The daily sentinel., 1909-02-09

ly untruthful as almost every state
ment you made regarding theaters in
your sermon on .Amusements is
false. You have repeatedly perjured
yourself as "A minister of the gospel
while your coarse and offensive lam
guage has aroused the disgust of ev-
cry true Christian and the ridicule of
the outsider who merely looks on
IF you feel that you must attack
the theater to hold your job. look up
few historical facts regarding the
subject and don't become the laugh
ing stock of all well informed theat-
rical people. You state that not only
the church but the press condemns
the theater. What do you mean by
the press DO you mean the Chris
tian Advocate and the War Cry, or
that mighty power, the American
newspaper. in whose columns will
daily be found a review OF the cur
rent plays, with usually an intelli-
gent criticim of the same? Or do
you refer to the enormous list of
monthly magazines that almost with
out exception have an interesting
dramatic department as one of its
leading features?
Nor does the church in general
condemn the stage. Not only the
Jews and Catholics. but number
of Protestant sects are liberal patrons
of the theaters. and there is today in
America strong organization known
as the Actors Church alliance, de-
signed and organized by few broad
minded clergymen with the object of
bringing the church and state in still
closer touch.
The progressive Christian of to-
day realizes the immense influence of
the stage, which, having the advant-
age of effective settings and lifelike
representations, can and does drive
more sermons home than is possible
to the limited scope of the pulpit.
Preach me sermon as strong, as
touching and as eloquent as the Holy
City and | will listen to you
Even in the most poorly construc-
ted melodrama virtue triumphs and
vice is defeated. In that respect
regret to say that the drama is not
always true to life, for in real life
We often see the hypocrite and rascal
prosperous and secure. while the
honest man goes under. Still, the in
tention of the dramatist in meeting
out the proper amount of punish
ment and reward is a worthy one and
to be commended.
You say, Take the leg shows off
the stage and the theaters would not
make their salt Wrong again. Mr..
Sunday. The average life OF the aV-
erage musical show is but heeting
one and the few that survive owe
their longer existence to the real mer-
it of the musical numbers and the wit
of the text. while the greatest money
makers have been found in the deep
| er and stronger plays that live for
! years and are always welcomed by
| intelligent audiences.
| Il do not claim that all plays are
moral. That would be foolish state
ment; but shall we sweepingly CON
denim the stage because some objec-
tionable works have found hearing
there? AS well wipe out literature
because there have been obscene and
immoral books published at various
times. or destroy the church because
it has sanctioned many crimes -
countless murders, during its career.
| You say: The only way to purify
the theater is to turn IL into some
| thing else. Wake up, Mr.. Sunday /;
you are not living in the dark ages
now. but in the twentieth century.
We have happily passed the period
when we could cheerfully burn at he
stake anyone who did not happen to
believe as we did and then justify our
crime under the mysterious word,
'witchcraft, and delude ourselves
into the belief that long face and a
tiresome Puritan sabbath had squar-
ed our crimes with the Almighty.
ut is our glorious privilege to be
living today and reaping the benefits
of twentieth century progress You
might as we'll talk of abolishing mu-
sic, literature, or any of the arts, as
to talk of abolishing the stage. 1t
has too firm hold on the hearts and
minds of those who appreciate it's
beauties and realize its tremendous
power for good.
You say Booth and Garrick never
allowed their children TO witness a
play. | hate to spoil your fatherly
little story Mr.. Sunday. but the
truth is that Garrick never had any
children. though happily married
to a French danseuse. by the way.
Booths wife was his leading woman,
while it is generally understood that
his daughter was his severest critic,
and he highly esteemed her judg-
ment.
You say that a certain actress,
whose name you cannot reveal. con
fided to you that the stage was cor
rupt in all its branches. | cannot i'm
agine what sort of company she had
been connected with, but she was un-
doubtedly unfortunate in choosing
her engagements. l have been on
the stage nearly fifteen years. yet |
have always been associated with la
dies and gentlemen of honest and up
right principles. Many of them are
devout followers of different creeds.
and of all the scores of actresses I
know l cannot now recall more than
one or two of whose morality there
was the slightest question.
Columns might be written on the