The record-union., 1897-05-09

grafton at the hands of the youthful
Queen, who, with her mother, was pres
ent at the concert
James H. Herne says: "Denounce a
theater, a certain building, a theater
given over entirely to suggestive at
fractions if you will, but do not de-
nounce the theater as an institution be-
cause it occasionally presents attractions
you would not care to have your wife or
children see. The theater is a CONNER
cial enterprise and it cannot always re-
ject, nor can it always present that
which it believes best and highest. 1t
presents that which it's patrons most
generally demand. You must yourself
select that which you desire to see or
have presented, and SO don't you see if
you absent yourself from a true play
because you believe the theater as an
institution wields an immoral influence
you will ultimately put it out of the
power of the manager to present true
play and you will degrade the true actor
and the true dramatist into becoming
pandererS for vice, because few men are
big enough to Starve in order to pre-
sent a truth his fellow constantly
reject. He will carry the truth within
himself, but he will earn bread and
butter for his family as best he can
There are good theaters and bad thea
ters; there are good plays and bad
plays; there are good actors and bad
actors; there are good men and women
on the stage and bad men and women
on the stage, just as there are good and
bad in every other walk of life. There
are good and bad preachers; there are
good and bad churches. Now l hold
that the church which is bound to
dogma, creed and superstition is an IN
fiuence for evil as great as is the evil
theater. But no sane person would
dream of denouncing the church as an
institution because some churches do
not profess the same doctrine or ad-
vance the same thoughts as others.
1T is to the credit of the theater that
one of the greatest philosophers and
grandest poets that ever lived was an
actor-William Shakespeare. If we de-
nounce the theater we must denounce
William Shakespeare, for the theater
produced him, and while we actors of
to-day honor him and eXalt him as
great dramatic poet and the master
mind of his day, we hold that the mod
ern playwright is doing his work along
lines equally exalted; that the trend OF
modern art is toward truth. Sulderman,
Ibsen, Bjornsten, Haupmann in drama;
Howells, James, Hardy and Hamlin
Garland in literature; Ennecking, Rob-
inson and others in painting; Partridge,
Taft and Miss Potter in sculpture; Dam
rOSch in music, are striking examples of
this fact. Wagner is modern, but where
in history is there to be found grander |
music and so it will not do for preach
ers and congregations to say, We'll, l
go to the theater when Shakespeare is !
presented by a man like Edwin Booth
for if they do that they are electing unto |
themselves a god and indulging in false
worship. Every man fills his time and |
place in art and the greatest is yet to |
come The artist of the past is a mys- |
terry: we look at him effectively through !
the dim vista of time which sanctifies |
him. The modern artist is modern |
man, we meet him in common with |
everyday men and women, and hence |
there is no mystery about him. AS Mr.. |
Ennecking once said no one ever dreams |
that the men he meets on the street and |
in the elevated trains every day can be |
great"
The fact that Albert Cheva1ier has |
written the libretto of a comic opera |
(called THE Land of Nod") need sur
prise no one who is fairly well ac
quainted with Mr.. Chevalier's record"