The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-22
IN a PARIS DANCE HALL.
A Bald-Headed Man Finds 1t Less Attrac
tive Than a Fashionable Sea Beach.


Letter in San Francisco Chronicle.
When the gentleman whose office it was to
belabor the big drum hung out little card
with the word "Quadrille" printed upon it,
Black nudged me with his elbow and said:
Here she goes. Now We'll have it." But in
spite OF Blacks sanguine announcement, we
didn't seem to have it'' very much. What
the Others expected | don't know, but l am
free to confess that l expected to see the
floor instantly covered with Quadrille sets
and the air full OF female shoes of differ
ent sizes, stockings of variegated
hues and such things; but l was
disappointed. The floor WASH covered at all;
IN TACT, 1t was uncovered; for every body
began to drift over to one corner of the hall
and form part of a dense crowd there. The
floor not being covered with quadrille sets,
of course the shoes and stockings didn't APP
pear, and we began to suspect that there was
hitch in the programme somewhere; and
so we drfted over with the rest OF the people
to find out what the matter was We arrived
there just as the band struck up quadrille
from Madame Angot, and after considerable
pushing and elbowng and craning of necks
we managed to get view of what was going
on in the center of the crowd. 1t wasn't a
prize fight nor dog fight, nor even a wrest-
ling match; yet every body was persistent in
getting and keeping good place to see the
performance. In short, it was a quadrllle
set-Gr rather half a quadrlle set, for the
heads" in the absence of the Sides" were
doing double duty and having things all
their own way.
One of the women was tall and not very
good looking blonde. The other was small,
homely, wiry, dirty-looking brunette. One
OF the men was long-legged, timber jointed
Gaul, with high hat and curled mustache.
The other man was short fat and blear-eyed.
The tall man danced with the short woman,
and the short man with the long woman.
Both women were prematurely aged and no
one of the quartet was much more than
stability dressed The first forward and
back" was just like any other forward and
back" Then the tall woman stepped for
of inches bowed to the op-
posite gentleman" and tripped back to
her place. The short woman followed suit.
Then there was some more commonplace
forwards and backs, F" balance the corners"
and the like. Then the long woman again
took the initiative. She stepped forward,
raised her dress to her knees, displayed toll
erably dirty pair OF stockings and went back
to her place. The short woman did ditto
and showed a dirtier pair. Then the two men
stepped forward and tried to kick the roof
off the hall. Failing in this they went back
to their places and the women tried the same
thing and failed just as signally as did the
men. This completed the first figure. and
the four dancers wiped off their four per-
spring brows with four dirty handkerchiefs
and received the congratulations of the
crowd.
The next figure opened with some unex-
citing and harmless ordinary quadrille skir-
mishing. This safely completed, the long
woman smiled a sort of a look-out-now boys
smile, gathered her skirts up to her knees
walked over to where the tall man stood OPP
posie her, raised her right foot and proceeded
to wipe the mans nose with the sole of her
shoe. This little operation being successful
IN
place and received the murmurs OF the adj
miring crowd with bored air as if it were
an ordinary thing in her everyday life
to thus use her shoe-sole for a pocket
handkerchief on somebody else's nose.
In the meantime the short woman had
performed the same office for the short
man. Then the two men stepped
forward, turned their backs to each other,
cut some pigeon-wings, and the second figure
was completed. The brow-wiping and con-
gratulations were repeated. The third figure
opened with some more harmless dancing.
Then the tall woman raised her skirts to her
waist, made a roll of them around her hips,
and proceeded to kick off the tall mans high
hat. This successfully accomplished she
ambled around the ring OF spectators, kick
ing at any hat which looked as if its owner
would get mad if it were kicked off She
wasn't as successful on the hats of the specta-
tors as she was on the tall mans hat. She
didn't get any nearer to kicking hat than
to kick one mans ear nearly off, upon which
he made some remarks which led me to be-
lieye he was an Englishman. The short
woman again followed the lead of the tall
one; the men jigged and kicked some, and
the figure was completed.
The next figure had nothing remarkable or
new in 1T, except that the skirts were, if pos
sible, lifted little higher. This was the
''quadrille." Was it indecent? Every one
must be his own judge in that As for me, it
didn't appear so very indecent, when one
eliminates the place, the music and the fact
that the dresses were on and had to be
raised. If one considers the exposing OF the
female figure as indecent, it was not half as
indecent as what one sees very frequently
on the San Francisco stages, or at Moterey,
or ct Santa Cruz beaches. 1t was not as in
decent viewed in this light as a dry fash
ionable bathing suit, and not one-half as in
decent as the same is when it is wet The
average bald-headed old gentleman who sits
in the front orchestra seats wouldn't go
across the street to see such performance if
it were not called the "can-caD," and were
not considered awfully, Parisiauly wicked
Oh, no; he would prefer his front orchestra
seat or the warm sand of the beach. Be-
sides, the 'can-caners" are paid so much an
evening to dance, while the bathers are not.
Then again, the dancers are dirty and home
ly, while the bathers are clean and good
looking. And to cap all, he would see more
for his money on the beach than in the Paris
"can-can" hall.