The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-03-10

taken from real life. For the time be-
ing they are the companion advisers,
entertainers and friends of the reader
or the audience.
"Supposing these characters were, by
some strange metamorphosis, to be-
come real citizens? Would they still
enjoy your friendship? Would they
be your advisers, your companions? {?
Some Of you have fine residences and
give receptions. Would you invite
these dear friends Of your book and
stage acquaintances? And IL you did,
what group you would have there.
quite a collection Of adulterers, mur-
derers and general scoundrels, whose
lives are lies and with whom all NOR
ality is a worn-out tradition.
You say you are eminently respect
able people. Yes. but when you read
a book you surround you with the
people who figure in it; you speak with
them; you give them your sympathy;
they are for the time being your clos
est acquaintances. And why, then,
would you want to disown them be-
fore. your other friends? Is it not
hypocrisy to think with one crowd and
talk with an entirely different one?
But you say you go to see plays and
you read books that are a little off
color just for amusement. Virtue you
say needs q little viciousness in the
background to bring out its true value.
1t is necessary to know good and evil,
and in all these plays anod books you
invariably find a moral which is all
the more impressive because Of the
anguish and the vice through which 1t
emerges.
II would ask you to consider paral-
lei case. in answer. which may serve
to illustrate what mean:
you have in this city-thanks to
plea cancer hospital, a hospital where
skin diseases are treated; you have the
St. Rose Hospital for Consumptives
and the city has a pesthouse. whittier
are sent those afflicted with contagious
diseases.
"You who are looking for amuse-
ment, come with me to one Of these
institutions, to the bedside of the can
| Ger patient. The doctor will be there
and a kindly nurse somewhere in the
background. They are there as mat
ter Of duty and charity. But you arc
there for amusement.
| Lift off the linen bands and the rolls
of lint; watch the face Of pain Of the
patient there; see the great, seethine
wound, very crater Of corruption
emitting foul odors and putrid decay;
see the dafa<9and red edges Of the era.
ter, the hardened rim, the great fbor.
Gus radiations all around. the roots O
the cancer. 1t is interesting, isn't it.
Quite entertaining! Would make 20,
laugh! So amusing that you want t
stay to watch the victim die. Two lont
hours are short in contemplation o
such an amusing picture!
'Now. I ask you what is the differ
ence between this scene and the on
presented by the vile play on the mod
ern stage? 'only this; that one is ply
sical; the other is moral. One comes
perhaps, through no fault of its vic
tim; the other is created for tn
amusement Of such Of the public a
enjoy it. You avoid the cancer hos
pital and the pesthouse, while. nigh
by night, you rush madly to enjoy tn
sad procession of moral lepers expos
amid the plaudits Of the multitude
the cancerous growths, the deadl
vices, that destroy the souls Of men.
"Ruue and demimondaine are de
picted with startling realism, an
mems depravity and women's shame
lessness are held forth as the expires
sions Of genius, and At means for en-
tertaining Christian people.
you say. even still there is geniu
back Of it all. Yes. perhaps. But 1t
only the genius that guilds the tomb
tho phosphorus that accompanies til
last staga Of putrefAction.