The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-02-26
The Moral Aspects of the Drama.

The moral aspects of life behind the
scenes and before the footlishts have often
been the theme of writers and speakers,
and the usual tone of the religious press is,
need not say, one of wholesale cogdem-
nation.
The effect of wholesale condemnation of
anything which is not utterly and wholly
bad, is worse than useless-it is perpicious.
1t Injuries the cause of morality and reli-
gion, and steels the heart against those who
are guilty of this grave error.
''It is difficult" says a thoughtful wri-
ter in Harpers' Magazine for June, 1863,
''for an honest and simple minded gentle
man, who in his youth went to the theatre
with his grandmother. and in his old age
still gees to the theatre with his grand
children to comprehend the heavy charges
of immortality which sober and serious PEG
pie have made SO long and with SO much
earnestness against the drama. He feels
that his love of the mimic art has not con-
taminated his own nature and lie will not,
with equanimity, be told that he is a de-
graded creature because he relishes the ex-
quisite repartee of Congreve, and likes
Shakespeare better in the show than in the
printed sheets"
know that many people are firm in the
belief that it is impossible to ever purify
the theatre itself, and that the only course
for good people is to frewn it down with
out stint or mercy.
And if it could be frowned down, why,
then
But it can't.
Its evils can be worked upon, modified,
and perhaps eventually eradicated alto
gether. To that end, join heart and soul
and brain with all good people ; but shrink
back appalled, when it becomes question
of trying to frewn down THE DRAMA!
l should as soon think of undertaking
to frown down laughter, because, fersoeth,
laughter is eften associated with scenes of
drunken riot, and finds provocation from
obscene jokes in the mouths Of wicked men.
In the Springfield (Mass.) Republican,
some years ago, read an editorial article
in which it was remarked: "The attempts
now made to stem the current SO strongly
setting towards amusements once consid-
cred worldly and harmful, if not decidedly
sinful, are few and feeble. They fail, per-
haps, more from wholesale and indiscrimi-
nate denunciations of all amusements than
from any perversity in those to whom they
are addressed. There is of course, moral
peril connected with recreations, as there
is, indeed, with the more serious business
of life. But it does not follow that all
amusements, or all fun and frolic even, arc
therefore to be avoided. The accepted phi
losophy of the world, if not of the church,
now, is that sport is as legitimate as work,
recreation as rightful as worship. The cid
maxim that the Christian must not engage
in anything which turns his mind from Sc
rieus things is discarded, and the common
belief is that the man who enjoys Dance
game of chance, or any other INNOCENT
recreation, can be quite as devout at the
proper time and place as one whe considers
everything vain and sinful that is not pos
itively religious. 1t is difficult to draw any
exact lne and to set down this amusement
as sinful and that as innocent, but our
Christian casuists should not find it impes-
sible to state the general principles govern
ing all such matters SO plainly that their
application to particular cases will be obvi-
Gus. In games of skill and chance, chess
checkers, backgammon, and such like,
have long been tolerated in the most puri-
taacal circles, while cards were formally
taboeed, for the then sufficient reason that
gambling was chiefly done with cards, and
there was consequently danger that who
ever should play them might fall into that
vice. If that objection has disappeared,
cards are in themselves as innocent as chess
or jackstraws. The practical question is
does card playing naturally lead to gam
bling? So of theatricals !; religious people
formerly opposed them because of the loose
morality of plays and players, and the bad
associations of the theatre. The prevalence
of tableaux, exhibitions and parlor theat-
ricals, and the growing tolerance of the
theatre proper among our most precise
Christians, show that the real objection is
not to the stage, but to the abuses connected
with it. 1t is very evident that the church
is row educating its children to be theatre
geers and that in the next generation the
theatre is to be more universally patronized
than ever before. Ia principle there is 10
more objection to the theatre than to the
exhibition of tableaux, and there are neces-
sarily no greater moral exposures there
than in any other place where all classes
meet for instruction or amusement. The
same may be said of all amuSements not
intrinsically wrong. What specially needs
to be considered by those who endeavor to
direct Christian opinion is this If the
church (by which we mean all who accept
Christianity does net think it necessary
or possible to check or turn aside the cur
rent now setting SO strongly towards public
amusements, if it has tolerated them, it
should take the direction of them and make
them safe, by excluding all that is impious
and indicate. The stage will slough off
its grossaess if its best supporters come
from the church, and Insist upon decency
and morality in the performances. But if
the church will not attempt to reform and
control popular amusements, then it must
keep away from them all to gether, and
leave them wholly to the pubicans and
sinners. This is the manifest alternative -
About the same time there appeared in
the Philadelphia Ledger an article contain
ing these wise words: Popular tastes arc
founded on the instincts and affections of
the human heart. With such founda.
ton they are capable of effecting great
good and great evil, just as their tenden
cies are directed. The wiser course of the
moralist would be to avail himself of infu
ences so powerful in their operation, t.
give them the right direction, and thu
have the powerful assistance of the stag
in forming virtuous habits, and correctin:
vicious tastes inmical to good MORALS
Next to the pulpit and the press, the stag
has the greatest capabilities in itself of in
fho Of