The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-27

DOCK Ol reference remarked that ''IJanclnS | in present-day society is a comparatively simple affair, as five-sixths of almost all 1 ballroom programmes consist of waltzes." | How like ancient history this sounds So has the world moved since 1910. There are persons who find time for bridge; certainly many manage to get to a play now and then, and the round of social festivities, | If you look at the calendar. you find it shows no signs of diminishing. Yet if surface indications count for anything, everybody is engaged during virtually all his waking hours in one of two things he or she is either dancing the new dances or learning to dance them.
 Certainly nothing like the present devo- | tion Git would be lbelous to call 't q craze) has been seen since the polka took ! the pubic by storm more tilan liai4 een- | tury ago. The polka was merely the | chief of the national dances of Bohemia | When 1t was recognized by society in 183o. | peasant girl had been observed dancing | and singing 1t by gentleman who was sufficiently interested to note the tune and | the steps. and from that moment 1t start | ed on its wor1d-conquering ring career | From Prague it spread to Vienna, from ! Vienna to Paris. from Paris to the ball. | rooms of England and America. Even the | London Times complained that the polka | had taken the place of politics in Paris, | and the papers were as full of jokes | about 1t as they now are of allusions to | the tango and the fox trot. Yet for all it's | fame who gives the polka a passing | thought in these closing days of 1914? 1t l has been interesting to observe the atti- 1 tude of the old world toward the new dances of our times If we accepted the polka upon a European salver, so to speak, we have returned the compliment many times. Beginning with the cake walk, Europe's repertoire of dances has been heightened by America. Uplifted | O al ota1 ( Argentina had bit of difficulty receiv- ing the attention of London and Paris for It's tango. But the despised South Ameri- can republic has had a glorious revenge From indifference the staid bathrooms of Europe have proceeded to endurance of 1 the new steps, then to 9 timid trying of them and finally to their enthusia stic 1 adoption.
 So once more we witness American in- vasion of the old world. And out of the great mass of strange rhythm, which of | late years have set moving the feet of young and old, have been evolved a
 number of captivating steps.
 There are still, to be sure, many dances which might be transplanted in their en- 1 drety from the obscure portions of the earth to it's centers of light and gayety-- dances that are more modern than any
 of those now being danced. A tribe, for instance, living in somewhere in the h. 1 dian ocean, have a real one-step for they l hop on one foot and swing the arms vio- lcntly backward and forward Their neighboring tribe, a gobe-trotter told me, have an odd kind of two-step, which con- ] sists in hopping with both feet together while clapping their hands, and especially l being sure to bring their long hair down
 In front of the face.
 l The new dances, say what you may, have displaced the old because they have | revealed new beauties in the poetry of motion. When. indeed is a girl more ] fascinating than in following the caprici- ous steps of the strange new dances? | Whlmscal Nell Brinkly tells her-wisely, too--to tread lightly. oh girl, who dances all the strange and queer and lovely and amazing things christened musical tongue-tickling names from South Amer ica, for my heart is there, right there on the boards at your feet, dancing girl with feet of blowing thistle-seed, arms like
 blowing foam and face like a happy flower! Oh tread lighter than if you were dancing on the icing of a lemon pie for
 there's my heart-at your slipper tip.' One of the loveliest of the younger visit
 ing girls is Miss Cornelia Arayfield of Texas, who Is the guest of Miss Gillian
 Goodall She is brunette beauty who
 dresses charmingiy and with an individu-
 ality that everyone has remarked. The
 college set is completely charmed with her.
 Miss Elizabeth Burgess of Boston, who is having her first visit south as the
 guest of Miss Serena Kirkpatrick, has ex- pressed the liveliest enthusiasm over peo- ple and things southern. The south and
 that portion of it that has taken her into its circle here finds Miss Burgess one of the most delightful as well as one of the most modish visiting young women
 of the winter. She has been beautifully
 entertained during the few days of her
 visit to Miss Kirkpatrick MT. Ned Me-
 Crossin, giving a theatre party in her
 honor Friday evening after MT. and Mrs.
 Kirkpatrick had entertained a large num- Der of their friends at home during the
 day to introduce her. Last evening she
 vas one of the popular girls noted in
 tho ballroom during the, dinner dance at
 the Country club.
 Miss Gladys Waibridge Clark, whose
 photograph appears in this department of
 The Age-Herald today, is the daughter
 Of MT. and Mrs. Percy Clark. She went
 tu "Burleigh." the ancestral home of her mother in North Carolina this week te
 attend the marriage of her cousin. Miss
 Mimi Phifer, to NProf. Samuel Henry
 Sheib of Vanderbilt, which took place
 Monday evening. Miss Clark carries 1T Llier ancestral ines{ the Hunt-McGehe' houses: the first of colonial war record sS12 the latter,~thnt of the Confederacy
 Maj John Jelhaxa's mother. who wa
 MoG t0rnal 910o