Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-10-07
" The Theater and the Clergy

Mr. Editor:
Under the above caption you say il
Mondays Progress the drama wieldl
an influence for good only excelled by
the church, and you tell us that this
Judgment is recognized as a fact by
the leading divines and educators Of
the present age; but you did not name
any of them saying only that DR.. Tai.
mage used to attend the theater.
have some knowledge of the position
on this subject held by many of the
leading divines and educators of the
present age,' and l do not know OF
one who has endorsed your judgment
as above quoted. Whether or not DR..
Talmage ever went to the theater, /
| do not know but | know that DIR.
Talmage's church opposes theaterg 60
ing, and that one of the bitterest an
tagonists to the theater in America is
DR.. Herrick, minister of DR.. Tai
mage's church. | also know that the
churches in America representing not
less than twelve millions of mem bers,
and led by as lean ned and as thought
full and as honest q body of clergy as
the world ever saw, stand committed
TO most positive opposition to the
theater as demoralizing agency.
| am quite sure that something like
fifty thousand of the leading divines
of America today will refuse to en-
dorse your Judgment that 1.-THE drama
Yields an influence for good" Is it
possible that all these learned and
thoughtful and consecrated men of
large brain and heart are mistaken?
When we charge the theater of to-
day with welding demoralizing in
fiuence we have no reference whatever
60 Shakespeare and dramatists of his
kind; for Shakespeare and the theater
now have very little in common.
Hattiesburg's theater has not heard a
play Of his and possibly never will.
Ii only such as his were played the
church would never have raised its
voice against the theater.
Mr.. Editor. you have evidently not
studied the history of the theater.
Aeschylus of old Greece did dream
twenty-five hundred years ago of the
moral influence of the drama; but
Aeschylus was hardly turned to dust
before the government was compelled
to abolish the theater because of its
demoralizing influence. 1t had SIM
liar fate in Rome. You evidently
do not know that the congress of the
United States did once pass resolu-
ton urging the several states to take
steps for 1.-THE suppre sion OF theatre
cal entertainments; but it is fact.
You do not know that s'fifty-four an
cient and n odern. national and pro-
vincial councils and synods of thu Ro-
man Catholic and Greek churches
have pronounced strongly against the
theater. and that st. Augustine and
seventeen of his conquerers, the grand
old fathers of the church. have raised
voice and pen against the theater.
Do you know, Mr.. Editor. that the
moral stage has been tried in Amer
lea and England of today, and that
utter failure has crowned every effort?
Booths and Wallack's and the
Metropolitan of New York. McVick- |
er's of Chicago and Sir Henry Twins
of London have posed as moral high
toned theaters, and yet Fresh" and
9 Frou- Frou, = Camille and euch |
filth appears at Mcvicker's. The |
New York and London efforts have
been - utterly futile the thester /
hns been repeated pier and oyer neafn |