The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-19
From the Louisville courier-Journal.

THE Bishop of London, who proposes
that the pulpit crusade against the
- immortality of the stage Is evidently
an unworldly man who does not realize
that the more that Is said about the evil
which disturbs him the more curiosity as
to what's at the theatre.
The coarseness and fippancy of the
stage reflects. rather than affects, the
moral standards, and the standards of
decorum and delicacy of the period.
The coarseness of the stage is not pecu-
)liar to the present time, although there
are persons who speak of 1t as being so.
Comedy originated from the buffoonery of
the harvest festival which constituted
a part of the worship of Dionysius It's
coarseness was that of the times The
Roman stage was indecent because Rome
was rotten at the core. Terence revolted
against the coarseness of his audiences.
Plautus followed the present day for
mula, "give the public what it wants" ="
and was as coarse as his patrons. The
Roman Mines were indecent for profit
just as entertainments in the theatre are,
in London and elsewhere, at the present
time. The Christians destroyed the the
atre when they gained ascendency be-
cause 1t was an institution which mirrored
the immortality and brutality of a civil
ization which Christianity sought to
change not by treating its symptoms but
by getting at the seat of the disease. The
Miracles" the Mysteries the 'Morali-
ties" the "Sacre RappresentaZioni'' of the
middle ages In European countries gave
the public what 1t wanted when 1t wanted
discussion of religion. At one time in
France the entire story of the Bible was
depicted upon the stage in cycles of
scenes The ACTS of the Apostles" in 62.-
coo lines, the performance requiring 40
consecutive days, was stages because the
French at that time wanted that sort of
entertainment, just as part of the Amer
lean public and only a part of it, of
course, wants two and a half hours OF
THE Adventures of Anatole."
In the presentation, and the popularity,
OF Damaged Goods we have an ex-
cellent Illustration of how the theatre
follows the tendencies of the times and
caters to public taste. Sex hygiene" is
a live topic. "All right" says a pro-
ducer "If that is what the public wants
we have it on the shelf" and he reaches
for a play which was declined by a public
in England few years ago, which didn't
want anything of the kind. And In the
guise of a medical lecture the pubic
gets, and is glad to have, play for
which it Is prepared. The same play
offered at anotherf tfme-10 years ago or
perhaps 10 years later-would have sub
jected it's producers to arraignment in
court.
Another illustration Is afforded by
comedy which has just left Louisville.
The theme treated is free love-. The
point of view of the author Is that the
free love idea Is bosh. and the reason
for that point of view Is that 1t Is popular
among normal persons and Will, therefore,
pay. But the author also knows that the
ia ste of the day demands that the theme
be treated in a manner that would nave
met with criticism a few years ago. Ihe
"side-splitting" situation is the distress
of a young woman of irreproachable char
acter, although of Advanced views, VINO
arrives at midnight at country mouse
and receives the impression that her un-
married younger sister Is, as a result
of her teaching, occupying bedroom with
a bachelor, and that she has arrived a
few moments too late. The popular es-
innate of the play Is that it provides
innocent merriment. To a majority Of Its
irons any criticism of it upon the score
of indelicacy would seem prudish. The
dramatist Is not an innovator, converting
the audience to new standards OF pro-
priety, but a caterer serving tasty It'd
bit after having learned what the audi
ence desires.
| Plays that are abominable to the aver
age person do no harm. The lid can be
clapped upon them by the police and plays
that are what the average person wants
are sympathetic of the manenrs and
morals of the day.
| The early Christians did not abolish the
theatre because it created evil. but be-
cause it was q creature of evil They
did not preach moderation in the immor
atty of the stage. but preached a new
religion and new morality and kicked the
theatre, with It's vulgar Mines" into tht
rubbish heap. II the English pulpit shoult