Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-08-23
THE BLUSHING POINT PASS
ED AND THE BLEEDING
POINT REACHED BY STAGE
By
Bishop w.
A Gambler

, ais are the only solid foundation OF
public liberty and happiness;
Resolved, That it be, and it is here
by, recommended to the several states
to take the most effectual methods for
the encouragement thereof, and the sup
preston of theatrical entertainments,
horse-racing, gambling, and such other
diversions as are productive of idle
ness, dissipation, and a general deprav-
ity of principle and manners"
Our Revolutionary fathers clas-
sifed the theatre very correct
ly In associating it with horse
racing, gambling, and other di-
versions that are productive of idle
ness, dissipation, and a general deprav-
ity of principle and manners. That is
its true level, and in our day the case
is far worse than it was in their day.
II they could return to the earth, and
re-assemble to legislate for the welfare
of the country and the blessing of their
posterity they would most surely reaf-
firm the action which they took in 1875,
They can not return, but would 1t not
be we'll for the Daughters of the Rev
olution, and other such memorial bodies.
to take steps to reform the manners OF
the times and bring public morality
into line with the principles of virtue
exemplified by our Colonial sires? Why
claim their names and trace our descent
to their loins unless we intend to per-
petuate their virtues and maintain the
principles for which they stood? Win
we make of their memories nothing
more than curios, and follow a super
stitious ancestral worship no whit bet
ter than the Shintoism of Japan? Let
us build no sepulchres and garnish no
tombs in honour of the illustrious dead,
If we propose to repudiate their teach
ings and contemn their example.
We may depend upon it that we will
destroy the republic for which our fore
bears toiled and suffered and fought and
died. IL we depart from the principles of
religion, morality, and virtue which they
embraced and exemplified. We will find
1t easy to discard the fundamental prin-
ciples of constitutional government which
were so dear to them when we have cast
of the fundamental principles of moral
ity and religion which were even more
dear to them. Indeed, we have already
begun to despise the national Constitu-
ton which they framed and to doubt the
Bible which they believed. These re-
straints upon the excuses of political
ambition and reins upon personal indul-
gence we are relaxing at the moment
when the perils against which they
would secure us are most threatening
and powerful. We are cutting the dykes
when the tide is highest and when the
waves are most Lenp6SIuOuS.
We warn ourselves in season and out
of season against Puritanism, when there
is not a trace of that sternly virtuous
thing left in the land If Puritanism
were smallpox there would be no need
of vaccinating against it's infection so
much as one baby from Cape Cod to the
Golden Gate. Our danger is not Puritan
ism, but our ever present peril is Epi-
cureanism,-loose and luxurious living.
But this habit of condemning Puritan
ism is one of the things we have learned
from the lips Of actors and actresses as
ignorant as ourselves about the history
of the Puritans and as incapable as we of
practicing the virtues which they deride.
Much of the sentimentality which fills
the breasts of such men as the assassin
who attempted to take the life of Mayor
Gaynor is impaired and received in the
theatre. Hear the melodramatic utter
ance of this red-handed villain given in
excuse for his diaboical assault: HE
took away my bread and butter, not por-
ter-house steak, and l proposed to take
away his life" That is but an echo of
the kind of stuff which is daily and night
ly uttered on the stage.
1t appears that this fellow was holding
a sort of sinecure in which he was draw
ing pay from the treasury of New York
without giving value received for the
salary drawn. 1t is said that he has
neither wife nor children dependent upon
him, but he wished the public to support
him. Mayor Gaynor has been scraping
the bottom of the municipal government
of New York with a view to cleaning off
all such barnacles. For this he is very
much to be commended; but this CRATER
attempted to take his life on this &C
, count. And when arrested for his re-
pulsive deed he strikes tragic attitude,
and Electrically declares He took my
bread and butter, not my porter-house
steak and I tried to take his life" Thus
he thinks to win the applause of the de-
. based multitude which has derived its
notions of right and wrong from the
same school of vice in which he has
learned murder. His tone is unmistak-
ably STACEY, and the accent betrays the
! origin of his devilish sentiment.
My countrymen, If you can stop your
games and sports long enough to hear
an honest and an earnest word, l wish to
warn you that as long as you maintain
and support this seminary of vice. (as
Lord Macaulay calls it, the lives of 9TH
ers of you will be in jeopardy every hour,
and many of your homes will be cor
rupted and many of your hearts will be
broken.
/ Valerius Maximus said of the Roman
theatres 1T was devotion that built
them. The State first blushed and then
bled on account of their existence" We
have passed the blushing point with ref
erence to them: we have now reached the
Needing stage.