The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-10
WILLIAM p. EAINsFoRD.

churches has, temporarily at least, extin-
guished the blazing light of DR.. Parkhurst,
whose theory of graphing with vice is to
grapple with it and have it done. DR..
Rainsford would elevate vice, lift it up and
license it. As for the saloons, he would
evangelize them, and make them dispense
quality of liquor that would not make
such difference in the morning. Defoe
said:
Wherever the Lord erects house of prayer
The devil always builds a chapel there"
He seems to have expressed the Rains
ford idea as to how it should be done. DIR.
Rainsford believes the house of prayer and
the drinking place should go together, but
he would have the church either build the
latter or lease it from his Satanic Majesty,
provided he had already built it. A visit
to some of the drinking saloons in the
lower part of the city will convince any
one that they ought to be elevated, and
compelled to sell better liquor, but it is ex-
tremely doubtful if coupling them with
the church will accomplish the object.
The church and the saloon are so dissimi.
lar in their physical as well as their physi-
cal existence that it is extremely doubtful
if they can be made to go hand in hand, as
it were. To attempt it would probably be
more dangerous than to send a Sunday
school teacher into Mott street to Chris
tianize the leprous Chinese laundrymen-
an undertaking, which, according to the
marriage license record, has lately re-
suited IN heathenizing promisir g Sunday
school teacher or two. DR.. Rainsford may
have the correct idea as to the best way to
supply the thirsty world with drink, but
he seems to be several years in advance of
his time. At present the brewers own the
saloons, or, say, nine-tenths of them. and
it will be long and tedious process to
wrest them from these proverbial concerns
and take them into the folds of the
church. Between the extreme orthodoxy
of DIR. Parkhurst and the almost heter-
odoxy Of Dr. Rainsford, the town is kept
guessing what doxy or devilment the pull
pit will give it next to excite its wonder
and amaze.
Just before DR.. Parkhurst sailed for Eu-
rope last week several earnest efforts were
made to get him to 60 and see play
called "Elysium," which has been widely,
and l may say broadly, discussed about
town as the wickedest spectacle seen here
recently. The persons who wanted DR..
Parkhurst to sample "EIysium's" alleged
naughtiness were not actuated, as I hap
pen to know, by any high moral i'm
pulses, but were. rather, in search
of that peculiar thing known as "news-
paper sensation" The good doctor es-
capped the pitfall of the ungodly and did
not 60 to the show. Now one of the most
curious phases of metropolitan life is ex-
hbited by this same "Elysium," and the
wonderful reputation il has got about
town as being almost all it oughtn't to be.
There's really nothing as risque in either
dialogue or costumes as has from time to
time been seen on the opera bouffe stage
here and elsewhere. The piece has from
the first been denounced IS improper. and
is not generally reckoned as improper. not
because ii is. but just because people said
and still say it is. The plot is from the
French. and it declares that a certain
Uncle Barbasson on his death leaves to a
Partisan nephew the entire harem of his
Oriental uncle. The nephew falls in love
with a virtuous odalisque, and the scene
shifts from Paris and its CAV life to the
harem and its woman in trousers. The
costumes are not different from those
often seen here, the lines are innocent
enough and the illusions only as bad as
the bad choose TO make them. The whole
spectacle on the boards of Palmer's or
Days theater would not be regarded az
worse than silly. People who remember
the artistic accomplishments of the troune
of genuine Nautch girls whom Mr.. Dalv
imported seven or eight years ago and dis
PLAYED on his own stage saws that there ia
nothing in "Elysium" quite equal TO the
DAILY Nautch dance. Omene, the vaman
whose danse du venture was considered
too suggestive even for Roster tS Balls
has been solemnly warned away from the
boards at Hermann's, although she has a
contract calling for her appearance in
"Elysium." The people in the cast have
nothing specially dubious about them. nm
less Pearl Eytinge's appearance in the
"Clemenceau Case" is treasured nm
against her. The whole thing seems 10 be
a bad case of crying wolf when there
isn't even a niger in the woodpile. Bnt
no city as big as New York can endure not
10 he considered wicked" even If it isn't
wicked a bit