Garbless Dancing Man Gives Police The Slip

1920

'Varsity Set Resent His Nimble Capers on Campus.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota. — A garbless gent, who may be an interpretative dancer, proved also that he was as fleet as a fawn and as nimble as a chamois when the police sought to break up his antics near the University of Minnesota campus. He is still tripping the light fantastic toe somewhere at large.

Complaint that the dress-discarding man was capering about the neighborhood was first received by the police when three calls came in quick succession from residents of the cultured district.

A police squad, prudently provided with a blanket to wrap about the nymph, dashed to the scene in a touring car. They were unable to find him.

But shortly afterward two prudish policemen, left on watch, were shocked to see a human form that apparently hadn't attended any of the recent bargain sales dash across the street and disappear in the night.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 5.

Entertaining The Mexicans

1916

Well, the parleyfoxes have had their pictures taken and will be seen in the movies. Nineteen American guns have been fired in salute of honor to three representatives of a Mexican "first chief," whatever that is. This, apparently, is by way of indicating what Mexico should have done for us in a former notable case. The joint commissioners for the retreat parley have displayed their credentials, such as they are. Also, there have been pink tea and wafers aboard the Federal yacht Mayflower, with felicitations all around. The parleyfoxtrot may be said to be under way, to that soft, hesitation music.

Incidentally, so we are told in the dispatches, it is the purpose of the American "commissioners," three extra-legal personal representatives of the President of the United States, to attempt to induce the Mexican "commissioners," three personal representatives of Carranza, a factional "first chief" in Mexico, to consider "American rights" in Mexico along with the Mexican demand for the withdrawal of United States troops from Mexican territory. We progress.

It is decidedly refreshing to hear that American rights may possibly be discussed over the iced drinks in the course of the "confab" at Portsmouth. Even tho the American commissioners are unauthorized and outside the law; even tho the Mexican commissioners can give no assurance that their adjustment plans can he enforced in Mexico, we may be pardoned if we show some little interest in the indirect suggestion that American rights may get honorable mention at the honorable parley. — Indiana Daily Times.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 6.

Children and Sweet Stuffs

1901

It is necessary to make some kind of stand against the physical demoralization of the rising generation by the inordinate consumption of cheap confectionery.

Mrs. Creighton, the wife of the late bishop of London, has urged again and again the necessity for checking the wholesale consumption of sweet stuff by the children of the poorer classes, and it is admitted by the doctors in poor neighborhoods that it is to the continual eating of lollipops that the wretched digestions, frequent gastric troubles and enfeebled stamina of those who are to form the future backbone of the nation are due.

What the public house is to the father, the sweet stuff shop has become to the child.


Dancing as Exercise

Dancing has lost some of its vogue, but physicians have come to its rescue and are proscribing it as a useful exercise. It is said that dyspeptic and anemic patients, both men and women, have been advised to waltz at a moderate tempo at least 30 minutes a day.

Jazz Steps Rule

1919

They'd Rather Dance Than Eat, Parisians Decide.

PARIS, France — Paris has definitely decided she would rather dance than eat.

What's more, she has forced the prefect of police to recognize her preference, and as a consequence, an order closing thirty dance halls, recently issued, has been modified.

The dance halls now may remain open until 11 o'clock and, in recognition of the demands of the dancers, no favorites are being played; cafes, bars, restaurants, theaters and the "movie" houses must close at the same time. These latter establishments had been permitted to remain open until 1 a.m.

The Polka Dot

1919

Because in 1835 a Bohemian peasant girl danced a new step in a little village near the Polish border a Hungarian dancing master introduced it in Europe under the name of Polka, which is the feminine of Polak or Pole. By 1844, at the time James K. Polk was running for the presidency, the dance had spread to America and the name "Polk" and the word "Polka" formed a coincidence at once appealing to everyone. The manufacturers, merchants and designers immediately presented Polka hats, Polka shoes, Polka gauze and the "newest design in fabrics for gentlewomen."


Pretty Smart Chickens

A recent morning a Missouri farmer placed three crates of chickens and five bushels of potatoes in his trailer, hitched the trailer to his automobile and started for town. He was almost there when he discovered he had no trailer. He found he had parted company with it a quarter of a mile from home, and when he got back to it the crates were empty and the potatoes frozen.

He presumed, of course, the chickens had been stolen, and was greatly surprised when he went to the henhouse early next day after breakfast to find every one of the chickens there. Not one was missing. They had all returned home, but how they got out of the crates probably will always remain a mystery.

