THE CAPITAL: Mardi Gras on the Potomac

A fancy ball in Washington. D.C. is just like a fancy ball any place else, except that it is bigger, more fully packed and—when heavily peopled with gay Louisian-ians—easy on the drawl. Last week such a ball bounced bright and noisy off the walls of the Mayflower Hotel's grand ballroom.

Some 1,100 Senators, Congressmen, major and minor office holders and society folk trooped into the annual Mardi Gras thrown by the Louisiana State Society and captained by Louisiana's Senator Russell Long. They little expected the zip and zeal with which ebullient Russ Long...

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