The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-13
DO WE LOVE VILLAINsr

WliiaIn GluetLe, the actor and play
wright has dramatized Dr. Conan Doyle 5
Sherlock Holmes" Sherlock Holmes was
a wonderful detective. The play, there
fore. is a detective story adapted to the
stage. 1t abounds in bad men, who are
run to earth by the hero. AT the begin
ming of the career of the play a short time
ago Mr.. Gillette was called before the cur
tain by the audience, and made a short
speech. The substance of what he said
was that heretofore he had tried to keep
villains out of the plays he wrote-he has
written quite a number-but that he was
now convinced that the people loved vii
lains, and were willing to pay for them
literally. Therefore, should he write an
other play, he would put villains into it in
shoals.
Is Mr.. Gillette a philosopher as well as
a good actor and successful playwright?
Is it true that the people love villains,
and hiss then only because they have
been taught that it is the correct thing to
do? And is the same true of real life, as
well as of the mimic life of the stage?
There are certain arguments which might
well be employed to bolster up the affirm
alive side of the query. One is that in
politics the people will often permit a cor
rupt ring of politicians to dominate pub
lie affairs, knowing all of the time that
jobbery and rascality are going on. An
other Is that certain classes of litera ture
which VIGOROUSLY pander to the lowest
possible element in morals achieve pro-
nounced financial successes. The dirtiest,
fthiest, most sensational newspapers
have the largest sales. Another argument
is that murderers frequently receive al
most maudlln sympathy, especially from
women. and more especially from women
if the wife was the murderer's victim.
There is a fascination about wickedness
which draws the weakminded towards it,
If this were not so. If wickedness per Sc
were repeuant, 1t would long ago have
disappeared from the world, and we should
be living In millennium. There would
be no need for preachers, and other
teachers of morals. At the same time there
Is not in the normal, well-balanced mind
admiration for the villain or that which is
wicked. Admiration carries with it the
desire for afhllation, association or emu,a-
ton We may concede that some villain
some political villain for Illustration, and
it might not be so difficult to name one
is a great man as great men go in the
world of politics. He is courted. hattered
and fawned upon, and associates with gen.
tlemen. But he is not loved. The gentle
man associates with him upon sufferance,
meantime inwardly despising him. His
popularity is sham. based upon fear or
the desire for gain. Nobody, except from
mean or sordid motives would care to be
like him. Before there can be love or ad-
mlration there must be respect, ard wick
edness and villainy are never respectable
in the sight and to the minds of right
thinking people.
II is no doubt true that there are a
great many persons who "love villains"
both in the drama and out of it, for the
reason that they are moral weaklings, and
If they are not villains" themselves it
is probably because they lack the courage
or the opportunity. But. in this part Of
the country At least, such persons do not
form the majority OF population, and hence
Mr.. Gnlette's characterization of the peo-
pie of the United states as loving villains
is altogether too broad. In the South,
we believe, the people applaud virtue on
the stage because it is virtue, and hiss
vice because 1t Is vice. We have not in
this part of the country yet abandoned
our old-fashioned way of thinking that
right is to be approved and wrong con-
demned.