New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-05-16
POPLAR ADJUSTMENTS.

Relaxation is physical and moral necessity. Ami
mails even 10 the simplest and duest have their games,
their sports, their diversions The toilworn artisan
STOPPING and straning his daily task, which taxes
eve and brain and limb ought to have opportunity and
means for an hour of relaxation after that task
concluded He ought, least a week, TO be able
TO accompany his wife and children to some entertaining
exhibition lecture performance of some kind where
the cares and limitations of his lot could be for the time
forgotten and his sense Of enjoyment unalOyed and
hearty.
In the absence of this, rather through the infu
ence Of habits formed and appettes depraved through
the deficiency of proper recreatons large proportion
if not majority OF Mechanics Artisans and Laborers
are led gradually and insensby into the ways OF stupe
fying brualizing sensual indulgence and excess. The
grogshop with It's round of animal excitements
its filthy or profane jests, its foul atmosphere, its
greasy dirty cards and its murderOus Alcoholic stimu
antsis the nightly rendezvous of thousands who might
have been trained to habits of sobrey and virtue had
the phiauthropic and aueDt duly considered the i'm
portance of innocent and attractive resorts and health
full amusements for the children of Toll
Until the present age the public entertainments
open TO the lsborng class have been substantially of
two kinds Dancing and Theatricals. OF these, Dane
ing emnenty social tends polish if not refinement
of manners need not be expensive, aud is especially
sautary for those large portions of city population
whose daily empoymens involve the necessity of fixed
pastures and sedeDtary habits Dancing ought to be,
might be- an innocent, sslutary, commendabe recrea-
ton yet who Will say that in the majority of cases,
il actually is such Who does not knoF that close
rooms vtiated air unreasonable hours midnight feed
Ing and persistence in spite of exhaustion render Dane
ing oftener a damage than benefit, even forgetting
the Alcoholic poisons frequently dispensed under
its influence We believe Dancing. mainly by small
negbborbood parties without parade Of dress other
expensive adunets restricted to three hours at any
one assenbsge closed long before midnight and rgdy
guarded against all access of stimulating beverages,
might be most admirable recreation, securing the
appreciation and countenance Of the religious and se
date; bur- conducted iJ is. it probably eXhausjs
more than it renoyateS and eOrrupts than it In
proves.
The Drama would seem, on first view, more
susceptible good than It's rival in popularity 1t
entertainment is eminently Intellectual while Dancing
is barely more than physical andth rePose Of body the
payrequires the auditors is grateful 70 thewan artisan
lust released from his ezhauring daily sbors An
by which thousands of udest and least instructed
nav Of our least moral least intellectual popuation-can
LIGHTED eager interest to the loitiest productions
Shakespeare. Addison, Goldsmith Talfouri, &c &c.,
.stbe apcents listened to those Of Eschylus Eurpdes
and their eompeers certainly ought to be an instramen-
tality of immense good. There would seem TO be no
intrinsic reason Why an acted drama might not be
dju or the diffusion and incueaSn OF moral admonitiOn
and intellectual truth as superior in efficiency to the lee
tuIe tie essay the story, the parable IL unquesioa-
ably is in rOwer to amuse excite and fix the attention
of the great majority Of auditors.
WHY is IT, then that the actual Stage has generally
forfeited the good opinion Of the graver, moral
more religious portion of the community Why do
the Addsous and Johnsons of day generally shun
its seats and longer employ their talents in its
vice Why does il vsbly sink lower and lover before
our eyes, not only in morality and public respect, but
in taste, in dignity, in power
1--WE are not well enough acquainted with the acted
Drama TO answer these questions with any confidence
We know that the Stage is demor,zed and demOraliz
ug-thst its influence is strongly adverse TO Temper
snce. Philanthropy, Religion and Public MOralty-that
the seofer and the bertine love while the pious and
phanthropie distrust and shun -thst grogshOPs and
sambngdens cluster theky around its temples, while
harotry the most shameless thrOngs and yaunts them
her market psce-but whether these incidents Of the