The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-12
|GABBLINO HABIT
| SHOULD BE CURED
Remedy Suggested
For Those Who Chatter
During a Play or
An Opera
b. :M.ARY ASHE MILLER

II might add materially to the hap
| piness of life if Gertrude Athertons
article in last Fridays Call on chat
tering in playhouses were printed In
tract form and distributed with the
programs in the theaters- In case
this were not enough and certain OF
the patrons refused, apparently, to
read, mark, learn and inwardly d.
gest" the text thereof some emphatic
elocutfonist should declaim from the
stage the more positive passages for
the benefit of the inattentiye.
Nothing is more maddening TO the
devout play goer than what Mrs. Ath-
erton terms Cabling" and to the
music lover 1t is even worse. 1t may
be in reality soulful conversation or
erudite comments upon the music or
drama, but when 1t SINNERS down to
sibilant sounds forced upon unwilling
ears It degenerates into simple CAB
bling" Plays are to many people the
safety valve of everyday existence.
No matter how broad the scope Of
be in the affairs that fill the day there
must come times when it seems a
petty enough round and one Is anxious
to escape for little time at least.
Then the confirmed theater goer
seeks congenial play. forgets his
sorrow or boredom and gives his emo
tions fullest sway under cover OF the
players charm.
To the young the theater is a won
derful. newly opened book OF human
nature which delights and moves them
even though they fail to grasp the
fullest significance OF what they see
and hear; to the old it is a confirma
ton of their lifelong observations or a
diverting mode OF lifting years from
their shoulders.
Music is an even more intimate in
depreciation of ones feelings, and to
many natures more Thoroughly absorb
ing. So 1T is sad enough when one
sympathetically sorrows or rejoices,
thrills with stirring adventures or
listens with keenest appreciation to
an exquisite note or a witty line, to
hear a shrill whisper voicing a COM
ment upon the heroine's hat, denun-
citation of the ventilation. of the theater
or some equally interesting or momen-
tous observation.
This vice OF inopportune converse
tion seems to be confined to no par
ticular age, sex nor class The sensi-
bilities are as frequently rubbed the
wrong way in box as in a top gall
lery, and the glare OF indignation with
which any remonstrance is received is
as universal as the fault
1t is peculiar thing and one which
may have psychological basis that
some people perfectly well conducted
under ordinary circumstances become
possessed of devils of misbehavior as
soon as they set foot in playhouse.
1t may be sort OF emotional excite
ment engendered by the theatrical at
mosphere which nlanifests itself in this
form just as some children become agi-
tated and Ill hammered in the presence
of strangers.
In either instance summary and
strenuous measures are not amiss.
To bark back TO Mrs. Atherton's Wig
orous lambasting, it may be said that
the only balm in the sorrow she has
inflicted upon those San Franeiscans
who grieve over reproofs for their be-
loved. even if faulty, city lies in the
fact that she seems to think New
Workers are worse than we are.