The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-09-05
THE DAILY DISPATCH
LETTERS FROM TaI NoRTH
UsITED STATES HOTEL,
SARATOGA, Aug. 3Oth, 1853.
$50. Iy.

IL Is impossible to conceive of more de-
lightful weather than that we have to- day at
this place. The recent rains have purified the
atmosphere, given a deeper hue of green to
the grass and foliage of the trees, and rendered
the walking pleasant in the busiest street of
the village. Pedestrians are no longer choked
by the clouds Of dust sent upwards in their
faces by every passing omnibus and hack.
Many families that had determined to leave
on yesterday, fearing that there would be no
more comfort at Saratoga. have unpacked
their trunks and postponed the period for
their departure indefinitely. As long as the
sun shines so brightly, the hotels will con-
tinue crowded. When the ssear and yellow
leaf of the season commences, and vacant
rooms in the most eligible parts of the hotels,
tell the melancholy tale of diminishing com
pany, the proprietors usually make three or
four prodiglous efforts to prolong the season,
by balls. At Saratoga and Newport, this is
well understood, and fancy bali marks the
close Of the period with unerring certainty,
when it is safe and proper for Fashion to keep
her victims at such places. After that great
event, Folly, merrily shaking the cap and
bells of office, seeks some other booth in
vanity fair, for her young, middle aged and
ancient votaries. The amusing things called
Tournaments" at the Fauquier Springs, close
the season at that place in the same way AT
Newport they have a single fancy ball-the
carnival lasts but a night, and then the
Ocean House echoes, tenantless, to the roar
of the Atlantic. At Saratoga, a series of
balls marks the gradual decadence of the sea
son. From the first to the last, there is gene
1fAff
first occurred last night, and was for two or
three preceding days the constant theme Of
conversation when people are idle, trivial
matters excite the deepest interest
Juren0t | think, admirably satirizes an
idle and frivolous Roman Senate for discuss
ing for many days the manner and method in
which the emperor 5 turbot should be cooked.
feel convinced that ! discussed the ball in
all its lights and bearings, social, political and
moral, with twenty different people, afflicted
with want of other and more important to-
pics. In my morning walks, after exchanging
salutations with a friend, and few senten-
tious remarks concerning the weather and
other equally original subjects of conversa-
ton, we invariably lugged up the ball, and
after putting it fairly in motion, it continued
moving until the second breakfast bell A
wonderful instance of Yankee tact and inge-
nuity in extracting money without an equi-
valent in amusement-came under my obSer-
vatiOn in eonnexion with the ball. The pro-
prietors, with that spirit of gentlemanly libe-
rality which characterizes every thing con-
nected with the hotel keepers OF this
place-from an extra charge for breakfast
after ten o'clock, to that for dinner for a
sick man, if served in his roOm-demanded
of the boarders FIVE dollars for admission to
the al-room-although merely an ordinary
dress ball The time selected for soliciting
subscriptions to it was as refined and gentle
manly&as the charge. When the company
was at dinner, men looking as honorable and
generous as their mission, passed around from
guest to guest, asking OF people, who were
paying for very ordinary fare two dollars and
a half a day-an extra charge for the music,
confectionery and lights of a dress ball. I'm
der such circumstances very few men had
the moral courage to refuse the polite de-
mand. Fathers were caught in the very
midst of their families and under battery
of entreating eyes, forked over the reluctant
dollars. Gallants with their sweethearts op-
posite to them dared not refuse the demands
of the tax -gatherer. SruBBs, low payeenae,
ambitious of high social position-although
coarse beast, would greatly have preferred
not subscribing-bu there were aristecrats
near him, who really had grandfathers-they
impertinently smiled at his expression of per
plexity-and so, responsive to the wink of
an ambitious wife, he submitted to his fate
not without a very black look.
The same motives governed nearly all in
reach of my eye, except a tough old gentle
man from the far West, who, after making
the collector look very cheap, and taking him
through the minutest details of the swindle,
looked him in the face with the amiable ex-
preston which the lamented Crockett wore
when grinning the bark off of tree, and in
the subdued voice of mild earthquake, told
him that he 'sseould see him id frst''
The ball was large and brilliant one, and
passed Off very well, barring that the noise
and sound of heavy -heeled men. with badly
medulated voices, must have been particular
ly unpleasant to all the sick men who were
tossing on feyered pillows, in the agony of
sickness. | am, however an old fashioned
man, with the prejudices and antipathies of a
crusty old bachelor hedging me in at every
point, until they have encased me in shell
harder than the armor of a rhinoceros. l vas
a dancing man once, although heavy figure,
and an unmanageable pair Of legs, do not
fit me for the mazes through which the favored
worshippers of Terpsichore SO gracefully
glide. Yet in my younger days, when tight,
buff pantaloons were set off by swallow tailed
blue coats, that swept the ground at one ex-
tremity, and touched the organ of yeneration
at the other, were in vogue, and native Anne
ricans still clung to those pig tails of which
our Chinese fellow citizens now have mo-
nopoly, thought dancing an innocent, heal
thy and most respectable amusement. And
when there were little better than bride
paths to the White Sulphur, and dandy car
ried his wardrobe in small valise behind
him on horseback, managed in a primitive
manner, at least to my own satisfaction, to
get through very many reels and country
dances. The guadriiie was soon after intro
duced-it was new dance-and very many
old and conservative people locked upon it
as very naughty one; and prudent mainas
regarded it with as much horror as many gen
tlemen do the new State Constitution; hut
the quadriNe wormed its way quickly into the
affections of all classes, and its less preten
tious predecessor in fashion, the reel, OF course
became unfashiona BILE.
Every body thought, for twenty years, that
there could be no Improvement upon the gua-
driHe, it was such marvellously proper
dance, so decorous and grave. Itsuited alike
the young and the middle-aged, for whilst it af-
forded ample latitude for the capers and feats
of agility and figures of the most vigorous
youth. green old age could pace through its
mazes without suffering from the asthma.
There was no whirling and hugging in it, and
even Unitarian parsons saw no impropriety in
making by their demure style of dancing, a
sort OF religious exercise out fit Iheqaa-
drllle. as all men over fifty recollect held un.