THE APPROVAL OF SOCIETY IS NO PROOF AGAINST THE DEGRADATION.
I know that there are many who will contend that I have some selfish or
spiteful motive in writing thus strongly in condemnation of the waltz.
Many will doubtless claim that the waltz is very moral and healthful, is
indulged in by the best people of every land, seemingly tolerated by
all, and that he who raises his voice against it does so from other
motives than a disinterested desire to warn his fellow-men against it.
I admit that it is indulged in by a great multitude (not of the best)
but the most aristocratic society people. But does the fact that society
has permitted itself to be carried by storm into a toleration of the
modern dance make the dance any less degrading and sinful. No more so,
it seems to me, than does the fact of the universal use of alcohol make
its effect less harmful or make it any the less a destroyer of homes,
happiness and character.
No, its universality does not prove its morality, and it is certain that
results prove conclusively its immorality, and all who try to make it
out otherwise, are either those who know nothing at all about it and are
unwilling to believe that such an evil could be in their midst without
their knowledge, or those who know and practice the abominations, but
enjoy it far too well to confess what they know. These last will be
loudest in their clamor against this book and its author, and in their
profession of perfect innocence.
They believe themselves to be the sole possessors of the secret which
makes the waltz their pet amusement. They do not mean that their secret
shall be divulged, and they seize every opportunity of praising the
"beauty and variety" of the waltz. Its "health giving exercise," "its
innocent amusement" and its grace-giving qualities. Grace-giving,
forsooth. The grace of the harlot, to my mind, is not the most desirable
possession.
I have known many and many a non-dancing mother to encourage her child
to learn to dance, because she wanted her to become graceful, and in
many a case that daughter has lost grace, health, virtue and all that a
woman holds dear. If you have a choice of a saloon for your son, and a
so-called select dancing school for your daughter, I beseech you, in the
name of God, place your son in the saloon, but keep your daughter out of
the dancing school.
If you wish her to become graceful there are schools of physical culture
which are much better adapted to the development of health and grace,
and much less to the development of vile passions and depraved natures.
What I have said before will be no surprise to those who waltz, though,
of course, they will feign great surprise, ignorance, and innocence of
it all.
But dancing schools are often made use of in a way that is not so well
known. Professional thieves often frequent these places. Many of them
are perfect dancers and good conversationalists. They appear most
respectable and are, of course, so considered, since they are found in
the select school, where references are required.
They gain admittance to the school either by practising fraud upon the
dancing master, or inducing him to practice fraud upon the public by
admitting such a man for a liberal compensation, to what he advertises
to be a select school.
When once in a school it is an easy matter to form the acquaintance of
the wives and daughters of wealthy men.
To these he makes himself most agreeable, as he well knows how to do,
and, if possible, manages by some means or other, to get an invitation
to call. If he fails, he makes some excuse to call without an
invitation. During his calls he manages, if opportunity presents itself,
to seize some valuables; if not he will locate them, to be called for
upon some future dark night, and he is quite safe from arrest, for even
if suspected he knows that the ladies of the house who have been seen
with him in public would only bring disgrace upon themselves by
arresting for theft a man upon whose breast they often reclined in
public.
This, however, is of small account. If it was the only evil connected
with dancing, this book would never have been written. The loss of
earthly possessions is of little consequence when compared with the loss
of health, happiness, purity and virtue.
I simply tell you this to show you how many evils a dancing master is
cognizant of in connection with dancing, that the generality of people
know little or nothing about.
Some one has said that few people know better than the dancing master
and saloon keeper, how many souls are sent through the port holes of
hell between the ages of fourteen and twenty by these two agencies of
the devil.
And he is right.
The heart of the dancing master must be even harder than that of the
saloon keeper, for while the saloon keeper must witness the harmful and
disgraceful indulgence of men, principally, he knows that there is a
chance that it may prove only a harmful indulgence.
But the man who can constantly see pure and lovely women being whirled
to a disgrace from which she can never recover must have a heart hard
indeed. Yet this is what I have witnessed and helped to perpetuate by
teaching dancing. Still I heedlessly continued in the business, until
something occurred which set me to thinking.
