History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 27

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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AMUSEMENTS OF THE PHILADELPHIANS.

lar riot. The theatre building was set on fire, and much damage done to the grounds, on which were various species of trees planted by the owner of the ! lot.

The Vauxhall Garden was refitted for public exhi- bitions, but not with the thoroughness and elegance of the original establishment. In November, 1820, the aeronaut Guille made a balloon ascension there with a parachute, in the car of which was a monkey. Both came down safely, the frightened monkey reach- ing the earth some minutes before his master. Wil- liam Muirhead and Reuben Traveller took the Vaux- hall in 1821, but did not have a very brilliant season. In October, 1822, Mr. Brown gave a grand pyrotech- nic exhibition at this garden. Among the subjects represented were a grand " Temple of Independence," sixty feet wide and twenty-four feet high, with a full- length portrait of Washington in the centre, and " The Cataract of the Falls of Niagara," which was forty feet wide. "Mr. Brown, the artist, will appear on the rocks in the centre, clothed in brilliant fire, and will suddenly leap into the gulf below." Also a representation of Mount Etna, which was given sev- eral times.

After the unlucky attempt by the company of which Palmer Fisher and W. Jones were managers, the Vauxhall was reopened in 1825 by Joseph Di- ackeri, formerly the proprietor of the Philadelphia Garden. He made some improvements, among which was the building called the Lafayette Retreat, which was erected in the centre of the lot, and was sur- rounded by a flower-garden. He provided his guests with ice-creams, fruits, liquors and refreshments, and turtle-soup, and once a week illuminated the gardens and delighted the audience with the music of an ex- cellent orchestra. A grand exhibition of fire-works was given there by Brown & Regnault on the 23d of July of that year, in honor of Gen. Lafayette. The grand arch of Columbia, with the Goddess of Liberty reclining on the pillar of Fame, the Tree of Liberty, the American Eagle, etc., was the great feature of the exhibition. Lafayette was received at the entrance of the garden by one hundred little girls all dressed in white. It was altogether a very successful affair. After this exhibitions of fire-works and illuminations were occasionally given during the season, which closed about the middle of September.

The satirist, Waln, in his "Sysiphii Opus," says of the closing of the Vauxhall,-

"Now tradesmen'e daughters shun the slippery etreete, That oft have witnessed their nocturnal feats ; The shady howers, where oft tho cooling ico, The spicy eandwich, or the savory elice Rule o'er the eenees with a sovereign sway, And ronse the soul to titillating play ; Whero frothy mead expands its sparkling fumes, And many a heart to loving thraldom dooms, While genial darkness animates the frame, Aud balmy zephyrs fan the rising flame. Vauxhall no longer, with variegated light, Cheats tho dull eamenese of the moonlese night,

Where Love breathes softnese to the attentive car, And yielding nymphs tho vowe of Firmness hear, While Music's melodies through ether sail, Burst on the ear, aud loiter on the gale."

The public gardens, as we have shown, from being places of refreshment, where sports and games and occasional open-air exhibitions and concerts were gotten up for the entertainment of visitors, had, in several cases, been further improved by the construc- tion of summer theatres. In giving an account of these, we have unavoidably encroached upon the his- tory of the regular theatres, or, more properly speak- ing, the history of the legitimate drama in Philadel- phia, which will form another part of this chapter. Before coming to it, however, we must go back to an earlier period, and trace the introduction and prog- ress of another amusement which preceded the first theatrical performance, and which, less public in its nature, and not so generally indulged in, is never- theless intimately connected with the history of the changes that have taken place in the society of the Quaker City. We allude to dancing, which, at first forbidden, then suffered, finally became the amuse- ment par excellence of fashionable society, in which our city belles displayed their native gracefulness of figure and motion, so as to be acknowledged without superiors in the polished society of any country.

