Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-02-02
A BLACK CHAPTER.
Black CrOOlx Drama and Black Crook
Literature. e
From the New York Herald.

Literature.
From the New York Herald.
The "Black Crook" marks new era in
the history of the stage. The managers of
Niblcs have carried us back to primitive
models. We know now what's meant by
the simplicity of nature. To the theater-
going public of New York the phrase 'a
feast for the gods" has now a we'll defined
and intelligible meaning. Olympian Jove
himself never feasted his eyes on more at
tractiTe specimens of female beauty than
has been the privilege of every citizen Of
New York for the last sixteen months.
Never, even in Greece, did the female
figure assume such,loyely proportions, and
never was the form of woman 30 skillfully
exhibited. The wisdom of the manage
ment and the taste Of New York city have
been proved by pecuniary success which
il without parallel in theatrical enterprise.
The "Black Crook" has yielded up its place
to the "White Fawn," and what the ''Black
Crook" was to all previous spectacular
dramas. that the "White Fawn" is to the
"Blaek Crook" In magnihcence of arti-
fetal scenery, in the gorgeousness and mul-
tiplicity of its living tableaux, in the art.
ful revelations of forms of beauty which
rarely meet the vulgar eye, the "White
EaWn" stands alone. In other words,
more gaudy, more attractive, more insinu-
ating, more questionable exhibition was
never witnessed 1t is no figure TO say that
on the boards at NibIo's vice has been made
Iovely-at least as lovely as vice can be.
The success of the "White Fawn" will be
certain to beget countless and extravagant
limitations, and to drive everywhere the le~
gitimate drama from the stage. The'stage,
as we have said before, enters henceforth
upon new era in the United States, New
York city in particular, must be credited
with the innovation.
1t would certainly have been strange if
the proved success of the Black Crook
and the promising success of the white
Fawn" had not in some sense told on our
current periodical literature That it would
so tell it was natural to expect. That it
has so told is fact which ought not TO
excite surprise. OF our "Black Crook" !"
literature, however, it is impossible to speak
in the same soft and delicate terms Since
the commencement of the BLACK Crook"
at Niblo's, our illustrated sensational papers
have multiplied to an extent never before
known. Such is their success that almost
every week gives birth to another mon.
sirosity, and the latest is always more dar-
ing, more heshly, more brutal than any of
its predecessors. The sale of these lonr-
nails, in fact, is enormous. The more
respectable illustrated papers have no
chance beside them They are bought
by thousands and by tens of thousands,
and circulated freely over the whole conn
try. Their influence cannot bat be i'm
mense, and it is impossible TO speak of that
influence but as demoralizing in the last
degree. The shades of Hollywell street,
London, in the most filthy times, never
revealed such pollution as that which meets
the eye in the windows and on the stalls of
every news-vendeF. We are not surprised
that our friends in the Quaker City should
be up in arms against it. Why such sights
should be tolerated we can only eK-
plain on the principle that the moral
susceptibilities of the community have
been blunted by the spectacle at Niblo's.
The thin vail which in the "Black Crook"
drama was thrown oyer indecency has been
torn asunder; and now "Black Crook" lit
erature riots in every species of abomina-
ton. Whatever is most shocking and most
indecent; whatever is most bloody and
most brutal whatever, in fact, reveals and
panders to gross desire and fiendish passion,
is phot ographed to the life. Suggestive
exposures of the person, indecent scenes in
private life, daggers dripping with blood
in the hands of the assassin or buried to the
hilt in the victims breast pistols in the act
of exploding, faces and garments besmeared
with blood and brains-such are the Illus
trations most in favor. If it is true that
the character of a people may be deter@
mined by the literature on which it mem
tally feeds, the morals Of this city must be
sufficiently low. Sodom and Gomorrah,
Herculaneum and Pompeii, in their worst
state, could not surely, have sunk to lower
depths Of infamy and vice. Fire and brim.
stone destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The
lava of VesuYius buried Herculaneum
and Pompeii. Nature, as we have had
warnings Of late, has not given up playing
such tricks. In spite of our much water
ii is not impossible that We may he en-
quilted in similar ruin. 8.