The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-05-11
MORALS OF STAGE PEOPLE.

Some of these ''plsy actors" are pc
culiar people. NOBODY should wonder
if now and then u pious preacher get:
up in the pulpit and denounces ths
stage as immoral. Now, we don't be-
Iieve the stage is any more Immoral
than other institutions which are sus-
tanned and encouraged by highly moral
women and men; nor that the tendency
of play acting is towards immortality
A woman who is inherently and de-
terminedly virtuous should be as safe
on the stage as elsewhere, and she is
| the temptations may be stronger
there than in other walks eff life
but the really pure-minded, virtuous
woman is not disturbed by the tempta-
tons to vice; they will have no more
influence over her on The stage than
they would in the church. We need on
ly point to the hundreds of pure and
noble women who are on the stage and
against whose characters no suspicion
has ever been breathed, to prove that
however many scandals come from the
playhouse, men and women do not
have to be bad in order to be actors and
actresses At the same time it cannot
be denied that there is any number of
queer people OF the stage, nor that the
conduct of a good many persons in the
profession is irregular, in the strictly
moral view of the case. Now, here
comes along more popularity in tho de-
pertinent of the favorite actress, Fanny
Davenport. She has sued her husband,
Price, for a divorce, and it is said he
will make no opposition, being as ready
to be free from her as she is to be
released from him. Price has been her
manager IS well as husband, but he has
lost one position and will lose the other
as soon as the law can get through the
formal work of untying the matrimo-
NAL knot. Fanny is coming west with
her "La Tosca," the realistic French
play which she imported from Paris
and brought out in New York in spite
of the protests of so many of
the decent people of the metroo-
oils, and she is bringing with her an
other manager than the husband who
has been in the habit of making con-
tracts, looking out for and taking care
Of the box office receipts, and
so On. We we'll remember how
her marriage with Price was made the
subject of severe criticism. He and his |
wife were members of her company, |
and in time he and his wife, a most ex- |
cellent lady, separated. 1t was said |
that Fanny induced him to secure |
divorce, in order that she might marry |
him; however that may be, she and he
were soon married. II is now pointed |
out that a handsome member of her
present company, named Mcdowell,
has recently procured a divorce from
MS wife, and since Fanny has begun
for a separation, it is
l;nted that there is an understanding
between nef aga mcdowell mat as soon
Is she obtains her legal freedom they
will be married.
We suggest that this is not as
moral a state of things as one
would like to see, and it is admitted
hat good deal OF this sort of bust
less develops from the stage; but is
he stage responsible for it? Is there
Inything connected with the dramatic
which makes it impossible
or pure and virtuous men and women
o continue pure and virtuous2 Because
Fanny Davenport, and. Price, and Nc
lowell, and others indulge in frequent
divorces and marriages, must every
!ctress and actor disregard the moral
avs which decent society has created2