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 Uf)e 
 
 
 Ethical 
 Outlook 
 of the 
 Current 
 Drama 
 
 •BjPx 
 
 Rev. J. C. Speer, D.D. 
 
THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF THE 
 CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 By 
 
 REV. J. C. SPEER, D.D. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE TORONTO GENERAL 
 
 MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION, TORONTO, 
 
 CANADA, 1902. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS 
 
 1802 
 

 ■»«nl Of Apic„ltu«^^ ■ "^^ *"""' ""«»• •««>. Depurt. 
 
THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 Chapter I. — The Drama Historic. 
 
 A BRIEF sketch of this institution in its historical 
 manifestations may not be out of place here, as it 
 may tend to give us a view point in this discussion 
 which should be decidedly advantageous. 
 
 It need not be denied that the dramatic element, 
 or histrionic instinct, is native to the race, and in 
 various forms this fact can be detected even among 
 the peoples most distinct from our own, in time and 
 condition. To personate another, by actions, words 
 and other modes of expression, is simply the mimetic 
 power native in a lesser or greater degree to the 
 human being in all conditions and stages of develop- 
 ment. The war-dances of the savage, as well as the 
 private theatrical of a Herod, the third act of which 
 reached its climax in the murder of the Baptist, are 
 evidences of this universal principle from widely- 
 separated fields, and the examples might be multi- 
 plied indefinitely. 
 
 5 
 
THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 historian, to produce a Z ^' ^^ " '=°'"P«'«°t 
 
 the earliest times. The fit T °^ ''*' ^™""' ^^''^ 
 «PPea«d; but, while it e've J ""?' ''"'^ '^"^'^ ^as 
 it is little more than an ZT " '"^,' P'"°<^ °^ "me, 
 ject. However tS Tuth V' ^^''*"'' °^ *»>« «"h- 
 
 another volume, and ilft^^^t' ^ P™'"'^^^ "« 
 '^li deal with the sub Lt fro^.J'P!'^ '^^' **»'« "-^ 
 who h«« internet in the 1h ..' ''*'"^P°''>* "^ «»« 
 tiou of bald historical f«^^'*''".°"^«' '^'^ '^^ «<^"ee- 
 ^lationship to Z^ITjJ^'^"''^ ''^"'^ '° their 
 Tl»e dmma as an IT S"'f '°°« °f «oeial life. 
 
 -ce abouHoo BC^rl"'""^ "'^'^^ ''^^PP- 
 
 ever stood as fatherof the Gi\T' 1 '^'^^'P'« ^'^ 
 «een. therefore, thai the H *'''^'*'^- ^t will be 
 
 and the strain Tjt u '' °^ ^'"'^^'^ ""'^n. 
 
 ever since. *° '^^^^ "^^a-ned in the blL 
 
 wei:^r:Lt :nrrof d°'^'^^* -^ ^'^^ ''''» 
 
 hut the instinct beW «.'' • 7" '^'^^ P°«««a'; 
 Greek, the develop^ tS 1 *'' ^"^ °^ *^« 
 was rapid, so that manv oth ' """^ ^'*'*'" ^^"^ 
 
 Jaid under tribute ^11^.7 1"T'' °^ "^« ^^^e 
 play-writer, and altor of fh ^ ^, *^' °''J^'=* "^ the 
 It was tru« f r ^* ^"'^^^ ''ays. 
 
 since. trat'ThVia'aTt^.^' '" -^^^ ^^ 
 P-Pose. and that pTrpl tasT.^'V ""°"^ 
 Patnot. character £ aV^eaf e tTntT £ 
 
THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 end religious mythology and poetry were brought 
 to the garnishing of the play, and in later days the 
 matters of private life were permitted to appear upon 
 the stage. 
 
 In the earliest times the sexes were not allowed to 
 mingle on the stage in the main parts of the role, 
 but after a time this restriction was disregarded. 
 
 The stages upon which the early tragedies were 
 enacted were in the open air, and the times were, for 
 the most part, on the great calendar and feast days, 
 and at times of great national rejoicings. On many 
 of these occasions whole weeks were necessary to 
 complete the play, so numerous and elaborate were 
 the details to be observed. 
 
 Till the time of the introduction of the more ex- 
 citing scenes of the race-course and the gladiatorial 
 games, and the more bloody conflicts of the arena in 
 which wild beaats, slaves, and latterly the Christians 
 were slaughtered by the thousands, the theatre was 
 most popular and growing to wonderful proportions ; 
 but when these more thrilling entertainments were 
 made the rule of the Latin and Greek peoples, the 
 full flush of the drama faded till the institution was 
 wrecked and its downfall was accomplished as a con- 
 trolling influence. 
 
