Accoutrements Were Hung
Everywhere, Every Bit Of Brass Shining As Only An Enlisted Man Can
Make It Shine, And The Long Infantry Rifles With Fixed Bayonets Were
"Stacked" Whereever They Would Not Interfere With The Dancing.
Much of the supper came from Kansas City - that is, the celery, fowls,
and material for little cakes, ices, and so on - and the orchestra
consisted of six musicians from the regimental band at Fort Riley.
The
floor of the ballroom was waxed perfectly, but it is hoped by some of
us that much of the lightning will be taken from it before the
hospital cots and attendants are moved in that ward.
Everybody was en masque and almost everyone wore fancy dress and some
of the costumes were beautiful. The most striking figure in the rooms,
perhaps, was Lieutenant Alden, who represented Death! He is very tall
and very slender, and he had on a skintight suit of dark-brown
drilling, painted from crown to toe with thick white paint to
represent the skeleton of a human being; even the mask that covered
the entire head was perfect as a skull. The illusion was a great
success, but it made one shiver to see the awful thing walking about,
the grinning skull towering over the heads of the tallest. And ever at
its side was a red devil, also tall, and so thin one wondered what
held the bones together. This red thing had a long tail. The devil was
Lieutenant Perkins, of course.
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