The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-11-18
SOCIAL LIFE IN GREENLAND.


count of the acquaintance made with
Esquimaux society by those on board
the Pandora:
We took a walk about the village of
Disco. The people, young and old,
men, women and children, all turned
out to see us and greeted us with pleas
ant smiles, many of them giving us a
Good morning." which they pro-
nounced very well. The girls were all
dressed up in their best finery, and some
of them, especially those who had Dan
ish blood, were very pretty; only it was
rather difficult at first to bring ones |
self to believe they were girls at ALL |
This is the country for Mrs. Bloomer. |
The women all wear breeches here, and |
would scout the idea of any thing else
as absurd, and probably indecent.
should pity the girl that tried to intro
duce the fashion of petticoats in Green
land. A fashionable New York belle |
who should walk down Broadway in
knee brooches, cap, boots and a gentle
mans shooting jacket, with a cigar in
her mouth, would not be more utterly
lost in the eyes of society than would be
Disco young lady who should appear
walking about over the rocky slopes in
fashionable hat, ribbons, long skirts
and crinoline. ooh, the shameless
hussv,'' ''The brazen-faced thing"
would be the verdict of every Disco
woman, and Disco society would know
her no more.
The Disco costume appears very funny
until you get accustomed to it, but
rather pretty nevertheless. Imagine a
pretty girl-and three or four of the
Disco girls are very pretty-with her
hair done up in a kind of topknot on the
top of the head with a red ribbon, a
loose fitting jacket made of any kind of
I light, thin stuff and of any color, trim
med with fur collar and made to put
on Just like a shirt, but reaching only
! to the waist, pair of seal skin
breeches, with the hairy side out, reach
| ing nearly to the knee and confined
there with garter; a pair OF high
! boots, meeting the bottom of the trOus-
ers, the feet and ankles of red leather,
the tops of white linen, starched and
/ ironed, and with little roll of fur
around the tops, and the darkest, de-
murest eyes, and the sunniest brown
complexion ever painted by the sun
shine and the sea breezes and the ocean
spray-and you have faint idea of a
! Disco girl. You should see them trip
ping about in their little red boots, with
their little short steps scarcely seeming
to touch the ground, so soft is their
tread, or springing over the rocks like
young antelopes, TO know how charm
ing a girl may be in breeches. And
they have the daintiest little feet and
hands, too-feet and hands that would
make the prettiest New York girl burst
with envy if she saw them; so finely
shaped, so small, and yet so strong.
BALL ON BOARD.
And they can dance, too, like sylphs.
! 1t is the custom in Disco to give a ball
to every ship that comes here, and the
/ Pandora, of course, could not form any
exception to the rule. 1t proved TO be
a very great success.
The ballroom, it is true, was rather
small for forty or fifty people to dance
in, being only twelve feet by fifteen.
1t was also, perhaps, little dark, being
lighted by only one small window, and,
as it was broad daylight at ten O'Clock
in the evening, it was not thought
worth while TO bring in candles. In
fact, there was no place to put candles,
rs the ceiling was barely six feet high,
so that most of us had to be very care
full not to bump our heads, and the
room damned full of people, except a
little space in the middle, four or five
feet square, where the dancing was
done. 1t was, in fact, the carpenters
shop, which had been cleaned out and
transformed for the occasion, although
the following legend inscribed over the
door in chalk would seem to indicate
that its natural and normal state was
that of ballroom or concert hall:
"Musi chal dor cope nat o'clock"
An inscription which our learned and
erudite doctor, after much study and
great expenditure of time and labor, at
last deciphered to mean, Music hall
door open at So'clock," which, in fact,
proved to be the only record of the
Alert and Discovery found here.
| will not deny that this hall was,
perhaps, a little warm and close when
twenty of our blue jackets and the
whole population of the village had
Il
room might have been desirable But
then there were no petticoatS, no crino-
line, no long trains to be trampled up
On-a woman took up no more room
than a man-and that made vast deal
of difference. You have no conception
of the small space YOU can dance in
wnen you have no petticoatS to deal
with.
| found that three feet square was
oceans of room to waltz in, while for a
polka | was quite lost in so much super
tluous space. After a while, however,
we found it so Oppressively hot that we
decided to adjourn to the open air. 1t
was now eleven o'clock The sun had
just set, but there was pleasant twi-
light, which would last all night and
which was just right for dancing. The
Pandora was lying asleep in the little
bay, looking like a mere logship be-
meath the towering cliffs that rose above,
threatening TO fall and crush her like an
eggshell beneath their tremendous
masses.
The dancing was commenced outside
with renewed enthusiasm, and | am
ready to vouch that l never enjoyed n
dance more in my life. Officers and
blue-jackets, we all mixed together on
equal terms, and went through waltzes,
polkas and eotillons with a vigor and
good will only to be acquired by forty
days at sea. The girls were not ac-
quainted with all the forms of cotillon |
which we, in the exuberance of our i'm |
agination, adopted for the occasion, but
they were very quick to learn, and got |
through the most complicated figures |
very readily. My partner was demure
little beauty, with dark, slightly al
mond-shaped eyes, skin as brown as
the nut-brown maid herself, the red |
dest, ripest lips and the daintiest little |
feet that ever were seen. A greater |
pleasure even than encircling her slen-
der waist or gazing into her dark eyes, |
or floating with her on the rhvthmic /
motion of the dame, was to watch her |
little red-booted feet as they skinned |
over the ground like the wings of a sea /
bird over the waves-a pleasure
Ouitp lost Whom Won 1opoa ,,-;.l d,