The Hawaiian gazette., 1899-12-05
ETHICS OF THE THEATER.

The new vogue of the theater in this
city Is one of the signs Of spreading
and strengthening Americanism which
must no, be overlooked. For years
play actors got as cold reception here
as they would have done in Connect
cut town of century ago. Doubtless
many Thespians who came deserved il
! but apart from that the better class of
| the white community took the round
head view of the stage and would have
none of the "unclean thing" In the
fifties Edwin Booth played his fare
well debut" in private hall to a beg
carly array of empty benches, and as
late as 1890 Honolulu was regarded by
theatrical companies as nothing better
than one-night stand for artists pass
ing to and fro between Australia and
the Pacific States. One Daley, an I'M
qualified transformer of San Fran
cisco, brought down some people in
1894 to stay over a steamer, and to his
establishment the white population
turned out and welcomed his cheap
melodramas with crowded and enthu-
siastic houses. Daley and his COM
pany wore Baxter street clothes when
they landed and their stage wardrobes
were fearsome to the eye. 1t was
nothing to Daley to use red flannel
gown as a Cardinals robe, but when
he left he was able to pay for costumes
OF furred silk. He and his company
also blossomed out in the latest tailor
made street gear and when they final
ly reached San Francisco, dressed to
the handle" as Daley put il. they
were the talk of the Rialto for a
month. Then came the deluge. Good
actors argued that If there was money
in Honolulu for Daley season there
must be plenty Of it for them; and
since that time Honolulu has rarely
been without fair theatricals and now
and then has taken in the best of San
Francisco attractions.
The spirit in which the moral part
OF the community has taken the innO-
walton augurs well for the theatrical fu-
ture as II does for the growing liberal
ity and Americanism of these Islands.
There is enough of the old Puritanical
spirit left to insist on decency and We
have lately had a satisfactory recogni-
ton of 1t on the part of a manager who
preferred to cut an opera rather than
to keep in the vulgarity which would
have spun the performance out. But
on the whole the better half of Homo
lulu society seems to have made up it's
mind that play Is not wrong per Sc
and that a book which may be read
with profit may be seen probably in
its dramatized form; and that songs
which may be sung in the drawing
room suffer nothing from the vocaliza-
ton of professional artists. Then
again, people are learning to select
their plays as they do their books
There are bad books but that Is no
reason why we should taboo libraries;
so there are bad plays, but on that ac-
count no one need anathematize the
tbeater Into this reasonable and lib
eral spirit the people OF Honolulu have
now emerged and II is a good sign. BY
it and standing sturdily by
the moral principle which will not
countenance the base and low anymore
on the stage than in society, We shall
always be able to command good the
atrical attractions and thus help bring
honolulu abreast OF other cultivated
cities and make lie little more en-.
ioyable than II otherwise could be
Also more American.