CHILDREN'S BALL AT THE MANSION HOUSE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3716, 13 June 1883, Page 4

CHILDREN'S BALL AT THE MANSION HOUSE.

It was ii happy thought of Lord Mayor Knight to make the first civic festival of the year 1883 a children's party. Thursday,'' thu lt.li iust., will belong remembered, no' doubt, by most of the 900 youthful guests who liiiiflc; their how to the Lord Mayor iind "Mrs Knight, find, from .seven to eleven o'clock, happily played their fanciful parts under bright lights and to the sparkle of perpetual music. So long as the guests remained the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, with thiir youthful smi in Court dress, acting as his father's page, moved about amongst the boys and girN, putting lheiniit their ease, and ])ersonally seeing tliiit nothing was wanting to complete their happiness. The dance programme, the destinies of which were entrusted to the band of the Hon. Artillery Company, offered twenty engagements ; but between whiles there ' wen; marionettes, Punch and Judy show a, songs, mid. ventriloquial and comic, entertainments, In say nothing of the light refreshments and supper in the old banquet hall, to keep the ball rolling to the \x-vy end. According to the artistic ticket of invitation the co.stum.es were to be of calico, and the guests under sixteen years of age. The majority of the young people loyally oheyed tho .sumptuary law a.s to the fabrics worn, but there was a minority who, unconsciously no doubt, took an unfair advantage over the rest, by wearing velvet, satin,"and silk. As to the delicate question of age, an inspection of tho crowded ballroom made it plain that, just as there arc ladies who never get beyond thirty-five yoars of ago so there aro juveniles who never get beyond sixteen. The costumes as a whole were in capital taste, and many Averc exceedingly beautiful, even if there were none that might be called original. The here-worship developed of late for popular jockeys had tho effect of ]>roducing some haif-a-dozen of these, and striking iigures, it must be confessed, they were, moving hither and thither amongst the other personations. Unu young gentleman, of perhaps lifteen years ''did" i ,, . Archer to tho life, and there was a

littlo man of about five years old who swaggered about with hi.-i silver-mounted whip us if to tho manner bora. .Several girls appeared iv tho garb of iho othoi , kcx. At nil fimey ■ dress bull, adult or juvenile, tho feminine nature runs thus to the other extreme 5 but rare, indeed, i.s it that mini or boy assumes petticoats. Soldier*, considering tho military glory of tho Egyptian campaign, were not at all numerous, and tlinso that wore on parade were nothing- short of licld-marshals. 'Though, however, one .seldom .soon a commoil soldier at a fancy dress-ball, tho sailor in always to the lore iv every μ-radc. The boys in blue at tlie Mansion llonse made, in truth, a capital .show, ranging from a splendid lord high admiral to a .sharp little midshipniite, escorting his sister, in the shape of a winsome. Nonuanby peasant, and having as an attendant a still more juvenile Lrother in the habiliments of the poet Bunfchorne. The .sea had its admirers also in fishermen and pilots, clad in sou- westers, HCii-boots, and pea-jackets. While many of the characters could not possibly lie guessed at, othern wore almost unnecessarily elaborated. There was no reason, for examjjle, why the small butcher, who was admirably got up, should encumber himself throughout the night with a heavy meat tray; and the cijnally small cricketer need not have danced, promenaded, and supped with a full-grown bat under his arm. (Sometimes the liberality of detail had a specially pleasing eliect, as in the rustic boy around whose hat the ox-eye daisy suggested a poetical rendering of the part, though young , Hodge, in real life, does not, an a matter of fact, entwine his billycock with Moral wreaths. It is scarcely jiocessary to indicate amongst the gay little folks present our old and welcome friends Dolly Vardeu and Esmeralda; Greeks, Indians, and negroes; clown and harlequin, Portia and Mary Queen of Scots, the friar of orders grey and Mephistopheles, iishwives and ilower-girls; shepherdesses, Grecriaway oddities, testhetic frights, and Watteau dancers ; Highlanders and jintlonieu from Donnybrook ; and sundry representatives, boy and girl, of our most prominent epochs of history. There were it Lord Darnley, a cavalier, a ""White China," tt beadle, a Savoyard, a Venetian lady and gentleman, and a triplet who attracted :t "yood deal of attention. Towfinhi the close of the ball, Chang, tho Giant, and Tiny Mito, the Liliputian, arrived as guests of tho Lord Mayor, and, it is needless to add, caused a pretty considerable sensation whilo they remained. During the month an adult fancy-dress ball will bo given.—Daily News.