Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-04-27
TENNESSEE FRIDAY, APRIL ~,

SohiSo wv ldlC.
On the platform of this new institu-
ton there will be drama which be-
fore rendering has been read, eXpurgat-
ed, abbreviated and passed upon by
board of trustees connected with this
reformed amusement association. II
there be in a drama sentence sug-
gesting evil, it will be stricken out. If
there be in Shakespearean play a
word with two meanings, good mean
ing and bad meaning, another word
will be substituted, an honest word
looking only one way. The caterers to
public taste will have to learn that
Shakespearean nastiness is no better
than Congrevean nastiness, You say:
"Who will dare to change by eXpurga-
ton or abbreviation a Shakespearean
play?" / dare. The board of trustees
of this reformed amusement associa-
ton will dare. 1t is no depreciation Of
drama, the abbreviation of it.
would like to hear 30 or 40 pages OF
Milton's 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 par
lor. Any attitude, any look, any word
that would offend you seated at your
own freside 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 1.50O people? On
the platform OF that spectacular all
the scenes of the drama will be as
chaste as was ever lecture by Edward
Everett or a sermon by +. w. Robert
son. On the platform shall come only
such men and women as you would
welcome to your homes. j do not make
the requisition that they be professors
of religion. There are professors Of
religion that / would not want in my
parlor or kitchen or coal cellar. 1t is
not what we profess. but what we are.
| All who come en- that platform of the
| spectacular will be gentlemen and Ia.
dies in the ordinary acceptation of
those terms, persons whom you would
invite to sit at your table and whom
you would introduce to your children
and with whom you would not be com
promised If you were seen passing
down Pennsylvania avenue or Broad
way with them.
On that platform there shall be no
carouser, no inebriate, no cyprian, no
foe of good morals, masculine or femi.
nine. 1t is often said we have no right
10 oriticise the private morals of public
entertainers. Well, do as you please
with other institutions, on the plat
form of this institution we shall have
only good men and good women in the
ordinary social sense of goodness. Just
as soon as the platform of the spec
tacular is fully and fairly established
many a genius who hitherto has sup
pressed the dramatic element in his
nature because he could not find the
realm in which to exercise it will step
over on the platform, and giants of the
drama, their name known the world
over, who have been toiling for the ele
walton of the drama, will step over on
that platform-such women as Char
lotte Cushman of the past, such men as
Joseph jefferson of the present.
The platform of that new institu-
ton, of that eXpurgated drama, occu-
pied only by these purest of men and
women, will draw to itself millions of
people who have never been to see the
drama more than once or twice in their
lives, or never saw it at all.
As to the drama of your life and
mine, it will soon end. There will be
no encore to bring us back. At the be-
ginning of that drama of life stood a
cradle, at the end of it will stand a
| grave. The first act, welcome. The last
act, farewell. The intermediate acts,
banquet and battle, professions, bridal
and funeral, songs and tears, laughter
and groans
1t was not original with Shake
speare when he said: "All the worlds
a stage and all the men and women
merely players" He got it from st.
| Paul, who, 10 centuries before that had
written: "We are made spectacle
unto the world and to angels and to
men," A spectacle in coliseum fight
ing with wild beasts in an amphithea-
| ter, the galleries full, looking down.
Here we destroy lion. Here we Crap
! pie with gladiator. When we fall,
devils shout. When we rise, angels
sing. A spectacle before gallery above
gallery, gallery above gallery. Gallery
of our departed kindred locking down
TO see if we are faithful and worthy Of
our Christian ancestry, hoping for our
victory, wanting TO throw us garland,
glorified children and parents, with
cheer on cheer urging us on. Gallery Of
the martyrs looking down--the Poly
carps and the Ridleys and the McKails
and the Theban legion and the Scotch
Covenanters and they of the Brussels
market place and of Piedmont--crying
down from the galleries: God gave us
the victory, and He will give it you"
Gallery of angels looking down-cheru.
bic, seraphic, archangelic-clapping
their wings at every advantage we gain.
Gallery Of the King, from which there
waves a SCARED hand and from which
there comes sympathetic voice say
ing: "Be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee crown of life."
Oh, the spectacle in which you and are
the actorsl Oh, the piled up galleries
looking down.
Scene: The last day. Stage: The
rocking earth. Enter: Dukes, lords.
kings, beggars, clowns. No sword. Nc
tinsel. No crown. For footlights:
The kindling flames of a world. For or.
chestra: The trumpets that awake the
Il Il