The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-02-05


and try to crawl out of the mire of eco
nomic instability by diligence and industry?
Then, what is the explanation for this
orgy Of orgies that is the Germany Of the
hours Of darkness? Berlin, Munich, Leip-
zig itself, Frankfort-all the metropolitan
centers of Germany, (which were before
the war perhaps as furtively wicked as all
great cities are because of their nature
now are openly. fiamboyantly, brazenly,
boldly wicked. They are renegade cities in
the night. model industrial hives in the
day. They are what religious minded per-
sons call degenerate cities; they are Sodoms
and Gomorrahs.
The cabarets and dance halls and EN-
poriums of the sort with higher sounding
classifications are legion and almost with i,
out number in the German cities. Any
thing that is crazy and fantastic in the way
of dancing has full sway in every large
city. There seems to be no limit to the ex
.cesses Of the smart set and the many othe
sets that have come to call themselves
German society" since the war.
Vast Number of Profteers
Wasting Their Large Gains
The question may occur: How, if Ger
many is poverty stricken, are these fam
boyant routs and exhibitions of wickedness
financed?
1t Is well known that nowhere in the
world was profiteering countenanced to so
great an extent as it was in Germany. Con-
sequently there are scores and hundreds
and even thousands of war millionaires.
The imperial authorities believed firmly
that Germany would win and that the AL
lies would have to pay the bill, no matter
how great it might be, so they encouraged
their people to make as much as they could
and placed no restraints on the profits.
This must be considered If we are to un-
derstand where all the money comes from
for affairs surprising the debaucheries that
characterized decadent Rome.
The dance craze is the most conspicuous
feature to the eyes of visitor to German
city. In tea rooms in restaurants, in no
tells in every place where people gather
without work to do, the talk Is OF dancing,
the thought is of dancing, and there is
dancing Thinkers who are pessimistically
inclined and who are not conscious of the
transformations yet tremendous industrial
activity of the country speak dolefully Of
"a Dance Of Death"
And 1t is natural II not accurate
characterization of Germany's joy mad
turn of mind. In the ballroom, on the
stage, in the streets, in heretofore circum-
spect home circles-wherever music can
be found-there is one thought and one
activity through the dark hours and that
is dancing. It has ceased to be accounted
a diversion and has become an obsesson.
Weird Jazz From America
Supreme in Dance Places
The music-the weird, insane, new
music which came originally out of
America and which has been embellished
by the devilish ingenuity of unartistic Old
World composers-has proper company in
the character Of the fashions in terpsi-
chore. In the theaters the undraped woman
dancer is favored and welcomed, and 1t is
practically dull and provincial tactics for
any theatrical producer to bring dancing
act to his stage in which the merely par
TALLY undraped figure is the personality.
In the cabarets and bathrooms and dives
there is little effectual distinction. All
are ready settings for debauches. The
dances attended by Berlin's upper crust"
would make the extensively advertised and
suggestively promissory affairs Of GER
tain Greenwich Village group fade into
the shadow OF the highly circumspect.
They would make the dances of the Jimmy
OToole Association seem in comparison
as charade parties of small town Sunday
school meetings.
On the silver screen Germany encourages
and applauds pictures that would be barred
from the screens OF the lowest class film
theaters of America or even France.
There are laws of course. For example,
moving picture products which make the
exhibitors blush for shame at the private
showings of them are illegal; likewise the
dances where articles of apparel are avoided
and discarded. But the enforcement OF the
law is another matter. The craze Is so
great and so intensely developed that the
mere law dare not interfere with the most
outrageous spectacles that the stars In the
German heavens have ever looked down
upon.
Impressively bound volumes are written
on the subject of the newest dances and
the German public buys them madly. The
cartoonists make fun OF the new dances,
and they are the sole point Of comment
by newspaper humorists, but the craze
holds and the dancing fashions become
more unbelievable.