In a chapter devoted to the history of amusements, dancing should perhaps have taken precedence of all others, for the taste for this sort of recreation seems to come naturally to man, even in the savage state. It is then a mimic representation of the passions that sway the uncivilized races. Our American Indians have their war-dances by which they excite their warriors to the highest pitch of frenzy, and rouse the warlike spirit of their young men ; the savage tribes in all countries have theirs,-for dancing is but the active display of exuberant joy, and what greater joy for a savage than the prospect of taking his enemy's skull or scalp? The bamboula of the native African is an inimitable amorous dance, such as the most perfect professional dancer dare not attempt. The Spanish dances, expressive of the passion of love, are but an ardent and graceful pantomime, and the Spaniards probably inherited them from their old con- querors, the Moors. The voluptuous dance of the Bayaderes still charms the indolent potentates of the East. In fact, dancing is universal and natural, and the philosopher who first proclaimed that " man is the only animal who speaks," might have added "and dances." It is therefore a matter of some surprise that the good Friends who managed public affairs in Philadelphia in the olden time should have dis- couraged this amusement, especially as dancing has been made to express religious fervor as well as the human passions. Without holding the dancing Der- vishes as an example, did not King David dance be- fore the Ark of the Covenant? Besides, civilization I had reduced dancing to an art, innocent and mean-

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

ingless, whose sole effect is to give gracefulness to Building having been finished at Sixth and Chestnut Streets, the first assembly was held in Mr. Haines' room in that building. Afterward they were held at Francis' Hotel, which then occupied the Masters and Penn mansion (afterward the Washington mansion), Market Street, between Fifth and Sixth. motion. The formal minuet of that time was about as solemn a performance as could be wished, never- theless dancing-masters were not numerous, and such as there were did not grow rich very rapidly. Still, as the population received frequent accessions of "worldly people," the terpsichorean art had its devo- Harmony, it appears, did not reign among the sub- scribers, and the Assembly dissolved. In November of that year, a meeting of the " ci-devant subscribers" having been called for the purpose of holding a sub- scription-ball, a new Assembly was organized. The tees, and the City Dancing Assembly was organized (1740). We have given in another chapter the list of the original subscribers, and also a list of the ladies of fashion who attended the ball of the City Assem- bly in 1757. This association was composed of the ' balls of the ensuing season were given in a large room exclusives of the day, and none were invited who did over J. B. Barry's furniture-store, in Second Street. not belong to the set. Mr. Watson preserved, among In 1807 the managers of the Assembly were John Mifflin, Daniel W. Coxe, John B. Wallace, James Hamilton, Edward Shippen Burd, and Robert Hare, Jr. The first assembly for that year was held at the Exchange Coffee-House (formerly Bingham's man- sion), South Third Street, on the 29th of January. In 1810 the assemblies were held at what was then called the City Hotel, in the old McCall mansion, corner of Second and Union Streets. But things must have sadly changed since the time of the old "exclusives," if we may judge from the following criticism, which appeared in the Trangram, or Fashion- able Trifler in that year : other curiosities illustrating the history of Philadel- phia society in that remote period, a card of admis- sion of the year 1749, addressed to Mrs. Jeykell, one of the beautiful leaders of fashion at the time. She was the granddaughter of the first Edward Shippen, a Quaker and first mayor of Philadelphia. She was married to the brother of Sir Joseph Jeykell, the sec- retary of Queen Anne. This card, like all cards used for such purposes in those early years, was written on the back of a common playing-card, there being no blank cards in the country. Watson copied one of these invitations which was printed on the back of a playing-card, and read thus, to wit,-

"The gentlemen of the Army present their com- pliments to Mrs. Jeykell, and beg the favour of her company to a ball at the State-House on Monday next, Saturday, September 20, 1755."

The same writer tells this curious anecdote of a 1 time when carriages were not so common as they are now: "One of the really honorables of the colonial days has told me of his mother (the wife of the chief justice) going to a great ball in Water Street, in her youthful days, to Hamilton's stores on the wharf, on Water Street next to the Drawbridge, she going to the same in her full dress on horseback." Think of it, ye belles of 1884, who, wrapped in furs, recline lan- guidly on the soft cushions of your hermetically closed carriage, and think the rapid drive to the ball-room door quite a trial this bleak winter weather.

