Cincinnati History Moment: "A Great Fuss"

"Cincinnati gentlemen were a bit slow about providing entertainment for the ladies during the long winter months. In 1804 and 1805, the ladies put fictitious dialogues in the Western Spy to spur the gentlemen into action. They threatened to organize balls and entertainments themselves. In the dialogue of 1805, one Susan, in approving the scheme to manage a series of assemblies, declared, "Indeed, we will then be able to boast of amusements, that no other little town like this, can." The ladies fully expected to shock the gentlemen into taking them to dances and to the theater all winter. The stratagem of the females created 'a great fuss.'"

-- Ophia D. Smith, The Early Theater of Cincinnati