The Dance House- A petition asking the authorities to close the dance house recently opened in the market building on Fort street is receiving many signatures.  If we had anything to do with the petition we would go further and ask for the closing of every like establishment in the town.  They are not only public nuisances, but they are destructive to the good order and morals of those who frequent them, and corrupt they minds of the younger members of the community.  The Police Magistrate has remarked from the bench that the houses were opened for the amusement of the miners and at their request.  We do not believe that any respectable miner, if in the possession of his sober senses, would ever dream of setting foot inside of such an establishment.  It is a misnomer to call them “places of amusement.”  They are sinks of iniquity and pollution.  Prostitution and kindred vices, in all their hideous deformity and disease in every form, lurk there.  The vicious of every class—driven from the public through[ ....?] find there places of refuge in which to pursue their vile practices unmolested, and the greater the blackguard the more certain he is of receiving a hearty welcome within their portals.  These moral lazar houses, in which are blunted or lost forever the best impulses of human nature, must be broken up.  We do not believe that any decent citizen or miner wishes to see them continued.  The talk about “miners needing places of recreation,” and that therefore these dens were licensed to suit their tastes, would sound badly enough if uttered privately by a citizen; but when such a statement is sent forth from the bench, it seems doubly improper.  We would be glad if every Cariboo miner could find it in his interests and profit to winter here.  There is no denying the fact that their presence would help the town.  But if, in return for their presence, we have got to barter away the moral reputation of the place—if we are called on to sustain or gloss over vice of every description and wink at the violation of nearly every law—human and divine—we had much rather miners would stay away altogether.  So far as rational and respectable amusement is concerned, we wish we had more of it to offer them, and trust that Victoria may soon be in a position to support a permanent institution of the kind.  But we enter our solemn protest against the continuance of the dance houses, no matter what class of men may desire to amuse themselves at the expense of the morals and the good name of the town, or how many dollars the licensing of the dens may add to the revenue of the Colony.

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