The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-25
Conservation Of Child Life.
IT.-7he ChiLdren's Theatey.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

stitch for the trimming The dresses had been given for the play and the children's mothers were chagrined that such plain things were to be worn. | they wanted to substitute elaborate. lace-trimmed. but very cheap, affairs. They were asked to walt until after the first night before they made | change. When they came and saw the little girls with the simple India lawn dresses and the dainty hair-ribbons, all the mothers went home and devoted their sewing hours thereafter to the | manufacture of plainer, daintier clothes-the theater had scored an other social success.
 Like all other unusual things, the Children's Theater came and proved | its worth in the face of adverse critic | cfsm and much opposition. To some 1t meant putting wrong ideas in child ren's heads. They argued that play ing Lord Fauntleroy and wearing vel vet clothes would make them dissatis- | fled with everyday life. The children | of the world are sometimes cleverer | in this respect than the grown-ups They look deep enough to imbibe the spirit of manliness and honor: and the clothes didn't count one whit. Others | argued that 1t put impossible ambi- tions fin the children's minds. that the
 
 On the contrary. having a chance to act at home, preferred to stay there. | Closing 1t on Sunday has cut off | thousands of children from their one weekly diversion, and the alleys and the streets will claim their own. A | bigger theater Is needed. in fact a | dozen such could be opened and run | every night all through the year and | the nefghborhood actors would always play to standing room. When Mark Twain went down to see the children play his Prince and Pauper," he took an interest In the work that has not abated. and that lead to his being made president of the Educational AL liance Theater with such co-workers as Miss Herts. Rev. Percy s. Grant Robert J. Collier and Otto H. Kahn. mere has never been room enough Tor all the people who attended the | plays. Each performance has witness ed a long line waiting as early as eleven or twelve when the play was to | pc at two. There has never been need Tor rules in this unique theater. If children were competent to interpret good play and act 1t, they were con sidered equally competent to consti- tute the audience that witnessed such play The signs protesting against noise and uniue applause that adorr so many Bowery theaters, were notice able by their absence in this one certain chivalry spranE to the fore reflected no doubt from the stage where only good examples received portrayal. and law and order have eyer been supreme.
 The children of the streets have vernacular and an accent of their own Yet from these, Miss Herts chose hor players. and when Mrs. Frances Hodg. son Burnett came to hear them render ner plays. she commented especially on the excellent English, the best she hal heard. The children had wrought if out Tor themselves. Since before the day of Sophocles there has been r,,nb said and written for and against tba stage. The tenor of the whole crv has penn: Is 1t educative? Is it upIifts .nsF Is 1t conducive to moraiitv, 9, Ife best answer is found in tba rh;,s ren's Theater. and is emphaties1iy 'a a, ffrmative. 'oaiy ar kIn.) eueric J. Has,
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