Style, that with pride each empty bosom swells,
Puffs boys to manhood, little girls to belles.
The waltz was a novelty in those days, and “Salmagundi” “views with alarm” its introduction into the social life of the town:
Scarce from the nursery freed, our gentle fair
Are yielded to the dancing-master’s care;
And, ere the head one mite of sense can gain,
Are introduced ’mid folly’s frippery train.
A stranger’s grasp no longer gives alarms,
Our fair surrender to their very arms,
And in the insidious waltz will swim and twine,