The Topeka state journal., 1897-11-09
IT WAS NOT DECENT.
'sGirI From Paris Unfit for
Self Respecting Theater GOers
Plays Like This Now Coming
Faster and Faster.
Indicates a Falling Down in the
Moral Tone of the People or
of the Entertainers

Many people who would not venture
into the haunts of vice, will sometimes
| (perhaps unwittingly) pay a dollar and
half to go to a theater and see the
same things that are part of the enter
tainment furnished parties of young
men in the tenderloin districts of the
large cities. The Girl from Paris at
the Crawford theater last night furn-
iShed one or two sketches apparently
modelled after familiar scenes from
houses that are usually kept under the
close inspection of the police. No place
except in such houses and in plays like
The Girl from Paris do young women
in revealing skirts and their young
men companions play leap frog and
turn SOmersaultS for the evident pur-
pose of an indecent exhibition. ReV.
DR.. Parkhurst was regaled with such
entertainment when ne made his tour
of the disOrderly houses OF New York.
But the nice respectable theater gOer
does not have to make such tours in
ORDER to witness some OF the scenes
from such places. He COR she) may buy
ticket to a play like The iGrI from
Paris, and they viii get all they ought
to expect for $1.5O. 1t was nOticeao ole
last night that no one got up and lett
the Iheater.
The people of Topeka were scarcely
forewarned in time about the character
of The Girl from Paris Few knew
how bad it was. If they had, doubt
less many would not have
Girl from Paris are getting to be more
numerous every year. Every burlesque,
every farce, every musical comedy, now
seems TO be tainted. One has to take
the fOulneSs, whether he wishes 1t or
not, in order to get the fun. Why can't
we have the fun undehled2
The most unpleasant feature of i'm
moral performances on the stage, now
adays, is that the audience, men or WO-
men. rarely manifest disapprovaL Per-
haps they do not disapprOVe-
In these giddy days at the last end of
the nineteenth century, II appears that
no one is ashamed OF anything. The
.'maidenly blush of mOdesty'' is gone or
going. Many women viii sit at in
decent show and laugh as heartily as
the men at the double entendres and
the exhibitions of lingerie or lack of it
by the shameless creatures who pose
and posture SuggeStiVely behind the
foOthghts in plays like The Girl from
Paris Is this part of the ''emancipa-
tion of the seX?" Are these the new
women?
The spectacle of a lot of men and
women sitting brOadmOuthed side by
side watching an exhibition of indecen-
cy on the stage suggests steWlng and
Steaming sewer.
The leading character of The Girl
from Paris is a cOurtezan who has in
veigled an elderly man into her room
ana then an indignant brother bursts
in and demands satisfaction, that is,
money. The whole play reVOlVes around
the efforts of the victim to prevent his
wife from finding out about the affair.
The creature who plays the leading
part, is not pretty but she is an artist
in indelicate poses and situations One
of the strong cards in her stage buSi-
ness and one which secured several
recalls, was a dance in which the skirts
are elevated in front with the hands
and an arch of petticOats formed at the
back of which the neither limbs of the
actress are visible considerably above
the knees. Everyone can imagine how
excruciatingly charming and refined
that would be-and so funny, too. There
were scores of exposures like this ac-
cOmpanied by winks, and mods, etc.
Most people go to the theateT to be en-
tertained and they enjoy Wit and hu-
nor; they ask for fun, but it is safe to
say that the majority of theater gOerS
prefer their fun unadulterated with
nastiness. There are men and perhaps
women, who occasionally slip below the
proper standard on the moral plane,
but even they, as a rule, prefer their
immortality and their entertainment un-
mixed. The Girl from Paris" is filth,
yelled and shrOuded, it is true, but
filth from beginning TO end.