Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-03-19

maXims, it's laws, it's literature it's sci
ence and it's amusementS. Shut out
| from the realm of Christianity any
thing and you give it up to sin and
death.
If Christianity is mighty enough to
manage everything but the amuse-
ments of the world, then it is a very
defective Christianity. Is it capable of
keeping account of the tears Of the
world and incompetent to make record
Of it's smiles? Is it good to follow the
funeral, but dumb at the worlds play?
| Can it control all the other elements of
our nature but the dramatic element?
| My idea of Christianity is that it can
and will conquer everything.
Now, what we want is to hasten
that time. How will it be done? By
the church going over to the theater?
1t will not go. By the theater coming
to the church? 1t will not come What
we want is a reformed amusement as
ISOLATION in every city and town Of the
United States. Once announced and
explained and illustrated, the Chris
| tan and philanthropic capitalist will
come forward to establish it, and there
will be public spirited men everywhere
who will do this work for the dramatic
element of our natures. We need a
new institution to meet and recognize
and develop and defend the dramatic
element of our nature 1t needs to be
distinct from everything that is or has
been.
1 would have this reformed amuse-
ment association having in charge this
in fit I1tiOn of tho SnnctaOI1Iar n l<n
possession Of some hall or academy.
1t might take a smaller building at the
start, but it would soon need the lar
gest hall, and even that would not hold
the people, for he who opens before
the dramatic element in human nature
an opportunity of qualification without
compromise and without danger does
the mightiest thing of this century, and
the tides of such an institution would
rise as the Atlantic rises at Liverpool
docks.
New Institution.
There are tens Of thousands of Chris
tian homes wfere the sons and daugh-
tiers are held back from dramatic en-
tertainment for reasons which some Of
you would say are good reasons and
others would say are poor reasons, but
still held back. But on the establish
ment of such an institution they would
feel the arrest of their anXieties and
would say on the establishment of this
new institution which | have called
the spectacular, "Thank God, this is
what we have all been waiting for"
Now, as | believe that | make sug-
gestion of an institution which wiser
men will develop, l want to give some
characteristics of this new institution,
this spectacular, if it is to be a grand
social and moral success. In the first
place, it's entertainments must be COM
pressed within an hour and three-Quar-
ters. What kills sermons, prayers and
lectures and entertainments of all sorts
is proliXity. At q reasonable hour ev-
cry night every curtain of public en-
tertainment ought to drop, every
church service ought to cease, the in
struments of orchestras ought to be
unStrung.
On the platform of this new institu-
ton there will be a drama which be-
fore rendering has been read, eXpurgat-
ed, abbreviated and passed upon by
board of trustees connected with this
reformed amusement association. If
there be in drama a sentence suggest
ing evil, it will be stricken out. If
there be in a Shakespearean play a
word with two meanings-a good
meaning and a bad meaning-another
word will be substituted, an honest
word looking only one way. The ca
terers to public taste will have to
learn that Shakespearean nastiness is
no better than Congrevean nastiness.
You say, "Who will dare to change by
expurgation or abbreviation a Shake
spearean play" 1 dare. The board Of
trustees of this reformed amusement
association will dare. 1t is no deprecia-
ton of a drama, the abbreviation of it.
I would like to hear 80 or 40 pages of
Millions paradise Lost" read at one
time, but l should be very sorry to
hear the whole book read at one sitting.
Authorization is not depreciation.
On the platform of this new institu-
ton this spectacular, under the care of
the very best men and women in the
community, there shall be nothing wit
messed that would be unfit for a par
lor. Any attitude, any look, any word
that would offend you seated at your
own fireside, in your family circle, will
be prohibited from that platform. By
what law Of common sense or of moral
ity does that. which is not fit to be
seen or heard by five people become
fit to be seen or heard by 1900 people?
On the platform of that spectacular
all the scenes of the drama will be as
chaste as was ever a lecture by Ed
ward Everett or a sermon by E. W.
Robertson.
Platform of Morality.
On that platform there shall be no
carouser, no inebriate, no cyprian, 10