The Municipal Dance

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 21, 1911

The Municipal Dance

A movement has been started in Milwaukee by which its promoters hope to eliminate evil from social recreation. It is styled "The Municipal Dance," and is held every Saturday night. The article describing it says: "One conspicuous and delightful feature of the 'Municipal Dance' is its democracy. It is everybody's night. A man in a dress suit would feel uncomfortable. . . . Policemen and detectives pass and mingle here and there to see that nobody exceeds the speed limit. All classes are represented; but the working class, the one chiefly designed to be benefited, is, of course, most numerous. The refreshments do not include alcoholic beverages. Every one is out of the hall by eleven-thirty." This offers a splendid opportunity for the roué and the harlot to ply their vocation. Moral and immoral are all on a level, and the level is the lower level of sensuous pleasure. Divine assistance is not promised to any one who makes the devil's field his battle-ground. We can not with safety adopt any of his devices in the moral warfare. "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?" The modern dance is an inception of the devil, and was instituted by him to ensnare souls. Despite the motive of well-meaning promoters to reform the dance, those who participate in it by indulging its pleasures can do so only with danger of moral ruin.