Arizona republican., 1902-11-04
FOR DEcENcY AT THE FAIRS.

] An earnest effort is being made by i some of the best friends of that enter
 prise to have the coming worlds fair
 at St. Louis kept free from some of
 the indescent and immoral features
 which have marred other exhibitions. ! It is announced that the board of wom- | en managers has unanimously adopted strong resolutions against the admis- sion of Midway dancing shows and i similar debaucheries. Whether or not the protest will be needed by the su- prene authorities of the fair is yet to be seen. But it may be said plainly that it ought to be needed and ought to prevail, and that nothing could more commend the fair to popular favor and support than an assurance that it is to be in all parts clean and decent and fit to be visited by self-respecting men and women.
 It is probably inevitable that large amount of social demoralization shall accompany every large fair. The Cen tennial exhibition of 1876 flooded Phila- delphia with vice to an extent from
 which that city has never recovered. 1 Whether CT rot Chicago was made
 worse than it had been by it's Colum-
 bian fair may be an open question. But | beyond doubt the notorious Midway.
 orgie, of that enterprise. through theE performances there and their repetition and imitation elsewhere, caused an in- cGlculable amount of moral corruption throughout the whole land. It will be remembered that at the time public efforts were made to defend and even commend some of the vi!est of those shows in the name of "art for arts sake" and high old morality and all the rest of the cant with which sheer nastiness doth protest too much" Some people of repute and public standing actually strove to justify the
 Midway" orgies on the ground of their
 profound and mystical religious sig nificance." We are not sure that such drivel was not more revolting to sense
 than the shows themselves were to de- cenCy.
 The fact is, of course, that those
 Midway" dances were simply obscen- | ities of the most unblushing and de prayed type They were conceived as such and were conducted as such. We l do not say they were altogether pat ronized as such, Tor beyond doubt null ! titudes of innocent people were en- 1 trapped into visiting them by the fact
 that they were apparently an author | iZed part of a great national institu-
 ton. Tn that fact lay much Of tl:e evil
 of the case. There are generally such exhibitions Of debauchery to be found 1 somewhere in a large city by those who are evil minded enough to search for | them. There were such in the under world of New York before the Colum-
 bian fair ct Chicago. and there are probably some here now. But it is
 another thing. and mOnstrous thing,
 to make such possibilities Q part of or
 an authorized annex to a great public l exhibition under state or national pat 1 ronage. The argument is. We know ! that there must be such things tC
 draw the crowd. Just so we used to
 hear the Red Light stetesman of 1 Tammany declaring that to shut up ! the dens from which they drew their
 royalties on vice would kill New York
 by making it less attractiv to visitors | The answer is that a city would better ! die decently than live as a Sodom or 1 GomOrrah. and a fair would better fail
 or never be held at all than to depend l for success upon performances which
 offend the moral law and grossly vio-
 late criminal code.-New York Tribune