nor of the two sexes. The lions and the fawns
seemed to have changed hearts,--perhaps they had. It was the boys that
were nervous. The girls were unquailing. The boys were, however,
heroic. They tried bravely to hide the fox and his gnawings; but
traces were visible. They made desperate feint of being at the height
of enjoyment and unconscious of spectators; but they had much modesty,
for all that. The girls threw themselves into it pugnis et
calcibus,--unshrinking, indefatigable. Did I say that it was amusing?
I should rather say that it was painful. Can it be anything but
painful to see young girls exhibiting the hardihood of the
"professional" without the extenuating necessity?

There is another thing which girls and their mothers do not seem to
consider. The present mode of dress renders waltzing almost as
objectionable in a large room as the boldest feats of a French
ballet-dancer.

If the title of my article do not sufficiently indicate the depth and
breadth of knowledge on which my opinions assume to be based, let me,
that I may not seem to claim confidence upon false pretences, confess
that I have never seen, either in this country or abroad, any
ballet-dancer or any dancer on any stage. I do not suppose that I have
ever been at any assembly where waltzing was a part of the amusements
half a dozen times in my life, and never in the daytime, upon this
occasion. I also admit that the sensations with which one would look
upon this performance at Harvard would depend very much upon whether
one went to it from that end of society which begins at the Jardin
Mabille, or that which begins at a New England farm-house. I speak
from the stand-point of the New England farm-house. Whether that or
the Jardin Mabille is nearer the stand-point of the Bible, every one
must decide for himself. When I say "this is right, this is wrong," I
do not wish to be understood as settling the question for others, but
as expressing my own strongest conviction. When I say that the present
mode of dress renders waltzing almost as objectionable in a large room
as the boldest feats of a French ballet-dancer, I mean that, from what
I have heard and read of ballet-dancers, I judge that these girls
gyrating in the centre of their gyrating and unmanageable hoops, cannot
avoid, or do not know how to avoid, at any rate do not avoid, the
exposure which the short skirts of the ballet-dancer are intended to
make, and which, taking to mys