Narrow and Heartless

1899

There are two sisters whom everybody who will read their story here has met, in cities or farmhouses, at home or abroad. They have eyes and ears, the full complement of all the senses belonging to ordinary human beings, but they go through life blind and deaf.

Every morning, when they rise, God opens the world before them like a full book to tell of His power and love. The sunshine, the wind, every flower in the field, every insect in the grass, all the countless living things about them, have some word to speak of Him. They see and hear nothing of it all.

Around them, all through the days, press multitudes of men and women, each working out a little tragedy or comedy of life, each differing from the others, mean or noble, pure or vile, but all alike struggling along a path where help may be needed and life's burdens made less hard to bear.

These women have brains and hearts, but they never use them for the benefit of a single soul. They hold out no helping hand, they give no friendly thought to any fellow-traveller.

Why?

One of them is made blind by her sense of her own importance. The petty cause of her importance is known only to herself. There was a man of title among her forefathers; or she has a larger sum in the bank than her neighbors; or she numbers some fashionable woman among her acquaintances; or she has costly gowns. But she wraps herself in this remembrance as in a robe of state, and so struts proudly through life.

Her sister has a grievance; usually a different one each day; an aching limb; a small income; an idle servant. These cover her as his cloak covers the monk. She thinks, dreams, talks under their pressure. These women thus shut themselves in and are kept apart through life from the influence and help of nature, of their fellow-men, and of God.

It would be wise to ask ourselves, now and then, if we are in their case. Do we give out healthy, happy influences to people about us as we go through the world? If not, what cloak do we wear that shuts us in to our own littleness? — Youth's Companion.

Daddy's Bedtime Story — "Where the Bad Boy Found His Manners"

1911

The Bad Boy in the Ditch

"He was really a naughty, ill mannered boy," began daddy. "His parents were wealthy, and they left him to the care of servants, who did not know how to make a good boy of him. The result was that he was impudent to the servants and cruel to dogs and cats and insisted on having his own way always. I shall tell you how he learned a good lesson.

"It happened in the summer time. One day this naughty boy, whose name was Dick, was standing at the gate of his father's house when another boy came there. He was a poor boy — you could tell that by his old clothing — but his shirt waist and his knickerbockers were clean and neat, and his face shone with good nature as well as soap and water. You could tell by looking at him that he was a jolly fellow. He carried in his hand a tin can full of ripe, juicy blackberries, and he asked Dick to buy them.

" 'Go away from here,' said Dick, with a frown, 'or I shall set the dog on you. We don't need your berries. We have everything we want!'

" 'If you have, please give me a drink of water,' said the poor boy. But Dick threatened again to set the dog on him, so he went away whistling.

"Then Dick said to himself: 'Those blackberries looked good. I think I will go and get some for myself.' He went out of the gate and down the road to a place where he knew the blackberries grew. The bushes were on the far side of a wide ditch, which was filled with mud. Dick was too lazy to find a good place to cross, so he tried to jump the ditch.

"He landed right in the middle in mud up to his waist When he tried to get out he found that he was stuck fast and could not free himself. Then he called for help. But it was a lonely spot, and for a long time he heard no answer. Then he heard a voice saying, 'Who's there?'

"Then Dick called again as loudly as he could, and soon he saw at the side of the ditch the poor boy whom he had treated so rudely. 'Hello!' said the boy. 'How did you get in there?'

" 'I fell in,' said Dick. 'Please help me out?'

" 'All right,' said the other boy. And he lay down at the side of the ditch, not minding the mud on his clothing, and reached out his hand to Dick. He was a strong boy, so he soon was able to get Dick out. Dick thanked him and went home to be cleaned off.

"The next day when the poor boy came around again to try to sell his berries Dick was very nice to him. 'Where did you find your manners?' asked the boy. 'In the ditch,' said Dick."