 It is worthy of note that the moral influences of 
 the drama were then a matter of comment, and such 
 names as Plutarch, Xenophon, Plato, Socrates, Seneca 
 and Ovid uttered their protests against the immorali- 
 ties of the stage, on the ground that the morals of the 
 
8 
 
 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 S ;Eii^r " "» '?" -p"^ •.°s.''" 
 arena disappeared ^ *"® 
 
THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 But with the downfall of the savage slaughter of 
 the arena came the revival of the drama, and it is 
 indisputable that the infant Church found in the 
 stage of the times one of the greatest obstacles to 
 the work of overthrowing the immoralities of the 
 heathen world, with all the attendant vices. In the 
 second century A.D. the Church was organized and 
 powerful, and the war against the immoralities of 
 the drama was waged with great earnestness. The 
 battle was a fierce one, and while the theatre dragged 
 its life along for ages, the Church ceased not to hurl 
 her anathemas upon it and its patrons, till the effects 
 were most destructive to her heathen antagonist. It 
 was near the close of the second century that the 
 Church made an attempt to cut the ground from 
 under the feet of her enemy by putting upon the 
 stage scenes and plays of a religious character ; but 
 the success of this venture was indifferent if not 
 evil, and in the long run rather favorable to the 
 drama. 
 
 In the fifth century the embers which had been 
 allowed to slumber for some time were again fanned 
 into a flame, and the more powerful Church continucf 
 on the aggressive till, in the middle of the ninth cen 
 tury (A.P. 845), the theatre was extinct. On this 
 point Hastings says : " From this epoch onward the 
 drama, under the attacks of Christianity, . . . must 
 be held to have expired." And yet the same religion 
 in the twelfth century was to undertake the resurrec- 
 tion of that which it had efiiectively ruined. All 
 
10 
 
 THE BTHICAL OUTLOOK OP 
 
 along these tedious centuries the conflict of the 
 Church was against the drama, because of its ethical 
 influence upon the people to whom the Church bo'e 
 the message of the One who had distinctly said that 
 even a look might be a violation of the ethics of His 
 Gospel. 
 
 The close of the tenth century marks the advent 
 of the religious drama in France, and there can be no 
 question that this was a more serious attempt on the 
 part of the Church to wean the people of the times 
 from the Bacchanalian feasts and ceremonies; but 
 the attempt was, as in earlier times, a dismal failure 
 and the latter case was worse than the former, for we 
 find the most sacred subjects mingled with the most 
 obscene, an evil which, by the way, has projected 
 itself into the day in which we live. 
 
 Turning now for a moment to the English drama 
 we find a state of affairs which is anything but in- 
 spiring. The scope of this paper will not warrant us 
 in going behind the times of the Puritan movement 
 against the drama of that day. 
 
 Whole volumes of dramatic Billingsgate have been 
 poured upon the heads of the Puritans for their 
 attitude toward the theatre of the times, and there 
 can be no doubt that in their zeal they went too far 
 in their condemnation of some things which were 
 morally indifferent; but at the same time it has been 
 shown most conclusively by writers of discriminating 
 honesty and distinguished ability that the movement 
 against the plays of the times was one that was war- 
 
THE CORRENT DRAMA. 
 
 11 
 
 ranted, and that it was supported by the best men 
 of the land who were removed to the farthest point 
 from sympathy with these same Puritans. Charles 
 Kingsley, in his chapter, or essay, on "Plays and 
 Puritans," has dealt with this question in such a way 
 as to throw light upon the condition of the drama of 
 England in the sixteenth century, and also he there 
 shows that the Puritans, while leaders in the icono- 
 clastic movement a<i;ainst the drama, were not the 
 only people of the times who stood horrified at the 
 depths of iniquity to which this institution had 
 descended. On page 14 he says: "But the fact is 
 (and this seems to have been, like many other facts, 
 conveniently forgotten) that the Puritans were by 
 no means alone in their protest against the stage, and 
 that the war was not begun exclusively by them. 
 As early as the latter half of the sixteenth century 
 not merely Northbrooks, Gosson, Stubbs and T y- 
 nolds had lifted up their voices against them, jUo 
 Archbishop Parker, Bishop Babbington, Bishop Hall, 
 and the author of ' The Mirror of Magistrates.' The 
 University of Oxford in 1584 had passed a statute 
 forbidding common plays and players in the Univer- 
 sity, on the very samd moral grounds on which the 
 Puritpr.s objected to them. The city of London in 
 158 J had obtained from the Queen the suppression 
 of plays on Sundays ; and not long after, considering 
 that play-houses and dicing-houses were traps for 
 young gentlemen and others, they obtained from the 
 Queen and Privy Council a law to thrust the players 
 
