New-York tribune., 1910-03-20
THE PLAYG0ER
The POsoer Of CheerfGlness
and Pl0ws Of Despair.

Augustus Thomas closed his latest drama,
''The Harvest Moon" with these words:
In our plays. my son, let as help them
20 look M. up" But thore are many
lrnmatists and managers, stars. toe. who
would express thei~ thought an some such
way as this: 'Ia our plays Jet ms force
thcm 10 look down. cownr'
The power Of chee~fulncss is appreoiat-
"a by Mr. TAomas. who has travelled a
little way elong The road where men he-
come wcll qualified 10 learn and 20 teach
a certrin groat lesson of living But the
dramatists who believe in VITO under
stand duty and Its cheerful performance
arc not 80 numerous as the theatres IN
certain street of New York. Look down,
look down. dear public. down into the gut
larE into the sewers" eNclaim certain play
makers. Doubtless they are sincere enough;
doubtless they believe thai as they De-
press their audiences they uplift art And
WHO shall say that they are not encOur-
Ogcd ~ the fond public fh2y feed with
tho horrOrs OF desolation? There Is usli-
ness In life. there IS sin. there IS hope
acssncss. there IS greed. there is despair.
let us. thcp, De- trie 10 Hfc; let as depict
despair. and greed. and uE'incss. and sin.
and hopeles essness they say. And they
think they are right ARD they point 20
hegiesed hos ofiices which testify 20 their
snEaci;y.
Art mas no alliance with ethics, with
morality" declares a. prosperous play
wright ~ tse hour. Let a painter paint
any ugly. horlifying. depressing subject
he plc0ses. 50 long as he paint II we'll
contsnucs tliis maker ~ plays. And 50
yog suppose that sculptors should carve,
horTons only, architects design buildings
solely for the tasteless and the debsse6.
and composers make music merely for the
fone-denf Let as he modern" cry the
apostles of melancholy who must he true
20 nature" an Em costs. provided that ''nat-
nne" be no. only melancholy but afflicted
with some disease IN her spine. Come.
then iet rs be modern,
But what is il 20 he modern" ~ not 20
ne cheerfully sane? Too many mOdernists
are too old-fEslsicnsc They think they
nEniEe a new calt, but they are merely
aneading in the footsteps oS lugusrious
writers OF long ago. writers whose heroes
ard heroines Nera never so Virtuous as
when they sighed, OF tainted, or bent the
minds az youth 10 weeping willows and
early death. The earlier tribe MADE virtue
a bRne, the later light up SIN With red
IRE. kneel IN the manholes. ana spade up
ugliness from the dismal swamps until Il
''O'ertOps old PeliOn and makes Ossa ike
a Nart" Let Us he modern" they shrek:
'let Us look the facts IN the face"
But what are the facts? They are
pretty much what they have been for cen
furies The mOdernists have not drawn
forth a single new one. They have not
even invented a new name They talk,
not without eloquence, about modern
thought" but few Of them seem 10 know
what modern thought is. The general run
proceed upon the belief that its mission is
20 deprive humanity OF hope and cheerful
mess. the cheerfulness that IS founded upon
something better than hope, upon knowing.
Some contemporary plays which make
great pHetentions 20 modern thought"
have merely caught the names OF things
that people are thinking about. They
prattle of guilt and law. without, however.
showing much knowledge OF the law OF
life Like certain factions in the body
polite. they ignore all the facts relating
20 individual responsibility and shift the
burdens OF their characters upon other
shoulders. Modern? They are as far
from any relation 10 anything that Is re-
Hated with modern thought as one geo.
graphical pole Is from another. Their
writers do not appear 10 know what the
world is really thinking about
Against the power of cheerfulness TOO
many piayAflshNS sci the forces Of dismal
suggestion. II has never occurred 10 these
writers that IL is desirable or possible 10
make an audience look up, up." They
send all glances downward, into the
depths. They throw some shabby, sickly
sentimentality over the puppets IN their
plays. and they trick the lovers OF sensa-
ronalism into an emotional fervor which
has an eject as unwholesome as the de-
tailed report of the trial OF some scandal
Gus divorce suit or a murder case that is
born of drink or lust. Probably they can.
not be convinced of the desirahility OF a
different course. A mans mind Vrasps
only what il is prepared 20 receive.
~ Is as true as ever that the world needs
cheeTfulness and Is in no pressing need az
SlOOm and hOpelessness. IN our PLAYS
my son, let us help them 20 look up. up.''
Augustus Thomas is nearer the thought of
The modern world than are many OF the
busy writers who proclaim themselves
modernists while they wade knee deep in
the dark sewers and persuade themselves
that the fOul gases are the odors of the
H.