The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-24
synopsis;

w une. of which the following is a
synopsis:
At the beginning of the regular season
of 1905-O6, Notwithstanding some indica-
lions of an impending recurrence to dra-
matte art as means of inspiring and re-
wardlng public interest there was prom
ise of an abundance of the putrescent
STRONG meat that the playgoers' COM
munity is continually said to like, and as
continually is urged to consume, as a
nutritious theatrical sustenance; and, as
the season advanced. that promise was
amply fulfilled. Now, at the beginning
of the regular season of 9O6-07. there are
indications that the supply of the same
commodity will be copious and foul. A few
of the managers promise WE'LL but our
theatre is still largely In the clutches OF
hueksters. bent on appealing to the lower
instincts of the mob.
The willy indirection of theatrical hum
bug would be amusing but for the eff
frontery that is commingled with 1t. The
peddlers of theatrical punk very well
know that they are offering a tainted ar
ticle, and therefore they are loud in pro-
hesitation OF "a good moral purpose" In
the vending of their unclean merchan-
disc. Vice exists they declare-as If that
were a novel disclosure; bad deeds are
done; bad men and women abound; and
so forth. No doubt society is afflicted
with disease, In many painful and obnox-
ious forms; but sociology is the proper
subject for philosopher and statesman;
nobody has asked the stage to extirpate
social evils, and 1t is high time that the
theatrical scavenger should be made to
understand that his labors are not want
ed-that the fact of the putrescence is
no justification for a display of it in the
theatre. The province of the stage is the
ministration of art and beauty, and 1t Is
shame that 1t should ever be pervert-
ed to the service of anything else; 1t is
a shame that 1t should ever be degraded
by the presentment OF such stun as
GHOSTS" and "Hedda Gabler." Iris" and
Mrs Tanqueray" You cannot deluge
the human mind, for two or three hours,
with the Shiny details of depravity, dis
ease and crime. and then purify 1t with
little squib of moral precept
The present dramatic season has started
with the 1.-The Hypocrtes," a story of
f1orid didacticism about amatory incon-
thence; His House in Order" a story
of infdelity In marriage. and the conse
quences thereof. and two versions of
1.-The Kreutzer Sonata" a story of de-
pravty, adultery, disease. madness and
murder. There are, of course other plays
and clean ones: but those dramas of car
nal passion and misery are the conspic-
uous features of the moment in our the
atre. Those are the plays for which at
tention has been especially claimed, and
upon which 1t has especially been be-
slowed. Who is the better for them? The
same old distressing picture Is shown,
and the same old rancid scrap of stale
morality is dangled before the public
nose-as If any human being having ac-
cess to the New Testament stands In the
slightest need of precepts commendatory
of oleanly life! Or. as if any person, hav-
ing access to the newspapers, has any
need of additional information as to Great
ures of depravity. deeds of crime and
scenes of horror
Where should the line be drawn? The
moralist. dramatic or otherwise, as a
rule, assumes-and acts ON the assump-
tion--that there is no crime too atrocious,
no obtrusion on the public notice, If only
the obtrusion is tagged awith a good
moral That doctrine, once admitted,
opens the door to an unlimited volume
of filth. Many reasoners maintain it, and
not long ago unhappiy, 1t received the
support of legal sanction-for. practically,
1t is the doctrine sustained by the decision
of the court of special sessions in the
Daly-Shaw case. that was tried last July.
The decision does not deny that a play
called Mrs. Warren's Profession" pre-
sents vice." that fact, on the contrary,
was admitted; but says the justice who
wrote the decision: "Vice, at least, Is
presented in an odious light. and its vo-
taries are punished" and the justice and
his concurring associate appear to be-
lieve that because vice is presented in an
odiohs light" the observers of that pre-
sentiment will view vice with disgust"
and necessarily will be moved to avoid
1t. That kind of reasoning has been in
vogue for long time, and 1t has done
a tremendous amount of mischief. 1t is
exceedingly specious, and 1t is absolutely
unsound The logieian who assumes that
attitude might just as reasonably main
tain that an open cesspool in a public
place will exert a sanitary and salu-
tary influence, by causing disgust for
a foul odor, and thus showing the peo-
pie of the neighborhood the necessity of
cleanliness and pure air. In each case. OBJ
viously, there is teaching; but in each
case the method of tuition Is vulgar, obi
Gus, offensive and hurtful.
The excitation of disgust in the mind
of a human being Is not necessarily a
benefit; more often 1t is a positive harm.
Furthermore. experience has shown that
the presentment of ''vice"-that is to say,
of 1.-The frightful example"-does not de-
ter the spectator from vicious courses.
Human beings. almost as a custom, do
wrong with full consciousness of their
transgression, and not infrequently, with