12 
 
 THB ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 out Of the City, and to pull down the play-houses 
 five in number), and. paradoxical as it may seem 
 there is little doubt that by the letter of the law 
 steKe plays and interludes were even to the end 
 of Charles I.'s reign unlawful pastime, being for- 
 bidden by statute. And the players were subjected 
 to sevew punishment as rogues and vagabonds. 
 .... So that the Puritans were only demand- 
 ing of the sovereigns that they should enforce the 
 very laws they themselves had made, and which 
 they and the nobles were setting at defiance " Far- 
 ther on he deals with the immoralities of these plays 
 as follows : " The tragedies of th^ seventeenth century 
 are on the whole as questionable as the comedies 
 Ihat there are noble plays among them, here and 
 there, no one denies, any more than that there were 
 exquisitely amusing plays among the comedies; but 
 as the staple interest of the comedies is dirt, so the 
 staple interest of the tmgedies is crime, revenge, 
 hatred, villany, incest, and murder upon murder. 
 Ihese are their constant themes, and, with ihe excep- 
 tion of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson (in his earlier plays) 
 and perhaps, Massinger. they handle these horrors' 
 with little or no moral purpo.se, save that of exciting 
 and amusing the audience and of displayin.. their 
 own power of delineation in a way which makes one 
 but too ready to believe the accusations of the Puri- 
 tans, supported as they are by many ugly anecdotes, 
 that the playwriters and actors were mostly men of 
 fierce and reckless lives, who had but too practical an 
 
THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 18 
 
 acquaintance with the daik passions which thev 
 sketched." ' 
 
 Farther on in this es»iy Kingsloy calls attention 
 to the fact that so great was the evil complained of 
 that the Church of England's baptismal service, for 
 the adult, introduced the word "pomps," which he 
 declares referred to the plays of the times. Here is 
 
 his reference: "Prynne declared these stage- 
 
 plairs to be among the very 'pomps' and vanities 
 which Christians renounced at baptism." The Church 
 of England had retained in her Catechism the old 
 Roman word "pcmps" as one of the things which 
 were to be renounced, and, as pomps confessedly 
 meant at first these very spectacles of the heathen 
 circus and theatre, Prynne could not be very illogical 
 in believing that, as it had been retained, it was re- 
 tained to testify against something, and probably 
 against the thing in England most like the "pomps" 
 of heathen Borne. 
 
 Speaking further about the condition of the stage 
 performances, Kingsley has the following to say: 
 "The golden age of the English drama was one of 
 private immorality, public hypocrisy, ecclesiastical 
 pedantry and regal tyranny, and ended in the tempo- 
 rary downfall of Church and Crown." Speaking of 
 the present times he says: "On the matter of the 
 stage, the world has certainly come o'^-u- to their (the 
 Puritans) ways of thinking, for few highly-educated 
 men now think it worth while to go to see any play, 
 and that exivctly for the same reasons as the Puritans 
 put forward." 
 
14 
 
 TUE ETHICAL UUTLOOK OF 
 
 Chapter II.— The Modern Dram*. 
 
 These quotations will perhaps place before us a 
 brief outline of the history of the drama as it existed 
 in those lands in the days that are gone, and it pre- 
 pares us to attempt to answer the question as to the 
 ethical outlo<jk of the drama of the present day. For 
 this part of the discussion it will serve all purposes 
 to conUne our attention to this continent, as there is 
 but little, if any, difference in the moral tone of the 
 theatre throughout the lands of the Anglo-Saxon 
 tongue. Mr. Franklin Fyles, dramatic cntic of the 
 New York Sun, has recently given to the world a 
 vo'- me the title of which is, " The Theatre and Its 
 People." In this book the moral question is practi- 
 cally ignored, and the value of the work will be more 
 for the actor than for the public generally. How- 
 ever, he gives ns the following figures, which may be 
 of assistance: "There are," he says, "five thousand 
 theatres in the United States and Canada." The 
 value of these is set at $100,000,000, though he thinks 
 this is uncertain— the amount may be more or it may 
 be less. Two thousand of these placeu are what 
 he calls legitimate and three thousand illegitimate, 
 running away down to the lowest type. These run 
 for eight months of the twelve, and the intake of 
 cash he sets at 870,000,000 per the season. It may 
 be said that these figures are much below those more 
 frequently quoted, for some have given as high as 
 
TBI OURRIMT DRAMA. 
 
