The Cairo bulletin., 1904-10-16

bukc. The nasty and offensive Jokes.
the Immoral action nnd the language
OF the siunls and the wife resort are all
too frequently forced upon the. err and
seen In the streets and public places
OF the town without being haunted In
our faces whenw pay good money for
seat IN the tlenter II the stage has
become 20 Impoverished that 1t must
resort to dirtiness and suggestive vice
j TO maintain itself II We're better TO
abollsh-it entirely MS IN institution
Then this editorial goes more into de-
i tail to denounce the trend Of the mod
| ern theater which blasts the lives Of
it's audiences by what they see ms well
as hear. Does any man In the face OF
such powerful philippe declare that
thousands and tens Of. thousands of
men and women every year are not
! morally contaminated by the filthy
streams OF conversation which play
wrights and actors and actresses roll
over them In the theaters In the long
winter nights: The streams Of boiling
lava and the showers Of burning ashes
which fell on Pompeii and IIercu-
laneum on that terrible night in 70
A. D., overwhelming the pleasure seek
ing people, were not so much to be
dreaded as this torrent OF moral filth
which is descending almost every
| night OH the audiences In the theateis
Of our great cities and isibringing them
to spiritual destruction.
what the watcI,man sees.
But as d Waterman must not nj
low my eyes to follow only one class
of people. While the theater audi
ences are moving through the streets
/ to witness these distorted and often
/ impossible plays. through the open
doors of the saloons I can see the
stages on which are being enacted
scores and hundreds and thousands OF
| tragedies in real life. Each ore of
these tragedies is as pathetic as that
Of Hamlet, an Othello, Merchant
1 of Venice Each one has more of pa
| thos within it than could ever be found
| in the misery and woe of Dickens
tale Of Twp Cities" or Seton
ThonpFbns ".snfbbiography of a Griz-
| ely Bear" In these tragedies OF real
life enacted upon the stage of the
saloon= sve do not always find the
young men and women led as lambs to
| the slaughter But we sometimes find
them as wild tigers fighting for their
lives when their fore feet have been
caught in the street traps, or rs stays
at bay, for little while holding off
the hounds. yet, like mad dogs at the
sight of water they become absolutely
helpless at the sight and smell Of rum
Oh, the tragedies of the saloons. As
Waterman on Gods watchtower who
can ever refrain from sympathizing
with them and shedding tears Of deep
est sorrow for them? oh no. ex
claims some cynical man, 4 have no
sympathy for the drunkard If man
wants TO step drinking he can stop.
The only reason why the drunkaras do
not stop is because they do not want
to stop" All, my cynical friend, you
are wrong. have no sympathy for,
that egotistic and self inflated young
man who to be smart losfs about sa-
loon and deliberately cultivatcs taste
for drink. But there are thousands OF
men who do not want to drink. They
do not know how to stop drink ing.
They have never yet heard of the
grace of God which will save them if
they would only let him save them. Aye,
| go further than that. | believe there
are thousands of drunkards tonight
who would be willing to take an Ak
and with it cut Off their right hands if
tlieysae,,id only be freed from the curse
Of drink. They are fighting drink cv-
cry. day OF their lives, but In their own
strength they cannot stop. And so to-
night as n Waterman on Gods tower
see thousands of the finest Drained men
and women going TO destruction
through the rapids which head toward
the awful Niagara of delirium tremens.
| hear them shouting and cursing and
see then, tumbling and fighting and re-
sisting and yet yielding and going
down and down and down. Through
the lights coming from the open doors
OF the saloons see these victims head
ing toward eternal death
"But, Waterman" some one asks
"are these all the sights and sounds OF
death that you see and hearT" Alas.
alas. no. For, while one crowd is pass
ing through the Railways and ascend
Ing the stair of the immoral theaters.
and another crowd is staggering slowly
OH with flushed checks hurrying to-
ward the bar behind which liquor Is
sold, which in the end will prove rs
fatal as the poisonous hemlock quaifed
by Greek philosopher, ! see still an
other multitude of death seekers
These pass me not IN rags or with slow
and Icaden steps. They are dressed
for the bathrooms and the low dance
halls. They move in regular step, not
with the tramp, tramp. tramp of many
soldiers. but with the sliding and
graceful step Of the waltz. the two
step. the polka and dances which we
should not and will not mention.
Are All Dances bad.
"Are all dances bady' asks some
young girl. lis every one a dance of
death? Are all our young people en-