The Woes of "Wall-Flowers."

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 47, 23 August 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Woes of " WallFlowers."

" Ballrooms should have a lining of hotwater pipes," complained a. " wallflower lately. It is so difficult to keep a pleasan\ nonchalant expression on one's face while one's shoulders arc freezing, and horrid little goose-shivers chasu each othur up aud down one's spine. And just when it seems absolutely certain that Bronchitis and pleurisy are sure to follow the evening's — so-culled — enjoyment, some wretched girl, who hus been capering and bounding through the Lancers, passes with her partner and says to mo with malice, " Oh, isn't it hot, I'm just baked— l must have- an ico or ill die." No arrangements are over made for tho comfort of " wallflowers," whether they be temporary or permanent, 'iuo hostess who will provide not only a smokingroom for her male guests, but also a cosy sitting-room for girls where men may not intrude, will earn the thanks of all those damsels who have occasion to sit out one or moro dancos. "I don't uetually mind not dancing," says Cloriudu, " but every one fancies I mind, so what worries me is the fact that I am, supposed to be worrying. That is the real reason why you see girls dancing with little unfledged boys and podgy old men. Half a man is better tharr none. Hostesses won't ask you out if you don't get partners, and mon won't dance with you if you have the reputation of being a wallflower. Oh, 1 know how they talk — I have six brothers and hundreds of cousins, and the airs they give themselves are something amazing. Said George, aged nineteon, to Lionel, aged eighteen, the other day — ' I danced with the girl ; 'pon my soul, I felt sorry for her, - she hadn't had a single dance. It was a dance I was keeping vacant, too. I wanted a smoke badly, but I always feel sorry for the old girls, so I carted her round, and got Teddy to do the same.' "'" ' Good iron 1' returned Lionel. ' I let my duty dances slide. I was going it pretty hot with Mrs. Blank — real good sort sho is, and I never gave a thought to another .woman, but a fellow ought to think of the wallflowers now and

again.' " " So," continued Clorinda, " I have determined to dance no more. My last ball produced eight partners, all of them married men younger than myself, who told me anecdotes about their children — it was most depressing, I assure you. I will go to a 'final ball, my goin'g-in ball. I will' wear all black, and oarry a funeral wreath. After that I will refuse all invitations, and stay at home with my feet on the fender, and think with amused contempt of my contemporaries who ate still striving to sparkle and look young for the benefit of pompous little boys, whose whole attitude is one of benign condescension." The dancer is provided with every luxury. A good floor, cosy sitting-out corners, and little comfortable nooks. The "wallflower" is condemned to t?<s ballroom benches, and her rescue can only be effected by a male being, who, in tho manner of the children in that soulstirring game " French and English " leaves his own bounds for the attempt, without his assistance the wallflower is condemned to the benches. She may not stir hand or foot in her own cause. When a possible Perseus draws near, Andromeda must show no signs of weariness ; she must not look too pathetic, she must wear her rue with an amiable' sviilo, and act as if a hard bench and a coid wall to lean against constituted her idea- of felicity.

" Indeed 1" cries Elizabeth, " if it were merely tho wall behind ono, it would not be *o bad, but there are all kinds of uncomfortable decoration*, that pull at one's hair and drag off one's fringe not. One night I leant against a long blackberry spray. My back looked as if I had been tattooed for days after. Of course," she wont on, "I have not sat out many dances in my life, but I have sat out enough to know the feeling. The anxiety at the very beginning, when things are settled for the evening. The endeavour to be seen by a favourite partner, and tho necessary coquetry of pretending not t6 see him when ho is- close by. The reckless refusal of bores, whom later in tue evening, with several dances to spare, ono regards with considerable regret. One* tt>t is decided in that first twenty minutes in tho ballroom, and the girl who keeps her heau is to be envied. Of course, I do not believe iv manipulating one's programme with a view to deceive undesirable partuers. That is crude, and it is not truthful. I prefer to depend on manner and tact. Certainly, it is advisablo now and again to take homo a manipulated programme for mamma to see, but that is only to save her worry." " Worry?" "Yes, if I've danced nine times with any one partner, you know, that would worry her. It is selfish to grieve your pnrents when it can be so easily avoided."

