The daily gazette., 1880-01-05
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

NEW YEARS tALLs-THE OPENING OF
THE FASHIONABLE sEAsoN-HOw
THEY AMUsE THEMsELvEs--"oN
WITH THE DANCE.
From our regular correspondent.
WASHINGTON, d. g., Jan. 2, 1880.
The only event since the adjournment
of Congress has been the first of January,
1880. 1t was marked by the usual recep-
tions, official, non-official, diplomatic,
and military. Every man arrayed him
self Ia his best clothes and called on the
ladies wherever they were prepared to
receive. The ladies we're all dressed
most exquisitely, and many of them
stood under gas-lighted chandeliers,
with the blinds of their parlors closed.
Instantaneous photographs of the
tableaux of presentation on that day
would be interesting to those who de-
light 20 study modern manners, and
who discern in bows, and smiles, and
dress, and attitude, the material that is
the basis of so much psychological disser-
tation in the modern novel.
With the beginning of the new year
the social season, as II j. called, will be
fairly opened in Washington. Many
m mbeIs of Congress, who have been
home during the holidays, will return
with their families, and many others,
uhconnected with official or public life,
but TO whom wealth lends means, will
come from distant city and town to en-
joy the gaiety and excitement that a sea-
sou at the Capitol affords; and which
will continue from the first of the new
nf n
Our way of pretending TO enjoy our
selves is not peculiarly American, but,
like Jaques' melancholy, ga compound
of many simples," French, English,
German and heather Of which dancing
is the chief. In Washington nearly
every lady and her husband dances in
spite of age, dignities and rheumatism.
General Grant, during his Presidency,
was seen on more than one occasion to
tread measure with ease and grace.
General Banks went through the
square dances with gait half military,
but with technical skill that has for its
explanation the fact that long before he
was Governor of Massachusetts, Speaker
of the House of Representatives, or
General in the army, he was a teacher
of he TerpsichoIean art. General Sher-
man, barring slight rheumatism, which
gives him peculiar jerking gait, may
be seen in the evolutions of the ball
room, and always with young and
pretty partner. / was told that he is
also proficient In those round dances
against which Mrs. Sherman welded her
p II, but In the matter of round dances
do not speak from observation. 1t must
not be supposed, however, that there are
no dignified exceptions. There are some
who do not dance, at least not publicly.
| never heard of Mr.. Evarts dancing.
Judge Senator David Davis Is too heavy
TO dance, but Speaker Randall Is not.
believe the American habit of dancing
comes from passionate love of the
amusement, but is persisted because no
great leaders of ton have the genius to
invent anything better to do. Among
the elite in European cities the men are
accomplished, while the women are do
mestic and only slightly accomplished.
With us, women have all the accomplish
ments and men, as a rule, are valued
only for their capacity to make money.
The result is that in every social circle,
while the ladies may be able TO contrib
ute music and to talk intelligently, and
even brilliantly,on a variety of subjects,
the gentlemen, with their exclusively
ntilitaIian education, are unable to hold
the foil upon which all real conversation
depends. The dancer is an or woman
of action rather than of ideas, and dane
Ing is a common democratic plane to
which the etherially-minded condescend
and on which the heavy-witted find a
coarse stmulaut to that aesthetic life
which is not quite extinct in even the
grossest of men and omen.