Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-05-19
Amusements.

Tastes will eternally differ What is the
soul OF one, may be the contempt Of another.
Aud diversity Of tastes does not create
much hostility, or suuder many relations Of
friendly intercourse. But ethical notions
ideas of moral prOpricty-or a diversity Of
these often hinge the most intense antipathies.
And this, as a rule, is right. But there are
certain popular traditions, sundry time
rooted prejudices, which need to be liberalzed,
retrenched and corrected. On this matter
of amusements there is altogether too little
enlightenment. The Brooklyn Boanorges
stormed aud Numbered for months against
the theatcr, while others have waged as Wig
Orous a crusade against dancing.
Now be it far from us to speak one word
that might conflict with parents inherent
authority. But though no time.honored
idea can die without struggle-especially
If incrusted with prejudice--it becomes
our duty to show the fallacy Of such ideas.
To dance and to attend the theater In the
opinion of many good people, both of these
amusements are absolutely wrong. The
light.heartedness Of an evening, the obliv-
iousness Of care for a season, the joyous in
terchange Of kind assurance, the innocent
influence Of music-thesc, ifcouped with the
galop, the waltz or minuet, are registered in
the category Of black sin. For the public
dance, where the most promiscuous elements
meet to mingle in feverish excitement "till
daylight doth appear" we make no apology.
But shall we cOnsign to ignOminy and disre.
pute what happens in some cases To be per.
verted Shall men and women walk with
melancholy feature and angular gait because
an occasional surrender to wholesome pleas.
ure might be construed into q compromise
with evil ? There is q point, TO 60 beyond
which is not temperance. To forfeit and
throw to the dogs amusements like dancing
and theater-going is virtual acknowledge.
ment Of the impotence of the will to main.
tain the golden mean-A doctrine men are
very 10th to apply in any other sphere than
that of ethics. But the times are changing
slowly, it may be, but nevertheless chang.
ing. The best people--if such 4 term is
permissible cities and out Of cities, are
acquiring more catholic views with regard TO
the proper limits of amusement. Even
Princeton College, the most conservative Of
all schools, has within year or two
introduced billiard tables and bowling alleys
us means Of recreation for its students, while
the Y. NJ. G. A. Of New York long ago
adopted similar policy. Northern New
England, Of course, is not yet ripe for such
a change. So clean departure might seem
abrupt, aud violent. But that the time will
come, after the gradual modifying of the old
views, when many Of the best amusements
will be suatched from their present associa.
tons and diguifed by receiving the counte'
nance Of the better clements Of society, We
have never doubted. The matter is but q
question of time. As to theaters, the same
shallow objection of occasional impure asso-
citation is urged. This was the whole burden
Of DR.. Talmage's argument. But we have
never learned that his series of awful anath.
emas resulted in gripping the stage of any
Of its resources. The truth is, the thsater is
a sort Of necessary amusement, furnishing
like every genuine poem, either in.
struction or delight. And it is more thar
likely that many of those who have been
nurtured in prejudice against the stage, and
taught that all fiction is devil-born, will &C.
cidentally wend their way this summer or
fall, for the first time, into Booths or Wal.
lacks, Days or the grand Opera House
They will, doubtless, retire, too, wondering
what there was bad about the play, and con.
WINGED that their lifelong aversion to the
theater has been, after all, only the mistake
Of ignorance. Let US have a little more
liberality Of opinion, and not attempt to cage
human nature in 7x9 dungeon, or embargo
the most natural channels of innocent and
wholesome enjoyment. New England has
been reduced too long to austerity and H.
flexible rigidity.