The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-11-08

sex, to whom girls delight in confessing
their secrets n women confide their sor-
rows, finds little profit or pleasure in dane
ing with u
MEN IN DEMAND.
There is something solemn in the atmos-
phere of the summer dance, something pa
thetic in the air of teigned and hysterical
hilarity among the women who wabble
round the hall in pain, like mechanical
tops when the spring is broken or the
works need mending.
Thrice blessed the woman who has q
husband whom she can coax out of tennis
shoes and into pumps, u of the smoking
room into the ballroom. How that man
is smiled upon, victimized, cajoled into
making a martyr of himself, and dancing
himself into Il fit of apoplexy with all that
woman's friends.
Happy is the girl with q younger broth
er, even if his mustache is in the pin feath-
Dry stage, and his voice as little to be de-
pended upon as q worn out accordeon, II
only he can sprawl through a waltz and
maintain an upright position.
Envied indeed is the woman whose little
son, in sash and knickerbockers, has been
taught to step a measure in time and order
due.
Somebody announces a lanciers or quad
rifle, and there is confusion among the
ranks of dancers. The one self sacrificing
young man who dances dashes about the
room, out in the office, down In the billiard
room, hopping his brow and seeking the
p%ersuadable man to come and fill the
sets. The girls familiar with the figures
tie handkerchiefs about their arms and in
vite other girls to dance, the mothers hunt
$50 o-noJl hovr on1 offor a whi1o fhA
procession moves with an average OF one
man and one small boy to a set.
THE UNQUEsTIoNING MATRoN.
Little questions the fair dame who at
home deliberates most carefully before es-
tablishing the most formal of friendships
with new acquaintance the history or
present station of the man who is pre-
sented to her as a partner for a waltz.
There is a relief in the steady clasp of the
manly arm, the firm touch of the mascu-
line hand, that renders it immaterial
whether he weighs out butter by the pound
or handles q %tailor's goose and shears when
vacation is over If only he takes the step
she learned in waltzing, and will give hei
one or two good turns about the room be-
fore all the other girls who cannot get a
man to waltz with.
Little does it concern her to investigate
in any way his claim to her regard 1t he
lead her through the figure of the may
dance when older women are depending
upon partners of their W persuasion
fiving white handkerchief signals to avoid
mistakes.
How the gracious, gratified lady smiles
upon her unknown partner, waits for him
II he is stout, helps him if he is awkward,
teaches him if he is forgetful, and answers
in all sincerity to his conventional thanks
at the close of the figure, ''The gratitude is
on my side, 1 assure you"
Even the girl who can dance independent
" is looked up to after a little by the girls
who cannot take the masculine part, and
when little cliques form, as b eyinvariably
do in a summer hotel, each clique jealously
guards the girl man almost as seriously a.
they would the genuine article from ap-
preparation by the other factions.
THE DANCE ANALYZED.
The summer hotel dance is an admirable
vantage ground from which to study the
t~erpsichorean art as modified and In
auenced by different climates and local
ities-the wild swoop and rush of the
Colorado girl, with the freshness and free
dom in its movement that suggests the
broad, unbroken prairie and billowy, q
ing grasses tossed and swayed by the
strong wild breezes. There's strength and
speed and life, like the swift dash OF Wild,
unbridled horses with sinewy TANKS and
flashing eyes and widespread nostrils!
. In sharp contrast is the slow, stately
Glide of the Boston belle, subdued and
steady and joyless. It speaks of a long
line Of stern faced ancestors, repressive,
taciturn, grave; Of specialized schoolma'am
grandmothers who were married late in
LIE, and trained their children with inf1ex-
ible rods Of iron according to Scriptural
traditions.
The sensuous, dreamy, willowy grace OF
the southern beauty, with the dusk Of the
midnight in her eyes, the warmth Of the
summer in her smile. Not for nothing
did Spanish knight and yelled lady land
upon her coasts and leave as her. inherit
snce all the passion and the pride of q ma
ton famed for duels Of love and war. As
the supple, swaying figure, gently yielding
to the encircling arm which supports 1t,
floats softly past in a melody of motion.
half forgotten Byronic meters, dim tradi-
lions Of impossible romance return and
are verified.
4 As the kiss of sunbeams on the crest Of
the waves, the poise of the humming bird
upon the breast Of a rose, the dart of the
swallow through the glow Of the sunset,
"a the dance of the New York girl, merry
and dainty, airy and free, like the tripping
Of elves in the sheen'of the moonlight OF
thu, revel of naiads in the spray Of ancient
sylvan fountains.
There is nothing more picturesque and
fascinating than the New York girl danc-
ing, unless It is two New York girls dane
ing together like a pair Of swinging OF.
chids with delicate petals auttering on
their supple stalks.-New York Sun.
It will occasion less surprise that III
weeds grow apace when It is known that Q