The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-02-12
LETTER TO THE EDITOR

sue of the Daily Sun we see some
criticisms of the city officials on &C.
count of some Of their acts with ref
erence to amusements.
First, in regard to "Gus Hill and
his Gaiety Girls" who wanted to give
Greeneville real show next week,
will say that ! will personally assume
the implied blame in this thrust as
the matter was not brought to the at
tention Of the City Board, but to me
personally. The manager Of this
company approached me in a very
gentlemanly manner and asked If he
would be allowed to bring his com.
pany for nights engagement on the
18th. l told him that the county
physician had urgently insisted that
no more large advertised shows
which were calculated to draw large
crowds, be allowed to come to
Greeneville until danger on account
Of the "Flu" seemed past. That we
had observed that an alarming in
crease of influenza had resulted from
the gathering of large crowds in our
town. such as that which followed the
crowded house on the occasion of the
million Dollar DOLL" and that did
not believe the City Board would per-
nit his show to come. That while
the "Flu" situation had greatly i'm
proved, we feared we might have a
return of it following the crowd
which his show would likely gather
No reference, whatever, was made to
the quality of his show. So far as
I know it may be all right; and his
"bunch of beauties may be chaste
and refined and well dressed. But
certainly this can not be said Of ev-
cry "bunch." My only object was
to serve the town in the prevention
Of a recurrence of the disease which
has wrought such dreadful havoc
throughout all our land.
Second, in regard to the Murphy
Carnival, Mr.. Editor, l think it was
pretty generally understood before
my election that l was not especially
favorable to carnivals. However, in
the action taken in excluding them
from the fire zone, the Board was
unanimous. l an sure every member
of it felt he was doing the town a
valuable service, Notwithstanding the
ion of some that, for the sake of
entertainment, we must admit all
shows however demoralizing they
may be.
Third, as to baudy houses, we have
done our best to eliminate them also
even at risk Of being lacked up for
being opposed to all forms of enter
tainment. We suggest to our our
critics that they go to the records and
get list of the prosecutions for this
offense.
I see also statement, in the ar
ticle headed, "Who Is To Blame"
that certain pictures have been bar
red from the screen here" So far
as l know that is untrue. If they
have been barred / do not know by
whose authority. feel sure some of
them should have been barred. The
Board has not yet exercised its pre-
negative of appointing a censor
board to pass upon the pictures be-
fore they are shown to the public.
II is said we have the same pictures
here that Knoxville, Morristown, and
other towns have, and if they have
not been good for Greeneville "they
have not been just the thing for our
neighboring towns" / think the sug-
gestion that a disinterested commit
tee be appointed with authority to
pass upon pictures is good one, and
if the Board sees fit to follow the sug-
gestion, l hope the committee may be
sufficiently "disinterested" to look to
the moral welfare of our young peo-
pie instead of pandering to the
tastes of the morally depraved.
/ want it to be distinctly under
stood that l am not opposed to enter
tainment Of a wholesome kind. |
heartily favor it. 1t is only that
which is demoraliEing that oppose,
and in this I have no fear of criti-
cism from the good people of the
community.
G. e. ARMITAGE Mavor