Connecticut western news., 1893-05-04
THE DRAMA OF TODAY
FIRST IN A SERIES OF SERMONS ON
 MODERN CITY SHADOWS.

The Low Theater-Degradation of Our
 Amusements-The Gates of He'll In Mod
 ern Babylon-ProstItution of Medium
 For Good.
 NEW YORK, April 23.-This morning was the day fixed for the first sermon of the series of 10 sermons on the ''Shad- ows of the Modern City" to be preached by Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr., in Associa- tion hall from today to June 25. The sub iect of the sermon this morning was the "Low Theater; or, the Degradation of Our Amusements." The text chosen was:
 And when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced she pleased Herod and them that sat at meat with him, and the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and l will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, will give it thee, unto the half of my Kingdom. And she went out and said unto her mother, What shall ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist And the king was exceeding sorry, but for the sake of his oaths, and of them that sat at meat, he would not re- ject her. And straightway the king sent forth a soldier of his guard and commanded to bring his head, and he went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head in a charger and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it t0 her mOtner.-marK VI, S>7Ao
 I desire to say in the very beginning of this series word to my traditional ene- mics in New York, who for four years have been vilifying and abusing me as a seeker of notoriety. Iwould suggest to my friends, the little quill drivers of the blackguard press, the advisability of changing this tune at least once in four years. It is getting little stale now, and there are very few people in New York who do not know that this hall is already crowded beyond it's capacity and people turned away. There is no reason why the pastor should seek notoriety. There has been no possible reason during the past two years. No more people can get in the house, so what would be the use2 do not make the suggestion that Imay escape misrepresentation and false hood. I simply suggest that they may vary the lie by inventing new one, as this one now is certainly old enough to be stale.
 The scene described in our text gives us an account of one of the first theatric- al performances of which we have rec ord. This dance before Herod was 8 pio- neer performance, which has reached it's highest development in the nineteenth century. This performance was model run today. The result of the performance was the surrender of Herod to uncon- trollable passion, the yielding of his king dom to the performer and the murder of an innocent man.
 TWO VIEWS OF THE DRAMA.
 There are two views of the modern theater that today claim the larger share of the attention of the student of sociol- ogy and religion. I do not propose to enter the field of this discussion with any purpose to settle it one way or the other or to outline the possible develop ment of the theater of the future. My purpose is rather to report facts as they are for the present. And yet it is in- cumbent upon me to say in the begin ming which of these two views seems to me true. The antagonistic view held by a certain school of modern evangelical Christianity and held to by the vast majority of the Protestant church in it's active working force was expressed 8 few years ago most adequately by dis tinguished Presbyterian minister in Chi cago. This is his indictment and defni- tion of the theater:
 sI charge that the theater is often a murderous assault upon all that the fam fly circle holds most holy and sacred. I charge that it strips young women of their ordinary attire and exhibits them to the public gaze so clad that to the eye of the audience they seem and are meant to seem almost naked. You need not be told why that is done. Icharge that the shafts of wit flung across the stage are often feathered from every obscene fowl charge that the theater is the channel through which the filth and pollution of lewd and lascivious playwriters is poured into the minds of young men and young women, thus poisoning the very springs of our social life. The theater is an -in- stitution 'aUlaich has acithin tt the seeds of corruption and tohich erists only un- der q laao of degeneracy;' that the refor- nation of the theater is out of the ques- tion. and the ideal stage is simply an i'm possibility"
 That is to say, the theater is of the devil, was born in evil, is in itself sin and has no right to exist under any con- ditions. And therefore no Christian can in any possible way countenance its exis- tence or discuss it as reasonable force in civic life.
 The other view of the theatre current is admirably expressed by Henry Irving in recent lecture before the Philosoph- ical institute of Edinburgh. Iquote his exact words:
 "The drama is the heart of human na- ture in picturesque or characteristic ac- tion. The immortal part of the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes come and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives like the human soul in the body of humanity, associated with much that is inferior and hampered by many hindrances, but it never sinks into nothingness and never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and memorable excellence. The stage has no lights or shadows that are not lights of life and shadows of the heart. '
 After studying the worth of the thea, ter as stimulus to the higher faculties of the intellect, he continues, describing It's influence upon the unimaginative multitudes:
 "They are not inaccessible to passion and poetry and refinement, but theil minds do not go forth, as it were, to seek these joys. And even if they read works of poetic and dramatic fancy which they rarely do, they would miss them on the printed page. To them therefore (meaning the masses), with the exception of a few startling incidents oi