29

**NOTE.** The play has been somewhat altered thus the 5th&6th tableaux have been thrown into one. The time of performance would be over 35 minutes without allowing the curtain to drop.

## COSTUMES.

Sir Richard Vernon.—: Dark green coat, red waistcoat, black knickerbuckers tied with ribbon, gray hair and moustache.

Bandelero.—: Black coat with gold braid, ornamented waistcoat, tight white knickerbuckers, three cornered hat, leggings, dark moustache.

Alice.—: Tight-fitting scarlet dress, long train, black velvet body, broad hat, flowing golden hair.

Smile.—: "All tattered and torn," snapback and fiddle red short jacket.

Gamp and Benhaw.—: G. black stockings and gray suit-richly braided. Black cloak. R. similar but tartan suit in coat.

Father Dolan.—: Ordinary priest's suit, gown only used for the escape.

Controversy caused by Mr D.L. Scott, minister regarding the Dumfries Amateur Dramatic Club, in its first issue, 1877.

The following is the shortest article on the second and last performance. It is from the Dumfries (Herald) Standard which had a long complimentary article of the Academy performance.

PRIVATE THEATRICALS AT THE CRICHTON ROYAL INSTITUTION.—Last night the members of the Dumfries Academy Dramatic Club gave an entertainment at the Crichton Royal Institution. The Recreation Hall was quite filled by patients of both houses, and by a large number of ladies and gentlemen from Dumfries. The programme was exactly the same as that recently performed in the English room of the Academy—"Off the Line," "Bandelero the Bandit" (a little meritorious piece written by one of the company, Mr J. Barrie), and "Paul Pry." All the members of the company acquitted themselves creditably, and their representations were frequently applauded. At the close Dr Monroe, of the Southern Counties' Asylum, proposed a vote of thanks to the company, eulogising their performances, and singling out for special remark the young gentleman who sustained the character of Paul Pry (Mr W. Anderson). Mr G. Smith acknowledged the compliment on behalf of the company, the members of which are: Mr J. Barrie, secretary, Mr W. Anderson, acting manager, Mr J. Smith, stage manager, Mr L. Bennett, Mr J. Blacklock, Mr H. Grieve, Mr H. M'Ewen, Mr T. Newbigging, and Mr G. Smith.

From Dumfries Herald

In the Dumfries Herald the school board meeting is given at length. The following is from the Edinburgh Evening News.

## DUMFRIES SCHOOL BOARD AND PRIVATE THEATRICALS.

At a special meeting of the Dumfries School Board on Monday night, Rev. Mr Scott drew attention to an amateur dramatic club composed of young lads, who are or were pupils in the Academy, having recently given an entertainment there. He was told that the place would be filled with roughs, but instead of that it was filled by respectable people. They had a great outcry about religious education, and that was the result. He denounced play-acting as a system calculated to debase and demoralise the young; and yet they gave the Academy for exhibitions of that kind.—The chairman said he never knew of that matter till it appeared in the newspapers, and suggested that if Mr Scott gave notice of a motion it could be considered at next meeting.—Mr Scott said one of the plays was a most immoral one. He had been told two of the personages represented were what they would call two awful villains. He saw Mr Lennox smile at that, but it was a seme more fitted to make them weep. He gave notice of motion.—The plays were "Off the Line," "Paul Pry," and a slight piece written by one of the boys called "Bandelere the Bandit."

## MR SCOTT ON THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES.

Mr Scott said—My attention has just been called by a most respectable gentleman to the fact that the Academy was recently given, probably by the Board, to certain young men to befool themselves. As you may remember there was formerly in Dumfries a great cry about religious instruction in our schools, and it was upon this very question that the election turned. When we were sent by the people of this town to represent them at this Board, we promised to continue that religious teaching, but what, I would ask, has been the outcome of that promise? Instead of remembering it, we have turned the class-room into a theatre for the exhibition of a grossly immoral play, which would appear to be only the first of a series of exhibitions of this kind in the Academy. Personally, I do not know anything about it, but, if I am correctly informed, I say that such exhibitions are a disgrace, because there is no system on earth more fitted to demoralise the young than a series of theatrical performances. Look at the character of the people who frequent them. Are they the pious, the prayerful, or the godly? No, we find that theatregoers are just the irreligious, the frivolous, the giddy, aye, and even sometimes a great many who are nothing better than the offscourings and scum of society. I wish to know, therefore, who gave permission for the Academy being thrown open for theatrical performances?

