an hour. Besides these tables, a magnificent room, leading out of the gallery, was garnished with a vast number of vessels filled with all the essentials of a most exquisite collation. Some of the princes entered this chamber, took a few pomegranates, oranges, and comfits, and went out again; the public were then admitted, and everything disappeared in a moment." Here we have "the one touch of nature making kin" the court of the Fourteenth Louis with the youngest New York clamorous for supper! "In still another chamber, two magnificent buffets were arranged, with all kinds of wines, cordials, and refreshing drinks; and there a great number of the royal servants gave any one whatever he wished during the whole time of the ball, which lasted till morning. The dancing, during the whole time, was of the most serious, grave, and elevated character." If the reader yawns over this account, written by a reverential admirer of the Grand Monarque, who was, probably, only too happy" to lean over the balustrade opposite to the king," and count the eight hundred embroidered and brocaded guests, in the light of the royal countenance, he may imagine what it must have been to stand for five mortal hours in the midst of that glittering crowd to watch the ceremonious dancing of the numerous "princes and princesses of the blood." If we cannot rival the balls of the great Louis in splendor, at least we may console ourselves with the thought, that it will be difficult for us to eclipse them in stupidity. Mrs. Smith will have no Versailles gallery divided into three parts by gilded balustrades, wherein to exhibit herself and the princes and princesses of her house-nor will her guests be glorious in embroidered coats and diamond-hilted swords--but she can easily have better music than the violins, hautboys, and flutes of the Grand Monarque could make for him; and she may be sure that her guests, let their misconduct at supper be never so bad, cannot outdo the brilliant crowd of courtiers who "pillaged the collation in a few minutes." Still it must be remembered that all the The World of New York. balls of the ancien régime were not state balls, and that those which were not state balls were far more delightful than any balls of which we have had any experience. The fêtes given by Fouquet to his royal master at Vaux-le-Vicomte-the balls of Colbert at Sceaux-the delicious entertainments provided for the court by the financier, Dupin, at Chenonceaux, the paradise of Touraine-the ballets of Fontainebleau -these were the social wonders of the most pleasure-loving and pleasure-seeking society that ever existed. And they were wonders worth thinking of, because the secret of their fascination lay not at all in the license of the age, but in the artistic skill with which they were devised and arranged. Here, it seems to us, is the fatal defect of our American society. We treat our amusements as matters of no importance. Instead of endeavoring to make the entertainments of the social world really entertaining instead of bestowing upon them the thought and reflection which they deserve those of our people, who think at all of entertaining, do not think in the least how they shall entertain, nor make any efforts to secure their object. They give a ball," and there is the end of it. The idea of imprinting upon that ball any particular cachet of a character to make it peculiar in its charm, and to render it worth remembering, rarely enters any one's brain. And so all of us, who do not dance, drop into a monotonous round of exhausting conversation, carried on by fits and starts in the intervals of dancing; and those, who do dance, dance under every possible disadvantage-crowded into an inadequate space, and jostled by spectators who are not "balustraded off," as were the courtiers at Versailles, but press into the centre of the quadrille and intercept the orbit of the polkers at the most fatal tangents. And it is the natural consequence of this state of things, that nothing is so rare an ornament of an American ball-room as a face bright with the expression of positive enjoyment, or even absolutely free from the desolate and lacklustre air of intense ennui. Let any one announce a performance of private theatricals, a fancy ball, or even an amateur concert, and, instantly, the whole world is eager with interest and [April, 1857. curiosity. So flat and weary is the surface of our so-called "festive" life, that the mere chance of seeing a new house affords a brief excitement quite disproportionate to the attractions, actual or probable, of any house built, or likely to be built, in our city. Do these things prove, then, that all amusement is frivolous, or simply that our people do not know how to amuse and we do not limit our criticism to the themselves? Clearly, we think the latter; so-called fashionable world. The vast middle classes, especially of our city population, blunder through life in a still blinder and more dangerous way. The developments made in the course of the Bond-street tragedy--the revelations hibitions of" gift ladies" and "gift gentleof Sir Pandarus in the post-office-the exmost excitable people on earth no adequate men"-all point in one direction. For the and legitimate excitements of a healthy nature are provided-to the people among whom more opportunities of idleness and mischief exist than among any other, no entertaining and refining occupations