Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-14
Is THE PLAY WICKED?
A Criticism ofthe Utterances of Three
Noted DiVines
FROM A WORLDLY STANDPOINT.
A Few Logical Deductions Drawn From
Their Arguments.
THE EFFECT OF WOMEN ON THE STAGE
WRITTEN ron THE D1srAroH.1


The arguments advanced last Sunday
against the theater are decidedly Christian
6arguments. 1t is granted by one Of the
three noted divines that such men a.
Henry Irving, Edwin Booth, Joseph JET,
ferson are great actors, honorable menu
but, because all actors and actresses are not
moral, they say the playhouse should go.
will attempt to show that if we continue
to follow such course of reasoning, We
must condemn everything, be it good Or
bad, which has not attained perfection.
DR.. .Talmage says, ''That which is wrong
in parlor is wrong on the stage" and un-
philosophically concludes that because in
certain theaters, sometimes, indecent scenes
are enacted, it is, therefore, wrong for any
one to ever go into any theater to hear any
play. If his proposition be correct, it is
logical to conclude that what is wrong on
thes stage is wrong in the parlor. The
abundant newspaper testimony which the
Doctor says is conclusive evidence to him
that theaters are indecent, ought to be sufi-
eient TO convince him that the number Of
throughout the land are even greater than
those which take place in theaters. Ac-
cording to his logic, then, we should not
have any parlors at all.
Are not indecencies recorded in the works
Of our greatest authors? Would he have Us
quit reading all newspapers in order that
we run no risk of picking up, accidentally,
one of the kind which contains advertise
ments ten times more disgusting than the
theater advertisements which he studies so
valorously without being able to detect any
thing but the pictures of such as are "naked
and not ashamed?"
VIEWED FROM THE FooTLIGHTS.
He boasts that all his knowledge Of
theatrical performances is gained by study
of these pictures and from newspaper testi-
mony, declaring that he never attended but
three plays in his life. He supposes that
these advertisements are all honest, and
newspaper evidence, in this instance, he re-
CARDS as conclusive testimony.
How credulousI Most persons are aware
of the fact that advertisements are generally
overdrawn; that newspaper testimony is as
doubtful almost as Bible testimony-to
many, more so. 1t is strange that one who
believes it is wrong to hear immoral people
talk, or see them act, and who has such i'm
plicit confidence in newspaper testimony,
should not hesitate before going to church
lest he happen to hear an immoral preacher.
Suppose Mr.. Irving were to use Talmage's
logic and to say: Z have been many times
in churches during the past ten years, but
only to attend grabbags and church lotteries.
I was never more than three times in
church to hear sermon, and that was when
was about 10 years of age. There is not
any newspaper in the United States, which
amounts to anything, that has not within
the past few yeays reprehended the immoral
conduct of many preachers who have been
strip ed of the rags of hypocrisy, and
whose resulting nakedness has been even
more. shocking than that of actors of no
dressSat all. When, therefore, the leading
newspapers of the land, contrary to their
financial interests, severely eriticise the
clergy for the antagonism of their creeds and
dogmas, and for the immoral conduct of cer-
tain of them, the testimony is to me con-
elusive. Hence conclude it is better to
never go to church.
That is Talmagian reasoning, and as the
homely adage goes, "What is sauce for the
goose is sauce for the gander."
BUSINESS VIEW.
Mr.. Cuyler informs us that no "sagacious
employer ever chooses clerk the sooner be-
cause he is theater-goer," adding some
thing about theatrical atmosphere dam
aging piety.
Neither does piety pass for legal tender,
nowadays, among sagacious employers.
When young man applies for situation,
certainly he does not say that he is a Pres
byterian, an Episcopalian, Democrat, an
Anarchist, Hard-shell Baptist or a Nor
mon elder; neither does he request that his
pious look be observed, or assert that he is
a member of the Salvation Army, that his
father is Methodist deacon, and that he
expects some day to be preacher. He re-
allies that sagacious business men do not
care whether their employees spend their
leisure time in churches or in theaters, 50
long as they are faithful to the trusts i'm
posed in them. Among employers, busi-
ness training is considered more than spirit
ual training, capacity and responsibility
rather than piety. Men of the world know
and realize that man may pray and pray,
and be a villain.
Mr.. Crosby thinks that the only way to
purify the theater is to Danish women from
it entirely; in other words he believes "it is
not good for man to be alone" except when
he goeth to the theater. He would Danish
the virtuous with the vile, believing that no
man can look upon any woman on the stage,
however modest her department., without "a
terrible damage to his plety," as Mr.. CuyleH
hath il.
In a word their great charge against the
theater Is the immortality of certain actors
and actresses. Danish the women and pre-
serve our virtue is Mr.. Crosby's idea. Alas,
poor woman, that mere sight of thee so
damageth piety. Till thou art banished far
from all creation wefear that no mans piety
is safe. NJ. H.V.