The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-02-09
DEG RADIATION or THE STAGE.
New York Post,l

1t is high time that some steps were
taken to check the increasing recklessness
and audacity with which this lower order
of our theatrical entertainers are seeking
to I'LL their pockets by pandering 10 the
baser instincts of the vulgar crowd. No
old theatre goer can fail to be impressed
with the extraordinary development of
license upon the New York stage, which
is practically the stage OF the whole coun-
try, within the last twenty-five years. In
the palmy days of the old Union Square
theatre, for instance, in the seventies,
there was constant cutlery In conserva-
tive quarters against what was called the
demoralizing influence of the English
adaptations of the contemporary French
emotional drama. which we're so popular
Mt that time. The influence of some OF
them TO be sure, was not particularly
wholesome, but all of them were submit
ted to y pretty careful process OF expur.
CATION. and the evil in them, as u rule,
WAS only darkly suggested and never
openly expressed 1t Is not so very long
ago that the utterance.of avery common,
almost meaningless oath upon the board
of the Madison Square Theatre was resent
ed as an outrage upon the feelings OF
refined and delicate audience. No
scruplss of this kind are discernible in the
conduct of the spectators In our modern
theatres. Whereas in the olden days
mere allusion was resented, the actual
representation Of the thing itself Is now
watched with approval and even eager
ness, and in many case the more real the
abomi nations, the more vigorous Is the
applause.
m. 10 hat the dc
dissemination of the verbal and pictorial
horrors CT the yellow press is responsible
to "A very large extent,-if not entirely, for
the general decentralization into which the
lasts OF the middle olass-that Is, of the
theatre-supporting class-appears TO have
fallen. Whom an appetite for the morbid.
the unclean, and the piurient has been
encouraged by surreptitious reading, IL
requires grosser and grosser means Of
graft flcation. 1t was In the music halls
that the public demand for what Is com
monty called spicy entertainment was
first discovered, and the want was sup
piled with diabolical celebrity. The most
audacious performers. male and female
deqenerates who had become notorious
in Paris and Vienna some of whom had
been expelled by the police of those pro-
fiignte cities on aocount of their abomine-
Die exhibitions, not only found refuge
but rich reward in our music halls.
for the men who hired them. Ii was the
spectacle Of this prosperity, SO easily II SO
vilely won, that prompted tie managers
of certain second and third-rate theatres
TO enter into active competition with
them in the direction of public indecency.
1t would have been bad enough IL the evil
II adj stopped there. but of late the directors
Of houses hitherto deemed respectable
have not scorped to profit by presenting
scenes upon their boards which, upon the
street would call for the instant interfer-
ence of the.police. Aud the amazing part
of it all Is that the audiences which wit
ness these atrocities unmoved, are com
pose lareely Of men and women OF all
ages possessing every outward Indication
of ed ueatlon and refinement
There is no saving TO what depths TINS
degradation Of the stage and OF the public
may not proceed II some means he not
found to punish the most notorious ohen-
ders There is a notion on Che part OF
the public that 1T Is the duty Of the better
newspapers TO act as mural constables In
this matter, but the fact IL, that the
newspapers, although they can encourage
the mischief In "a thousand ways, ara
| quite powerless. as the case now STANDS.
| TO suppress or even greatly to mitigate IL
| Experience has proved teyond all posi-
bilily of doubt that AN honest denuncia-
tion OF IA play on account OF Its unelean-
Eess has no other result than the sending
| OF a great number OF readers TO witness
| it. II is unfortunately the fact that SOME
newspapers outside the admittedly yellow
class, while feigning sirtuons indigna-
| ton, contribute enormously e. the rr"hts
of this unclean business, by publishing
minute details of the grosser offences
perpetrated before the iootlights. 1t Is
difficult TO believe that remedy Tor an
evil so alarlng cannot be found within
| the provisions of the common law An
| Indictment OF two or three managers at
| the instiaation of the District Attorney
| and "a prompt and remorseless relocation
| of them TO the penitentisry IL only for
week or two, on the score of disordery
| or indecent conduct would Ire more eIec
| tive than any censorship which is at all
| likely to be esta blished under the patron
age Of Tammany Hall. If the District
| Attorney has not time to bestow upon the
consideration of IA question affecting SO
vitality the moral we'll .being of the COM
munitY. the matter might he taken in
hand by some of the soc ieties for the pre-
vention OF vice, which could not easily
find "a more important subsection whleh