are, in any sufficient measure, offered. While our tradesmen and mechanics, our working all day long, each in his vocation, merchants and our professional men are they all and each seem wholly to forget that they have left, in their homes, wives, sons, positions of ease, and relieved of any aband daughters, placed by their efforts in sorbing cares, but almost unprovided with just and commendable facilities for consuming profitably and pleasantly their wealth of nervous life and fallow time. Yet one would say, that reflections of this sort might not unbecomingly be made by the heads of families; and we submit it to such persons whether the care of the amusements of a great people--the culture of the arts which occupy with grace the leisure earned by labor-be not worthy the gravest attention of sedate and earnest men?-whether theatrical criticism, and artistic criticism, and questions of mere social entertainment and private pleasureseeking, do not take upon themselves an aspect serious enough to demand a Lenten happiness and to public virtue are thus sermon, when their relations to private suddenly flashed upon the mind? PUTNAM'S MONTHLY. A Magazine of Literature, Science, and Art. VOL. IX.-MAY, 1857.-NO. LIII. THE TRAIL, THE TRACE, AND THE WAGON-ROAD; BEING SKETCHES OF WILD LIFE WEST OF THE MISSOURI. HE halfbreed had ridden through the day with more than the usual recklessness of his class. He had pushed his gallant gray horse down the slopes of steep ravines, and urged him against the steep hillsides of the winding trail, until the less vigorous animals of the travelers were beaten to a walk. VOL. IX.-29 The tall pine-trees threw long shadows across the narrow mountain path, when Kaya suddenly reined up: "Behold the first water of the western slope," he said; "have I kept my faith?" "What does the wild man mean?" cried Wilson. "You are thoroughly versed in the eccentricities of these worthy savages; it is still a long way to the Mission; ask him to explain himself." Thus addressed, the New Englander turned to their guide, and requested him to tell them why he had halted. "It is not night," he said; The Trail, the Trace, and the Wagon-road. 'is Kaya afraid to ride further into the 66 He then sat quietly down on his saddle, and, taking out a bag of kini kinik, filled his stone pipe, lighted it, and, first offering it to his companions, smoked as composedly as if still in the commodious lodge where they sought him, on the banks of the Missouri. The hot blood of Wilson fired at the supposed insult. "Are we to be bought and sold by this crazy voyageur in this manner," he said; loped his half-wild horse throughout the he has galday, broken down both our ponies, and now, when the evening air begins to recruit them, and there is a reasonable hope of reaching the Mission, he turns his dare-devil nag loose, and sits down to enjoy a comfortable pipe. Halloo! sirrah!" he continued, " this mean? Get up and saddle your what does all horse, or I'll sound your senses with a revolver bullet." 66 The half-breed had taken from his buckskin pouch a number of bullets, and was attentively counting them-telling them off in sections of ten, and breaking a blade of grass for each little heap of lead which he thus enumerated. "Speak to the yellow hound," said Wilson; "I verily believe him crazy; he is muttering to himself, and counting his bullets." Hush," replied Gardiner; "the man is in trouble. curred of which we know nothing, and Something has octhe pride of Kaya does not permit him to explain it. We engaged him, you know, only to cross the mountains, and here we are. We must sit down and smoke with him, and wait until the spirit moves. These men of the mountain are red Quakers-they have the moroseness of the Indian, with all the evil pride of the white race to give it [May, character. Kaya appears more grieved than angry, and is evidently deeply moved. Come, seat yourself and make the best of it." subduing his vexation, as, for the first themselves upon the ground, Wilson The friends threw time, he marked the troubled look in the stern, dark eye of the celebrated guide, of whom he had heard so much, and became more anxious to learn the cause of his strange behavior. The pipe passed slowly round the little circle, and a short interval of silence elapsed; then Kaya stood up extended. He was a splendid type of and faced the friends, with his hand humanity, full six feet in height, deepchested, broad-shouldered, but rather he had never encountered the fifty years sinewy than muscular. His form was indurated by exposure, and erect as if of hardship which had streaked his dark hair with gray. He stood forward like the genius of the old mountain-path, and was gorgeously clad in the costume of his race. Kaya had donned his mountain finery. It was a gala visit, and, to go into the country of the Flatheads, lope skin, and white as snow, was ornaHis hunting-shirt of softly-dressed antemented with stained elk-hair, and fringed with the small colored beads of the forts. The broad leggins which he wore were fringed with scalps throughout their length, and the bells upon his shoulders shook musically at his slightest move ment. 64 Kaya is a man," he said; "his is a Piegan band on the plains of the The leaf of the mountain cranberry, used by the northern half-breeds as a substitute for tobacco. The same term is applied to the inner bark of the red willow. |