The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-25
THE STAGE.

great change has taken place In pubic
opinion within fifty years concerning the
influence of the stage. The Rev. Mr..
Bristol, of Chicago, a Methodist clergy
man, thinks that the drama when elevated
instils noble purposes and impulses into
the hearts of men, and Rev. DR.. Leonard
Bacon, who ably fills the Congregational
pulpit of Norwich, Conn.,, in one OF his
sermons during the past year, said:
We have got to look the facts IN the face, and
recognize that the old sweeping condemnation
OF the theater. once universal among earnest,
pure, and faithful men, was founded on state
OF facts which no longer exists-that there has
been change In the theater itseif-in its plays,
In its personnel There was q time, not so very
long ago, when the name of actress was syn
onym for iniamy. Today, the man who should
make such presumption as that against the
character of a lady devoted to this trying and
perilous profession, would be guilty OF wicked
ealumny.
In view of these changes in the theater, for
the church to maintain its old attitude of con-
denning ali Unfortunately would be not
consistent, but bigoted inconsistency.
The drama is with us; has always been
with us; will always be with US. 1t is
older than the Christian religion; 1t is as
immortal as ART, fiction, oratory and
poetry; il Is as good and pure as the
world to which it holds up the mirror.
The drama has given to literature its
greatest name, for Shakespeare was actor
as well as playwright. Our noblest liter
allure is much of it dramatic. Schiller,
Goethe, Corneille, Racine and Hugo
have given 1t tragedy; Goldsmith,
Moliere and Sheridan have given
it comedy, and the periodical attacks
of blgots upon the theater are as
absurd and Intellectual as vociferous and
indiscriminate denunciation of the Sum
day press.
The power of the stage, like the power
Of the press, has grown in grace and good
ness with the advance of civilization. 1t
lays all the arts under contribution, since
it appeals to all the external senses that
stand for the eye and ear of
the soul and for the interior of heart and
head, that is, the soul itself The theater
and opera, wherever they rise above the
earth into the realm of the heroic, the
poetic and the artistic, whether in speech,
in music or song, are as much powerful
and beneficent educator and builder of the
finished man as the orator in the forum
or the preacher in the pulpit. Under
the dress of entertainment, the stage is an
orator, a preacher, humorist, a satirist
and critic. In its highest function it is
noble interpreter Of the versatile powers,
passions, virtues, vices, strength and
sweetness, weakness and sublimity of hui
man nature. So far as the public is con-
cerned there is no doubt that the theater
is, with all its imperfections, one of the
potent moral forces of civilization, even as
are the pulpit, the press, the arts of poe
try, music, painting, oratory, statuary and
song.
So much for the influence of histrionic
art upon the audience. Whether the pro-
fessional life, training and experience of an
actor is good in its influence on the player
is quite another question. Actors of either
sex are not seldom most excellent people,
but Anna Dickinson drew it rather
strong when she said that ''the best
men and women in the world are
actors" There is something essen
TALLY demoralzing in a business that
demands the daily playing of
part, sometimes high, sometimes low. The
tendency is to make virtue or vice seem
nothing but bit of acting and all the
world a stage. The constant moral wear
and tear of such an experience is apt in most
cases to make all the men convivial cynics
and satyrs, like Falstaff, and all the women
Becky Sharps. The itinerant life led by ac-
tors is demoralizing since it is fatal to
domesticity, and there is no other profess
sion of the same grade of high intellectual
standing in which more people marry
only to be speedily divorced. Jenny Lind,
although she had great histrionic genius,
felt great repugnance to the stage and left
1t early in her career. Mrs. Fanny KEN
bic, an able woman. pure woman and a
distinguished ornament of the stage,
felt this repugnance to her profession, and
lett 1t at an early age. She argues, in her
"reminiscences, that the practice of the
hlstrionic profession is in itself of de-
mora!izing tendency. She admits that
some persons of both sexes have seemed to
resist the evil influence of the stage.
but testifies that the great mass of
actors become spoiled in sincerity
of heart and feeling. because the
constant practice of playing various
parts, sometimes noble and sometimes
ignoble, sometimes tragic, sometimes
comic, sometimes melodramatic. in time
has the same demoralizing effect that is
felt by sny man or woman who in private
life recklessly wears the heart on the
sleeve. The pearls of our deepest and finest
feelings cannot be cast to the crowd on the
lghtest sentimental provocation without
contracting a sentimental habit that is
fatal to real sincerity and simple worth of
humane sensibility and sympathy. The
man or woman who is always losing the
heart and dissolving into tears at the
prick of pin or the death of donkey
ultimately ceases TO have any real heart to
lose; the "stage" heart; the fictitious
feeling usurps its place; the shadow
drives away the substance; the man is so
often obliged TO be a counterfeit that yir-
tue and vice come to be regarded at last as
of no more consequence than change of
wardrobe; the tendency of the stage is
fatal in the long run. thinks Mrs.
kemble. 70 simplicity and depth of
true feeling. just as the reckless, wanton
display of the hottest places of the heart
on very slight provocation and cheap
occasion is fatal to the moral sincerity of
persons in private life. Mrs. Kemble con-