During the Revolutionary war the regular Assembly balls had been suspended. They were revived when peace was restored; but political feeling was a new clement of discord added to the exclusiveness of the old Assembly association, which brought about divi- sions in society, and there were opposition balls given. This feeling died out, however, and in 1800 the rival factions were united in a single body. The Assembly balls in that year were held at the City Tavern. The managers for the season of 1800-1 were William Cra- mond, Jasper Moylan, Thomas M. Willing, Samuel Mifflin, Stephen Kingston, Samuel S. Cooper, James Wilcocks, and Charles W. IIare. For 1801-2 the managers were Thomas M. Willing, Samuel Mifflin, Stephen Kingston, Matthew Pearce, Peter MeCall, und llenry Nixon. In 1803, the new Shakespeare

"The principal supporters of our city practicing balle are a strange medley of capering youths, who, the moment they are released from the finger drudgery of pen, ink, aud paper, repair to the Assembly, where they contrive to kill an evening in the pleasing avocations of dancing and quarreling, occasionally interspersed with the delightful auxiliaries of smoking and drinking. When the promiscuous variety are met, they employ a portion of their time in quarreling for places in a set for a cotillion or country dance, and are famous for a peculiar dia- lect, for spitfire aggravatione, provoking phrases, quaint oaths, and thundering mouth-grenades. Should the heat of the weather require more air thao exercise, they retire to a witt drawing-room, where they stupefy their seusee by the narcotic fumes of a cigar, dry their skins to parchment, bake their entrails to cinders, and exhaust all their radical moisture; so that when they return to their partners the room is per- fumed like the interior of a warehouse on James River. Some exercice other extravagances-qualify their lemonade with the tincture of pure cognac, of which their fair partners sip a drop or two to prevent danger from excessive heat, nud which these foplings dreuch in quantities, @0 that in the conclusion they become as noisy and quarrelsome as apes."

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if the organ- ization lost much of its social attraction, and ended in dissolution. Its last balls were given in 1815. After that it must have ceased to exist, for in a state- ment published in 1817 it was announced that gentle- men who were disposed to revive the City Dancing Assembly had held a meeting at Renshaw's hotel, and had resolved that "in the city of Philadelphia, the residence of so much elegance, and the resort of so much gayety, there ought to be Dancing Assemblies." Accordingly subscription-books were ordered to be opened, under the direction of David Lenox, George Harrison, Thomas Cadwalader, Robert Wharton, Charles J. Ingersoll, Samuel H. Wilcocks, Thomas F. Leaming, William S. Biddle, and James Craig. Subscription price, twenty dollars. The committee was requested to make such inquiries, “respecting the sum of money formerly subscribed for the erec-

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tion of an assembly-room as may be proper, and that it consult with the present trustees of that fund re- specting its disposition." Action upon this subject was prevented by a notice given in the same papers that a Cotillion Party had been formed, of which Benjamin Tilghman, Thomas I. Wharton, Charles S. Coxe, Edward S. Coxe, William Rawle, Jr., James Craig, Thomas W. Morris, and Joseph P. Norris, Jr., were managers. In consequence of this, notice was given that another meeting of the projectors of the City Dancing Assembly was held, at which it was resolved that "the Cotillion Party being already organized on an extensive scale, it is considered inexpedient to take any measure for the re-establishment of the City Dancing Assembly for the present year." These parties were given at the Masonic Hall. They were continued for a couple of years, after which the old title, "City Dancing Assembly," was revived. The balls were held up to 1825 and afterward.

Waln, in his amusing book, "The Hermit in Amer- ica," describes one of these cotillion parties at the Masonic Hall, which he represents to have been given under fashionable auspices. The leader of the or- chestra band was the colored fiddler, Frank Johnson, who enjoyed a high reputation in respectable society as a performer of dance and concert music. Says the "Hermit," --

"The room was about half filled with the moat splendid collection of bellea aud beaux. The greater portion of them wera angaged iu danc- ing cotillions, after the fashion of my country [France]. Tha decora- tiona of tha aaloon, independent of certain dark-looking figures (appar- antly in bronza), which were placed at certain intervals around, ara plain, but neat and ornamental. The figures alluded to have the moat comical affect imaginable, aud ara no doubt placed thera for the purpose, -saving that no place is better adapted to the free and admissible usa of tha risible muscles than a ball-room. The ingeniona managers deserve credit for this invention, for I believe it is indisputably original."1

1 Here is auothar spicy morceau from the same work. The " Harmit" attanda, with an American friend, a public cotillion party at Masonic Hall, and the following dialogua ensuea :

" But I obaerva a kind of pen fenced off, as it were, at the other ex- tremity of tha room, for what purpose I am at a loss to determine.'

