DANGERS OF DANCING.

NZ Truth, Issue 124, 2 November 1907, Page 5

DANGERS OF DANCING.

A PALTRY, PUERILE PAMPHLET, fievil-dodger Dawson's Denunciation* A Series of Silly, Sanctimonious, Snuffle-busting, So-called "Signals."

The following pamphlet, or circular, OB tract, or whatever they call these things published by the Rev. J. Dawson has been posted to "Truth." The sender records his opinion on the right hand top cornsr briefly and -forcibly, so forcibly, m fact, that if "Truth" published it the whole . membership of the council of some of the churches would rush Joe Ward's private residence on Monday morning at daylight demanding the immediate suppression of this religious and family journal. Here it is : — DANCING DANGER SIGNALS. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or ol obedience unto righteousness ?— Rom. 6. 16. 1. I cannot dance with a. clear conscience, before God, and, therefore, I should abstain. 2. All', branches of the church have condemned dancing as carnal and immoral, inconsistent with the Christian profession. 3. Even the sacred books of ttte Pagans declare it an immoral amusement. 4. Pagan moralists, like Cicero, call it indecent and voluptuous. 5. Dancing was one great means byjwhich Nero corrupted Rome. 6. It has a bad name for professing Christians, and it dishonors the cause. 7. The best and most devout Christians do not want to dance. 8. None but back-Sliders and unconverted persons are found dancing. 9. It is not a favorite amusement even with conscientious worldlings. . 10. It is one of the most favorite amusements with the vile everywhere. 11. The world has no confidence m the piety of church members who dance. 12. It is a distinctive badge everywhere of worldiness and worldly conformity. . 12. - destroys a professfng Christian's testimony, influence and usefulness everywhere. . 14. The dancing of sexes together, as m modern, times, was never practiced by the virtuous m Bible tinies. 15! Dancing grieves and offends all faithful pastor's and devout ' Christians. -J.-L. 16. It is a companion vice With drinking and many other sins. 17. It dissipates the mind, corrupts the heart .and sears the conscience. 18. The decolette dress of the dance is an immoral invention of harlots. 19. The "german" and other round dances are favorites m brothels. 20. The liberties indulged m dancing "are nowhere else allowed m d&cent society: and under other circumstances they furnish ground for divorce. 21. It brings . virtue into close conpect'ion with vice at late hours and undue excitement, m. which virtue is well-nigh powerless. 22. Men do not choose to dance with themselves, nor even with their wives and sisters. 23. Beyond thrill of music and poetry of motion, it seems to fcave a sex reference. 24-. Indeed, it is so allied to licentiousness that the vilest places m our cities are called "Dance houses." 25. The police reports show that a very large proportion of abandoned women are ruined m connection with the dance. ■ - 2/5; I cannot dance m modern societv to the glory of God, nor can anyone. ' 27. Tf Jesus Christ were here Tarn sure he would, not go with me to a dancing party, . and I cannot ask or obtain his blessing upon it. 28. I would not like to meet death at a dance and m a ball dress! * 29. I would not like to be found m a ball room when the Lord comes. 30 And finally : I have no desire to dance because my soul is filled w.ith the joy of. God's salvation, and iny ' life . with- the privileges of His service.-— Rev. J. B. Marvin.— SeU Whether St. Paul had dancing m his mind's eye when he penned that particular chapter of the Romans, ending with the somewhat vague statement that "The wages of sin is death," or not, may be left to the Revs. J. Dawson and J. E. Marvin to decide. It is very ■> probable, however, that Paul; had he lived m these times, would have nad as great a snout on dancing as any non-confor-mist ranter, for the simple reason that he was so . darned ugly that he'd have cast a gloom . over any ballroom. But, anyhow, Paul didn't write the Scriptures on his own, he's not the only oyster m that stew by a long chalk. Moses had a pretty considerable hand m the business long before Paul was ever dreamed of even, and Moses writes m Exodus C. 15. V. 20 and 21. "And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel m. her hand ; and all the women went out after her with tim-. bre^ and with dances. And Miriam answered them, 'Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously ;; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." And again. Judges. C. 11, V. 34, "And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet hira WITH TIMP.RTCLS AND WITH DANCES : and she was his only child ; beside her he had neither son nor daughter." So it would appear from these two passages alone (and there are others) that the scriptures are not so very much down on dancing after all. ■ Miriam danced before the Lord, and no one seemed to rebuke her for the performance. Jephthah's daughter doesn't seem to have suffered morally from her inrlula;ence m the pasHme of riancine;. Inrleed, she is one of the noblest characters of the Old Testament, eriving herself up to drtatli wli»! c 't still a maiden rnilirr than have her father broak his vott. Is it not recorded, Judges, C. 15, V,