 15 
 
 $300,000,000 as the amount of the annual turn-over 
 in cash by the theatres of the continent, and the 
 number employed at fifty thousand. We are of the 
 opinion that these fi^^res are too high, and that a 
 fair medium would be more correct. But that there 
 are more than five thousand places where plays are 
 carried on throughout the dramatic season we think 
 is without doubt ; but, be that as it may, these figures 
 will serve to show that this is a mighty organization 
 with unlimited capital behind it, and it must be a 
 first-class dividend producer or it would long since 
 have gone to the block. 
 
 If these places, which run for eight months of the 
 year, are for good, they should be encouraged ; and if 
 they are for evil, how great is the menace to modem 
 society. That they have no influence on either side 
 will not be asserted, and therefore they are to be 
 taken as an auxiliary or an enemy to the work of 
 the Christian Church. It is to ascertain, as far aa 
 possible, the moral influence of this institution that 
 we devote the balance of this paper. 
 
 It will be fair, we think, to place in the witness, 
 box those who are not likely to be prejudiced wit- 
 nesses as well as those who might be considered to 
 be blinded to the good qualities of the defendant 
 
 It may be well to remember that there were those 
 in the first days of the history of the United States 
 who felt that they w""" responsible to start the 
 young nation on its ::. .■ with firm foundations, 
 and it was shortly aftt; che Declaration of Indepen- 
 
16 
 
 THI ETHICAL OUTLOOK Or 
 
 dence that the following was passed and incorpo- 
 rated as part of the constitution of that country: 
 " Whereas, true religion and good morals are the only 
 so id foundation of public liberty and happiness, re- 
 solved, that it be, and is hereby, earnestly recommended 
 to the several SUt « to take the most effectual measures 
 for the encouragement thereof and the suppression of 
 theairkal entertainmente, home-racing, gaming, and 
 such other diversions as are productive of indolence, 
 dissipation and a general depravity of principles and 
 manners." It must be adb.itted that the men who 
 framed this law were not likely to be the fanatics 
 who are generally supposed to oppose the modem 
 drama. Perhaps the greatest and most lofty actor 
 who ever trod the stage is Sir Henry Irving. More- 
 over, this gentleman has been the strongest advocate 
 of the regeneration of the stage, and he stands with 
 a challenge upon his lips to all who attack the stage 
 of to-day. In 1881 he delivered a lecture at the 
 sessional opening of the Philosophical Institution in 
 Edinburgh, on the topic, "The Stage As It Is." I 
 quote from this lecture, page 6: "The theatre of 
 fifty years ago or leas vxta reformed ; if there are 
 any, therefore, as I fear there are a few, who still 
 talk on this point in the old vein, let them rub their 
 eyes a bit and do us the justice to consider, not what 
 used to be, but what is. But may there be moral 
 contamination from what is performed on the stage ? 
 Well, there may be; but so there is from hooks, so 
 there may be ; at lawn Unnia clubs, so there may be 
 
 I' 
 
THX OURKENT DRAMA. 
 
 IT 
 
 t 
 
 fti daruM, ao there may bo in conneetion with every- 
 thing in civilised life and society, but do we there- 
 fore bury ourwlves ? . . . Depend upon two things— 
 that the theatre, as a whole, is never below the aver- 
 age moral sense of the time, and that the inevitable 
 demand for an admixture, at least of wholesome 
 sentiment, in every sort of dramatic production, 
 brings the ruling tone of the theatre, whatever draw- 
 back may exist, up to the highest level at which the 
 general morality of the time can truly be registered. 
 .... I should acknowledge eagerly and gladly that 
 with few exceptions the public no longer debar them- 
 selves from the profitable pleasures of the theatres, 
 and no longer brand with any social stigma the pro- 
 fessors of the histrionic art There never was so 
 large a number of theatres or of actors, and their 
 type is vastly improved by public recognition." Page 
 16: "It will be quite hopeless to ittempt to induce 
 the generality of a purely artistic class to make 
 louder and more fussy profcsfiions of virtue and re- 
 ligion than other people. In fact, it is a downright 
 insult to the dramatic profession to exact or to expect 
 any such thing. Equally objectionable and equally 
 impracticable are the attempts of dramatic reformers 
 to exercise a sort of goody-goody censorship over tha 
 selection and the text of the plays to be acted. The 
 stage has been serving the world for hundreds, yes, 
 and thousands, of years, during which it has con- 
 tributed in pure dramaturgic literature of the world 
 its very greatest mascerpieces, in nearly all languages, 
 
18 
 
 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 meanwhile affording to the million an infinity of 
 pleasure all more or less innocent ; where less inno- 
 cent rather than more, the cause has lain, not in the 
 stage, but in the state of society of which it was the 
 mirror." 
 
