The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-06-14
Chief Murphy Will Turn
Policemen Into Floor
Managers and Mas
ter Of Ceremonies.
FREE FOR ALL GOOD TIME
All Who Desire May Trip the
Light Fantastic at the
Next Band Concert.

The regular Friday night concert at the
City Hall will not be held tonight. Dane
ing on the asphalt will be a
feature of the next one. The
streets will be turned into dancing floor
and the floor managers will be policemen,
who will see to it that the lovers of the
light fantastic shall not be obstructed in
the least. There has been no particular
arrangement of programme with a view
to giving the dancers all dance music, but
those who gather about will be assured
Of enough dancing for one evening. 1t
is to be free for all. Any one may dance
as long as he or she wishes, and there
are to be no restrictions beyond those
which compel all to deport themselves as
properly as if they We're indoors at a
dance.
This idea of asphalt dances is growing
more popular each year outside of this
city Though Chief Murphy originated
the idea three years ago, until now it
has never been realized in this city He
hopes now that the project will be sue
cessfully launched and that there will
pc asphalt dances every Friday night
Chief Murphy has advocated the idea
of asphalt dances SO strongly because of
the effect it will have in lessening crime.
He feels that should the unhappy con
dition of the more unfortunate portion OF
the citizens in the overcrowded tenement
sections be relieved their minds would be
made more healthy and turned from chan
nels that lead to unlawful acts.
Chief Murphy said to a News re-
porter yesterday:-'I have for years ad-
vocated dancing on the asphalt during the
concerts an dnow the idea is to be real
lied. / shall do everything possible to
make the feature popular, especially with
that class that has little enough of hap
piness in this life-those who live in the
more crowded quarters of the city. I
think that if this healthy and pleasing
recreation is indluged in freely the con-
dition of affairs here will greatly i'm
prove.
There is no doubt that it will decrease
criminal tendencies. If it does, then the
Police Department IS discharglng its duty
Ill the very best way possible The pre-
x,.ention OF crime is the first duty of po-
Poverty and lack of elbow room are
the greatest cause of crime, particularly
petty crime. With more parks and publt.
places of amusement and recreation there
nVCiu pe less CRIME AnQ OF all means OF
placing happiness and healthy exercise
Wltnln the reach of all there is none that
appeals SO strongly as public dancing AT
the concerts
Records show that the new parks and
recreation piers in New York City have
done more to lessen crime there than any
thing else. Nothing would please me more
than to go to the concert tonight and see
a hundred, yes, two hundred couples dane
ing, happy and laughing, with no thought
OF anything but the new pleasure that has
been granted them.
II first spoke of this idea about three
years ago and since then it has been
adopted in various cities in Europe as
well as in America. 1 got the notion first
one day as / sat at my window here.
A hand organ was playing on the opposite
corner and | saw a number of small chill
dren gather about it.
Soon they were dancing and as happy
as could be. began to wish I was one
OF them and then the thought came to
me that if we could all be as happy in
this world there would not be SO much
need for. policemen and jails. I saw that
it was almost beyond possibility for any-
one to do anything seriously wrong and
the idea of giving the same opportunity
to their elders came to me- I am sure
that from now on at least during the
concert season, there will be less petty
crime