{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18759/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18759","id":"gutenberg_18759","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18759","summary":null,"tags":["Category: American Literature","Category: Parenthood & Family Relations","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Dance"],"text":"Produced by David Starner, Suzanne Lybarger, Janet\nBlenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team\nat http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by the Library of Congress)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFROM THE\n\nBall-Room\n\nTO\n\nHELL\n\n\nBY\n\nT. A. FAULKNER\n\nEX-DANCING MASTER\n\n\nFormerly Proprietor of the Los Angeles Dancing Academy and ex-President\nof Dancing Masters' Association of the Pacific Coast.\n\n\nTHE HENRY PUBLISHING CO.\n\n57 Washington St., Room 16.\n\nCHICAGO.\n\nCopyright 1892\n\nBY\n\nR. F. HENRY.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nYou will, my dear reader, find many very plain things between the two\ncovers of this little book; things which will, perhaps, shock your\nmodesty and probably disgust you altogether.\n\nBut if you find merely the reading of the facts disgusting, think how\nmuch more disgusting is the reality, and how essential that _some_ one\nshould portray the evil to the public in a manner impressive and not to\nbe misunderstood.\n\nI have numerous reasons for undertaking this work, chief among them,\nhowever, being because I have for many months, felt it to be a duty to\nmy God, and to my fellow-man. Nay, I may put it in a yet more concise\nform; and simply say, because of a sense of duty to my God, for I\nbelieve the two to be inseparable. As the green calyx of the rosebud\nholds within its embrace everything required to make up the perfect\nrose in all its beauty of form, texture, tint and perfume, so my duty to\nmy God embraces my whole duty to my fellow-man in all its beauty of\nkindness, love, and any help or warning I may be able to give, and if\nthat duty shall lead me to speak out boldly and plainly a warning\nagainst the evil of a popular amusement, I will boldly and plainly\nspeak, and leave the result with Him whose I am and whom I serve.\n\nMany will, doubtless, object to the book on account of the plainness of\nthe language used; but, my friends, I have endeavored to tell the truth,\nand to do this on such a subject, does not admit of the use of delicate\nlanguage. A mild hint at such a fact, clothed in flowery language, would\nonly serve to give a vague impression, and would fall far short of the\nmission I wish this little book to accomplish, viz.: the opening of the\neyes of the people, particularly parents, who are blind to the awful\ndangers there are for young girls in the dancing academy and ball-room,\nand of leading some, if possible, to forsake (as I have done) the old\nunsatisfactory life of selfish pleasure and sinful indulgence and enter\nupon the purer, nobler and far happier life, which I have found in the\nservice of the Lord.\n\nI do not undertake to write upon a subject of which I am ignorant. There\nare, perhaps, few people living who have had more practical experience\nor better opportunities of finding out the evil influences of dancing\nthan myself. I began to dance at the age of twelve and have spent most\nof my life since that time, until within a few months, in the dancing\nparlors and academies. For the last six years I have been a teacher of\ndancing and for several years held the championship of the Pacific Coast\nin fancy and round dancing. I am also the author of many of the round\ndances which are the popular fads of the day.\n\nI merely tell you these things to prove to you that I know whereof I\nspeak, and not because I am proud of them. On the contrary, it is the\ngreatest sorrow of my life that I have been so long and in such an\ninfluential way connected with an evil which I know to have been the\nruin, both of soul and body, to many a bright young life. And if, in the\nhands of God, I can be the means of leading one-fiftieth as many souls\nto Christ as I have seen led to a life of vice and crime through the\ninfluence of dancing academies with which I have been connected, I shall\nbe more proud than I have ever been of any previous achievements. And if\nthis little book shall, in any degree, help in the accomplishment of\nthis purpose, I shall feel that I am more than repaid for my trouble in\nits writing, and shall willingly and gladly endure all the harsh\ncriticism and condemnation I know its writing will bring upon me.\n\n                                                  T. A. FAULKNER.\n\n\n\n\nFROM THE BALL-ROOM TO HELL.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nFIRST AND LAST STEP.\n\n\nSince my conversion from a dancing master and a servant of the \"Evil\nOne\" to an earnest Christian and a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the\nquestion has been repeatedly asked me: \"Is there any harm in dancing?\"\n\nAnd letters innumerable have been coming in with questions to the same\neffect.\n\nThe more I mingle with people outside the dancing circle the more\nforcibly I am made to realize how many there are who are seeking to know\nthe truth concerning the evil of dancing, and how many thousands more\nwho, if they are not seeking that knowledge, certainly ought to have\nit.\n\n+---------------------------------+\n|  ~Have you read the preface?~   |\n+---------------------------------+\n\nLet me assure you in the first place that I am well aware that there are\nmany church members and professing Christians who dance; but, if on the\nstrength of this you deem it a safe amusement, come with me for a few\nevenings, and when you have seen all that I can show you, let your\njudgment tell you, whether you can, with safety, place your pure,\nbeautiful daughter in the dancing academy or ball-room.\n\nLet us first take an instance from the \"select\" dancing academy, and\nthus begin at the root of the matter.\n\nHere is a beautiful young girl. Let me take her for an example.\n\nShe is the daughter of wealthy parents; they have been called to mourn\nthe loss of two of their children; and this is their only remaining\ntreasure, their darling, their idol almost, whom they love more than\ntheir own lives.\n\nThey wish to bestow upon her every accomplishment which modern society\ndemands, so when it is announced that Prof. ---- will open his select\ndancing academy they hasten to place her under his instruction.\n\nAt first she seems shocked at the manner in which he embraces her to\nteach her the latest waltz.\n\nIt is her first experience in the arms of a strange man, with his limbs\npressed to hers, and in her natural modesty she shrinks from so familiar\na touch. It brings a bright flush of indignation to her cheek as she\nthinks what an unladylike and indecent position to assume with a man\nwho, but a few hours before, was an utter stranger, but she says to\nherself: \"This is the position every one must take who waltzes in the\nmost approved style--church members and all--so of course it is no harm\nfor me.\" She thus takes the first step in casting aside that delicate\nGod-given instinct which should be the guide of every pure woman in such\nmatters.\n\nShe is very bright and learns rapidly, but a few weeks have passed\nbefore she is able to waltz well, and is surrounded by the handsomest\nand most gallant men in the room, who flatter her until her head is\nquite turned. She has entirely overcome her delicacy about being\nembraced in public for half an hour by strange men. In fact she rather\nlikes it now. She wonders all day, before dancing school, if that\nhandsome man who dances so \"elegantly\" and says such nice things to her,\nwill ask her to dance with him to-night, and finds herself dreaming of\nhow delightful it would be to feel his arm about her.\n\nThe evening at last comes; the uninteresting square dances are gone\nthrough with, and the music of the waltz begins. Her partner is the\nApollo of her day dreams. He presses her close to his breast, and they\nglide over the floor together as if the two were but one.\n\nWhen she raises her eyes, timidly at first, to that handsome but\ndeceitful face, now so close to her own, the look that is in his eyes\nas they meet hers, seems to burn into her very soul. A strange, sweet\nthrill shakes her very being and leaves her weak and powerless and\nobliged to depend for support upon the arm which is pressing her to\nhimself in such a suggestive manner, but the sensation is a pleasant one\nand grows to be the very essence of her life.