oor, overworked papa!--give themselves precious little
trouble,--this prate of ball-room opportunity is singularly and
engagingly idiotic. The worthy people who hold such language may justly
boast themselves superior to reason and impregnable to light. The only
effective reply to these creatures would be a cuffing, the well meant
objections of another class merit the refutation of distinct
characterization. It is the old talk of devotees about sin, of topers
concerning water, temperance men of gin, and albeit it is neither wise
nor witty, it is becoming in us at whom they rail to deal mercifully
with them. In some otherwise estimable souls one of these harmless brain
cracks may be a right lovable trait of character.

Issues of a social import as great as a raid against dancing have been
raised ere now. Will the coming man smoke? Will the coming man drink
wine? These tremendous and imperative problems only recently agitated
some of the "thoughtful minds" in our midst. By degrees they lost their
preeminence, they were seen to be in process of solution without social
cataclysm, they have, in a manner been referred for disposal to the
coming man himself, that is to say, they have been dropped, and are
to-day as dead as Julius Caesar. The present hour has, in its turn,
produced its own awful problem: Will the coming woman waltz?

As a question of mere fact the answer is patent: She will. Dancing will
be good for her; she will like it; so she is going to waltz. But the
question may rather be put--to borrow phraseology current among her
critics: Had she oughter?--from a moral point of view, now. From a moral
point, then, let us seek from analogy some light on the question of
what, from its actual, practical bearings, may be dignified by the name
Conundrum.

Ought a man not to smoke?--from a moral point of view. The economical
view-point, the view-point of convenience, and all the rest of them, are
not now in question; the simple question is: Is it immoral to smoke? And
again--still from the moral point of view: Is it immoral to drink wine?
Is it immoral to play at cards?--to visit theaters? (In Boston you go to
some

harmless "Museum,"
Where folks who like plays may religiously see 'em.)

Finally, then--and always from the same elevated view-point: Is it
immoral to waltz?

The suggestions here started will not be further pursued in this place.
It is quite pertinent now to note that we do smoke