The Yazoo City weekly Whig. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 18??-1855, 1853-01-28

= Miss 1Asanpt Editor ~ washington
Our Old ex-ncighbor, az. D. Walker, d
the Vicksburg Sentinel.is being ehaperoned
through some d the gayities Of the Federal
capitol. His primitive ideas Of female pro-
priety. seem dreadfully shocked at the dress
ing and dancing Of the faiI daughters, wives
and sisters Of The solons Of this great and
glorious Republic. The dance ha speaks
Of we think is the same We saw elaborated
last winter Al The soirees At the ST Louis
and Yerandah hotels IN New Orleans, SO
graphically described BY Ben. Jonsing call
led by him the Red War dance -and in
fashionable circles the Redowa. Dear,
austere friend Walker, you should do as
Jonathan slick did at the Opera, put your
red silk bandana handkerchief before your
eyes and be sure not to peep between the
fingers Of your yellow gloves. egiye an
extract.
There was only one thing in which all
seemed to agree-that was, to leave uncov.
cred as much Of their busts as possible. It
appeared to one Just from the land Of alliga-
tors, mosquitoes and sunshine, where ladies'
have kept up the old fashion of dressing all
over. that they had put their dresses on in
a great hurry. and had protruded their
bodies six or eight inches too far through,
and hence, as an sd lady Of good taste JUST
~ remarked, they came too low down,
and didn't come high enough up" the mil.
liners too. careless creatures, forgot to put
sleeves to the dresses, and the ladies' all had
the extreme modification, poor things, Of
appearing in a very large crowd Of gentle
men with their arms bear up to their should
ers! Horrid in those milliners! The gem
tlemen, kind, modest creatures as they are,
blushed little at first, and held heir scent
ed cambrics before their eyes, but they soon
recovered from their embarrassment, and it
all seemed to be nothing after they got used
to it. Altogether from the haste of the la
dies in showing themselves through their
dresses, and the culpable neglect of the mil
liners in not putting in the sleeves, ] would
say that the bodies of the ladies were not
over half covered; and what is singular,
and sustains my idea of their having crept
a little too far through, in their haste to dress
and be at the ball last, is, that the skirts of
all the short ladies and few of the tall
ones, were from eight to twelve inches too
long and swept the floor for yards behind
the wearer. There was another thing which
a plain backwoodsman like myself could
not exactly understand: Some ofthe ladies
while dancing would seize hold of the skirts
of their dresses, and raise them about eigh-
teen inches, and stretch them out at arms
length, reminding one of buzzard in wet
weather, thes exposing to view handsome
ly ornamented second skirt, and then swing
around at an amazing rate.
The only other peculiarly ofthe ball was
new dance, called the .'Scottiche Dance, ;"
which I saw for the first time. / will give
as near as words can, description of it:
The gentleman takes the lady's right hand
in his left, places his hand and arm around
her waist, drawing her close against his
breast. she places her left hand and chin
upon his right shoulder, and leans her cheek
gently against his whiskers, if he has any.
they then pitch off in leap-frog fashion, stop,
and keep time BY sort of jig-ajig, jig-jig
motion. then leap-frog again, and SO altern-
atciy, leap-frog and jig-ajig, jig-jig. It is
BY far the most ungraceful, unbecoming
and ridiculous dance ! ever saw, or any
body else"