" But talking of 'wallflowers ' — " " Yss, the permanent ,ones are the ones I am sony for. They are so brave j thoy go to dance after dance, and are so grateful if they don't sit out more than two-thirds of the evening. They even go to subscription dances. Fancy paying ten and six for the privilege of dancing four dances with four different men. That is two and sevenpence halfpenny a man, besides the cost of dress, gloves, shoes, and cnbs. No wonder they prow spiteful about other girls, and say, 'A pity her axms are so red,' and ' What ho i-ce's in her I can't think.' 'She just throws herself at men's heads. Any one could get on if thoy cared to behave as she does."

Howover, it is difficult to give genuine pity to the permanent wallfloM-or. When a girl has tested her fate at eighteen or twenty balls, and discovers that she is not a success, she should give up. Sho should bow to the inevitable, and take refuge in her pride and dignity. It in for tho little- new bantling " wulltlowor " that ono may be genuinely concerned. The sad ltttle soul who leaves the ballroom with her mother before 11 o'clock because no one has naked her to dance. One suth cried surreptitious tears of mortification as she took hor, place in the ajmost empty tram ou her wav home. She was very pretty, and shy-looking, her hair had been dressed nt a hairdresser's, her frock was quite new and dainty. She carried a great bouquet, and attached to it her quite blank pro pramme. It was her first ball, and all the delightful anticipations that she had indulged in were now a source of added woe.

"The wiso T wallflower,'" put in Elizabeth, "you will and in tho dressingroom. Go and look. Her non-success is hidden there,"

The dresfting-room certainly is the haven. Here fly the halt, torn, and unclaimed with really exquisite excuses. "I don't know when I've sat out a dance before," reully I don't. Last Tuesday I was rushed, positively rushed. If I had had four programmes' I could not possibly have dunoed with nil tho men who asked me. To-night there tn-e no men, no men at all, except crpituie-i whom I have been cutting for years. What are you doing in here?" turni-g to a meek Httle girl. " I came in to have my dress mended ; the woman is getting -,>rae cotton." " I made such a muddlo of mv programme, and slipped Arthur for a dance, and now he won't dance with me at all, so that leaves three vacant spaces on my programme. I'm so angry with myself,' puts in another girl. One leaning against tho wall opens her eyes. "I Liul such a headache, and I can't go home till the others are ready."

No ono believes what the other says, though affecting to do so, and the more spitefully inclined will remaik afterwards, " So-and-So was in tho dressing-room quite, half the evening. Sho wan thoro when 1 went in on two separate occasions to put hairpins in my hair." At this instant a gay butterfly dashes in for a pin to put in the genuinely and badly torn flounce of her dress, " Goodness, gracious ; what on earth are all you girls doing here?" sho exclaims, as sho hastily thrusts pins into her skirt. " Thero are crowds of men j why aren't you dancing?" Tho oxcuSes are produced hurriedly and perfuuctorily. No one expects to be believed, but it would be indelicate to make no excuse. The gay girl dashes off without listening. Her partner is waiting for her, but the group of girls know well that sh© will make capital out of their trouble. A sad little pipe comes from tho corner from a hitherto silent sufferer. " I think it's a great shame. I came with the Dasheh, and they have not introduced me to a living soul, and they are dancing all the evening themselves. I've only been asked for three, and I have been sitting in here all the rest of the time, and I haven't had a bite of supper, because my three dances are numbers 1, 5, and the very last extra. I will have to declare I've had refreshments, because it seems so utterly wretched not to have had any, and I'm just dying for a cup of coffee." — , Lino, in the Slelbourne Argus.