The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-04-05
8ittnltoltd 1ispattEt.
MONDAY. ...........A APRIL S, 1869.
THE CIRCULATION OF THE "DIS-
PATCH" Is LARGER THAN THE COM
BINED CIRCULATION OF ALL THE
OTHER DAILY NEWSPAPERS OF THIS
CITY.
The Cancan Dance-WhaS 1T Means
and Whittier 1T Tends.

The Home Journal has an article on the
balls and dances of the winter, from which
we quote the following: ..
The whole tendency Of the hour is to
make New York the Paris Of the new
world and it is characteristic of imitation
to seize upon the more prominent points Of
it's model first. So true is this that born
and bred Parisians look with unfeigned as
tonishment upon the ambling facility with
which We not only copy, but exsggerate the
vices Of their native city. Paris sends us
her fashions not only in dress, but in moral
laxity, in amusement, in festivity, in dissi-
patton. All these We adopt with the eager
voracity of brilliant but spoiled child,
knocking down and pulling up by the roots
once revered social landmarks, safeguards,
and hedges. laz.1, stl
The present day might be aptly termed
the cancan period in our history. The
students and grisettes Of the Latin Quarter
and the habitueS Of the Jardin Mabille, in
the widest Of their mad revels, have q
dance made up Of graceful vulgarity and
gymnastic indecency, in which extravagant
suggestiveness is the principal feature.
Through the medium of the stage We have
been introduced to this dance, and its de-
yastating influences have spread far and
wide, like wild-fre. Ittickled the popu-
lar fancy, fed the growing appetite for sen
sation and sensuality, and, before We knew
it, became fashionable. Not many weeks
since it was presented nightly, in one form
and another, at ten nominally frst-class
theatres in this city before audiences
respectable in the best sense of the word.
But responsibility cannot shield from taint
in such an atmosphere; and when we
remember what a large proportion of our
citizens are theatre-goers, and what an
immense influence for good or evil the thea
tres exert, we can but tremble in anticipa-
tion of the result Of this subtle admixture
of sensuous vice with our most popular
diversion.
Probably nothing reflects the social con-
dition Of q people more clearly than their
contemporary drama-or, in this case, that
which usurps the place Of the drama, with
out even the temerity to adopt its name.
The spread Of the cancan fever among all
classes and in every circle cannot be attri-
buted to its introduction with opera bouts,
but rather to a morbid and diseased state of
society, which made it absorb the infection
at once. The poison worked quickly, and
the disease has naturally assumed viru-
lent and alarming aspect. One of its
phases has been very prominent at the pub
Lie balls Of the season now near it's end.
At these the queenly Anonymas of the me-
tropolis have swept the floor with their
satins and laces, and eclipsed the radiance
Of the chandeliers with the regal lustre of
their jewels. They have jostled the ladies
Of our most select circles, and looked down
with an air of supercilious patronage upon
the bellies Of our best society. Around
them have clustered thickly and eagerly
the sons Of the former, the brothers Of the
latter-the representatives of the best blood
Of the rising generation-the young men,
ready to make any sacrifice of honor for q
smile, or 60 down on their knees for an en-
couraging word; and that, too, with the
consciousness that thousands Of inquiring
eyes were fixed upon them.
At the masquerade balls especially, with
scarcely single exception, the cancan
spirit has seemed to peryade everything
and everybody. Here, these same young
men and these same Aponymas have intro
duced the dance in its most uDgreceful,
grotesque, and exaggerated form. In vain
have experts been i'm ported directly from
the Bal Mabille to teach them its Parisian
delicacy of indelicacy and spicy flavor of
wickedness. They have left their instruc-
tors far behind, and preferred to Ameri-
canize-snd vulgarize-it. The excess to
bordered upon insanity. At the height of
one of these balls, in the Academy of Mu-
sic, a single couple, occupying a proscenium
box, began dancing the cancau in full view
of the asgemblage. Upon the floor beneath,
the watching and applauding crowd widen
ed and widened until those two young
persons absorbed the entire interest Of the
moment. Cheer upon cheer greeted each
fresh endeavor on their part their audi
ence was on the very tip-toe of excitement: :
flushed and breathless, they danced on,
only stopping to throw kisses and flowers
to the swaying crowd, until, ready to faint
with exhaustion, they were literally unable
to stand e moment longer. On such a
scene as this gazed the wives and mothers,
the daughters and sisters Of respectable
citizens of New York, interested and una
dashed, if not altogether unblushing. In
the very midst of such scene as this jos
tled-glowing, and elated with artificial, IN
healthy, mad excitement-respectable citi-
zens of New York themselves. Can any
comment be more eloquent than the bare
facts presented !? -s.t.a .a.
Gathering force and impetuosity, the
great wave of sensuality has rolled on,
seemingly without an obstacle to check its
progress, until, at length, 1t seems to have
reached q climax, and to be curling, foam
ing, and towering above our heads, ready
to fall upon US like destroying deluge.
The last public masked ball held in this
city was public disgrace to America, and
On insult to the civilization of the nine
teenth century. 1t was advertised in the
public press, the tickets were on sale in
public places, and every outward claim was
made to at least ordinary respeetability.
But for many days beforehand it was the
foremost topic Of conversation with what
might be called " young New York;" and
simultaneously anticipated as delightful
innovation by the inmates of scores Of
houses Of prostitution. These two classes
met and mingled within the walls of q
popular theatre, and scenes Of revelry,
carousal, and dissipation followed that beg
gar description Here at last the mask was
thrown off; nobody claimed responsibility !;
vice herded with vice, corruption with cor
ruption.9 But in the frightful maelstrom
were whirled far down the dizzy road to
ruin hundreds Of young men fitted by
birth, training, and education for the most
exalted positions in society; and it was af-
frmed that there were respectable women
present; and 1t is certain that ordinarily
stsid and sober men, with gray hair and