The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-04-23
THE SLEEPY PARTNER.
One OF the Insunerable Bores of n Boston
Dancing Party.

fiction and ON the stage IL goes almost
without saying that an heiress has an
advantage over other women in win
ming the admiration of men. But it is
not so at a Boston party. At a Boston
party wealth and social position fade
before the danger of being obliged to
talk to young woman for more than
fifteen minutes ut u time. Society and
fortune are not to be weighed in the
same balance with such an ordeal.
Many funny stories are told of how
young men have conspired to ''relieve"
one another from too long CONVERSE
ton. And what an attitude of gallantrv
is suggested by this word "relief!' A
young man is rescued by volunteers. as
II he were shipwreclSed mariner in
distress, or is left to his fate without
relief" And if by chance he has been
presented to II stranger to our city, he
might as well give up all hope of subse-
quent liberty.
At every party there is varying per-
centage of young men who wonder,
when they seek a partner for dance,
whether they are making a mistake,
and lose all sense of expected friendli-
ness in the wearing uncertainty. Often
uncertainty develops into probability,
and probability develops into certainty,
that their liberty is gone. If a man is
good partner he will feign undyinR
checrfulness in his hard lot; he will
dance repeatedly with his partner and
stop with her like q fresh conner in soma
new corner of the room.
His very kindness will deceive the
reserve supply of young men standing
in the doorway But your bad partner
will succumb to his fate. His last gasp
will be, Don't you like to sit and watch
the dancing?" He then will sit and
watch, with eyes slowly closing and
head little on one side-the embodi-
ment of unobtrusive patience.
And his partner, left between the
Scylla and Charybdis of accepting his
sacrifice and sitting alone-what is her
frame of mind? Usually she chooses
Scylla. 1t is better to have partner,
even if his eyes are half closed and his
head is on one side, and he has long
ago ceased to speak, than to be quite
alone in the gay world. She knows that
the drowsy man will never dare to
speak to her again.
She has ruined his evening and, per-
haps. she has lost friend. She hopes
that she has lost all ambition for self
employment; that he is thinking of his
busines S; that he is no longer unhappy
but is almost as comfortable as If he
were at home and abcd. Her other
friends stroll or dance by her. Some OF
them have been in the habit of calling
her by her Christian name; many have
visited at her house; all have been en-
tertained there. She would like to feigr
cheerfulness, but she fears to address
her partner, foreseeing the awful sleep
liness which his eyes would discloSt
should he raise the lids. She thinks %
asking him to get her glass Of water
in the expectation that he will diSap
pear with the glass. But she feels tina
he is the soul of honor, and that he viii
sit with her in his comatose condition X
the last trump.
Under such circumstances your heroi
young woman will go to the dressing
room and sit down there in her bcauti
full dress, which she has unpaclled fror
the dressmaker's box with thrill O
expectation. She is pretty; she ca
dance well; she is amiable; she is rich
her family is of the best. She can pla,
the Piano indifferently well; she know
, something of three languages; she ha
made beginning in philosophy and pc
, litical economy, and physics and chem
istry and philology.
A great deal has been done for he
socially, and she is bitter at heart whe
, her friends come painting into the roor
: to have their torn dresses repaired. Tha
! awful, sleepy partner and the needles
, Cayety of the others is all the societ
= that she knows.
The trouble is that popularity an
, neglect are intensified at our Bosto
parties by their peculiar conditions. l
Europe every girl has her chaperone t
whom she goes after her dance, and it
: not burning disgrace to be seen wit
her mother. And ahy man may dare
speak to her. knowing that he ma
have her after the dance wf.:ch he ASK
for. Here, too, in years gone by, whc
the german was more in vogue, theI
: was not the same difficulty for ever
lady then had both seat and partnI
= she could call her own, and every mai
being bound to his own partner, wa
free to have other women when h
chose.
But now girl who is ''stuck" is in
most miserable plight She must be
y for pity somewhere, if only for Sc;
by some older lady. And to many
' young woman the prospect of a party
matter of great nervousness and an
iety, and many man finds his bett,
d nature warped by selfish motives of
n petty but most eXasperating kind
Boston Transcript.