"Why do not our mothers bring up their girls in a full knowledge of this world and its snares for young and faltering feet, instead of letting them run the streets and meet unknown men?"
"It is because the mothers themselves are too often unfit for the divine duties of motherhood. They are lacking in a knowledge of what makes for the best life. I have seen so much of it that I am going to try to arouse the mothers of Los Angeles at a special meeting."
The different dailies kept tab of "Mother Roberts" for some time. To be a target, a cynosure, is an indescribable cross to the Christian; but some one must be willing, else how is the world to comprehend the situation?
Among other things said in the mothers" meeting were these:
"Too many mothers will not, because of their false modesty, give proper instruction to their children. Yes, parents fearfully misrepresent conditions to their boys and girls, even resorting to absolute falsehood. Of course the children soon learn the facts, and instead of the parents and children making confidants of each other, both practise deception. When girls find out these things, they often slip away to their downfall.
"When I was sixteen years of age, I saw in a paper an advertis.e.m.e.nt stating that an elderly lady wanted a young lady as companion and amanuensis. The advertis.e.m.e.nt read very smoothly and I answered it. The woman, who was seemingly a prepossessing, lonely old woman, inspected my recommendations and at once engaged me on trial. I shortly returned to her, taking with me some of my choicest worldly possessions; but before I had been with her twenty-four hours, some of her strange actions so alarmed me that on the following morning I made the excuse at the breakfast table of wanting to go to my boarding-place for expected mail, promising to return within half an hour. After I had told the family of my experiences and suspicions, the mother would not allow me to return even for my effects, which I have not seen from that day to this. _It turned out that I was only one of about forty girls who had been engaged by that diabolical woman to fill "positions as companions."_ I am very thankful that "the way of escape" had been made for me, and though feeling badly about losing my belongings, I agreed with my friends that it were better to avoid notoriety than to create a disturbance.
"At the time of this occurrence (it was in San Francisco) I had but recently arrived from England, the land of my birth and breeding, under the protection of elderly people, who consigned me to the care of relatives in California. As with thousands of other girls, my education on certain lines had been badly neglected. I was, alas! too unsophisticated.
"In after-years, when I became a Christian in spirit as well as in name, I thanked G.o.d for this early experience, which has enabled me to sympathize with those who, much of the time, are more sinned against than guilty of sinning, and who so often are enticed away by the various methods devised by unprincipled beings called men and women.
SATAN LURKS IN THE WALTZ.
"Yes; I have watched them dance in many places, even in Los Angeles. Is it degrading, demoralizing? You know as well as I that there is nothing uplifting, nothing of a good moral tendency, about the dance, especially the waltz; and I saw nothing else offered than the waltz, or round dances closely resembling it, in either of the places I attended last evening.
"My heart sorely ached as I observed mothers with their little girls, five to twelve years old, allowing, aye, even encouraging them to get up and waltz on the same floor with questionable characters. Evidently there is little or no need of introductions. Both s.e.xes anxiously observe who are the best dancers, and soon these, though perhaps total strangers, are spinning, sliding, or gliding about together, in many instances in a close embrace, breast to breast, and cheek to cheek. But they "must dance." they "love it so." And the music! The most sensual, the most alluring, as subtle as a wily serpent, and just as harmful.
"There were church-members there; mothers chaperoning their young daughters; mothers who profess to be following in the footsteps of the Redeemer; mothers who have promised to bring up their little ones in the way Jesus would have them.
"In a few instances I even saw fathers waltzing with their own little girls on the great crowded dance-hall floor as late as nearly midnight.
"What!" you say, "surely no father would think of such a thing."
Perhaps not; perhaps I am presuming. Perhaps it was the mother"s escort to the ball in each instance. I don"t know. This I do know: Those little children last night were _eager, hungry, craving, tireless dancers_. O merciful G.o.d! The pity of it, the pity of it!
"I observed some of the young men. The contour of some of their heads peculiarly interested me. To be sure, you could not tell what the girls" heads were like because of so many etceteras bulging out all over; but as I looked at many of the young men"s heads, I was not long in deciding that _those who danced the most gracefully evidently had the bulk of their brains in their heels_.
"At the first place I visited, one young fellow walked up to a pretty pompadoured, short-skirted miss who stood close to me and who had waltzed with several strangers, and asked her to dance. She refused him. Why? He smelt too strong of whiskey and was unsteady in his gait, but she did not give him that as her reason, and because of his persistence she soon said to her companions (some other young girls), "Come on, let"s go down to----; there isn"t enough fun here." It was no sooner said than done. I also left for this other place, where I found hundreds of couples dancing, and many refined, pretty-looking young girls sitting or standing around, waiting for any strange young man to invite them on to the floor and hug them (oh yes, better call things by their proper names)--hug them to alluring waltz-time.
EVEN ON THE LORD"S DAY.
"There is hour after hour of this, day after day, night after night; yes, even on the one day set apart for the worship of our Redeemer and Creator, and this in the so-called respectable dance-hall. At the entrance is a prominent sign--"Dancing every night including Sunday."
"No bowery dancing allowed." Tell me why that sign if the dance is strictly respectable?
"A young gentleman made this comment to me: "You won"t find one girl in a hundred today, who is not fond of the dance."
""Why?" I inquired.
""Considering their training, it isn"t to be wondered at," he answered.
""What training?" I questioned.
""Because their mothers loved it before them, and the girls do not hesitate to say so."
"Another young man said: "I can take advantage of the situation, if so inclined, every time. Invariably any girl who dances will drink, and any one that drinks will go still farther."
"One girl said: "It isn"t what occurs at the actual dance, but any girl that dances often has to fight for her virtue, almost her life, after the dance--on her way home. Often her escort takes her only part of the way. Yet, "like moths that court the candle," even though we know that death and ruin are in the wake, still we will dance."
