Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-03-28

Illcarrv the stools and you the corn;
lis nice nobody can beat it,
Shetook up the corr in pinaiore ~
And they ate it all. nor wished for more.
e-st -.
MARRIAGE AND THE POLKA.
We wonder whether it has never occurred Il
some mortified mother, who for three or fou
consecutive seasons has paraded her daughter
at every ball and fashionable gathering, and ui
dergone more trou BILE in helping them to dissipatl
their natural roses than she ever expended il
their education-to ask herself the question
whether, after all, she is following the best meth
ed OF securing, not the happiness of her children
but their settlement in lifea 1t is very momen'
tous question, but we fear that some mothers new
er take it into consideration. Having, in thei
own younger days, passed through the fire befor
the Moloch of fashion, they take it for granted
that there is but one custom to be observed. and
one course to be pursued. In the ball. room they
were wooed and won; and why should not thei
daughters achieve their destiny in the like local
ity?
Do nOt-young ladies spoil the prettiness
your brows by knitting them too hastily and Sc
verely before you have heard our argument w.
do not intend,by any means, to pronounce an ella
borate discourse against the vanities of social so
cety. neither IS it wish that you should attain
that cerulean hue, which, as Dickey Mines, Oh
some other modern poet, tells US, is grateful in
the eyes of Minerva. 1.-The purple light of love
these are not our words, for the blush.rose il
the only fit emblem-on your checks, is worth
all the indigo in the world. We do not desire
that you should be over-literary; and we consd
er total Indifference for science to be an excel
lent thing in woman Never shall we forge
the area Of the female faces that beamed upon us
when, at late meeting of the British Associa-
ton, we read our celebrated paper on 1.-The His
tory of the Lost Pleiad." We saw, as it were
the glittering of thousand stars; but all of theu
shot their rays through spectacles. Never, witt
our consent, shall you be cooped up, or prevented
from induging to the full in the innocent gaiet1
of your hearts. But we have word or two L
say to the mammas.
Madam when you first came out or made you
de6M-for that was then the term in vogue-dd
you happen to remember what were the man
ners OF the ball room? Let US refresh you
memory. The staple dance was the quadrile
perhaps not very lively piece of pantomine ,bu
one which, from its nature, afforded ample op-
portunity for conversation, (you may cali it fir
taton if you like,) and was neither, in it's form
too reserved nor too familiar. 1t was all gracI
and decorum. 1t admitted of slight and trem
ulous pressure of the and-nothing more-be
between parties ripe for declaration; and often
during the pause before the last figure, the att
tude of some blushing beauty, plucking uncon-
sclouSly SPLENDID camelia to pieces, left littl
doubt OF the nature. of those whispers which he
partner has been pouring into her ear. Iik
Margaret in the Faust, the sweet girl was bu
essaying to prove her destiny from the petals d
the Hover. For those in less advanced stag
of understanding, there was the contredanse, AM
the reel, with various other gymnastics, all Of
harmless nature But Satan had entered int
paradise Though in mild form. We may now
our dear madam, recall without anything Xix
bitterness of feeling the days when we INDUCED
together in the sweet intoxication of the waltz
1t was really-we confess it with touch of tn
old Adam most fascinating innovation. Yo|
danced dvinely; and a more clipsome waist tina
yours we never SPAWNED. Once, indeed, W
thought-but no more of that! You married,
your ownfre will and accord, that red haired mon
ster M'Tavish, in virtue of his imaginary rent
roll; and, long ago, our agony of mind, like th
remembrance of an old toothache, has departed
But it ,sas pleasant to revolve, linked with you
over the floor of the Assem- bly, Rooms whe
Spindler was in his glory, and when the walt
was kept. at least, within something like decer
limits. Long before then, Byron, who certainl
was not straght-laced, had published his poef
Of" The Waltz" and without subscribing to b
views upon our peristrophic performances, "
must needs own that his satire is ofdouble valu
now.
The waltz as we danced it, was decent of
kind No father OF family, we think, whatevd
be the practices of fashion, can rejoice in seer
his daughters waist spanned by the arm of son
deboshed dragon, whose advances she Cd
hardly refuse without committing breach
the idiotical rules which modern usage inculcate
Surely, in free country, woman ought to
free in her choice even of a temporary partne
and the base notion which prevails, that lad
by refusing the invitation of one man to dane
is debarred from accepting more congenial
ferris utterly foreign and repugnant to the rul
of chvalry. In the hall, or bower, the ladi
are paramount, and they ought to exert their a
thority-remembering this, the slightest murm
against their decision ought to be considered
offence against knightly courtesy. 1t would
well if we had female tribunal, with full poV
ers of expulsion from society, to adjudicate upi
such matters.
But not to perpetrate DEPRESSION in favor
Provencal usages, let us return to the matter
| question. We maintain, now, that Lord Byro
| writing under the name of Horace Hornem W
| fully justified in the utterance of every coupl
The poet is a seer; and though we, perhaps,
our younger days, could descry no nproprie
in the waltz, which merely admitted us 10 a ne
| er degree of contact than the former Terpsich
rean evolutions, the prophetcal eye of the ba
| foresaw the necessary consequence.
| The character Of the waltz gradually beeaI
changed. From graceful rotatory motion,
| degenerated into Bacchic movement simil
no doubt, to the first Thespian performanc
which were intended. as scholars tell us, to
| in Of fha I