Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1922-02-22

In Dress and Demeanor-Has No
DeIusions as to Boundaries He May
Not Cross.
New York has many night workers
who earn their livelihood by providing
necessities or luxuries for the jewellers
within it's gates and among those who
follow the White Light path of effort
to provide the luxuries there is one
who is almost unique. His business is
that of acting as dancing partner and
entertainment escort for unattached
women, especially those from out of
town. He is not a lounge lizard-one
of those plastered-hair youths who
haunt the cabarets at night, ostensibly
as dancing instructors, and bootleg
or deal in coke by day. Nor is he a
hanger-on, in cOrseted dinner jacket
and razOr-edged trousers, in the So
called dancing academies of Broadway.
There are only half-dozen of these
squires of danes, of many danes and
also damosels, in the metropolis, for
the type is born, not made, and must
have a peculiar mental equipment and
rather unusual traits. Conservative
ness in dress and demeanor are two Of
the most prominent characteristics are,
in fact, second to their fOotwork in the
rating of their assets. Their services
are not sought by the fiapper or the
women who habitually feed on the jazz
of the cabaret rather than it's menu.
They are in demand, and the demand
exceeds the supply, from the many lone
women, young and middle-aged, who
come from all parts of the country for
a taste of metropolitan life and have
never learned to dance, or at least to
dance what are popularity supposed to
be the newest steps.
These women stay at the best of
New York's hotels, are well supplied
with money and not infrequently are
of high social standing at home. They
| may, it is true, obtain instruction in
dancing from the hotel hostess, who
usually combines exhibition dancing
with instruction, but her rates are $40
an hour, and she doesn't lead the way
a man does. What woman wants to
learn how to dance with a woman If
she can help it? Moreover, the visit
ors are seeking more than the ability
to dance; more than to be able to re-
turn home and display to admiring
friends a fox-trot variation directly
| imported from the Great White Way.
They want to dance with a man on
! that Great White Way, be a part of it
| for the time being.
Finding the Right Man.
But the finding of the right man to
one unacquainted in New York is not
easy. He must be one who will not
| take advantage of a woman unused to
| it's ways; who will be deferential with
out appearing to. be paid attendant;
assured in bearing but not possessive;
with whom the woman can appear at
| the best restaurants without exciting
| unfavorable comment, and whom,
| should she meet an acquaintance from
her home city, she can introduce as
New York friend without the certainty
| of unpleasant gossip. Our squire of
| danes, our host-about-tow doesn't ad-
vertise, his name is not on file at the
hotel information desk and he has no
| office.
He makes his headquarters in GER
! tain public dance hall, conducted on a
large scale, where those who can dance
do so to their hearts content at small
| cost and where those of either sex who
seek education in dancing can get it
| for nominal sum without binding
/ themselves to pay for an entire course.
| Here the squire of danes is an instruc-
tor, a purely nominal position, which
| opens the door to those activities
which give him life of leisure, enter
tainment and a good income. The Wis
| itor knows he is an instructor because
| his badge tells her so. He is modestly
| but carefully dressed in business garb.
Posted notices inform her that his in
struction charge will be whatever she
chooses to give him in addition to the
regular fee charged for dancing. He
| collects a small commission from the
management for each dance.
In a manner that is purely business
like and impersonal he asks her if she
cares to dance or wishes instruction
She does. She finds him a patient and
skillful instructor, with manner
which impresses her as placing him d
shade above the position he occupies
She does not know that, with the care
fulness born of experience, he has
picked her as liberal payer and that
! if she fails to meet his expectations be
will be too busy to give instruction tt
her on the morrow. He gives his at
| tentions only to those who reward hin
with a fee not less than 81. The in
struction continues, the time comes
when the woman feels that she car
! dance at a hotel supper or cabaret OF
a society ball without exciting pity fol
her clumsiness. Her feet itch to foo
| it on some such floor.
Engages an Escort.
But where the escort where the
dancing partner? The only one she
knows is her instructor and who couit
better fill the want? She has learned
to follow his leads and steps perfectly
He fulfills all that propriety could asl
for In dress, manner and department
And it is business transaction. Sh