The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-05-28

| pubic, are as wall OF ucIcISc NHl'h
slandercrs are unable to scale. Their
characters are so fortified that the arrows
of malice rebound and wound those that
bend the long bow of lies and of hate.
Thank God for sach men. Without
them n community would lose its standard
of nobility and fall to the ignominious
level of common slandercrs and defamers
of good and true men.
HABITS or SOCIETY CONTRASTED
Polite, or, rather, we may say, fashion
able society, is castigated with great
deal of virulcnce by modern reformers
who bctray n sad want of knowledge of
what they are talking about. We recog-
nzc the fact that any advocates OF re-
| form are almost necessarily extreme III
| their denunciation of evil and while they
confine themselves to the abstract there
can be no valid objection urged to that
zeal. vet when they attempt to illustrate
with things done by other persons who do
not believe they are doing wrong their
extreme zeal ovorsteps the bounds of good
sense and becomes hurtful to the very
cause they advocate That is the rea-
son that it has become Il general belief
that extreme and obnoxious laws which
attempt to prescribe a certain regime are
most quickly destroyed by their rigid eX'
ecutiOn.
We have heard very able ministers
travel outside of thus saith the Lord"
TO substitute their own "ipse dXit'
against fashionable society, and dcnOuncc
| Nth not very choice vitupcration the hab-
its of modern society in, say, dancing
Permit us to say just here, parenthetical-
| ~ as it were, that man or Il woman who
unites with church must obey the rules
prescribed by the proper ccclesiastic judi
caturc of that church, and if the church
to which they belong forbids dancing they
are SHINING if they dance. But there are
churches which have no rules against
dancing and if the members of such
churches are not conscientously opposed
to dancing there can be no sin i'll their
lancing, for nowhere in the lids of the
Bible, from Genesis to Revelations, is
there such Il command as thou shalt not
dance" We are also aware of the fact
that there are sins not denounced by
special commandment. Even innocent
practices may become sinful if they lead
to Il violation Of any commandments and
we are free to confess that there arc GER
tain kinds of balls or dancing parties
that rcck with sin; but because Il certain
class of people turn IN innocent amusc'
ment into an engine of destruction to fe'
male virtue is no reason why innocent
persons may not indulge that amusement
without shadow of sin about it. Dancing,
to the innocent is innocent; dancing, to the
defled is more deeply dctiling, or rather
the cause of deeper dctiement.
As pure and holy Christian women rs
ever partook of the broken body and shed
blood of the Rcdccmer, residents of this
city, known to be given to charity and all
good works, earnest in the cause of the
Master sclf-sacriicing, loving all man
kind in word and deed, have given and
doubtless will again give germans to their
young friends. 1t is a graceful exercise,
moulding the form into lines of beauty
and drilling the young persons INDUCING
in it with meditation i'll motion. 1t Is Il
natural response to the same music used
in the churches. and can be INDUCED i'll
by the innocent without tainting them
with the breath of sin.
1t may be very fairly cQntrastcd to con-
yersatonal parties, where it is excluded
AS something very bad and sinful indeed
What does the conversation of modern
society consist in principally and general
lly? In commenting on and crlti-
cising persons who are known to
the parties to the conversation, ana we
assert that innucndo, sighting remarks
dctraction and Islander predominant over
commentator, approval and culogy Ill
such social gatherings. 1t is in Just such
gatherings that the would-bc witty IN
dulge their sinful vice of showing up ana
picking to pieces the persons and charac-
tcrs of their absent friends To one cN-
preston of honest admiration for the
beauty of person or mind of an absent
friend one will hear dozen expressions
of detraction. Her beauty will be ac-
counted for by accusing her of using
merctricious adornmcnts One commcn-
f dation of mans character will be an
| swcred by dozen ordinations: You
don't know him." and however pure Il
mans life may have been as far as the
1 public could see. there are lots of people
ready To tell you. conidentiallyl9 of
, course. of his secret vices. There is
rarely Il social gathering of this kind
= that the character of the absent does
= not receive fatal stahS.
= Even members of the same church
5 men and women who kuocl Mt the samC
a altar and partakc from the same plat,