Slippery Rock War On Vice, Street Walkers, Debauchery

Pennsylvania, 1913

Sun Calls Upon Citizens to Rise in Their Might and Stamp Out Social Evil

Slippery Rock is in sore need of social house cleaning. In it are festering sores of licentiousness which are spreading so rapidly that the clean and whole part of its body is in danger of infection from the loathsome suppuration. The Sun has been importuned by some people to turn on the light of publicity in an effort to stop the growth of social evil in our midst. Still more people have cautioned silence on the ground that publicity of our shame would "give the town a bad name."

We have come to the point where the town, has a bad name because the people who practice lasciviousness have not been rebuked for their crimes against morality and decency. Emboldened by the evident desire to brush and gloss over their rottenness, the lecherous slaves of a brute passion give little heed to the opinions or sentiments of the moral and virtuous majority and nightly practice their soulless and lustful business.

For years a bunch of girls who have forgotten how to blush have been street walkers and dissolutes, loitering on corners and about public places seeking their mates in the hellish business of social depravity. A brood of nameless illegitimate children are the fruits of their shameless crimes. We have all sympathy for the unfortunate girl who falls because of her love and trust in a lecherous and brutal man, but when in brazen disregard of her own shame or the moral rights of her associates, she persists in the practice of her infamy and seeks to draw mere children, perhaps her own fatherless ones, into the life of virtueless debauchery, even the broad mantle of Christian charity is scarcely able to cover her sin. from such a school was graduated the poor girl who paid the penalty of her shame with her life a few months ago and the recital of which calamity in the public press brought a blush to everyone who owned Slippery Rock as a habitat.

But not alone is the street walker to blame for the condition in our town that is a stench in the nostrils of decency. People who enjoy position in the social, business and church life of the community, have so far forgotten man and womanhood, the marital vows and a sense of moral obligation that they have put themselves on a plane with the back alley dissolutes. And their crimes are greater, because they not only debauch their own moral natures, but invade the homes of neighbors, bringing the horror of undeserved shame upon the innocent wife or husband who learns of the detection of her or his unfaithful mate.

After much deliberation and conferring with those who are working for the moral uplift of the community, The Sun has decided that the only way to stop the obscene and vulgar practice is to turn the spotlight on those who are persistently guilty. Hereafter any scandal touching on the social evil will be printed, and with it the names of the participants, be they street walkers, church workers, business or professional people; not because it is scandal, but that the right kind of publicity may warn the passion slaves that their underworld actions will be shown in the broad light of day. Such a campaign will be more dangerous to dissolute husbands and faithless wives than to the unmarried lawbreakers and that is as it should be. — Slippery Rock Sun.

—Reprinted in New Castle News, New Castle, PA, Oct. 31, 1913, p. 10.

Burlesque Queen Dances to Disprove Charge of Indecency

1916

Burlesque "Queen" Edifies Chicago Court as She's "Walkin' the Dog"

Chicago, Oct. 18. — Judge Samuel A. Trude's court in the city hall had all the aspects of a burlesque show for five or ten minutes yesterday afternoon.

A petite brunette stepped to the judge's bench, tossed her head, flashed a smile to the jury, then threw off her heavy outer cloak, and in a trice was "Walkin' the Dog" and doing other syncopated steps about the small enclosure in a dance to a ragtime accompaniment sung by herself.

It was Miss May Mills, leading lady of the "Follies of Pleasure," dressed in her spangled costume of gold and silver, demonstrating the exhibition for which J. H. Herk is on trial on charges of keeping a disorderly house, alleged to have permitted immoral dancing and acting in the Gaiety theater, 531 South State street, of which he is manager.

"Just Walked Like This"

Miss Mills was the star witness for the defense. It is upon her interpretation that the attorneys for Herk hope to prove the charges against him groundless.

"I simply walked like this," said Miss Mills between snatches of the song, as she deftly paced the small enclosure.

"I swayed like this and I waved my arms like that," demonstrating.

She pirouetted in front of the jury box, skirting the fenced enclosure, and brought up with a stamp of her foot, an appealing gesture and a toss of her head.

"Whoopee!"

"Whoopee!" cried some one in the rear of the courtroom, carried away momentarily. A stern bailiff quickly restored him to order. Then the spectators in the courtroom broke into applause, but this, too, was quickly silenced. There were some, however, who did not applaud. They were the members of the Women's Church federation, complainants to the charge, and others allied with the prosecution.

Judge Trude at the beginning of the song and dance was seated viewing the exhibition with becoming austerity. Before it was half over however, he was pacing back and forth behind his chair, his hands folded behind his back, his face beaming in a broad smile.

His opinion of the dance, however, he refused to communicate.

No Jass Band Around

"I'm afraid I won't do very well," said Miss Mills when called to perform. "You see, I have no music."

"Attorneys for the defense will probably whistle for the young lady," suggested Assistant City Attorney Bippus. But this they declined to do.

The name of Chief of Police Healey was drawn into the hearing yesterday. Witnesses for the prosecution testified to making repeated complaints of alleged immorality and lewdness permitted at the theater. No action so far as they knew, they testified, had ever been taken on the complaint.

Tights Shock Copper

Herk, the manager, when called to the stand, told of one complaint which had been brought to his attention. A policeman, he testified, had notified him that he would have to prohibit the wearing of tights by actresses. He saw the chief personally, he said, and complained that such action was discrimination and was told to "go ahead and run the theater as usual."

It is expected the case will be given to the jury this morning.

Mrs. George W. Hall, of 416 West Forty-sixth place; Mrs. J. G. Boor, of 832 Buckingham place, members of the Women's Church federation, and F. A Beale, of 4806 Forrestville avenue, testified to the immorality of the dance of Miss Mills. In their testimony they described the dance in detail, asserted that the costume worn by her was transparent, and that she deported herself offensively. It was to disprove this that Miss Mills gave her "skit." The costume worn by her yesterday, which she asserted was the one used by her in the dance, was not transparent.

—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Oct. 19, 1916, p. 7.

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.

"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.

"Trial" Marriage Jails Ex-Soldier

1920

PHOENIX, Ariz. — A trial marriage contract, entered into in England by a soldier and artist's model, resulted in the conviction in Federal Court of Henry O'Brien, former British soldier, on the charge of bringing to the United States Vera Mort, for immoral purposes. The jury recommended leniency.

The girl testified she met O'Brien in London, and that he had asked her to marry him. "I said I would give him six months' trial," she said. "I promised to marry him if I liked him well enough at the end of that time."



Seven I.W.W.'s Are Convicted

Ten Were Charged With Slaying Soldier on Armistice Day

MONTESANO, Wash. — Seven of the ten Industrial Workers of the World charged with the murder of Warren O. Grimm, one of four soldiers shot during an armistice day parade at Centralia, Wash., were found guilty of second degree murder. Three others were found not guilty.

Loren Roberts, one of the trio, was acquitted on the ground of insanity.

The defendants found guilty of second degree murder were Britt Smith, Ray Becker, James McInerney, Bert Bland, Eugene Barrett, John Lamb and O. C. Bland.

Don't Want Hubby, Say Million English Maids

1920

Surplus English Women Not Hunting Mates.

Scorn Suggestion That Official Action Be Taken to Relieve Shortage of Men.

LONDON, England. — A statement by Dr. R. Murray Leslie that England has 1,000,000 "too many" women and that something ought to be done about it, has aroused angry and resentful comment among the prominent feminists. They say that the modern woman, with her diversified interests, is not a husband hunter.

Radical views on the subject were expressed by Miss Norah Marsh, editor of National Health and an authority on eugenics. She contends that a new social and moral code is growing up which will solve the question.

Encourage Parenthood

"The important thing to consider is whether, with 1,000,000 unmarried women, England can maintain her population at its natural state of increase," said she. "We want parenthood encouraged only among the fit. A large number of these surplus women, from a physical and mental standpoint, would make admirable mothers.

"We are now in a state of transition and our whole moral code is under review. It may be that the day will come when a new social code will help us solve the problem of these surplus women."

"For forty years feminists have declared that marriage ought not to be the whole end of existence for women," said Miss Underwood, secretary of the Women's Federation League. "Now, in view of women's wider interests, they look upon marriage only as a minor incident in their lives.

"It is not the want of opportunity for marriage which makes a woman discontented, but her unequal economic position compared with that of men. When she secures equality with men professionally and industrially and in every other direction, you will not have any discontented women. A well developed woman needs activity, not protection."

Back to the Land

It is contended that war improved the type of woman in the British Isles, and many persons interested in the matter are opposing emigration of British girls.

Among them is the Marchioness of Townshend, who said:

"A far better way than emigration would be to attract the girls to the countryside, where they would not all be herded together in towns. They could live better lives."

Dr. Leslie has suggested that the morals of the modern girls are lower than those of their grandmothers. This charge brought a vigorous response from Mrs. Pember Reeves, well known author, who said:

"I do not believe that girls today are any worse than their grandmothers were. To ship them wholesale to the colonies would be absurd. Better drown the girls if they are such a menace and such a nuisance."

No Brain Operation for Train Bandit

Editorial, 1922

Were Roy Gardner, the mail train bandit, permitted to undergo the suggested brain operation to make him a law abiding citizen, it would be among the probabilities that he would become an angel. Contrary to the generally prevailing opinion, brain surgery is considerably more of a failure than a success.

Gardner had been told that his propensity to rob mail trains was due to pressure on the brain, and a simple operation to remove the pressure would give him normal moral sense. In the Federal penitentiary, in Leavenworth, Kans., he demands that the operation should be performed, insisting that Attorney General Daugherty promised him relief through surgery.

The Department of Justice decides now that the operation cannot be performed. Prison officials had wired the department that they believed the operation would not do Gardner any good.

Many moral irregularities are due unquestionably to mental or physical disease or deficiency. Medical or surgical treatment is effectual with many of them, but it is not a certain remedy or cure.

As to brain surgery proper, it is a last resort in a desperate case. The great majority of operations on the brain itself are fatal. Though trephining the skull and removing pressure is a simple performance, it is more often unsuccessful than successful. Surgical experience obviously is, therefore, sufficient warrant for the department's adverse decision.

—The Monessen Daily Independent, Monessen, PA, Oct. 23, 1922, p. 2.

A Family With Faith in Asbestos

Short Stories
1922

The late Mrs. George Gould hated any desecration of the Sabbath. Motoring one summer Sunday in Lakewood, she encountered a family whose fortune had been made in asbestos. The rich asbestos makers were picnicking, fathers and sons over whisky and poker, mother and the girls with cigarets and bridge. Mrs. Gould drew up to speak to her acquaintances. "Well," she said pleasantly, "I didn't know you Smiths had such faith in your asbestos."

A storyette that dates to the eighteenth century is as follows: Dr. Johnson once met the village postman one summer afternoon. The postman observed that he had still a mile to walk just to deliver one newspaper. "My goodness!" exclaimed the sympathetic doctor, "I'd never go all that distance for such a trifle. Why don't you send it by post?"

Former Postmaster General Hays, as every one knows, is an advocate of the air mail. "Of course, it gets criticized," he said, "and criticism is a good thing, but it can be run into the ground. I am reminded of the vaudeville producer who muttered as he read the press-notices of his program, 'These critics are thorough, all right. They don't leave a turn unstoned.' "

With reference to the millennium, Samuel Gompers recently said: "It is still a long way off, of course, but the workman is not the downtrodden slave he once was." He quoted the case of the tennis pro who was giving a new club member some pointers. "Hold your racket loosely, sir," he said. "Oh! more loosely! You hold it as stiff as if you were a hod-carrier." "But I am a hod-carrier," said the new member mildly.

The southern Californian may think himself an adept making seductive pictures of his end of the state, but he can still learn from the Honolulan, out in the north Pacific. Down there they say a drummer from San Francisco sojourned a month, and when they took him to the homeward-bound steamer and put leis around his neck and sang "Aloha Oi" to him a few times, he cried like a baby and said he had forgotten his wife's first name.

The Cost of a Cocktail

1916

The Drink a Young Business Man Had to Have Before Lunch

In New York city there is a man who once paid $6,000 for a cocktail. He did not know it then, and he never will know it unless he happens to read this story.

A certain prosperous manufacturing company needed a new departmental manager. The salary was $6,000 a year. The officers of the company considered a great many candidates and at last decided to offer the position to a clever young man of unusual business ability. He seemed to be exactly the man for that particular place. The president and general manager invited the young man to lunch with them at a downtown club, ostensibly to talk over a less important business matter. They wanted to "look him over" just once more.

The man met them at the appointed hour, and the president, anxious to make the occasion a pleasant one, ordered an elaborate luncheon. The waiter was a long time in bringing the first course, and the guest began to appear ill at ease. He seemed absentminded and uninterested in the conversation. He twisted about in his chair and tapped his finders nervously upon the table. Finally he turned toward the president and said almost desperately "Would you mind very much if I ordered a cocktail?" Then he flushed a little and offered a laughing apology for making the request.

The other men exchanged surprised and significant glances, but they called the waiter and ordered the cocktail. When it came the guest drank it eagerly. In a few moments he had become another man — the man of keen vision and quick mind, who could be so useful in their great business. There was no more preoccupation in his manner, no shifting about in His chair. He was alert, eager, clear headed.

But as the luncheon went on neither the president nor the manager mentioned the real object of the interview. Each was thinking the matter over seriously, and neither could be sure of the other's secretly formed opinion. The situation became awkward. Finally the president excused himself on the pretense of going into the library to speak to a friend who had just entered. But after speaking to his friend he went straight to the desk and wrote a message on a telegraph blank. He gave the message to a uniformed attendant and went back to the dining room.

In a few minutes a page brought a telegram to the manager, who read it hurriedly, while the president finished telling their guest about a shooting trip in Maine. This is what the telegram said:

The job is too big for a boozer. We can't run our business by cocktail power. — Youth's Companion

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 6.

Wineroom 'Rags' Source of Evil

Indianapolis, 1913

Scientist Dissects Festive Syncopations and Finds They Spur Lower Emotions

EFFECTS ON MORALS LURING

Beware of "Portamento" and Chromatic Slides if You Want to Be Good

A few months ago, when Superintendent Hyland of the police started war on winerooms, he found most of his efforts futile until he struck at what appeared to him to be the heart of the evil — the wineroom music.

Raids had been made repeatedly upon places of doubtful moral character. Persons caught there were arrested wholesale. Some convictions were obtained against proprietors for violation of the Nicholson law. But such fines were promptly paid and offenses repeated. Persons arrested in the places, it appeared, had a right under the state and city laws to go there as much as they liked. If nothing further than being there was proved against them, City Court ignored the charge.

They went back. Then the ukase against music was issued. It caused consternation in the places aimed at, as well as in the first-class cafes and hotel dining rooms, but it necessarily had to include all to reach the ones desired. And it proved effective.

Now comes the question, "Where is the psychological point to the superintendent's order?"

WHAT IS THE LURE?

And again, "What is the mystic lure of music that, in the verbiage of the legal lights, aids and abets the evils that thrive in winerooms?"

Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast, but does it have some of the quality of an affinity, to attract those of evil intent?

More to the point, is music bad?

Or is there merely bad music that is bad?

Or do bad persons like music?

Or what?

And if so, what is bad about music — the melody, the rhythm, the words of the song, or all of them, or none?

There are different views. Not long since a minister was quoted as saying that if composers would only disassociate suggestive words from some of their more lively compositions of ragtime, or, at the least, nonsensical words, and set religious rhymes to their music, their names would go down in history.

There are two attitudes of the day toward the rag from different angles.

HERE'S HOW SCIENCE SEES IT.

A scientific study of the effect of music has been made by Henry W. Stratton, a writer in the Arena, who discusses his observations under the title of "Music and Crime."

He has found by experiment in one of the state prisons that many criminals are exceptionally good musicians. They are of two classes.

First, those whose knowledge of music extends no farther than the popular songs of the day and whose associations with such songs have always been of questionable character. They absorb the sensuous quality of music and can not be morally improved by it because the quality does not contain the necessary musical ingredients to lift them to a higher plane of emotion.

In such songs, this writer says, it frequently happens that where the melody is good and would of itself awaken refining impulses the words produce the opposite effect.

"Again, popular song rhythms are calculated to spur only the lower emotions," he says.

"If a tune is catchy the charm lies largely in its rhythm; the unusual syncopations act upon the listener at unexpected and unnatural parts of the measure and excite unhealthy, unmoral tendencies."

The second class of criminal musicians are scheduled as "darlings of society" who have learned to be musically voluptuous. They yield easily without question to all kinds of music and are unable to resist its enervating influences, They are mastered by their musical sensation.

Mr. Stratton has analyzed ragtime — picked it to pieces — to determine what about it is bad. He finds that a deleterious effect upon the moral nature of a listener is produced by voluptuous slides from one tone to another, called portamento.

"It induces languor and suggests to the mind a relapse from moral discipline," he says. Chromatic passages also tend to promote immorality, he thinks.

RAGTIME GETS THE HOOK.

All this is rather a condemnation of music which is abnormally syncopated, Which contains too frequent repetitions of the portamento and which brings chromatics into frequent play. No class of music quite answers the description so well, perhaps, as the rag.

But one might want to know what makes syncopations, chromatics and slides act so upon the human organisms.

Under the head of "Emotion," an encyclopedia says:

"Unconsciously the spectator, after hearing a musical concert sings and acts cerebrally, and a tenseness of the vocal cords and the whole muscular apparatus of the body results from the imitative effort to make the necessary sounds and to reproduce the necessary movements."

Music, itself, one might deduce, may entice the hearer to attempt an action of the emotion it contains.

But there probably are other conditions to be noted in a consideration of the effect of music in winerooms. Some kinds of music, per se, it is agreed, have bad effects.

A combination of this kind of music and of intoxicating liquors may have a worse effect; then, again, in an open room, it adds privacy to conversations over tables usually located too near one another to otherwise afford privacy. Again, it seems to be a lure for patrons, and, if patronized alone in winerooms and heard there frequently, would tend each time to recall other similar associations.

Altogether one might draw the conclusion that bad music in bad places is bad for good and bad people; bad music in good places is little better for either; good music in bad places has all odds against it; and good music in good places is better for both.

—The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, November 23, 1913, page 14.

Teacher Ousted for Allowing Dance Party

1922

SCHOOL HOUSE USED FOR DANCING PARTY

And Now the Lady Teacher at Eminence, Kas., Has Been Deprived of Certificate — Accused of Breaking Law.

By the Associated Press.

EMINENCE, Kas., June 7. — Not counting prairie dogs and jackrabbits, this western Kansas village had ninety- two inhabitants at last count, most of whom do not consider dancing sinful. But because she permitted a dance to be held in the school house, the school ma'am, Mrs. Clare White, has had her teaching certificate revoked by Miss Lorraine Wooster, state superintendent of education.

Eminence is thirty miles from the railroad, and though that is not as far as it was before the days of the flivvers, still amusements are not exactly plentiful. What there are the community has to evolve for itself and community dances were favored. Mrs. White says, however, that since she allowed a dance to be held in the school house and attended it, she has been informed by the state superintendent of education that she has broken Kansas laws, and trifled with the dignity of the commonwealth.

For that reason she has been officially informed that her teacher's certificate will not be renewed.

Mrs. White has written to the state board of administration protesting against the action. She says there was not a thing objectionable about the dance and it was a perfectly proper use for a school house outside of teaching hours.

—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 8, 1922, page 1.

Scarecrows Shock Jersey's Fair Sex

Dummies Are Indecently Clad, Say Women.

Skirts Are Six Inches Too Short and Wealthy Neighbors Steal Usable Clothing.

NEWARK, N. J., May 20. – The attention of the State Committee on Public Safety and Morals has been called to what is believed to be a menace to public morals, namely, the costumes worn by scarecrows in Newark in particular and Essex County in general.

The first letter sent to the committee comes from the North Nutley Housewives' and Housekeepers' Protective League and reads:

"To the Committee on Public Safety in Newark,

"Gentlemen: Your attention is called to numerous and sundry scarecrows within the limits of your fair city and the costumes or lack of adornment worn by said scarecrows. Many of them have skirts over six inches above the ground and their garments, or rather lack of garments, is enough to shock the most violent movie fan. We trust you will see that the limbs of these necessary evils are properly covered. Yours, &c., MIRANDY DRAPER, Secretary."

Wealthy Neighbors Rob Scarecrows.

The communication received immediate attention and the committee soon found out that the minute any sort of usable clothing was put on scarecrows it was stolen by some of the neighbors, many of them living in wealthy sections of the city.

The high price of scarecrows this year is the worst kind of profiteering. In many cases the prices of scarecrow styles for 1920 are fully 300 per cent above what they were before the war. They, in turn, rise the price of corn.

The latest fashion sheets have come from South Jersey, where it is assumed they were stolen from Philadelphia, the home of all rustic styles.

Burlington County, N. J., comes to the front with the suggestion that scarecrows be draped, dressed, or merely smeared with tar paper of one inch thickness. It has been found that crows cannot see black because it is their own color, and that they fly straight into the paper and dash their brains out.

No Second-hand Hats.

As far as hats are concerned as an addition to the beauty or usefulness of the scarecrows this season, there is no such thing as a second-hand hat. They will all be used, either as is or as dyed.

Positive information comes to the committee from Bennie Norwood, the Caldwell, N. J., newspaper man, that one post-war gardener there has dressed his scarecrow with a full dress suit, plug hat and "biled shirt," and that the suit or any part of it has not been stolen as yet.

There is no denying that it is a puzzle what to stuff the scarecrows with. Hay is now on a part with platinum, and fathers-in-law or prospective fathers-in-law are presenting their sons-in-law-to-be with loads of hay as wedding presents instead of small farms, as was the case before the war.

Anyway, the scarecrow situation in Essex County and elsewhere is serious.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 7.

Bill Posters Shock Bridgewater, Pa., Citizens

Council of Borough to Attend to the Matter.

The poster of a young lady thinly draped that is being used by a manufacturing firm to illustrate their product on the billboards of the county evidently met with the hearty disapproval of some of the more moral of the West Bridgewater, Pa., (Beaver Co.) residents and they have defaced the bills.

In different parts of the borough the glaring semi-nude poster was displayed on large billboards and wherever found they have been so defaced that only the head of the young lady remains to tell the nature of the advertisement.

The poster is a remarkable specimen of the printers art and bears all the good points of the craft, but it has evidently shocked the person responsible for its disappearance.

The poster is but one of the many evils that arise when a borough permits large sign boards to be erected within its boundaries and has no ordinance to stipulate the nature of the posters that shall be placed on it. The borough of Rochester recently adopted an ordinance prohibiting the posting of immoral or semi-nude pictures and the passing of handbills, samples of medicine, etc., and it is thought that the same matter will be given consideration at the next meeting of the West Bridgewater council.

--Warren Evening Mirror, Warren, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1909, page 1.