\n\nIf a partner fails, through ignorance or innocence, to arouse in her\nthese feelings, she does not enjoy the dance, mentally styles him a\n\"bore,\" and wastes no more waltzes on him. She grows more bold, and from\nbeing able to return shy glances at first, is soon able to meet more\ndaring ones until, with heart beating against heart, hand clasped in\nhand, and eyes looking burning words which lips dare not speak, the\nwaltz becomes one long, sweet and purely sensual pleasure.\n\nThe more profitable things upon which she has been accustomed to spend\nher time and thought, lose all attraction for her, and during the time\nwhich intervenes between dancing school evenings, she feeds her romantic\npassion on novels, unfit for any person to read, and which would have\nbeen without special interest to her before she entered the dancing\nschool. She spends much thought upon those things which tend to develop\nher lower nature, for \"as a man thinketh, so is he.\" She has never\nbefore had a thought she would not willingly express to her mother. But\nnow she thinks of and discusses with her girl friends of the dancing\nschool, subjects which she would shrink from mentioning to her mother.\n\nO, foolish girl, if she had but remembered that her best friend was her\nmother, and that thoughts she could not express to her were thoughts in\nwhich she should never indulge, what untold sorrow and shame she might\nhave been spared.\n\nShe graduates from the academy and is caught into the whirl of society,\nand her life becomes what is called one round of pleasure--one round\ncertainly of parlor dances, social hops and grand balls with champaign\ndinners and early goings home (early in the morning, _of course_).\n\nThis evening there is to be a ball of unusual grandeur. The last of the\nseason of gaiety, and the closing of the dancing-school term. Our friend\nwill surely be present. Let us attend. What a scene of beauty, gayety\nand splendor. It must have been of just such scenes the poet wrote:\n\n  \"There was a sound of revelry by night,\n   And Belgium's capital had gathered then--\n   Her beauty and chivalry\"--\n\nBut see, there is our friend of the dancing academy just entering on the\narm of her devoted father. Three months have passed since we first met\nher. She is much changed, yet one can scarcely see in what the change\nconsists. The face is the same, yet not the same. There is just the\nshadow of coarseness in it, a little less of frank innocence and true\nrefinement, and a trace, not exactly of ill-health, but a want of\nfreshness. This last is, however, well concealed by the use of\ncosmetics, and she is still a very beautiful girl, and the fond father's\nheart swells with pride as he sees the handsomest and most fashionable\ngentlemen of the ball-room press eagerly forward to ask her hand for the\ndifferent dances of the evening.\n\nHer father remains for a few of the square dances, but soon retires,\nknowing that his fair daughter will not want for attention\nfrom--gentlemen whose attentions he is sure must be desirable, certainly\ndesirable, why not? Are these admirers not rich and handsome, and do\nthey not move in the highest society. Ah, foolish father, how little he\nknows of the ways of ball-room society.\n\nBut let us turn our attention again to the dancers, at two o'clock next\nmorning. This is the favorite waltz, and the last and most furious of\nthe night, as well as the most disgusting. Let us notice, as an example,\nour fair friend once more.\n\nShe is now in the vile embrace of the Apollo of the evening. Her head\nrests upon his shoulder, her face is upturned to his, her bare arm is\nalmost around his neck, her partly nude swelling breast heaves\ntumultuously against his, face to face they whirl on, his limbs\ninterwoven with hers, his strong right arm around her yielding form, he\npresses her to him until every curve in the contour of her body thrills\nwith the amorous contact. Her eyes look into his, but she sees nothing;\nthe soft music fills the room, but she hears it not; he bends her body\nto and fro, but she knows it not; his hot breath, tainted with strong\ndrink, is on her hair and cheek, his lips almost touch her forehead, yet\nshe does not shrink; his eyes, gleaming with a fierce, intolerable lust,\ngloat over her, yet she does not quail. She is filled with the rapture\nof sin in its intensity; her spirit is inflamed with passion and lust\nis gratified in thought. With a last low wail the music ceases, and the\ndance for the night is ended, but not the evil work of the night.\n\nThe girl whose blood is hot from the exertion and whose every carnal\nsense is aroused and aflame by the repetition of such scenes as we have\nwitnessed, is led to the ever-waiting carriage, where she sinks\nexhausted on the cushioned seat. Oh, if I could picture to you the\nfiendish look that comes into his eyes as he sees his helpless victim\nbefore him. Now is his golden opportunity. He must not miss it, and he\ndoes not, and that beautiful girl who entered the dancing school as pure\nand innocent as an angel three months ago returns to her home that night\nrobbed of that most precious jewel of womanhood--virtue!\n\nWhen she awakes the next morning to a realizing sense of her position\nher first impulse is to self-destruction, but she deludes herself with\nthe thought that her \"dancing\" companion will right the wrong by\nmarriage, but that is the farthest from his thoughts, and he casts her\noff--\"_he_ wishes a pure woman for _his_ wife.\"\n\nShe has no longer any claim to purity; her self-respect is lost; she\nsinks lower and lower; society shuns her, and she is to-day a brothel\ninmate, the toy and plaything of the libertine and drunkard.\n\nHow can I picture to you the awful anguish of that mother's heart, the\nsadness of that father's face, or the dreadful gloom which settles over\nthat once happy home. Neither their love nor their gold can repair the\ndamage done. Their sighs and tears cannot restore that virtue. It is\nlost, gone forever. Ah, better, yes, infinitely better, would it have\nbeen if instead of placing their only darling in the dancing school,\nthey had laid her in the grave by her little sister's side while her\nsoul was pure and spotless.\n\nBut how is it with her ball-room Apollo? Does society shun him? Does he\npine away and die? Oh, no; he continues in the dancing school,\nconstantly seeking new victims among the pure and innocent.\n\nLike flowers, the choicest ones are plucked first, and most admired,\ntheir beauty soon fades and they are cast aside for new ones. Parents,\ndo not discredit my statement. There is no mistake; I know whereof I\nspeak when I say that just such villains as I have described are to be\nfound in, and leaders of, the select dancing school, in the ball room\nand at the parlor dance, figuring in what is called the best society, as\nthe most refined and highly polished society gentlemen of the day.\n\nNor is the ball-room scene an imaginary one.\n\nI have seen it, just as described, hundreds, yes, thousands of times,\nand have known of many and many a case with the same sad ending.\n\nDo not delude yourself, my dear reader, with the thought that such\nscenes occur only at low public dances. Some of the lowest and most\ndisgusting deeds of which I have had any knowledge, have occurred at and\nin connection with, the most fashionable parlor dances.\n\nThe following infamous deeds were done on one of the principal avenues\nand at the home of one of the most aristocratic families of this city.\n\nThe occasion was a fashionable dance of which I was manager.\n\nThere was present the _creme de la creme_ of the city's society. Among\nthem two beautiful young women who were actors in the play I am about to\nput before you. The play is in five acts.\n\nThe first scene is of exquisite loveliness. It is a large drawing room,\nelegant in all its appointments. Its coloring as seen by gas light is\nsoft, rich, and beautifully blended or prettily contrasted. Its pictures\nare rare bits of art from the brush of the most popular artists of\nancient and modern times, and all its ornamentation is forcibly\nsuggestive of culture and refinement. All these things we feel rather\nthan see, for our attention is riveted upon the gay company assembled.