Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-07-16

stretch out hand to save her is ostra-
ciEed. am in favor of talent and high
art and every upward step of the human
race, but-Oh, ,artl Oh, talentl how many
crimes are committed in thy namel
Who will call a halt in this onward
march to social debaucheryo The
thoughtful men in every age have cried
aloud against these evils, but the world
has answered back: 1T is fashionable,
it Is talent, it is high art"
Plato, the old Grecian philosopher,
said: 1.-The diversions of the stage are
dangerous to the temper and sobriety
of the mind. Those passions are cher
ished which ought to be checked. Vir-
tue loses ground and reason becomes
uncertain. The play raises the pas
sions and perverts the use of them, and
the consequences are dangerous to
morality" Joseph Addison said: "It
is one of the most unaccountablet things
that the lewdness of our stage should
be SO much complained of, so well ex-
posed and SO little repressed."
The Chicago Times some time ago in
giving an account of a performance
said: twenty-five years ago such an
exhibition as is nightly made in this
class of amusements in the most matter
of fact way would have come nigh
landing the whole party in police sta
tion." The New York correspondent
of the London Contemporary Review
said some time ago: ''The theaters
patronized by the roughs in the Bowery
of London were less immoral than
those patronized by the residents Of
Fifth avenue, New York"
The rubbish and filth of the stage are
appalling. The immortality and immod-
est conduct of high society is more ap-
palling. l am for modesty of dress,
purity of morals, and the downfall of
everything that ministers to passion
and vice, art or no art. Our civilization
can do better without high art than
with low morals. In fact we can sur
render everything except the manhood
of our men and the virtue of our
women, and still have the basis of all
that is good left, but whatever tends to
unmanlincss or to despoil the purity of
women Hampers with the foundation,
and the Bible truly asks the question:
''If the foundation be destroyed what
can the righteous do?"
Enjoying the pleasures of sin for q
season is the curse of the age. So few
look ahead; so few have wisdom enough
to look at tendencies and directions.
Oscar Wilde is specimen of what
"high art" will do for character. His
mother now needs the sympathy and
care of her ex-daugh:er-in-law. / see
it announced that Mrs. Leslie has gone
over to sympathize with her.
High art and high society are schools
for scandal and they not only talk and
act scandalous, but are now furnishing
the scandal for the world. l suppose
that in my preaching to the masses over
this country l have been considered q
blackguard by Oscar Wilde, and yet to-
day the wholesome lessons which have
tried to enforce upon the masses would
have saved him from the disgrace into
which his own excesses have plunged
him, and not only plunged him, but
dragged others after him. Humanity
forms a circle in it's social life, and the
Four Hundred of any community and
the buns and thugs and harlcts are
closest to each other in character and
moral condition. The middle class oc-
cupies the farthest place from both the
dude and the thug on the rim OF the
circle. SAM P. JONES.