Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-04-07

n
thorities kept their heads on
straight during the soiourn OF
- Madam Warren in Omahs. Chief
Donahue, by virtue Of his long years Of
experience with police matters and crimi-
nails IN general, knows more about Madam
Warren and her kind, and Of her profess
sion" than q. 3. s. ever can hope TO know.
Mayor Jim was too busy with his dog
fight to pay any attention 20 the things
at the theater beyond getting himself
photographed in a group with Little Hip"
80 the AFFAIR at the Boyd was passed over
by him. This indifference on part OF the
police authorities cost the company a good
deal Of advertising OF a sort that has been
found very eficaoious in other cities, and
was reflected in the inattention OF the pub
lie. Omaha did not get hysterical over the
play and the attendance at the theater
was disappointing from the box Office stand
point, although genuinely gratifying from
the aesthetic.
Mrs. warrens Profession" is about as
dull and unsatsfying from a dramatic
standpoint as anything we'll can be. 1t is
a dreary waste Of words, stupidity inane at
times. its action pushed along by dint Of
sheer talk, the progress Of the gable be-
ing unillumined by even an approach to
wit. It's situations are uninteresting, its
characters are colorless, and Its general
aspect is uninviting. Far from being i'm
moral, It is merely indecent, and, like most
things indecent in literature, It lie vulgar.
When It was first proposed to produce the
play in New York a great cutlery was raised
against Il, and newspapers protested with
persistence and vigor that 1t be not al
lowed TO go on. The result OF all this
olRmor was that on the opening night as
high as SIS and $50 was paid for standing
room at the theater. The police authorities
stopped the performance after It had pro-
ceeded for a while, and arrested Mary
Shaw and another member of the company,
charging them with giving an immoral
exhibition in public. When the case had
dragged It's length through the various
stages OF court procedure 1t was finally
solemnly determined that the play was not
immoral. After this decision Mrs. War
rens Profession" was restored to the stage
with nearly the same cast, only one minor
part being changed, but It failed to attract
any attention and was withdrawn. A COM
pany was formed for the road. to begin its
tour at Kansas City on last Sunday night.
The Kansas City press followed the ex-
ample of tho New York papers, and made
, great hullabaloo over the prospective in
suit to the decency OF the city. The police
authorities took hand in the matter and
proposed to stop the performance. The
manager of the company went to the
United States court and secured a restrain
ing order to prevent the police from inter-
ferinE, and the Willis Wood theater was
packed at every performance After seeing
The play the critics and the editors Of Kan
;as City agreed that It was merely stupid.
-
Mr. William Winter of the New York
Tribune, than whom there is no saner critic
Of things dramatic, dismisses the Shaw
production in New York as follows
The wake of Sister Warren conducted by
Sister Shaw, has lasted three weeks. The
mourning was concluded here Saturday
night: The defunct sister will either be in
TERED now or paraded through other cities
with view to a more protracted lamenta-
ton. AS the funeral procession disappears
q serious word relative to the impudent at
tempt to foist that nuisance on the public
of New York may not be deemed inappro-
Mr.. @, B, Shaw, in promulgatlng his nasty
play OF MRS. Warren's Profession" has
alleged that his purpose was to protest
assumes to S" exist that driSes women S into
an unchaste, vicious, filthy life, by with
holding from them fair wages for their
''The play (Mrs. Warren's ProfesslonO
Is, simply, a study Of prostitution and it's
aim is to show that prostitution is not the
prostitutes fault, but the fault Of a society
which pays for poor and pretty woman
prostitution in solid gold and pays for her
honesty with starvation, drudgery and
Against that statement It would be well
Mr. Justice olmstead of the court OF spe-
cial sessions In New York, made In the judi
cial decision in the case involving the play
OF Mrs. warren's Profession" handed
I's That his (shaw,s) main idea
was not the discussion of the social evil,
so-called seems TO be demonstrated by the
fact that not one of the characters OF the
play refutes the sophistical reasoning of
the courtesan mother, with the statement,
which we tudicially know to be true, that
the prostitute Is, not ordinarily driven to
her choice of calling by anything other than
her motive. to satisfy the desires Of her
senses without work.
That Is the plain, unvarnished, positive
truth as to that subject. ascertained by ex-
perience In the courts Of justice: II will be
Observed that Mr.; shaw's solicitude re-
stricts itself to the alleged wrongs and
sufferings OF poor and pretty women"
There is a belief that the poor and homely
woman, when In trouble or degradation. ts
just as much an object of compassion and
just as much entitled to help as the pretty
one. But, aside from the question -, OF 4
the theater is not fit place for the dis
cussion of that subject or OF any subject
like II. The theatrical audience Is largely
composed OF young people, many OF them
girls at an age when they are exception
ally sensitive to impressions. II Is not
prudishness, II is common sense, that would
bar anything and everything tending to
cause and promote reelection and discussion
among young people, or In a promiscuous
assemblage, OF such themes the social
evil" the lives Of courtesans and profigates
and the conditions OF the brothel. Those
are subjects that concern doctors, social
philosophers, legislators, men who bear the
responsibility Of government NO right
minded. we'll bred person introduces an
indelcate subject for conversation In a
drawing room, The Introduction OF such a
subject would be considered-and Justly So
an Insult; and there Is no more Justitca-
ton for insulting people In theater than
there would be for insulting them In a
parlor. The public does not attend the
theater for the purpose Of obtaining in
formation and Views about harlotry, its
cause or its cure. The notion that social
evils can be corrected by writing plays
about them iB little better than idiOtic.
But Mr.. Shaw writes like a charlatan,
whose stock IN trade is paradox. In the
same communication from which his alb
Rurd statement, above printed Is taken, he
says that; There are people with whom
you can discuss such subjects, and people
q TO whom you cannot mention them. The
patrons OF the prostitutes form the main
body OF the latter, and the women who
are engaged In rescuing women are the
backbone OF the former. Get the rescuegs
into the theater, and keep the patrons
That IL, exclude the persons to whom
"the moral lesson" OF his play ar II really
had one, which Il has not), should be ad-
1p.aaad meaning the class that preaCheTe