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

drama and Of its function and OF It's Pcs
s;h;lities as a rational statement OF inc
case rroviied we understand the ideai
condition Of the drama. Bot that tnisi
realized as yet, except in rare cases, -
certainly not a fact. have been a eios'
student Of the drama for SIX years
During the last year / have made
srecial Investigation Of the subject from
the moral point Of view. / speak OF WHAT
know and have seen personally. There
are few good thea:ers in New YORK,
but .hev are very few. There are few
good theaters in our other large cities,
but the bad ones outnumber the good
ten 10 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 which / speak, that it Is tho
duty of the teacher of morals today to
encourage that which is good and whole
some and to discriminate between the
good and the bad in dramatic represen-
tation.
On rare occasions through these SIX
years have attended good 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 fouiest 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-
ter1nined effort to crush ont 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 oar theaters as at present con-
Quoted are a disgrace to the morals and
an indictment Of the intelligence Of the
american nation and arc the sources Of
unreasonable corruption to our life.
maintain that this is true.
OPERA DoUFFE.
First-Because the theater is one Of
the first powers that touches young life
in our civic centers, either the life of the
youth born in the city 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
product Of city life. 1t was so in an
Gent times. 1t is so today. If the thea
ter is bad, it is becaase the city is bad.
The theater is growth of city life.
The barrenness of the city, its loneli-
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 clements CT life, and it sweeps
with resistless power the half formed
character.
In that condition of crisis in the deyel-
opment of life, in the awful craving of
the soul for the beautiful and the Joy
Gus, moral distinctions even are lost sight
of. l once knew a spinster of some 40
years of age who had never seen the
atrical production. She decided on one
occasion that she would see what the
theater was like. AS the theaters were
crowded during some great festive week,
she asked young gentleman friend to
direct her where to go. He decided to
play prank on her, knowing her train
ing and feeling sure it would be great
joke to shock her moral sensibilities by
sending her to the worst playhouse in the
| city. So he purchased the tickets and
took her to the performance of widely
known opera bouffe company.
Her friends waited for her return
that they might enjoy her indignation
and joke her about the evenings enter
talnment. But to their amazement when
she returned she was as enthusiastic as "a
child. She had never heard such mu-
sic. She declared she had never seen
anything SO beautiful in all her life. She
had never seen such an array of beauti-
full color, in such harmony, such gor.
geous profusion of all the elements that
charm and delight the soul. She was
literally carried out of herself over this
production, which was a moral abomi-
nation. So hungry was the Door soul
for music, SO barren had been her life Of
| all that makes for beauty and Joy, that
1t had been impossible t-r her to fhink
of moral distinctions.
So in this awful need of human nature
in the city the theater enters, and while
the soul is intoxicated with the sense of
beauty begins to instill even uncon-
Eciously the seeds of moral death. There
are elements in the life Of the country
districts which answer to this need not
found in the city. Those who live in the
country have the beauties and glories of
nature. They can live in her, move In
her and have their being in the beauty of
landscape and mountain, in field and
meadow. Besides, in our country towns
today In America there have been estab-
ilshed a system Of 1yceum entertain
ments and lectures Of the very highest
order. These things occupy the life Of
1 - eliC 1Q0QT0S.
Inc city fails to provide as yet such CEN
tiers OF intellectual relaxation and social
improvement. 1t is to the theater that
young manhood and womanhood irnme-
dlately go in the city for amusement. II
the sum total of the influences Of thu
theater be Overwhelmingly evil, how ter
rible must be the results!
Out OF all the theaters in the city of
new York You can count on the fingers
OF one hand those that are conducted
upon strictly decent principles. And
even these are now and then disgraced
/ Dy performances which for the time prt
them en- the level of the lower centers of
eVii. Some years ago, when a distin--
guished minister undertook an investipa-
non OF the underworld of New York CITY.
ne started out one evening at 10 O'clock