The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-04-27
TWO VIEWS OF THE DRAMA.

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. 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. Ny
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
q certain school of modern evangelical
Christianity and held to by the vast
majority of the Protestant church in its
active working force was expressed a
few years ago most adequately by dis
tinguished Presbyterian minister in Chi
cago This is his indictment and defni-
ton of the theater:
81 charge that the theater is often q
murderous assault upon all that the fam
lily circle holds most holy and sacred. l
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 'Thicb has lcithin ID the seeds
Of corruption and aUhich e5cistS only I'M
der laec Of degenerdcy' that the refor-
nation of the theater is out of the ques-
ton, 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 q 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 a reasonable force
in civic life.
The other view Of the theatre current
is admirably expressed by Henry Irving
in a recent lecture before,the Philosoph-
ical institute Of Edinburgh. Iquote his
exact words:
'The drama is the heart Of human ma
ture in picturesque or characteristic ac-
ton. The immortal part Of the stage is
its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and
interludes come and go, but this lasts
on forever, 1t lives like the human soul
In the body of humanity, associated with
much that is inferior and hanpered 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"
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
eian 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
~ hChpcAd1Siyb ouJ AZ llOul pcIbOudl
knowledge and from study, without pref
udice:
Most o. our theaters 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
inmeasurabIe corruption 10 oar 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, 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 tc
see the city. The truth is that the city
has created the theater. The theater il
a product of city life. 1t was SO in an.
cient times. 1t is so today. If the thea
ter is bad, it is because the city Is bad
The theater is a growth Of city life.