Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-11-09
From New York.
Special correspondence Public LEDGER.l
n-s.L.-

Dlecldl cOfIcspOuuouCo TubLlC bbuobh.I
NEw YoRK, October 81.
The closing ceremonies of the Protest
ant Episc pal Convention we're per-
formed on Thursday night, and we're
remarkably impressive. The pastoral
letter of the presiding Bishop was read,
and was received with marks Of the
greatest respect. l. makes grateful allu-
sion to the venerable members who have
passed away within the past nine years,
and after discussing the variaus ques-
tions which have been considered by the
Convention, urges renewed exertion IN
the dissemination of the truths Of Chris
tiauity. On moo'ed questions the letter
is generally non com initial, and on that
of rirualsm, is VIII It may be called radi-
cally moderate and conservative; but it
10 BY no means weak in its blows directed
against m alters outside the pale OF the
Church. For instance, itprotests strongly
against the illegitimate drama-plays OF
the Black Crook style-and urgues that
it's tendency is to debsse, to ruin the
taste of the public for pure, simple
pleasures and innocent amusements.
Whether the reverend prelate who peuned
the letter had ever Witnessed perform
ance of Geaerisue de Brabant. the & thi-
est of all filthy plays, Is more than can
say; but the closing portion of the para
graph on the subject of the drama, So
called, would seem to Indicate that be
had either had sly view of the rty
thing himself, or had been made ac.
oua,nted with its peculiarities by some
sinner who had seen it. He says: "In
our days there is licentiousness and
| grossness in theatrical and like enter
tainments which would have been shock
ing to even the less rel ned 10 the days of
our fathers. We exhort you to fee these
things, and above all to separate from all
contact With these pollutions the young
and precious souls for whom you have
answered in the Holy B iptism."
1t is not only the religious people who
dread the il huence of the kind of plays
most popular in our days. All thinking
people are beginning TO moral z. in re-
gard to th-m. When the Black Crook
was introduced, the respectable world Was
shaker with shame, but inexorable Fash
ion, who governs in ethics as well as IN
dress, decreed that the bare-legged drama
was proper, ahd her votaries lie galizs i.
Then came the White Fdpn and the
Devils AUCTION, in bath of which the
main feature was that portion OF wo-
man 8 form, which old time modestly re-
quired to be sedulously screened from the
public gaze. There was beauty and
grace, to be sure, and there were magni-
6cient toilets; and the music was in
keeping with the rest; but to those who
weigh consequences, there was in all this
show Of beauty and graces something
lacking, without which the whole was but
an evidence of downward growth. Tben
came the light, airy, dou btfuly decent
Grande Duchesse with its seductive
music. Then Belle Helene, a little more
suggestive of the "perfect loeseness,
which 30 we'll marks French literature,
French plays and French social life.
At last, as a natural and necessary Sc
quence, we have Geneuieve de Brabant.
Than which there can be nothing beyond,
until another Aphra Bshn arises to write
the ibretto of an opera boufe, in which
the characters shall appear in puris
naturdlibus, shall speak aud act just as
If there were no restrictions to be placed
upon the language and the movements
of those who cater for the public amuse-
ment.
The second adventisis have not relin-
quished the hope of which spoke in a
recent letter Elder Snow is positive
that the end is very near, and Sister
Benson predicts f,r all the wicked peo-
ole most sgoniziug time when the las
horn blows. She says that the recent
commissions in South Americs and Cali
fornia are merely premonitory symp-
toms, and that before long We shall have
cur share Of lhe fright and the damage.
She laughs at Shakespeare's notion that
these things are merely "sIrange erup-
tions." That
"Ths teeming ear
Is With kind Of cholic piHched and vexed
By the Imprisonment Of unruIy wind
Within her womb"
-he says, is fat nonsense, geological and
physical, for these violent retchings are
warnings given TO the faithful to make
ready for the milleaium. When twitted
with the fact that these warnings have
been observed f,r many thousand years,
she replied that it is impossible for man
10 read Alright the signs made by the
Creator, and that the ridicule which a.
taehes TO those who have prophesie6 10
correctly is out Of place. "a single
mistake in a calculation is sufficient
she says, ito throw us back thousand
years, bat We can afford to wait, for we
know that thesblesssd day is coming"
You may be pleased to learn that we
Of Gotham are nov enjoying beautiful
sunshiuy days and lovely moonlight
nights. Never has there been a more
Delighted season between the sobby,
rainy, drizzly autumn, and the cold,
snowy, dark and dreary days Of winter,
than that which blesses us nov.