The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1883-01-06
QUA WASHINGTON LETTER.
REGULAR coRREspoSprNcr

AoiiNuIoN Jan. /, 1SS3-The
only events ofimportance since Christ
mas have been the passage oftbe civil
service reform bill in the Senate and
the first of January, 1888. New
Years day was marked by the usual
receptions, Official non-official; diplo.
matte, and military. Every man ar
rayed himself in his best clothes and
called on the ladies wherever thew
were perpered to receive. The ladies
were all dressed most exquisitely, and
many OF them stood under gas lighted
chandeliers, with the blinds of tbo;r
parlors closed. Instantaneous photo
graphs of the tableaux of presentation
on that day would be interesting TO
those who delight in studying modern
manners, ana who discern in bows
and smiles, and dress, and attitude
the material that is the basis of so
much psychological dissertation in the
modern novel.
With the beginning of the new year,
the social season. as it is called, will
be fairly opened in Washington.
Many members of Congress, who have
been home during the holidays, will
return with their families, and many
others unconnected with official or
public life, but to whom wealth lends
means, will come from distant CITY
and town to enjoy the gaiety and ex
citement that season at the Capital
affords, and which will continue from
today until the commencement of
Lent
Our way of pretending to enjoy our
selves is not purely American, but
like jacques, melancholy, "a compound
of many simples," French, English,
German, AMI Heather, of which
dancing is the chief. In Washington
nearly everybody 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 a gait
half military, but with technical
skill that has for its explanation that,
before he was Governor of Massachus-
etts, Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives, or General in the Army,
he was teacher of the Terpsichorean
art. General Sherman, barring a
slight rheumatism, which gives him a
peculiar jerking gait, may be seen in
the evolutions of the ball room, and
always with a young, pretty partner.
| am told that he Is also proficient
in those round dances against which
Mrs. Sherman welded her pen; but
in the matter of round dances | do not
speak from observation.
| believe the American habit of
dancing comes from no passionate
love of the amusement, but is persist
ed in because no great leaders of ton
have the genius to invent anything
better to do. Among the elite in great
European capitals the gentlemen are
accomplished, while the ladies are do
nestle and only slightly accomplished.
With us woman have all the accom-
plishments, 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 contribute music and to talk
intelligently, and brilliantly, on var
iety of subjects, the gentlemen with
their exclusively utilitarian education
are unable to hold the foil upon which
all real conversation depends. The
dancer is man or woman of action
rather than of ideas, and dancing is a
common democratic plane to which
the etherially minded condescend, and
in which the heavy witted find a
coarse stimulant to that aesthetic life
which is not quite extinct in even the
grossest of men and women.