“Why, then they go into a cold room, or into the open air, and catch cold; that’s all. ’Tis but a week ago that my daughter recovered from a severe cough. These, sir, are the fatal consequences of that dance amongst us; and that’s the reason I don’t like it. It is not adapted to our climate. Am I not right, sir?”
“Perfectly,” replied my friend.
“Health before everything; that’s my motto. But there is no use in preaching to those girls; they will have their own way in everything.”
“But you seem to forget that waltzing is becoming more and more the fashion in England.”
“Is that really the case?” demanded the old gentleman; “then it cannot be so bad after all,—the English have pretty good notions on all such subjects,—if our girls would only take care of their health.”
Here the conversation was interrupted by a sudden rush of the company, occasioned by the announcement of supper. At this important summons, ladies and gentlemen, the wife of our entertainer with the pantalooned country representative at their head, were pairing off in great haste, to shape their course down to a large room on the ground-floor, which during the first part of the evening had been kept carefully closed, but was now thrown open for the more substantial amusement of the party. This, however, is too important a subject to be treated as a mere episode: it deserves a separate chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] The great rendezvous and head-quarters of the democrats of the city of New York.
CHAPTER VI.
A German Dissertation on Eating.—Application of Eating to Scientific, Moral, and Political Purposes.—Democrats in America not in the Habit of entertaining People.—Consequences of this Mistake.—The Supper.—Dialogue between a Country Representative and a Fashionable Lady.—Mode of winning Country Members.—Hatred of the Higher Classes of everything belonging to Democracy.—Attachment of the Old Families to England.—Hatred of the “Vulgar English.”—The French, and even the English, not sufficiently aristocratic for the Americans.—Generosity of the Americans towards England.—A Fashionable Young Lady.—An American Exquisite.—Middle-aged Gentlemen and Ladies.—Americans not understanding how to amuse themselves, because they do not know how to laugh.—Negroes the happiest People in the United States.—Breaking-up of the Party.—Gallantry of the Gentlemen.