The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-08-06

LOW AND OBSCENE CHARACTER.
OF MODERN MUSIC AND DRESS
Is ONE OF THE GREATEST DIS
GRAcEs OF OUR AMERICAN
CIVILIZATION. w..

the trend OF political morals toward
betterment, many observers r either
puzzled or critical about the backward
tendency they note in social morals,
as indicated in the kind of, song, dress,
and dance now most popular. Where
formerly, we are told, songs pleasant
and healthy, whether sentimental,
patriotic, or humorous, were heard in
the parlor, concert hall. or theatre,
now we have in a tyranny of rag
time" an offensive and gross prostitu-
ton of all sentiments that customarily
form the basis Of the popular song.
AS long ago as May "a, it was re-
corded in these pages that a. plan a
been suggested for III censorship OF
such songs, but, although no such
censorship has been legally effected,
the private censorship Of the press,
secular and religious, is continuous.
Likewise there is abundance Of stric-
ture on what Is being gradually fixed
in the mind of the reading public as
the immodesty Of woman's dress, n
the peril Of the new dances whose
peculiar steps are more or less loosely
recognized by such means as the Tan
&C, the Turkey Trot. n half a dozen
more. Against present day songs, a
| writer in The New York Musical OBJ
server presents his argument in the
gulSe or a picture, saying:
"Is it not pitiful to look upon a lit
tie girl, perhaps 7 or 8 years old.
swapping her fingures, swaying from
| side to side, and i Justify singing as
II her heart were in every note.
'Ev'rybody's doin' it, doin' it. She
hears her big sister sing it; her big
sister hears it 1t a Show and her
beau buys it for her. Glance at the
sheet music displayed on the piano
in the front parlor' of nearly every
home in the country. Do you see any
songs like Ami Laurie, Ben Bolt, or
The Last Rose of Summer? No; you
see The Devils Ball, The Dippy Rag,
The Baboon Baby Dance, and The
Tango Twist, each one with a title
| page picturing contortioned dancers
partly clothed, and the printed words.
The reigning success of the day And
the worst of it all is that these songs
appeal not only to the low and vicious
minded, but the great majority Of
u church-going, pious-minded peo-
pie pay out their. money to attend
theaters in order to hear and applaud
Them
Such songs should be ''~banished,"
according to The Congregational Ad-
vance (Chicago), while The Chicago
Daily News, citing a statement by
George Hamlin, the tenor, that good
songs are produced in a country where
the people know and understand good
| poetry, shows a way out:
1.-THE average American. SONG is
drivel, if not something worse. his
| could not be true if it were not for
the fact that both composers INK the
| purchasing public will consent to &C
cept drivel. The young people of this
country should be familiarized with
good poetry. If better songs are to
be the by-product of deeper culture,
hasten the day"
Yet deeper culture, or a sense of
the artistic, are not generally brought
forward in support of the indecorum
of Women's dress of the moment. For
example, a writer in The Wesleyan
Methodist (Syracuse, N. ~ has this
to say on the subject: ,.
IF girls had a faint idea Of the dis
gusting sight they presented, or could
hear some of the unmanly, dissolute
remarks made about them as they
pass along the streets clad in trans
parent waists, or one Of those short,
outlandish, tight-gripping, hobble
skirts, they would. feel SO ashamed
that If they had a spark of virtue left
in them they would go to their rooms
or get out Of sight, somewhere till they
had a sensible dress to put on. How
can they expect people to distinguish
| lRlEl1 Hull III wv" dLQ SSlL upL j. IlICS
dress exactly like them?" - r
To impress his readers, as he says,
with the fact that he is not talking on
his own unsupported opinion, the writ
er in The Wesleyan Methodist quotes
a Catholic priest of New York city as
having declared that
Never in history were the modes SO
| abhorrently indecent as they are to-
| day. One may make the closest study
Of costumes through the prints and
drawings and sculptures of 5000 years
and find nothing to equal the shame
less styles worn unabashed in the
crowded streets and summer resorts
by hundreds. Of thousands of apparent
lly respectable girls"
Many more religious papers are nut
spoken in condemnation Of "the mode
of today, as, for instance, The Kan
sas City Catholic Register, which says,
There is no artistic excuse for some
of the costumes to be seen in public
places" and classifes certain garments
as designed to compel instant atten-
ton to their indecency"; while Of the
secular press, The New York Times,
commenting on "a dispatch from Its
Paris correspondent that. women's
dress models this summer are '"the,
most audacious since the lOirectoire",
lis at a loss for an explanation: a@
1.-The Directoire audacity is under
standable. France had been having a
debauch in the name of freedom, reli-
g4on had been nearly obliterated, NOR
ais were at a low ebb, and the social
condition was exactly expressed in the
dress Of the women. But that social
condition surely does not exist now.
= Therefore fashions to express
the new sense of the alarming deyeI-
opment Of evil and the need of sup
pressing it, should become more form
al and modest, not take on the aspect
of the bacchanalia. There Is no ac-
counting for the extravaganza of the
prevailing Partisan mode"
OF poignant interest, and from a diff
ferent angle, are the observations of
DR. Edwin III. Lewis in American
Medicine, who tells us that "immodest
dress is responsible for many a young
girls ruin and downfall" and pro-
claims it a fact that every medical
man of large practice and experience
knows only too well the fires kindled
by the present dress Of young fe-
Males That fashion never stands
still is the consoling reflection of The
diets that '"in a short while there will
be a return to costumes that leave a.
little to the imagination" while on the
subject of the dance, The Chronicle
reminds us that in Byron's day the
waltz twas held to be the end OF all
~decency," and wonders whether the
turkey trot may yet become as re-.
spectable and tame Any suggestion.
OF immortality in these dances, we are
told by The Christian Work and Evan
gelist (Undenorn.), Is quickly resented
Thy protesting christians who indulge
lin such dancing, but the facts are