Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-17
PAsTIMES Of LADIES.
Becoming Ezercises in Horseback
Riding, Boatipg and Dancing.
STEPS OF OUR GRANDPARENTS,
With All Their Grace and Dignifed Activ
ity, Coming In Again.
SOME PRETTY FIGURES AND FAvORS

1
| No sun upon an Easter day
Is half so fine sight.
The London Times says the present sea
son has seen ''driving jump to a grea
height of favor among fashionable women.
1t is curious expression, but enlightens u
as to the liberty which even so great an au
thority takes with our common language
There is no doubt of the fact that the pom,
phaeton and the pair of ponies are becoming
great necessity to an energetic woman
| The "Httle poney and the Ralli cart as
ladies' pastime is a familiar figure at New
port in the season, at thousand country
/ places, and at the seaside, in New York''
Central Park and all through the West anc
| South.
1t has been much more the custom fol
ladies in the West and South to drive them
selves than for those at the North; conse
quently they drive better. Only those who
know how to drive well ought ever to drive
for they not only endanger their own lives
| but dozen lives beside.
Recreation on Horseback.
No form of recreation is so useful and Sc
becoming as horseback exercise. No En-.
| glishwoman looks SO well as when turned
out" for out-of-door exercise. And ou1
| American women who buy their habits and
hats in London, are getting to have the
same "chic." Indeed, so immensely super
ior is the London habit considered, that the
French circus women who ride in the Bois,
making so great sensation, go over to Lon
don to have their habits made, and thus re-
fur,, tho on,op1ip,opt which EnO1ich ladies
pay to Paris, in having all their dinner
gowns and tea gowns made there.
Perhaps dislilxing this sort Of copy, the
English women are becoming careless of
theif appearing on horseback, and are COM
ing out in straw hat, ''covert coat" and
cotton skirt. The soft felt hat has long
been favorite on the continent at water
ing places for the English; and it is much
easier for the head Still, in case of fall it
does not save the head like hard mascu-
line hat. We have not yet, as nation,
taken to cycling for women, but many
Englishwomen go all over the globe on a
tricycle. A husband and his wife are often
seen on bicycle near London; and women
who lead sedentary lives, in offices and
schools, make much of their afternoon thus.
Boating Beauties the Figure.
Boating needs to be cultivated in
America. 1t is a superb exercise for devel-
oping good figure, and to "manage a
punt" has become common accomplish
ment for the riverside girls. Ladies have
regattas on the Thames. Golf has. yet to be
introduced among us, to rival lawn tennis
archery and ball. Fencing, which many
actresses must learn, is very admirable
process for developing the figure. The
young Princesses of Wales are adopts in
this. 1t requires an outfit of dainty tunic
to the knees, fencing jacket of soft
leather with tight sleeves, gauntlet gloves,
a mask, pair of foils, and costs about S15.
American women as a rule are not fond
of walking. One must put in something
like an attraction OF duty to rouse our
delicate girls to walk. They will not do it
for their health alone. Gymnastic teach
ing is, however, giving our girls more
strength, and it would be well if in every
family of daughters there were some calls
thenic training, to develop the muscles,
and to give more graceful walk. To
teach girl to swim is almost duty, and
these splendid physical exercises will have
a great influence over that nervous distress
which our climate produces with its over
fullness of oxygen.
Dancing the Old Dances Again.
But if girls do not like to walk, they all
like to dance, and it is not intended as
pun when we mention that ga great jump"
has been made back to the oId-fashioned
dancing in which freedom of movement is
allowed. Those who saw Mary Andel SON s
matchless grace in the "Winter's Tale" all
tried to 60 and dance like her, and to see
Ellen Terry's spring in the pretty Olivia
teaches one how entirely beautiful is this
strong command of ones muscles. From
the German cotillon back to the Virginia
reel, is indeed bound. Our grandfathers
knew how to dance. We are fast getting
back to them. The earliest dancing mas
tiers were Frenchmen, and our ancestors
were taught to "pirouette" as did Vestris
when he was so obliging as to say, after
royal command "The house of Vestris has
always danced for that of Bourbon. The
galop has, during the long languor
of the dance, alone held its own,
in the matter of jollity. The glide waltz,
the redowa, the stately minuet, give only
the slow and graceful motions. The galop
has always been great favorite with the
Swedes, Danes and Russians, while the
redowa reminds one of the graceful Viennese
who dance it so we'll The mazourka danced
to wild Polish music is a poetical and active
affair.
The Old German Cotfllon.
The introduction of Hungarian bands and
Hungarian music is another reason why
dancing has become ''hop, skip and a
bound" without losing dignity or grace.
Activity need not be vulgar. The German
cotillon, born many years ago in Vienna to
meet the requirements Of court etiquette, is
still the fashionable dance with which the
ball closes Its favors, beginning with
flowers and ribbons and bits of tinsel, have
now ripened into fans, bracelets, gold scarf
pins and pencil cases and many things more
expensive. FavorS may cost 5000 for a
fashionable bali, or "dance," as they say in
London.
The german is.a dance of an infinite va
riety, and to lead it requires man of head.
One such leader, who constructs new
figures, becomes power in society. The
waltz, galop, redowa and polka step can all
be utilized in it. There is a slow walk in
the quadrille figure, stately march, the
bows and curtsies of the old minuet, and
above all, the tour de yalse, which is the
means of locomotion from place to place. The
changeful exigencies of the various figures
lead the 40 or so, or the 200, to meet, ex-
change greetings, dance with each other,
change their geographical position many
times. Indeed no army goes through more
eyolutions.
. A Basket, a Ring and a Flower.
A pretty figure is 'La Corbeille PAnnean
ct la fieur" The first couple performs a
tour de 3alse, after which the gentleman
presents the lady with basket containing
a ring and flower, then resumes his seat.
The lady presents the ring to one gentle
man, the flower to another, and the basket
to the third. The gentleman to whom she
presents the ring selects partner for him
self, the gentleman who receives the flower
dances with the lady who presents it, while
the other gentleman holds the basket in his