Connecticut western news., 1900-03-22
nat we nave all been waiting TOT.

men will develop, 1 want to give some characteristics of this new institution, this spectacular. if 1t is to be q 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 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- l tion 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. IT there be in a Shakespeal can play | word with two meaniI gs-a good | meaning and a bad meaning-aDother | word will be substituted. an honest word looking only one way. The ca- terers to public taste will have to | learn that ShakespesIrean nastiness Is | no better than Consrevean nastiness. Ton say, "Who will dare to change by | expurgation or albrtviation a Shake ! spearean play?'' I dtlre. The board of \ trustees of this reformed amusement | association will d;.re. It is no depreci1- | ton of drama, the abbreviation of 1t. | would like to hear 30 or 40 pages of | Miltons Paradise Lost read at one time, but I should be very sorry to hear the whole book read at one sitting. | Abbreviation is npt 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 | Tor. 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 l ity does that which is not fit to be | seen or heard by five people become | fit to be seen or heard by 1 300 peoplef l 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 F. W. | Robertson.
 l Platform of Morality.
 On that platform there shall be no | carouser, no inebriate, no cyprian, no foe of good morals, masculine or fem mine. It is often said we have no right to criticise the private morals of public entertainers. Well, do as you please with other institutions. On the plat form of this new institution we shall have only good men and good women | in the ordinary social sense of good ness. Just as soon as the platform of the spectacular is fully and fairly es- tablish d many genius who hitherto has suppressed 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 elevation of the drama, will step over un that platform-such women as Charlotte Cushman of the past, such men as Joseph Jefferson of the present.
 Do you tell me this plan is chimeri- cal? 1 answer, it only requires one lnan somewhere between here and San Francisco or between Bangor and Gal weston to see it and appreciate it-one man of large individual means and ] great heart, and with hundred thou sand dollars he could do more good than all the Lenoxes and the Law rences and the Peabodys ever accom- plished. He would settle for all na- tions and for all times the stupendous question of amusement which for cen turies has been under angry and vitu- porative discussion and which is no nearer being settled today by all ap- pearances than 1t was at the start.
 I would go to such an institution, such a spectacular. I should go once a week the rest of my life and take my family with me, and the majority of the families of the earth would go to such an institution. I expect the time will come when I can without bringing upon myself criticism, with out being an inconsistent Christian when 1, a minister of the good old Presbyterian church, will be able to go to some new institution like this, the spectacular, and see Hamlet and "King Lear' and "The Merchant of
 venice' and "The Huchback" and Joshua Whitcomb." Meanwhile many of us will have this dramatic element unmet and unregaled.
 | For my love of pictures I can go to the art gallery, for my love of music l can go to the concert, for my love of literature I can go to the lyceum lee ture, but for this dramatic element in my nature, as strong as any other pas sion of the soul, there is nothing but injunction and prohibition. Until, sirs, you can establish a spectacular or a similar institution with as much purity and with as much entertainment as this one of which I speak-until you can establish some such institution you may thunder away against evil amusements until the last minute of the last hour of the last day of the worlds existence and without any avail.
 We want this institution independ- ent of the church and independent of the theater. The church tries to con- promise this matter, and in many churches there are dramatic exhibi- tions. Sometimes they call them charades, sometimes they call them magic lantern xhibitions-entertain- ments for which you pay 50 cents, the 90 cents to go for the support of some ! charitable institution. An extemporiz- ed stage is put up in the church or in the lecture room, and there you go and see David and the giant and Joseph sold into Egypt and little Samuel awoke, the chief difference between the exhibition in the church and the exhibition in the theater being that the exhibition in the theater is more skillful.
 | Now let us have a new institution