South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-03-02
Closing Dance Hall
Is Not The Solution
It is Conditions Under WhicL
Amusement is Given Thai
Needs Improvement.

When the world gets a spasm of
virtue the police go ABOUT clOsing
cheap shows and shutting up the
cheap dance halls and scent theaters.
They do not stop To think that per
haps it is we'll 10 clean the atmosphere
a little higher up at the same time.
l agree that the cheap and rOwdy
dance halls must so. The are a men
ace To the morals of the young people
of the nation. but they should be re-
placed by cleaner and better places
for this beloved amusement of the
young. 1T is not the dance that is
wrong, but the conditions under which
the dance is enjoyed that make for the
evil This is being recognized in the
larger cities, but we are slow to take
up the work. People give 20 missions
when they should give TO the amuse-
ment fund and see that clean amuse-
ments and pleasures are offered for
the ones they desire TO help.
A walk over a desert waste soon ia
tigues, but the path through green
fields and pleasant valleys and along
splendid hills Will beguile one for
miles without a thought of tire.
1t is the same with the path up
ward towards the greatest good 1t
must be pleasant if we would induce
the people TO walk therein. We may
say that a future that is worth hav-
ing is worth working for. That is
true, but it is one thing TO teach and
believe a certain thing and another TO
make the person with whom we labor
desire to attain that thing. We can
give reasons, but we cannot create in
tense desire. Therefore it is to slim
ulate desire for better and cleaner
lives that we must work. We may
cridcise the laborer for spending his
money for crude joys. But-do we
offer any that Will take the place of
these moments of Relation?
People are all alike in their craving
for happiness. They all grow dull and
stupid under the heavy round of
labor. 1t makes no difference whether
the clay of which they are made is
coarse or fine; there must be some
happy, care-free hours or the life
goes TO pieces and we find dissipa-
tiOns of the lowest and most degrad-
ing character INDUCED in by both
classes.
If we would make the cheap shows
cleaner and yet not eliminate the fun
and humOr we would be doing as
great a work as any done by an evan
gelist. 1t is task to daunt a theater-
loving people who cOuntenance the
sordid and vile plays so often played
in the expensive houses. We imagine
VIC Nclll ldht tic me ltSSOIS WITHOUT
becoming touched by the CRIME of the
mire In which we are dragged to see
1t. The man or woman who can go
into the grogshop and low dens of
Salvation Nell' and feel that it is
great lesson and all the rest of the
cant by which we gloss over the inn
pure and unseemly when offered at a
dollar and a half a seat and presented
by an expensive star and company,
may just as well keep silent about the
hashy melodrama and obscene jokes
in the cheap vaudeville. The Jokes
do not pretend to be anything else
but coarse. while in such plays as the
one quoted, ande score more that
have been popular in the best houses, !
there is cheap pretense of "a great
lesson"
We will be doing great work
when we provide clean fun for the
masses" but we are not likely to
do that as long as the classes" pre-
fer TO dig in the muck heap for
pleasure. 1t takes a sane and sensible
view of life and its necessities to do
efficient work The great trouble with
the leaven we offer the lump of ignor- |
ance is, too often. that it is visionary. |
We know so we'll what is good that
we feel that it is plain to eve dulled |