‘Tango as Cause of Crime’ from the Thursday, July 23, 1914, issue of the
High Point Review
Brooklyn Judge Blames Theft
by Two Youths to Nights Given to Modern Dance
In suspending sentence in the cases of two youths who had
pleaded guilty to attempted grand
larceny, County Judge Fawcett in Brooklyn listed “white lights and tango
nights” in the catalogue of incentives to crime.
“You can’t expect to dance all night,” he said, “and lie
abed half the day, yet always have money for your carousals, unless you steal
it. And let me tell you our jails and penitentiaries are full of people with
just such ideas. If your family had given you the good beatings instead of
money to spend, it would have been better for you.”
The boys, John Colver, 20 years old, of 487 Hancock street,
and Carlton Chapman, 16, of 362 Jefferson avenue, had been indicted for
stealing money and jewelry from Adelaide Wiston, keeper of a furnished room
house, where they lived for a time. They belonged to respectable families of
moderate means. Both promised the judge to go home and begin again, Chapman to
return to school and Colver to work. Both wore tango pumps and silk shirts when
arraigned.
--New
York Sun
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