After the Ball

Eliza Morgan wrote Julia, “There is a dancing platform outside . . . with seats around [it], and [now] they are all out there singing After the Ball.” In 1891, Charles Harris wrote this popular song, whose lyrics are familiar even today: “After the ball is over/After the break of morn/After the dancers’ leaving/After the stars are gone/Many a heart is aching/If you could read them all/Many the hopes that have vanished/After the ball.”

[Julia Morgan Papers, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 1-C-04-04.]