Bars "Tango" As a Punishable Sin

1914

Paris, Jan. 12. — Cardinal Leon Adolphe Amette, archbishop of Paris, in an admonition which was published in his churches yesterday, forbids the dancing of the tango as a sin which must be confessed and require penance. He also will publish an official admonition on the daring and eccentricities of modern dress.

"We remind the women," the cardinal says, "that they should observe always the rules of Christian modesty, which too often are violated. We ask Christian women to unite in abolishing certain styles of dress which are contrary to decency.

"We condemn the dance imported from abroad known under the name of the tango, which, by its nature, is indecent and offensive to morals and Christians may not in conscience take part therein.

"It will therefore be the duty of confessors to take notice of this in the administration of the sacrament of penance."

Andre de Fouquieres, who lectured a year ago in the United States, said that Cardinal Amette's prohibition of the tango would produce profound dismay in Parisian social circles.

Evangelist Criticizes Women's Dress — 'Nearly Naked'

1914

Oliver on Dress

Evangelist Makes a Few Remarks While Sojourning on Pacific Coast

Rev. French E. Oliver, who conducted the Union Evangelistic Campaign in this town, a short time ago, has come into public notice on the Pacific coast, where he is spending a season for the benefit of his health, through severe arraignment of women for immodesty in dress.

Among his utterance on the subject, while at Venice, were the following: "Most assuredly I would say that women are losing their modesty. To the styles adopted by some of the women I attribute their downfall and the crowding of the divorce courts. Think of the fact that there are over one million divorce suits filed in the United States in one year. Women are dressing to attract the attention of men, and it is this situation that results in the downfall of both. Seventy per cent of the women who go in bathing daily have scant enough clothing to shield their nakedness. No stockings, low cut waists and neither garments that do not reach to their knees. Could that be considered womanly modesty? It is the same at the Eastern beaches that are at Venice. The more aristocratic the resort the more prevalent the lack of modesty.

"One reason why the world is not as good to-day as it was years ago is that the same religion is not being preached. There is too much modernism in present day religion. Religion can not be changed with the fashions, for there is but one religion and that is the one that was first preached."

—The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, OH, Aug. 22, 1914, p. 2.