I am delighted to find that the public schools are taking up dancing, and I believe that if every woman's club would give a free dance for the young people of the neighborhood once a week, with an instructor and a chaperon present, that they would do more good to the race than by discussing eugenics or by indulging in a flippant study of social economics.
Dancing is first and foremost a healthful exercise; it is pleasure; and it is an art that brings to the front courtesy, ease of manner, grace of body, and happiness of mind. It is for us to set this standard.
Many prominent citizens and some of our clergy have recently denounced modern dancing, believing in all sincerity that certain vulgar dances which they have witnessed are the models upon which general dancing must be based. Unfortunately, this is a case of the innocent suffering for the guilty, and it is our business and pleasure to prove that any sweeping condemnation of dancing as a pastime is not founded upon fact and that many have erred through ignorance rather than through intent. Let us, therefore, co-operate with our guardians of civic decency and aid them constructively in the elimination of the coarse, the
uncouth, the vulgar, and the vicious. Let us
28
