St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-03-23

is all away from God toward the world
and sin that protest must stand
1.-The dance is unfavorable TO intel
lectual and social development. The
love and practice of this fascinating
amusement supplant and destroy the
love of solld study, good, reading, intel
llgent conversation, and the higher and
peter forms OF social intercourse. Stud
les In school are neglected, solid read
ing is abandoned the growth and develop
lnent of the nobler powers are stopped,
and life becomes succession of
frothy. unsubstantial sensations and
eXcltements. There is neither time nor
disposition left for the best work of life.
Bring together company Of people
accustomed to spend their time in dane
| ing and attempt to engage them in in
telllgent conversation, and the mental
vacancy will be apparent. An intel
llgent lady said to minister on this
subject: But what can do with my
company? The people of fashionable
society do not read. they are not capable
or sustaining an Interesting conversation
and there is no way of entertaining
them but by letting them dance This
diillcuity no doubt exists. People usu-
ally find their highest joy in the eXer-
else OF their strongest faculty, and if a
novel-reading, theater-going. dancing,
| ldle. goddess company is brought to-
gether they would doubtless be pleased
with an invitation to- use their heels
rather than their heads.
The dance requires a waSteful eX-
penditure of money. The dance has IL
large place in history, in the work of
individual, family and national degen-
eracy and bankruptcy. 1t is in close al
lance with the goddess of fashion, and
worshipS at her shrine. 1t must
have costumes, equpages splendid
apartments and Hastings on an
elaborate and expensive scale.
The grocer must hold his bill
little longer. the landlord must walt for
his rent or look in vain for the bird
that has flown, the tailor may collect
his accounts as best he may, while So
clety wringS its demands from its vic
tins.
Take the report Of one of our fashion
able balls, as they may be found in the
daily papers, and study the question of
expense. 1t discredits straightforward
living. 1t stimulates the Thirst for
fashionable life, for display, luxury. and
fast living, which wrecks more families
morally and financially than anything.
The associate ms II the dance are evil
1t was nursed i'll the lap of the wine
god, Bacchus; has kept company with
gether, 1000 years ago. You may al
most always find it in the lettering
places of the novel-reading, the wine
and beer-drlnklng, the prOfane and
llcentious classes, but rarely may it be
seen III tue assemblies of earnest stu
dents. great thinkers, or devOut Chris
tlans. Ii we judge 1t by the company it
keeps. you will hardly feel like in
Producing your sons and daughters to
its acquaintance. The best people in So
clety do not dance, and for the reason
that they think it unworthy of them. In
the lowest and vilest grades of society
the dance is most popular and most
common; as you rise in the grade of in
telllgence and moral excellence its pop
ularity and use decline, till you reach
point where it disappears altogether.
cit is unfavorable to the right relation
of the sexes. 1t requires neither brains
nor good morality 10 be good dancer.
In ancient times the sexes danced
separately. Alcohol is the spirit of bev-
erages. SO sex is the spirit of the dance.
Take it away and let the sexes dance
separately and dancing will soon go out
of fashion. Parlor dancing is danger
Gus. Tipping leads to drunkenness,
and parlor dancing leads to ungoaly
balls.
The dance is destructive to Chris
tan life. Many excellent people
who are examples of the common
virtues may dance, but the prayer
must choose between the dance and his
religious life; he cannot maintain both.
Eighteen hundred years of Christian
history have worked over. and over
again many of these perpleXing prob
lens with but one result"