Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-13
SAY SHAKESPEARE IS
MENACE TO YOUTH
CHICAGO POLICE EDIT BARD OF
AvoNs WORKS
Find Macbeth" as Depleted by Nov
ing Picture Machines Too Cory
for Children Of Windy
City

CHICAGO, June 12.-How 1t feels to
use the pruning knife on the immortal
bard of Avon was graphically described
by Lieut.. Joel Smith. censor In extra
ordinary and art critic of the city hall.
Lieut.. Smith opines that Shakespeare
exuberant imagination Is too strong
for babes and stockings.
Recently the lieutenant edited
Macbeth" by chopping out approx
mately two feet of film that struck
him as too realistic. Thus improved
he allowed the thriller to be presented
by the moving picture showmen. The
lieutenant has a perfect horror of vio-
lence and bloodshed.
Grown folks may be able to see
Macbeth without bein shocked" said
the lieutenant, but the kids is strong
his knife into the sleeping king and
then wipes the reeking blade on his
pants they get excited.
Anyway, you never see that on the
stage, but the -makers stuck II in
to improve the piece. A kid that sat
in front of me at the show got all
stirred up when they put that on.
gifts the knife. Give it to him. Mack
"Romeo and Juliet" Tame
That's why I chopped it out Romeo
a lot of blood flowing in that and peo-
pie getting spitted. What's that about
the lovemakin'? Nothing to 1t. The
kids don't care for that What they
want Is a fight. and they don't care a
rap for any of your soft moonlight and
tootsey- wootsey dope.
Say, l went to see 'Sapho' put on
the other day In ono of them nickel
theaters. Mild DIS milk. ! thought 1t
would be fierce on account of the Meth
ersoie kiss you used to read about. IL
it hadn't been that the ladies' smoked
cigarettes in one scene l wouldn't have
blacklisted the thing. The French are
great for that lover business. amt
they? Never seem to get any pleasure
out of seeing a SHOW unless the wife
Is fooling round with some other fell
low. All those French films are the
same way.
1.-THE italians, now. seem to care
more for knitting and blood. They want
to splatter it all over the stage. There
will be young thing and her two low
ers and then the lovers will get to fight
ing and one of 'em will Jab a knife
into the other"
Since the lieutenant was placed at
the head of the city's butcher" squad
he has famillarized himself with liter
ature, ancient and modern. with view
to determining just what may be fit
iOT yOuHBSStciS III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS "
see.
French School Shocks
He has been greatly shocked at the
innate depravity of the modern French
school, and even Shakespeare he views
askance. He dotes on plays like East
Lynne" and Damon and Pythias." be-
cause they satisfy his ethical sense. He
believes that art should be made the
handmalden of morality, but he doubts
WHETHER 1t is.
Even "Ali Baba," that classic of
childhood, met with the iieutenant's
disapproval and parts of 1t were for
feited. The scene in the treasure cave,
where All Bahia and his crew find the
old man in the act of making way with
the treasure and slaughter him, the
lieutenant thought, might lead some
youngster to dwell on thoughts of vio-
lence. In general he has a watchful
eye for all acts of violence and THEW
cry.
In general all systems of "easy
money" getting. bank robberies and
train holdups are strictly taboo. But
the lieutenant's loyalty to the history
of his country will not permit him
to place the ban on the cowboys six
shooter.
"a cowpuncher don't look real with
out his arsenal" said the lieutenant.
So the cowboy is allowed to appear
intact, so long as he is not engaged
in blithely shooting up" village.