The Dance and Its Dangers
I may at this point call attention to the dangers of the dance. Every girl who enjoys dancing, and most of them do, should be shown the dangers to both herself and the man in allowing herself to be drawn up too close to the person of the man she is dancing with. She should not only be told that she must not do so, but told plainly and lovingly why. There may be nothing impure in the thought of either, for when they are dancing they are usually not thinking. Music tends to quiet thought and under such conditions they will follow the sex impulse and unconsciously draw near to each other, and they are far more sure to do so while ignorant of the dangers in it. In like manner boys should be taught to carefully respect the person of girls and told in a plain, frank way the truth about their relations to the opposite sex.
I believe, as a rule young people love to dance with the purest of motives. They are attracted to this form of amusement because of their love for music and the natural desire to keep time to it. The most zealous religionist finds himself patting his foot when a bit of lively music is played, which is but an evidence of the natural desire of any human being to keep time to music.
Is there someone asking, “If it is true that young people have the purest of motives in their desire to dance, how comes it then that so many frightful mistakes are made as a result of the dance?” I might answer in a single word, by saying, Ignorance.
It is the conviction of the writer, however, that no more mistakes are made in proportion, and perhaps not so many, as the result of the dance as by long night rides in buggies, or sitting in the shadow of trees in public parks. But the facts are more people dance than ride in buggies.