Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1854-02-23
Communications,


feaders OF tne " Free PFess' with an answe
70 an other one Or two of +" Honestus'" cues
tiOns on dancing.
He says "How could our youth amus
themselves without the social dance or with
on. Y. would they not employ their time il
something more injurious %
Les the money that is wasted to support III,
daHee be applied to the purchase of good books
sfe dancing room changed into an antheneum,
Nhe dancing master into librarian. and the
evenings spent in reading solid literature. But
Honestus may reply, that many of the dancers
are unable to read, and those who are, woult
prefer " light literature" to solid This. doubt.
0 less is true, but it only argues that their edu.
cation has been merely animal, instead Of men.
tai and moral. And the dance is better caleu.
lated to Perpetrate than to cure this evil. How
many thousand volumes would the money that
has been wasted to support the pleasure dance
in The town of CarrOllton. purchase? l fear
that the dancers are implicated in this matter.
Ire leading and religious men of the town.
should furnish the youth of the place with
good library, and use their influence to encour.
age solid reading among the rising generation.
1 will give twenty FIVE dollars worth of books
Tor town library, to begin on. Let us see
what the landlords, fddlers, dancing masters,
and aiders and abettors'' in this innocent
amusement will give for toNn library. The
Tact that we have none, is disgrace to the
place.
Again, says HOnestus, "If the dance be
immoral, wherein does its immortality copsist?"
We admit that in motion alone, there does
not appear to be any crime. In itself consiG-
ered' 1t may be as innocent thing to take
F steps in zigzag direction as in a right line I
and to toss the feet about in curves NAV be no 4
worse than to cause them to describe angles Of n
mathematical exactness Dancing in the ab. 9
stract' may be harmless but people do not
dance IN the abstract. We must consider the
dance not as we might fancy it in some imap- n
mary Utopia. Ian ideal perfection but as it is {
found' and must be found il at all, in our own =
land. We are compelled to view it in its vari- :
GUS associations, and surrounded by its various a,
Influences. That which is harmless in itself :,
may be found in connection with that which m
renders it even criminal III
Firing pistOl,n itself, is an innocent thine te
but In duel, it becomes murder. Sliding. as ha
practiSed by children, may be, in itself, yery ev
harmless, II not very dignifed amuseme 1t th,
out II man. anticipating this result glides WI
down sheet of ice which hangs over an abyss spi
and is dashed down its depths, mangled, bat Sa
tered corpse, the act becomes suicide. it t
30 the pleasure dance, then, as it has been up
oand' and in connection with certain thincs tho
which are now inseparable from it, we have sec
several objections which seem to us to be of no
mall weight, and ahundantly sufficient to con- h
Tenn it in the eyes of alserious people, to say adv
lothing of christians. bee
We object to dancing for amusement, be- bee
ause of the discreditable circumstances, in wor
7 'hlich it has almost invariably been found. Of o
The religious dances of the Hebrews have of tt
OF single feature in common with the pleas
re dances OF our times. They differ as widely
1he supper OF the Lord and Greek Sym
os'am, a drunken, merry feast1 There are.
deed, dances in our own day which resemble
some degree, those of Miriam and the chill. nj
ZEN of Israel. The dances of the society i :.
lied Shakers, are formed expressly after ,,,o
Scripture model, and governed by relig. rror,
US motive But the lovers of balls will hardly
prepared to join this fraternity, and enroll tica
emselves among the disciples of Mother Lee. frs,
The glad motions of the more impulsye of form,
/ Soathern Slaves, in their religious meet to m.
rs, when they leap, and sing and shout, are of an
neWhat of the same nature Win 1aose OF stItut
I'd, as he came Nh fror, tho h.. obod. from
n. ut this the lover Of the dancing sa. what
/ will deride, as did Queen Michal, as the The p
ess of faaaGcign. 1+'a for
1ould i be move that the dancino Of Da cry ia
before. the-ark on the way to Jerusalem, ITSELF
); in the action, precisely similar to tha' into
hit bx the Gallie professors Of the art this laugh
q uyo.ld not ;us,;fv modern halle and don that
schools, That which may have good loaa
lency when done with one motive NAV tend ing ha
vii when it originates in another. For in them
ice prayer offered from the heart is an act ana as
he highest devotion. But will this Justify
ver offered for amusement If;t be mon their
d prayer to GOdtp bow reverently and close spare
eyes, will this render it right and wise for yed ir
ompany Of sensible people to spend hours Ol'ten'
enseless limitations of these gestures when cry ou
I'd is not in all their thoughts" Surely no The E
:. III. sa,sosa will as,ume this ,,oo;,;o. ton OF