The ' Bal de Bienfaisance, paréetcostumné, an hénéfice des victimes de la famine dans lo Nord de la Chine," took place in the handsomest ball room in Shanghai on Monday, and we may well preface our account of it by a sketch of the origin of the idea of the ball. The French community in Shanghai is not a very large one, nor is it specially wealthy, and it had concluded that the direct contribution which it could make to famine relief could not be an imposing one. But if if could not provide a large amount of silver, it had an unlimited fund at disposal of taste, energy and good will, and it occurred to the French Consul-General and some of his friends that these invaluable qualities might be successfully employed in providing an entertainment by which a notable sum should be raised, and the contributors receive in enjoyment more than the value of their subscriptions. Shanghai has been very fortunate in recent years in the representatives whom the great Euro-Faas filed the post of Consul-General here can Republic has sent, but none of them
with more general acceptance, personal ran the scheme for x costume ball angina larity, and res nM. Wagner,
ted by him was eagerly taken up, and the assistance invoked from ladies and gentlemen of all nationalities most heartily accorded.
The French Municipal Council, with the generosity and good feeling which mark ite resident and Secretary, gave the use of the Hall of the Municipality, the engineer, M. Blondin, devoting himself unweariedly to the task of preparing and decorating the rooms. While the amateur assistance asked for was so freely given, the professional assistance required was also in most cases given without charge, this liberality extending to the presentation of the one hundred prizes for the Tombola, and the smaller presents for the cotillion. No charge was made, for instance, for printing the programmes, or for their perfuming, which was done by Messrs. J. Llewellyn & Ca. The Hotel des Colonies arranged the lowest pos sible prices for the more solid refreshments, the lighter ones for the ladies being contributed by themselves. The sale of tickets by Mrs. Wagner and her friends went on flyingly, until nearly five hundred entrance tickets were sold at $5 each, and five hundred Tombola tickets at a tenth of that sum while so that people should have no excuse for staying away, it was announced that fancy dress would not be de rigueur.
The weather wasa little threatening during the day, but it held up at night, and from. the returns of the French Chief of Police we learn that the ball was attended by 123 ladies and 273 gentlemen who came carriages, besides the uncounted number who' came on foot or in jinric~ shas or on wheelbarrows, so that there must have been altogether more than 40. people present, and for them the dancing room was somewhat limited, but as a spectacle it was perfect. A very large pro-Half the gentlemen were in fancy dress, sv orien of the ladies and much more than
that there was only just enough plain black and white to relieve the general brilliancy. Only a man who could map out accurately the course of a flight of shooting stars on a November night could hope to describe the costuanes as xy flashed before the spectators' eyes in the waltz or caledonians, and no. man hopes to spend what remains of his time in Shanghai in peace would dare to attempt to pick out the prettiest. Some preferred an Esmeralda, some a Sister of Charity, very many a Wasp, some a Swiss Peasant, some a Dutch Maiden, many a Red Riding Hood, some a Harvest. Watteau charmed many, and none could deny the beauty of the Kato Greenaways. Folly always has her followers while others love to hear the trailing garments of the Night sweep through her marble halls. A Lady Teazlo had many suitors, and a Jockey was much run after, a Sibyl had numerous votaries, and there were sume dresses so popular that we dare not name them. The men's costumes were various and in some cases costly; some enhanced the native ugliness of the wearer, a very few disguised it, and here and there there was one who looked the better for his attempt to look so. The music, contributed by the French Council and led, as usual, by M Vela, was capital. There were only ten set dances, as follow: Fahrbach. Bucalossi. Bucalossi, Waldteufel, Love's Dreamland... Roeder.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.