The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1883-01-02
THEATRES.

Old School Presby terrain church, deliver
bis discourse on
Services opened by singing "All the way
! my Savior leads me-" which was followed
Galatians, beg ginning with the 5th verse
followed BY the congregation and choir
singing
PRECIOUS PROMISE"
A part Of the 18th verse of the chapter
referred to was chosen rs the basis of the
sermon. In the forenoon discourse the
speaker had spoken of amusements In gen
eral as they concern christians but in the
evening he took up The specific form,
namely, thsaters Mr.. Nesbit said:
81 have little personal knowledge, such
rs IS gained BY attendance ut theaters. bu,
said he had attended 0ae of the best and one
OF the lowest theaters in the world, the
former in London, the latter in st. Louis,
but that general conclusion was not
legitimate from the knowledge gained BY
atteudingonce or twice" He thought pure
drama possible, but said he thought licen-
tiOusness was characteristic OF the thea
Ter OF all ages" ''The theater," said The
speaker, Originated with Bacchus, who
trayersed the earth, bringing every inAu-
euc- under his power, and spreading mir,h
and pleasure in their stead. This suited
The Greeks, Who readily worshipped such .
dignity"
FIRST REASON.
The first reason wby the drama was not
10 he Endorsed, was that it had lis origin
i'm honor of the god of wine, and that he
was not only The god of wine, but alse the
god of excess, in honoriDg whom the
Greeks went 10 the utmost extent of rev.
elry and sinful indulgences. and drank to
drunkenness, gratifying every physical
pleasure.
REFINED.
"SophOcles and his contemporaries" &C.
cordinguo MIR Nesbit, refined the A,hen-
ian theater. but Grote, Grrece's greatest
historian, declared that the Grecian thea
Ter was The generator Of every lust and
passion"
'Such," said he, "has been and is the
character of the theater."
THE ROMANS
initiated the Greeks, but went rather to
the Coliseum, the ouigrowlh OF the thea
Ter. there TO witness the consGmmstion of
human passions in the glsdiat0rial con-
tests"
The sixteenth century said he, witnessed
such a degree of vulgariiy and vile ex-
hibition as the world has never before or
since seen.
rpS1,nN
a committee tried 10 eradicate, in 1879, the
prostitute element from the theaiers. be-
ginning at the fremont, but their efforts
were futile. In New York, also, COM
nittee tried 10 purge the theaters, but
their work proved OF no avail.
IN THE EARLY TINES
the most noted fathers wrote dramas liz or
der that they might purify them so. also,
in the middle ages men tried TO put Bible
characters into the plays, but the result was
that the drama as used in the church be-
came the adherence Of all nations, nor has
it been differen, in later times.
WHAT AEOUF THisE
days? Canst we cast out the impure? well,
friends, the thing has been tried. There
his never been better attempt than the
enc made by the Boston committee" said
the speaker, "but they failed. because they
could not control the character of the ac-
tors, or Of the plays, or even OF the audi
ence"
DIR. CHALMERS
was represented as saying that theaters
could not be sustained without the patron
age of the lewd. Suppose you purge the
ihea,ers of all that is distzsteful to minis
tiers there" he said, "ihere will be no
theater."
"THE TRUTH
of the business, is the tbeaiers give just
what the people want" according To
Mr. Nesbit. The speaker then quoted the
following opinions OH theaters:
Plato says: Play raise the passions and
pervert the use OF them, and oil conse-
Quence are dangerous 10 morality"
Tacitus says: "lhe German women we're
guarded against danger, and preserved
their purity by having no playhouse among
them"
Rousseau opposed the introduction OF
he thea.er into Geneva. "WLer,' he |
asks, els The prGdent mother who would
dare to carry her daughter To this danger
ous school and what respectable woman
would not think herself dishsnored by |
going there" "Thism said the speaker, |
lis the opinion of Soussezu, the in6del, the |
opponent, and st the same time the assist. |
enf Of Voltaire."
The prize essay from which the speaker
read the above quotations says: To those |