Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-07-08
BELLY" SUNDAY HANDS WALL0P
 TO THE DANCE
Evangelist Declares Danc- ing More Harmful to
 Morals Than Saloon.

EVeTy DOQy SeeInS LO pe VauClHS
 Where once only few tripped the l light fantastic, nowadays dancing 1 seems to be the main diversion in thu,
 city restaurants and the chief amuse- ment of the fashionable hotel crowds. Nobody who keeps up With the times deems it safe to neglect an education
 in the trots, glides and jumps of the
 modern dance.
 Clubs and societies and lodges and what not like the dance also. And in the home it has progressed enormous ly, due principally to the development l of the talking machine, a large propor- | tion of the reGbrds turned being espe l cially designed for dance purposes These are advertised extensively, and naturally help to spread the dance fever.
 Of course, there are some folks who dc not dance-it is against their eth ics, their principle, possibly their re- ligious scruples. Among these is Billy Sunday. Billy delivered broadside against the modern dance recently that is q classic. It is for this reason, more than any other, that we publish it. Here is what Bii- ly said:
 'I'm with Lii Hung Chang, the great Chinaman, who said, after looking at an American dance, Why don't they sit down to hug?
 "I want to see the color of the bucks hair who can wrap his arms around my wife! Pm going to mon- opolize all that hugging business my self, take it from me!
 "Take it from me again, I'd con. slider it a nuisance to gallop three quarters of a mile to get hugging:
 eff I had the power to make law for America, I'd have law that no boy or girl over twelve years of age should dance until he or she was mar. ried, aud then they should dance with each other.
 Some people may say: MT. Sum- day, you are too severe: we like danc- ing for the exercise, the innocent pleasure it gives All right. Then you men dance with each other and you women dance with each other. You'll get all the exercise and all the innocent amusement of the dance that way. But if this system was put in effect, I bet the old dance would tlut up shop between New York and San Francisco before the enl of the weeks
 'It will take your daughter when she is a rose-geranium of purity and make her into a poppy flower of lust. The Cubanola Glide and the Mobile Buck were not bad enough, so they had to invent the Bunny Hug and ths Puppy Snuggle and the Kitchen Sink and hell only knows what!
 "How do you like it when you sec your wife in the embrace of a man who was once her lover?
 Most men don't care a rap for the dance, it's the hug they are after. That1l give your old rheumatic ant gout masters a chance. A fellow has got to get powerfully old and de- crepit when he doesn't enjoy a hug, I'll tell you that.
 ''I want to tell you I don't believe that there are many people who can go on the ball room floor and dance with a pretty girl rugged to his breast and look upon the charms un- der the influence of fascinating musi: 1 and then go out with prayer meeting feelings. I will bet you sir, that if ninety\nine men who dance would 1 tell the truth, ninety out of one hun dred will say:
 "You are right, Bill; you are the first one who ever had the grit to tell it.
 "I have more respect for a saloon keeper than for dancing teacher.
 'I don't believe the saloons will do | as much to damn the morals of young people as the dancing school"