Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-03-06
TIE mARrYRDOM OF sALMI
NOISE.

The COLLECTIVE cohsSieneo' '"JS
Franciscan. must have felt a twinge at
the news of poor Salmi Morse's suicide.
The public and press allowed the pulpit
and press to bully the old man into the
East river. That the pulpit feels any
oualm over the tragical end Of the au-
thor of the "Passion Play" we have not
the smallest suspicion. Secure in the
consciousness Of its unshakable right
eousness, the pulpit probably regards
Morse's shameful death as a judgment
for sacrilege. The press, which let itself
as a matter of business to the persecu-
ton Of the old man by the preachers,
has no conscience to be troubled. In
making its pious howl against the "Pas-
sion Play" the press sought to voice
public opinion. The press, indeed, is IN
the habit Of actually boasting that it
does not try to lead public opinion. but
to follow it; it boasts that it is coward
". and will sink its W judgment and
falsely pretend to believe, when it thinks
that its master, the public, requires that
clean little sacrifice.
We are told that Morse cherished to
the last belief that his passion Play"
would some day become popular. Short
" before his death he said to a friend,
with pathetic hopefulness: Il am 20
years ahead of my time. may not live
to see it, but the time will come when
my Passion Play will be performed in
every city in the world" We do not
think so. If a "Passion Play" is ever
played in every city in the world, it will
be of a better dramatic and literary
quality than Morse's. But it will be
more than 20 years before the sort OF
ferocious intolerance which assailed
Morse as if he were a criminal will n
itself without a cowardly press to help
it roar a timid public into the meanness
Of standing by and seeing an unoffend-
ing mar trampled to death.
The writer saw the "Passion Play"
when it was given at the Grand Opera
House, some years ago. As a spectacle
it approached grandeur. But for the
twaddle which the author had put into
the mouths of his subordinate Biblical
characters, the play would have been
awe-inspiring and ennobling in its effect.
There was not a suggestion OF irrever-
ence in the performance. A sensible be-
lever in Christianity, if a sensible per-
son, could sit it out without a shock to
his feelings. Yet the man who strove to
place before the public the humble Cali
lean wanderer, moving and speaking
with lofty dignity, was set upon with a
fury that was shocking in itself and
shameful to the time and country which
permitted it to be successful.
Those who mourn the decay of the
power of the pulpit should contemplate
the dripping body of old Morse and be
comforted. The pulpit's power for good
may be waning, but assuredly its power
for wrong is yet very great. 1t was
strong enough to pursue this innocent old
man from city to city; to enlist the
newspapers everywhere in the war against
him; to induce Boards OF Aldermen
PENTHOUSE politicians for the most part,
drawing their moral sustenance from the
saloons and their voting strength from
the gutters-to raise the cross in theii
godly hands, and smite with that emblem
of intolerant cruelty the man whose only
crime was that he sought to tell the
gospel story in a form new to us. Finally
the pulpit was strong enough to drive
the victim of its persecution to his death;
and, now that he is beyond the reach Of
all it's weapons save prayer, to compel
the press to give him sneers and ridicule
for his obituary.