The CHAIRMAN suggested that Mr Scott should give notice of motion. For his own part, he might state that he never knew anything about the performance complained about till he saw it in the newspapers.

Mr Scott, again addressing the Board, said—Dumfries has fairly grown giddy about theatrical performances this winter. In the exhibition which was given in the Academy there were what are styled "Two awful villains," which parts were played by our young men. Observing that Mr Lennox was smiling, Mr Scott said—You may smile, Mr Lennox, but such a result is more fitted to make us weep.

Mr LENNOX said he did not think they could do anything in regard to the performances this year, but if the Board wished they could prevent them in future.

Mr Scott then gave notice of motion that at next meeting he would enquire by whose authority the Academy was granted for this purpose.

This was all the business.

MR SCOTT ON THEATRICAL MATTERS.

DEAR MR EDITOR,—What a shocking place this Dumfries must be! What sin and wickedness going on under our very respectable noses, and we good, easy people calmly slumbering in ignorance of the whirlpool of vice surrounding us, until we are roughly awakened by Mr Scott, who, in speaking at a School Board meeting held on Monday last, proclaimed the fact that “theatre goers are irreligious, frivolous, and giddy, and a great many are nothing better than the off-scourings and scum of society.” Listen to this! ye thousands who flocked night after night for a month to see an entertainment lately given at your *bijou* theatre. Listen to this! ye off-scum: no, I don’t mean that—ye aristocrats and country families who night after night filled the dress circle. Mr Scott informs you all that you “are nothing better than the off-scourings and scum of society.” And what is the cause of this outburst of virtuous indignation on the part of Mr Scott? Simply because some of our Academy boys have been giving an amateur performance. The Rev. D. L. Scott says —“Theatrical performances demoralise the young.” The Bishop of Manchester says—“Theatrical performances should be encouraged, as they tend to educate the people.” The Rev. Alex. Webster, of Edinburgh, says—“The appetite for dramatic representations had been implanted in our nature, and it was folly to think of eradicating or stamping it out.” Professor Blackie says—“So far, therefore, as my experience goes, and I have no reason to imagine I am singular, that class of persons, whether clergy or laymen, who are fond to indulge in declamations against the modern stage, are very far from being altogether in the right: rather, according to my feeling, so far in the wrong that, if I were to use the language which flows with such familiar denunciation from their lips, I should consider myself guilty of a great slander against the public, and a gross libel against a most respectable class of my fellow-citizens, for which, as a Christian and a gentleman, I should consider myself bound to make an ample apology. The fact of the matter is, gentlemen, that not only with regard

Numerous letters to the papers were sent. I call this one on the next page from the Dumfries Herald.

(continued)

to the theatre, but with regard to the matter of
public amusements generally, the clergy of this
country have put themselves in a false position,
and they must wheel right-about if they mean to
do any good. The idea of stamping out amuse-
ments, and especially such an intellectual and
morally noble amusement as the theatre, is ridi-
culous. The clergy ought, therefore, to understand,
if they are not prepared to drift back into the
mouldiness and stupidity of monkish asceticism,
that it is their duty, as ministers of a reasonable
service, to consecrate all natural, healthy enter-
tainments, and not to frown on them, or madly to
attempt their extirpation." Perhaps Mr Scott may
have read the speech, if not, I shall be happy to
lend him my copy—its very interesting, about a
column and a-half. Mr Scott says this was a
"grossly immoral play." How, now, masters!
and you in authority, do you allow your boys to
perform "grossly immoral plays?" Personally Mr
Scott allows he knows nothing about it. Oh, Mr
Scott! In conclusion, and apologising for the
length of this epistle, let me beg Mr Scott to take
the advice a friend gave him at the meeting, "Stick
to mere facts."—I enclose my card, and remain,
yours respectfully,

ONE OF THE CROWD.

