Smyrna times., 1884-03-05
The School for Scandal.

Va. 0i0o9iioss Vi VhlS community on thu
points OF good conduct and morality 8,
dear to those who founded this grea
country, which leads us to ask whether
wilmington is not rapidly becoming ;
School for Scandal, in the fullest accen
tation of the term?
In the days of the Blue Law tb,
amusement of dancing was condemned
as subversive Of the best interests o-
morality as calculated to work no nos
slbIe good, while its evil results were
Sunlciently apparent in an age in which
there was not even the homage which
vice pays to virtue. To-day we have
changed all these things, and the dane.
ing master even finds newspapers like
the Society Necs willing to make his
art the leading feature in their columns
AS one result of this, the mania for
dancing parties, soirees daasanfes and
masquerades has out-stripped all
bounds OF common sense, and a triaino
ana lgnOble sport has been elevated to
the uppermost position in the minds of
no lnconsiderable portion of our men
and women.
As it was with base ball during the
past Summer so has it been with mas
querades and dancing during the past
Winter. Baseball is capital pastimo
for boys and young men, but when it
becomes craze and is put before the
puOilc IN whole columns of type, when
the streets are infested with amotour
pitchers and catchers practising their
art to the danger of the public, then it
is time to ask when the nuisance is to
be stopped, and the sport confined
within its proper limits.
so with dancing, which has acouired
simply an uncontrolled monopoly of
public attention within the past three
months. Among the Orientals witbo1t
exception dancing is looked upon as
the outward and visible expression of
immortality The Nautch-girls of
India, who are recruited from the
scum of the female population, look
with intense disdain on the court
dances of their European lady-visitors
In the times of the Greeks and Romans
the dancer was regarded as outside
the pale of decent society. In Austria.
and Russia, the most immoral courts of
Europe, dancing is the fashionable pas.
time.
There is no objection, of course to
the sport of dancing as a healthy and
pleasant recreation for children of ten
der years, and especially for school
girls who get far too little of active OK.
erclsc. Nay, there is no forcible argu-
ment against dancing in the home cir
Gle, when the parents and friends of
the young people are present and the
amusement is conducted within the
limits OF prOpriety, and to the exclu-
sion OF low-nacked dresses, waltzinr
and masked attire of any sort. Beyond |
this, every thoughtful parent will see
Ihe elements of great moral peril.
What shall be said, for instance of n
recent leap year party when the young |
ladies unsexed themselves so far as to
call for their gentlemen friends at their
homes, to ask them to dance, to paw for
the refreshments and even to under
take partial exchange of attire!
We shall probably be reminded of
ohellcy's adage "To the pure all things
are pure" but what pretense of maid
eniy purity would the pilgrims of the
Md4fower have discerned in the pro-
'eeding we have called in question?
iranted that the young people who
.ook part in the fun may have been
thoroughly respectable and free from
lught OF evil thought or impulse-still
he tendency of such episodes is cor
'uptlng, and experience proves that
lefy little license is necessary to trans
orm a reputable youth into a ribald
AS for the masquerade, its very
lame, its surroundings, the facilities it
'lers for foolish and improper flirta-
ions sufficiently indicate it as an
lement at variance with the peace of
he household, the happiness of hus-
'ands and wives, the safety of young
urls and the moral principle of young
Aen. The love of dress and gay attire,
ar more than misplaced affection, has |
een the prime cause of the shame {
hat has brought down many parents s
ray hairs with sorrow to the grave
his is no puritanical protest: it is n q
tatement which no man of the world y
an challenge.
The ever increasing facilities for q
musements in which many of our own |
'omen fritter away half their leisure t
ours has been attended with CORES f
ondIng proportion of anxiety to heads
households respecting their wives, b
aughters and servants. 1t is a noto- q
ous fact that numbers of servant girls p
TO the so called "soirees" held in a
iuo buildings in this city and do not t.
eturn ht,Q.We 1nth eleven or twelve s.
clock at night. Nay more, many of "
lem will seek to impose the freedoms h
the sOiree and the masquerade as a d
'ndition of their remaining in the SER k
ice in which they have entered.
ANY man whose avocations call him
the streets at ten or even eleven
clock at night must have noticed the ti
lmOer ofyoung girls, between IA and p
years of age, passing along in the c
'mpany of boys of their own age who el
e evidently mere casual acquaint- fo
lces. The state of morals thus en- cl
'ndered is typifed by the Lancaster tC
l0t and the patronage accorded to it. m
nd yet there was time, not so yery OF
any years ago, when Wilmington, st
g quiet city of Friends, stood high fiji
on the roll of morality and honor al
ny should it be suffered to fall nowP VI
The WilmingtOnian. hs
-.-..e-.- liz
The NAvY.-According to the ne: g
'rt of the Secretary Of the Navy we
I'VE ninety shins of war Anono, th;s