Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-05-03

lows from all this that the stage is intel
lectually and morally to all who have
recourse to it source of some of the
finest and best influences of which they
are respectively susceptible.
ITO the thoughtful and reading man it
brings the life, the fire, the color, which
are beyond the reach of study. To the
common, Indifferent man, immersed as a
rule in the business and socialities Of
daily life, it brings visions of glory and
adventure, of emotion and of broad hui
man interest. 1t gives glimpses of the
heights and depths of character and ex-
perience, setting him thinking and Won
dering even in the midst of amusement.
To the most torpid and unobservant it
exhibits the humorous in life and the
/ sparkle and fnesse of language which in
dull, ordinary existence is stupidity shut
out of knowledge or omitted from par
/ ticular notice. Be it observed, and put
it most uncompromisingly, | am not
thinking or speaking of an unrealizable
ideal, not of any lofty imagination of
what might be, but of what is, wherever
there are pit and gallery and footlights. |"
TRUTH AND ERROR IN EACH VIEW.
There is truth in both of these views,
and there is error. What Irving says of
the stimulating influence of the drama
is true, but when he declares that this is
an actual condition wherever there are pit
and gallery and footlights he has con-
fused ideals in his own mind with the
actualities of life, or else he has supposed
that his theater is the standard not only
of London, but of all theaters of the
world, which is manifest absurdity. |
would accept Mr. Irving's. view of the
drama and of its function and of its pos
sibilities as a rational statement of the
case provided we understand the ideal
condition of the drama. But that this is
realized as yet, except in rare cases, is
certainly not fact. have been close
student OF the drama for six years.
During the last year have made a
special investigation of the subject from
the moral point Of view. speak of what
know and have seen personally. There
are few good theaters in New York,
but they are very few. There are few
good theaters i'll our other large cities,
but the bad ones outnumber the good
ten to one. There are good plays, and
there are bad plays. There are plays
that are wholesome and that are helpful,
and wish there were more of them pro-
duced today in America. | have come
to the deliberate conclusion, after the
study of winch / speak, that it is the
duty of the teacher of morals today to
encourage that which is good and whole
some and to discriminate between tho
good and the bad in dramatic represen-
tation.
On rare occasions throtgh these six
years have attendedlgoo,. ,theaters with
helpful results to myself. But the great
est care must be exercised by any man
who goes TO theater today lest he bring
himself in contact with the vilest and
the foulest possible action, which today
dominates the theatrical world
The men who are trying to give the
public the highest class OF entertainment
and instruction in the theater should be
sustained and encouraged, and it is time
that this element united with the Chris
tan sentiment of the community in de-
termined effort to crush out or at least
to muzzle the evil influences of the low
playhouses. The plain truth ISL say
it deliberately; | say it from personal
knowledge and from study, without pref
udice:
Most Of our Hedters as at present con-
Quoted are disgrace to the morals and
an indictment Of The intelligence Of the
american nation and are the sources Of
unreasonable corruption to'our life.
| maintain that this is true
OPERA BoUFFE.
First-Because the theater is one of
the first powers that touches young life
in our civic centers. eyrher the life of the
youth born in the q ty or of the new
blood which pours into the city from the
country. To the theater they go first TO
see the city. The truth is that the city
has created the theater. The theater is
a product of city life. 1t was so in an
Gent times. 1t Is so today. If the thea
ter is bad, it is because the city is bad
The theater is growth of city life.
The barrelness of the city, its loneh-
ness, its dull round Of uninteresting toll,
its gloom and despair, have created the
theater as the reaction inevitable from
such conditions. In the life of the city
there is an awful need of cheer and re-
Taxation, of amusements, of change from
rush and din and roar and grind and bur
den and toll. The city is the loneliest spot |
on Gods earth--that is. for the average
man or woman. The theater is created |
by this morbidly developed need in the
human soul. The theater first touches |
character in the city in this hour of
crisis, in the reaction and recoil from
these dull elements of life, and it sweeps |
with resistless power the half formed |
character.
In that condition of crisis in the devel- |
opment of life, in the awful craving of
the soul for the beautiful and the joy
Ous, moral distinctions even are lost sight |
of. / once knew a spiaster of some 40