The Universal Art

1910

In a splendid series of matinees extending over two weeks, Prof. William P. Jones danced the whole of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The first two colonies were danced in slow time, to the accompaniment of two flutes and a lyre. The poses were statuesque rather than graceful, and the gestures had to them a great deal of the oratorical.

But, beginning with the story of the barbarian invasions in the third volume, Professor Jones' interpretation took on a fury that was almost bacchantic. The sack of Rome by the Vandals in the year 451 was pictured in a veritable tempest of gyrations, leaps and somersaults. The subtle and hidden meanings of the text called for all the resources of the professor's eloquent legs, arms, shoulders, lips and eyes.

A certain obscure passage in life of Attila the Hun, which had long puzzled the scholars, was for the first time made clear to the average man when Professor Jones, standing on one foot, whirled around rapidly in one direction for five minutes, and then instantly reversing himself spun around for ten minutes in the opposite direction.

In the ballroom of the Hotel Taftoftia, during Christmas week, William K. Spriggs, Ph. D., held a number of fashionable audiences spellbound with his marvelous lucid dances in euclid and algebra up to quadratics. Perhaps the very acme of the terpsichorean art was attained in the masterly fluency of body and limbs with which Mr. Spriggs demonstrated that the sum of the angles in any triangle is equal to two right angles. — Simeon Strunsky, in Harper's Weekly.

George Washington's Love Affairs

He Was Not a Success with Ladies, Till He Met the Widow Custis

In a paper recently read by Chauncey M. Depew in New York, at the reception of the Original Society of Colonial Dames of America, the following account is noted of Washington's social life:

Washington was intensely human as he was supremely great. He loved women, he was fond of sport, he was a great hunter, he was the best horseman of his age, he delighted in balls and parties and was a gallant dancer, he traveled hundreds of miles to witness a trial of speed between famous horses, and in common with the universal habit of his time took his chances in the lottery. While never a drunkard or intemperate in any way, he was a free liver and a generous and jovial host. He seems to have been unhappy in his earlier love scrapes. He was 6 feet 2 inches high, straight as an arrow, perfectly formed, except that he had phenomenally large hands and feet, and his face was pockmarked with the smallpox which he caught at the Barbadoes. The Colonial girl flirted recklessly with him, but never seemed to fall in love with him. He writes to one of his correspondents a letter from Lord Fairfax's, in which he says:

"My place of residence is at present at his lordship's, where I might, were my heart disengaged, pass my time very pleasantly, as there is a very agreeable young lady lives in the same house, but as that is only adding fuel to the fire, it makes me the more uneasy, for by often and unavoidably being in company with her revives my former passion for your lowland beauty, whereas were I to live more retired from young women I might in some measure alleviate my sorrows by burying that which is a troublesome passion in the grave of oblivion or eternal forgetfulness, for, as I am very well assured, that is the only antidote or remedy that I shall be relieved by or only recess that can administer any cure or help to me."

Who was this "lowland beauty?" is a mooted question which probably can never be decided. It has been discovered that he paid earnest attention to and his heart was deeply touched by Lucy Grymes, Mary Bland, Betsy Fauntleroy and Alice Fairfax. Of all these he was absorbed in and devoted to Betsy Fauntleroy. He worshiped at her shrine for several years, until a rival carried her off.

Washington was the most industrious of correspondents, and in his letters revealed his most secret passions and desires. But, though we know how tenderly he loved and how long he grieved over the loss of Betsy Fauntleroy, we are still in doubt as to who was the lowland beauty who seemed to take possession of his heart as soon as the charmer of the house was driven or retired from its portals.

Alas for Betsy. She failed to forecast the future, and as the wife of a Virginia planter lived to see her rejected lover become the greatest man of that or any other age. Washington became more popular with the ladies after his return from Braddock's defeat and the massacre. In that battle he had two horses shot under him, and four bullets through his uniform, and had held his Virginia regiment steady when the veteran red-coated British soldiers had all run away. When he returned, the hero of the hour, every Virginia house sent invitations to the gallant young soldier to come and visit. He was here and there, and everywhere, but his heart was mortgaged beyond redemption to the proud beauty who would not smile upon him. One of these letters of welcome to him is from the Fairfax home. Three young ladies in the house party, write him this letter, which shows his new-born popularity from Braddock's bloody field:

"Dear Sir — After thanking heaven for your safe return. I must accuse you of great unkindness in refusing us the pleasure of seeing you this night. I do assure you that nothing but our being satisfied that our company would be disagreeable should prevent us from trying if our legs would not carry us to Mount Vernon this night. But if you will not come to us to-morrow morning very early, we shall be at Mount Vernon. Sally Fairfax, Ann Spearing, Elizabeth Dent."

