Those who attended the Caledonian Ball at the New Astor Hall last November, and who found the arrangements somewhat Incomplete, must have been surprised at the vast change that has been wrought, and the perfection to which the Ball and its surroundings have attained, in the interval between that celebration and the seventeenth annual Ball of the Marine Institute on Monday evening. In Novem ber last the rebuilding of the Astor House was still unfinished, and temporary arrangements, which did not, however, grapple completely with the temperature, had to be udo. But now all is in order, and the Heir has not been given in Shanghai, there eneral verdict on Monday was that a better
being no other rooms ea perfectly adapted for a gathering where the guests are numbered by hundreds, The ball itself and the floor are simply perfection; the new entrance to the Astor House, and the new corridor to the hall are models of convenience, and the cloak. rooms, Ind refreshment room, gallery, and stage nothing to be desired, There la unlimited room for the gentlemen who have passed the dancing age to converse and discuss with the appropriate stimulants Bimetalliam, the Tatest On dit, or the Feima Channel. "The whole precinets were delightfully warmed with hot-water pipes, and the ball itself way simply but tastefully decorated with the "cognisance of the Institute, enormous-screw propeller, _engine-room telegraphs, appropriately fixed at "full apeed head," the shields and house-flags of the principal shipping companies, and here and there an anchor to show that even those who are engineering the dance most enthusiastically must come to a stop sometimes, Some five hundred guests were expected ullogother, and there were few absentees, the fairer sex, in frocks of alle riours and the Intest existing tashie:—the crinoline has happily not yet reached accounting for more tha Following was programme which, it is hardly necessary to say, was admirably played by the Town Bund under the direction of Comme, Vela:—
1,.—Waltz, Ange d'Amou: 2.—Polka, Chappies ottische, Fair Waltz, La Toscan: 9.—Quadrille, Edinburgh, ranged by... uM. Vela. Waltz, Tout Paris Waltz, For You Ostlerc. Highland Schottische.
Waltz, Corinne......... Bucalossi.
oncers, The Mikado. Bucalossi.
olka, La Tour Merveilleuse Fahrback.
ult, Love's Old SwectSong Bucalossi.
Jedonians, A+ranged by...2. Vela, altz, In the Moonlight Crowe. Lancers, Erminie Sakohowski.—Waltz, Dans tes Yeux Waldtenfel.
It was very Jittle after nine when the guests began ive, and the dancing went on without cessation well into Tuesday morning. The supper, an excellent one serv small tables in the Astor House dining-room, was carried on on the go-as-you-please" principle, there being no fixed interval in the revels, A second supper, with songs and speeches, and much mirth, followed the departure of the ladies at about' three in the morning, and the cnmpiiments that. were paid to the committee fud the stewards and the. indefatigable secretary on the success of their arrangements and conduct of the festivity, as well Mr, Jansen and Mr. Arthur, were hearty as they were well-deserved. It might almost be fancied from reading the list of their names which follow, that it was another Sentech Ball; but the perfervidum ingenitem Scotorum has, since the days of Wart, had a natural bent to the boiler part of the ship. 'The Committee were Mesers, W. Gordon, President, M.C., W. Bell, Treasurer, J. Shearer, A. Malcolm, H. Campbell, A. Miller, R. W. Astill, 8. Simpson, W.' Thompson, Kennedy, and BR. Wilson, The stewards were Messrs, J. Prentice, J. Dick, ©. Buchanan, J. Ferrier, G. Davidson, A. J. Jackson, J. Twentyman, J. Johnston, Geo. Peebles, J. Ford, A. Shearer, A. Sinclair, and W.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.