Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-31
DAlf ICING DEFENDED.
A Iectuais on the Morality Of the Terp-
y sichorean Art.
Place as Few Restrictions as Possible Around
the People-Enioyment is Necessary
to HeaIth-An Opposition show.

| Viz oAAl1 Va 0AnCiL1S ~ 4uALddA
hall yesterday afternoon TO not mor
| than hundred people. He spoke TO
an hour and half. Nearly all his audi
ence were of the free thinking persua
sionA He was assisted in meeting thu
expenses by a private citizen wht
Clipped in SIS and by "a local dancine
master who contributed 50. He said:
81 will give $500 to any man who vii
go upon the platform and defend dano-
ing and give me the conclusion - shouts
the Rev. Sam Jones. Mr.. Jones, 1 an
here to defend dancing, and you shall
have the concluding remarks. Where i:
your $500? Does Mr.. Jones think that
his position in regard to dancing is SO
impregnable that no one dare oppose
him? Is Mr.. Jones willing to pay $500 for
the privilege of making an example OF
the man whom he vould perhaps say was
so utterly lost to every sense of decency
and self-respect as to go upon the plat
form and defend what he would call
such pernicious practice? Or is his
proposition to be placed upon a par
with the idle threats and bluffs of some
of our professional political bulldozers?
These are the questions which I propose
TO PROFOUND to Mr.. Jones and to present
to thoughtful public for their careful
consideration, and believe it possible TO
say something that will cause people to
think, even upon SO light a subject as
dancing.
In reality, my friends, dancing needs
no defense to enable it to keep its place
among the fine arts of the world. Dan
cling is the poetry of motion; it takes its
place in the aesthetic mind along with mu-
sic, painting and sculpture. AS life and
health giving medium and magnetic
renovator Of the human system, it is I'M
surpassed by any other mode of exercise
known to the science of physical cul-
ture. This proposition is agreed to by
some of the best authorities on physical
culture and the laws of hygiene. My
friends. the terpsichorean art has long
since enshrined itself in the hearts of
the best, bravest and fairest of earth's
sons and Daughters, and will remain
safely ensconced IN the mfshty throbbing
heart of the civilized world long after
the rantings of religious revivalism has
ceased to be heard in the land.
From the earliest history of the Chris
tian church up to its present stage of ex-
istence all the efforts of its .a1yo-
Gates and apostles have been
directed toward restraining the nat
ural desires of mankind in the pursuit of
pleasureable exercise for the mind and
body. We are exhorted to lead life of
self-abnegation and humility in this
world, in order to secure peace and hap
piness in the next. Whenever a poor,
Wretched, careworn man or woman has
attempted to break through the clouds
Of melancholy miasma that encircle them
in this vale of tears, that the good Lord
has so graciously prepared, and indulge
in q little innocent hilarity, the
preacher has ever thrown his SOM
Der shadow across the threshold of
mirthfulness, and with his long bony
finger he has pointed to life beyond
the grave and expatiated on the tor
lures there prepared for the souls of
those who are SO presumptuous as to
seek to enjoy the blessings which ma
ture has placed around Them. Not
content with combining Their arguments
to the preoepts embodied lin the Ten
Commandments, the ministries have gone
beyond the teachings of alb Bible prec-
edent and given US a commandment of
their own, which reads: 'sThou shalt
not dance"
4hO ihlh4obOL VIII tCI4 you bnub LAO
Bible condemns dancing. Now suppose
that show you from the Bible where the
Christian God approves of dancing in its
most revolving and lioentious form? The
speaker gave an instance related Of King
David in the Bible.
And now I want to ask you, my
friends, If the Christian God could ap-
prove of such dancing as David did,
how much more delighted would He be
to-day to see the artistic execution of the
dreamy waltz, the glide polka or the
queen g lancers.
I also want to call attention to the
fact that one of the most intensely re-
ligious and scrupulously moral sects OF
people in the world, the Shakers, have
adopted dancing as part of their reli-
gious worship, and that they quote Scrip
ture profusely to prove that they are
commanded TO do so by God Himself,
and that theirs is the only simon-pure
christianity IN existence
Every one who has participated in this
life-giYing, soul-renovating form of
recreation knows by experience, if not
scientifically, the great mental and
physical benefits which from an
evening spent IN prudently enjoying the
association of the opposite sex in we'll
regulated ballroom or at an evening
party. It is there that the two sexes
meet and blend their magnetism IN the
highest and most beautiful harmonial
relations. It is there that the beautiful
grace and litheness of figure so much ad-
mired in the female is developed; it is
there that the stateliness of carriage and
the refinement of politeness, the studied
attention and the tender devotion to
woman is developed in man.
It is fact admitted on all hands, by
those who are not preiudiced against
dancing, that there ia nothing else that
SO wonderfully enhances beauty of man
ner and grace of movement as a we'll
conducted course OF scientific education
in the beautiful art of dancing. It is
altogether mistake to suppose that the
familiar mingling together Of the two
sexes in the ballroom will lead
to greater freedom in the sex relation.
On the contrary, experience has proven
that it is not the shy and timid girl nor
the one that is the most zealously guard
ed by her parents from the association of
men who steers her bark the most safely
through the whirlpool. IL is more often