\n\nWe hear the hum of many voices and see before us scenes of fair women\nand handsome men, diamonds flash, silks rustle, and no garden of flowers\never displayed a greater variety of rich and dainty color intermingled,\nor flashed more brightly its gems of morning dew. But hark! From behind\nthat bower of blossoms and evergreens in yonder recess come strains of\nmusic which set the little white slipper to tapping out the time as its\nwearer waits impatiently for the waltz to begin, and now the room\npresents a scene of whirling, whirling figures.\n\nNotice particularly this couple near us and that one in yonder corner,\nfor I know them well. The ladies are beautiful and respectable.\n\nTo be sure, one not accustomed to such scenes would consider them\nanything but respectably dressed, with their nude arms, neck and\npartially exposed breast, and tightly clinging skirts which more than\nsuggest the contour of body and limb.\n\nBut society and fashion demand such dress; vile men demand it; for them\nthe waltz would be spoiled of half its pleasure if the woman was not as\nnearly nude as she dare be.\n\nThe male companions of the two girls are handsome and fashionable, but\nof their character not so much can be said, except in condemnation. They\nare certainly pleasing, and are in every way endeavoring to be so to\ntheir young lady companions, and appear to have succeeded very well in\ntheir efforts, for, as they whirl over the floor, they gaze into the\neyes gloating over them and gleaming with a fury of lust. They allow\nwords to be whispered to them which they would not listen to at any\nother time; listening now, they come closer still, and in response to a\npressure of her hand, his arm tightens its clasp of her waist, and she,\nlosing all restraint, yields herself to the evil passion of the moment.\nThus the fury of lustful thought becomes mutual and is mutually enjoyed.\n\nThe second scene is in a summer house. Only four characters are required\nfor this act. They are the four we have particularly noticed in the\nball-room scene.\n\nThis, too, would be a pretty scene, if the pleasure of it were not\nspoiled for us by the evil we see in it and know may result from it. The\nsummer house, covered with vines and flowers, is in a beautiful garden\nfilled with shrubs and trees. The night is calm and cloudless, and the\nsilvery moon looks sadly down upon the scene through the branches of the\ntrees.\n\nThe girls have been invited to retire thither for rest and refreshment.\nThe men have previously arranged with a servant for the refreshments,\nwith plenty of old wine provided for their use, and now they urge the\nladies to partake, saying they will feel refreshed and be sustained by\nit for the remainder of the evening.\n\nAfter much coaxing and pleading they are induced to take a glass. This\naccomplished, the men feel that their object is as good as achieved. The\nwine soon has a visible effect upon the unaccustomed brain, and the\ngirls are easily induced to drink more.\n\nThe third and fourth acts are only repetitions of the first and second,\nand the last and fifth takes place behind the scene. The curtain must\nfall between us and the going home scene in two hacks to which the half\nintoxicated girls have been conveyed by brutes in human form.\n\nWe only know that these girls are now unable to resist, if they were to\ntry, the deed of shame their male companions are bent upon doing, in\nthat closed carriage, whose driver has been ordered to go slowly, and we\nknow what has taken place, as in after days we see these girls no more\nin respectable society, although their accomplices still appear as most\nelegant and highly respectable gentlemen, alias ball-room Apollos.\n\nThis tragedy, my friends, was acted out in real life, and is only a\nsample of hundreds and hundreds of cases of which I have had personal\nknowledge.\n\n\"But,\" some mothers say, \"I know that I can trust my daughter. The waltz\nmay be the means of leading astray some shallow, low-minded girls, and\nmay arouse the lower nature of some of those whose lower nature lies\nvery near the surface, but such girls would go astray anyway. My\ndaughter is a pure, high-minded girl, and I am sure she is trustworthy.\"\n\nI am glad she is. Keep her so, my friend, _keep her so_. Do not risk\nmaking her otherwise by placing her under the greatest temptation that\ncan possibly come to a girl.\n\nIf you place her in the dancing academy or ball-room she cannot and will\nnot remain what you say she now is, and she has but a comparatively\nsmall chance of escaping ruin--comparatively only a small chance, I say.\n\nIt is a startling fact, but a fact nevertheless, that _two-thirds of the\ngirls who are ruined fall through the influence of dancing_. Mark my\nwords, I know this to be true. Let me give you two reasons why it is so.\nIn the first place I do not believe that any woman can or does waltz\nwithout being improperly aroused, to a greater or less degree. She may\nnot, at first, understand her feelings, or recognize as harmful or\nsinful those emotions which must come to every woman who has a particle\nof warmth in her nature, when in such close connection with the opposite\nsex; but she is, though unconsciously, none the less surely sowing seed\nwhich will one day ripen, if not into open sin and shame, into a nature\nmore or less depraved and health more or less impaired. And any woman\nwith a nature so cold as not to be aroused by the perfect execution of\nthe waltz, is entirely unfit to make any man happy as his wife, and if\nshe be willing to indulge in such pleasures with every ball-room\nlibertine, she is not the woman any man wants for a wife. It is a\nnoticeable fact that a man who knows the ways of a ball-room rarely\nseeks a wife there. When he wishes to marry he chooses for a wife a\nwoman who has not been fondled and embraced by every dancing man in\ntown.\n\nIt is also noticeable that after marriage few men care to dance, or to\nhave their wives dance.\n\nThe second reason why so many dancing girls are ruined is obvious, when\none considers how many fiends there are hanging about the dancing\nschools and ball-rooms, for this purpose alone, some of them for their\nown gratification, and others for the living there is to be made from\nit. I am personally acquainted with men who are professional seducers,\nand who are to-day making a living in just this way. They are fine\nlooking, good conversationalists and elegant dancers. They buy their\nadmittance to the select (?) dancing school by paying an extra fee, and\nknow just what snares to lay and what arts to practice upon the innocent\ngirls they meet there to induce them to yield to their diabolical\nsolicitations, and after having satisfied their own desires and ruined\nthe girls they entice them to the brothel where they receive a certain\nsum of money from the landlady, rated according to their beauty and\nform.\n\nCan you wonder when the degrading, lust-creating influence of the waltz\nitself is united with the efforts of such vile demons of men as I have,\ndescribed, that two-thirds of the dancing-school girls are ruined.\n\nIt is a greater wonder that any of them escape. The question is often\nasked: If what you say be true, why do not more of the dancing girls\nbecome mothers? I will tell you why. It is because they dance away all\nfear of maternity. It is the knowledge that the dancing floor _exercise_\nwill relieve if they get into trouble that makes many a woman bold\nenough to take risks.\n\nDancing and drinking invariably go together. One rarely finds a dance\nhall without a bar in it, or a saloon within a few steps of it, and\nsooner or later those who dance will indulge in drink, which is the\ndevil's best agent in the carrying on of the vile business transacted\nin, and in connection with, the dance hall.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nFROM THE BALL-ROOM TO THE GRAVE.\n\n\nLet me tell you a true story which will illustrate this point.\n\nIt was a Saturday night in the month of December, in the year '91. The\ngirls who toil daily in the stores and shops on Spring street were\nhastening to their homes after the long week of toil. As they pass along\nwe notice among them the tall, graceful figure of a young woman who\nseems to be the favorite of the group of girls about her. She is a\nhandsome blonde of nineteen years, with a face as sweet and loving as\nthat of an angel.\n\nShe was born in a country town in New England, of respectable parents.\nHer mother died while she was yet but a little girl, leaving her to the\ncare of a devoted father, who, with loving interest, reared and educated\nher.\n\nAfter the completion of her education she entered a printing office, to\nserve an apprenticeship, but the close confinement, following, as it\ndid, in close proximity to the confinement of the school room, soon\nundermined her health and a change of climate was prescribed. The father\nfelt he could not part from her even for a few months, but as it seemed\nfor her good, he reluctantly consented to her going to Los Angeles, the\n\"City of the Angels,\" for a year.\n\nIt was a sad day for both when that father and his only daughter parted.\nLittle could he know of the fate that was in store for his pure and\nloving child in the far West. Little did he think when she kissed him an\naffectionate farewell, and told him she would return in just one year,\nthat he would never see her smiling face again. Nor did she dream that\nshe was journeying to her doom; that far beyond the mountains she should\nbe laid to rest 'neath the sod of mother earth.\n\nBut to return to the scene on Spring street.\n\nAs the little group pass up the street her very beautiful face does not\nescape the notice of the crowd of idlers gathered on the corners gazing\nimpudently at the passers by.\n\nAmong these idlers is one of the city's most popular society gentlemen\nand ball-room devotees, and we hear him mutter to himself as he stares\nimpudently at her pretty face: \"Ah, my beauty, I shall locate _your_\ndwelling place later on. You are too fine a bird to be lost sight of.\"\n\nHe follows her to her lodging, and day by day studies her habits.\n\nHe discovers that she goes nowhere except to her daily toil and to\nchurch. He visits the church, and finding no opportunity to approach her\nthere, is about to give up the chase when he finds out that the\ndenomination does not condemn dancing.\n\n\"Ah, now,\" he says, \"I have you.\"\n\nHe goes to one of the most fashionable dancing schools, where he is well\nknown, and explains his difficulties to the dancing master, who is ever\nready to take part in just such dirty work, for it is from the pay for\nsuch work that he derives much of the profit of his school.\n\nHe sends her a highly colored, gilt-edged card containing a pressing\ninvitation to attend his _select_ school.\n\nShe does not respond, so he finally sends his wife to press the\ninvitation. The girl, not dreaming of the net that is being woven about\nher, promises that if her pastor does not disapprove she will attend.\nHer pastor _does not disapprove_. He tells her that he sees no harm in\ndancing.\n\nWhy does he not see harm in dancing? Has he never been where he _could_\nsee?\n\nShe takes it for granted that he _knows_, and acting on his advice\nattends the school. She is met at the door by the dancing master, who is\nvery polite and so kindly attentive.\n\nThe society man who is plotting her ruin is the first person presented\nto her. He is a graceful dancer and makes the evening pass pleasantly\nfor her, by his kind attentions and praise of her grace in dancing, and\nwhen the school is dismissed he escorts her home, which courtesy she\naccepts, because the dancing master vouches for him, and she thinks that\nis sufficient. He continues his attentions, and finally invites her to\nattend, with him, a grand full dress ball to be given at one of the\nprincipal hotels. She has never attended a grand ball in her life, and\nlooks forward to this with the greatest pleasure.\n\nThe evening at last arrives. Her escort calls for her in an elegant\ncarriage. She looks more beautiful than ever in her pretty, modest\nevening dress, and he says to himself, \"Ah, my Greek Goddess, I shall\nhave the 'belle of the ball' for my victim to-night.\"\n\nAs they enter the ball-room she is quite charmed and dazzled by its\nsplendor and the gaiety of the scene, which is so novel to her.\n\nDuring the first of the evening her companion finds her more reserved\nthan is to his taste, but he says to himself, only wait, my fair one,\nuntil supper time, and the wine will do the work desired.\n\nTwelve o'clock at last comes, and with it the summons to the supper\nroom. Here the well-spread table, the brilliant lights, the flowers, the\nmusic and the gay conversation are all sources of the greatest pleasure\nto the unaccustomed girl, but there is one thing which does not please\nher. It is the fact that wine is flowing freely and that all are\npartaking of it. She feels that she can never consent to drink. It is\nsomething she has never done in her life. Yet she dares not refuse, for\nall the others are drinking, and she knows that to refuse would bring\nupon herself the ridicule of all the party.\n\nShe hears her companion order a bottle of wine opened. He pours and\noffers it, saying, \"Just a social glass, it will refresh you.\" She\nlooks at him as if to protest, but he returns the gaze and hands her the\nfatal glass, and she has not the moral courage to say no.\n\nAs they raise their glasses he murmurs softly, \"Here's hoping we may be\nperfectly happy in each other's love, and that the cup of bliss now\nraised to our lips may never spill.\"\n\nOne glass and then another and the brain unaccustomed to wine is\nwhirling and giddy. The vile wretch sees that his game is won.\n\nHe whispers in her ear many soft and foolish lies, tells her that he\nloves her, and that if she can return that love, he is hers, and hers\nalone, so long as life shall last.\n\nShe sits tipped back in one chair, with her feet in another, laughs\nloudly at every poor little joke, and responds, in a silly affectionate\nmanner, to all his words of love, and when he makes proposals to which\nshe would have scorned to listen at any other time, she not only\nlistens but gives consent to all, and does not leave the house that\nnight.\n\nWhen she awakens next morning, it is in a strange room. Her head whirls,\nshe gazes abstractedly about her and tries to shake off what seems to\nher to be a horrid dream, but she is brought suddenly to realize that it\nis no sleeping fancy, but a steam reality, as a low voice by her side\nsays,\n\n\"Did you rest easy, my dear?\"\n\n\"My God!\" she fairly shrieks, as the awful truth bursts upon her, \"is it\npossible, or am I dreaming?\" and she passes her hand wildly across her\nface.\n\n\"Do not excite yourself, my dear; you are not well. You will feel better\npresently.\"\n\n\"Better!\" she cries, bursting into tears. \"Better!! What is life to me\nnow that you have robbed me of my virtue? Oh! that I should have sunken\ninto such depths of sin, and that you, vile man, whom I trusted, should\nhave led me to it.\"\n\nShe tries to rise, but finds herself too weak and dizzy, and falls back\nheavily upon her pillow.\n\n\"Lie still, my love, and when you are able I will let you go. But do not\nblame me for what has occurred, it was by your own consent. You know I\nam going to marry you, and all will be well.\"\n\n\"No,\" she sobs, \"all will not be well; nothing will ever be well with\nme again,\" and she returns to the room which she has left a few hours\nbefore as a bright and happy girl, now broken hearted and on the verge\nof despair, with a blot upon her young life which nothing on earth can\nefface. To be sure, he who has brought all this upon her has promised to\nright the wrong by marriage, but poor consolation it seems to her to\nhave to marry a man whom she feels to be worse than a murderer; even\nthis poor consolation is denied her, however, for the wretch, when he\ngave the promise, had no thought of fulfilling it. Such trifles as this\n_he_ thinks nothing of. It is the way of most high society men, and when\nhe comes to her again it is not to marry her, but to seek to drag her\nlower down. She repels him and he is seen by her no more. He has no\nfurther use for her.\n\nDays grow to months, and now added sorrow fills her cup of grief to\noverflowing. She is to become a mother, and the poor girl cries out in\nbitter anguish: \"My God, what shall I do, must I commit murder. Oh, that\nI had never entered a ball-room.\"\n\nAll her old companions shun her, every one shuns her, even he who led\nher to her ruin shuns her. She goes to him, hoping he will have\ncompassion upon her, but he meets her with a sneer, calls her a fool,\nand tells her to commit a yet greater crime than the first, which in her\ndespair she does and \"seals the band of death.\"\n\nShe soon became very ill and sank rapidly, and then came a time when she\nfelt that life was short, and that if she wished to leave a message on\nearth it must be delivered quickly. Having heard of my conversion and\nthat I intended exposing the evils which germinate in the ball-room she\nsent a messenger requesting me to call immediately.\n\nOn entering the house I was led to a couch in a cosy room where lay the\nbeautiful young woman whose pale face showed all to plainly, an amount\nof sorrow and suffering unwarranted by her years. The countenance of the\nsufferer brightened as I entered, and she extended her hand saying: \"I\nam so glad you came to see me, so glad to know that you are to expose\nthe evil which buds in the dance hall. Do not delay your work. I have\nprayed God to spare my life that I might go and warn young girls against\nthat which has made such a sad wreck of my once pure and happy life,\nfor, when I entered dancing school, I was as innocent as a child and\nfree from sin and sorrow, but under its influence and in its association\nI lost my purity, my innocence, my _all_, but I know that God has\nforgiven the sin which is sending me to my early grave, where I shall\nsoon be forgotten by all earthly friends.\n\n\"Do not grieve for me. I am leaving this dark world for a bright and\nhappy one where sin and sorrow are unknown. Mother is waiting for me\nthere and I am not afraid to go.\"\n\nWe spoke of a hope that she might yet recover, but she only closed her\neyes and shook her head slowly.\n\n\"No,\" she said, with considerable effort, \"I shall never leave this room\nalive, never see the green hills of home, never see my father's face,\nbut tell him not to mourn for me, I shall be happy in the arms of\nJesus.\"\n\n\"Is there nothing I can do for you?\" I asked. \"Yes,\" said she faintly,\nlooking earnestly into my face, \"Yes, there is one thing; that which I\nhad hoped I might live to do myself. Promise me that you will do that\nand I shall die content. Promise me that you will go before the world\nand speak out a warning against the awful dangers of the dance hall, and\ntry to save young girls from the sin, disgrace and destruction dancing\nhas brought upon me.\"\n\nI made a solemn promise before God that her request should be complied\nwith.\n\nThe dying girl showed unmistakable signs of pleasure at having my\nfaithful promise.\n\nShe pressed my hand and said in a voice scarcely audible, \"You have seen\nball-rooms as they are, my friend, and there is a great and good work\nbefore you. May God bless you in it. I seal your promise with death,\"\nand before I could speak she was dead and her soul had winged its flight\nto a heaven of love and peace, where weary hearts shall find perfect\nlove and perfect justice--where not man, but God, judges his children.\n\nI know the man who was the perpetrator of the crime which was the cause\nof this sad death.\n\nHe, to-day, instead of being hung for murder, as he so richly deserved,\nis a leader in society. His name often appears in the social columns of\nthe daily papers of Los Angeles, as the leader of some fashionable\ndancing party or Kirmess.\n\nHe has been the winner of several prizes in dancing, in fact, is an\nelegant dancer and is wealthy. These facts gain for him admission to\nwhatsoever society he chooses to enter.\n\nThink, ye parents who have daughters who dance, of their being night\nafter night in the embrace of such men as he, as they most certainly are\nif they dance much. Such men as he flock to places of dancing for that\nvery purpose.\n\nSome may say that places of dancing are not the only places where such\nmen are to be found. True, but at no other place would they be allowed\nto take such liberties with your daughters that they may there. This\nthey well know and consequently there are more of them to be found in\nplaces of dancing than elsewhere, and it is not the whirling that they\ngo for and enjoy.\n\nHow long would dancing be kept up if they were to whirl alone, or if men\nwere to dance with men and women with women? Ah, no; it is not the\nwhirling, but the liberties the waltz affords, which forms its chief\nattraction.\n\nYou, perhaps, think your daughter is in the most select society, and\nonly in such, and will accept only the most respectable gentlemen as\npartners. But, how are you to know this? How can you be sure that this\nvery man of whom I have been speaking, or another of the same type, is\nnot among those considered the most respectable in the select parlor\ndances?\n\nYou may be perfectly certain that _he_ will never publish his own\nmisdeeds, and the girl cannot expose him without making public her own\ndisgrace, so his base deeds go undiscovered and he may still be found at\ndancing parties or on the street corners engaged in the occupation in\nwhich we first met him, viz.: seeking whom he might destroy.\n\nWhat decent woman, if she knew his real character, would wish to throw\nherself into the arms of such a man. If she were a true women she would\nalmost rather die than have such a man even touch her, to say nothing of\nbeing in his close embrace for the space of a waltz.\n\nOr, what lady would allow any man, in any other public place, except the\nball-room, to take the liberties with her that he takes there? Would a\nlady with a spark of self-respect, at any other place, lay her head upon\nhis shoulder, place her breast against his, and allow him to encircle\nher waist with his arm, place his foot between hers and clasp her hands\nin his?\n\nThis is the position assumed in waltzing, and I tell you, my friends,\nthat such a position tends, in a greater or less degree, to develop the\nlower nature of sexes. It cannot be otherwise. It is in perfect\naccordance with nature. I have heard girls express utter innocence of\nhaving any improper emotion aroused by the waltz, but I do not believe\nthis to be strictly true of any girl. If it is, I am sorry for that\ngirl, for she has a sad lack in her nature.\n\n\"Male and female, God created them\" and placed within them emotions\nintended to be shared only by man and wife, and if others indulge in\nthose emotions, and continually arouse them by assuming the waltz\nposition, which is only fit for man and wife, they commit a sin against\nGod and nature.\n\nAgainst God because He has said \"Thou shalt not commit adultery,\" and \"I\nsay unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath\ncommitted adultery with her already in his heart.\"\n\nAnd against nature, because a girl thus constantly aroused, soon breaks\nher health.\n\nOne may work six days in the week and arise fresh every morning, but let\nhim attend a dance for only a few hours each evening and see what will\noccur. Health and vigor vanish like the dew before the sun.\n\nIt is not the exercise which harms the dancer in mind and body, but the\ncoming in such close contact with the opposite sex. Did you ever know a\nlady who danced to excess to live to be over twenty-five years of age?\nIf she does she is, in most instances, broken in health physically and\nmorally. Doctors claim it to be a most harmful exercise physically for\nboth sexes. The average age of the excessive male dancer is thirty-one.\n\nBeside the harmful exercise there is great danger from the exposure, a\ngirl is so often subjected to in a ball room. She gets in a perspiration\nduring the dance, and as soon as it is over rushes to an open door or\nwindow with arms and chest exposed. Is there any wonder that so many\nwomen of to-day are unhealthy?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nPARLOR DANCING.\n\n\nSome contend that there is no harm in parlor dancing. How many parents\nare able to restrict their children to parlor dancing only? Not one in\nten thousand.\n\nDancing is too fascinating, and they who were at first content with\nparlor dancing soon want something else, and will, for the sake of\ndancing, go to almost any place.\n\nIf private dancing is allowed, and all else strictly forbidden, the\nchild will often deceive his parents and dance at times and in places\nthat they know not of.\n\nI have known young people to be at Sunday night dances, and in low\ncompany, when their parents (who only allow parlor dancing) thought they\nwere at church.\n\nThey made a practice of going to the church and remaining long enough to\nget the text of the pastor's discourse, and then going away to spend\nthe time in dancing, and if questioned, they were able to give the text\nof the evening's sermon, and the trusting parents would not dream of\ntheir having been any where but at church.\n\nI only wish that certain parents, who think they are restricting their\nchildren to \"parlor dancing at home only,\" could have been with me the\nnight of May 30th, 1892, and seen, as I did, their girls, some of them\nbut twelve or fourteen years of age, dancing in a public saloon, where\nso much beer had been spilt on the floor that the women had to hold\ntheir dresses up to keep them from getting soiled and wet as they\ndanced.\n\nThis is usually the result of teaching the child to dance and then\nrestricting them to home dancing. If they once become fascinated with it\nthey must and will, by some means, fair or foul, have more of it than\ntheir homes afford.\n\nThere are professing Christians who condemn the sale of liquor, advocate\nthe closing of saloons, and frown on Sunday picnics and other\namusements, who allow their own children to attend so-called select\ndancing parties.\n\nIn these places are taught the rudiments of an education which may make\nthem graduates of the saloon or the brothel.\n\nI do not say that it _always_ does, but I do say that it _often_ does.\n\nThe safe side is the best side. Keep them from taking the first step to\nruin, and they can never take the last.\n\nWhere did the majority of the drunkards take their first drink? Where\ndid the gambler play his first card? Where did three-fourths of the\nwomen, who are to-day living a life of shame, have a man's arm about\nthem for the first time?\n\nLet me answer.\n\nThe first drink of the drunkard was just a social glass.\n\nThe first game of the gambler was just a social game.\n\nAnd three-fourths of the outcasts had a man's arm about them for the\nfirst time when they were young girls at a social dance.\n\nThere are in San Francisco 2,500 abandoned women. Prof. La Floris says:\n\"I can safely say that three-fourths of these women were led to their\ndownfall through the influence of dancing.\"\n\nThe lot of a Negress in the equatorial forest is not, perhaps, a very\nhappy one, but it is not much worse than that of many a pretty orphan\ngirl in our Christian land.\n\nWe talk of the brutalities of the dark, dark ages, and profess to\nshudder as we read in books of the shameful practices of those times,\nand yet, here beneath our very eyes, in our ball-rooms and theatres and\nin many other places, the same hideous abuse, which must be nameless\nhere, flourishes unchecked:\n\nA young penniless girl, if she be pretty, is often haunted from pillar\nto post by her employer, and if he fails to get her to submit to his\ndiabolical solicitations outside of the ball room, he will manage to get\nher to attend a dancing school, where he has the _right_ to encircle her\nwith his arms and press her to himself until she is inflamed with\npassion. She hears in the ball room no warning voice, finds no helping\nhand to guide her in the path of virtue. The only helping hands there\nare those of which Byron wrote,\n\n  \"Hands which may freely range in public sight\n   Were ne'er before--\"\n\nand which helps her rapidly down the road to ruin.\n\nWhen the poor girl is once induced to sacrifice her virtue she is\ntreated as a slave and outcast by the very man who brought her ruin upon\nher. Her self-respect is gone. Her life becomes valueless to her, and\nshe is swept downward, ever downward, into the bottomless pit of\nprostitution, and becomes an outcast from her fellow-beings.\n\nBut she is far nearer the loving, pitying heart of Christ than all the\nmen who forced her down. And who shall say that Jesus loves her less\nthan He does those who profess to be His followers and the soldiers of\nHis cross, and yet stand silently and idly by while all this fearful\nwrong goes on.\n\nThe matron of a home for fallen women in Los Angeles, says:\n\"Seven-tenths of the girls received here have fallen through dancing and\nits influence.\"\n\nOf course, some of these, either from inherited passion or evil\neducation, have deliberately and of free choice entered upon a life of\nshame; but the great majority do so under the stress of temptation;\nsometimes because of poverty or chafing against uncongenial employment,\nwith meager wages. They are told that in the profession of prostitution,\nthey can, if they are lucky, make more in a single night than they could\nby sewing a week.\n\nCan you wonder that many a girl, aroused by the waltz and then lured by\nsuch glittering bait, is led to sell herself, soul and body, to those\nwho make use of her and then cast her aside for another?\n\nAnd yet ball-rooms, where this corruption germinates, flourish and are\ncountenanced by many preachers of the gospel, and attended and\nencouraged by church members whose pastors have not the moral courage to\ncondemn the evil, for fear of offending some of their members who dance.\n\nThe ministers, in a great measure, set the standard of morality in our\nland, and when they will rise to the occasion and make a long strike, a\nstrong strike, a strike altogether against this ball-room curse,\nChristian people will strike with them. Then, and not until then, will\nthis evil be wiped out.\n\nIt is at the cause and not the effect that the strike must be made.\n\nIn some cities the advisability of closing all the houses of\nprostitution by laws has been discussed.\n\nOne might as well try to stop the Mississippi river from flowing by\ndamming it at its mouth, as to try to stop this great stream of vice by\nclosing the doors of the brothel.\n\nTo dam the river at its mouth would only cause it to overflow its banks\nand seek another outlet, and to close the doors of the brothels on one\nstreet would only drive them to another.\n\nTo stop this great tide of sin we must begin at its source. To close the\ndoors of the brothel, close first the doors of the dancing school.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nABANDONED WOMEN THE BEST DANCERS.\n\n\nThe most accomplished and most perfect dancers are to be found among the\nabandoned women. Why? Because they are graduates of dancing schools.\n\nIf any should wish to ascertain the truth of this let him ask the girls\nthemselves.\n\nI have for several months been working in a Mission of Los Angeles, and\nwhere I have before seen causes at work, I have now had ample\nopportunity of seeing the effect, and I have often heard some of these\nunfortunate ones cry out in bitter anguish \"Would to God that I had\nnever entered a dancing school.\"\n\nThe following 200 were cases of girls who are to-day inmates of the\nbrothel whom I talked with personally. They were frank to answer to my\nquestions in regard to the direct cause of their downfall, and I\ngathered that these were ruined by:\n\n  Dancing school and ball rooms      163\n  Drink given by parents              20\n  Willful choice                      10\n  Poverty and abuse                    7\n                                    ----\n                                     200\n\nI know of a select dancing school where in a course of three months\neleven of its victims are brothel inmates to-day.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nEQUALLY A SIN FOR BOTH SEXES.\n\n\nI have, in the preceding pages, spoken chiefly of the harm that comes to\nwomen from dancing, and have shown how vile men make use of the\nprivileges the waltz and its surroundings afford to lead once pure girls\nto impurity and often to crime. But do not think for a moment that\nbecause I have here thus spoken, that I hold the women blameless or the\ndance to the man harmless.\n\nWhile the woman is more often disgraced in the sight of man, I believe\nthat in the sight of God the sin of dancing is equally a sin for both\nsexes.\n\nA girl is often ensnared into intoxication and thus into greater sin by\nvile men, but she is not wholly excusable. If she goes to a ball she\nmust take the consequences. Every woman has a God-given instinct which\nteaches her right from wrong, and she cannot but know that to indulge in\nsuch emotions as the modern waltz fosters is wrong.\n\nIt is a horrible fact, but a fact none the less, that it is absolutely\nnecessary that a woman shall be able and willing to reciprocate the\nfeelings of her partner before she can graduate a perfect dancer.\n\nSo, even if it be allowed that a woman may waltz virtuously, she cannot,\nin that case, waltz well.\n\nIt matters not how perfectly she knows and takes the steps, she must\nyield herself entirely to her partner's embrace, and also to his\nemotions. Until a girl can and will do this she is regarded a scrub by\nthe male experts.\n\nI would that young women who dance could just once be \"behind the\nscenes\" when young men meet after an evening's dance to discuss it\ntogether, and hear such remarks as \"that Miss ---- is a perfect stick. I\nwould not give a fig to dance with her. You can't arouse any more\npassion in her than you could in a putty man. To waltz with such as she\nis not what I go for.\"\n\nOr, another says: \"Ah! but that beautiful Miss Smith is a daisy. She is\nposted. This waltzing is the greatest thing in the world. While you are\nwhirling one of these dear creatures, if you do the thing correctly, you\ncan whisper in her ear things she would shoot you for saying at any\nother time, but she likes it all the same. They take to it naturally\nenough if they are properly taught. If you don't know just how it is\ndone go to a dancing master, or any professional dancer. They know, and\nthey will soon let you know. You will soon become a waltzer and thus\nfind out what there is in it.\"\n\nSuch remarks, and worse than these, (remarks unfit to publish even in\nthis plainly written book) are made, my fair young ladies, after the\nball, about you by the very young men who, at the dance, you thought so\nnice and who are so considered. I am ashamed to say in by-gone days, I\nhave been among these young men myself, and I know that to hear them\ngive free expression, loose-tongued, to the lewd emotions and sensual\npleasures in which they indulge while in your embrace, is almost as\ncommon as the waltz itself.\n\nI repeat what I have said before, that I do not refer to rough,\nuncultured men, but to those who are looked upon by society as most\npolished, refined and desirable young men.\n\nIf it be true that a woman, however innocent in thought, is the subject\nof such vile comment, if there is the barest possibility that it may be\ntrue, is it not also true that if she is possessed of a remnant of\ndelicacy, she will shrink from exposing herself to such comment, and\nflee from places of dancing as from a den of vipers?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE APPROVAL OF SOCIETY IS NO PROOF AGAINST THE DEGRADATION.\n\n\nI know that there are many who will contend that I have some selfish or\nspiteful motive in writing thus strongly in condemnation of the waltz.\nMany will doubtless claim that the waltz is very moral and healthful, is\nindulged in by the best people of every land, seemingly tolerated by\nall, and that he who raises his voice against it does so from other\nmotives than a disinterested desire to warn his fellow-men against it.\n\nI admit that it is indulged in by a great multitude (not of the best)\nbut the most aristocratic society people. But does the fact that society\nhas permitted itself to be carried by storm into a toleration of the\nmodern dance make the dance any less degrading and sinful. No more so,\nit seems to me, than does the fact of the universal use of alcohol make\nits effect less harmful or make it any the less a destroyer of homes,\nhappiness and character.\n\nNo, its universality does not prove its morality, and it is certain that\nresults prove conclusively its immorality, and all who try to make it\nout otherwise, are either those who know nothing at all about it and are\nunwilling to believe that such an evil could be in their midst without\ntheir knowledge, or those who know and practice the abominations, but\nenjoy it far too well to confess what they know. These last will be\nloudest in their clamor against this book and its author, and in their\nprofession of perfect innocence.\n\nThey believe themselves to be the sole possessors of the secret which\nmakes the waltz their pet amusement. They do not mean that their secret\nshall be divulged, and they seize every opportunity of praising the\n\"beauty and variety\" of the waltz. Its \"health giving exercise,\" \"its\ninnocent amusement\" and its grace-giving qualities. Grace-giving,\nforsooth. The grace of the harlot, to my mind, is not the most desirable\npossession.\n\nI have known many and many a non-dancing mother to encourage her child\nto learn to dance, because she wanted her to become graceful, and in\nmany a case that daughter has lost grace, health, virtue and all that a\nwoman holds dear. If you have a choice of a saloon for your son, and a\nso-called select dancing school for your daughter, I beseech you, in the\nname of God, place your son in the saloon, but keep your daughter out of\nthe dancing school.\n\nIf you wish her to become graceful there are schools of physical culture\nwhich are much better adapted to the development of health and grace,\nand much less to the development of vile passions and depraved natures.\nWhat I have said before will be no surprise to those who waltz, though,\nof course, they will feign great surprise, ignorance, and innocence of\nit all.\n\nBut dancing schools are often made use of in a way that is not so well\nknown. Professional thieves often frequent these places. Many of them\nare perfect dancers and good conversationalists. They appear most\nrespectable and are, of course, so considered, since they are found in\nthe select school, where references are required.\n\nThey gain admittance to the school either by practising fraud upon the\ndancing master, or inducing him to practice fraud upon the public by\nadmitting such a man for a liberal compensation, to what he advertises\nto be a select school.\n\nWhen once in a school it is an easy matter to form the acquaintance of\nthe wives and daughters of wealthy men.\n\nTo these he makes himself most agreeable, as he well knows how to do,\nand, if possible, manages by some means or other, to get an invitation\nto call. If he fails, he makes some excuse to call without an\ninvitation. During his calls he manages, if opportunity presents itself,\nto seize some valuables; if not he will locate them, to be called for\nupon some future dark night, and he is quite safe from arrest, for even\nif suspected he knows that the ladies of the house who have been seen\nwith him in public would only bring disgrace upon themselves by\narresting for theft a man upon whose breast they often reclined in\npublic.\n\nThis, however, is of small account. If it was the only evil connected\nwith dancing, this book would never have been written. The loss of\nearthly possessions is of little consequence when compared with the loss\nof health, happiness, purity and virtue.\n\nI simply tell you this to show you how many evils a dancing master is\ncognizant of in connection with dancing, that the generality of people\nknow little or nothing about.\n\nSome one has said that few people know better than the dancing master\nand saloon keeper, how many souls are sent through the port holes of\nhell between the ages of fourteen and twenty by these two agencies of\nthe devil.\n\nAnd he is right.\n\nThe heart of the dancing master must be even harder than that of the\nsaloon keeper, for while the saloon keeper must witness the harmful and\ndisgraceful indulgence of men, principally, he knows that there is a\nchance that it may prove only a harmful indulgence.\n\nBut the man who can constantly see pure and lovely women being whirled\nto a disgrace from which she can never recover must have a heart hard\nindeed. Yet this is what I have witnessed and helped to perpetuate by\nteaching dancing. Still I heedlessly continued in the business, until\nsomething occurred which set me to thinking.\n\nI met on a train, while leaving town, one day a young woman, who, a few\nmonths before, had been a member of my select dancing academy. She had\nbeen ruined there, and was one of the discarded ones when the school was\nclosed for a few weeks, as all dancing-schools have to be every little\nwhile, to get rid of those girls who have met with a fate similar to\nhers.\n\nI entered into conversation with her and found she could no longer\nendure being shunned and slighted by all her old companions, and was\nrunning away from home. I knew that her parents would be heart broken,\nand that she, without the protection of a home, would soon sink to utter\nabandonment, and I tried every persuasion to induce her to return to the\nhome she was leaving. I--who was still teaching the very thing which had\nbeen her ruin, now that self-respect and all for which life was worth\nthe living, was lost to her forever--I tried to save her from further\ndegradation.\n\nAfter I had argued for some time with her she turned fiercely upon me,\nher once beautiful eyes now filled with a desperation born of despair,\nand said, with a look and tone of reproach which I shall never forget:\n\"Mr. Faulkner, when you will close your dancing schools and stop this\nbusiness, which is sending so many girls by swift stages on a straight\nroad to hell, _then, sir_, and not till then, will I think of reform.\"\n\nI was stirred by her words as I had never been stirred before. But for\nthem I might, perhaps, not have been writing this book to-day. At this I\nknow many may sneer and say that I have myself done more than most men\ntowards the furtherance of the evil I so strongly condemn.\n\nI bow my acknowledgements. I own it all.\n\n  \"I lived for self, I thought for self,\n     For self and none beside,\n   Just as if Christ had never lived.\n     As though he had never died.\"\n\nI sinned against heaven and in the sight of God and man, and was in no\nwise worthy to become a child of him to whom I came ten months ago, and\nhe received me just as I was, all stained with many, many sins, and in\nhis boundless love and mercy he forgave them all.\n\nI feel I cannot close this book without just a word to any of my old\ncompanions who may chance to read it, and to others who are leading the\nlife I once led. I want you to forsake that old life I once shared with\nyou and, as I have done, give yourselves into the hands of the Master,\nJesus Christ.\n\nYou don't know what you are missing of happiness in this world and what\nyou may miss in the world to come. I do not ask you to take my life for\nan example. That would be a poor example, indeed. We do not have to take\nany human life for a copy. The life of Christ is the one true example\nfor us all, and I believe that when we stand before, the great Judge of\nall, the question will not be,_ if we have lived as well as this\nprofessing Christian or that church member_, but if we have lived our\nlife as nearly like the life of Christ as we could.\n\nAnd right here let me say a few words to professing Christians and\nchurch members who dance. I say \"professing\" Christians because I\nbelieve there is a vast difference between a _Christian_ and a\n\"professing\" Christian and church member who dances.\n\nTo be a _Christian is to be Christlike_, and I believe there is nothing\n_Christlike_ in partaking of such pleasures as have been described in\nthe foregoing pages, even though you indulge no further than the license\nof the waltz. And even granting (if this were possible) that you only\nengage in the indecent and suggestive position and motions, without a\nsingle sinful thought or feeling, do you believe that your Heavenly\nFather could say to you, \"Well done, thou good and faithful servant.\nThou hast spent the evening to my honor and glory. Thou art in the\nworld and not of it. Thou hast done nothing that could cause thy brother\nto offend, but hast set a good and Godly example. Thou art letting thy\nlight so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify\nyour Father which is in heaven. Thou art denying thyself and taking thy\ncross daily and following me. I left my home in glory and lived and\nsuffered and died the death of the crucified that thou mightest take\nthine ease, dance, drink, and be merry, and then, lay down thy cross and\ntake up thy _crown_ in glory to be with thy Savior and be like Him.\"\n\n\"The Son of man cometh at an hour when ye know not.\"\n\nIf he should come and find you at the dance, locked in the embrace of\nanother woman's husband, do you feel that he would consider you ready?\n\nDo you not feel the slightest fear that He would say, \"Depart from me, I\nnever knew you?\"\n\nAh, my friends, I should fear it very much. I should fear that to my\naccount would be laid the sin of the harlot.\n\nYou say that you dance very properly. What have you to say for those\nwho, looking to you for a Christian example, see that you, a church\nmember, dance, and conclude that there can be no harm in it for them, so\nthey indulge and are ruined by it, and in after days are to be found\nleading a life of shame in the brothel, all because of your example\nwhich led them to take the first step on the downward road?\n\nDo you believe that when you shall both stand before the bar of God for\njust judgment that none of her sin will be laid to your charge?\n\nChristian friends, a great responsibility rests upon us all, not only to\nsee that we \"keep ourselves unspotted from the world,\" but that we do\nall in our power to drive from our fair land this awful blot and curse.\n\n\n\n\nTESTIMONIALS.\n\n\nWe have just finished reading Mr. Faulkner's book, called \"FROM THE\nBALL-ROOM TO HELL,\" and we are profoundly moved by it. We believe\nevery word of it is true, and that his characterization of the\ndemoralization and ruin wrought by the modern dance is none too strongly\nput.\n\nSurely nothing worse could have been found in Sodom than these Dancing\nAcademies, as a reason why the righteous God sent fire and brimstone and\ndestroyed them all. These exposures are as carefully and delicately\nwritten as could be, and yet not fail to be fully understood.\n\nWe hope the book will find a wide reading and help to open many eyes\nthat are blind and startle many that are careless, and prove to be a\nbarbed wire fence around many homes of the innocent.\n\nMay the Holy Spirit of God bless our Christian brother in his efforts to\nexpose these hot-beds of vice. We advise all pastors and members of our\nChurches to read this book, and send it to friends.\n\nSigned by the following ministers, of Los Angeles, California.\n\n  REV. BRESEE, Pastor Simpson M. E. Church.\n  REV. D. READ, Pastor First Baptist Church.\n  REV. H. U. CRABBE, Pastor United Presbyterian.\n  REV. M. H. STINE, First English Lutheran Church.\n  REV. A. C. SMITHERS, Temple St. Christian Church.\n  REV. F. V. FESHER, Vincent M. E. Church.\n  REV. A. B. PHILLIPS, City and County Missionary.\n  REV. J. H. COLLINS, Third Congregational Church.\n  REV. A. ANDERSON, Universalist.\n  REV. FATHER MORLEY, Catholic Priest.\n\nREV. O. READ writes--\"You have photographed the ball-room\ncorrectly.\"\n\nREV. B. FAY MILLS says: May God bless you in your work, and hope that\ngreat good will be accomplished by this book. I believe what you say is\ntrue. I know of such cases as you have described. It should be read by\nall Christians.\n\nCAPT. E. R. JENNINGS: \"Among those who have spoken in praise of\nyour powerfully written little book, 'From the Ball-Room to Hell,' let\nmy name be enrolled.\"\n\nREV. E. S. TAYLOR writes: \"Last evening I purchased a copy of\n'From the Ball-Room to Hell.' I read it through at one sitting, and\nhasten to thank you for your noble utterance. I know from my own\nexperience that every word is true.\"\n\nREV. S. E. WILSON, in a long and eulogistic letter, says: \"This\nbook fills a vacant niche in the temple of literature, not occupied by\nsermons or homilies.\"\n\nPROF. HOMES, ex-dancing master, writes: \"This book is founded\non facts.\"\n\nTHE REV. FATHER MORLEY, a Catholic Priest of California,\nwrites: \"Having carefully read your excellent book, 'From the Ball-Room\nto Hell,' I cannot forbear expressing my full approval, therefore I\ncheerfully endorse every line contained therein. You have opened, dear\nsir, a campaign against public evil. You can send to me one hundred\ncopies, which I shall place in the hands of my followers.\"\n\n\"The author writes evidently under a deep conviction of the truth, and\ngives a voice of warning in terms that will nigh take away the breath of\nmany parents who read it. We think that every pastor ought to see that\none of these books should be placed in the hands of all members of their\nchurch.\"--_California Christian Advocate._\n\nThe lady principal of one of the chief female educational establishments\non the Pacific Slope writes: \"Myself and lady friends of mine have read\nthe book 'From the Ball-Room to Hell,' and think you have done a noble\nwork, and think it ought to be read by all parents.\"\n\nPROF. A. T. SULLIVAN, ex-dancing master, says: \"Waltzing is the\nspur of lust.\"\n\n\"We feel pleased that there exists a pen bold enough to denounce the\nevil complained of in so masterly a manner and in such vigorous English.\nIf we mistake not, it will work great good in the social world.\"--_Los\nAngeles Evening Express._\n\n\"This book has created a greater flutter in social circles than anything\npublished within our remembrance. Its pages should receive careful\nperusal of parents, and the equally careful attention of the young. We\nbelieve every word of it is true.\"--_Los Angeles Times._","title":"From the ball-room to hell","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":12187}