The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-17
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER II, 1868.
Religion and Amusemcnts.


and ei quent sermon by the Rev. Robert
Laird Collier, a distinguished Unitarian oler-
cvmau of Chicago, defending dramatic aud
operate euter ailments from the aspersions
made sgainst them by many religious per
sons, and advocating them not only as Afford
ing the best means of relaxation and rational
eno, meDt to people too much tasked in body
and mind by hard work, as most Americans
are, but as really calculated to promote the
cause OF morality and Christianity, If rightly
used and properly conducted. Mr.. Collier was
induced to deliver this discourse because of
very ill -ad vised address issued by the Minis
terisl Uuion of Chicago, which called upon
the Legislature to pass laws prohibiting the
amusements which they condemned, and ap.
p,alng to the press to support them in the
position which they had taken. Without
stopping to inquire whether there might not
be some good in the drama and opera which
society could not we'll afford to lose, or
whether practical measures could not be
adopted for doing away with things that have
been complained of as Objectionable, or in
curing how much reason there really was in
the objections usually made against the
theatres, the Ministerial Union proposed
to do away with the whole thing, root and
branch. AS a matter of course, this action
deprived the appeal Of the Union of any indu-
ence il might have had, and Mr.. Collier, being
theatre and opera-goer himself as we'll as
clergyman, disputes the capacity of his minis
terial brethren to sit in judgment on matter
about which they are not sufficiently we'll in
formed to be able to have intelligent opinions.
And il is for just this reason that the opposi-
tion of religious people to the theatre has no
weight whatever with the world at large, or
with that intelligent and thoughtful class of
play -goers who are willing to listen to any
arguments founded ON reason and knowledge,
and who wish to see the drama ranked among
the fine arts, and fulfil its mission as an edu-
Gator OF public taste as well as atfordng mere
amusement for overtasked humanity. That
Rmusements are necessary no student of
human nature will probably deny, and this
necessity is acknowledged by our best clergy
men and most devoutly religious men when
they get up Sunday School picnic or
organize church fair for the purpose
of allowing the young people connected
with their places of worship to have
a froiio. Whether such entertainments
are better calculated to promote the cause OF
religion and good morals than those usually
given within the walls of our theatres, it is not
our present purpose to discuss; but expert
ence has amply demonstrated that the taste
for dramatic performances is more largely de-
veloped than for almost any other form of
N hot fho
plies a desderatum that cannot be filled in
any other manner. To dramatic performances
in the abstract it is impossible that any real
objection can be made, and it is an absurdity
to suppose that there is anything more harm
full in seeing one of Shakespeare's plays rep
resented on the stage than there is to read it
in the closet or in the family circle, unless
there is something demoralizing in the very
atmosphere of a theatre which should cause
good men to shun it. And this
is the very ground that the opponents
of the theatres take; for fathers of families
who will encourage their sons and daughters
to study Shakespeare as one OF the best books
in existence after the Bible, will not permit
their children to witness the dramas
of the great poet Of human nature as
expounded by such artists as Forrest or Booth,
for fear that some unknown evil may conta-
inmate them and sap the principles OF virtue
which il has been their earnest effort to instil.
That much of this opposition to the opera
and drama is to be attributed merely to igno-
rance and a traditional prejudice against the
stage, which has no real foundation at the
present day, whatever it may have had in the
reign of Charles II, for instance, every intelli-
gent theatre-goer well knows.
We never have and never expect to advo-
cate or apologize for immortality or indecency
on the stage, and If we defend the drama it is
because we believe that its influence, all in all,
is for good. Even the so-ealled sensation"
plays and spectacles have their use for they
appeal to q class Of tastes that would not
appreciate the higher order of performances;
and if they contain nothing Objectionable, they
are not to be condemned merely because men
of the highest culture can See nothing enter
tanning in them.
For q young man to spend all his evenings
in visiting the theatres would, in most in
stances, be great waste of time, as it would
If he did nothing but lounge about in picture
galleries or read Observation-Disclosures novels.
But those who abuse their privileges are not
80 large proportion of the regular theatre
goers that we could advocate closing the places
of public amusement on their account, espe-