The Charity Ball began the society season of 1884 and christened the new Metropolitan Opera-house as a public ball-room last evening. The hall and stage were both floored over on a level with the tops of the baignoir or lowermost tier of boxes, leaving but three tiers exposed, and forming an immense room seemingly of twice the capacity of the Academy of Music. Upon a narrow raised platform, which ran about half way around the edge of the floor on the entrance side, were placed several hundred chairs, and at the rear of the stage, upon another raised platform of several steps, were an equal number of rows of chairs and sofas, which were reserved for the ladies and gentlemen of the committee. All the other lookers-on, unprovided with boxes, were relegated to the two upper galleries, where they were at liberty to crane their necks for a view of about one-third of the auditorium_that is to say, if there had been enough of them to more than half fill the space in the first gallery not occupied by the musicians. As it was, the top gallery was entirely empty at midnight. The stage was covered with an immense white and orange striped tent, from which depended four great gilded practicable property chandeliers, with porcelain candles. A rural scene hid the back of the stage, and in front of it stood the familiar word, "Charity," in gas jets. There was no other extraneous ornamentation, and none was needed. A more beautiful ball-room could not be asked for.

The guests arrived very slowly. They did not seem to be expected early, for the door-keeper refused to admit gentlemen without ladies at 9:30 o'clock, and in response to protests declared that such were his orders. At 11, when the ball was formally opened, the room was comparatively bare of people and very few of the boxes were occupied. The opening procession, which emerged from an opening in the side of the tent consisted of 20 couples, aside from the gentlemen of the committee, who walked two and two in advance, wearing blue silk badges. The musicians played the music for the first dance for full five minutes, with the only effect of attracting to the edges of the floor several hundreds of gentlemen, unprovided with ladies, who had been spending the interval in the smoking and wine rooms, of which there appeared to be a number scattered along the various corridors. At length one couple took courage and started off, and soon there were probably 50 pairs circling about in the waltz. At midnight a lanciers comfortably filled the centre of the floor and it was possible to promenade slowly around the edges; the boxes and lower gallery were about half-filled, and the lobby was practically deserted. In the Academy every place would have been crowded to excess. There were probably as many present at the metropolitan Opera-house last night as ever attended one of these balls in the former place, but the effect of the extra room apparently dwindled their numbers. The ball looked to be a success, but not an over-whelming one. It was so much the more enjoyable and was so much the more enjoyed. The same persons apparently were present who have attended these balls within reportorial memory.

Socially the assemblage was as usual greatly mixed, the opportunity of purchasing a ticket being availed of year after year by those who have a craving to find themselves in good company without the bear of being kicked out of it once in a while. On the other hand, the representatives of the "first families" were present as a matter of duty. Taken as a whole, the toilets were by no means remarkable for either costliness or elegance. Light silks were the rule, with few ornamentations, and very little jewelry of a striking character was worn. Here and there was to be seen a lady in a costume which would attract attention, and a few wore ornaments of diamonds, generally in the form of a cluster stuck in the hair or on the corsage or pendant from a necklace. There were a very few low-necked dresses, and only one notably so. It was an eminently proper assemblage, in which every one continued on his or her good behavior all the evening. At midnight many began to go home, and the indications then were that the band would have a lonely time when they reached the twenty-fifth dance on the programme.

All the arrangements were beyond criticism. The various hat and dressing rooms were convenient and manned by courteous and efficient attendants. The two great new dining-rooms belonging to the adjacent apartment building in course of erection were thrown open to the guests, and the neat tables, palatable viands, and excellent service combined to make eating a comfort, instead of the nuisance, as it generally is at a public ball.

Among the occupants of boxes were Mrs. William B. Oliver, Jr., Mrs. William Henry Warren, Mrs. Adrian Iselin, Jr., Mrs. Adrian Iselin, Mrs. Angel, Mrs. Edward Winslow, Mrs. Commodore Vanderbilt, Mrs. S.B. French, Mr. H. Victor Newcomb, Mr. J.W. Wright, Mrs. R.H.L. Townsend, Mrs. Neftel, Mrs. Burdett, Mrs. Blanchard, Mrs. A. Broadman, Mrs. Washington Nathan, Mr. Haas, Mr. and Mrs. Cagg, Mrs. Rockafeller, Mrs. Dayton, Mr. M. E. Leavitt, Mr. Bascom, Mrs. Carrigan, Mr. Edward Belbeck, Jr., Mr. Zollikoffer, Mrs. Robert Goelet, Mr. G.N. Curtis, Mrs. Henry Clews, Mr. E.R. Wheeler, Mr. A.C. Howe, Mr. T. Howell, Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Bradley Martin, Mrs. Kuntz, Mrs. Ripley, Mrs. S.C. Carey, Mrs. Marshall O. Roberts, Mrs. Clarence Day, Mrs. Scoville, Mr. J. Platt, Mrs. William H. Neilson, Mrs. Gilbert, Mrs. Brunner, Gen. and Mrs. Lloyd Aspinwall, Mrs. Kingsland, Mrs. Robert G. Remsen, Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Dexter A. Hawkins, Mrs. William Steinway, Mr. Edwin Booth, Mr. A.W. Gill, Theodore Moss and family, Mr. J.F. Malcom, Mr. H.A. Cort, Mrs. James Hoffman, Mrs. Gurnee, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. A.G. Dickinson, Mrs. Baylis, Mr. Winans, Mrs. J.M. Davies, Mrs. Nichols, Mrs. Evan Thomas, Mrs. J. Coleman Drayton, Mrs. Charles H. Berryman, Mrs. John Bloodgood, the Baroness de Thomsen Mrs. Isaac Bell, Mrs. Ogden Goelet, Mrs. Julian Meyers, Mrs. Willie Jay, Mrs. Thomas B. Musgrave, Mrs. Thomas Francis Meagher, Mrs. L.M. Bates, Miss Goulding, Mrs. Seward, Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. Louise MacAllister, Miss May Butler Duncan, the Misses Remsen, Mr. Edmund Matthews, Mr. Robert G. Remsen, Mr. William H. Dayton, Mrs. Reuben Ross, Mr. Luther Kountze, Miss Wolfe, Mr. George Henry Warren, Mr. Matthew Morgan, Mr. Jeremiah Milbank, Mr. W.W. Sherman, and Mr. Henry Knickerbocker.

Among the other guests were Commissioners Thomas H. Brennan, Salem H. Wales, and John D. Crimmins, Gen. Viele, the Hon. Algernon S. Sullivan, ex-Judge Gunning S. Bedford, the Hon. James O'Brien, Mr. and Mrs. A.A. Arment, Mrs. Amos J. Cummings, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dunlap, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Overton Evans, Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Tillotson, Miss Edwina Evans, Mrs. Charles T. Evans, Miss Gracie Dunlap and Mrs. Harris, of Buffalo. Mrs. Matthew Arnold was present during the evening as a guest of the lady managers, and later on her distinguished husband made his appearance, and apparently interested himself very much in what he saw.