From the home of the Randolphs came another invitation, closing with the message that "Mrs. Cary and Miss Randolph join in wishing you that sort of glory which will most endear you to the fair sex."

In order to settle the question of the regularity of his commission as Colonel, Washington made a journey to Boston. Beverly Robinson, a Virginian, had married Susana Phillips, a daughter of Frederick Phillips, the patron of the great manor by the Croton. Robinson entertained his friend, now famous because of his gallantry at Fort Duquesne, at his house, and induced his wife to have her sister, Mary Phillips, as a guest at the same time. Here Washington's susceptible heart was subject to an entirely different charm from the English ladies in the Barbadoes, or the lovely Virginians of his native state. It was the metropolitan girl — the New Yorker — as typical then as now — self-possessed, traveled, with the experience of several seasons in the society of the largest city of the country, familiar with the attention of British officers and titled fortune hunters, a beauty and an heiress. The type was new to Washington, and he fell madly in love. But the proud and finical New York belle saw too many of the woodsman and the Indian fighter to allure her from the refinements of the metropolis to the seclusion of plantation life, and so she gave her hand and heart to Lieut. Col. Roger Morris, to become, with her Tory husband, during the revolutionary war, a fugitive to England, while Washington, in the fortunes of revolution, made their house his headquarters during the campaign in New York.

Washington, however, two years after the Mary Phillips incident, met at a country house Mrs. Martha Dandridge Custis. She was a widow, 26 years of age, and seven months of sorrow. She not only belonged to one of the most distinguished families, but she was the wealthiest woman in the colony of Virginia. Her sorrow was alleviated by the presence of two little angel Custises, Jack and Nellie. Washington wrote to his physician before arriving at this country house in very bad health, that he considered himself a doomed man, and that he was expecting very soon his "decay." This was on March 5, 1758. But the sick man left this hospitable home at Williamsburg on April 1, entirely recovered in health and engaged to the beautiful widow. We know very little of Mrs. Washington except that she was petite, a brunette, very pretty, and could not spell. Washington destroyed all her letters to him on this account. Most of her letters which are in existence were written by Washington and copied by her. But she proved a good wife. She was a born lady and had all the high instincts of a thoroughbred. Jefferson and Madison and Hamilton, who had met her, all seemed to be impressed with her limited educational attainments, and equally impressed with her perfect good breeding. Washington never wandered in his affection for her, and always alluded to her as the partner of all his domestic enjoyments. They lived happily together for forty years. In his last illness he lay for four hours at night with that chill which killed him, because he would not wake his wife and have her get up in the cold. This consideration for her put him almost beyond help when morning came.

He was the most attentive of husbands. Fearing she might overwork herself with the multitude of guests that thronged Mount Vernon, he secured a housekeeper. He saved her the trouble of ordering her own clothes to a large extent. He was a martinet on appearances, and extremely particular, both as to his own clothes and as to hers. White satin and black velvet were his favorite materials for his own coats.

When Washington became General of the army, and the army went into winter quarters this good woman made the long and perilous journeys from her home in Mount Vernon and spent every winter in camp with her husband. At Valley Forge they lived in a hut. She not only looked after him, but presided with grace and dignity at the headquarters table, where his staff and every general officer were welcomed every day. By her kindness and attention to the sick soldiers she did much to prevent the discontent of the army under the great hardships which they endured, and to alleviate the sufferings of the ill and wounded. Both she and the General were passionately fond of dancing, During the war, at winter headquarters, they arranged assemblies on the subscription pattern, the same as those of Delmonico's, Waldorf and Sherry's, and they were called "assemblies." They had especially notable assemblies at Germantown, at Morristown and at Philadelphia. The Washingtons always arranged a winter assembly at Alexandria for the families of the country. Mrs. Washington did not care much for these festivities, but she sacrificed herself because these parties relieved her husband from the tremendous strain to which he was subject both as General of the armies during the revolution and as President of the United States during the formative period of the republic. It was not uncommon for Washington at these assemblies to dance from 10 o'clock until daylight. He was impartial, and tried to secure each lady in the room for a partner.

