Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-27

it can be admitted; but is it essential that
it shall appeal in a manner to call the
sympathies into allyship with the I'M
worthy? Is it necessary that the young
girl shall be made to weep over the woes
of the woman who casts the world behind
her in the lust of passion that is dra
maticaliy plated over to resemble true af-
lection Is it necessary that villainy shall,
in its legitimate punishment, find cause
for appealing to human sympathy; not
mercy merely, but to that sympathy that
does more than forgive-exalts? Is it nee
essary that there shall be presented upon
the stage types of manhood that are i'm
beetle, weak and pitiful, but because of one
remaining spark of courage, self-respect or
wit, are held up as high models, with the
"moral" that we must not judge men as
we find them in ry-day life, but wait for
some emergency to whip them into action
worthy of admiration
The junior Mr.. Sothern has play in
which such kind of men move, and the
lesson of which is, that We must not sup
pose men TO be fools who look and act as
such. since it is here and there possible to
find one such from whom a spark of man
illness can be struck. Yet We apprehend
| that the most of men will hold those TO be
| fools who behave as such, and will so adj
! wise their sons.
| The average stage hero and heroine OF
| the modern drama are models that are
more than untrue to life, even after max
| ing all due allowance for the lover color
that is justifable in any picture, or IN any
drama-they are types of error, and their
action is the symbolism of false ideas con-
corning human duties, obligations and
pleasures. The play that should appeal
to the reason and to the experience is the
rarity nowadays; the piece that is simply
a play on the sympathies excited in excuse
for weakness, frivolity, sin or stupidity, is
| the rule. That there is some demand Tor
PLAYS that deal with life about US, is true
as the Times asserts, but it needs cultiva-
ton; nay, stimulation, and that too of the
energetic order. "Will the much talked
of American school of drama do this?' is
a very important question to-day. There
are some indications of disposition or
the part of American dramatists to lead
the public taste towards the real and the
sensible on the stage, and to discard the
unreal and the false as components o.
modern plays. But the modern manager
stands in their path. He has neither con
ception of the need of society nor care
concerning it. He finds an appetite thai
has been cultivated by peppery diet anG
he proposes to continue the splicing pro
cess, rather than at all engage in the tasl
of rectifying the public taste. He there
fore no sooner falls upon a sensible play
by sensible man, and WHO deals with life
and its duties as the wise adult woulC
with the susceptible youth committed t.
his teaching, than "man of the stage
is presented to him with the ultimatun
that the play will not be received unit
"the stage hand has put his knife int
it and added the spice of sensationalisn
and so-called dramatic effect" The re
suit is, that a. host of bread and butte
plays are given us that the authors are, il
the main, decidedly ashamed of in tn,
outcome, which at the outset they wer,
proud Of We must wait with patienc,
for the reform that will come, but we con
fess that from present indications, it is ia
distant.