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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The clergymen of Moscow, Idaho, were appalled by a shocking “moral risk” to their city: A street dance, planned to entertain the visiting members of the Spokane Merchants Association.

The ministers learned that city proposed a street dance “at which 75 Palouse girls are expected to entertain as many men from Spokane.”

The ministers called it “a fearful moral risk to ask our girls to entertain in this way a body of men who are entirely unknown to them.” They, along with the women of the local Women’s Christian Temperance Union, added that it was a “stigma on the moral standing of our young women.”

The entire concept, they said, would tarnish the reputation of Moscow and Latah County, a place well known for “high ideals and good moral character.”

Besides, they said, the people who planned the street dance neglected one crucial detail.

“We cherish the hope that it would be impossible to find 75 young women of high ideals who would accept such a proposal,” they concluded.

The street dance was being planned by organizers of the Latah County Fair and the minister urged fair organizers to “eliminate this objectionable feature.”