Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1866-02-15
The dance Of Death"

OduciuS ~ ceI laiiiiy WuoieSo1i'
!, There was a time when it we
Ieven considered religious, an
8 formed a part Of nearly every ce1
: emony of divine worship in til
world. There ore some sects
however, who incorporate it wit
their devotions now, and not a fey
who look on it as the perfection Of
lwickedness->a snare set by til,
Evil One in which to entrap til,
lyoung, the thoughtless, and tn,
unwary. Perhaps both extremes
are wrong in this as in most othel
eases. There certainly is no ire
lligion in dancing, however they
may say so who fancy that piety
consists in making long faces
looking particularly grabbed, and
eschewing everything that tends
to amuse, to cheer, to comfort, and
refine. Nor yet is there in it any
evidence Of special recognition
uf our duty towards our Creator,
nor do we conceive it exactly a
fitting ceremony (such is the eff
feet of habit in creating a preju-
dice) for the Christian sanctuary.
But, we look OH dancing as one of
the rational enjoyments of life
We look on it as a harmless, pleas
ureable, social practice, in which
the body is BEAUTIFULLY exercised
while the mind is exhiIarated, and
ease of carriage acquired which
form one of the grand elements
of human beauty.
Until lately, we even imagined
that it was impossible to dance too
much. As long as the kind of
dancing was unobjectionable, (for
some dances, we admit, border
closely in their fashion on the las
civious, and should be repudiated
by those who pretend to be decent)
and proper time were always Sc
lected for it, SO as not to allow it
to interfere with the graver duties
Of life, we deemed it never super
1uous and never unreasonable
But we observe, in the article
hereto appended from the Moul-
on { Ala.) Herald, that several
,ersons have actually danced
themselves to death, or at least
contracted diseases by over-danc-
ng, from which they died shortly
afterwards. This is a practical
essen for our remembrance. 1t
S, to be sure, another illustration {
# the good old rule that ''too
much Of a good thing is good for {
but, it goes still further, {
or it shows us that it is possible
o indulge excessively in that {
which, to us, seemed never to have &
N excess in its nature. We have
cen delicate-looking women dance
y the hour without apparent IA G
igue, and 60 through more real la I
'or in the sport than We could en-
lure ourseif, with all our physical :
dvantages. But then it was done
n the open air; and we can well '
imagine the difference in effect be- +
ween respiring violently the at '
losphere of q heated room, and +
aking into the lungs, however t
urriedly, the pure air of heaven, e
.agranced with the aroma of the +
egetable world, and made still
lore grateful by the cooling re- /
hyrs that just famed the over
Gated cheek, and tossed into pref q
y negligence the glossy curl and q
raceful costume. It
The Herald says: d
On Friday, the 10Th ult., as we S
re informed, there was a dancing 4
arty at the residence of Mr..
colt, near Avoca in this county. .
he weather was extremely warm, I
ppressively SO, in the early part
the night, but in the morning
efore day the temperature :
hanged very suddenly, and it be- P