The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-04-27

faznei from her scat Aa'u-s A~
al was carried to the lunatic asylum.
Va 40 not wonder at this. The char
sr.er Of the plays produced now IN
r,,,nher of our theaters Is erough to nm
h;nre the mind Of the average :nan and
woman IL taken seriously.
JuoorEgs AND AcEoHATs.
Besides. there have been introduced
elements Of daring and danger IN our
theatrical amusements OF late that indi-
cate n downward tendency. In houses
once used as decent places Of amusement
we have iugglers and acrohats, whose
faats pander To the basest elements OF
bnman nature and are on par with
the fight of the gladiator. with the
will beast of the Roman arena, apd no
sults are frequently as fatal. Recently
Mt n theater an acrobat "a years old was
engaged in making turns over pole
near the ceiling. He had made several
,urns about the pole, 10 the admiration
of the gaping audience, when his perch
suddenly gave way, and he fell down.
ward. He struck between the orchestra
chairs and the musicians and was in
stantly killed.
The amount of unmitigated rubbish
that is dished mp in our theaters today Is
absolutely appalling. Ten years ago
New York daily. in reviewing tho condi-
ton of the drama. said: There has been
a greater mass of meretricious rubbish
nut ON the New York stage during the
last 10 years than during the whole OF
its existence. We do not of course refer
solely to pieces that appeal TO the baser
instincts, but to the whole body of SEN
sational or emotional products, the fe-
verish slop of a French melodrama." A
distinguished dramatic critic told me a
few days ago that in his opinion the av-
erage production of the last 10 years has
been baser than in any 10 previous years
in the history of the American stage.
An American writer in The Contem-
porary Review. speaking of the New
York theaters, says: "A friend of mine
who made a tour of them all was in
clined to think that those patronized by
the roughs in the Bowery were less inn
moral than those patronized by the resi-
dents of Fifth avenue. 1t is a matter of
dispute whether they honestly enjoy
good music as much as they enjoy i'm
moral plays" The hopelessness of the
situation is further accented by the fact
that our great newspapers do not seri-
ously pretend to do the work of honest
criticism for the public Either one Of
two things is sure. They do not pub
lish the criticisms of men of brains, who
are able to do the work, who are NOM
IN, 81, Of l.n rt,1 -
dramatic criticism, or else they pur-
posely put this work in the hands Of
those who write only to praise in the in
terest of the advertising department.
AN INTELLECTUAL AEoMINATIoN.
For instance, there is play now run
ming in the city of New Y ork, and at one
of our theaters of high reputation, which
has for its end the glorifcation of lie,
the dialogue of which is full of the most
vicious sentiment, the moral teaching Of
which, as whole, has littlo to redeem it
from any possible point of view. And
yet l have not seen single word in crit
cism of this play which even takes note
of the fact that it is built on the idea
that happiness can be attained by decep-
ton and lying in the home.
Upon the other hand, conscientious
actor recently put on the stage Of New
York a play with high moral purpose
and high literary merit. 1t was pre-
pared with the greatest care of detail,
conscientiously performed. The motive
Of the play was to show tie iniGuity Of
lie. Imagine the answer of the crit
les. They said he was fool Why did
ne ever confess the lie! why G1d NOT
he live it out? They denounced the play
rs an utter failure because of its moral
motive. That is to say, the men who
are doing TIE dramatic writing for our
great papers are incapable Of conceiv-
ing moral idea.
The consequence is that there is little
influence being brought from the realm
of public opinion to bear upon dramatic
representations in America today.
am told by those who know that there
are men of brains and capacity in most
of our newspaper Offices in charge of the
dramatic departments, but that their
criticism and opinions are thrown into
the wastebasket again and again if they
do not tally with the interests of the adj
vertising department.
There are some exceptions to the char
acter OF the plays that are produced to-
day that are noteworthy. There are
some which teach the sanctity and purity
OF home. There are those who are Civ
ing US sketches of real life in the south
and in the west that are in every way
worthy Of encouragement and support.
But taking the theater as a whole, and
taking nine theaters out of ten and nine
performances out of ten, the character
OF the plays is simply moral and intel
lectual abomination.
Third-The reflex of character from
the stage is most damaging upon the
character and ideals Of the audience.
Say what we please about the impersonal
character Of those who act, the power
behind words is character, the power be-
hind an action ID character. It is efi-
Gent for good or evil as that character Il
good or evil. The character of the peo-
pie who today are admitted to the stage
as actors and actresses calls for the
righteous Indignation of all who hayethe
interest Of society at heart or who have
any pride or interest In the stage itself.
Let man or woman become notori-
ously infamous, and the doors of O certain
class OF theaters today Immediately
spring wide open with offers of enormous
salary.
Let there be scandal in society with
an exposure and divorce, and IL the
woman in the case is proved guilty and
the scandal is of enough dimensions her
fortune is made ON the stage. The dis
reputable woman connected with the
tragic life and death of Robert Ray
Hamilton was invited to enter the dra-
matte profession by those who are called
managers, and the attempt was actually
made to expose this parsonage for a con-
sideration to the American people. She
was bounded off the stage by the de-
termined effort Of two or three reputa-
bic newspapers. When John L. SuIli-