The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-10
REEKS WITH FILTH.
New York Goes Quite Beyond
Itself in ''The COnquerOrs.

New York, Jan. 1O.-Dramatfst and
manager have crossed the Rubicon.
For audacity and violence. rather than
strength, 1.-The Conquerors, produced
by the stock company of the Empire
tbeater caps the climax. The piece
is from the pen of the young man who
leaped into prominence by placing
''Trilby' behind the fOOtlights but Du-
Maurier's creation is purity persona
fed alongside the diSagreeable subject
handled without gloves this time 1t
is a spectacular drama. Its fault vii.
hardly kill it. for nowadays brOadneas.
audacity and coarseness are life-sav-
erS. Polite language cannot express
the gOings-On in this production; it
simply attends good taste and passes all
limits hitherto set upon the metropoli-
tan stage. The metropolitan theater-
gOers are liberal minded, but it remains
to be seen whether they are ready to
swallow the vilest play Broadway has
ever housed, even if the players are fine
The following from one of New
YOrk's leading dramatic critics PUBLISH
ed in the Journal, attracts much atten-
ton:
To the Editor of the Journal:
Isn't it time that we had a public
censor for our theaters? Where is This
most unspeakabIe scenes that are
nightly enacted at our leading theaters
are allowed to continue without let or
hindrance2 AS one of a NUM- Der of
playwrights who must look to the the
alter managers to exploit his wares, I
must protest against this deliberate de-
bauching of the theatrical market. By
what moral right does Mr.. Charles
FrOhman, one of our foremost mana
gers, whose prosperous enterprises
should certainly teach him a little of
the obligation of his rank dare to pro-
duce such piece as THE Conquer
OrS2" If there were some noble truth
underlying the filth that he presents,
we might pardon it But it is so bald
n a fO FOfGf cf he
upon respectable theatergoers that IT is
time for those who love the theater to
cry out. I am not one of those mall
contents who fight Mr.. Frohman or his
sO-called syndicate, for I admire the
power for good that is behind him; but
if we who devote our lives to the
furnishing of material for the stage are
brought face to face with the truth that
our successful livelihood depends upon
supplying the wares that Mr.. FrOhman
is now Offering (wares that have in
Guided 1.-THE Founding" THE Night
Session. 1.-THE Proper Caper" and 9TH
er dainties of that sort), we owe it to
our self-respect to demand remedy
1t is all very well for the superior
wording to console himself with the
claim that the theater is not for the
young person''-but it is exactly on
that point that take issue with him.
I trust the day Will never come when
the Americans love of decency viii so
absolutely desert him that he can take
pleasure in any realm Of art TO which
he cannot invite his family.
Is not the hour at hand when men
who write for the stage and still wish
to hold a lofty ideal should unite to find
some means Of cOunteracting the pres
ent decandence2 By that I do not
mean that we should esta blish a haven
for di1ettanti with rejected manuscripts
but that we should bend our efforts to
forming a corporation of cur oWn-a
syndicate, if you wiil-fOr launching de-
cent plays by experienced writer's
whose aims are little above the pro-
mitigation of literature that ought to be
suppressed.
SYDNEY ROSENF EL4I9a
Lotus Club, January 5, 1898.