The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-11-01

despair that persuaded Burns 70 let the
bark Of his life drift to wreck on the rocks.
The sorrows, the weakness and the miser-
able fate of mediocrity get little sympathy,
and yet probably the drunken stevedore
out of work carries his cross quite as gall
lantly for his station and his light as did
Robert Burns.
Mr. Murphy makes no sentimental ex-
cuses for either Robert Burns or the idle,
drunken, wretched stevedore, but he has
words Of solemn admonition, wise coun-
sci, encouragement, love and charity for
ali who are in the bonds Of alcoholism
and honestly wish to break their chains.
There is nothing of melodram2 in Mr..
Murphy's methods. His road TO retorma-
;ion does not lie through entertainment.
The world is not to be reformed TO the
sound of lddles in the orchestra. That is
not the way that Whitfield or Wes-
ley or any other great refOrmer
ever reLabilitated a human soul. The
Temperance Drama" on the stage enter
tains, but it is something more simple and
serious in its potency that drunk ards in
chains want than entertainment OF
highly emotional sort. Temperance
speech that is Illuminated with the lime
lights and shadows of the stock Temper
ance Drama" is really injurious for its
best effect. A man has no business to go
about delivering temperance talks unless
he is a truthful, simple spirit thoroughlyin
earnest. If he is in earnest he will get
hearers enough, and the solemnity
Of simple, truthful earnestness, the
uprightness Of unexaggerated state
ment will, in the long run, make
him the most effective evangelist; but the
moment you catch the note of melodrama
in his voice, the moment you see him sac
riiiciug simple. solemn earnestness for ex-
aggerated stage effects, be certain he has
parted with his best power. He is no
longer true evangelist; he is only an
entertainer. This wretched substitute of
the machinery and lights of the stage for
the work Of simple, upright soul, who
carries a real message to his fellow men,
born out of the sincerity, purity and in
tense earnestness Of his spirit has played
the very mischief by making the re-
ligious drama or entertainment usurp
the old simplicity of real re-
ligion, and temperance dramatics take
the place of words of true and
solemn soberness about temperance.
Cough once addressed vast audience
in Scotland and everybody was delighted
with his wonderful dramatic genius. An
American present asked celebrated Scotch
clergyman: "How much less whisky will
be drunk tonight by this audience?" mot
glass, probably" was the regretful an
swer. The world is not reformed in ser.
ious matters to the sound of fddles in
the orchestra any more than real religion
is spread by turning a church into kind
of consecrated opera-house. with a high
priced contralto in the choir, a cornetist
in the gallery, and clerical Roscius in
the pulpit.
If there were no charities but organized
public philanthropy the deserving poor
would have hard time; If there were no
temperance workers but the orotund or
strident declaimers of temperance melo-
dramatics, the number of reformed men
would be comparatively few. 1t is the
private kindness, the long suffering pa
thence, the honest sympathy, the delicate
generosity which helps but never tells, that
works the greatest good in this world.
This is the spirit of Mr.. Murphy's effort
against intemperance; he works by the
moral suasion of philanthropic appeal, re-
buke, sympathy and remonstrance.