I met on a train, while leaving town, one day a young woman, who, a few
months before, had been a member of my select dancing academy. She had
been ruined there, and was one of the discarded ones when the school was
closed for a few weeks, as all dancing-schools have to be every little
while, to get rid of those girls who have met with a fate similar to
hers.
I entered into conversation with her and found she could no longer
endure being shunned and slighted by all her old companions, and was
running away from home. I knew that her parents would be heart broken,
and that she, without the protection of a home, would soon sink to utter
abandonment, and I tried every persuasion to induce her to return to the
home she was leaving. I--who was still teaching the very thing which had
been her ruin, now that self-respect and all for which life was worth
the living, was lost to her forever--I tried to save her from further
degradation.
After I had argued for some time with her she turned fiercely upon me,
her once beautiful eyes now filled with a desperation born of despair,
and said, with a look and tone of reproach which I shall never forget:
"Mr. Faulkner, when you will close your dancing schools and stop this
business, which is sending so many girls by swift stages on a straight
road to hell, _then, sir_, and not till then, will I think of reform."
I was stirred by her words as I had never been stirred before. But for
them I might, perhaps, not have been writing this book to-day. At this I
know many may sneer and say that I have myself done more than most men
towards the furtherance of the evil I so strongly condemn.
I bow my acknowledgements. I own it all.
"I lived for self, I thought for self,
For self and none beside,
Just as if Christ had never lived.
As though he had never died."
I sinned against heaven and in the sight of God and man, and was in no
wise worthy to become a child of him to whom I came ten months ago, and
he received me just as I was, all stained with many, many sins, and in
his boundless love and mercy he forgave them all.
I feel I cannot close this book without just a word to any of my old
companions who may chance to read it, and to others who are leading the
life I once led. I want you to forsake that old life I once shared with
you and, as I have done, give yourselves into the hands of the Master,
Jesus Christ.
You don't know what you are missing of happiness in this world and what
you may miss in the world to come. I do not ask you to take my life for
an example. That would be a poor example, indeed. We do not have to take
any human life for a copy. The life of Christ is the one true example
for us all, and I believe that when we stand before, the great Judge of
all, the question will not be,_ if we have lived as well as this
professing Christian or that church member_, but if we have lived our
life as nearly like the life of Christ as we could.
And right here let me say a few words to professing Christians and
church members who dance. I say "professing" Christians because I
believe there is a vast difference between a _Christian_ and a
"professing" Christian and church member who dances.
To be a _Christian is to be Christlike_, and I believe there is nothing
_Christlike_ in partaking of such pleasures as have been described in
the foregoing pages, even though you indulge no further than the license
of the waltz. And even granting (if this were possible) that you only
engage in the indecent and suggestive position and motions, without a
single sinful thought or feeling, do you believe that your Heavenly
Father could say to you, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Thou hast spent the evening to my honor and glory. Thou art in the
world and not of it. Thou hast done nothing that could cause thy brother
to offend, but hast set a good and Godly example. Thou art letting thy
light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. Thou art denying thyself and taking thy
cross daily and following me. I left my home in glory and lived and
suffered and died the death of the crucified that thou mightest take
thine ease, dance, drink, and be merry, and then, lay down thy cross and
take up thy _crown_ in glory to be with thy Savior and be like Him."
"The Son of man cometh at an hour when ye know not."
If he should come and find you at the dance, locked in the embrace of
another woman's husband, do you feel that he would consider you ready?
Do you not feel the slightest fear that He would say, "Depart from me, I
never knew you?"
Ah, my friends, I should fear it very much. I should fear that to my
account would be laid the sin of the harlot.
You say that you dance very properly. What have you to say for those
who, looking to you for a Christian example, see that you, a church
member, dance, and conclude that there can be no harm in it for them, so
they indulge and are ruined by it, and in after days are to be found
leading a life of shame in the brothel, all because of your example
which led them to take the first step on the downward road?
