The Mankato free press., 1903-08-21
SERMON ON ADJUSTMENTS.

By Rev. A. s. Heathcote.


it may be through hail or snow, to
room which becomes intolerably hot; and
there in the middle of the night, with
four or five score people. She spends her
time in graceful gymnastics. Gymnas-
tics at midnight! Gymnastics in
crowd! Gymnactios in India linen!
Gymnastics for matrons and solemn,
serious looking gentlemen of fifty!
But is not for the gymnastics for
which the throng assemblies. 1t is for
social intercourse Well, are the condi-
tions and circumstances favorable to
social intercourse of a really pleasant
and healthy kind? If we must meet our
neighbors, is this rational way OF meet
ing with them? If young gentlemen and
ladies must come to know each other, is
a ball room with its heat and excitement
and Irritation, the most desirable place
for bringing them together? If we were
savages still, dancing with each other
might probably be the best way OF
spending our time together, but to say
that civilized, educated people are not
able to do something better than this,
is a pure irony on the last and highest
results of our national culture.
l have only spoken of dances which
are free from obvious moral objections.
1t is hardly needful to remind you that
in all our large commercial and manu-
featuring towns, there are public rooms
for dancing much frequented by assist
ants in stores, both young men and wom-
en-. by clerks, milliners, girls employed
in factories, which have been the moral
ruin of thousands.
Perhaps of all amusements, the theatre
involves the most intricate and perplex-
ing question for anyone who wishes to do
right. 1t is urged that all plays are not
immoral Dramatic genius, they say, is
the highest form of genius belonging to
the province of pure literature and need
not stain its glory by pandering to the
most corrupt passions OF corrupt men.
Well, let the play be exceptional, purify
the theatre from all the evil surround
ings, would it still, say some, be a sin
to laugh at Lord Dundreary? Would it
be a crime to weep over the sorrows OF
Ophelia? And to be moved still more by
the desolation that comes upon the pride
and splendor of Wolsey?
To sedentary, careworn men, bril-
liant light comedy is as refreshing as a
day in the country Tor city,, or climbing
the Adriondacks, or fishing for trout.
The question is not as simple as it looks,
for. while the drama pure and simple
may be elevating, uplifting and while
men continue as they are, the passion for
the drama will continue.
But, after ALL we have to take things
as they stand. 1t is not our duty to
send our sons and daughters into region
of moral evil, with the hope that in
generation or two their presence will
cause the evil to disappear. For our
selves, indeed, there may be no serious
danger; and our presence with them may
shield them from all contact with what
would harm them. They may be safe
from the men and women with their pri-
vate rooms behind the bar, from whose
lightest touch we should wish them to
recoil, as when in their own parlors at
home But if they 60, hundreds and
thousands more will go who have no pa
rental shelter, whose pocket book keeps
them in the gallery and pit. Are those
young men and women exposed to no
perils? Moreover, if report does not
greatly deceive me, there are still plays
acted on the American stage whose NOR
al tendencies can hardly be approved.
Such plays, it is said, would disappear
if the better class of society attended the
theatre in larger numbers. Perhaps they
would; meanwhile, 1 do not choose to
recommend my friends to sit down to
table where they are likely to find pois-
oned dishes, with the hope that by and
by their influence will lead to the pro-
duction of better fare.