Still another letter in the same,
These are not given in the order
of publication. Thus one refers to
some observations made by Professor
Blackie.

## WHAT ABOUT THE SCOTT AND BLACKIE DUEL?

A "LONDON READER" sends us the following:—
A duel on the stage is, as is tolerably well-known, a
favourite piece with the "gods," and a duel on the
subject of the stage is likely to be rejoiced in if not
admired by men. Such a conflict was recently all
but promised by Professor Blackie from the stage
of your Mechanics' Hall—and not a few of us Londoners are anxious to hear about it. The rollicking Professor, who, although he has not all the "blind hysterics," has all the fire of the Celt, whose cause he has espoused with such enthusiasm and success, has been "out" before now, although it is doubtful to this day whether he or his adversary drew first blood. The struggle between him and the late Mr Ernest Jones, on the subject of Democracy, in which it is difficult to say whether the erudition of the one or the ready wit of the other was the more admired, is not yet forgotten, and the Professor, although now verging on three-score and ten, has still such a superabundance of "fight" in him that he is prepared to go down to Dumfries at any moment to defend pulpit and stage against the Rev. D. L. Scott, who is a member of the Dumfries School Board and a U.P. clergyman, and who has recently been attacking the stage on two separate occasions in his place as a member of that School Board. When is the duel to take place? Mr Scott cannot, of course, decline the challenge, seeing that he himself called public attention to Professor Blackie's remarks on the subject of the stage to his pupils, and the more so that he has been put upon his mettle by the Professor *sine suo*, informing him beforehand that he will "pound him into a jelly." Doubtless the Professor will have good backing: he will have the Bishop of Manchester, who admires Mr Henry Irving as much as himself, and delivers earnest sermons to low comedians and the ladies of the corps de ballet, and the Rev. Messrs Webster and Allison of Edinburgh to hold the sponge for him.

It may be questioned if, so far as the general
question is concerned, the Professor will find in his
opponent of the Dumfries School Board a foeman
at all "worthy of his steel." To judge from his utter-
ances, the Rev. D. L. Scott knows nothing what-
ever of the stage or plays. He has raised this storm
in a tea-kettle, all because some of the elder boys
in Dumfries Academy have formed themselves into
an Amateur Dramatic Club, and have been playing
some pieces, of which the chief is the well-known
"Paul Pry." When Mr Scott calls such a piece
"immoral," he merely shows that he has been
guilty of the not uncommon offence of condemning
without evidence. Then again, when he attempts
to prove that the piece must be bad and demoralising,
because two boys are called upon to take the roles
of "two awful villains," he indicates that his sense
of humour is about as deficient as his knowledge of
the works he condemns. The phrase "awful vil-

(continued)

lains" is used with about as much evil meaning as the terms "rogue" and "rascal," which a father applies to the little boy playing at his feet, and the villainies they commit are on a par with the "striking with a feather, the stabbing with a rose," of the most idiotic and harmless of music-hall airs. For his defence, Mr Scott argues that you will never find the "pious" attending a theatre, and that play-going leads to drinking—and he, of course, paints the usual daub of a picture about crowds passing from the drinking saloons to the theatre. As regards the "pious," all that can be done is to ask what he means by the phrase. It seems there is a difference between the good and the "uncoguid." As for the old charge of play-going leading to drinking one can only ask is it not flatly impossible for a man who is bent on amusement, to drink as hard while he is looking at a piece in a theatre, as if he were spending his time entirely in a "drinking saloon?" Mr Scott has, indeed, it seems, been confronted by the circumstance shown in police returns, that the number of "drunks" in Dumfries has decreased contemporaneously with, if not in consequence of, the success of the Theatre there, and he retorts that this shows what kind of people go to the theatre. It would have been well if he had read the lesson in the right way, and seen that the theatre had done what not even his own pulpit performances had been able to accomplish, namely, by giving a legitimate amount of amusement, while not debating from a legitimate amount of refreshment, to make accessions to the ranks of the sober and self-respecting.

