EQUALLY A SIN FOR BOTH SEXES.
I have, in the preceding pages, spoken chiefly of the harm that comes to
women from dancing, and have shown how vile men make use of the
privileges the waltz and its surroundings afford to lead once pure girls
to impurity and often to crime. But do not think for a moment that
because I have here thus spoken, that I hold the women blameless or the
dance to the man harmless.
While the woman is more often disgraced in the sight of man, I believe
that in the sight of God the sin of dancing is equally a sin for both
sexes.
A girl is often ensnared into intoxication and thus into greater sin by
vile men, but she is not wholly excusable. If she goes to a ball she
must take the consequences. Every woman has a God-given instinct which
teaches her right from wrong, and she cannot but know that to indulge in
such emotions as the modern waltz fosters is wrong.
It is a horrible fact, but a fact none the less, that it is absolutely
necessary that a woman shall be able and willing to reciprocate the
feelings of her partner before she can graduate a perfect dancer.
So, even if it be allowed that a woman may waltz virtuously, she cannot,
in that case, waltz well.
It matters not how perfectly she knows and takes the steps, she must
yield herself entirely to her partner's embrace, and also to his
emotions. Until a girl can and will do this she is regarded a scrub by
the male experts.
I would that young women who dance could just once be "behind the
scenes" when young men meet after an evening's dance to discuss it
together, and hear such remarks as "that Miss ---- is a perfect stick. I
would not give a fig to dance with her. You can't arouse any more
passion in her than you could in a putty man. To waltz with such as she
is not what I go for."
Or, another says: "Ah! but that beautiful Miss Smith is a daisy. She is
posted. This waltzing is the greatest thing in the world. While you are
whirling one of these dear creatures, if you do the thing correctly, you
can whisper in her ear things she would shoot you for saying at any
other time, but she likes it all the same. They take to it naturally
enough if they are properly taught. If you don't know just how it is
done go to a dancing master, or any professional dancer. They know, and
they will soon let you know. You will soon become a waltzer and thus
find out what there is in it."
Such remarks, and worse than these, (remarks unfit to publish even in
this plainly written book) are made, my fair young ladies, after the
ball, about you by the very young men who, at the dance, you thought so
nice and who are so considered. I am ashamed to say in by-gone days, I
have been among these young men myself, and I know that to hear them
give free expression, loose-tongued, to the lewd emotions and sensual
pleasures in which they indulge while in your embrace, is almost as
common as the waltz itself.
I repeat what I have said before, that I do not refer to rough,
uncultured men, but to those who are looked upon by society as most
polished, refined and desirable young men.
If it be true that a woman, however innocent in thought, is the subject
of such vile comment, if there is the barest possibility that it may be
true, is it not also true that if she is possessed of a remnant of
delicacy, she will shrink from exposing herself to such comment, and
flee from places of dancing as from a den of vipers?