The Bossier banner., 1894-11-15
why don't you allow your servants to
do this for you?"

ever be your idea in regard to the
amusement | am speaking of, and
whatever be your idea of the old-fash-
ioned square dance and of many of the
professional romps in which l can see
| no evil, the round dance is administra-
tive of evil, and ought to be driven
| out of all respectable circles. | am by
natural temperament and religious
| theory opposed to the position taken
by all those who are Mortified at play
fulness on the part of the young and
who think that all questions are de-
cided questions of decency and NOR
als-by the position of the feet, while
on the other hand | can see nothing
but ruin, temporal and eternal, for
those who go into the dissipations of
social life, dissipations which have de-
spoiled thousands of young men and
young women of all that is noble in
character and useful in life.
Dancing is the graceful motion of
the body, adjusted by art to the sound
and measures of musical instrument
or of the human voice. All nations have
danced. The ancients thought that
Castor and Pollux taught the art to
the Lacedaemonians. But whoever
started it, all climes have adopted it.
In ancient times they had the festal
dance, the military dance, the media
tOrial dance, the bacchanalian dance,
and queens and lords swayed to and
fro in the gardens, and the rough
backwoodsman with this exercise
awakened the echo of this forest.
There is something in the sound of
lively music to evoke the movement of
the hand and foot, whether cultured or
uncultured. Passing down the street
we unconsciously keep step to the
sound of the brass band, while the
Christian in church with his foot beats
time while his soul rises upon some
great harmony. While this is SO in
civilized lands, the red men of the for
est have their scalp dances, their green
corn dances, their war dances. In
ancient times the exercise was so ut
terly and completely depraved that the
church mathematical it,
The old Christian fathers expressed
it. ST. Chrysostom says: "The feet
were not given for dancing, but to
walk modestly, not to leap imprudent-
ly like camels." One of the dogmas of
the ancient church reads: "a dance
Is the devils possession, and he that
entereth into a dance entereth into his
possession. As many PAGES as man
o1rs,
he make to hell" Elsewhere the
old dogmas declared this: "The
woman that singeth in the dance
is the princess of the devil, and
those that answer are her clerks, and
the beholders are his friends, and the
music is his bellows, and the fiddlers
are the ministers of the devil. For as
when hogs are strayed, if the hogsherd
call one all assemble together, so when
the devil calleth one woman to sing in
the dance, or to play on some musical
instruments, presently all the dancers
gather together" This indiscriminate
and universal denunciation of the ex-
ercise came from the fact that it was
utterly and completely depraved.
But we are not to discuss the GUS
toms of the olden times, but customs
now. We are not to take the evidence
Of the ancient fathers, but your own
conscience. enlightened by the Word
of God is to be the standard. Oh,
bring no harsh criticism upon the
young. I would not drive out from
their soul the hilarities of life. ! do
not believe that the inhabitants of an
cient Wales, when they stepped to the
sound of the rustic harp, went down
to ruin. l believe God intended the
young people TO laugh and romp and
play. ! do not believe God would have
put eXuberanee in the soul and exuber-
ance in the body if lie had not intend
ed they should in some wise exercise
it and demonstrate it. If mother
join hands with her children and cross
the floor to the sound of music, | see
no harm. II a group of friends cross
and recrOss the room to the sound of
piano well played, | see no harm. If a
company, all Cf whom are known to
host and hostess as reputable, cross
and recrOss the room to the sound of
musical instrument, | see no harm.
tried for long time to see harm in it.
l could see no harm in it. | never shall
sec any harm in that. Our men need
to be kept young, young for many
years longer than they are kept
young. Never since my boyhood
days have I had more sympathy
with the innocent hilarities of life
than have now. What though we
have felt heavy burdens. What
though we have had to endure hard
knocks! Is that any reason why we
should stand in the way of those who,
unstung of life's misfortunes, are fall
of exhilaration and glee? God bless
the young! They will have to wait
many long year before they hear me
say anything that would depress their
ardor or clip their wings or make them
believe that lif1 is hard and cold and
repulsive 1t is not. | tell them,
judging from my own experience, that
they will be treated great deal bet
ter than they deserve. We have no
right to grudge the innocent hilarities
of the young.
As we go on in years let us remem-