Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1882-02-22


er takes tickets, bought in the market, is
plainly not fit place for such pleasure.
OF all things dancing should not be miscel-
laneous. So fine thing, and q thing SO east
ly abused, requires the most delicate and
gracious ordering. II the dance were con-
fined to private parlors, to circles of mutual
friends, to seasonable hours, and limited to
such prophecies as rule these same people
before and after the dance, there would prob
ably be little occasion Of protest against 1t.
But the objections to the dance as It Is &C
tually practiced, are these:
l. 1t is prone to overlap all private en-
closures and seek promiscuous assemblies ~
its environment.
2. It declines to keep within the limits of
recreation. It Is only as recreation that
amusements can be defended at all. But the
ordinary dance is not a recreation. 1t does
not leave one fresher and brighter than 1t
found him, but duller and more jaded. Dane
ing assemblies are generally not under way
till it Is time they were dispersed, and often
do not close till the small hours Of the morn
ing. Thus, by ignoring the laws of health
and rest ordained for us by our Maker, the
dance becomes q dissipation, instead of a
recreation, which both the moralist and the
physiologist are bound to prescribe.
3. Along with late hours, 60 as rule, a
heated atmosphere, light apparel. violent
exercise, an undue excitement of the nerv-
GUS system, and times innumerable, an ex-
posture to a chill. night atmosphere, which
has resulted in premature death. Not one of
these things can Psychologist or moralist
approve.
1. But much graver charge against
dancing Is found in the liberties
taken under cover of the dance. No
such familiarity would, for moment, be toll
Grated anywhere else by respectable society,
and the results are extremely fearful.
The Chief of Police of New York city, says
in his report, that ''three-fourths Of the
abandoned girls of that city were ruined by
dancing" A pastoral letter of Arch-Bishops
and Bishops Of the Roman Catholic church,
assembled not long since in Baltimore, warn
their people against 1.-The fashionable dances.
which, as now carried on, are revolving to
every feeling of delicacy and propriety, and
are fraught with the greatest dangers to
morals" 1t adds great weight to their
opinion to remember that it is based upon
the information obtained in the confessional,
from one end Of the land to the other.
Bishop Hopkins, of the Episcopal church
in Vermont, says: mo ingenuity can make
dancing consistent with the covenant of bap-
tism. To my mind, dancing, as generally
practiced, is in itself wrong, improper and of
bad efect.'
Bishop Mc1lvaine, also of the Episcopal
church. says: 1.-THE only line I would draw
in regard to dancing, is that of total ex-
clusion, and, he adds, 'were l asked whether,
in my view, the dance is included In those
'pomps and vanities of the world which one
In baptism, promises to renounce, should
answer without any hesitation, in tho afirma-
tive"
Bishop Coke Of New York City taxes tho
same ground. DR.. Howard Crosby of New
YORK, says in regard to "waltzes, polkas and
such like, a christian ought not to hesitate
an instant. any more than he would about
thieving and lying. It is an enormity"-he
says, ITO allow it to be practiced in our
houses, or by our Children
Much of this, Of course, does not apply to
the ''Square Dance" in private parlors, in &C.
lect company and within seasonable hours,
except as this leads on to the other, as it al.
most inevitably does. and to the excuses of
the bali room.
Inc OOJeCtlOu TO the square Dance Is
that 1t cannot be kept square. 1t is rounded
OF into the waltz or around Dance" 1t is
the beginning of the way which leads to sin.
full dancing. It is equally difficult to keep it
out Of public places and promiscuous COM
pany, and within seasonable hours. 1t would
therefore, seem to be one of those things in
which abstinence is more easily practiced
than temperance"
The plea that dancing ministers to grace
and elegance of manners is a shallow one.
"Good manners is not something lodged In
the mechanism of the body, but in the royal
chambers of the soul. 1t is not thing of
bows and airs and affectation, but first of all.
and chiefly, cultured head and heart. The
greatest, the brightest, the most successful
and trusted men in church and state, do not
attribute their success, in any wise, to the
dancing masters art. They are the men
whose testimony is against it.
We conclude, therefore. with Bishop
Meade of Virginia, that I'VE ought con.
scientiously to inquire whether the grea,
liability of dancing to abuse, and its many
acknowledged abuses, should not make US
frown upon it In all its FORMS