The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-10-31

80. eS8tns the very nit VI nc thSa1EE
depends upon It's sinful environments.
II In a startling comment. startling and
iamentabie because II IL known to be
true. that there IL not a theater In the
United States to-day which Ii sustained
ana made profitable by pure drama or
by morally unobjectionabie plays alone.
Even Shakespeare's matchless plays
fall nat as a financial venture. except
only an actor of worldwide reputation
has been the attraction. end then only
Tor a brief engagement.
And then. too. the theater II COM
monty thanked on either side with liquor
saloons. the windows OF which are free
ly utilized for billboards and pernicious
pictures. The brothals and gambling
dens are within easy reach. and in some
cases they are operated as a kind of
annex The entire surrounding atmos-
phere OF h theater is fetid and un-
wholesome.
The theater also is a corruption of
the youth. oh. that theater.' said an
agonized mother OF a felon son, he was
a ~virtuous. kind boy until that theater
proved his ruin.'
or Is young men from country towns
employed In a publishing house In New
York. IL In a few years were led to de-
structfon by the playhouse. The thea
ter does not possess the element of
amusement that Il necessary to recrea-
y 1919 kl(
play tend to make II an occasion OF dis
sipation rather than a time to recuper
ate exhausted powers. There Ii a fasci-
nation In the theater that makes IL per-
ilous. particularly for the young. There
Is a charm In sin that makes IL sweet.
"A French actress held aloft a. glasS
or water in her jeweled hand and ex-
Claimed: oh. II 1t were only a little
wicked to sip that water. how sweet II
would taste There is a spice in sin
that for the momen sweetens pleasure.
The stage is gilded sin that f~ascinates
and decoys.
How many heaters have been formed
on the model of Jack Sheppard? How
many blasphemers have gained his
proficiency I'm the glittering palaces of
SIN, where profanity is often the Keen
est spice OF the star actor?
Those facts are all of them worth
considering. at least for n one who
Is interested in worthy citizenship and
pure manhood. But for the one who is
reaching after Christian life there Is
still another fact TO consider: habitual
theatergoing Is destructive to Christian
life. pom this point / ask you to take
other testimony than my own. Rev.
Smith Buker OF Minneapolis The
effect or th~eatergoing is always to
deaden the spiritual life and to destroy
the spiritual influence DIR. Henry A.
Swinson of Broadwater tabernacle, New
York, says: My own conviction is that
IL Is utterly destructive of Christian
life. DIR. Il. II. Goodwin of Chicago
says: IF anything may be called
worldly, saturated through and through
with a spirit that antagonizes the spirit
OF Christ and His gospel, it is the thea
ter
II might quote indefinitely from the
opinions of leading divines. but there
Is unanimity in Ii all. BY common
consent the theater and active. efficient
Christian life sustain to each other an
eternal enmity. But admitting that all
OF these things are true, may not the
stage be purified? If good. moral,
Christian people should lend 1t their in
huence might not the objectionable
features be removed and the onder-
ful influence of the stage be legitimate
ly retained as an educative power?
But this question has long been ask
ed, and the attempts have been fire.
quently made. Garriek tried IL and fail
ed, Macready. Henry Irving, Edwin
Booth, Claiming, allDtried il and fail
ed. Governments. both ancient and
modern, have made the attempt to no
avail. A New England committee of
high-minded gentlemen. with every adj
vantage on their side. tried IT so years
ago and failed. The hope of that kind
of reform is childish delusion. For
more than 1000 years in every age and
under every condition the attempt to
realize the ideal stage has been the
dream of the choicest minds.
But the pure. helpful. uplifting stage
has never been realized. and from the
very nature OF the case IL never can
be. Vileness and impuritv enter as a
first principle into the very structure
of the successful theater. Remove this
one factor. and that which gives II vi
tally and life has departed. But may
not these views be the conclusions of
bigotry. of churchly notions that are
unreasonable. and out of harmony with
good judgment and good sense? Their |
undoubtedly are fanatics upon the
question of the theater as well as upon
every other question I'm practical ethics.
But we cannot accuse the philosophers
and historians OF Greece and Rome for
600 years before Christ OF Christian |
bigotry. Plato was not a religious
crank. the Americans who signed the
Declaration of Independence were not
bigots. The naked facts as they exist
to-day are sufficient to silence the
charge OF bigotry.
what then shall I do in regard to the |
theater. do you ask? I reply as at the
beginning. that II is n matter for YOU
to settle In the light Of your own con-
science, and Of your better Judgment. |
Can n man take fire into his bosom
and not be burned?' If the theater
Is the plague Of our civilization and
the very hot he'd Of vice. would IL not
seems that IL we care for our own char
acters and the purity Of our lives. |
IL would be well to let IL alone. We
know that II has a sure tendency to
tear down the moral convictions of the |
soul. We enc that II pan
ders to lust and arouses
passion and suggests impurity. |
we know that II diss'nates the energies
or life and that IL throttles Christian
character. n knowing this. does IL
seem wise to patronize an institution
which perfumes sin with roses and
crowns IL with garlands? The pathetic
lines Of Coleridge that were suggested |
at a theater will not be inappropriate |
in this connection:
" Maiden. that with sullen brow
Sitt'st behind those virgins gay
Like a scorched and widowed bough.
Iaafess through the blooms Of Nav.