[Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope]@TWC D-Link bookDomestic Manners of the Americans CHAPTER 13 5/13
The bearing and attitudes of the men are perfectly indescribable; the heels thrown higher than the head, the entire rear of the person presented to the audience, the whole length supported on the benches, are among the varieties that these exquisite posture-masters exhibit.
The noises, too, were perpetual, and of the most unpleasant kind; the applause is expressed by cries and thumping with the feet, instead of clapping; and when a patriotic fit seized them, and "Yankee Doodle" was called for, every man seemed to think his reputation as a citizen depended on the noise he made. Two very indifferent figurantes, probably from the Ambigu Comique, or la Gaiete, made their appearance at Cincinnati while we were there; and had Mercury stepped down, and danced a _pas seul_ upon earth, his godship could not have produced a more violent sensation.
But wonder and admiration were by no means the only feelings excited; horror and dismay were produced in at least an equal degree.
No one, I believe, doubted their being admirable dancers, but every one agreed that the morals of the Western world would never recover the shock.
When I was asked if I had ever seen any thing so dreadful before, I was embarrassed how to answer; for the young women had been exceedingly careful, both in their dress and in their dancing, to meet the taste of the people; but had it been Virginie in her most transparent attire, or Taglioni in her most remarkable pirouette, they could not have been more reprobated.
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