DANCES
AT MASON HOUSE
Life was not "all work and no
play" at Bentonsport. When the L. J. Mason family arrived in 1857 and took
over the Ashland House it soon became a center for social activity. Two
generations of the Mason family transformed their hotel dining room into a
ballroom and on many a winter evening poignant memories were left with the
guests to carry on down the years. When the fiddler, often James C. McCrary, had rosined his bow and tried his A-string until
harmony was assured, his rhythm-making heel struck the floor, the fiddle with
two bass viols leaped into time and raced into a quadrille tune that quickened
the pulses of the dancers. George Mason, a genial host, could call the figures
and "taught the ladies how to dance." Besides quadrilles, the
schottische, polka, and the sedate waltz were danced and here many a young lady
with her dainty french heels and pretty silks, found her lifetime partner.
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