The record-union., 1899-02-27
THE STAGE MUST LIVE.
1T WILL CONTINUE AS LONG AS
THE RACE.
But It Must Become An Agency
for the Uplifting Of
Mankind.

But It Must Become An Agency
for the Uplifting Of
Mankind.
prepared by H. H. Richmond for the
Monday Night Club of Auburn.)
In considering the stage in the pres
ent tense and tendency, as in consider
ing other problems with reference to
moral solutions, we should always con-
slider the ideal as we'll as the real. Prob
ably no one will claim for the present
stage that conditions are necessities.
Now, as to the ideal stage. Just as
surely as the appetite for sugar plums
is a fixture with juveniles, just so sure
ly there is planted in a good portion OF
the race love for stage enactments.
We encourage among the young the
reading of good books of romance. Ev-
cry book of that character passes I'M re-
view the represented acts of supposed
actors. More than this, it is an undis-
puted fact that in majority of cases
our best authors take bases of fact for
their fiction. The great moral lessons
of our didactic writer's can better be
impressed, in the degree that they cor
respond to actual occurrences. BuiWer
in his beautiful book THE Last Days
of Pompeii" first made himself ac-
quainted with the excavated city and
could locate the houses and haunts of
Diomed, Glaucus and Arbaces. From
this groundwork he proceeded to repeo-
pie the silent castles that had sunk
eighteen centuries before under the not
l., T. 81 q
sublime thought, and the sad and pit
eous figure and the hopeless passion
of blind Nydia was a poetical contribu-
ton of the great author. Who will tell
me to-day that true presentation OF
this work, properly dramatized is of it,
self injurious?
Take Dickens pathetic fiction of Lit
tie Nell,' culled from the "Old Curios-
ity Shop" that picture of faithfulness
the old schoolmaster, the grandfather
justifying his questionable practices
with the thought of making the life of
his grandchild one of ease. The story
of poor Rick, wrecking his life in the
grind of the old Chancery Court; the
story of poor Joe; the tragic death of
Lady Dedlock; the sweet and whole
some story of Esther Summerson, and
hundred other incidentals of BLEAK
House." all call for faithful enactment
on the stage, by characters worthy of
their enactment.
Take the grand moral drama that
glitters from every page of the familiar
ante bellum story of Uncle Tom s
Cabin and who shall deny the beauty
and positive good coming from the ideal
presentation of this work? But a hun
dred- authors spring up in our minds
with all the play of fancy that should
glitter an angels wing, whose stage
presentations should serve to elevate
on the ideal stage.
Even the religious fervor that leads
to the periodical presentation of ''The
Passion Play" at ODER Amergau, can
hardly be wholly reprehensible. We
shudder at the thought of~-any poor
human attempting to enact stage
representation of the Lowly Nazarene,
but we. must bear in mind that the en-
tire presentation by the humble peas
antry is in response to religious duty
Take the best dramas and tragedies
of Shakespeare and Bulwer, and we
rise from their perusal. unconsciously,
perhaps, with the desire to see them
staged as they should be staged. So
far as our best fiction writer's are con-
cerned the unfortunate thing is that
they do not reserve their rights OF
ultimate dramatization. Very unfortu-
nate is the fact that we SO
many times rise from the pc
rusal of an excellent book, one that
to use the common phrase, leaves no
bad taste in the mouth, to see it bla-
zoned in high colors on the boards, as
dramatized by Smith, Jones or Brown,
and if we happen to see it's stage pre-
sentation, we find that presentation to
be positive mutilation of the work
You all have acquaintance who
would shun the very appearance of the
supposed evil that attaches to theater
going, who would not hesitate to see
stage presentation of Uncle Toms
Cabin And how many times are they
shocked to find their ideal Eva a meta
morphised little girl Phenomenon, who
has so lately been staging as phe-
nomenal little dancer, that she cannot
to save herself put on the angelic and
pathetic features of the SANITY Eva.
And then there is always an enlarge
ment of Lawyer Marks and an in
creased number of mules.
And this brings us from the ideal
to the actual In the first place, it
must be borne in mind that the author
that produces the best effect is always
that one who so blends the humorous
with the pathetic as to form a happy
balance. How many times have our
voices choked up if reading aloud, and
Ill ls,,x~
at the pathetic scenes that are multi
piled in Dickens. But there is always
that incidental humor bubbling up SO
naturally and so soon that our sadness
is changed to mirth and our tears to
laughter Unfortunately, however,
there are a class of authors whose
works, though beautiful, are not dis
creetly balanced. In the processes of
dramatizing in these cases the mirth
must be toned down, or coptrawise the
merriment must be enlarged. This
could be easily and naturally done by
the author himself or herself. But,
perhaps, they have passed away, and
some stage tinker has taken their
beautiful and chaste works into his
hands. and the result is the superlative
of the grotesque.
There is no question as to actual con-
ditions, and no doubt as to the present
baleful tendencies of the stage. That
borderland so frequently traversed from
stage to demi monde, is an existing bor-
derland with but very dim boundary
lines Not that this is altogether so.
I have never allowed myself to. fall
into the fatalism so often repeated
that continued chastity. is an impossi-
-kxa1r "A