ertainment. What has been seen in all the American cities during
the past ten or twenty years--the steady growth in popularity of the
dance in all its forms--is no whim that will presently pass. On the
contrary, nothing can be more certain than that each year will find a
greater increase in dancing, both by the people themselves, and for
them by the artists of the profession. It was said for a long time by
visiting foreigners that Americans had not learned how to enjoy
themselves. This may have been true at one time, but it is not today.
The chief object of life, it has been discovered, is to live
abundantly and joyously. Everything that helps to make living more
cheerful, healthful and agreeable; that satisfies aesthetic needs;
that ministers to the sense of beauty and harmony, will be encouraged
and developed, and as one important means to these ends, the dance
must of necessity flourish and endure.

[Illustration: NW]

THE MELTING POT OF THE DANCE

[Illustration]

A great deal is being talked and written about changing the millions
who have come to this country from foreign lands, or are the children
of immigrants, into 100 per cent Americans. So far as the advocacy of
measures for this purpose is based on a sincere desire to bring home
to everyone living under the national flag a knowledge of the
essential principles of our government and institutions, this is
worthy of the encouragement and aid of all patriotic citizens. There
is, however, another aspect of the Americanization movement, that is
not so admirable. This is the attack on ideas, manners, customs and
amusements peculiar to certain foreign peoples, not because they are
necessarily wrong, or antagonistic to genuine Americanism, but merely
because they are different. According to some of these self-constituted
authorities the way to instill patriotism and love of country into the
benighted aliens is to persuade them to abandon all that links them
with the land of their ancestors, and become exactly like the
prevailing type of Bangor, Maine, Augusta, Georgia, or Portland,
Oregon.

Oliver Wendell Holmes tells how when he was a boy living in Cambridge,
Mass., there was a constant warfare between the boys of his district
and those who lived down by the water front, who were regarded as
foreigners, because they seemed to be in some way different. He
concluded that most of the racial antagonisms and hatreds that so
often lead to quarrels and war ar