BEDRAGGLED MERRYMAKERS.

Colonist, Volume XXVI, Issue 3701, 4 September 1883, Page 4

BEDRAGGLED MERRYMAKERS.

The following is taken from a letter oi the . Levuka correspondent of the ' Sydney Morning Herald,' dated Jane 29 ; —«A few days before the grand ball at Government House the rains descended and thefloods came, and Suva became once more like • Brentford town, that town; of mud.' The day of tbe ball set in with a copious downpour; but the weather cleared towards evening—at least tbe rain cleared off for a time —- and the numerous guests were thus adduced into donning their bravery and making their way to the festive scene. All went merry as a marriage-bell until the advent of the small hours warned the revellers that it was time to go home. And then when it had got them fairly on the way in the thick darkness, the storm fiend swooped dowu upon them with desolating fury, blew out their lanterns, drenched them to the skin, hid the path from them, threw them into swamps, bays, and quagmires, and covered them with mud and slime. Mr James Cocks, of the Native Department, wa'a struck by lightning, and lay senseless for a considerable time. Never has there been so disatrousa a closing scene to a ball since the famous night whenßelguim's capital gathered 'her beauty and her j chivalry, and bright the lamps ehone on fair women and brave men,' whose dancings and love-makings were brought to an end by the awful thunder of 'the cannon's opening roar,' The ladies are weeping over their ruined paraphernalia, and they refuse to be comforted; while their purse-bearers, whether husbands or fathers, are ruefully speculating as to the probable coat of repairing millinery damages."