"At the time of the great Naval Review, or something of the sort--I
have forgotten what--a party of us went to the pier of the Southern
Pacific Company to see the show. There were Ned H----, and Captain
H----, and two other men, and myself, with four ladies. On coming up
town we were booked for another engagement, the time for which had not
yet arrived. We were in the vicinity of the Hoffman House and drifted
in there and into the ball-room. The floor was most tempting and the
orchestrion willing. It was too suggestive a combination for the
ladies, who were young and fine dancers, and they exclaimed with one
voice, 'Oh, how lovely! I wish we might dance.' It proved that I was
the only dancing-man among the men. I had been a dancer in my younger
days, but I had let up on it since I had become stout. However, by way
of a joke and to please the young ladies, I offered to be a partner. My
offer was accepted, also as a joke, but the sequel was a surprise. We
set the orchestrion going on a Waldteufel waltz, and I grabbed one of
the young ladies for a round. Really, I was amazed. I danced as easily
as I did when a youngster, and round and round we went. Finally, my
partner begged for a rest, so I waltzed her to a seat, and, excited
with the revelation of an endurance I did not know I possessed, I
grabbed the next lady from her seat and repeated the tiring-out process
as easily as in the first attempt. There were yet two ladies fresh and
eager to assist in 'doing Uncle Nat up,' and I repeated the performance
with them, also, dancing the last to a dead standstill on account of
her determined obstinacy. _She_ had to complete the 'doing up' of the
old man, or Age would win a battle from Youth, which would never do.
Well, to make a long story short, and to get to the illustration. I was
warm and ruddy, but I was less fatigued than I remember to have been as
a youngster when I had danced for a long time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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