Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1890-02-06
on DANCING.
"One Of 'Em'' Criticixes q Few Of the
Objectionable Ballroom Antics Of III.
Bred People.

"Une or 'Em' CrlttctzeS q Few OF the
! Objectionable Ballroom Antics Of III.
Bred People.
To The EDITOR OF THE TrNEs:--
Last week one Of your reporters
wrote IL very interesting article on the
subject of dancing, inspired no doubt
by his attendance at the Dancing
Club. He compiimen,ed everything
and everybody and could find nothing
to criticize. This is not intended as
reply, but rather to present the
other side Of the picture. There is
no pleasanser way Of spending these
long winter evenings than psrticipat.
ing in a pleasant social dance and
this can be made still more agreeable
BY eliminating some Of the object.
ionable features Of the ballroom.
There are at all dances a few per-
sons who introduce an element Of dis
cord. These persons are generally
known as the "codfish." They first
draw attention to themselves by en-.
deavoring to form set of their own
There ought to be social equality in
the ballroom. If persons are OBJ.
jectionable they should be excluded.
but if admitted at all then they
should, for tho time at least, be
treated like all others. The moment
these scottish" begin to huddle to.
gether in sets of their own they throw
damper on the pleasure of the
evening. Tho e Of the common herd
who happen by accident to get into
one of these sets feel as if they were
not wanted there. 1t is true nothing
is said; but there are looks and mods
which plainly say: "What did you
bring that girl into this set for?" or
"Why didn't you steer that clumsy
fellow into some other se,?" You
can readily see how embarrassing this
is to that girl" or to that "clumsy
fellow" and thus is introduced into
the ballroom the first element Of dis
cord.
Now, as to the manner of calling
the dances. The whole system is
wrong. 1t is the invariahle practise
here to say "the next dance will be a
waltz" or polka, or quadrilIe, or
whatever it may be, and Immediately
everybody grabs for girl and makes
for the floor. Why not instead Of
this announce, at the close Of each
dance, what the succeeding dance
will be? That succeeding dance may
be one which you cannot dance, aud
it gives you chance to 60 out for a
smoke for few minutes, or if you
can and want to dance, then you
have your leisure to select . partner
and, if the first person you ask hap
pens to be engaged, you have time to
select another. But under the pres
ent system when a waltz or quadrille
is fer the first time announced you
grab at the first g'rl you meet and if
she happens to be engaged you are
left entirely.
Another object for criticism is the
manner Of dancing. In this, Of course,
one utterance must be made for good
and poor dancers. The ladies are all
good dancers, so this criticism applies
to the men only. In quadrille poor
dancing is not noticed much. 1t is
only noticed in swinging corners when
the "clu'nsy fellow" invariably swings
the wrong corner, and in the last
figure when he begins the shoe down"
Some of these fellows. it seems, get
their shoes half soled just before a
dance and in the shoe down" they
get up a rattle that is cross between
a snowslide and threshing machine.
They throw back their heads, insert
their thumbs 10 the arm. boles of their
vests, and then series Of gyrations
and contortions that shake the build
ing from center to circumference.
They keep this up until the perspira.
ton drips in tear drops from the tips
OF their noses, and then fall back ex-
hausted into a chair, with look of
self-satisfac,ion, that says, "If this
thing dill cost me two dollars, by
gosh, get my moneys WORTH"
But nv main criticism is in the