Masquerade Ball
Frank Leslies's Weekly Illustrated newspaper recounted the famous masqerade ball that Mrs. Banks gave in honor of George Washington's birthday at the French Opera House in 1864:
The Masquerade Ball Given by Mrs. Gen Banks
The entertainment which Mrs. Gen banks offered the elite of the New Orleans population as a proper conclusion of the glorious festivities of the day was a bal masquue at the Opera House. The building for the occasion was most profusely decorated with flags, and further ornamented with a magnificent gas jet, forming the name of Washington. Two splendid bands, one in the second gallery and one in the rear of the stage, discoursed the music, alternately relieve each other.
At ten o'clock, the streets were alive with carriages, and occupants, in their carious and gay dresses, glistening most picturesquely in the bright moonlight, while on the pavements long processions might be seen of ladies and gentlemen, masked, wooding their way to the Opera House. New Orleans looked for the first time like an Italian rather than an American city. All was jovous, the gentlemen additionally exultant from the now officially announced Free State victory.
Entering the Opera House, the guests, ascending the steps, entered the building, and finally reached the first tier of boxes, where the centre of the front had been removed, and a platform erected reaching over the paraquette. From this platfrom a winding stairs descended to the floor of the ball room. On the stage stood Mrs. Gen Banks, the hostess of the evening, dresses as a lady of the era of Louis XVIII., supported on the right by a lady in the dress familiar to the dames of our first Revolutionary period, and here, supported by Gen Banks, she received her guests with dignity and ease that charmed the immense throng present.
The entire affair was a most brilliant success. The boxes were crowded with elegantly-dressed spectators, the floor was overflowing with maskers, including many representatives of aristocratic families. They have withstood all inducements to be friendly and accept the Federal rule until the fascinations of social and elegant entertainments, under the patronage of Mrs. Banks, brought then from their seclusion. All were forced to admit that the Crescent City, in her palmiest days, never gave so brilliant a ball, or one in every particular so rich in costume and distinguished for its guests as this closing fete of the celebration of Washington's birthday in New Orleans. [1]
[1] “The Masquerade Ball Given by Mrs. Gen Banks,” Frank Leslies's Weekly Illustrated 18, no. 433 (1864): 7.
