Has Paganism Revived?

Nothing beats a good fire and brimstone speech and this is one of the better ones. But I can’t help thinking the Globe, which hasn’t been afraid to do its own fretting about morals on the waterfront; particularly when it comes to men bathing naked in spaces where couples might be boating, is publishing this in a tongue and cheek fashion. Jokes scattered throughout the Globe and the Star at the time suggest how people in bathing suits and men and women sharing space on the beach was something of tantalizing interest rather than object horror.

Dancing on Beaches Shameless and Vulgar

Roman Catholic paper in Brooklyn bitterly denounces practice

Canadian press dispatch

Brooklyn, NY., July 16—Dancing on the beach in bathing suits has called down the denunciation of the parish paper of the Roman Catholic church of the Nativity, in Madison Street, near Classon avenue, Brooklyn, of which the Rev. L. Belford is rector

“The shameless and unspeakably vulgar dances that are done on the beach at Brighton,” is the way article speaks of them and goes on to say:

“But one degree, and that a very thin degree, removed from nudity, these shameless creatures, locked in each other’s arms, whirl and sway and bend and dip upon the sands with every evidence of sexual excitement and pleasure for themselves and to the assembled throng. It did seem that the bottom of the abyss had been laid bare when these same similarly attired, were permitted to lie on the sands wrapped in each other’s arms. But now we find an orgy of indecency in attire and in conduct that puts to shame the riots of vice which once marked paganism.

And the authorities are saying nothing, doing nothing. Has paganism revived, and are we going to permit its votaries to parade its rites before thousands of decent men and women, not to speak of innocent children, whom it must infect with its poison? For things like this was Sodom burned by an angry God.”

The Globe

Friday July 17 1914 Page 5