 Here let us put against this latter statement the 
 fact that history proves that the theatre has per- 
 sistently refused to reflect the laws of the land, the 
 claims of the Christian Church ; and the lowest con- 
 ditions of human life, and not the highest, have, 
 in the past, formed the staples of the most popular 
 performancea On page 26, from which we quote. 
 Sir Henry goes on to say : " There never was a time 
 
 when the stage had not conspicuous faults 
 
 Heaven forbid that I should seem to cover with a 
 counterpane of courtesy, exhibitions of deliberate 
 immorality." On page 31 he further says : " If you 
 uphold the theatre honestly, liberally and frankly, 
 and with wise discrimination, that stage will uphold 
 in future as it has in the past the literature, the 
 manners, the morals, the fame, and the genius of our 
 country." 
 
 It is not unfair to here call attention to the fact 
 that Sir Henry utterly ignores the fact that all his- 
 tory is against the statement that the stage has 
 upheld the manners and morals of the world. This 
 fact vitiates the whole lecture, or that portion of it 
 at least given up to a defence of the immoral in- 
 fluences charged against it as an institution. It is 
 as evident as anything can be, that notwithstanding 
 
THE CUBKENT DRAMA. 
 
 19 
 
 the fact that this is perhaps the greatest genius who 
 ever adorned the stage in the role of the tragic, he is 
 utterly unacquainted with the moral phases of this 
 question, for we cannot think that he would attempt 
 to cover up what has been and what is so evident to 
 all who take the slightest interest in such matters. 
 This great man lives in the transcendental realms of 
 the drama, and he evidently has no occasion to come 
 in contact with the life of the third, fourth or fifth 
 grade play-houses, which are, after all, the most 
 numerous and influential in che world. 
 
 It is in place just here to remind ourselves that the 
 superlative actor, Edwin Booth, spent a large fortune 
 in an attempt to run a theatre on the most lofty 
 plane, eliminating from its stage everything which, 
 on moral grounds, could offend the most fastidious ; 
 but the venture was a dismal failure. But what is 
 more to the point, it is a fact that Sir Henry Irving 
 himself, with most laudable motives, repeated the 
 attempt in London only a few years ago, thinking 
 that the present generation would support, in such a 
 metropolis as London, the Shakespearian drama when 
 glorified by the lofty genius which he was prepared 
 to lay upon the altar of his art ; but the experience 
 of Booth became the experience of his illustrious 
 successor, and the financial failure swept away the 
 fortune of Sir Henry so completely that a subscrip- 
 tion was in order to reimburse the philanthropic 
 tragedian. It is possible that had Sir Henry de- 
 livered the lecture, from which we have quoted above. 
 
20 
 
 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 since the experiment to which we have referred, some 
 of the statements therein would not now be uttered. 
 
 We do not wish it to be understood that we are of 
 the opinion that the drama cannot be reformed, nor 
 that there are no valuable elements in many of the 
 plays ever before the public ; but that the reformation 
 of the drama, so that it will chime with the ethical 
 teaching of the .-ermon on the Mount, has so far 
 never been an accomplished fact, and the efforts 
 along that line, as noted above, are tremendously 
 significant. 
 
 But lest it should be supposed that a partial wit- 
 ness is on the stand, let us hear from those who have 
 no cause to support the Puritans in their attitude 
 toward the evils of the current drama. 
 
 In the Vanity Fair magazine of New York, March, 
 1900, there appeared an article written by one Fred. 
 Vilas in answer to an appeal from one who signed 
 himself "A Well-known Actor." The appeal was to 
 use the influence of the magazine, which was pub- 
 lished in the interests of the dramatic profession, to 
 answer the aspersions which had been cast upon the 
 actors by a Chicago correspondent In answer to 
 this appeal the magazine writer has the following 
 to say: "After having lived and worked in the 
 theatrical profession for many years, and drawing 
 every just or consistent induction or deduction from 
 what I have experienced or learned, only one con- 
 clusion can be reached, and that is, that actors, as a 
 general rule, have absolutely no regard for women ; 
 
THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 21 
 
 that they are uneducated, in the full sense of the 
 word, indocile, indomitable, vain, conceited and 
 selfish, and instead of leading lives after a standard 
 of morals, exist after ethics which may be properly 
 termed a code of immorals. 
 
