Norwich bulletin., 1913-05-13
DANCING EVIL IS
 A WoMAN's PROBLEM.
Providence Clergyman Said Some Dances Orininate in Deseneracy.

l Providence, May 12-Rev. Frank W. i CroWder, rector of Grace church, in 1 a sermon here denounced suggestive dances and their notifications and de- plored the fact that the latter had l been accepted by many respectable persons. He declared that these | dances had their origin in degeneracy and contended that it was a wOman'S s problem and one for them to solve Dr. Crowder further declared that 7 today was "the maximum of pleasure and excitement with the minimum of rest This, he said, was gradually l taking the place of the Ten Command ments. Women of responsibility, he contended, are drifting into ways that men were ashamed of a few years ago.
 The sermon was, in part, as follows: Let me here allude particularly to | the irruption of vulgarity, and in some quarters even of indecency, resulting 1 from certain suggestive dances of inn moral origin, which have attained an alarming vogue among all grades in our social life.
 Far from being new, these dances are a TeverSion to the groSseSt prac- tfces of savage men. They are based on the primitive motive of the orgies enjoyed by the aboriginal inhabitants of every uncivilized land Their move
 
 with exactitude by explorers and mis- sionaries to those people we are ac- customed to regard as inferior
 Preserved through all the ages by the habttues of low resorts. these dances have never lost their original reason for existence or been deprived of their appeal to the profigate or the debased. Today, whether practiced in the lowest brothel or in surround ings more expensive they retain with out change their meaning and are un- modified in their effect. That for q moment persons of respectable ante cedents have injudiciously endured tEelr introduction in places where de- corum guards chastity has not changed their nature or obscured their menace Without doubt many women and girls in their puremindedness and in nocence do not realize the vulgarity nor understand the suggestiYeness of these dances, l am entirely willing to accept the assurances of mothers in thlS parish to whom l have protested that these dances can be danced mod- estly. But the question of importance is, are they not 9 constant menace to good taste and a constant te1npt4- ton to vulgarity?
 Parents might regard with eouan imity the idea, of a tight-rope walker threading his way along the uncer- tain edge of d precipice, but certainly not their inexperienced child And even if she skirts safely to perf1o71s brink and does not fall into the black abyss, as many have done and are do- ings, she shall escape with sensibili- ties unblunted tastes unperverted and tie bloom of maiden modesty untarn- ished?
 This is emphatical1y a wonan's problem, and it is the duty of women to solve it. It is interesting and per haps significant that certain spheres dominated and led by men, are today showing signs of moral revival, bus- mess and politics for instance; while certain spheres dominated by women, the home and the social life, are show ing signs of moral deterioration These facts are challenge to the whole wofnen's movement = the strength and splendid possibilities of which cannot be ignored; to rise in it's might. and set first its house in orr der; and to show that women need net be slaves 10 the goddess Fashion in dress or in social customs,
 And to prove that, instead ef fsei= ing compelled to fall into line because they fear to be left out Of things, they can bring initiative and independence into that social realm which they se unauestiona bly eoRfFol'fA