36 and 37, "And she said unto him., My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord,: do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth ; for as much as the Lord hath taken vengeance of thee for thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.' And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me ; let me alone two months that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my feQows." And agaiii m the 29th verse, "And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father,

who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed ; and she knew no man. ..." So Jephthah's daughter, the girl who came "with timbrels and (with dances," was such a model daughter that she gave her life and what to Jewish women of those days was more than her life to save her father m the eyes of the Lord. In the face of this then, why does the Rev. Marvin say "I cannot dance with a clear conscience before God, and, therefore, I should abstain." Is he so much better than MIRIAM OR JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER ? Let's have a look at some of his "signals." No. 2 reads, "All branches of the Church have condemned dancing as carnal and immoral, inconsistent with the Christian profession." This is absolutely false. AH branches of the Church have not condemned it. In fact, only a small proportion of the church have done so. No. 5. "Dancing was the great means ■by which Nero corrupted Rome." Rot. Nero didn't corrupt Rome. Nero was the outcome of an already corrupted Rome. And dancing had nothing to do with the corruption. It was the unequal distribution of wealth and rotten class distinction that corrupted Rome. Nero ■was too much of the sensualist to enjoy dancing as we understand ft. Tie sensualist enjoys indecent exhibitions ; it is the artist who enjoys dancing. But a mere parson could hardly be expected to discriminate. Then again, No. 9 says, "It is not a favorite amusement even with conscientious worldlings, *' and No. 12 says, lf lt is a distinctive badge everywhere of worldliness and worldly conformity." Now, if dancing is not a favorite amusement with the conscientious worldling, how the devil can it be a distinctive badge of worldliness ? Such reasoning is rotten and shows that' these danger, signals are merely so : many rounded phrases strung together without embodying any real principle. Mere catch phrases designed to appeal to doddering old persons of both sexes and silly emotional girls and enaemic insipid young men. The thing is so assertive as to amount to arrogance. Take, for instance, the following, "It is a companion vice with drinking and many other sins." "The DECOLETTE DRESS OF THE DANCE is an immoral invention of harlots." "The 'German' and other round dances are favorites m brothels." Statements like these prove the writer to be a liar pure and simple. How does the Rev. Marvin know what are the favorite dances m brothels, and on what authority does the Rev. . Dawson endorse this statement ? Have | they frequented brothels to see, or has "someone told them ?" These parsons are ready to sing any songthat suits the moment. For instance, we are told here that "the police reports show that a very large proportion of abandoned women are ruined m connection with the dance." Yet these people when out on the Temperance rampage will SWEAR THAT IT IS DRINK and nothing _ but drink that drives women on to the streets. When drink's the question, it is drink that ruins the greater proportion of prostitutes ; when dancing's the question, it ds the dance ; when gambling's the question, it is gamming that does the damage. This is true parson's logic. Three factors each contribute a greater portion of the whole — a mathematical impossibility. But why continue ? Each and r.very one of these "signals" is a 'paltry and pitiful platitude penned without repard to reason, common sense, or truth. Just a mad, fanatical, hysterical, puritanical shriek against the people's popular indoor recreation. The outcome of a bigot's brain, the discontented carping of a miserable kill-joy. / n unwarranted, unreasonable and v 'truth Ful denunciation of a pastime that was m existence 1/efore Christian -jar ring sects

and warring creeds were heard of. The miserable mutterings of mealymouthed mugwumps and mountebank malcontents. What a cheerful world it would foe if it were remoulded to the heart's desire of these gentry. Our pleasures would consist of cottage meetings and bun-fights where we could guzzle and gorge on cheap pastry and weak tea, interspersed with sickly, sentimental, semi-religi-ous songs and recitations and an interminable address from the pastor. Out on such pleasures ! They are well enough for the enaemic crowd who are fond of them and know no other. But full-Wooded HEALTHY 1 YOUNG NEW ZEALAND wants somiethin-g brighter and more vigorous. Something to set the pulse moving, to stir the nerve centres, and send the good red blood rushing along the arteries. Something to give life some of that spirit that Byron caught when he wrote : vOnuOn with the dance ! let joy be unconfined ; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet, To close the glowing Hours with flying feet." But it is not to be expected that Kill-joys of the Dawson kind could understand this sort of thing. Their sordid natures ever mistake happiness for" immxorality. In the lownecked dress of the ball-room belle they see the garb of the harlot ; m the poetry .of the waltz they see nothing but an incitement to sensuality ; m the brightness and the gaiety of the dancing floor they see nothing but wickedness and lust. They can see no good, no innocence, no purity, because there is happiness. And how under the Dawson creed can anyone be good and happy, too ? But Dawson doesn't put out his "danger signals" for nothing, apparently. A notice at the foot of the leaflet states that they may "be obtained at Is 6<d per hundred. How cheap ! Fifteen shillings a thousand for a thing you could put m your eye. If this be a legitimate price, then "Truth" having printed 40,000 copies of the tract this week, is owed by somebody or other £30. If Dawson honestly thinks that it is worth any antidance person's while to pay Is 6d for a hundred of his silly "signals" for distribution, then he must recognise that "Truth" has done him £30 worth of service this week. This fact is only mentioned to show what A REALLY CHARITABLE PAPER "Truth" is. And "Truth" readers are just the class of people Dawson should want his precious literature circulated amongst. They must be worldlings or wicked people or they wouldn't read "Truth" (according to Dawson), so his words of wisdom should fall on fruitful ground. But Dawson Is wasting his time and his money and his health m the dissemmination of these insults to innocent j and respectable people. , It is ridiculous to think that any sane person ' is going to give up this or that pur- : suit on reading any of the,se idiotic "signals." The dance is too old a form of amusement, too popular and too conducive to happiness without j suggestion of immorality to be abo- : lished on account of the perverted j ideas of a set of bigots and fanatics, j wliose understanding of human na--1 rtire is so limited that they expect to govern the world according to their ' own feeble enlightenment* '