LOS ANGELES DANCE-HALLS AND OTHER PLACES.
Well, you may call them first-class if you like; I call them
first-class stepping-stones to an everlasting hell. Furthermore, I will
prove my statement.
On July 24 of that year (1908) I was again in Los Angeles. As usual, I
was interviewed, this time by a _Times_ editor. Among other things I
made mention of the fact that many mothers did not know what their
children were doing after school-hours, and stated that such women had
better play less whist and give their children more attention. And oh!
the terrifying iniquities of society. Do you know, the worst enemy a
girl who has fallen into error has is her own sex. Women simply will
not have anything to do with her, and that is what keeps the world
back. The cause? Selfishness, of course.
"Yes, I believe there are too many marriages of convenience. And oh!
the dreadful race suicide that I know is going on around me on every
hand. It sounds the doom of the American race. We are indeed on the
downward path."
"Why do not our mothers bring up their girls in a full knowledge of
this world and its snares for young and faltering feet, instead of
letting them run the streets and meet unknown men?"
"It is because the mothers themselves are too often unfit for the
divine duties of motherhood. They are lacking in a knowledge of what
makes for the best life. I have seen so much of it that I am going to
try to arouse the mothers of Los Angeles at a special meeting."
The different dailies kept tab of "Mother Roberts" for some time. To be
a target, a cynosure, is an indescribable cross to the Christian; but
some one must be willing, else how is the world to comprehend the
situation?
Among other things said in the mothers' meeting were these:
"Too many mothers will not, because of their false modesty, give proper
instruction to their children. Yes, parents fearfully misrepresent
conditions to their boys and girls, even resorting to absolute
falsehood. Of course the children soon learn the facts, and instead of
the parents and children making confidants of each other, both practise
deception. When girls find out these things, they often slip away to
their downfall.
"When I was sixteen years of age, I saw in a paper an advertisement
stating that an elderly lady wanted a young lady as companion and
amanuensis. The advertisement read very smoothly and I answered it. The
woman, who was seemingly a prepossessing, lonely old woman, inspected
my recommendations and at once engaged me on trial. I shortly returned
to her, taking with me some of my choicest worldly possessions; but
before I had been with her twenty-four hours, some of her strange
actions so alarmed me that on the following morning I made the excuse
at the breakfast table of wanting to go to my boarding-place for
expected mail, promising to return within half an hour. After I had
told the family of my experiences and suspicions, the mother would not
allow me to return even for my effects, which I have not seen from that
day to this. _It turned out that I was only one of about forty girls
who had been engaged by that diabolical woman to fill 'positions as
companions.'_ I am very thankful that 'the way of escape' had been made
for me, and though feeling badly about losing my belongings, I agreed
with my friends that it were better to avoid notoriety than to create a
disturbance.
"At the time of this occurrence (it was in San Francisco) I had but
recently arrived from England, the land of my birth and breeding, under
the protection of elderly people, who consigned me to the care of
relatives in California. As with thousands of other girls, my education
on certain lines had been badly neglected. I was, alas! too
unsophisticated.
"In after-years, when I became a Christian in spirit as well as in
name, I thanked God for this early experience, which has enabled me to
sympathize with those who, much of the time, are more sinned against
than guilty of sinning, and who so often are enticed away by the
various methods devised by unprincipled beings called men and women.
SATAN LURKS IN THE WALTZ.
"Yes; I have watched them dance in many places, even in Los Angeles. Is
it degrading, demoralizing? You know as well as I that there is nothing
uplifting, nothing of a good moral tendency, about the dance,
especially the waltz; and I saw nothing else offered than the waltz, or
round dances closely resembling it, in either of the places I attended
last evening.
"My heart sorely ached as I observed mothers with their little girls,
five to twelve years old, allowing, aye, even encouraging them to get
up and waltz on the same floor with questionable characters. Evidently
there is little or no need of introductions. Both sexes anxiously
observe who are the best dancers, and soon these, though perhaps total
strangers, are spinning, sliding, or gliding about together, in many
instances in a close embrace, breast to breast, and cheek to cheek. But
they 'must dance.' they 'love it so.' And the music! The most sensual,
the most alluring, as subtle as a wily serpent, and just as harmful.
