The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-12-02
THE SARATOGA HOP.
WILLIAM D. HOWELLS DESCRIBES THE
GAY FUNCTION.

tions of tho Young and the Not Young
Mr.. W. d. Howells' novelette, "An
Open Eyed Conspiracy" in The Cen
fury, contains the following description
of that important social function, a
Saratoga hop:
She and the evening were equally fit
ted for the event to which they seemed
equally dedicated The dancing was to
be out of doors on vast planking, or
platform, set up in the heart of that
bosky court which the hotel incloses.
Around this platform dropped the slim,
tall Saratogan trees and over it hung
the Saratoban sky, of nocturnal blue
very rare in our latitude, with the stars
faint i'll it's depths, and by and by a
white moon that permitted itself a
modest competition with the electric
lights effulgent everywhere. There was
great crowd of people in the portico,
the vestibule and the inner piazzas and
on the lawn around the platform, where
1.-THE trodden weed" sent up the sweet
scent of bruised grass in the cool night
air. My foolish old heart bounded with
pulse of youth at the thought of all
the gay and tender possibilities of such
q scene.
But the young people under my care
seemed in no haste to mingle in it. We
oldsters are always fancying youth i'm.
patient, but there is no time of life
which has so much patience. 1t behaves
as if it had eternity before it-an eter-
nifty of youth-instead of a few DAYS
and years and then the frosty pow We
who are young no longer think we
would do so and so if we were young,
as women think they would do so and
so If they were men, but if we We're
really young again we should not do at
all what we tn ink.
We should not hurry to experience
our emotions; we should not press for
ward to discharge our duties or repair
our mistakes; we should not seize the
occasion to make a friend or reconcile
an enemy we should let weeks and
months go by in the realization of a
passion and trust all sorts of contingent
cies and accidents to help us out with
its confession. The thoughts of youth
are very long, and its conclusions are
deliberate and delayed and often with
held altogether. 1t is age which is trem-
ulously eager in these matters and can
not wait with the fine patience of ma
ture in her growing moods
AS soon even as | was in the hotel /
was impatient to press through to the
place where the dancing was, and
where l already heard the band play
ing. l knew very we'll that when we
got there I should have to sit down
somewhere on the edge of the platform
with the other frumps and fogies and
begin taking cold in my dress coat and
want to doze off without being able to,
while my young people were waltzing
together or else promenading up and
down, ignoring me or recognizing me by
the offer of fan and the question
whether l was not simply melting
have seen how the poor chaperon fares
at such times. But they, secure of their
fun, were by no means DESTROYS to have
1T over or even to have it begin. They
dawdled through the thronged hotel
office, where other irresponsible pairs
were coming and going under the ad-
miring eyes of the hotel loungers, and
they wandered up and down the waste
parlors and sat on tete-a-tetes Just to
try them apparently, and Miss Gage
verified in the mirrors the beauty which
was reflected in all eyes. They amused
themselves with the extent of the richly
carpeted and upholstered desolation
around them, where only few lonely
and aging women lurked about on sofas
and ottomans, and they fell to play ing
with their compassion for the plebeian
spectators at the long veranda windows
trying to penetrate with their forbidden
eyes to the hop going on in the court
Tar beyond the intermediary desert of
the parlors
When they signified at last that they
were ready for me to lead them on to
the dance, would so much rather have
gone to bed that there are no words for
the comparison. Then, when we got to
the place. which l should never have
been able to reach in the world if it had
not been for the young energy and in
SEPARATION of Hendricks, and they had
put me in certain seat with Miss
Cages wraps beside me where they
couId ma me, they went off and danced
for hours and hours. For hours and
hours? For ages and ages, while with
cred away amid moldering mothers and
saw my charges through the dreadful
half dreams of such a state whirling in
the waltz, hopping in the polka, sliding
In the galop and then endlessly walk
ing up and down between the dances
and eating and drinking the chill re-
freshments that it made my teeth chat
ter to think of.
/ suppose they decently came to me
from time to time, though they seemed
to be always dancing, for could after
ward remember Miss Gage taking a
wrap from me now and then, and quick
" coming back to shed it upos my lap
again. l got so chilled that if they had
not been Enthusiastically women's wraps
should have bundled them all about
my shoulders, which I could almost
hear oreak with rheumatism. must
have fallen into a sort Of browse at last.