The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-01-27
ADJUSTMENTS.

We did not have space to append to
the article in yesterdays issue, on the
above subject, our own views. We
therefore shall briefly state them now !;
and as the one to which particular
prominence was given in the discussion
Sunday afternoon, was that of the thea
ter, we shall confne ourselves to that
most popular branch of public amuse-
ments.
The theatre is harmful when it
degrades instead of elevates when it
excites the mind without instructing it !;
when it appeals only to the lower fac
ulties of orr being for the purpose of
feeding their strong but sinful appe-
tites, instead of administering food to
our higher faculties, in order to awaken
and quicken the best emotions of our
nature as well as to increase our store
of useful knowledge and to cultivate
the best powers of our mind. That
the drama has been too frequently in
the past-and is to great extent yet
the instrument of evil instead of good,
all will admit; but that it is universal
", and without exception, bad and only
bad and cannot admit of any reform,
and should, therefore, be unequivocally
condemned and spit upon by all good,
christian men, is to be strenuously and
bravely denied. The object of the drama
is to represent on the stage in manner
that is true to life and nature the grave
or humorous actions of characters who
figure III the composition of some gift
cd author. To say that this object can
not be accomplished so as to interest,
amuse and instruct without at the same
time pandering to the depraved tastes
of those who are fond of the obscene
and indecent is to admit that men can
never be made to love the good and the
beautiful, can never cherish what is
ehaste, pure and elevating. 1t is asserting
the doctrine of human depravity in its
broadest and most unqualified sense,
denying all faith in moral progression.
AND to attempt to prove the truth of
this assumtion by asserting that all thea
tiers are demoralizing in their influence,
that there is not a single one in exist
ence whose aim and tendency are to
make men better and wiser, is simply
to demonstrate ones bigotry.and igno-
rance. The history of the stage, it is
true, is not what we could wish it to
be; but neither is that of the church.
But as the latter has been gradully loos-
ing the bands of superstition, bigotry
and narrowmindedness so the theater
year by year has been rising out of the
meshes of obscenity, vice and vulgarity
into an atmosphere of unexceptionable
purity and decency. That there are
theaters extant that are corrupt, vile,
obscene and indecent is no sound reason
for withdrawing patronage from those
that are really moral and eleVating in
their tendency; no sounder reason, in
fact, than to say that because there are
christian denominations whose creed is
narrow and whose practices are not
conformable with the teachings of the
Great Master, we should therefore
have nothing to do with Christianity
and no fellowship with christians.
There was time when the church cried
out with an alarming voice against the
progress of science, believing that the
light it feebly emitted in those early
days emanated from the God of dark
ness himself, and was intended to over
throw Christiany and submerge the
world in endless darkness but now the
church looks upon science as the hand
maid of Christianity. Every additional
ray of light that emanates from the
world of nature dispels one more wave
of darkness that covers mans mystic
rious relation to his Maker. So also is
the prejudice that good men have here
tofore boarded against the drama fast |
giving way to an acknowledgment of its |
benign influence and elevating charac- !
ter. No intelligent man has the right |
to say to another intelligent man that |
every theater is demoralizing, and that |
it will degrade and corrupt him if he
it. We know that we have
been benefited by the drama-benefit-
ted intellectually and morally. We have |
listened to Chas. Kean's impersonation
Of Shakespeare's characters and never
before properly understood and sppre-
ciated the writings of that greatest of
poets. We have had the best and /
zindIiest emotions of our nature quick
sned into unwonted activity by lis
.ening to the faultless rendition of some
inely written composition, in which
he best qualities of the human heart were
'trikingly exemplified. And as there
ire no pleasures so agreeable aud rap