Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1914 — Dancing in the Old Days. [ARTICLE]

Dancing in the Old Days.

Dancing in the woods was the old manner in the classic times and mythology tells of, the worship thus paid by the pagans To the gods. The poets sang of It. The priests of Mars were the principal dancers in the sacred rites to that deity. There was also the religious dancing alluded to in the Old Testament, as when David danced before the ark to express his joy and that of his people, and there were the dances of the Druids round the altars and the mysterious stones. Never, perhaps, in the history of the world, was dancing more popular than it is today—not even in the pleasant time when in England, Ireland and France the people danced on the green. Oliver Goldsmith, traveling on foot, paid his way by playing for the dancers on his flute.