The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-10-16
THE DRAMA,

der a republican form of government, where
so many find reason to believe that power
and social position correspond with the
amount Of money they may be as
scSscd at by the public mind, the people
become absorbed with the great object and
constant eager strife for money-getting.
The consequence is that unless recreation
and dissipation of thought take place oc-
casonally the mental chords must perforce
snap by overdraught and severe intensity
of strain. Therefore it is that We find the
fine arts cultivated and patronized by even
equal to that which upholds them from
other motives, viz; the desire of informa-
ton by them often impaired and the love
of the aesthetic cravings of our nature, In
ceascess food the drama pours upon us all
manner of data, for upon the stage we are
presented with the occurrences of real life
! the iancies Of fiction, the facts Of history
In all sorts Of shape these come, by
way of comedy, tragedy, melo-drama
negro minStrelsy, farces, etc, etc. The range
ofsubjects, the method of their offering and
the style of acting are all dependent upon
the tastes and fashions of the hour, the drift
orfccing and thought that make them in de-
mand. All nations and all cras, from
Indus to the further pole" have known
and aided dramatic representations, for
man takes peculiar delight in
the portraying of his fellow-man, whether
they be of his magnificent exploits in speech
or action or of his foibles and pccularities
| II is the intellectual life and moral status
Of a nation that determines the coloring
and quality of the food thus offered, and
the breadth and variety Of the one is the
level which is fair test of
the other. AS one person will
admire common chrome, wholly unap-
preciatiyc of the beauties of some of Rosa
Bonheur's works on canvas or Van Dyck s,
Muriilo's, or Corrcgio's; or the statuary and
scuIpturcd eNcellcncies of Powers, Palmer,
Gonjon, Giovanni, Baccio or Benvenuto, so
another will crave for only the lower order
of representations on the stage Hence
managers are responsive TO the public will,
as from t..,they realize that which en-
cages them in the business, fnan-
cial results, and hence that talent
goes to the wall that such public will will
none Of however meritorous. Just after
the war We were overwhelmed with such
pieces as the Black Crook, the White Fawn,
the Brazilian Ape, lIumpty Dumpty, ct id
omne genus, while the legitimate drama
was left to ''pale its Intellectual fires before
those misunderstanding pieces in which
even the real comedy of character
was RELOCATED to the lower sphere of silly
caricature. No wonder that the religious
sentiment stood aghast at the lowering spec
tacle, and church members were prohibited
from visiting the theatre. Not that the
theatre was an evil, but that the base pur-
poses to which it had been thus rrosti-
tuted were demoralizing tO'youth and age,
not alone was human character in its worst
forms made tolerablc, but the lower passions
were represented to predominant to success
lul issue, Happily all this vitiated taste is
passing and better and.morc refined has
come into vogue and is on the upward
sweep. Booth, Mccullough, Barrett JelIer-
son, and such actors, finished
in their roles, pure of private
character and careful of their teachings
whether these come in the thunder tones
of tragedy or the lighter delineations of
comedy, and others of their kind, are be-
ginning to assert their supremacy. Splen-
dor ofthought, beauty of diction, careful.
ness of action are taking the place of indie
cency OF tone smutttiness OF reference and
varnish of representation. Stroll
Ing mOuntebanks are being subordinated
to nobility Of exhibit on and dignity of
style. And us this shall become more and
more evident, the stage will be the resort
and the drama will be more patronized by
a class of people whose sense Of the pro. |
prictics are not tolerant of monkey shows |
and jumping dogs, and learned
goats, and braying donkeys and
squealing pigs. These are out of place ON the
lame boards where walk Richelieu, n Vir.
yinius, a Hamlet or even Claude Melnotte.
IT, worse yet, the grand female Characters
md other models that bring us back to an
older aud better bed from which the stream
nad flowed into divergent courses that led
% the cesspools of disgrace. We rejoice
1t the progress that has been and is being
made, and we are prone to believe in still
more acceptable future. Then the iniorma.
ion that can be CLEANED, the pleasure and
that can be had TO overworked
brains, the aesthetic in us that can be cult.
rated will be approved by priest and pre-.
ate and divine, But should the calamity,
Is once remarked keen and correct critic,
'efal modern civilization of downward
tendency toward degeneration of the drama,
he fault will lie in the severance of self.
consciousness from seli-control; and under
,ther circumstances, but with even deeper
'cgrct, the story of tho Roman theatre of
he later empire may have to he told again.
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