Omaha daily bee., 1906-02-27
SCANNELL ON THE THEATER
Bishop Declares Some Stage Plays Are
Degrading Public Morals.
TONE LOWER EACH DECADE THAN FORMER
In His Lenton Letter lie Appeals to
Catholics Not TO Patronize Per-
formRnce which IL Inn
pure in influence.

Bishop scanneli devotes most of his Len
ten letter 20 his Catholic diocese to DIS
cussion of the evil influences of the theater
and an appeal. not limited to the people
of his faith, to cooperate in saving boys
and girls and young men and women from
the deleterlous effects which he believes
Turk in many modern stage presentations.
After discoursing briefly against the In
diligence in fashionable functions and
rayeties during Lent the bishop pays his
respects 10 the unwholesome drama in very
vigorous English. He begins by saying the
matter has become menace to the we'll
being of the community and that many of
the plays he has in mind are given at the
Omaha theaters, but he Is careful to say
lie does not condemn all theatrical repre-
sensations and that classical plays ana
those that, are clean and healthy In tone
will do no harm, that to the contrary these
may be made the occasion OF pleasant and
profitable recreation.
The moral tone of society, in the bishops
opinion. is lower than it was ten years
ago. and was lower ten years ago than it
was twenty years. back. He says the
countenancing of immoral plays, only thiny
disguised from open indecency, explains
this condition. Morally and physically
many young persons are ruined by the bad
influences of the theater before they arc
90 he says.
Text of the Letter.
The utterances in the letter which was
read in the churches Sunday, far as they
deal with the theater, are as follows
| beg also to call your attention to "A
matter that has become menace to the
moral well being of the community. l
mean the plays that are presented in our
theaters. 1t is far from my intention
to condemn all theatrical representations:
Classical plays, as they are called; and
all plays that are clean and healthy In
tone will do harm; indeed, they may
be made the occasion of pleasant and
instructive recreation But plays that
represent only what is depraved in human
nature. that appeal not to the best, but to
the worst in man, that apologize for vice
and seek to make it respectable, are the
most potent agency of corruption that II
is possible TO conceive. No one, young or
old. can be present at such representations
without sin, for 1t is allowed to no one to
expose himself to moral contagion without
grave necessity: and even the old and the
experienced cannot witness these things
without having their plety chilled and their
consciences dulled or furnished. But for
the young such plays are disastrous. The
boy or young man who has once contracted
a longing for this unhealthy excitement
may be regarded as lost. The knowl-
edge of evil acquired from the stage
young person who but for it would be
good Christian and useful member of
Society. 11eTe III OnldHd, CdlHOllC DONS
and girls in large numbers frequent the
theaters and not infrequently assist at
plays which they themselves regard as in
decent. Having asked some of them what
induced them to go to such plays l was
told that they had been persuaded to do
so by friends, sometimes by older brothers
or sisters, and that sometimes they were
taken there by their mothers.
Women as Well as Men.
Here we have the extraordinary spectacle
of women otherwise good and virtuous,
cles the impurity of which only very
thin veil saves from open and Illegal in
decency. Indeed, the open indecency which
disgusts and repels. would be less dan
gerous to morals than the evident sug-
gestiveness which is the characteristic of
many OF those performances. And yet. 1t
and improving. because IL takes place on
the boards of a theater. because other
ionable.
This conduct, difficult to understand and
things in our social system that otherwise
1T would be hard to account for. 1t en-
plains why II is that the moral tone OF
society Is today distinctly lower than 1t
was. say, ten years ago, and that ten
years ago IL was lower than il had been
ten years further back 1t explains the
who from youth have been exposed to the
enervating influence which have de-
men, true men and capable men. are needed
for any position they have to be sought
1or MAINLY among the sons OF the poor.
These, living simple and natural life
trained to honest work and taught by me-
cessity to practice elf-denial, grow up
with clear heads and honest hearts and
become men, while the habitual thcater-
goers and the yotaries of pleasure grow
old, morally and physically, before they arc
20 and never become men at all. What is
the good of our greater material progress,
with its apparent refinement If II canrot
product a strenuous and vigorous Chris
tian manhood?
Appeals to Fathers.
l appeal to the fathers of families to save
the children. The fathers of families can
do more to purify the stage than all the
mayors and police of the country. The
theater business is like every other bust
ness-it seeks to serve the public as tho
public desires to be served, and when those
who produce plays find that decency pays
better than indecency, the stage will at
once become clean and wholesome All
that is necessary for fathers of families
TO do is to forbid their children to go to a
play unless they are certain It is In every
respect a decent one. And there can be
no good reason why they themselves shall
not accompany the children from time "a
time. Their presence will be n guarantee
OF two things; first, that the play will be a
decent one for II is inconceiVable that any
decent, intelligent man will deliberately
endanger the moral well-being of his chill
dren by taking them to an immoral play;