Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-02-24
-sn Up SPIRE & DUFF.
THE OPERA ROUSE QUESTION

The Subject Considerable SuRges-
ton TO tee Masonic Fraternity.
| To the Editors Of the Union and American
The ''opera house question" seems to
have ''gone by the board. Nashville
| does not need a house exclusively devoted
to the opera, because we couldn't sustain
1t If we had it. Nobody wants to build
one, and take It for granted we shall not
have one. We need a well constructed and
decently appointed THEATRE, where we can
have ell the acceptable phases of the
drama, from farce to tragedy, presented
throughout the seasons, and which will
allo afford our amateur musical talent and
our transient musical visitors q fitting
stage for their entertainments, if desired.
1t should be roomy, central and elegant.
1t should embrace the best modern i'm
proved appurtenances-a commodious
stage, furnished with varied and plentiful
and well conceived and well executed
scenery-a large auditorium, including
parquette, circle and galleries, with ready
means Of ingress and egress-in short,
such theatrical temple as would indUcs
manager of first rate qualifications to &C
cept the charge and responsibility of it
and hrst-class actors to tread its boards
Such building, with such management
and such adjUncts, would fill the bill.
1t would satisfy the demands of our city
and people, and nothing short of it will
The question Is, who will buy ground
and erect such an establishment? Nobody,
is the answer. Will any company do il?
The answer is, no company has, so far as
the present demand Is concerned. VisEing
the disasters Of the past, no company Is
likely to do it. All your original and con-
municated articles upon the subiect-all
Of them well and foreibly put up-have
not evoked dollar or created brick for
the purpose. Is Nashville, then, to 90
theatreless forever? By no means. Our
successors will have them. The pressing
question now is, whether the tastes of our
successors shall be so vitiated by the prev
alence of the iHegit51lGte amusements, So
called, as that our city, North, South and
West, and Edgefeld will be dotted with
Varieties, ten or twenty years hence?
We want theatre NOW. We want the
standard drama NOW. We are suffering
for it in hundred ways-not the least of
which parents, and perhaps wives, do not
fully appreciate. We rant 10 as moral
institution, We want it as a place of en-
tertainment for the old and the young,
mot children, and for the occupation Of
hours now devoted to past-times fstFd to
morals, and mortal to purity and useful
ness
have asuggestion to make which seems
to me the most feasible to consummate the
object. make it to the Masonic fraternity
of Nashville, gentlemen well known, and
honored in the various GvOcatiOns of life
You have the ground best adapted for the
theatre. You have a building erected.
You have Hall, the only place now elig-
ible as place for standard dramatic enter
taiRments. 1t is not suited for a theatre.
Take out the floor above il, and in that,
with the present space extend the stage,
and construct an auditorium with circles
and galleries. From below reconstruct
and enlarge your entrances, and a theatre,
OF respectable dimensions, could be finish
ed and perfected that would answer every
demand. / cannot estimate the cost. Get
a competent architect to estim1te and make
your drawings on this suggestion. 1t will
be money in your pockets. You will still
have plenty Of room for your Order IN the
building. If the Fraternity funds are in
sufficient, there are members Of the order
who could advance them upon mortgage
and interest. You can furnish a theatre,
worthy and acceptable in all respects, in
this way at one third the amount it would
cost any one else. If, therefore, theatre
will pay anybody in Nashville, it Will pay
you three times the interest it would pay
10 any other capital. l make one other
and further suggestion to you: AT your
next meeting appoint a committee to con-
5ider of the matter, and report to you upon
The subject-a committee Of active, ener-
yetic, safe business men. That Is the way
10 begin it. PLAUTus.