Dancing Craze Has Grip on New York

1910

NEW YORK. — It has become a sort of madness in New York, the desire to see dancing. Some 15 years ago a Spanish dancer like Carmencita might create something of a seven-days' wonder, besides having her name written down as an artist in the books which posterity is supposed to read. But nowadays dancing of all sorts is fairly worshiped.

Isadora Duncan brought the Greek dance, which later was kept alive by Maud Allen and other imitators of Miss Duncan. Ruth St. Denis introduced the Hindoo dance; Mistinguett and Max Dearly at the Moulin Rouge in Paris created the Apache dance, which has since been given in every possible form in America, ending with Polaire's vivid performance, and the Salome dance was a craze of itself for a summer.

For three seasons no vaudeville bill has been deemed complete unless some dancer appeared in the list of performers. More than generally that dancer's name, like that of Abou Ben Adam, has led all the rest. The masked dancers at the rival vaudeville theaters, are the latest examples of the music hall craze for dancing sensations. We had "story" dances, toe dances, clog dances, cake walks, cancans, everything, it seemed, that the mind of man has been able to invent or resuscitate.

It remained, however, for some enterprising manager to take advantage of the idea and give the public an entire evening of contrasted and almost unbroken dancing.

From the beginning to the end it is almost one unbroken dance. Between the dances and between the acts the audience has a chance to rest its eyes and prepare for a new round.

Now a glimpse at the popular supper places or the tea rooms at the big hotels would give a stranger from Oshkosh the idea that the hobble skirt was quite as much of a craze in its way just now as, well, let us say, the dance.

No play, therefore, which attempted to call itself apotheosis of the dance could be considered complete without an attempt to show how a woman would look dancing in a hobble skirt. The hobble skirt dance, to say the least, is amusing.

Tango Dances Drive 'Em Mad

1914

New York, Jan. 1. — The extent of the present dancing madness is shown in no manner more vividly than the way in which many society women now madly vie with each other for the questionable honor of tangoing with former chorus men and other cheap actors whom a few short months ago they would not have deigned to accept an introduction.

Now they wait their turn like outcasts in the bread line for the exhilarating experience of stepping the latest measures with individuals who, before the prevalence of this twentieth century lunacy, were content to be seen, unheard and untouched, in the rear of a musical comedy ensemble.

A new dance, the "Paul Jones," is the latest and most amazing manifestation of the craze.

In this exhibition, at a blast from a whistle, all present, dance with those next to them whether acquainted with them or not. No introductions are necessary.

Although some of these affairs are high priced and are conducted in high toned neighborhoods under "society" auspices, the crowds are exceedingly mixed and there can be no telling what may be the character of the man with whom some woman from exclusive circles may grab for a partner.

Many men of no standing and little repute are patronizing these "swell" affairs regularly under the assurance that they may tango or trot madly with women who heretofore have been supposed to hold themselves dearly.

Couple, 109 and 104, Join "Shimmy" Class

1920

Both Are Still Able to "Shake a Lively Foot"

BARLEY MILLS, N.Y., Feb. 26. — It may or it may not have been a coincidence that the first piece struck up by the jazz band when Lon Tiller, 109, and his wife, 104, joined the dancing class at the town hall here was, "He may be old, but he's got young ideas!"

Tiller and his wife have taken several lessons and are now as proficient at the new steps as the younger couples. Mrs. Tiller was especially interested in learning the "shimmy" and danced it with youths of this village, among whom was her great grandson, Franklyn K. Tiller.

"It would be hard to find a girl in her teens who can shake a livelier foot than my grandmother," declares young Tiller.

The elder Tiller asserts that he owes his longevity to keeping abreast of the times as far as the modern dances are concerned. He declares that he has been dancing since he was a youth of 16 and expects to live at least another decade.

Practical Joke Lands Pair in County Jail

1920

Dance Promoters Get Free Dinner, but "Never Again!"

ST. JOSEPH, Mo., Feb. 26. — A little practical joke landed Frank Mahaney and his bosom friend, Toble Resnik, in the county jail, where they were kept for several hours before they could convince the officers that they were only joking. Now, when they are asked about practical jokes, they raise their hands and exclaim: "We're off that stuff!"

It all came about this way. Mahaney, who is a dancing master, was to give a grand ball in the opera house at Savannah. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon he and Resnik drove into Savannah and went to look over the hall and arrange the preliminaries for the evening's fun. But the fun came a long time before that.

When they came down half an hour later they found a great crowd congregated around their car examining a bottle of distilled water. When a fellow asked if it was their alcohol Mahaney answered in the affirmative, and added that "it's good stuff at that."

Then it was all over but the shouting, for the next act opened with Mahaney and Resnik in the county jail. Their only compensation was that they had a free dinner at the expense of the jailer. They were released from the bastile in time to "go on with the dance."


It Merely Saved Time

A rich old fellow refused a friend the loan of $50. "I did not expect that of you," said the friend bitterly, "and I will never forgive you for your refusal." "Of course, you won't, my dear fellow," said the other; "but if I lent you the $50 you wouldn't have repaid me, and we should have quarreled about that — so it's as well to get the row over at once. Good morning!"

Clever Siamese Girls

1898

The dancing girls of Siam are remarkable for the agility and grace of their movements. The cup dance is the prettiest and most poetic of all. A row of young girls, with a tier of cups on their heads, take their places in the middle of the great hall. A burst of joyous music follows. On hearing this they simultaneously, with military precision, kneel down, fold their hands and bow their heads until their foreheads almost touch the polished marble floor, keeping the cups steadily on their heads by some marvelous jerk of the neck. Then, suddenly springing to their feet they describe a succession of rapid and intricate circles, keeping time to the music with their arms, hands and feet.

Next the music swells into a rapturous tumult. The dancers raise their delicate feet, curve their arms and fingers in almost impossible flexures, sway to and fro like withes of willow, agitate all the muscles of the body like the flutter of leaves in the soft evening breeze, but still keep the cups on their heads.

The dancing girls of Bangkok are always exercising in the royal gymnasium. Their ages vary from five to twenty years. The curious and subtle feat of picking up a straw with the eyelids can be learned only by the youngest of them, who are made to practice it to render them flexible in every part of the body. There are two long rows of benches, one a little higher than the other. On the lower is a row of little girls, and on the upper bench are laid the polished bits of straw. At the sound of the drum the little girls, all together, bend back the head and neck until they touch the bits of straw, which, with wonderful dexterity, they secure between the corners of their eyelids.

The Beauty of the Feet and Dancing

New York, July 1914

Feet Underestimated, Says Mrs. Vlissengen, Patron of Dancing

"God made feet as well as hands, the devil had nothing to do with them," declared Mrs. Jean Vlissengen, who arrived yesterday from Chicago.

Mrs. Vlissengen put on the pageant which was intended as the culmination of the recent Federation of Women's Clubs in Chicago, but which ended in an investigation by the Chicago police. She indignantly denies, however that the girls were required to wear tights, only the Apollo's costume — or lack of it — was criticized.

"The foot is just as expressive as the hand," she continued. "The Greeks understood this, but we have allowed ourselves to be deprived of its beauty through silly conventions."

Two of the girls who took part in the Chicago pageant, Misses Patsy Shelley said to be a descendant of the poet, and Roschen Turck-Baker, the niece of a well-known Chicago physician will arrive later and do ballroom dancing. Both are 16 years old, and have received all their training from Mrs. Vlissengen. They do no modern dances.

"I have never received any money for my work with these girls," she said. "I wish merely to raise dancing to its proper place among the arts. So I take two or three promising girls a year and train them. I gave Isadora Duncan all her training." — New York Sun.

The Russian Dance "Circling," No Speaking, No Smiling

1878

A Russian Dance

They have a peculiar kind of dance, conducted on the greens of country villages in Russia.

The dancers stand apart, a knot of young men here, a knot of maidens there, each sex by itself, and silent as a crowd of mutes. A piper breaks into a tune, a youth pulls off his cap, and challenges his girl with a wave and a bow. If the girl is willing she waves her handkerchief in token of assent, the youth advances, takes the corner of his handkerchief in his hand, and leads his lady, round and round. No word is spoken and no laugh is heard. Stiff with cards and rich with braids, the girl moves heavily by herself, going round and round, never allowing her partner to touch her hand.

The pipes go droning on for hours in the same sad key and measure; and the prize of merit in this "circling," as this dance is called, is given by the spectators to the lassie who, in all that summer revelry, has never spoken and never smiled.

Must Dress Spanish To Be in Style Now

1916

Last Season The Fashion Trend was To Chinese — Now It's Changed
By Margaret Mason.

NEW YORK. Feb. 11. — Sing ho! for the Spanish main, for anything Spanish is the main thing in the new trend of Fashion. Last season we were all to the Chinese and goodness knows where we will be season after next. At the pace they are going it looks as if the designers would soon be sitting around on their haunches and weeping a la Alexander the Great for more worlds to copy.

Personally it strikes me Borneo fashions might be smart for the summer season, but the designers are probably holding them in reserve for the winter months. But to return to Spain; even as a Spanish omelet the fashion designers are undoubtedly being egged on to the Spanish mode by the recent production of that much-heralded Spanish opera, "Goyesca," at the Metropolitan opera house. Incidents in the life of Goya and his paintings inspired the opera, the opera inspired our present fashions and so Mr. Goya is really the responsible party.

Goya was the father of twenty children, one of the most favored lovers of the duchess of Alba and a great artist. Not for these achievements, however, is he now known to fame, but as the designer of these feminine frocks and frills for 1916.

Quantities of Spanish lace, both white and black, are used in flounces on the new old Spanish gowns which are copied outright from old portraits by Goya and Vesasquez. One of the French houses offers a gown which is a replica of that worn by the infants in Velasquez's most famous portrait. The gown is dubbed Velasquez, and it is wired out over the hips in the same exaggerated manner as the portrait. In fact, almost all of the frocks with Hispanic tendencies show this wiring over the hips, and the bodices are tight-boned and pointed.

Crude, strong tones of yellow, red, green and orange are used to get the true Spanish effects and mantillas, scarves and sashes of gay hues, high back combs and gaudy fans are accessories after the fact. Stunning evening wraps and negligees are fashioned out of the gorgeously embroidered Spanish shawls, and in some instants they are even made into evening gowns verily reeking of Carmen and bull fights.

Indeed all the Spanish fashions are bully.

Considering the shortage of dyes and the fact that all the real blue-blooded senoritas are raven-tressed, this is bound to be a closed season for blondes, and peroxide peaches will all stop trying to conceal their dark pasts.

With our characteristic whole-souled manner of entering entirely into the spirit and atmosphere of a new mode I have no doubt that even our diet will now smack of the Spanish tendency toward onions, omelettes, mackerel and sweet peppers. Our fox-trots and one-steps will give way to the fandango, our national sport become throwing the bull and our Irene Castle go around looking like a castle in Spain.

—Fort Wayne News, Fort Wayne, IN, Feb. 11, 1916, p. 4.

White Folks Flee in Terror, Indians Paint Up and Dance

1909

SHERIDAN, Wyoming—Government employees engaged on projects in Cheyenne reservation just across the State line in Montana are reported to be greatly alarmed over the warlike attitude of the Indians. Two employees arrived in Sheridan this morning bringing news of a general exodus of white people from the reservation.

While the Indians have so far offered no violence, they are said to be indulging in a series of sun and willow dances, which causes deep concern on the part of the whites. The redskins are dancing night and day.

Later arrivals from the reservation declare that the Indians have not been so wrought up in years. A few days ago a government disbursing agent went on the reservation and paid out $40,000, since which time the Indians have been unusually active and restless. Prior to this time the government project was moving along smoothly. The menacing attitude of the Indians frightened government employees, a number of whom told Engineer Holt, in charge of the work, that they would not take any chances and threw up their jobs.

The Cheyenne tribe numbers about 3,000 and it is reported is making enough noise to keep the entire reservation in a condition of nervous apprehension.

"Hoochy-Coochy" Dances Seen Immoral, Performances Under Fire

Portsmouth, OH, 1897

OOCHY-COOCHY

Four Prominent Citizens Say It Is a Moral Dance.

The Mayor Ordered It Stopped and the Four Protested.

Agreed to Modify the Program a Little and Work In a Punch and Judy Performance— Three Suspicious Looking Individuals Who Will Keep Several Days.

One of the spectators at the Oriental dances at Eddie Burns' saloon Tuesday night was Marshal Schmitt. The marshal's opinion of the performance, backed by that of several other spectators, resulted in an order from the mayor next morning stopping the show.

When application was made for a license Monday it was represented to mayor as an ordinary skirt dance. Complaints were made the next day that it was an immoral show, and it was decided to investigate it officially, which was done, with the above result. The dance is an imitation of the Turkish "Ooohy-Coochy" dance introduced at the World's fair and attracted enormous crowds.

Mr. Burns, when sent for, insisted that the show was not an immoral one. The mayor had the opinion of a number of spectators to the contrary. Burns agreed to get six of the best citizens in the city to sign a statement that it is not an immoral or indecent performance. He left and returned an hour later with the signatures of four prominent business men who saw the dance. He finally agreed to modify the program, substitute a regular skirt dance, "Punch and Judy" performance and other similar innocent amusements for the naughty dance.

In the mayor's court Tuesday afternoon some of the parties engaged in the free-for-all fight Saturday night at Ray's saloon, on West Second street, were placed on trial. Five of them were found guilty. Huston, Appler and Shakespeare were fined $3.00 and costs; Justice and McDowell $1.00 and costs.

Two young men, with the appearance of confidence men, were run in Tuesday night by Officer Ingles and slated "on suspicion." They gave the names of Jarvis Lloyd and Ed. Hastings and claim to be from Chicago. They will probably "keep" several days.

Belle Medley 'fessed up to the mayor Wednesday that she used bad language in the presence of Edith Turner, Paradise alley. She was fined $4.80.

—The Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, OH, July 31, 1897, p. 1.

She's Going To Be 100 — Gets to Bed Early, Doesn't Dance

Syracuse, NY, 1918

Go to Bed Early, Don't Dance and Don't Worry and Live to Be 100

Mrs. Ann Land, Who Will Celebrate 100th Anniversary Next Saturday Says People To-day Are in Too Great Haste.

Says Too Many People Get to the Other Side of the Hill Without Any Reserve to Hold 'em Back.

Mrs. Ann Land of No. 1210 Grape street will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of her birth next Saturday.

"All my life I've followed a set of rules," said Mrs. Land. "They are: Go to bed early. Eat carefully. Don't dance. Don't worry. It's because I've followed them that I'm going to have a birthday it is given few women to have.

"Young folks in this country live in too much of a hurry while they are young. Then when they get onto the other side of the hill they haven't anything in reserve to hold 'em back. They just slip down and get to the bottom quick."

Mrs. Land wasn't born in this country. She came here when she was 35, a bride. Her husband had a brother in this city and Mr. and Mrs. Land came directly here. She has lived in the little house in Grape street sixty-five years.

For thirty years she has been an invalid. Stepping from a street car in the days when the motive power was horses instead of electricity, the car started too soon. She was thrown violently to the pavement and her spine was injured.

But the fact that her legs have been helpless all these years has not impaired her usefulness. She does all the mending for herself and daughter, Mrs. Sarah Henry, who lives with her. She sews rags for carpets and makes ironing holders.

She has never worn glasses and just of late she has confessed to a growing dimness of sight.

"I'm only bothered in threading needles," she added hastily when she told of this affliction. "Sarah threads a lot of them for me and when I've used 'em all I call her to thread more."

She has been a widow since 1864, when her husband, John Land, was killed in the Battle of The Wilderness. She had four children, but all have died excepting Mrs. Henry.

It has always been a source of grief to her that she did not receive sufficient education in her youth to enable her to read extensively.

"In the old country large families educated their boys in those days, and let their girls shift for themselves. I had eight brothers," she concluded simply.

Mrs. Land likes to talk of the days in the old country, when, as she grew old enough, she filled positions as cook in the homes of various personages of high degree, lords and such.

She likes to tell of her trip across the Atlantic, which was her wedding trip, and attended by so many disagreeable occurrences that she never wanted to go back.

"In the first place I was seasick every inch of the way until we got near enough the shores of New Jersey to smell the peach orchards, which were in bloom," she explained.

"There was mutiny on board. A lot of sailors had been shipped at Liverpool and paid full wages for the trip. A day out we ran into bad weather and they made trouble. My husband saved the captain from being shot by knocking down a man who had a pistol pointed at his head. Those men made the remainder of the trip in irons. Maybe a trip isn't so difficult now, but I don't want to take it."

She doesn't understand why the world is at war.

"War is bad business," she said shaking her head. "It makes so much unhappiness and is so useless. It made a widow of me."

She hasn't any ambition to "live to a great age," she declares, but "rather expects she will."

My grandmother was 104 years old when she died. My father was nearly a hundred. All my people lived to be old, so I may as well be resigned," she said.

—The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, June 23, 1918, page 17.

Honeymoon Couple Walking Around the United States

Pennsylvania, 1915

HIKING HONEYMOON

Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Shaw to Keep at Three Years

Mr. and Mrs. Edward L. Shaw have arrived in Gettysburg. The couple began a unique honeymoon trip on December 1, starting at Glen Falls, N. Y. They state that on a wager of $10,000 they are to travel on foot to the capitols of all the states forming the border of the United States within three years. Their plan of procedure is to walk six days in a week, and rest on Sundays. As an incidental source of revenue, they sell picture post cards.

Up to the present time they have met with no mishaps, and have enjoyed good health. Their route has taken them through Albany, Binghamton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg, York and many smaller cities and towns.

—Adams County News, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, January 16, 1915, page 5.


Deductive Reasoning

"Mamma, what's a bookworm?" asked small Eloise. "A person who loves to collect and study books, dear," was the reply. A few days later a woman called whose fingers were decorated with innumerable rings. "Oh, mamma," exclaimed Eloise, "look at Mrs. Smith's rings. She must be a ringworm!"


Mushroom Farm

A mushroom farm in California consists of 600 square feet, the beds being in tiers in a basement. Although mushroom growing in the United States has assumed considerable proportions, the imports continue to be large.


Significant Madagascar Dance

In Madagascar when the men are absent at war the women dance for the greater part of the day, believing that this will inspire their husbands with courage, and doubtless many a man hard pressed on the field of battle does feel a peculiar access of determination to vanquish the enemy when he thinks of his wife dancing tirelessly all day that he may win.

Cabaret Girls Tell of Songs and Dances: Sensual, Improper

Chicago, 1913

CABARET GIRLS TELL OF SONGS AND DANCES

They Admit That Songs Are Improper and That Dances Are Sensual

Chicago, April 12. — Agents of the Illinois vice commission late last night and early today brought consternation to the fashionable guests of the two down-town restaurants — Rector's and the States — against whose reputations there rested, no question except the nature of their cabaret entertainments.

While the cabaret was in full blast investigators entered the down-town restaurants and a wine room in the tenderloin at midnight and brought performers, managers and guests to a hotel for interrogation. The inquiry lasted until 2 o'clock this morning.

From some of them the senators drew reluctant admissions that a few of the songs and dances "might be" suggestive and "perhaps had been a bad effect on the diners."

"In My Harem."

A girl singer, crying as she testified asserted she never would sing "In My Harem," a song Lieutenant Governor O'Hara was particularly inquisitive about.

The manager of a well known restaurant said the restaurant business had degenerated into a vaudeville show, and he did not know when it would stop. After investigators and members of a "slumming" party said they had heard an improper song in a place in Twenty-first street, the commission voted to recommend to Mayor Harrison that the cafe's license he revoked. The commission will call the attention of the state's attorney to the testimony of the manager, who said nothing indecent went on.

Senator Beall said he saw girls not more than 15 or 16 years imbibing mixed drinks in the cafe, and some at them were more or less intoxicated.

Mrs. Maud Joseph told of the singing and dances at a downtown restaurant. She said in one dance the performer "might just as well have had no skirts at all."

She stated that a girl did an Oriental dance, wearing pink tights and a "sort of a skirt of black chiffon." She thought the dance was suggestive. She said a couple did a fancy dance, a combination between the "Tango" and the "Apache."

"Was it art or suggestion?" asked the lieutenant-governor.

"There was no art in it."

Free For All Dance.

The performers led a free for all dance on a space made by clearing away tables.

The professional who led the dance said they had tried to eliminate anything which might appear sensual in their act, but admitted they might not have been entirely successful.

"Don't you think that where you see art others might see vice?" asked Mr. O'Hara. "I guess it appeals differently, but I do not see anything obscene about it," was a reply.

O. B. Stimpson, manager of another down-town restaurant, asserted the business had drifted into a show, but he was compelled to put up a first class cabaret to get the trade. He was of opinion that some popular songs have gone too far. He said guests did the "bear" dance in the aisles, between the tables, but that they never got "raw." An entertainer in this restaurant said there was nothing out of the way in the song "All Night Long." "It's all in the way you sing it," she stated. "Some people are so weak minded that they will take up anything."

Time to Revoke.

When the vice commissioners reassembled they received a telephone message from Mayor Harrison saying, "This looks like a good day to revoke some licenses."

The mayor referred to unsavory restaurants which survived when the old segregated district on the south side was closed several months ago. He said he had made up his mind to close two places as a result of testimony at the night session of the commission and would investigate others.

Frank Benent, manager of "Dream Land," where the dancers number from 500 to 1,000 a night, testified that no liquor was sold there, and that "dummy" dancers hired by the management mingled with the crowds to prevent suggestive dancing.

"We couldn't make money if we sold liquor or permitted lewd action," said the witness. "If the dance halls of Chicago want to make money they should work in harmony with this commission." Girls at previous sessions have testified that it was at "Dream Land" they made acquaintances who led them on their first steps downward.

—The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, April 13, 1913, page 1B.