New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-02-13
PDUDYISN RinP4NT

Rowdyism is the vulgar name Of a vulgar thing.
DR.. Webster defines il to be - noisy blackguardls'n
and blackguard according to the same authority
is a person Of low character accustomed TO use
scurrIlous language, or to treat Others with foui
abuse" This hits the nature Of certain recent ex-
hiLitions in this city exactly. poor maniac, with
dramatic bee in his bonnet, whose absurditles are
sure TO draw together an unthnking crowd, Is made
for hours the butt of noisy and turbulent audience
of men and boys who concentrate IN their critical
comments all the slang of the and all the OBJ
scene ribadry of the stews. In another place OF pub
lie amusement presumed to be reputable. and
rs such licensed By the authorities, some speculative
Snowman gives what he enthusiastically calls a
Great International Congress OF Beauty and Gull
turer One hundred and thirty-hve women were
induced 10 take the places of the monkeys and other
wild beasts and to subject themselves TO the gaze OF
n coarse and half-drunken crowd. The result was a
saturnalia perfectly unreportable in any decent
newspaper. The girls who were tempted either by
their necessities their wanton recklessness to ex-
hibit themselves were guyed and Je"red at, and
subjected to a bundled indignties of speech and
gesture until they fled in dismay from the platform
and the boxes followed by the shouts of the llnan-
nered mob. At the theatre conspicuous among
the dlsordely number OF students
from Columbia College, who sang, howled, blew tin
horns aud in every other way possible added to the
uproar though il is to be presumed that they call
themselves gentlemen, and would be angry If that
title were denied them At last the long suffering
pocemen arrested three of the offenders, and car
RED them off to prison. They were probably
neither better nor worse than their companions
who escaped the oonsequen of their own foolish
ness and who were thus left at liberty to visit tue
,alon.houses and to call upon the magistrates to re-
lease the captiyes-a demand to which, properly, no
favorable answer made. At Gilmorcs Garden
the shameful disorder was kept up, until the actors
i'm il grew weary, and retired change OF scene If
not of conduct.
No Mace of amusem should be suffered in this
citv unless its nahagcrs are able to maintain there
q respectable degree of decOrum When Glmore'S
Garden or the Lyceum Theatre is given up 10 the
cont ro of d'sorierly company. gathered and Kept
together solely by the love of disorder and the alb
sence OF restraint, ii becomes as much dlsorderly
house as the lowest place in the Bovery or III Bax-
tcr-st As sucn, 1t shonld be firmly and irconti
ncntl, taken charge OF by the police. the
COMPANY expelled, the fcstal lights extiuguished
and the doors closed and locked. There Is
no reason why conduct should be tolerated within
the waits of IL theatre which would not bc tolerated
H. the street What would be riot outside, is equally
rot within. Even the young gentlemen from Co
lumbla College II they should so Singing ana shcut
ing up and down Broadway, and making midnight
hdeous would be imprisoned until morning aid then
fined 1t may be argued that the managers invited
the lewd conduct complained Of, but this doe:
not in the least mitigate the offence. No manager
is licensed to turn his theatre or gard" nto howl
ing Bedlam Of profanity and obscenit u matter'
not whether any respectable people were N sent nj
these orgies or not. When the police spaslaodcali
break up den of ,nirry, tIey do not stop to IN
onirc into the character OF its OCcupaDts-that Il
taken for granted. If there were those who were
seriously annoyed by the disgracefu conduct or
| Mo day evening, there all the more reason
for the interference of the authorities. Restraint
il is true. is partly necessary because disorderiJ
| conduct troubles the aw.ablding and well-behaved
but il is equally true that SUI conduct should o'
suppressed for the sake of those engaged III it, ant
with some view to Interior consequences. DecencI
| should be enforced in low places. because indecency
if not interfcred with. viii run riot III hghe