Omaha daily bee., 1896-12-27

| tainm .nts which have been offered recently
At local theaterse and In consideration fur
/ ther OF the charge OF vulgarity or worss
which has been made against them, an In.
! quiry as to whatrthings are unseemly upo"
The stage and an Investigation of Che duty
Of critics In telling with this question may
not lack pertinence. THE Lady slavey, ~
which showed at the Creighton last week,
is said by some 20 have been indecent \
more or less esteemed contemporary quotes
from The s9ritually-minded ALAN Dale to
prove that IL was not a thing for an honest
girl to take her parents to see. And The
Bee has been censurcd for praistng the per
! formancc instead OF holding 1t up to the eN-
ocrai ions of mankind,
! Now. It will be generally admitted that In
Theory, and from the standpoint OF nature
Ideally just, equable and perfect, vulgarity is
vulgarity wherever and whenever found.
Even 10 minds somewhat less nicely ad-
!usted the coarseness prevalent in dramatic
representations seems the most serious him
drancc to the Advancement of the stage
which a degenerate age presents. Public
taste runs in low channels, and the public
demand lis for variety and for the other
spicts of life. Managers who are managing
first OF all for revenue and long way after
for aesthetic and philanthropic ends, cater
to tho public taste and demand as they find
them, taking advantage, like skillfu navi-
ward over treacherous sea. There are
others, and all honor Is due them, who
struggle to raise the tone of the drama and
to create and foster a more general prefer
once for higher things. But that way Is
long and weary one, and few there be that
have the grace or the ability to remain
| IN 1t.
Under these circumstances, and even with
the stage it Is today, 1t would seem
waste of time and energy to try to hoist 1t
s,t, NA,.,g hoe
abuses for which the public in fostering
them with its insistent demands, is more
than half responsible. Besides standards
and criterions change. One generation-nay,
one seasOn-may tolerate what the last con
demned and what the next will voCiferously
applaud. Thirty years ago Adah Isaacs Men
lon was looked upon as the fount and or
ign of all iniquity because she enacted
'Mazeppa' In costume not much different
from that which thousands of chorus girls
will wear tonight without conscious or sug-
gcsted Improperly. Reputable women at
that time were not seen at representations
of The Black Crook" and even men care
full Of their regulations went to Niblo's on
the sly. Nowadays. the spectacle of many
colored feshings filled out in more or less
ample measure with female loveiness, Is so
common as not to shock the most delicate
sensibilitics; and Mazeppas clothed only in
a single coat of bronze paint have been
suffered to adOrn the stage in New York
CITY.
There are so many sides to this question
of propriety-so many things enter into it,
that unreserved condemnation of any cited
offense is very seldom called for. One mans
meat is doubtless another mans poison, and
what affords a great amount of pleasure,
without doing a great amount of harm, to
thousands of honest men and women has
surely insofar established its claim to kindly
treatment. To some tastes the humor of
old Rabelais and the intense virlity of the
mn rn m lie In hn hnr
Others, while still deploring the license of
thought and language which these writer's
permitted themselves, find a warm-blooded
quality and an all-embracing humanity in
them which goes far to excuse the coarse
ness in which, they clothe themselves.
A safe general proposition would seem to
be that things are vulgar and indecent
either on or off the stage, pretty much in
proportion as they are intended to be so
On this basis, although there are parts of
"The Lady Slavey' which are undeniably
Rabelalslan in their humor, they do not
seem to the writer to overstep very seri-
ously the bounds set for decent and reputa-
BILE performances.
vast deal of fun is made of Richard
Mansfield just now, because in the course
of the trial of a suit for damages brought
against him for an alleged breach of con
tract by a female member of his company
1t transpired that he had used violent Ian
tured, unbidden, to sit in his presence. Now
it Is the fashion in very many quarters to
rail at Mr.. Mansfeld's supposed autocratic
tendencies and to ridicule certain idiosyn-
crasies of his which are set down rather to
affectation than to genius Such a handle
as the episode referred to is too evident to
be missed, and the photographers have al
ready seized upon it and begun the dreary
round of their pleasantly.
Unquestionably there are many things
about Mr. Mansfield which are not at all ad-
mirable. The same may be said of a num-
Der of others. But in the case noted, IL is
not unlikely that he may have been entirely
right in resenting the familiarity of a mem
Der of his company who sat instead of
standing before him. If she sat under GER
tain circumstances. such, for example as
during a rehearsal. at the table in the center |
used by the director such a glazing breach |
Of stage etiquette would not go unrebuked |
by any self-respectlng stage manager 1t |
would be much the same as If the head OF |
a great mercantile establishment, arriving |
at his office, found his desk and chair oC. |
cupied by a clerk who showed no DISPOSE |
tion to vacate them at his employers an |
proach. Mr.. Mansfield is often enough |
blamed for things for which he is to blame |
In this case it may very well be that he |
was quite within his province both of man
ager and gentleman.