He footed a waltz

"From a balcony near the cloakroom in a side hall, a band was playing. They were all kitted out in red weskits and they kept yelling that they had nothing to drink. Below them stood a solid-looking man in a frock coat. He was wearing a striped paper hat, and while singing along, he was trying to insert a paper flower into his buttonhole, which he kept failing to do in consequence of eight beers, two punches and four cognacs. In the crowd he sang up to the group, and he footed a waltz with an old and extraordinarily digressive-looikng person. As she danced, this person seemed to disintegrate further ..."

-Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz