Dancers Beware
Men Are More Culpable, from The Social Dance by Dr. R A Adams, 1891
In many cases, girls and young women are innocent and are ignorant of the truth concerning the dance. They do not know what is the real attraction and do not know the great danger. They do not understand these things, but the men do, which fact makes them more guilty. Oftentimes men deliberately plan destruction and use the dance as a means by which to accomplish their designs. They know that after a man has danced with a woman, held her in his arms, with her person pressed against his, and has whispered into her ear things which he would not be permitted to utter outside of the ball-room, and thus has caused her to become delirious with passion, it is practically easy to persuade her to be unchaste. They know that in many cases, under these conditions the girl will lose control and will not need to be persuaded--that she will even make advances. With no thought or care for the shame which is to follow, evil men allure women to the dance; they allure them like the spider did the fly; they lead them farther and farther on the downward way till the women themselves come to the place where they enjoy the sinful pleasure and thus drift on the tide to certain destruction. When these men have wrought their hellish work, they will mock their victims, cast them aside, trample them and will "skip out" without even giving the poor woman a fare-thee-well. It is against such as these that this note of warning is sounded, for they are everywhere, at every dance, in the best homes, at every social gathering and verily they are "walking to and fro the earth, seeking whom they may devour."