Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1869-05-22
elizabeth 9ailp al9onitor,
AT 155 BROAD STREET, BY
J. MADISON DRAKE.
THE LATTER DAY soDoM.


the grossness of popular taste in that
city, and the corrupting influence of
the smutty opera drama upon the
people, says:
New York is wickeder than Paris, for
that it is coarser. Vice pays q tribute
to virtue when it becomes hypocritical,
and make an approach to decency
when it grows refined. The French
comic opera, when. transferred to our
shores, becomes more sinful through
it's increased grossness. The actors
and actresses learn that to be at
tractive their nakedness must be in
decent, and their wit, to receive point,
must be accompanied by vulgar ges.
lures.
Take for example, the French Com
pany now singing at the st. Anne
Opera house. Mademoiselle Tostee,
the prima donna, is course, homely,
little fat woman, with limited supply
of voice, and an unlimited comic talent
as an actress. In her more decent role,
of La Grande Duchesse," she throws
in on her author, quantity of vulgar,
indecent gesticulations that would not
be permitted in Paris, because, in the
first place, such coarseness is offensive
in itself, and in the second, it destroys
the artistic illusion that in reality makes
the piece SO charming to the cultivat-
ed. So long as we can see before us
the Grand Duchesse ruling her little
court with despotic eccentricity, we are
entertained, but when Tostee reduces
her to street bawd, we are Disguised.
Yet, over this degradation our women
laugh without blushing, and our men
openly enjoy and encourage it. have
looked curiously in the faces of young
girls, and saw only merry eyes and ap-
proving expressions.
l have said that " La Grande Ouch
ess" was the more decent of this series
of popular comic operas in which
Tostee figures. In ''Orphee aux En-
ter" for example, Tostee's dress is that
of loose robe, thrown over her, slit
up at the sides so as to exhibit her legs
in flesh colored tights, and when she
dances or filings herself about, with her
peculiar kick, the effect is the same as
if this free loose rope failed to cover
her naked person, while thronging
about her are scores of voluptuous fe
male figures in the mere princes OF
drapery.
We have two French Companies that
rival each other in this sort of thing,
But our Americans improve on them in
the way of decency and gross immoral
ity But of eighteen places of amuse-
ment in this great city, there are two
only to which decent man may take
his family, without blusing. One is
Wallack's and the other Booths Thea
tire. All the others are, more or less,
infected by the virus of immortality to
be found in the nude drama.
Looking over the two bills presented
by the Legislative committees, to
which referred in former letter, L
notice that these Lawmakers, like the
world at large, patronized nakedness.
Lydia Thompson's troupe at Niblo's,
seem to have been the favorites. Miss
Lydia is we'll formed, handsome Eng
lish girl, who not only gives all that
there is to give to the public, but brings
forward stupendous force of eighty
legs to help her in her attack on the
morality and pockets of the pensive
public. These nightly bewilder the
old and young in drama called "The
Reconstructed Forty Thieves" This
little brigade is made up of girls pos
sessed of pretty faces, rounded forms
and well-shaped legs that are exposed
regardless of expense or appearances,
to the public. The appearance of such
a vast number of nude females, march
ing to lascivious music, is very strik-
ing.
One may see, night after night, at
these places of amusement, young men
well dressed, but carrying in their
faces the marks of early dissipation.
From among these come the loudest
plaudits and the costliest boquets,
and baskets of flowers, which greet and
encourage the poor girls, who are will
ing to make any shameful exhibition
of themselves that they may put
money in their pockets. The MAORI
ty of these young men is made up of
the sons of wealthy citizens, who pro-
pose to people the penitentiaries and
poor-houses with their offspring. 9th
ers again, are confidential clerks and
cashiers, or young merchants, who can
not afford such extravaganza, and are
on the high road to ruin. We read of
such cases frequently in the papers,
but more frequently the miserable vic
tim passes from sight unnoticed, and