New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-04
ANOTHER DRIM1TIC MILESTONE.

In due course of theatrical events we have
reached the end of the regular season. The
roses of June are twined, as it were, to form
a beauteous milestone on our dramatic jour
ney. 1t marks where Winter ends and Sum
mer begins. This is good place for mo-
ments pause, while we glance backward at
the record of the past and forward at the
promise of the future. Both are pleasant;
both, therefore, furnish themes for public con-
graduation. Those who look at the stage
Alright see IN it an exponent of the mental and
moral condition of society. Laborers in the
other arts can generally affOrd-and, at any
rate, are always constrained-tO wait a greater
or less time for the rewards of their devotion
and industry. They pursue their own path,
and appreciation follows them. Words
worth had to wait thirty years for
his audience. Tennyson, during ten
years of his literary career, was only
known to be laughed at. Hawthorne labored
great while, in Obscurity, before the world
recognized his fine genius, and crowned his
name with everlasting honor. One learns from
the success of these artists-and of others like
these-that there is great fneness Of sensi-
blity in human nature, and great warmth of
love of beauty and passionate longing for a
higher life; but that these are very widely
diffused.
The lesson of stage experience, on the other
hand is far more direct and practical. The
stage cannot afford to wait for its success. 1t
must succeed at the moment, and it must sue
coed all the time-for the expense attending
its administration is very great, and immedi-
ate monetary prosperity is essential to its ex-
istence. Like everything else, of course, it can
endure certain measure of adversely. 1t has
its bad times, and it manages to worry through
them in individual cases. But, as an institu-
ton, it depends, more directly than any other
medium of art upon the immediate, liberal,
and continuous patronage of the public. Its
success, therefore, denotes that it enjoys
the practical appreciation of the cOmmu-
nifty; and, when it succeeds upon the
basis of consistent respect for honest thought,
pure feeling good morals, and fine taste the
student OF society may justly infer that the
public mind is in a wholesome condition. II
has amply succeeded in New York, during the
last nine months and, to considerable ex-
tent, its success has been achieved upon this
basis. Herein, we find sufficient rea-
son iot ConlorJ anu cneer. writing
upon this subject, last September we
touched upon manifest indications that deccncy
and intellectual effort would prevail at most
of the theaters. Time has justified that antici-
patton. The reaction, against cOarseness and
frivolity, which began last Summer, has
steadily gathered strength. Several at
tempts, indeed, have been made to befoul
the stream of Dramatic entertainment; but
every one of them has met with swift and
disastrous failure. "Formosa" proved fasco.
The Alhambra scheme ended in smoke.
Opera Boune struggled in vain for resurrec-
ton. Even blonde burlesque proved blum
der. Our public had endured,-and the vicious
part of it had sustained.-a great deal of