Do you believe that when you shall both stand before the bar of God for
just judgment that none of her sin will be laid to your charge?
Christian friends, a great responsibility rests upon us all, not only to
see that we "keep ourselves unspotted from the world," but that we do
all in our power to drive from our fair land this awful blot and curse.
TESTIMONIALS.
We have just finished reading Mr. Faulkner's book, called "FROM THE
BALL-ROOM TO HELL," and we are profoundly moved by it. We believe
every word of it is true, and that his characterization of the
demoralization and ruin wrought by the modern dance is none too strongly
put.
Surely nothing worse could have been found in Sodom than these Dancing
Academies, as a reason why the righteous God sent fire and brimstone and
destroyed them all. These exposures are as carefully and delicately
written as could be, and yet not fail to be fully understood.
We hope the book will find a wide reading and help to open many eyes
that are blind and startle many that are careless, and prove to be a
barbed wire fence around many homes of the innocent.
May the Holy Spirit of God bless our Christian brother in his efforts to
expose these hot-beds of vice. We advise all pastors and members of our
Churches to read this book, and send it to friends.
Signed by the following ministers, of Los Angeles, California.
REV. BRESEE, Pastor Simpson M. E. Church.
REV. D. READ, Pastor First Baptist Church.
REV. H. U. CRABBE, Pastor United Presbyterian.
REV. M. H. STINE, First English Lutheran Church.
REV. A. C. SMITHERS, Temple St. Christian Church.
REV. F. V. FESHER, Vincent M. E. Church.
REV. A. B. PHILLIPS, City and County Missionary.
REV. J. H. COLLINS, Third Congregational Church.
REV. A. ANDERSON, Universalist.
REV. FATHER MORLEY, Catholic Priest.
REV. O. READ writes--"You have photographed the ball-room
correctly."
REV. B. FAY MILLS says: May God bless you in your work, and hope that
great good will be accomplished by this book. I believe what you say is
true. I know of such cases as you have described. It should be read by
all Christians.
CAPT. E. R. JENNINGS: "Among those who have spoken in praise of
your powerfully written little book, 'From the Ball-Room to Hell,' let
my name be enrolled."
REV. E. S. TAYLOR writes: "Last evening I purchased a copy of
'From the Ball-Room to Hell.' I read it through at one sitting, and
hasten to thank you for your noble utterance. I know from my own
experience that every word is true."
REV. S. E. WILSON, in a long and eulogistic letter, says: "This
book fills a vacant niche in the temple of literature, not occupied by
sermons or homilies."
PROF. HOMES, ex-dancing master, writes: "This book is founded
on facts."
THE REV. FATHER MORLEY, a Catholic Priest of California,
writes: "Having carefully read your excellent book, 'From the Ball-Room
to Hell,' I cannot forbear expressing my full approval, therefore I
cheerfully endorse every line contained therein. You have opened, dear
sir, a campaign against public evil. You can send to me one hundred
copies, which I shall place in the hands of my followers."
"The author writes evidently under a deep conviction of the truth, and
gives a voice of warning in terms that will nigh take away the breath of
many parents who read it. We think that every pastor ought to see that
one of these books should be placed in the hands of all members of their
church."--_California Christian Advocate._
The lady principal of one of the chief female educational establishments
on the Pacific Slope writes: "Myself and lady friends of mine have read
the book 'From the Ball-Room to Hell,' and think you have done a noble
work, and think it ought to be read by all parents."
PROF. A. T. SULLIVAN, ex-dancing master, says: "Waltzing is the
spur of lust."
"We feel pleased that there exists a pen bold enough to denounce the
evil complained of in so masterly a manner and in such vigorous English.
If we mistake not, it will work great good in the social world."--_Los
Angeles Evening Express._
"This book has created a greater flutter in social circles than anything
published within our remembrance. Its pages should receive careful
perusal of parents, and the equally careful attention of the young. We
believe every word of it is true."--_Los Angeles Times._
End of Project Gutenberg's From the Ball-Room to Hell, by T. A. Faulkner