Morning journal and courier., 1891-01-29
THE SPANISH DANCERS.
Julian Hawthorne Discourses on
the New Inquisitfon.

Julian Hawthorne Discourses on
the New Inquisition.
from Lippncott's for January.l
When the apple is fully ripe it falls;
when the chrysalis is mature it bursts, and
behold! the butterfly. When tights and
gauze had done their work the time gave
birth to'a more gracious dispensation.
We were ready for it, though perhaps we
did not wholly apprehend its significance
at the outset. Perverted training, like bad
habits, is not rectifed in a day. The
medicine that makes us whole sometimes
discommodes us temporarily. 1t was evil
dent at all events that either these Spanish
senoritas did not know what dancing was,
or we did not. If they were right, then
we had all along been wrong. But the
senoritas not only had beauty and grace on
their side, but it was perceived that their
performances meant something. Nobody
had ever pretended to extract any men
tionable meaning out of tights and gauze.
The senoritas, without ever opening their
lips save to smile, uttered new language,
"a language moro captivating even than
their native Castilian, and which could be
understood without any dictionary or
phrase-book other than Mother Nature
gives to all her children,-a language old
as history, and as winning as beauty beau
tifully moving could make it. But though
the vocabulary was simple-primitive, in
deed-the combinations were endless and
of unending interest; they constituted q
| study worthy the attention of civilized
man, and of truly aesthetic influence. AS
| regarded legs, there was, certainly, de-
| gree of reticence on the senoritas part
| reticence not prudish by any means, but
| indicating artistic symmetry and subordi-
| nation. The legs were employed not as an
end in themselves, but as support of the
body; and in this new guise they immedi-
| ately assumed fresh significance and fas-
| cination. In short, we admitted that our
| old theory of dancing had not a leg to
| stand on and the slender foot of Andalu-
| STA was on our necks.
| Far be it from the humble scribe who
indites these lines to venture upon the
| task of discriminating between the divini-
| ties who, at the present writing, reign
| over US, and, by the spell of their dance,
send our obedient blood dancing through
our veins. One star differeth from anoth-
er in glory; but the glory of each is its
| own and in the armament of art there is
space for all. am duly thankful, rather,
that walk of sixty seconds will convey
me from Carmencita to Otero, and from
| Otero back to Carmencita. To ask which
were the better were barbarous and vain;
they are both better than anything else
that has been vouchsafed us. Otero is adj
mirable and adorable; Carmencita is ador-
| able and admirable. Because picture is
beautiful I do not turn away from a
statue. To dwell in the presence of both
were felicity. If the king of Spain were
| not so young a man I should have a very
poor opinion of his intelligence. Only his
youth can excuse him for permitting these
young ladies to leavehis dominic rs. Alasl
poor monarch! unlucky Catholic majesty
He was born in an evil year-a dozen years
at least too late. He rules barren en-
pire; he wears a crown from which the
jewels are missing. The play of "Ham-
LETT without the prince is tolerable com
pared with Spain empty of Otero and Car
to keep them. They have been admitted
duty free, to the utter humiliation of our
infant terpsichorean industry; but the ia
riff on their expectation shall be prohibi-