The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-16
A SATURDAY SERMON.
SCHOOLS OF cRIME.

A SATURDAY SERMON.
| SCHOOLS OF CRIME.
| Train up child in the way he should
go: and when he Is old, he will not de-
part from it.-Proverbs z2:s.
Il think it is time for the people OF
Chicago to exhibit moral stamina
enough to annihilate plays In which
bandits and desperadoes are made to
pose as heroes. and am going to start
the ball rolling now"
With this statement a Chicago
judge a few days ago, instituted
trouble for a certain class of cheap
theaters. Before him were several
small boys, against each of whom
rested i've charges Of burglary. When
arrested they were feasting off of
sweets secured in a thievfng raid.
Skeleton keys and revolvers were
found in their possession. and they
confessed to robbing houses of prop
erty to the value Of five hundred dol
lars.
The Judge instituted an investiga-
ton to find the motive which
prompted the boys to commit the
crimes. He discovered that they were
In the habit Of attending a small thea
teF%w where they had witnessed plays
depicting burglaries and thefts, and
this had inspired them to try It them
selves. AS a result OF his discoveries,
the judge ordered the police to ex-
clude boys and girls from that theater
IN the future.
1t is such plays as this variety, and
the kindred sort In which vice is por-
trayed-sometimes by dramatic art of
q high quality-that brings condem-
nation upon the theater. There Is no
doubt that there are great possibilities
for good IN the stage. There are some
plays-their number is lamentably
too few-that not only innocently
amuse but are really uplifting. They
are others that, while trashy, are
harmless, and the worst that can be
said against them is that 1t Is a. waste
OF time and money to attend them.
But there is another large class that is
not only demoralizing but positively
vicious In their influence, particularly
on the young and alse on older suscep-
tiole persons whose natural bent is
toward such things and who are at
tracted by such plays rather than by |
the decent kind.
In this class should be placed not |
only the cheap melodrama in which |
crime is made to appear half-heroic |
but also-and especially-the So
called problem play. in which vice is |
Haunted in the faces of decent peo-
pie. portrayed as living perhaps in lux
ary; plays in which the courtesan is |
with virtues of fidelity |
and truth: in which vice is made to |
appear smart" and modesty, truth /
and virtue are a by-word and a Joke. |
It is such plays as these that do I'M
told damage to morals. Pope said: /
Vice is a monster Of such |friehtful r,ein |
mat to be hated, needs but to be seen:
But seen too oft, familiar with his face |
we first endure then pity, then embrace |
Persons of small moral stamina who
would never become familiar with
nee did they not see it thus portrayed
IN the stage, are by such plays first
made vicious in thought and then in
Iced.
And 1t Is right along this line that
me objection to Sunday theaters is
made. Candid theatrical people in the
arge cities admit that the mass of
sunday theater-goers are persons who
re attracted by plays with a vicious
rather than by the decent
ort. Therefore the lower class of
lays succeed better on Sunday nights
han do uplifting plays. 1t is asserted
n some places that high class thea
ers which do not admit these de-
dramas. do not pay when
.ept open on Sunday
But it is not the stage alone that is
pen to this chafge Of demoralfzine
he young. In these latter years a new
ource of danger has sprung up, and
hat Is the moving picture show. To
he susceptible boy or girl the scenes
ihich flash on the screen are real. and
hey make a vivid impression on the ;
outhful mind. When SCENERY or in
ocent action is shown they are enter
aiming and perhaps instructive, but
hen crime is depicted or vice is sug-
ested, such pictures become de- ,
loralizing.
The statement was made some time
go that one of the cheap theaters Of
'opeka was preparing series of local i.
loving pictures, among them one ,
howing boy committing a theft on
-ansas avenue. and his escape-or
apture-we do not recall which. 1t
1akes no difference which happens,
lany a boy studies out a plan by
hitch he could do the same thing and | ,
scape. It looks heroic. and some of
nem try it. The sympathies of the l
oy in the audience are with the Gull I
rit.
The writer does not know in what 1,
heater it was proposed to show t
ais scene. or whether it has i
yer been shown. but such
Kings ought not to be thus por- !
,ayed. In some cities they are rigidly !