The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-02-21
DURHAM ANXIOUS
TO WELCOME HER.
So The Girl From Rcctor'ss
lIastcns There to Fill Spc-
cial Engagement.
MAYOR TO CENSOR : PLAY
Roanoke Newspapers Warmly
Protest Against Opening
Gates to Ugly One.

Iilaw & ErlanEer's company, which
failed to present The Girl From Rec
tors" at the Academy of Music s;atnr
day night. left the city yesterday for
Durham. that town having offered to-
receive tho performance when Lynch
burg Cancelled its engagement for to-
night. Durham is Just about a hfty-
minute ride from Raleigh. where the
play was prohibited after a seancc
which bordered on u riot. They are
going to run 81 special train for the
benefit of the Raleigh bloods, though
1t was announced yesterday that the
production would be under the super
vision of IL committee of ccnsors ap-
pointed by tho Mayor
Along with the alluring advertise
ment, the Durham folk were warned
and edited by the criticism published
in the Virginian-Pilot after the per-
| Torrance in Norfolk, which called at
tention to the bad features BY doing
that the public was advised as to what
| 1t might expect. although 1t was tnti-
mated that the Mayors committee
would get busy with the pruning
knife. Tho fact that the Richmond
committee did not exactly see how It
fact that tho Academy was dark Sat
urday night.
Cashed Your Tickets Ycts
Manager Wise, by the way, has not
been able to refund the money paid in
foa' tickets. A great many purchasers
took their little slips to the box office
and got the equivalent or value in cash,
but there is probably $1,000 there
now Somebody suggested that mas
much as the show was tabooed. a few
of the buyers would rather lose the
money than specify, though there will
hardly be any left in the cash drawer
to- day except that which belongs to
the house.
In Roanoke, where the company will
end It's Virginia engagement, the news
papers are calling Head 1t away" at
the same time commanding the stand
taken by the authorities In Richmond
and Lynchburg. Mayor Cutchin, how
ever, has declared that he will be pres
ent with members of the police force.
prepared to order the curtain down
at the least evidence that the play is
| Objectionable.
! a Newspapers Protest.
| Tho Roanoke Times printed the fol-
lowing editorial protest yesterday
morning:
If Lynchburg can forbid The Girl
/ From Rector's, and Richmond can for
| bid it, why can not Roanoke forbid it?
! usually we 40 mol lack Nerve mere, anu
we should not be willing to let 1t be
known that Roanoke will stand for
what the other cities rejected.
I'VE think Mayor Cutchin is wrong,
for once, If his proposed program is
correctly reported. His idea seems to
be to stop the performance after some
hundreds of spectators have seen that
4 it is Indecent. Or else it will work Sc
as to draw a crowd of curious persons
and have them deceived by tame ex-
hibition. If the performance is de-
cent, it is a swindle. and If it is indc-
cent, 1t should be prevented. We have
the testimony of respectable ncwspa-
pers and of the police authorities OF
three cities that 1t is indecent. Why
do we want to have it here and &C
through the hair-splitting and probably
! absurd process OF discussion as to
what is or is not improper?
I'VE do Roanoke people the justice
to say that we believe comparatively
. few of them have taste for filth ani
that probably the attendance would BIZ
small. What we are Interested in Il
to have Roanoke join the other elite:
Of the South in serving. notice on Klaw
e. Erlanger that until they send into
this territory shows we can take oul
!. respectable women to see they shall
be shut out of our theatres by police
authorities. We are not squeamish OF
=! puritanical or straightlaced; but there
should be limits to our public ant
licensed playhouses.'