University of Virginia Library

THROUGH THE AIR TO SARATOGA.

The first thing that met me as I alighted was this mammoth
hotel—the United States. Three gray-haired men tottered up
to bid me welcome. They were the venerable James H. Breslin,
Hiram Tompkins, and James M. Marvin. The silver-haired R.
H. Southgate, I found, was also one of the proprietors. The
parlors were gayly lighted, and the belles and beaux were just
going into the sit room.

“The what room?” I asked when they told me.

“The sit room. Why, don't you know about it?” they all
asked.

We don't dance the round dances any more you know in
America—it's too tiresome, then it's considered vulgar now.
The mammas accompany the daughters into the “sit” room,
when the gentlemen sit down by them, hold their hands, and
put their arms around their waists, and hold them to their
bosoms, just as they used to in the round dances, only they don't
go dancing around the room. There they sit and talk for hours.

---

196

[ILLUSTRATION] [Description: 628EAF. Page 196. In-line Illustration. Image of a man and woman holding hands. The caption reads, "THE 'SIT' ROOM."]

“O, it's so much nicer! no getting heated and catching cold
—all is quiet and genteel. This is the result of thirty years of
civilization. The trouble of dancing all around the room was
more than the fun was worth.”

I now looked to see