The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-11-11
USEFUL AND HARMLESS.

revelation, but with the oldstagers, the
antique beau and listless belle, the question
Is one Of no slight Importance.
Some weeks ago we commended very
sensible protest made by Mrs. Gen. Sherman
against the organization of society ex-
clusively on the basis Of the German. Thl
protest we are prepared to reiterate, and
to Justify; but it has been charged against us
by some fair friends that we did, in the ar
ticle referred to, gross injustice to harm
less and, indeed extremely useful class of
society, viz: the young men who do duty as
partners for these same fair friends, who
happen, by the way, to have penchant for
the German.
The complaint is that we spoke contemptu-
ously of these very worthy young persons,
in saying of them that they appeared to be
all dressed by the same tailor and let out on
contract To dance the German" We have
been but ''dimly understood by our fair
critics. 1t is true we alluded to these young
persons in that language, but In very diff
ferent tone of thought from that attributed
u.s. At the very moment we wrote those
words-we remember distinctly that grand
imagining Of De Quincy's, of the dancers
|
Whoever has read the Confessions of
an Opium Eater cannot be in doubt
| as to the passage we allude to. 1t
| is that which describes the impressions
made upon morbid but splendid imagina-
| ton by the graceful and majestic movements
of dancers, threading mazes to him most in
| tricate, and yet in perfect time to voluptuous
music. De Quincy declares that dancing,
when the persons participating in it were
graceful and expert, aroused in him only the
grandest and most solemn emotions. They
| symbolized to him the flight of time, the CEN
| turtles following fast upon each other. Or,
grander yet, the solemn harmonies of the
| heavenly bodies moving not in mathemati-
cal circles but through intricate and involved
mazes to the music of the spheres.
After this explanation it is not necessary to
suggest wherein our expression was not con-
temptuous. A certain sameness is necessary
| to sustain the imagery we have described.
In music and poetry, whether of sound or
motion, the monotone is the very elemental
necessity of solemnty and grandeur. Wit
ness the constant recurrence of the choral
al al Of the Greek tragedy, and the cease
less regularity of the Homeric hexameter.
That popularity, then. which was supposed
to be legitimate subject for satire and
ridicule was most commendable one and,
indeed, necessary to the realization of the
highest ideality that the dance can
possibly suggest 1t must be apparent |
that the slightest irregularity, whether pro-
ceeding from the too obtrusive superiority, |
or inferiority of an individual, would be fatal
to the harmonies. They must all be alike,
dressed by the same tailor" as 1t were.
Far be it from us to undervaue these gents,
or, to use an extravagantly complimentary
smile, these automata, these animated tail
ors' models. Indeed, what would society do
without them? They are the Indispensable
all al the social hexameters, that preserve
the unity and solemn monotone of
the otherwise too, too giddy and frivol-
Gus world Of fashion and folly. They
have their uses and he who questions that
fact lbels Providence not less than does the
scotfer whose utilitarianism sees no purpose
in the lilies of the field. that toll not, though
they surpass the glories of Solomon. Yet
after conceding that society cannot get along
Ut all without this useful and harmless ele-
nent. we see no reason why it should be en-
|
,et to perpetual cadence, that must grow
yearisome at length. Hence we ask, what shall
We do to be amused 1t is well to mingl9
/ little sense with sound, and not to sacrifice
to the choral symphony or the
ornamental hexameter. We don't ask society =.
% sacrifice one of these-that would be bar
,arous-but we modestly insist that those
men who do not wear their heads entirely !
in shirt collras, who don't kick up
he tails of their dress coats when they walk,
md wear "baggy' trowsers-in short, who ]
lon't dance the German, have their uses also.
Certainly they have their uses" exclaims J
he wilful beauty. ''We marry those fellows
and they ought to be satisfied with that"
Well WELL this is about the only use they !,
an subserve. When they come about there ;
S very apt to be something serious ahead +
md there is never any harm in the other
haps. Some evilly disposed person out in
IAN Francisco has written very naughty
nd libellous book, which he calls the "Dance
f Death" to prove these harmless crea- 1
ures corrupters of society, but the I
tempt has only recoiled upon his
wn head in the universal scorn t
f womanknd. He draws pictures of physi-
al ecstacies engendered by the magnetic
ontact of strong men, and of the evil emo
ions thus aroused in the virgin breast; all Of
which is villainously false and more potent
Or wrong than all the dancing the fashiona-
lie world ever has INDUCED in. But while
his theory is generally outrageous, it is
pecially unjust to the hexameters.
What an absurdity to suggest such thoughts =
I connection with this creature that dances
ivinely," who has given his mind to dancing,
nd has never got it back, and is the richer 1
or H-who is fed to repletion on the paps and
ruels of love that may be safely fed upon in
ball room! He is harmless and useful and
he ladies know it and are kind to him, while A
hey marry those other muffs-and it's too
God for them