The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-01-23
EVILS OF THE MODERN DANCE.

little publication, Mutual Improvement Mes
senger, comes to our exchange table. Appar
emily it is the organ of the society of that
linked with the Mormon church. Looking over the
advertisements. we find Christensen's dancing
academy. Following the advantages displayed to
patrons is this announcement: The football hug
never has beeen allowed in our classes"
What III the world is the football hug" In
stinetively the clean man woman sets it down
something immoral, and following this CON
clusion arises the graver thought that the dance
halls of this city, or many of them at least,
be pitfalls to chastity; places where the devil is
masked under the guise of seeming responsibility.
The devil does not appear as a roaring lion, but
the subtle Mephistopheles. Tt is in such role
he best accomplishes the destruction of souls.
Under the caption of 'Hoodlumism among Salt
Lake Dancers" in last Saturdays copy of the Des-
ert News, Professor Christensen enlightens the
mountaineering public, giving the origin of the foot
ball hug" the bunny hug" and the ''Bowery raz-
ze." One can scarcely believe his senses as he
contempates what is going on about him. How
vain the delusion that the world is growing bet
ter! We have slept while our children made merry
in the haunts of sin, Our children, upon whose
virtue rests the stability and permanency of the
republc
Whence came this degradation among respec-
table people of the simpicites and beauties of the
dance. Professor Christensen answers From
that seat of learning known as Harvard college
AS matter of history the Bowery style of dancing
was naturally i'll vogue at Coney Island because
1t expressed the character of the dances 1t did
not have to be introduced, for it had its origin
there. 1t was the dance of the vulgar. without
the slightest attempt at decency morality or man
ners. Because of its natural growth and its natu-
raj expression of low life it hourishes at Coney
Island and was quite characteristic of the place.
Healthy young pigsat play in barnyard could not
act more naturally than did the dancers at Coney
Island. The dance fitted the class of people re
sponsible for its origin. and thus had some merit
as performance because of its naturaness Those
who enjoyed the dance did not assume to have
good manners, and were not even pretenders of
decency. They simply danced as their warped
consciences dictated, and there were none to make
them afraid
1t is impossible to place a stone wall about
the haunts of vice, 1t is impossible to restrain
the evil Of bad example 1t is impossible to stiAe
the effort of the lower strata to initiate their bet
U.s. ~ WtcI SoIlc Harvard students, OF
mihonaires, alert to spring sensations adopted the
Coney Island style of dancing, it took root in the
arstocratc social circles of the entire country The
middle classes quick to perceive and initiate.
so prone Is human nature to retrograde rather than
to advance in righteousness. Only them saws
Professor Christensen, did the ultrafashionables
see the error and even now there is an apparent
unwillingness to abandon the vulgarism' Vulgar
ism is soft word 10 apply to immortality
Parents of youths, especially girls budding
into womanhood, should perceive the evil lurking
IN the modern dance 1t is vastly unlike the Hcoil-
lon and ''monnie musk" of the days of their own
innocent childhood. The evil is hrie, at our very
homes, As to the progress of the "yulgarism," let
Professor Christensen tell it in his own language;
but let 1t also be understood that are neither
advertising nor pra sing has dancing academy. He
says:
Our community has not suffered much from the
introduction of improper forms of dancing as some
eastern cities have and yet have not escaped
tirely. when I realize that Harvard col
lege was responsible for the vice, than
impressed with the conviction that the schools and col