Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-26
force. uhieh .ha leayes behind her--and

forces which she leaves behind her--and
nobody else finds--in the ballroom.
Ozone feeds life nitrogen, efiete animal
tissue, flying particles of dye stufis, silica,
powder. silk, cotton, wool, volatile per-
fumes. the breath OF whitening flowers
all the deleterious substances Science
knows. aud many of which even Science
dare not dream, sap the springs OF the
most robust constitution.
These are the risks taken by the
healthy girl who goes night after night,
TO hop. reception. and german printing
herself for each succeeding draught upon
the reserves OF nature by hours of I'M
satisfactory daylight slumber and
"toners of Liebig and peptonoids. Ii
only sound, well women lived thus, sea-
son by season, the evil would be so mon
strous as TO call for legislation to abate
it. But what woman is always so COM
pletely at her best as TO be able to en-
dure the stress of hours of standing, and
dancing, and cooling of" in tho at
mosphere We have denoted?
"Girls will go, il they die for it y
sigh mothers and physicians. We know
in what "form they come out in the
spring how Catholic, Episcopalian, and
Presbyterian agree in hailing the Lenten
season that brings lull in the breathless
race of pleasure.
SHE MUST RoUND-DANCE.
Up TO a comparatively recent date a
broad line of demarcation could be laid
between square and round dances. Now,
the girl who does not waltz, does not
dance. The dizzying whirl has insinu-
ated itself into every description of the
amusement, quadrille, cotillon, and
Lanciers fastened like piece OF new
cloth on an old garment-upon the Vir-
einia reel itself. saw a minuet danced
the other night, careful reproduction
OF the stately movement of hundred
years agone, and the reproduction y
wound up in double sense-wIth a
tearing waltz.
The craze for the May measure
esteemed indecorous when Byron, q
leader in the school of lax morality,
wrote:
"what you've touched, you may take
Pretty walter, adieui"
is the more remarkable because so few
people waltz well. For one who spins
and skins like dragon-hy, fifty blum
der like blind beetles. Furthermore,
there are men who are not awkward or
ignorant with whom modest girls cannot
endure to waltz. There is as much
difference between the respectful sup
port of the true gentleman and
the clasp OF him who has deli
cacy neither in soul nor body as be-
tween snow and mud. L know the so.
cial code of the ballroom aftirms that
there are clever and available devices by
which partners can be selected according
to merit and preference. Girls will bear
me witness how often undesirable ones
are forced upon them. Were /, veteran
looker-on, to recount few of the scenes
that prove my position, cOntre-ten'ps
disgraceful to one sex and annoying to
the other, occurring at watering-places,
public balls, and private drawing-rooms,
| should horrify some readers and make
enemies of others.
NEGLECTED INTELLECT.
Pass we then to positive and tenable
objection to the fashion OF making
dancing the only amusement in compa-
MES of young people OF both sexes.
Our young men and women are losing
the art of conversation. Their concep-
ton of social intercourse is limited TO
gatherings where they take the floor
within ten minutes after entering the
parlors, and leave it at 2 o'clock A. NJ.
for the dressing groom. Talk there Is, in
half-minutes allowed by the figures OF
the set, but of the most trivial sort, and
so disiointed that it is worse than none.
There can be no exchange of ideas, and,
with seven out OF ten who will tell you
they are "just devoted to dancing,
there are not enough ideas to go around
were they set in circulation. Your tho
rough-paced "society girl " mopes if de-
prived Of her chief resource votes In
tellectual conversation "too slow for
anything" and counts time not, like
Festus, "by great thoughts" but by
germans.
Mrs. Petroleum, who mistakes her
educated daughters desire for "a Reca-
mier salon for desire TO have saloon.
and guesses spa has money enough to
set up one if they're getting to be the
fashion" is hardly more Ignorant of the
elevating influence of association with
refined people, whose mental riches grow
with the expenditure, than are Adolphus
and Adelina. bobbing like painted corks
on the frothiest of fashionable society,
with atrophied minds and hating tongues,
conscious of and caring for no higher
life. MARION HARLAND.