"Whoever heard of any man worth the having, seeking for a wife and the future mother of his children in a ballroom?
WARNING TO GIRLS.
"Let me quote another young man: "If the pure-minded girls with whom we sometimes are dancing knew our thoughts, they would never put a foot on the ballroom floor again, as they value their lives; but lots of young girls don"t know this, and their mothers who sometimes chaperon them, don"t suspect us. I consider the dance-hall even worse than the saloon.
I"m a dancer myself, but I won"t pay serious address to any girl who dances."
"Have matters a.s.sumed such shape that we can not furnish the majority of the present generation, pleasures so pure, refining, and alluring that the dance and other vices may not be relegated to oblivion? This question should stir the innermost recesses of the souls of all who are interested in the welfare of the young people of today, be they young or old, rich or poor. The next generation is cursed already, frightfully cursed, unless unusual sacrifice will now be made. There is no time to lose, especially on the part of those who love the t.i.tle, "Soldier of the Cross."
""Put on the whole armor of G.o.d." Go where he wants you to go. Do what he wants you to do. Be what he wants you to be, in thought, in word, in deed, even though it may mean to part with your very life. G.o.d is yearning for a few more Calebs and Joshuas and Daniels. What use to pray "Thy Kingdom Come," if you patronize or countenance places where, under no consideration, could you invite the One you profess to love and serve."
CHAPTER XLIII.
WOMAN EMPLOYED AT DANCE-HALL TELLS OF MANY PITFALLS.
Whilst contending against the dance-hall evil, I received a note asking for an immediate interview. The writer, who signed her own name, stated that she had been an employee in ----"s Dance-hall (rated as one of the exclusive and first-cla.s.s places) and that she believed that, under the existing circ.u.mstances, my granting her an audience, would still further aid the cause, as she could throw much light on the subject.
Soon she was at my rooms, also a reporter, and the following is, in part, what she had to say:
"I am utterly disgusted with dance-halls, and am determined to do all I can against them. Mr. C---- [her husband] and I came here from New York in reduced financial circ.u.mstances, and I applied for and obtained a position at ----"s Dance-hall.
"For reasons best known to ourselves, we posed as brother and sister, pretending my husband was in the East. I worked there only fourteen days, or until my husband secured a permanent position, but I left the place with a complete knowledge of the disreputable work done there under the guise of a respectable dance-hall. I do not wish to be mean in my a.s.sertions, but the facts will bear me up in what I actually saw and heard during the two weeks I was engaged at ----"s Dance-hall.
"I was on the reception committee to introduce the lonesome boys to the charming girls for the dances. It would take me two hours to state the disgusting features I saw there.
"The manager at one time asked me to drink whiskey with him. I told him that I was not in the habit of indulging and that if I should get drunk he would have to take care of me, to which he said, "I can do that all right."
"One night a young man became dead drunk in the dance-hall, in full view of the dancers, making a disgusting show of himself, all of which apparently pa.s.sed unnoticed by the manager. The friends of the young man took him out of the hall.
"One time I saw a young girl dancing with a young man who was trying to hide a whiskey bottle, with which she and her partner appeared to be mixed. All this was supposed to be in plain sight of the manager.
"A young girl on duty selling tickets asked me to bring her an empty gla.s.s from the soda fountain. A young man took it and filled it nearly full with brandy and pa.s.sed it to the girl. She slyly wrapped her handkerchief around it to hide the brandy, and drank it as if drinking a gla.s.s of water. This was seen by several by-standers.
"It makes me shudder to think of what I saw and heard in that hall. One young girl unused to the ways of the world was taken out of the hall in a ruined condition, and after an unlawful surgical operation had been performed, she was sent to a well-known hospital. She was the victim of a prominent lawyer of Los Angeles.
"One night last week the manager spoke through a megaphone, during the intermission of the dance, asking everybody to sign a pet.i.tion he had prepared _stating that the place was properly run, and to sign it in order that he could continue the dance-hall business._ I know of one man who signed a fict.i.tious name to the pet.i.tion, with the remark that others were doing the same," etc.
She told much more, some of which was not fit to print, but surely that is sufficient from her.
I was able one night to show a reporter that no erroneous statements had been made. On the contrary, he was shocked as he noted the wily depravity. His attention was attracted to a good-looking young man who had slipped one of the reception committee young women a piece of money. Together we watched the outcome. She made for a pretty, graceful young girl just leaving the dance-ring and whispered audibly, "There"s a swell young fellow wants to have the honor of dancing with you."
Before the girl had time to think or answer, he was right on hand, saying, "May I have the pleasure of the next waltz? My name is Jones."
Then the introducer manufactured a name for the pretty young girl, the music started up, and the next moment she was gliding over the perfect dancing-floor in the embrace of this strange fellow. Is that all? Not by any means. He invited her to an innocent dish of ice-cream. (If a girl does not accept such an invitation, but she usually does, the would-be seducer knows she is a gold mine if he can ever secure her, and he works to that end.) She accepted. We watched our opportunity, and, between dances, when no one was taking notice, we whispered the word of warning. For a moment she looked alarmed, but did she heed?
Evidently not. Possibly she resented the well-meant advice, and, in consequence, soon paid the fearful price for so doing.
Upon getting out once more into the fresh air, we could not fail to observe the many automobiles in waiting. Wherefore? Listen! Shortly before this visit when I was accompanied by the _Times_ reporter, I was a temporary guest in one of Los Angeles" representative families, the mother of whom was one of my tried and true friends. She had two n.o.ble, handsome sons. One of them came home one day in a high state of indignation. After he had related to his mother an incident that had just occurred, she besought him to repeat it for my benefit.