The times., 1899-04-16
THE PASSING SHOW.

When sage critic has brought his pen
through tangle of commendation and con-
demnation to the last paragraph of his re-
view without being assured that he has
made clear whether the play under discus
sion is or is not worth being witnessed he
generally directs that facile instrument
into final verdict which invariably begins
with the words, lin retrospective" No
matter how much the preceding lines NAV
have conveyed to the scholarly and the dis
eliminating, and no matter how necessary
to consistency and reason, the composite
opinion embodied in this literary epilogue
without exception is valuable both because
more dispassionate than former ones and
because it is not only judgment of the
performance, but judgment of other judg-
ments concerning that performance. And
there is always benefit in calm view of
those things which are gone-in moderate
consideration of their goods and their evils
with the methods to be employed in pre-
serving the one and in misplacing the
other.
During the seven months that have con-
stituted the vanishing theatrical year of
1883 variety of more or less impor-
tant episodes have come up for discussion
and debate. frequently with a considerable
I impetus to bitterness and never free from
such many sidedness as to create preju-
dice and to bias the minds of those inter-
ested. Now that the end is here howey-
er, and the stimulus to unfairness has
been put away ii is meet to ponder upon
the expectations and preparations of thirty
weeks ago and to find in the results what
ever there may be of warning or advice.
The season has been a busy one, and, be-
| cause busy, term of great moment. The
| trend of public taste has altered some
! what; those who trade in amusements have
| inaugurated new systems: strange condi-
| tons and the incidents that have led to
! them-all that goes TO make up hstrionic
history has been brought out in relief by
/ the shifting occurrences of the period.
Since the stage of this country has a
commercial influence as well as an artistic
one, an adequate inspection of past events
! must deal with the viewpoint of the man
| in the box Office as well as with that OF the
critic in his orchestra chair. The power
| of the American theatre is measured not
more by the brains Of its patrons than by
| the length of the lines they form in front
of the great metropolitan playhouses. FL
nancially the year has been so full of sue
cesses and of situations that its monetary
| standing can hardly be treated in brief
During the progress of two decades en-
profitable as at present, while the exist
ing magnitude of that business as a bust
ness is only surpassed by such giganti,
enterprises as are the railways the tele-
graph service and the newspaper trade
Since the organization Of a syndicate ant
its triumph over all obstacles, has united
the several theatrical magnates of tht
land and thus enabled one to discourse
upon the profession" as a unitary ascend
And as the months just gone have hrough
with them enormous rp ercantile prospert,
of a nature deserving of exhaustive treat
ment. the season can only be regarded IL
"A single article for its weight in other di
rections. On next Sunday this column will
be given to a dissertation upon the tnan
cial successes and failures of the term.
Viewed entirely for its effect upon tn,
intellectual and artistic tendencies-if th
stage has grown TO have any--for its in
cidents and issues stheS days of 1882
have been most impsrtanE Unique condi
tions have been shown tosabound, while tn
goods and evils mentioned above have beei
so pronounced as to invite attention. On
form of amusement has grown out of fash
ion and another come in, one factor i'll tn
broadening of the theatres influence ha
been followed by second. and one diff
Guilty or one benefit has given way to thos
of different nature. Through all thi
there has been a gradual tendency to i'm
provement in the standards and average
of the drama. Proverbiaily there lis n
sex in art" and accordingly il might
said with double meaning that there is n
morality in plays. So long as ideas of wha
constitutes decency are not less variabl
than now that side of contemporary thea
trical offerings must be ignored. But tn
present season has brought so much prof
to those who have produced strong, ele
, vating intelligently-w pieces I
prove. despite notifications and drawback
I OF serious nature, that the public
gradually being weaned from its love fo
clap stick and seltzer-bottle farce. sen
2 sational and degeneratiye melodrama. an
vapid comedy. 80
} Perhaps the most potent agent in thl