Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1837-05-10


prostitution-house. and duplicatessurround
it. What does MIR. Riker mean by "dra-
matte representation Is it to see hand !
some woman, or six handsome women, |
dressed in the most voluptuous manner,
and dancing in the most lascivious man.
ner? Is it this (for these sights are the
chief attractions of the play-house) that
Mr.. Riker asserts from the bench, tend
more to ExALT rather than to DEBAsE our
youth ExaIt, indeed exalt them to the
gallows, and debase them to hell. The
man who murdered Helen Jewett, got his
exalted ideas in this School for Scandal
your forgers, your counterfeiters, your
pickpockets, your swindlers, your grand
and petty lancers, larceny your rioters
aud highwaymen, all got their characters
exalted in this school for morals falsely
called.
AT these dramatic representations, you
will see mothers and their daughters,
'respectables from Bond street and Broad
way, in boxes; and over their heads, on
benches, you may see street walkers, from
Church and Chapel-streets. l have seen
in the Park Theatre, mothers of forty,
with their daughters Of twenty, sitting in
all the immodesty of undreSS-(perhaps
the Recorder thinks these sights have
tendency to e10lt rather than to debase
our youth II knew many Of these ladies
aforesaid by name and number; they
were all highly respectable, and many Of
them members of churches. Says to
myself, you dare not for the life of you be
seen at St. Paul's in such an unGress. l
! suppose this is what the Recorder would
call, holding the mirror up to nature
Next time saw some of those ladies,
was in the Brick Meeting and Trinity
Church there they sat in modest appar-
ell and tecorum of manners, reading their
prayers and making their responses, with
faces as long as bean-pole. Thinks l
to myself they must have a conscience
for Sunday, and conscience for Monday
"a dress for the house of God, and an
undress for the synagogue of Satan
There is something SO fascinating in
dramatic representations to boys of from
fourteen to twenty -four, that they will
steal from parents, superiors or equals, or
any where, so as they may gain admit
lance into this school of refinement, as the
Recorder would say. | have known gold
and silversmths' apprentices, dry-goods,
ttoyshoPs, apothecary and slop-shop boys,
before they arrived at l8 years, detected
in long courses of pilfering, that they
might get into the playhouse at eight,
the beer and oyster-house at ten, and the
gambling-house at twelve l appeal to
scores of young men, now in Broadway,
between the Battery and Bleecker-street,
If this is not the case with them this week
and two or three times every week |
appeal to the Recorder, if he has not dis
posed of many such cases from his judg-
ment seat. Now | would reverse his
proposition, and say, that these represent
atoms have a tendency more to debase
than to e1alt our youth :-besides, it dis
tracts and units the mind for the regular
routine of business, and for all the sober
realities of life. Let any observer take a
stroll among the retail stores in Broad
way, or wholesale stores in Pearl-street,
between the hours of three and four,
when their employers and customers are
gone to dinner: you will see many of
them standing in knots, the quill behind
their ears, the bales, the bills, the day-book
and ledger, all unstrung, while they are
comparing notes about Madam Celeste's
dancing, Miss Trees playing, or Mrs.
Flynn's Jumpng, &c. Common decency
and common sense will keep their eyes
on their books and bills while their en-
pIoyers are present, but even then the
hand IS often still, and the eyes shut over
the book, while the mind is running riot
among the wild scenes of the play and
opera house, in which they had been en-
gagged on the night previous. AT one Pc
Rod of my life, l was an assistant in the
extensive vendue concern of Mr. D. Dun
ham, IA PearI-street. Though he was
one OF the sharpest men in all Pearl-st,
yet always witnessed the above and SIM
liar blasting effects of dramatic represent
atoms, even under that roof Now, Mr..
Recorder, does this tend more to exalt
than to debase the character of our youth
Look at the young debased future sup
porters of liberty, who beset the doors,
front and rear: look at the stage pit and
gallery-the Recorder will find few exalt-
ed characters there, except he refers to
the sky-scrapers above. In the boxes, to
be sure, you will see some gentlemen,
and many of them, too, are onlv black
legs, disguised with clean shirts and su-
perine coats. The tree is known bv its
fruit.
Besides, it is an awful murderer of t;ouo
to sit three or four nights every week from
seven to eleven, learning nothing. look.
ing at men singers and women s;noers
rope dancers and fddlers. Was this 1;mo
spent in hearing lectures on Book-kaen-
ing, Mercantile Laws, Natural HistorpT
Mechanics, Botany, Geography, or A.
tronomy, they would learn something to