Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-05
PUBLIC CONDEMNATION OF SHAME
LESS PEOPLE OF THE STAGE.

Asoconbiy iuaHy PEoulneus peOpie VI
"the stage have been made the subject
of disgustingly filthy news comments that,
in the interest of decency, should never
have been published The domestic skel.
eton of the actor should not at all times,
it may be admitted, be dragged to the
light, simply because he is an actor. The
private life of these people should ordi
narily be the subject of as sacred regard as
the private lives of any other people. But
their misdeeds and barbarities and indecent
behavior, matrimonial infelicities and vio-
lations of the moral code have recently
been made conspicuously public, and with
disgusting detail and frequency. Some of
the reeitals have been unfit reading for any
person, but for that the press is to blame
we do not say the reporters, for they are
as but putty in the hands of the controllers
of the plant, and the plant prints in too
many cases that which will bring it financial
reward, with small regard to the character
of the matter. After the publication of the
uncleanliness of about dozen of these PEG.
pie il became matter of interest to observe
the reception with which they met when
again before the public legitimately. 1t is
gratifying to be able to record that the
public has manifested its contempt, and in
some cases adherence, for the men and
women who have outraged the proprieties OF
ordinary life. In several cases the actors
engagements have been fat failures, or their
reception marked by frigidity on the part OF
spectators in others audiences have Kissed
when the heroes and heroines of the scan
| dals appeared, and in one or two instances
the public sentiment has been SO pro.
nounced that managers have found it dis
Greet to cancel or refuse engagements.
Evidently a goodly portion OF the people
at the East are determined to show these
shameless men and women that the most
brilliant accomplishments and the most
pronounced ability on the stage cannot
atone for shameful lives and dishonorable
conduct. The audiences in theaters do
not assume to be keepers of the actors
conscience, or guardians of his moral con.
duct but they have the right, and should
exercise it unsparingly. to openly manifest
their disgust at the impudence of the
man or woman who VIGOROUSLY outrsges
the sense of decency, and then unblush-
ingly seeks the plandits of the public.
Some of these notorious people are coming
this way, and will appeal for favor from the
footlights. 1t remains to be seen how Cali
fornia society will receive them-if the
men and women who respect themselves
and their families, will disassociate
the personality of the actor from the
part he assumes. We trust they will not
do so, butt present, by their manifest dis
pleasure, or better, by their absence, teach
these stage people that respect for the COM
mon moralities remain, and by that very
act manifest their esteem for the honest
men and pure women of the dramatic
profession whose vicious companions
smirch them by association. ORA
matte art is not so barren of talented
representatives that the public must per-
force accept those who trample boldly
upon the laws of social decencY, not to say
purity, and still brazenly hold up their
heads without apparent shame. They
have no right to blacken the profession
more it has enough to do penance for
without taking on the load of infamies
these shameless men and women attempt
to burden it with. 1t is too much to ex.
pect the stage to set up high moral stand.
ard at this day, but it is not too nuch to
demand that it shall not wantonly insult
by Haunting the crimes and debaucheries of
some of its followers in the face of the pub
lie. It may be admitted that the world is
full of tendencies to evil, and that human
nature furnishes many humiliating ex-
amples of it's frailty, but shamelessness and
vice should not therefore be encouraged by
the reward of popular favor-in other
words, the public should teach these peo-
pie that their private lives have such an
intimate relation to their public career,
that the success in the latter depends upon
the observance of the ordinary prophecies
of life in the former.