6 Mar 1779:12, 13, 21
Pennsylvania Packet-Philadelphia     
PP-P.779.017                                                            
6 Mar 1779:12, 13, 21                                                   
[Extracts from a letter by a foreigner to a gentleman in                
Philadelphia, describing the celebration of the alliance                
with France, by the gentlemen of the Army at Pluckemin on               
February 18]                                                            
Near Middlebrook Camp, February 22.                                     
His excellency the Commander in Chief arrived form his Head-            
quarters about three o'clock in the afternoon.  Mrs.                    
Washington was in a carriage, accompanied by that steady                
friend to the rights of mankind, Mr. Laurens, the late                  
president of Congress.                                                  
. . . [14 more lines]                                                   
I had, till now, only seen the outside of the academy.  It              
was raised several feet above the other buildings, and                  
capped with a small cupola, which had a very good effect.               
The great room was fifty feet by thirty, arched in an                   
agreeable manner, and neatly plaistered within.  At the                 
lower end of the room was a small enclosure, elevated above             
the company, where the preceptor to the park gave his                   
military lessons.  This was converted into an orchestra,                
where the music of the army entertained the company.                    
. . . [24 lines on the dinner and fireworks]                            
When the fire works were finished, the company returned to              
the academy, the same room that had served to dine in served            
to dance in; the tables were removed, and had left a range              
for about thirty couple, to foot it to no indifferent                   
measure.  As it was a festival given by men who had not                 
enriched themselves by the war, the lights were cheap and of            
their own manufacture; . . .                                            
The ball was opened by his Excellency the General.  When                
this man unbends from his station, and its weighty                      
functions, he is even then like a philosopher who mixes with            
the amusements of the world, that he may teach it what is               
right, or turn trifles into instructions.                               
As it is too late in the day for me to follow the windings              
of a fiddle, I contented myself with the conversation of                
some one or other of the ladies during the interval of                  
dancing.  I was particularly amused with the lively sallies             
of a Miss *****, asking her if the roaring of the British               
lion in his late speech, did not interrupt the spirit of the            
dance?  Not at all, said she, it rather enlivens; for I have            
heard that such animals always increase their howlings when             
most frightened.                                                        
. . . and were it not too late, I should wish to lead down              
the remainder of the dance with so sweetly vivacious a                  
partner.  But, alas! my dear friend, you will soon find that            
sixty is a better security against the hot-spur passions of             
man, than those beautiful isicles that Shakespeare tells us             
are curled of purest mow, and hung up "on Diana's temple, "             
for the benefit, we may suppose, of her chaste attendants.              
I do no recollect that I have ever been more pleased on any             
occasion or in so large a company: There could not be less              
that sixty ladies.                                                      
. . . Through the whole, there was a remarkable stile of                
looks and behaviour, undebauched by British manners or                  
British entertainments.                                                 
. . . You have obliged me so often, during the course of my             
little tour through the Eastern states, with histories of               
city feasts, city balls, and city entertainments, that I                
thought I could do no less than send you a description of               
one, at which I enjoyed so much rational pleasure.  You will            
say, I have divested myself of my national character to find            
amusement in huts and among woods: be it so-- I expected the            
compliment.                                                             
. . . [7 more lines]