The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-01-31
MARY GARDENS
SALOME MAKES
MANY SHUDDER
Actress Kisses GrewsOme Head
and Critic Calls Her Perform
ance Replusive
Half Naked Dance Ar0uses Pro-
test From CIergymen and
Others in New York
Opera Declared an Insult to Re-
spectacle People and Whole
Atmosphere Bad

Atmosphere Bad
Especial Dispatch 10 The Call
NEW YORK, Jan. sO.-Although
Mary Garden in her first appearance
in Salome omitted last night to kiss
the grewsome head, she included this
horrible piece of stage business" to-
night and the audience shuddered.
The kiss was bestowed with DELHI
crate and perverted rapture accord
ing to one critic, and was so repulsive
that when the final curtain dropped
she was given scant applause even by
her most enthusiastic admirers.
Her half naked Salome has aroused
a protest from ministers and from
others, who declare that her perform
ance outrages decency.
A score of clergymen were asked by
The Cali correspondent for an express
sion of opinion as to the moral aspect
of the presentation of .salome
Disgrace to Decency
Rev. DR.. Wallace MacMullen of the
Madison avenue Methodist Episcopal
church said:
Il can only judge of the performance,
of course. by what I have read in the
All such things are an
outrage and ought not to be permitted
If the reports [ have seen are correct,
there is a dance in the performance
that is a disgrace to decency.
ut seems to me that 'Salome, as
given at that opera house, is an in
suit to the respectable people of New
York. The clergy ought to take action
strongly condemning it."
No Excuse for Opera
Rabbi F. de Sofa Mendes of Temple
Sharaai Tephilla said: II object very
much to spiritual personages being ex-
plotted on the stage. That would be
one reason why I would object to 'Sa-
lone But deeper than that is the
Haunting of indecency as it is done
can see no excuse for allowing such
performance to be given. If it is left
to the decency of the American people
'Salome' as an opera Will die natural
death. The better sense of our. people
is against it,
Ought TO Be Stif1ed
Rev. DR.. !. George F. Haas of st.
Marks Lutheran church said: From
what I have read of 'SaIome' in the
newspapers it is shock to the re-
ligious sensibilities. am strongly OPP
posed, as the best of our people are, to
such performances. 'Salome, ought to
be stifed. Such dances as that de-
scribed are an affront. to decency. The
whole atmosphere of 'salome' is bad
Society Women Silent
A decided Discrimination was manifest
upon the part of society women to dis
cuss the propriety of the production of
"salome.1 Only very few of those in
terviewed would talk of the opera.
Paul Morton said: "All my ideas of
'Salome' were changed after the pre-
sentation of it last night 1 think it
ought to be suppressed"
Mrs. Otto Kahn, whose husband is
director of the Metropolitan opera house.
said: Il don't want to say anything
about it, because can not say anything
complimentary"
Actress Defends Opera
81 did not kiss the head last night.
but in that / was untrue to myself.
.Salome'' will live not as the satisfac-
ton of a morbid appetite, not as an
invitation TO untried vice, but for its
naked truth to the perversion of human
nature impelled by faint in the
blood
Mary Garden made this prophecy to-
night and the nalSedness, by the by
had no subtle reference to her insig-
nificant drapery. AS matter of fact
there were tights, though Miss Gar
denis friends have assured her that
from the front, where ignorance was
bliss. they might with discretion have
been omitted, for nobody was the wiser
Apotheosis of Blood Taint
But clothes do not make morals
said Miss Garden They do not really
enter into the case. Why does Salome
strip herself before Ferod? Not through
hnmodesty, which infers a lack of pur-
ity, but lack Of Inodesty-such complete
lack that it is Inconsistencies.
rs there alIurement in such an ex-
hibition of the body? The reverse.
rather. Is there attraction in palhd
creature whose siclSly mind drew her
desires to the severed head? 1t is the
of the blood faint, the legacy
of sin, repeated until it has itself be-
come .abortive. 1t is horsible, appalling.
set in fearful music, that rends the
SOUL