"There were church-members there; mothers chaperoning their young
daughters; mothers who profess to be following in the footsteps of the
Redeemer; mothers who have promised to bring up their little ones in
the way Jesus would have them.
"In a few instances I even saw fathers waltzing with their own little
girls on the great crowded dance-hall floor as late as nearly midnight.
'What!' you say, 'surely no father would think of such a thing.'
Perhaps not; perhaps I am presuming. Perhaps it was the mother's escort
to the ball in each instance. I don't know. This I do know: Those
little children last night were _eager, hungry, craving, tireless
dancers_. O merciful God! The pity of it, the pity of it!
"I observed some of the young men. The contour of some of their heads
peculiarly interested me. To be sure, you could not tell what the
girls' heads were like because of so many etceteras bulging out all
over; but as I looked at many of the young men's heads, I was not long
in deciding that _those who danced the most gracefully evidently had
the bulk of their brains in their heels_.
"At the first place I visited, one young fellow walked up to a pretty
pompadoured, short-skirted miss who stood close to me and who had
waltzed with several strangers, and asked her to dance. She refused
him. Why? He smelt too strong of whiskey and was unsteady in his gait,
but she did not give him that as her reason, and because of his
persistence she soon said to her companions (some other young girls),
'Come on, let's go down to----; there isn't enough fun here.' It was no
sooner said than done. I also left for this other place, where I found
hundreds of couples dancing, and many refined, pretty-looking young
girls sitting or standing around, waiting for any strange young man to
invite them on to the floor and hug them (oh yes, better call things by
their proper names)--hug them to alluring waltz-time.
EVEN ON THE LORD'S DAY.
"There is hour after hour of this, day after day, night after night;
yes, even on the one day set apart for the worship of our Redeemer and
Creator, and this in the so-called respectable dance-hall. At the
entrance is a prominent sign--'Dancing every night including Sunday.'
'No bowery dancing allowed.' Tell me why that sign if the dance is
strictly respectable?
"A young gentleman made this comment to me: 'You won't find one girl in
a hundred today, who is not fond of the dance.'
"'Why?' I inquired.
"'Considering their training, it isn't to be wondered at,' he
answered.
"'What training?' I questioned.
"'Because their mothers loved it before them, and the girls do not
hesitate to say so.'
"Another young man said: 'I can take advantage of the situation, if so
inclined, every time. Invariably any girl who dances will drink, and
any one that drinks will go still farther.'
"One girl said: 'It isn't what occurs at the actual dance, but any girl
that dances often has to fight for her virtue, almost her life, after
the dance--on her way home. Often her escort takes her only part of
the way. Yet, "like moths that court the candle," even though we know
that death and ruin are in the wake, still we will dance.'
"Whoever heard of any man worth the having, seeking for a wife and the
future mother of his children in a ballroom?
WARNING TO GIRLS.
"Let me quote another young man: 'If the pure-minded girls with whom we
sometimes are dancing knew our thoughts, they would never put a foot on
the ballroom floor again, as they value their lives; but lots of young
girls don't know this, and their mothers who sometimes chaperon them,
don't suspect us. I consider the dance-hall even worse than the saloon.
I'm a dancer myself, but I won't pay serious address to any girl who
dances.'
"Have matters assumed such shape that we can not furnish the majority
of the present generation, pleasures so pure, refining, and alluring
that the dance and other vices may not be relegated to oblivion? This
question should stir the innermost recesses of the souls of all who are
interested in the welfare of the young people of today, be they young
or old, rich or poor. The next generation is cursed already,
frightfully cursed, unless unusual sacrifice will now be made. There is
no time to lose, especially on the part of those who love the title,
'Soldier of the Cross.'
"'Put on the whole armor of God.' Go where he wants you to go. Do what
he wants you to do. Be what he wants you to be, in thought, in word, in
deed, even though it may mean to part with your very life. God is
yearning for a few more Calebs and Joshuas and Daniels. What use to
pray 'Thy Kingdom Come,' if you patronize or countenance places where,
under no consideration, could you invite the One you profess to love
and serve."