BISHOP WHO DANCES

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 17, 22 July 1921, Page 7

BISHOP WHO DANCES

A PICTURESQUE PERSONALITY

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 14th July.

Dr. Long, the Anglican Bishop of Bathurst (N.S.W.), has provoked a storm of criticism from certain quarters, that has been amusing newspaper readers, by attending a ball and participating, apparently with great vim, in the fox-trots and other dances.

The Bishop, the idol of the young people of his diocese, frankly confesses that he "loves a good dance." He is fond of boxing, too, and not ashamed to admit it; and is, indeed, an all-round sport, being, a daring horseman, a fine tennis player, a good, cricketer, and, in his school days, one of the best footballers in his native state, Victoria. A handsome, clean-Shaven man of 40, he smokes a pipe; and, in these and other ways, is certainly tho most unconventional of all the Australian bishops; and, in the affections of the' great mass of the people, he holds a high place. He is a broad-minded man, and speaks to crowded congregations everywhere, his sermons, full of wholesome sentiments, are always well worth listening to. Church life, in his own diocese, is in a healthier condition than it is anywhere else in Australia; and the encouragement of legitimate sport is there a marked feature of the Church's activities.

Amongst those who have been criticising the Bishop's dancing proclivities is Mr. Herbert Booth, a son of the late General Booth', who happens to be conducting an evangelistic mission at Bathurst. "The other night," he remarked in the course of an address, "there were in Bithurst two functions in startling antithesis to one another. On one side of the street there gathered, in the Baptist Church, a little band representing every Protestant Church. • In the beautiful words of the. Anglican Prayer Book, they had resolved to cut loose from 'the pomps and vanities of this wicked world.' Across the street at the Masonic Hall there was another kind of ■function. The "building was crowded with gaily-dressed and partially undressed ladies, 1 "who yielded their bare arms, backs, and chests to the embrace of men of all ages. The Bishop was one of that party. They were whirling around till giddy midnight. I think that the first bishop of the Church would not', have been ftaind doing the fox-trot under such conditions or moving his ecclesiastical toes to the envy of the' onlookers. I think that had he been there he would have said again: 'Beware of the harm-ful-lusts which war against the soul.' 1 am sure that had the blessed Bishop Paul peeped through the door into that strango admixture of Jioly and questionable things he would have sternly protested.

"I.stand by every word I have said about the immodesty of modern society dressing," added Mr. Booth. "Whatever a bishop may dp or say at Masonic dances, I stand by the first bishop of the Church in his injunctions concerning ihe modesty of womanhood." For a few days the Bishop treated Mr. Booth and his other critics with lofty disdain. Then Mr. Booth renewed his attack, and received this broadside from Bishop Long in return: "If is enough to make the gorge of every honest man rise to read of loathsome insinuations as to the thoughts and emotions alleged to be rampant in people who dance. Every decent man and woman \viJi a healthy body and a clean mind repudiates such charges as have been made by this Mr. Booth with withering contexijit. It is bewildering that they can be made. It is perhaps not charitable to adopt the hypothesis of the psycho analyst, and ascribe them to sex\ieurosis and prurient obsessions. This type, of man makes me angry. 'It was at a dance that I fell in love'with the best woman in the world. It was wi,th that woman that I danced again the'other night. My children are learning to dance, and we take pleasure in seeing them indulge in this innocent pastime. I thoroughly enjoyed my right at the ball. It was a most friendly ;md charming social gathering. I took j.art in a number of the dances, but I ibn't thing I shone in the fox-trots. Some kind people have credited me with greater terpsichorean proficiency than is just.' 1