The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-03-13
Why PRETEND TO Be SO SOPH|ST|CA1tO2
When the Fact Is You Don't Know What You're Talk
Only Follows Ability to Discriminate.

atrically unsophisticated. For nothing
is easier to know than that such things
don't happen in this town.
Second companies, third and fourth
may hold down the boards and un-.
speakable theatric sins be committed
in the name of some celebrated star
but understudies seek other and jucier
fields.
The trouble is that people want to
appear so horribly sophisticated. They
regard it as a mark OF distinction and
metropolitan elegance to be Suspicious
of everything that wags up toward
Main street.
All you have to do is to- consult a
theatrical paper to find out anything
and everything you want to know.
In them you will find every COM
pany of every production listed and it's
itinerary mapped out.
The matter in Richmond is the mat
ter everywhere as to matters theatri-
cal
The managers are beginning to see
the handwriting on the wall.
And it is writ large that prices must
come down.
More and more does the taste of the
day run to the capsule variety.
Its the vaudeville sketch. the NOV
ing picture, the one act play the nov
elette. the short story.
People have neither time nor incli-
nation for prolonged contemplation.
! The life of the present is hurried,
in,
vague, skimming the surfaces, licking
off the sugared top.
Life burns nowadays like heated
fever.
1t flames hot and it dies down to
ashes in a flash.
Nothing lasts.
What is wanted is intelligent COM
prehension and appreciation based on
knowledge.
This is an end that is going to be
accomplished unsteady through the
Symphony orchestra.
An organization which can present
the very highest phase of an art, re-
peat and reiterate, and present it over
and over without exhausting it's own
infinite variety or the artistic patience
of its auditors-that is the medium
through which discrimination is
achieved.
The most disinterested altruistic
and idealistic movement ever started
in Richmond is that of the Symphony
orchestra No art is so persuasive, so
universal in appeal, SO gripping in its
individual influence as the musical.
A love of good music in commu-
nifty argues a spirit of refinement and
aestheticism.
But music must be understood. Com
pretended.
And this cannot be without constant
presentation.
You must hear it over and over and
over-you must become intimate with
it's interpreters, both human and mani
mate.
You must have the open mind. You
must be ready, willing, anxious to be
convinced.
1t Is not at all what l like" 1t is
what is good. And when you have ar
rived at the place where you can dis
criminate, without personal prejudice
tistically good and artistically bad, and
know why you can distinguish, and
know that it is good or bad. whether
you like it or not-can acknowledge
it's ;excellencies and deplore it's de-
fects as an art-not as something you
do or do not like--then you have ar
rived at a point of artistic conscious
ness which lands you in the culture"
class.
Culture is merely an ability to intel
ligently and fairly discriminate. To
know and know why you know.
| This is what theatre-goers need.
1t is its lack which makes the thea.
ire what it is today.
| For say what you will. it is the peo-
pie on this side of the foot-lights who
decide.
! They get exactly what they want
and demand.