"" That is a very naeful incloaure, I assure you. It serves for threa purposes of no little consequance. The first and the most important is the accommodation of thosa wisa and cautious matrone, who, knowing from experiance the necessity of a mother's preaenca on auch occasions, accompany their daughters to all placea of public and private resort. Thie is a custom that should nevar be destroyed. All who have experi- anca know what young ladies ara at home, and nona ara better judges than their mothera. Whanevar you find a mother particularly anxious to obaerva her daughter'a motions during the dance, and that daughter equally anxious to reach the sida of her mother after ita conclusion, you may taka it for granted that some well-compliad-with atipulation haa alone guarantead har appearance at the ball, and that aome private do- meatic raaaon exiata for the use of thia discreet cantion. Now, thesa snapicious mothers, by arranging themselves in certain situations within the pen, as you call it, can command a fair view of everything transact- ing tharain, which it would be impossible to do on the outaide. Tha dutiful daughter ia bound by the stipulation aforesaid (on pain of for- feiting the pleasures of the next cotillion party) to maka har appear- anca within the limita and ramain under the watchful aye of har mother, until inclination to dance with her-inclination to dance with himself or the want of a better partner-prompts aome bowing Adonis to reacua her from bondage. . . . The second purpoaa ie diametrically opposite to the first. It is to ba rationally supposed that all mothers ara not equally careful of their daughters' mannars, and that the spirits of all danghtera do not require equal restraint. I know, to the contrary,

The English traveler, Francis Hall, in 1818, de- scribes a dancing-party at a private house in such terms that we fail to recognize the gay, witty belles, and intellectual society-men of Philadelphia, de- scribed by so many unprejudiced foreigners. Did Mr. Hall attempt to hoax his readers, or was he himself the victim of a hoax ? He says,-

"Chairs are arranged in a close aemicircle, tha ladiea file into tha room and silently taka their aeats beside each other, the men occupying tha chord of tha segment, ris-d-vis to their fair foes (for auch their cau- tiona diatanca and rare communication would indicate them to ba). Tha man, in this aituation, discuss trada and politics, tha ladies, fashions and domastic incidents, with all the quiet and gravity becoming tha aolam- nity of tha meating. Tea and coffee are handed about, and in due pro- cesa of time, cakes, lamonada, atc. Should there be oo danciog, tha forcea draw off after having for saveral hours thua reconnoitrad each other. When they dance, tha men atap forward, and, more by gesture than word, indicata their wishes to their fair partners. Cotillions than commence with a gravity and parseverance almost pitiable. 'Dancing,' aays tha Marquis De Chastellux, ' is said to ba at once the emblem of gayety and of love.' Here it seems to be the 'emblem of legislation and marriage.' The animation displayed by tha fest nevar fiuda ita way iuto the countenance, to light up the aye or daepan the rose on the cheek-

'Which hangs in chill and lifeless lustra there, Like a red oak-leaf in tha wintry air; While the blue eye above it coldly beams Lika moonlight radiance upon frozen streams.'

there ia a class of maidana, notoriously extensive, and technically termed "wall-flowers"-from the astonishing pertinacity with which they adhare to that inanimata substance in spite of the animated capers and nimble pigaon-wings of everything else young and movable in the room. I muat, however, do them the justice to observe that whenever a tempestuoua night, a rival party, or other fortuitoua circumstance randers thair services indispensable in the formation of a cotillion, thera is not an inatauce upon record in which they have not, in tha Vary essence of accommodation, cheerfully acquieacad in tha wishea of the gentlemen and joined in the dance. And so grateful are these last for favors thus undeservedly conferred upon them that they take special care never to put them to further trouble than they can possibly avoid. You observe them now, aeated opposite the great antranca, only distin- guiahabla in color from the composition figurea above. Tha gratituda of tha gentlemen will pravant their moleatation, as their services are not raquisite this evening. But I have not yet informad you of tha sacond purpose, which ia simply to afford theaa easy mothers an oppor- tunity of ruining their good huabanda by playing half-dollar rubbers of whiat. All these accommodations affordad to tha matronizing part of the community ara tha result of long and deep thought on the part of tha managera. The mora inducements held out to them, the fawer ob- jactions to their daughters' appearance. This is all perfectly undar- stood and akillfully acted upon. Now, na to the third,-and, many have averred, the most necessary purpose,-that, sir, is our aupper-room,' ha continued, pointing toward tha incloaura.

"'Supper-room l' I exclaimed. 'Impossible ! You canoot seriously tell me that tha assembled wealth, fashion, and nobility of the first city in the United States are reduced to the pitiful necessity of fencing off a corner of their ball-room for that purposa?'

