The avant courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1871-1872, 1872-02-01
a Fearful Picture.

| Sucl picture OF Harl6ian morals as the Tor
leign journals exhibit. M. Dumas, the youn-
ger has written a play that is 50 indecent as
to shock Partisan journals, which seemed to
be armed with nerves of adamant. Some
critics have Indignantly denounced the out
rage on public decorum. nepfotests against
/ turning the theatre into dissecting room.
{" There are operations he says, that
| should not be permitted in theatre, unless
! the managers write over the door, Women
not admitted :" Nj. Dumas fzs, then is at
his old work again; and 30 is Paris. The
dramatist has outlived his conyulsivc fit OF
virtue; SO has the capital, which wore sack
cloth and ashes while the Germans engirdled
her with wall of steel, and the light of her
theatres was extinguished. Fashionable
Paris is rushing to see !. une Viste de Noces.''
Yes, the ladies of the fairest capital in Eu-
rope are crowded to enjoy the display Of wit
ty indecency-the degradation of high pow
ers to the work of the pander. The boxes
and the stalls are gay with bright robes and
beautiful faces. And French censors per-
ceive the significance of the exhibition. we
say it with regret, with sadness exclaims
the France, that in no other country-rlo
other civilized city-no other theatre in Eu-
rope, would the new piece of Dumas fzs be
possible and we doubt whether there could
be found elsewhere than in Paris, public
who would applaud it even by mistake" The
conclusion Of the criticism is strikingly SOL
emn. g Ii our taste, if our sentiments, If our
conscience, be so perjured and perverted that
we accept such pictures without repugnance,
and encourage them with our cheers, we are
truly en- decadence. f''"2"
~ An able London. journal truly says that
"there is, indeed, no surer token of national
degeneracY than such proof that the moral
fibre of people has relaxed. that men have
lost even the semblance Of respect for virtue,
and that women have east to the winds the
priceless delicacy OF their sex. 1t is hard to
couple such. saying with the name of France.
Even in her worst hours she has been treated
with yearning fondness by educated men.
We cannot forget the brilliancy of her gifts.
her wit, her urbsnity, her classical propriety
of taste, her power of smoothing down the
rough places OF life, the beautiful lucidity of
her intellect. Her literature is precious
possession Of all the earth. She has taught
the world how to write and how to speak.
French prose is the most perfect that any ma
ton has produced since the days of Athens.
Dramatic writing is a lost art in every coun-
try save France. There is not nation in
which thought is more fertile, or criticism
more keen. France is the hotbed of those
speculations which are the mainsprings of
science and philosophy. Her people are per-
haps the most gifted race the world has seen
since the days of Republican Greece. Hence
the leniency with which her faults are treat
ed by those who hold the pen of the censor,
the reluctance to admit her thousand faults,
the eargerncss with which her splendid ell
downents are biazolied forth in the Warnaest
hues Of rhetoric. But the truth must be told |
nd the triumph of Une Nisite de 4Noces
proclaims that the truth is bitter. France |
was struck to the very dust in the. late war
be cause she contendcd against people more
more self-denying, more filed with
jhe idea Of duty than herself. She was thrown
rom her place because license and the decay
IF family virtue had paralyzed her faculty Of
'everence for what is noblest and most endur-
ng in thought and action. She fell because
he decay of her moral sense enfeebied her |
capacity both tor true obedience and for true /
ommand. Her prou1. armies were destroyed /
viii, al utterddestruetion, despite the herl- !
SIN Of individual citizens and tie stolid pa-s
ience of peasantry. because the power sot EN-
al l,
~ generations spent in selfindulgence. cafe l
lunting, money-seeking, and indifference to
my interests higher than those OF the Boule-
,ards. France is the only country in which
uch exquisite literary skill as Theopodile
5antier's could be employed to elevate vice
o the dignity OF fine art. In France alone
ould such wit, such dramatic skill, and epi-
.rammic brilliancy as those Of Dumas 1fls
,e enlisted in the service Of artistic vice
Nowhere save in France could mother say.
i send these flowers to my son to decorate
lis room, because tomorrow is the birth
ee now in France. and that is why
he is in state OF decadence From such
nen as M. Dumas fls, and such dramas as
'Une Visite. de Noces,'' she has more to
read than from a legion OF Bismarcks and
Ioltkes. The theatres OF Paris are preparing
new Sedan
What we would especially call attention to
a this sad yet truthful picture, is the irresist-
,le evidence which it affords that the culti-
alton Of the intellect does not involve the
of the moral nature The most
Intellectual Of modern nations is the most
easily in its vices, and the most shameless
i its beastliness. In this picture of France i
,e are enabled to realize how it was that |
the world by wisdom knew not God," lt
nat Greece and Rome, in their highest state
t civilization, could not form conception |
such q system of morality as the Bible, =
nd we recognize more s strongly than ever /
lat 1.-THE foolshness of God is wiser than
len, and the weakness Of God is stronger |
ian men. --Baztsnore Episcopal Methodist. {
u --------- -
At breakfast one morning, in that quiet
I'd comfortable old inn, the White Swan. III {
ork. England, a foreigner made quick dis I
atch with the eggs. Thrusting his spoon III |
le middle, he drew out the Volk, devoured G
and passed on to the next. When he had '
ot his seventh egg. an old farmer, who had I
ready been prejudiceI against Monsieur by
s. moustachios, could brook the exuava- r