The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-04-26
THEATRE.

w U HeaTliiy IeSpohu W tHe ScHtihiehlo
of our correspondent in the following
Respectable people have often good
cause to lock with dismay upon the opens
ing Of theatre in the community to
which they belong. Too frequently the
result is an impulse given to vice. Those
already wicked are encouraged in their
wickedness. The young and thought
less are made wicked. The moral tone
of plays is often low. There are vulgar
pucndos-prolanity-the indecorum of
the ballot-the disreputable company
who make the Theatre place Of resort
"a score Of circumstances which often
make the Theatre a moral nuisance. 1t
is the duty Of every good citizen to con-
slider how the nuisance may be best
abated.
Respectable people generally have
tfonght thus: 1--WE will keep ourselves
and our families aloof from the Theatre,
for fear we and they should suffer con-
tamination. We will wage war upon it
in every possible way, as pernicious
institution which does harm to the COM
munity where it is established" The
policy Of very many good people has
been in accordance with these thoughts
in their minds. What is the result?
Has neglect or active hostility abolished
the Theatre or diminished it's power to
effect evil? The Theatre is not abolish
ed. 1t still lives and thrives in spite Of
opposition. 1t always has lived since
the remoteSt times, and probably it al
ways will. 1t answers to certain wants
in human nature. 1t furnishes an op-
portunity for the display of certain pow
ers, which without it would be idle II
it should disappear for awhile, it would
only be to revive again. Opposition has
not diminished the power of the Theatre
for doing harm. Ii has only served to
make it Outcast. 1t has thrown 1t off to
depend upon the patronage Of the low
and depraved. The stage will accom-
modate itself to the tastes Of those who
are its principal supporters and so be-
comes low and depraved itself. 1t serves
to stimulate vice among its vicious pat
rons.
Then again the young-whoSe young
blood demands amusement-break over
the bounds their guardians try to put
about them. The Stage, though de
graded, does not lose its fascinati IN
for them. They are irresistibly drawn to.
ward it and IFS impure atmosphere
blights virtue no matter how carefully
it was planted and tended in childhood
and youth. 1t attracts the thoughtless
and demoralizes them. 1t is plain the poll.
cy OF good people towards the Theatre
has not answered. The obnoxious in
stiiution is not destroyed. It's per-
haps made even more efficient in doing
harm. The opposition of respectable
people has only made the Theatre out
cast-and in that condition it is tho Dew
lis own instrument FOR making the wick.
ed worse, AMI running those who might
otherwise have been virtuous.
Good citizens ought to devise some
new policy since the old has only aggra-
waited the evil it was meant to put STOP
to. Why not try if the Theatre cannot
be taken up, washed, cleansed, aud made
respectable? Most thinking people
would say, if the Stage could be purified
| diPi iSSt iOAi CNil dSSOCbdtfOIlS IL u.Bn
, afford much innocent pleasure, nay
more, it might become means ofimpart
, ing instruction, promoting refinement
and stimulating the nobler sentiments
IF it could hc purified and freed. Blu
many think tie impurity is essential, thu
! bad accomplishments inseparable from i
> and that they can only cease to exis
t with the Stage ITSELF Is it so? Tn,
i Stage reflects the thoughts and senti
ments of the audience sitting before it
! Let respectable people support it and i
will become respectable. 1t is only i'm
! pure and evil because it is outcast. Civ
5 it chance to become respectful lie and
: embraces the chance eagerly. Let goo,
: citizens go to the Theatre and take it il
. hand and its blois AM dirt will disappear
e Actors would rather please the infiuen
d tial and intelligent than the low and de
! PRAYED. Why not try this way of effec!
:. ing the necessary reform? You canno
# kill the Theatre or make it poyerless
a but you can turn it into a means of civ
a ing harmless Observation-Disclosures tn
7 promoting virtue.