Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-05-22
GHlCAGo,s aCHlckEND DANCE.

Il
Every little while the vivid flash of
vice in its most virulent and destruc-
tive form shocks the public senses.
| From Chicago, that enormous and most
Kaleidoscope center of western life,
which gave the public the term "broil-
ers" as applied to girls, on the stage
or off, at tender age, now comes
news of Chicken" dance. The term
"broilers" it seems hard to reconcile
with any view bearing respect, and it
seems only just to ascribe to 1t a
meaning of sacrifice. 1t has been APP
/ piled to representatives of maiden
/ hood who are not old enough to be
easily protected from the evils and
temptations which beset them on the
stage, and who were better off either at
occupation where the liability to down
fall is less perilous than it is behind
| the footlights.
| But the chicken dance is evidently
an advanced term, further develop
| ment OF its forerunner in slang, and
| the purpose of the dance is apparent
| ly deliberately ruinous, altho its first
! flash of meaning seems hardly as por-
! tentious.
| The Chicken" dance was advertised
a few days ago to take place in dis
| reputable dance hall in Chicago known
as Little America" whose name
people whose morals it seeks to sink
are the younger ones Of the growing
population. The literature sent out in
the form of pamphlet for the pur-
pose Of advertising the occasion, and
| urging young men<to lure young wom
en- to attend, was OF the most brazen
sort imaginable, and some of the pass
ages printed in the same plainly sig
nified that the plan Of entertainment
proposed for the chicken" dance was
Of q kind which no well-intentioned
person could sanction. The promise
was held out OF talent from some oe
the, largest and best resorts in the
city" and 1t was stated that "all mem
| bers who have chicken friends shoul6
have their names brought before tho
committee, and they will pass upol
them" The Talent club, under whose
auspices the dance was to be given
was referred to as "a swell society, or
ganized for the young and innocent
hut Of late it has become place of
widened fame" This last is under
stood to mean looser ways.
Jovial reference was made to pro-
family and indecent talk, with the in
struction given that the user thereo
shall be taken to a dark spot an6
separated from his money"
Assistant States Attorney Clifford
G. Roe fortunately got hold Of one of
the advertisements in time to stop tn,
dance, and Immediately brought
charges against the president of thu
Talent club and the printer who
turned out the advertisement. Mr.
Roe Is to be commended for any cor
receive action that may be the OUT
come of his effort, and any salutars
effect which his interruption may
cause on others who might wish to
promote diversion" of the same or
der as that sought by the Talent club.
There seems to be no room fol
doubt that the entertainment was in
tended to exploit the talents of people
from Chicagos Tenderloin and to pre-
sent to young girls. escorted by
youths of doubtful aims, sights only
calculated to make the downward
path more steep and sudden. The
brazenness of the arrangements sug-
gest that vice is running unrestrained