The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-12-01
THE STAGE AND PULPIT.

AN ACTRESS PUTS uni PULLING QUESTIONS
TO PARsoN TALMAGE-MIsS CLARA NOR
RIs SPEAK HER MINI ABOUT THE MO-
RALIrY OF THE srAGE--A SPICY COUNTER
I~RRITANT.">
The following letter appears in the New
York Herald of the 10Th inst. and sui
fciently explains itself Since the Rev. IT.
De Witt Talmage has declared himself a
aughter-loving and hilarious gentleman, 1
am encouraged to ask him a question or two
through your columns. He stated on Sunday
last that he knew "a young man who at
tended the play of Macbeth tor thirty
nights. and who gave up church attendance,
his Bible and prayer" What 1 wish to
know is when and where did Macbeth"
have a run of thirty nights, also the
:" Young man's' name and address?
His opinion of that play and the
characters therein would be valuable.
Having asked these questions L would lk
to add a few words about the quality OF the
fruit" our professional tree is bearing.
During our civil war, when many OF u
actors were fighting valiantly for the Union,
and many an actress deprived herself OF
everything but the bare necessaries OF life
that she might send wines, fruits and food
to the commissary departments, and when
every spare hour was given TO the knitting
of stockings, scraping of lint and making OF
bandages, l thought our tree was
bearing ROOD fruit" When Chicago
stood shivering and homeless and
we placed in her outstretched
hands many a hard-earned hundred"
not a dollar but carried with it twice its
value in sympathy, and when last winter
we gave thousands to the suffering poor of
| New York, L thought our tree was bearing
good fruit. When 1 have seen a hard
worked actress mother, with the inevitable
! satchel on her arm and "part" for the
| or-aD,,o ,a har hand call the HftlQ niuhf-
gowned babies and hear them say Now j
lay me down to Sleep" etc, with lips as
pure and sweet as though they were a min
ister's flock and not an actors, | felt sure
our tree was bearing good fruit and fair 10
look at, too. L do not say we are
angels-fsr from it. We have some very
DARK SHEEP
among us, but the Rev. T.. De Witt Tai
mage's profession can furnish a Roland
for an Oliver every time. We are a law
abiding, God learning, self sustaining peo-
pie, and our wives aud mothers will bear
comparison with those of any class of peo-
pie in the world. There is hardly an actress
on the stage but has some n to support
father, mother, sister or child, soma one
and l never knew one to do her duty unwil
l;ngly. The Rev. 7. De Witt Talmage COM
plains of the mpurity of the modern stage.
1t is no worse than it was centuries ago.
We simply hold the mirror, and il reflects
the vices and the virtues of the age. AS to
our influence being so terrible, | deny it.
How on earth is virtue TO triumph If there
is no sin to triumph over? Did the Rev. Il.
Dewitt Talmage ever preach q sermon
where sin of some kind was not mentioned,
aye, and made much of? Has he not spent
ten minutes in pic.uring some successful
Spectator, and has he not used odds and
ends of popular slang to bring bis picture
more wildly before the eyes of his congre-
CATION and nave not his efforts in that line
been rewarded with a ripple OF laughter, and
has he not thereupon dragged in his moral
by the "hair of the head" and dismissed it
in three minutes, SO that his hearers re-
tanned the amusing picture ofthat wicked
monev getter, and lost all sight of the moral?
Has not then the reverend gentleman
made vice more attractive than virtue? | sit
every Sunday and hear 8 man preach land
he breaches well, too), who has said 10 my
mother. Il can not comprehend how she can
act and feel any interest in religion!i' / am
gifted with the usual amount of sensibility
and a fair sense of the fitness of things, and
l have prayed many a year to the same sod
the Rev. L. De Witt Talmage worships, yet
have had no fine inner voice denounce me as
unfit so to kneel, because of my being an
actress.
Woman like, having asked permission to
say a few words. / have said a great many,
and end as / began, with a question: "If it
took thirty nights of Macbeth to win that
young man from the Rev. It. De Witt Tai
mage, how many nights with the Rev. I.
man (say V~andenhof) from 'Macbeth?'"
CLARA MORRIS.
BROOKLYN, Nov. II, 1874.