The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-19
He DEFENDED THE STAGE.
HOWARD KYLE's ANSWER TO A
MINISTERIAL CRITIC.

clusiOn of the Performance of ma
than HaIe"-It Is Not Fair, He
Said, to Condemn an Institution as
whole, Because of Occasional
Defects-GoOd and Bad Mixed in
the Stage, as in Everything Else
in Life.
Mr. Howard Kyle's speech in defense
of the theater as an institution at the
conclusion of the performance of
Nathan Hale" last night was some
what unexpected, but spirited, reply TO
Rev. Robert Van Deventer's sermon at
the Duffy Street Baptist Church the
night before on the play Way Down
East" in which the stage was attack
ed as an evil institution, unworthy Of
Christian patronage.
The audience at the Theater had ris-
en- and was about to leave when Mr..
Kyle appeared before the curtain. No
one had any idea that his talk would
be anything but an acknowledgment of
the generous applause which he had
been accorded, but when he referred to
the sermon of d Savannah clergyman
on the evil influences of the stage the
audience Immediately became interest
ed, and remained standing until he had
finished.
Mr. Kyle said that he had read in
the Morning News a report of the
clergyman's attack upon the stage as
an institution.
WHEN a man assumes an absurd po-
s.tion and INDUCES himself in the ex-
preston of grotesque IDEAS" said Mr..
Kyle, 'it is rather natural that we
should assume that he either does not
know what he is saying or else is ami
mated by desire to gain some adver-
tising. If in this case the latter as
sumption be correct, l shall feel some
what chagrined that I have been en-
trapped into gratifying his ambition.
when a man condemns a whole in
stitution, roundly. it is not difficult to
refute his assertions. Perhaps this cler-
gyman did not know that the theater
was born of the church, and that even
TO this day the church relies for some
of its best effects upon the dramatic.
What could have been more dramatic
than the spectacle of John the Baptist,
eBlerging from the wilderness, clad like
1ngomar in camel skins and attacking
tbe7Conventions of the day?
of course there are good and bad
In everything Nobody can deplore
more the ephemeral success of some
salacious plays, designed to make
money for some manager, than do the
respectable members of the dramatic
profession. Scarcely anything is made
up of unmixed evil or of unmixed
good
Virtue itself turns vice when mis-
applied
and vice sometimes by actions dig
Within the infant rind of this small
Poison hath residence and medsin
az power.
The truth is" said Mr.. Kyle, 'it is
not the vicious plays that ever endure.
They may have a little temporary sue
cess, but the success soon fades, while
plays like Rip Van Winkle,' The Old
Homestead and Way Down East live
in the affections of the people"
Mr.. Kyle told of having originated
the principal part in Way Down
East, and commented on this because
IT was from an invitation to attend a
performance of the play that the min
lister to whom he referred had drawn
the text of his attack upon the theater
he said that he had striven to play
the part with all the power and con-
Vlncing force of which he was capable,
and that he had received numerous
letters from unfortunate women
lqanking him for the revelation of the
fact that such man existed on earth.
Who can say" asked Mr.. Kyle,
that Vitalized story, presented in
dramatic form on the stage, is not
more effective than the same story told
in didactic way from the pulpit?
1t is not well to condemn the stage
because there are some salacious plays.
any more than it would be we'll to con-
denim mankind because of the presence
OF political corruption or the golden
AGE of English literature because some
OF its writer's wrote immoral poems or
lived immoral lives. For my own part
! have met with more real kindness
and charity from the Migrants of the
stage than from some of those who
imagined themselves their betters and
set up to be their critics.
Z" In men whom men condemn as i'll
I find so much of goodness still;
In men whom men pronounce divine,
L ind 50 much of sin and blot;
i hesitate to draw the line,
Where God hath not
The audience was in accord with Mr.
Kyle and he received at the conclusion
OF his remarks a generous share of ap-
Dlause.