The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-29
Mr.. MILBURNON THEATER
HE BY NO MEANS AGREES WITH REV
MIR. HARE's IDEAS.
The stage Has Elements of Noble
Power and GOOdness-Vice
Only Accidental to 1t.


marks of Rev. Mr.. Hare denouncing the
stage. AS coincidence, Mr.. Otis Skinner,
who so ably replied to Mr.. Hare. and Mrs.
Skinner were in the congregation that
heard Mr.. Milburn. Mr.. Milburn said in
part:
"a second law of criticism is this: that it
must always be based on fact. Our Lord
said, Judge not that We be. not judged
and, of course, Christ could never have
meant this injunction to negate all criti-
cism. What then did He mean? He sim
ply meant this, think, that judgment of
must never be a surmise, must never be a
guess; but must always be based upon fact.
Iberore we seek to undo anything we must
know what we are undoing; before we seek
70 chaSt1se we must know what we are
chastlsing; before we censure we must
know that there is something to censure.
we must not lift our hand to smite inn
aginary faults or imaginary SINS And
peclally is this true touching personal
character, the most priceless of all possess
Sons, the most dear thing to every high
minded mana thing for which nothing can
compensate him, and for which no apollo
gles and no retractions can ever make
atonement when it is once taken away
when once any one has done us a wrong
IL can never be wiped out, it can never be
squared, and the atonement, even If 1T be
offered, will never be quite swift enough to
catch up with the evil done. And hence the
need of every man knowing exactly what
ne says when he says anything critically
l do not believe the gospel that you and l
are always to speak sweet words about
people. l do not believe that we are to
close our eyes and to say that everything
is fair. l believe that the supreme obliga-
ton of every human. soul is to be truthful,
that we are to see things they are and
to say things as we see them. Indeed, we
ought all to be far more honest than we
are In our dealings with each other. My
charge against the world is not that it is
too critical but that it is not honestly crit
lcaL 1T is suave to your face and treacher-
Gus behind your back, and it is so because
as a people, we have not learned that there
is certain beauty, a certain greatness a
certain mark of nobility in the attitude of
ISLANDER IN HEARsAY.
but while 1 believe that man should
be outspoken in his criticism, l also be-
lieve it is very great baseness and a very
great cowardice for any human being to
speak i'll of another or consciously with
out knowing what he is speaking about.
IN other words, he should confine his criti-
clsm to facts. That man is a slanderer
VINO speaks Ill of any one in the dark or
on mere vague hearsay. The only honora-
Die criticism is the criticism of the knowing
mind-a criticism that is superimposed upon
facts.
And it seems to me that this is not
only true in regard to personal character,
but also in regard to social institutions.
ANY institution has a standing and char
acter to maintain just as an individual has
IL mas a position before the world and a
good name to defend, and while every hon.
est man has right and should consider
1t his duty to reveal the faults of any in
Stltutlon that touches the public life, he
should be sure that he is dealing with
1acts, and not with fancy, when he criti-
ciSeS
II am persuaded that the Incorporate
charges that we have read in the past week
concerning the stage would have been obvi-
ated II the pastor of one of our churches
I nad based his criticisms upon things as
they are and not upon things as they APP
pear to his mind. quite apart from reality.
Mr. Hare IS a noble and upright man and
q devoted minister and we all honor him:
but when he denounces a great institution
without Limitation he is doing serious in
justice to himself, serious injustice to
great profession and a serious injustice to
great institution. Personally, l never go
to the theater, but / believe the theater has
IN 1t elements of noble power and goodness.
Of course, We all deplore the accidental
vices associated with the theater Just as
we deplore the vices and hypocriSies asso-
ciated with the church or with any other
institution. But we always learn to dis
tinguish between the accidents and the es-
sence of thing. Vice is not the essence;
It is the accident of the stage. 1t does not
belong to the theater as a moral property,
as part of the intrinsic being; it is an ex-
crescence, just as it is everywhere else.
The stage, no doubt has done and yet does
great harm, but whenever the stage makes
an appeal to the baSer passions to the
lower nature in man by its sensuality and
should be cenSured, and censured with Sc
we're words. But we must remember that
II, on the other side, the stage has done
harm by reason of the accidents that have
grown on 1t like parasites, it has also, by
reason OF its essential worth and beauty
done great and glorious good in the world.
Certainly Hamlet beautifully portrayed
could be nothing but an inspiration to any
sane man; Othello' is full of deep and en-
and much of the Eizabethian drama,
slightly expurgated, together with much
of the drama that has come down to us
since the Elizabethan day, is beneficial in
structive, helpful, bringing as it does be-
fore our eyes the great crucial situations
OF our life and making virtue impressive,
as 1T never would be impressive in the alb
stract, and vice hateful as it never would
be hateful in the abstract.
NOBLE PEOPLE ON THE STAGE.
"And surely the stage would never have
drawn to it the noble men and women that
it has drawn-such men as Garrick and Ed
mund Keene and Macready and Forrest
and Edwin Booth and Lawrence Barrett
and Joseph Jefferson, such examples of
womanhood as Janauscheck and Modjeska
and Mary Anderson and Fanny Kemble,
unless in its utmost heart it had been pure
and beautiful.
And have no doubt that in the years
to come the stage will be made, by the de-
mand of the evolving conscience and sensi-
DlHIy Oh the human race, one or the great
est and most impressive of all the institu-
tons OF righteousness, that it will be a
power greater morally than the press
power greater morally than literature, that
1t will be almost unique among the forces
or the world in inspiring men and women to
right living and noble conduct and in deter
ring men and women from wrong doing
and ignoble lives. And hence, in our crit
lclSmS or the stage, we must learn to dis
tlngutSh the false from the true and it's
f-nyr oil rsx.k,.
In other words, we must build our crit
iclsm, II we want to be effective upon fact
and not upon imagination and surmise. We
must make our criticism dscriminatiVe.
Just, real, so that while we denounce the
evil we shall lift up and applaud the good,
even in the drama.
And as a last word let me say that
remote. What l mean by this is, we
should criticise our own that we know
rather than others that we do not know
There is somewhat of the critical spirit in
all or us, and We may all put 1t to good pur-
pose If we Will only put it where it will
conserve its energy and where it will do
the most good Criticism is force that we
wisely and judiciously. But if we are to
use it wisely and judiclously we must use
1t within a narrow compass. Shall we crit
icise the church, then let us criticise our
own denomination let US criticise Presby-
terianism and see wherein the Presbyteri-
an Church contains within itself elements
that menace the unity of the church. ele-
Lords march. Shall we criticise the theol-
ogy of the church, then let us look at our
own. The Roman Church has it's faults
no doubt, its weaknesses, and so has the