The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-06

at all; because some people dance in
decently our wives, sisters and children
shall not dance at all. There is not q
dance practiced in the homes of reputable
people that has the fainte,t suggestion
Of immodesty or immortality in the atti-
tudes assumed during its performance;
it is a. innocent of all suggestion of inn
propriety as the act of a lady who accepts
o gentleman's arm as her escort in the
street or to the dining-room. If other
dances than these are ever practiced they
are INDUCED in only when the intimacy
Of close family relationship between all
concerned makes the questioning of its
propriety absurd. evil to him who evil
thinks" and the man or woman whose
moral sense and innocence wither through
such dancing as is found outside the
demi-monde in America would scarcely
be a safe person to invite to even the
sanctified, limited and carefully guarded
outdoor freedom Of a Sunday-school
picnic.
Dancing, when decently conducted under
the eye of parents, among family friends
and neighbors, is a good thing for the
morals, manners and health of the young
people of both sexes. The great philosopher,
Descartes, defended good dinner by ask
ing his critic whether he supposed only
knaves and fools were entitled to good
things of this life. and there is no reason
why dancing should be left to the vulgar
and wicked so long as dancing is in itself
neither indecent in its conduct nor in
stinct with the inspirations of immortality.
Because silly spendthrift CANDLES away
fortune, shall we anathematize the vast
number Of the worlds wisest and best who
have sought recreation from toll In game
of whist? Nothing that the great Archi-
tect of the Universe has given US can
escape the serpent trail of certain natures,
but innocent amusements should no more
be left in the ditch with the devil and all
his human satellites than all cheerful
music should be abandoned to the devil
policy that Martin Luther and John
Wesley, the great founder of the Metho-
dist church, both denounced without stint.
Dancing among friends and neighbors,
SOuOuCtcQ ueCtut dUSplCcS, -
almost universal among Episcopalians and
Unitarians; it is common among Congre-
gational families, and it is generally re-
garded, under proper social surroundings,
as entirely healthful and innocent amuse-
ment, and in no sense social evil. To
prescribe all dancing because some per-
sons dance indecently, is about as absurd
az it would be to educate your boy never to
trade horses because there are plenty Of
horse jockeys who do not hesitate to mar
ket spawned mare as a sound animal, or
to denOunce an honest mother sucking
her infant in the cars as identical with in
decent exposure executed with immoral
intent. The Rev. w. Kirkhus, a Protest
ant Episcopal clergyman of Baltimore,
once said:
When it is publicly asserted that all the ladies
who took part in the charity ball, or who play
whist with their tired husbands, or take part in
progressive euchre, or dance, are "hugging to
music" are "emissaries of the DEVIL" are "help-
ing their husbands and families to hell" think
1t is time to ask who gave to the man who
makes these charges the right to sit in the judg-
ment seat. He il condemning hundreds of the
purest, most noble, most self-sacrifcing women
on the face of the earth.