"PUBLIC HUGGING."

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3720, 18 June 1883, Page 4

"PUBLIC HUGGING."

AA r ith our recollections fresh from a recent ballroom exhibition of its many nastinesses, and our mind full of disgust at tho repugnant gyrations of Avhich it is made up, avc have, in the excess of our state of moral shock, sought about us for a fitting caption Avith Avhich to head a few remarks upon tho foulness of that amalgamation of abominations at present known in society as the "Hop AA'altz." AVith its amorous attitudes, its clinging pressure of form to form, and its spasmodic Avriggling still fixed upon our nauseated mental retina, wo confess that several terms more apt than printable have suggested themselves. But after much deliberation, hugging has seemed to be the only word both applicable and fit for publication, though Avith pain avo acknoAVledge the Aveakness of its incompleteness to describe the many objectionable ingredients of the disgusting dance. Most of the round dances have, Aye knoAV, from time to time been characterised as "hugging in public," but until tho "Hop" made its appearance hugging Avas all that could be said against their performance. AVith the "Hop," hoAvever, things aro different. The march of civilisation has, it seems, included dancing within its grasp ; aud Avith tho racquet as a forerunner of tho beastliness to come, it has iioav furnished us Avith the "Hop." The sloav and graceful movement of feet in perfect time to music, satisfactory enough in the past, is now voted sloav and insipid by our fob-changed, ear-AA'hiskcred, and tight-pnntalooned young men; and they require something more blood-heating and exciting to attract their doAvny presence at a ball. The old-fashioned redoAva, and smooth-gliding deux temps did avcll enough for their cold-blooded fathers, avlio Avere content to place their arm around the lady's Avaist and giving it no more pressure than the exigencies of proper guiding required, so complete tho dance, ignorant—or at least unconscious—of any other personal contact Avith their partner than tho light touch of arm or hand.

But by (hem much more is desired, and from alf appearances the limit of desire in that direction has been adequately reached in tho Hop. To fully describe the Hop, as it is danced to-day in our ball-rooms by our sensual-mouthed, dissipated-eyed young and apparently clean-minded and innocenthearted young girls, aa"oulcl bo a task for the doing of AA'hich avc proudly admit our inability. The proper elaboration in detail of its ramifications of mutual abdominal friction, leg-intAvining, kec-encountcring and chest-caressing, combined Avith its libidinous motions, flushed countenances and prurient Avhisperings, Avould befit the pen of Paul do Koek, or the pencil of Hogarth. Had avc the ability of cither, avo should shrink from invading the secret precincts of the bagnio in quest of picturesque similes, or fitting language to express them iv. 0 ! avo have stood night after night and looked on at this degrading- spectacle, our disgust OA'crcomc liy wonder at the fathers and mothers of" girls hardly yet budding into AA"omanhood, avlio Avould stand complacently by and see their—at other times—carefully guarded offspring clasped iv the arms of some erotic youth, squeezed, twisted, crushed and tumbled by his lascivious antics. AYe have been happy in the reflection that avc Avere daughturless ourselves, though the thought AA-ould at times steal in upon us Avhat supreme delight it Avould be, had Aye a daughter and found her in the sorry plight Aye mention, to have summarily lifted by his ear and kicked from our presence the man AA'ho Avould have dared to have offered her such unpardonable insult.—San Francisco NeAvs Letter.