the hands of the printer. Most of persons speaking
or writing on the subject of the dance, are "_hear-say_" witnesses, but
I profess to having been an "_eye-witness_," which I propose to prove by
all the _bad_ men, or those who have been _bad_ men, who may carefully
read this book. Their verdict will be: "HE HAS BEEN THERE."

While I believe that hundreds of thousands of fathers and mothers,
husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and pastors, and Christians,
will bless the day this little book was written, and will offer many
earnest prayers for the author, I shall expect many Othellos to curse me
with all the bitterness of their souls, because I hope it may be said
wherever the book is read: "OTHELLO'S OCCUPATION IS GONE."

THE AUTHOR.

INTRODUCTION.

Major W.C. Penn, the author of the following treatise on the modern
dance, has requested the writer to pen a few thoughts introductory to a
theme he has presented with such pith and power to listening thousands
in his travels as an Evangelist.

Various inquiries have been made as to how Major Penn, a lawyer in a
lucrative practice, and with all the attractions of wealth and of fame
before him, and in a quiet, lovely and elegant home, with a wife who has
ever been as a guardian angel to his pathway, was led to change his
vocation to that of a wandering Evangelist, and how it is that he now
stands before the world beside Knapp, and Earle, and Moody, and other
world-renowned Evangelists of the 19th century, in leading multitudes to
Christ as a Savior?

It is answered and centered in the sublime truth: "The love of Christ
constraineth us." As the stars are dimmed and lost sight of in the
brilliancy of the rising sun, so earthly pleasures, riches and honors
fade and dwindle in the glory of the Cross. As God was pleased to use
the writer as an instrument in getting brother Penn into this work, so
it seemed proper that a few incidents and facts which led to it, as
remembered in our associations together, should be stated.

It was in Jefferson, Texas, where our brother then resided, that I first
saw him, in May, 1874, during the session of the Southern Baptist
Convention, at that place. But it was in June, the year after, at his
own home and during a series of meetings in the Baptist Church, that I
began to know more of him, as he brought up in our social interviews a
review of his life religiously--as he told of the time when, in the
ardor and vigor of youth, i