The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-10-31
THE HERALD AND PLAYERS.

An incident occurred st the Salt Lake
Theatre on Friday evening, which it is
hoped will have a beneficial effect on
the management of the house, in that
IL Will Cause them to prevent a similar
occurrence III the uture. A gang Of
strolling players of the transforming
class. had been booked for a couple of
evenings; the first performance was
gwen on Thu sday evening, and was of
such trashy, iuartistic character as TO
weary and disgust the audience long
before the curtain fell for the first inter
mission and relief from the dreary rot.
OF those who paid the price of admis-
sion and Witnessed the opening, per
haps not more than half remained to
the end Of the succession of mani
ties, and that half was largely confined
to the galleries. THE HERALD, as is its
custom, spoke of the show" the next
mOIni g in truthful terms, and of
course its remarks were anything but
complimentary to the members of the
troupe. This paper has a habit of
talking about public amusements in its
own way; its criticisms may not at
all times be absolutely just, but
they are always honest, rejecting
the opinions of the critic; if errors are
made they are of the judgement;
neither friendship nor malice is allowed
to influence the criticism. It is because
of the honesty and fairness Of THE
HERAJD's amusement criticisms, that
the public has come to look to this
journal as an authority upon musical
and dramatic entertainments, patron
izing literally what THE HERALD pro-
Dounces worth Witnessing, and letting
severely alone the shows Thich this
paper States" This reputation is
something for a newspaper to be proud
of, and reputable theatrical people also
take pride lit, as we are convinced by
many evidences.
1t was THE HERALD's truthful critic
ism which caused the curtain TO rise
Friday evening on a magnificent dis
play of empty chairs. Stupid and
inartistic as the members of the com
psny were, they were shrewd enough to
fatbom the reason for the absence of
an audience, and they were low and
vulgar enough to attempt retaliation.
One of the proprietors Of the
scurvy outfit publicly sssailed THE
HERALD's dramatic critic, and brazenly
uttered malicious lie in a foolish at
tempt to scandslize the latter. The
matter would be unworthy of notice, if
It did not give an opportunity to say
that the man who would deliberately
hunbug the public with.such gang as
he offers for its delectstion, is capable
Of any degree of lying and SANDER. The
vile insinuation SnnoYs nobody, for
every one OF the how mans hearers
know that the fellow was deliberately
and maliciously lying.
What The HERALD wants to know is,
did the Theatre management consent
10 the use of its stage for the purposes
to which it was put on Friday evening,
and does that management approve Of
the beastly libel that was attempted on
the occasion? No protest was made
by it then, and We have heard of no
condemnation since. 1t is certain that
the patrons of the house do not approve
Of that sort of thing. People do
not go to the theatre to hear
scsb actors who wouldn't be
listened to outside of low gin-milis,
scandaIize reputable persons. We can
understand how theatre managers must
uecess arily be caught at times, and in
nocently be made parties to humbug-
ging and victimizing the public. They
don't know and cannot always ascer
tain in time to protect themselves and
the community the character and ability
Of stroling troupes. But we do not IN
derstand that it is necessary for
manager or proprietor of public
amusement place to remain silent when
his house is being used to scandalize
and libel people. It occurs to US, at It
will TO the community, that the proper
thing for the management OF the Thea
ire TO have done, when the Vulgtr liar
went out of his way to Insult the audi
ence. was to inform him and the public
that the Salt Lake Theatre cou not be
used for the vile purposes to which 1t
was being put. We hope the manage
ment's silence was due to au oversight,
ard was not intentional.