CHILDREN'S GRAND BALL AT LOG BRANCH,

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1498, 28 November 1874, Page 6 (Supplement)

CHILDREN'S GRAND BALL AT LOG BRANCH,

I went on one of the ekCUi'sidbs to long Branch a short time ago. and was just in se«i«oiitD witness the "Children's i fkrtnd Ball." Imagine a large, elegant [ball-room, lib by innumerable chandp.. i liers, and crowded with i: airy, fairy children," to the number of about 800. , Tlit! admiring and perspiring main inns and " bonnes," sitting mound, were making comments o)i other people's children; nhil the children themselves Were re-enacting the flirtatious, alfectations, and behaviour generally of the elder folks. When a lively galop struck up, bow the little beiles—woe toddlers, many of them — bowed and smirked to their rosebud-in-buttonhole, white-gloved, eight - year - old beaux ! 1-iow these little pinks of politeness aped the manners and copied the fashions of their eldors ! How beautifully their little feet flew in the mazy intricacies of the dance ! How the little eyes sparkled, and the cheeks flushed ' How these four-year and ten-year-olds danced, and flirted, and ate ice?: and dainties until the wee sina' hours : 1 looked in vain for a child simply dressed in plain white, with her hair curled or put back in a round comb. I saw beautiful children, unnaturally bright and precociously brilliant, befrilled, beflouncod, heruuled, with silk uuderdresses and overdresses of Valenciennes, with hair dressed by hair-dressers, audglovea, fans,diamonds, and bracelets, exactly like a grown-up lady. Little mites of humanity, with ail "the style and airs of L JO, and a certain dash and bravado that were sad to .see in a child. Little misses of ten were deeply engaged in flirtations, with all the rolling up of eyes, turning up of rosy lips, and shrugging of shoulders of the well-trained coquette. Boys, '•' blase" and nonchalant, were acting in imitation of their sires; the girls found time to criticise each other's dress and hair, and make rude remarks, just as they had heard their main mas do. As the night wore on, the little na-iases — some of them, at least - took tiny sips of champagne to keep up the excitement ; but the eyes were unnaturally bright, and the poor little feet tired and dragged heavily. I watched a young, fashionable mother, who was looking with proud and smiling co.nplacence at her only child. She wan a golden-haired, ethereal little beauty, six years old or thereabout, most exquisitely attired in a dress of pale pink satin, with overdress of finest lace, with pink satin boots that Queen Mab might have worn, dainty three-button gloves, sash and fan, diamond solitaire ear-rings, and necklace with tiny pearl locket, and her lovely hair (tied up with a pale pink ribbon) crimped and frizzed, and waved by an experienced hair " coiffeur." Her French " bonne " had been sent to watch her, lest she should soil her laces or disarrange her sash ; and, when tihe mamma called her to retire to her bed, her " One more dance—only one, mamma," was successful entreaty. —"Long Branch Corr. Chicago Tri bune."