ars often fail to
pass into this bewildering display of beauty and brains, owing to their
costume not possessing enough artistic originality or merit to pass the
jury.

[Illustration: (coiffeur sign)]

It is, of course, a difficult matter for one who is not an enrolled
member of one of the great ateliers of painting, architecture, or
sculpture to get into the "Quat'z' Arts," and even after one's ticket is
assured, you may fail to pass the jury.

Imagine this ball, with its procession of moving tableaux. A huge float
comes along, depicting the stone age and the primitive man, every detail
carefully studied from the museums. Another represents the last day of
Babylon. One sees a nude captive, her golden hair and white flesh in
contrast with the black velvet litter on which she is bound, being
carried by a dozen stalwart blackamoors, followed by camels bearing nude
slaves and the spoils of a captured city.

[Illustration: (photograph of woman)]

As the ball continues until daylight, it resembles a bacchanalian fete
in the days of the Romans. But all through it, one is impressed by its
artistic completeness, its studied splendor, and permissible license, so
long as a costume (or the lack of it) produces an artistic result. One
sees the mise en scene of a barbaric court produced by the architects of
an atelier, all the various details constructed from carefully studied
sketches, with maybe a triumphal throne of some barbaric king, with his
slaves, the whole costumed and done in a studied magnificence that
takes one's breath away. Again an atelier of painters may reproduce the
frieze of the Parthenon in color; another a float or a decoration,
suggesting the works of their master.

The room becomes a thing of splendor, for it is as gorgeous a spectacle
as the cleverest of the painters, sculptors, and architects can make it,
and is the result of careful study--and all for the love of it!--for the
great "Quat'z' Arts" ball is an event looked forward to for months.
Special instructions are issued to the different ateliers while the ball
is in preparation, and the following one is a translation in part from
the notice issued before the great ball of '99. As this is a special and
private notice to the atelier, its contents may be interesting:

BAL DES QUAT'Z' ARTS,
Moulin Rouge, 21 April, 1899.

Doors open at 10 P.M. and closed at midnight.