The question of stage and pulpit is not worth threshing over again, although Professor Blackie, Dr Fraser, and others, are to be honoured for proclaiming the common sense view of the matter. The truth is there need be no antagonism between plays and sermons, although there is and should be strong public antagonism both to bad plays and bad sermons. The theatre and the pulpit are at once public teachers, and the indexes of public morals. The one may teach morality directly, by appealing to the emotions, or indirectly by holding the mirror up to nature; the other by appealing directly both to the judgment and the emotions. That the stage is not free from open view any more than that the pulpit is not free from cant, there can be no doubt, and both must be improved by public opinion. The growing popularity of amateur theatricals shown by this little molehill, which it is to be hoped Professor Blackie will not make into a mountain, is one of the numerous evidences that theatrical performances are not only growing in importance but likely to improve in propriety. The parents and guardians who go to see their boys and girls acting in pure and innocent pieces, will speedily go to the theatre, and their very presence will prevent anything but purity and innocence from holding sway there. It is by such acts, not by the preventing of any "ism," least of all by the preaching of D. L. Scotticism, that the theatre will become what it ought to be.

On the next page will be found
a leading article from the
Edinburgh Evening News. There
were also leading articles in
Figaro, Baillie, Court Journal etc.
The subject was dropped by
Mr Scott when he found himself
in disgrace in the town.

THE Rev. Mr Scott, United Presbyterian minister of Dumfries, has certain antiquated notions about stage-plays which render him quite a phenomenon. This interesting antediluvian is a member of the Dumfries School Board; and has discovered to his pious horror and holy wrath that the "English class-room of the Academy" has been recently given up to the Satanic device of private theatricals. Mr Scott's original notions about the drama were made public first in relation to the audience. He seems to have previously imagined that dramatic representations were witnessed only by that select class of the community which he elegantly denominated "roughs;" but was told to his surprise that on the contrary the room was filled by "respectable people." But what vexed the righteous soul of this primeval Calvinist even more than the audience, was the class of plays represented. He knows nothing himself of dramatic literature; may possibly, it is charitable to suppose, have heard of the man called Shakespeare, but displays a ghastly ignorance in relation to that well-known comedian Mr Toole. The pieces represented in the English class-room were "Off the Line," "Paul Pry," and an original drama composed by one of the Academy Boys, no doubt an earnest student of Bow Bells or the London Journal, alliteratively entitled "Bandelere the Bandit." These plays, Mr Scott stated, were "grossly immoral;" and formed a "most debasing and demoralising exhibition." Two of the personages represented, he further observed, were "what they would call two awful villains;" but as the clerical critic did not name them, we are reduced to the supposition that they must have been the too-curious Paul, and the theftuous Bandelere—from whose name, indeed, any villany might confidently be predicated. With all deference to Mr Scott's virtuous ignorance, however, it may be doubted

(continued)

whether these plays (putting the "Bandit" aside as a mere piece of juvenile folly) are not called by too hard names when described as "degrading" and "demoralising." Any one who has seen Mr Toole in "Off the Line" knows that it is a very harmless and rather pathetic drama of the domestic affections, which would, no doubt, be frightfully mangled by the amateurs of Dumfries; while "Paul Pry" is simply an amusing caricature. Mr Scott, however, represents the whole matter as "a scene to make them weep;" and if he had confined himself to that exercise it would not have much mattered. But unfortunately he has given notice of a motion at next meeting of the Board, inquiring into the entire affair; and so the public will be grieved a second time by seeing "another good man" make an exhibition of himself. Mr Scott must regret every day of his life that he did not flourish before the Revolution Settlement; and no doubt he will find in this any number of sympathisers.