The crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1877-1878, 1878-03-28
THE STAGE AS A TEACHER.
DemOralizing Effects OF the Present
Run OF Dramas

Run OF Dramas.
From London Letter to the N Y. Times
A want Of earnestness is one of the
great blots of the age in society, dra-
matte art, and literature. Society is
satirical. 1t SCOTS at love-making. 1t
no longer believes in virtue. Love
matches are left to the unsophisticated
provincials, Or to the middle and lower
classes. Christ is not the divine figure
He was. Women talk slang. CONNER
cial honor is no longer absolutely neces-
sary to commercial fame. Circe drives
in the park, and princes attend her re-
ceptions. The manners of the age are
loose. A man who marries shop-girl
because he loves her is shut out from
society. Ii the man who marries the
shop-girl is content to take her into
keeping, he may maintain his family
connections all the same. Indeed. wom-
en- of society, like n man who is "a little
fast" Sons who are educated beyond
their trading fathers look down upon
the old people. A young man inclined
to be soberly religious is gibed at by his
acquaintances. Leading dramatists, it
would seem, try to work down to this
degenerate epoch, and when they some
how or other tumble upon a theme in
which heart and soul and real flesh and
blood, manliness and virtue have to be
portrayed, their low standards of hui
manity are so fixed and firm that they
can not rise to the nobler instincts Of
true men and women. / believe Byron
and Gilbert would be positively asham-
ed if they found themselves moved into
writing good honest heartfelt line of
pure self-slcrifcing love. They evil
IDENTIFY don't believe in it, or they have
worked in the paths of farce and bur-
lesque so long that their fancies are out
of tune for the common place impulses
which actuate real heroes and genuine
martyrs. This want of eanestness is
also apparent in modern acting. Ar
fists are afraid to accentuate their feel.
ings lest they should be charged with
mnting. Theyresist the impulse togive
full force toa fine poetic line when they
have one it should be thought they be-
lievedin it. Therefore We have a crowd
of well-lrosscd men and women NOV
ing about on the stage just as you see
them on the streets and at home, with
out the smallest effort ut idealism. We
are all afraid of being natural. Cynic-
ism is the order of the day. When q
loving Scotch laddic in Engaged" sold
his simple Scotch lassie to rich Eng
lishman for So, everybody in the theater
screamed with laughter In literature
the same tendency to yulgarrealism is
readiness TO scoff Mt the
higher virtues, general doubling of
noble motives, and n sort of instructive
horror of eloquence. To he earnest,
eloquent, poetic, is "to gush," and to
be branded as "gusher" is to be tick
eted as fool. 1t is as if the selfish
men of the world had entered into Il
conspiracy a. ainst the good and had OBJ
tanned power. And yet every now and
then some big arrogant genius, full Of
human strength and carnestness, comes
to the front and shakes this degenerate
world of London, vets its eyes, and fires
its heart, just as Salyini did in "Othel-
10, ssas Elizabeth Thompson did in
The Roll Call" as Joseph Cowell did
the other night in the house of COM
mons when he spoke words of eloquence
and power that made every Russophile
OF them feel for moment the passion
of patriotism.
A philosopher In morals might easily
trace good deal of the dcgeneracy of
society to the stage Nothing sinks so
deep into the natural heart as the les
son of drama. What has the stage
been teaching in England for years
past? 1t las drawn its principal lessons
from France. They are subversive of
all that is holy and pure in the rela-
tionship of the sexes, They teach as
the righteousness of dishon-
Oring married man. A chuckold in
the French drama is the butt of every
body in the play. In the good old
English drama the wronged husband
had the deep sympathy of the audi
ence, and his vengeance, when it came
was the denoument of the story.
The luxurious aspect of French vice
has been incorporated upon the new
born cynicism of English dramatic
work. Even the grandeur of "Patrie"
lies in the French husband condoning
the dishonor of his wife to his patriot
ism. When the Franco-English play
in earnest, its earnestness has a morbid