Page:Charleston • Irwin Faris • (1941).pdf/179

 Balls” were always provided for the occasion, frequently in aid of the hospital funds; dances were arranged, and hotels vied with each other in supplying music, entertainment and hospitality. At midnight the real revelry started, with bonfires of tar-barrels, firework displays, community singing in the open and, of course, many toasts and some horse-play. New Year’s Eve and St. Patrick’s Day were the two most observed festival occasions of each year.