glowing descriptions of the fret and fever of existence in the Austrian
capital during the historic Vienna Congress a hundred years ago. Dancing
became epidemic and shameless. In some salons the forms it took were
repellent. One of my friends, the Marquis X., invited to a dance at the
house of a plutocrat, was so shocked by what he saw there that he left
almost at once in disgust. Madame Machin, the favorite teacher of the
choreographic art, gave lessons in the new modes of dancing, and her fee
was three hundred francs a lesson. In a few weeks she netted, it is
said, over one hundred thousand francs.

The Prince de Ligne said of the Vienna Congress: "Le Congrès danse mais
il ne marche pas." The French press uttered similar criticisms of the
Paris Conference, when its delegates were leisurely picking up
information about the countries whose affairs they were forgathered to
settle. The following paragraph from a Paris journal--one of many
such--describes a characteristic scene:

The domestic staff at the Hôtel Majestic, the headquarters of the
British Delegation at the Peace Conference, held a very successful
dance on Monday evening, attended by many members of the British
Mission and Staff. The ballroom was a medley of plenipotentiaries
and chambermaids, generals and orderlies, Foreign Office attachés
and waitresses. All the latest forms of dancing were to be seen,
including the jazz and the hesitation waltz, and, according to the
opinion of experts, the dancing reached an unusually high standard
of excellence. Major Lloyd George, one of the Prime Minister's
sons, was among the dancers. Mr. G.H. Roberts, the Food Controller,
made a very happy little speech to the hotel staff.[18]

The following extract is also worth quoting: