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Show DANCING AMONG LATTER-DAY SAINTS. In our issue of two weeks ago we reproduced portions of a circular letter, which related to dancing and amusements, and which was published by the authority of the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and designed to be a guide to the Church in the matters which it related. The subject of amusements for our youth is one of great importance. The recreations in which they indulge may be innocent, harmless, and even beneficial, or they may be quite the reverse, and, as few of our youth have the wisdom and forethought to avoid the evil and choose the good, it has become necessary for the authorities of the Church, who are recognized by the whole body as having a right so to do, to prescribe certain rules for the government of amusements, and particularly of dancing, among the Latter-day Saints. Some of the rules thus prescribed, are laid down in the circular letter referred to. We quote the following: "It is also the unanimous sense of the Council that our parties never be continued after midnight; but that the Priesthood encourage the closing of public parties and other social gatherings, at an early hour, say at ten or eleven o'clock p.m." "In relation to round dances. There has been among all correct feeling people a strong prejudice against them, as they tend, though not always intentionally so, to demoralize our youth, and operate prejudicially to those innocent enjoyments which ought to characterize the narrations of the Latter-day Saints. We do not wish to be too restrictive in relation to these matters, but would recommend that there be not more than one or two permitted in an evening." It ought to require no argument to convince any intelligent person of the propriety of closing a party at an hour not later than twelve o'clock, or even earlier than that. The health of the dancers will surely suffer, if after the exercise and excitement of the dance, sufficient rest and sleep are not had to recompense? the physical and nervous system for the tax made upon them during it, and if dancing commenced at a proper hour, say not later than seven o'clock at this season of the year, five hours of this active and fatiguing recreation may be had, which is surely enough for any reasonable person. The custom of commencing to dance at a late hour in the evening, almost as late as the usual retiring hour of the dancers, is a senseless and reprehensible one, however fashionable it may be, and ought to receive no countenance or encouragement from sensible people. It should be entirely superseded by the infinitely better rule of commencing and closing parties at an early hour. In some of its phases?, the subject of round dances is a somewhat delicate one to discuss, but in the words of the circular letter, "there has been, among all correct feeling people," a strong prejudice against them." This is true, and being true is a saying which should be received as gospel among all Latter day Saints. No person whose feelings and sensibilities have been educated up to it at high plane to which the gospel is designed to bring them, can regard round dancing with favor. Picture to your mind for a moment, a delicate and sensitive maiden who is just blooming into womanhood, and in whose bosom feelings and emotions to which her childhood was a stranger, are beginning to manifest themselves. She is clasped in the arms of some ardent youth, in the voluptuous attitude of the waltz, and whirls through its mazes until her frame is exhausted, and her brain dizzy. Her face is flushed and her cheeks are suffused with blushes. Have not the attitude, the music, the giddy whirl, tended to suggest thoughts and emotions which are not in harmony with that angelic purity and loveliness with which God would have the daughters of His people clothed? Is such an experience one through which a fond and watchful parent would wish to see a beautiful and innocent daughter frequently pass? Would the man to whom she has plighted her love care to see her thus in the embrace of another? Not if his were the refined and sensitive feelings of a high minded gentleman. Or again, a woman is a wife or a mother. Is it consistent with our instinctive perceptions of propriety to see her clasped in the arms of other men than her husband? Custom can never make pure that which is impure, nor right that which is wrong, and the only pretext on which round dances can claim respectability is that of custom. "Vice is a monster of such hideous mein, That to be hated needs but to be seen; But seen too oft, familiar with his face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." Were it not that we have become accustomed to seeing round dances, or to dancing them, they would be looked upon with much more marked disfavor than they now are, and it is most desirable to see a public? opinion created that shall suppress them entirely among Latter-day Saints. It is the desire of the Presidency of this Stake to have the rules of the circular letter above referred to, strictly complied with. As above quoted, it names midnight as the latest hour of closing balls and parties, and two round dances as the greatest number to be allowed during the evening. An earlier hour of closing, and no round dancing at all, would be preferable even to this, but the limits have been extended by way of concession and not approbation. The mutual improvement organizations of the young are organizations that might exert a powerful influence for good in relation to dancing and amusements generally, and in creating a public sentiment that would condemn round dancing and all other improper recreation, and we hope to see them, and all other proper agencies united in working to this object. |