Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-03
is IT IMMORAL?
Mrs. Frank Leslie Collates Some
Opinions on Waiting.
Delightful as an Exercise. Yet Has Dan
gers The Waltz in Other Ages
and Other Lands.
4 OF Deyotees of the Dance-To the Pure
are Pure-A Young
xtrPs Sentiment.

IL Several persons, chiefly those person.
rnally interested in the reply, have lately,
asked me this first question, and
aH have been led 10 consider it more
piseriously than did. at first, when it
stseemed to me an absurd query. Ger
"tt'iinly my personal experience is, that
waltzing is delightful exercise, exhil-
arating until it becomes exhaustive, and
no more immoral than the ice you take as
yon are resting Thus my first reply to
The question; rs Waiting immoral?
was an indignant MOL unless TO some
very immoral and very imaginative per-
son
So much. however, was said, and so
:, much has been written, on the other
side, that began to consider whether
this was case of the famous shield, and
while had only seen the white silver of
the one side, there were others who
basked in the sultry yellow of the golden
face. l began by artfrH, oh, very artful
lnquities and remarks, TO gather the
suhrages Of my acquaintance, male and
''sAsss lale, upon the subject, and also TO
read up q little on the history and char
aeter of the> waltz, of which only knew
from Byron that it is
An imp of Germany 81.
I found the paternity correct, and that
the German word Walter means 10 roll
10 weller, and at ence had TO remember
public entertainment / once assisted at
in Sfrasbourg where a burgomaster Of
about 800 pounds weight and a fair fran
lein of nearly the same proportions
sweltered' around the hall, much TO
their own qualification and also TO mine,
and may decidedly add that this three
sided amusement was not all immoral.
But searching more deeply into the BIZ
ography of the waltz, find that how
ever innocent in itself, il is closely allied
TO some very dubious characters. The
5reeks considered it the appropriate
= Nance of Silenus and the faurs, of Bac-
chns ana the Bacchantes; in
Africa the Moors adopted it
from the savages around them, and
called it the Chica; they carried it into
Spain, and when they left it there It be-
came the fandango, and assumed more
decorous appearance than 1t had thought
worth while before. In the West Indies
and Spanish America, the Spanish waltz
is deeply colored with the heredity of its
Moorish progenitor, and is not danced by
fastidious women.
From these excursions we ceIDe back TO
the French valse, as danced to-day in
Paris, Vienna, London, New York, and
other centres of modern civiliza lion; aud,
knowing all that we have just learned,
10 ssSsss. Hesoisse7 So, plausible friend with
kcial 81 N5r ssslyss.ss,, Sii1g if the world has
ow DAYS .o of etwRr cbi 5an or if ~ onT
THtcetie than dth exa aB 80 the dance lance
g thlce rfsque has q It'd 4 The quite harm
es. SIS and innocenf lido
-. From books vow Aig.1 to living au-
'slorities, and, FsthttG it arrrling their in
70 ocent minds. duestionAl a great many
- iris and Young women Upon their own
ays IDEAS and experience. Most'or Them ex-
re attained, with round eyes:
ala Any harm IN Whiting? Why, of
course not, unless one has heart disease,
lake poor Birdie, or a lame ankle, or
Is lomething -
i Sometimes, however, a girl more sensi-
i've than the rest would confess that
Of nothing can be more disagreeable than
the way some men waltz, holding you so
l. close, and staring, and-oh, don t
inow-they re horridi'
III Something like thus was said to me by
'1aS least dozen pure, pretty mouths,
= and K silently noticed the style, physical
n land inental, of the girls who said it.
minhey Were Hebes every one, and with
m nothing Of the Minerva about them, the
darlings.
My lnquIsitions among my male friends
a zee naturally more guarded, but I
- several brothers who wished their
sfs2ts did not waltz, and several young
nusbanfIssSSho had tried more or less
elfectually " prevent their wives from
Waiting with Iny man but themselves.
Absorbed in the interests of morality,
lpursued my examination into the sober
ranks of the fathers and mothers, even
the grandfathers and grandmothers of
the dancers, and here / found disap-
prevail, yariously expressed and on vari-
GUS grounds, almost unanimous One
dear old gentleman wagged his bald head
IT me, chuclIled roguiShIy, and whis-
pered:
Jolly good fun for the boys, my dear,
i fnd only wish / was young enough to
Ky it; but 1 don 4 know that morality is
itsNstrong point.
Aud his wife, when / asked her, said,
with q culver Of the head that rustled
her cap strings:
Think of waltzingF why, think it
shameful for a girl 10 let any man that
comes along put his arm around her
waist and hug her up to him. What
would modest girl think if he did il
when they were not waltzing, although
have my suspicious that when they
wander of into conservatOries and
gardens and boudoirs and shady places
directly after dancing the young men do
oAS0 III SWINE pidCIlce up Il utlie IoI the
next waltz -
Oh, no, no, dear madame, - pro-
tested 1, as grayely as possible surely
mo snch horrid scandal as that is pos
siblel
Well j don t know, my dear; don t
know, but l have always remembered
what dear Miss Edgeworth says:
4 $ Sir. she's yours
You have brushed from the grape
Its exquisite blne,
From the rosebud YOU We shaken
Its pendulops dew:
What you We touched YOU may take
Pretty walker, adieu!' -
foh, Miss Edgeworth was regular
old maid fifty years ago, mother, - in
terposed my hostess, perceiving that /
hardly knew how to meet this wholesale
denDnciatiOn. And 10 my mind the
old-tashioned German waltz. as we called
it, as i learned il thirty years ago had no
harm in II. Our minds were more taken |