Warren sheaf., 1905-05-04


gulshed during his prep" and college
days for his devotion to dancing, has
recently accepted a responsible position
ID business house and has announced
MS renunciation of his favorite pas
time.
we never expected this of you, Wal
ter" laughed one of his favor1te cou-
sins. I'VE thought that we might
count upon you to the bitter end. You
have always professed yourself will
ing to sacrifice your all for dancing.
The girls are in despair. No one leads
IKE you, and it does really seem as
though you might go to at least one
dance week.
Il might if the girls would set the
hours where they ought to be-" re-
piled the boy. 81 like to dance as we'll
as ever did. But have a little sense
OF honor, and l find that if am up
late l am not as clear-headed nor as
patient as l am when keep regular
nours. l mean to give to my employ
ers the very best there is in me.
can't DO that when I am dancing until
TWO or three o'clock two or three
nights or even one night per week. If
the dances would begin at eight or
halt-past, or even at nine, and close at
II, think could, as you say. stand at
least one each week, but now thew be-
gin between 10 and II and last until
almost daylight, and, though l haven't
as much conscience as I wish l had, I
can't feel right to go to them. 1 sup
posed that I was exceptional that I
must be a sort of physical weakling, to
be SO much overcome by these late
hours, but two of my old college mates
with whom I lunched the other day,
said, OF their own accord, that they
could not afford the time nor strength
any more to go to dances-and then
there was general confession all
around. They say that all the fellows
they know have had to give up
dancing"
81 should think that the girls would
care enough about you to try and
change the hours
They seem to feel rather bad because
we don't come any more, but there is
set OF rich boys who either work for
their own fathers, who let them come
to business when they choose, or else
boys who live on their incomes and do
nothing but sport from morning to
night and from night to morning, and
these fellows set the pace. The girls
can sleep all the morning if they want
to, and they can't realize what it is to
have to eat breakfast at seven or eight
and then pitch into work for the day.
They simply cannot grasp the idea
They scold about cur not coming, and
feel hurt, but it does not seem to occur
to them that by making a little effort
they could arrange things so that most
OF us could come to their parties, or q
good many of them
This conversation led to interviews
with several prominent society girls.
why can't you make your parties
sensible? You want all these fine busi-
ness and professional men to come to
them. You get tired of the sporting
talk of the idle fellowship beam
length of the yachts, the new develop
ments in motors, the sort of missile
which kills big game to the most
deadly advantage. You would rather
hear of the real life of these young
men who are struggling to achieve
something. To their conversation the
sporting talk is as moonlight unto
sunlight and as water unto wine. And
yet you deliberately shut out these
better elements by your silly conven-
tions as to time"
The girls insisted that the thor
ough-going society men" had the
whip hand They preferred to have
their long dinners and then their
smoking time before they should dance
and what could the girls do? There
is no beast of the field more abso-
lutely and ingenuously selfish than
your professional society man. and
he has no institution more sacred
to him than his dinner, with its appen-
dix of wine and smoke AS he dimes
out more than half the time, the early
dance would seriously incommode him.
Unless the girls take up the matter Of
reform with high hand the dances
will probably continue to begin at II,
as at present
Surely, it is better to sleep in the day
time than not to sleep at all. But it is true
that our society girls are on the whole
i pretty sickly SET and one cannot help
feeling that their unnatural mode of life
is largely to blame for their ailments.
When one goes to bed between one
and five four-fifths of the time, one
can hardly expect to be what the old
fashioned people used to call rugged"
Fortunately the great mass of the
people are not fools. They have some
useful occupation to which they must
HE early in the day, and at which they
must work so hard and long that they
are glad to drop into their beds at
from to IL o'clock every night.
Still, considerable class Of our youth,
especially in the larger cities, are in
jured by these unnecessarily late