The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-24
How 1t Works.

rTHE trouble is that when a news
paper speaks in criticism of any
entertainment at a local play
house, on the ground of the alleged
indecency or moral unfitness of the
performance, that criticism is apt to
be simply so much grist for the mill
of those who are running the show.
Manifestly that has been the effect on
the box receipts during the recent run
of performance called THE Turtle
in Butte. The sequel is that the opera
house has been crowded.
This much is certainly the testi-
mony of some of the most reputable
newspapers in the United States, print
ed in cities that are constantly supplied
with dramatic performances of every
order this play is a filthy thing and
not entitled to the countenance of rep
utable audiences. OF course, each man,
within the limits which the present
case prescribes, is at liberty to say
what, for him and his, is reputable or
not reputable. We are simply saying
what the testimony is of newspapers
spects We infer from the mincing
words in which, yesterday morning,
Butte page Of the Standard tried to
give this play a reputable rank, that,
in fact, it merits the criticism that has
been passed upon it. r.'"'
Locally, the Standard said yesterday
that the audience in the Butte theater
included many prominent society la
dies and many prominent professional
and business men; the added remark
was an admission that there were
"some rich and risky things in the
play" that 1t need not necessarily be
regarded as unwholesome, though, FER
haps. the play will be best appreciated
by the older class of theater-goers, and
a father after seeing it would probably
not send his young daughter to witness
it,"
By this evasiVe testimony the Turtle
business manifestly is something pref
ty tough. If what the Standards Butte
page said in an unusually extended
notice. yesterday morning, is the plays
best defense, then there evidently is
some warrant for the denunciations
that have been passed upon it. The
Standards review confessed too much
yesterday morning when it admitted
that, in the city where their homes are,
prominent" men and women were at
a theatrical performance unfit for their
sons and daughters of theater-going
age. You can't make that proposition
stand up straight as a good defense fer
| public exhibition the decency Of which
has been publicly called in question.
| Mind you, the Standard is not pre-
| Stunning to set itself up as the moral
| Mentor for any man or woman in
Butte; it is not for this newspaper to
| define the quality of theatrical per-
| Torrance which either the alleged elite
or the acknowledged slums shall pat
ronize. We do wish to be understood,
| however, as saying that this show
| brought to Butte the reputation that it
| was not pure, that the best defense this
newspapers own review could furnish
AS given yesterday morning by a
| Butte critic whose pen was absolutely
| free-strengthens the view that the
| play is, in fact, unclean, and that those
of the community who proposed to pro-
| test were as fully and indisputably in
| their rights as they were who elected
| to witness the performance.
| AS we have said, newspaper protest
against some Of the shows that take the
road simply serves to put money into
| the rockets of people who take the
stage with plot and settings and lines
| that are the closest possible approach
| to impurity and the broadcast hint at
| outright lewdness that can be counted
| on to make money. That is not the
| fault of the press.