The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1885-08-01
Manners Old and New.

II the fine society of to-day which
cherishes fashion even in roses smiles
at the simplicity of the society of
hundred years ago, not less would the
bells and beaux Of that primeval period
look with lofty disdain upon the fash
ionable world Of this hour The gen
tleman of the old school," of whom
forty years ago the cOurtly Harrison
Gray Otis, of Boston, was SO striking a
representative, would probably look
with mingled amusement and contempt
upon the young gentleman of the new
school who puffs cigarette Us he walks
with lady in the street. and speaks to
her with a half-insolent freedom which
Captain MacHeath might have used
with Polly Peachum. Young Cigarette
may, perhaps, reply, and truly, that
stately manners and lofty morality do
not coincide, and that the most cour-
teous gentlemen have been often the
most dissolute rakes.
The hours of "the republican court"
and of fine society in our golden age,
were most reasonable. President John
Adams in a printed card requests the
pleasure of Mr. Champlin's company to
dine on Thursday next at four o clock"
and Mrs. Bingham, the queen of the
Philadelphia beau monde, requests the
honor of Mr.. and Mrs. Champlin COM
pany .'to ball on Monday, February
10, at seven o'clock, while Mrs. Bing-
hams daughter and her husband, after
ward Lord and Lady Ashburton, give a
dinner also at four o'clock. Louis
Philippe. in the days of his exile, asked
the hand of another daughter of Mr.
Bingham, and Mr.. Bingham replied.
"Should you ever be restored to your
hereditary position, you would be too
great mach for her; if not, she is too
great match for YOU" The bellies
and beaux of to-day cannot wisely toss
their heads at those simple old times
and manners, Dear madam-or you.
Miss Floribel-at the time when one
Miss Bingham was marrying future
peer, and another Miss Bingham was
refusing future king, was it in the
haberdashery or hardware line that
grandpapa was getting on?'
And at the ball what did they dance?
The music was the spinet, the flute, and
the viol, and they did not invite to the
waltz, nor to the pretty game of the
german, nor to the lancerS. The dances,
| it appears, were such as still survive in
remote New England villages, although
under other names. In package of
old papers our author discovers list in
a round, girlsh hand-perhaps the
hand that Washington took in his to
dance "ASuccessfulC ampaign"-ofthe
dances which were then most common.
There are more than dozen of them:
THE Flowers of Edinburgh" "Bos-
ton Delight" ''Haymaking,' Faith
full Shepherd" Glove and Opportun-
ity," Innocent Maid Lady Han
cock" merry and WISE" pea
Straw" 'Stony Point" "a Trip to
Carlisle" Soldiers JOY and III be
Married in my Old Clothes"
These are lost delights to the ball
room of to-day. But they were queer"
people who danced such outlandish
jigs, you think? Yes: but if it were
Viomesnil, or De Lauzun. or Vauban,
or De Segur, or De Broglie, who asked
you to grant him the supreme honor,
could you not have been persuaded to
show those queer people of long ago
what dancing really is? And if those
old partners of princes and dukes and
marquises, who taught the gallant otli
GERS that Puritan and Quaker morality
was consonant with the loveliest man
ners. should look in upon the ball of
to-day, the 'fast" belle and her part
ner, young Cigarette, would it be the
belle of to-day or yesterday that would
think the other $50 queer, and smile
with the more amusement and wonder?
-George William Curtis, IN haper'S
Magazne for May.