In damages for spoilt garments only. I have still to find out what the
results may be of the suffocating heat in the rooms, and the freezing
draughts in the passages, and on the stairs--I have still to face the
possible doctor's bills for treating our influenzas and our
rheumatisms. And to what cause is all this destruction and discomfort
attributable? Plainly and simply, to this. When Doctor and Mrs. Crump
issued their invitations, they followed the example of the rest of the
world, and asked to their house five times as many people as their
rooms would comfortably hold. Hence, jostling, bumping, and tearing
among the dancers, and jostling, bumping, and spilling in the
supper-room. Hence, a scene of barbarous crowding and confusion, in
which the successful dancers are the heaviest and rudest couples in
the company, and the successful guests at the supper-table, the people
who have the least regard for the restraints of politeness and the
wants of their neighbours.
Is there no remedy for this great social nuisance? for a nuisance it
certainly is. There is a remedy in every district in London, in the
shape of a spacious and comfortable public room, which may be had for
the hiring. The rooms to which I allude are never used for doubtful
purposes. They are mainly devoted to Lectures, Concerts, and Meetings.
When used for a private object, they might be kept private by giving
each guest a card to present at the door, just as cards are presented
at the opera. The expense of the hiring, when set against the expense
of preparing a private house for a party, and the expense of the
injuries which crowding causes, would prove to be next to nothing. The
supper might be sent into the large room as it is sent into the small
house. And what benefit would be gained by all this? The first and
greatest of all benefits, in such cases--room. Room for the dancers to
exercise their art in perfect comfort; room for the spectators to move
about and talk to each other at their ease; room for the musicians in
a comfortable gallery; room for eating and drinking; room for
agreeable equal ventilation. In one word, all the acknowledged
advantages of a public ball, with all the pleasant social freedom of a
private entertainment.
And what hinders the adopting of this sensible reform? Nothing but
the domestic vanity of my beloved countrymen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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