* "" Yaa, sir ! In that apace, which you have worthily danominatad a * * *

"pen," aeated at a dozen small tablea, sup what you ara pleased to call "the nobility of Philadelphia." Nor can thay even thua humbly anjoy the frugal repast. " Hungry expectanta" are gathered around, watch- ing the alow progre-a of mastication, on the republican principle of "rotation in office muat ba raspectad," before the appatita is barely excited.'

* * * imagina tha supper consists of?'

" Hold, Mr. Harmit! You have not yet heard all. What do you

"' It is impossible to conjecture.'

"" Pickled oyatars, and bread and butter ! . . . But,' he continued, "the want of accommodation la the reason assigned to these "supper apologiaa," aa thay are generally called Thera ia not a building in the great city of Philadelphia sufficiently extensiva to furnish at the same time a ball and a supper-room, with the exception of the Washington Hall.'"

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

One conceives, on these occasions, how dancing may become, as it is among the Shakers, n religious ceremony."

A rival association, called the Columbian Dancing Assembly, was organized in 1823, and gave its first ball at the saloon in Library Street, in December. In the succeeding years the Columbia's balls were held at the Masonic Hall.

The earliest mention of a dancing-school in Phila- delphia is in the advertisement of Mrs. Ball, who, in 1730, kept a school in Letitia Court. "French, play- ing on the spinet, and dancing," were among the ac- complishments in which young ladies were instructed in that establishment. In 1738, Theobald Hacket advertised his dancing-school. In 1742, Richard Kynall, the fencing-master, also tanght dancing, and in 1746, Kennet, another professor of the small- sword, gave instruction in the art of Terpsichore. Bolton, another dancing-master, flourished about the middle of the century, and Tioli and his assistant, Godwin, about 1770 or 1772. In 1785, Mr. Patterson and Monsieur Russell, both members of the Ryan & Wells Company, taught dancing. Russell was the first dancer that introduced the "pigeon-wing" step in Philadelphia ball-rooms. John Durang succeeded Russell as a teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Byrne, English dancers, who came here in 1793, with the first Chest- nut Street Theatre Company, opened a daneing-school at Oeller's Hotel in 1800. After teaching one season they returned to England.

B. Quesnet, an artist of merit, came in 1796 as ballet-master to Hallam and Henry's company, at the South Street Theatre. He set up a school, about 1800, in Harmony Place, and gave dancing parties at Kerr's ball-room, in Fourth Street. In the succeeding year he engaged Baconnais as his assistant, and the dan- cing academy was removed to No. 64 South Fourth Street, and some years after to No. 30 South Sixth Street. When, in 1810, Mathew Carey built a large printing-office on Library Street, opposite the Bank of the United States, the second story of this building was fitted up as an assembly-room, and Quesnet be- came the lessee. In 1817 he had his dancing academy at Washington Hall. He announced a great ball for the 22d of February, in honor of Washington's birth- day; but there happened to be two other balls in preparation for the same day and object. one by the citizens and one by the military. Quesnet put off his ball until a later period of the season, the citi- zens' project was abandoned, and the field left to the military, who gave a very fine birthnight ball. The managers on this occasion were Capt. Thomas I. Wharton, Capt. John Swift, Capt. Thomas Anthony, Lieut. John B. Dickinson, Lieut. Cephas (. Childs, Cornet E. S. Fullerton, and G. Fairman.

Quesnet died in 1819, after a very successful career in a profession in which he had few, if any, superiors.

William Francis, comedian, was for a few years another successful daneing-master. Ile came here in the latter part of the last century. In 1800 he taught

"the last"[new: minuet as performed at the Grand Opera-House, Paris, the minuet de la cœur, the gavoto, waltzes, strathspeys, Highland reels, with the steps peculiarly adapted to those favorite dances; the Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Bath, and London cotillions, hornpipes, and the American country dances, after the most approved and fashionable styles." In 1803 his balls were given at the new assembly-room, adjoining the theatre, Sixth and Chestnut Streets. Francis entered into a copartner- ship with John Durang in 1806. In 1808 they gave their "farewell ball," but their academy was still kept open at Harmony Hall. They were assisted in the management by Durang's young sons, Harris and Charles, who gave a ball in 1810.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 27

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992