 " The average actor .... is not alone unfit for the 
 society of men and women in general, but is equally 
 as much out of place among those women of the 
 stage who would lead upright lives were it not for 
 the advantages taken by the men who, were they 
 gentlemen, would act as their protectors. It is only 
 a few months ago that an English critic created a 
 sensation by denouncing the women of the stage as 
 immoral. There are certainly many immoral women 
 who appear behind the foot-lights every night — there 
 are, of course, in other walks of life also — but if this 
 critic had even attempted to vindicate the unfortu- 
 nate set, he might have consisteiidy gone as far as 
 the root of the evil, where he would have found that 
 the lewd wome»' of the stage were generally made so 
 by the actors ith whom they were coiapelled to 
 associate, and not by the environs and generally sup- 
 posed temptations of a professional career." But we 
 submit these actors are part of the environs of this 
 career. Farther on this writer says : " The average 
 actor is not alone unpopular in the ordinary middle 
 class society, but among those women of the stage 
 who have reached sufficient prominence to demand 
 big salaries. When they reach this height in their 
 career, in nine cases out of ten they will frankly tell 
 
22 
 
 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 you that they never associate with actore. Marriage, 
 in most cases, is regarded by them as an idle fancy. 
 I can pick out ten actors in twenty minutes who 
 have had more than one wife, several have had three, 
 while others have had as many as four. In fact, 
 some of them curtail their expenses just before going 
 for a long season on the road by marrying some 
 member of the company, living with her until the 
 company disbands, and then, during the summer, 
 allowing her ample oppprtunity to got evidence for 
 divorce proceedings." 
 
 It has been said that this article was written for 
 advertising purposes, and that it is a fiction and in 
 no sense true to facts; but any one who reads the 
 article will see a very different purpose, and, while 
 we would hope that this condition is overdrawn, 
 still, the vi-'idence of sincerity and wide knowledge 
 of the facts of the case are present in the work of 
 this writer. The writer does not appear in the role 
 of an opponent of the theatre, but as one who was 
 disgusted at the life and character of the "average 
 actor," and if it is a misrepresentation of the moral 
 condition of the actor, you have to condemn the 
 magazine for its publication, and not the present 
 writer, who has simply quoted these paragraphs. 
 
 But this is not the only unbiassed writer of our 
 times who has assailed the morals of the theatre 
 of this age. I quote from the pages of the Metro- 
 polikm Magazine an article under the heading, 
 " The Licentious Drama ; or, Is the American Stage 
 
THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 28 
 
 Degenerate ? " This writer says : " There is reason 
 to hope that the public has been aroused finally, if 
 tardily, to action against a condition that was bring- 
 ing sure disgrace to the stage in this country. For 
 a long time there has existed a rapidly increasing 
 tendency toward suggestive, indecent and revolting 
 themes, incidents and conversations in dramas, farco 
 and musical comedies, and our theatres were already 
 abreast of the French play-house, held up for genera- 
 tions as the pre-eminent example of all that was 
 offensive and degraded in the amusement world. The 
 pace was growing appallingly fast. The appetite for 
 unclean theatricals had been held well in check by 
 public opinion up to four or five years ago, when 
 the first taste for them was admitted without serious 
 protest in the form of a farce imported from Paris. 
 The experiment was enormously profitable, and the 
 theatre managers, perceiving that it was unpunished, 
 began a systematic and sweeping search for material 
 that would appeal to the prurient." Farther on this 
 writer says : " It is not alone against the serious plays 
 of a low moral character that the country is at last 
 aroused. There has been a great quantity of stage 
 material put forward with the idea of provoking 
 hilarity upon the lines of indecency almost beyond 
 credence. No play patrons of ten years ago would 
 possibly be induced to believe such farcep as 'The 
 Gay Parisians,' ' The Turtle,' ' The Girl from Maxim's,' 
 'Corelie&Co.,Dressmakers,'or anyone of a dozen others 
 that might be named, could ever in this epoch find 
 
24 
 
 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 secure footing before the American public." It is beyond 
 the space of this pamphlet to quote more than a few 
 lines from this lenp;thy article, but we have given a 
 glimpse of the condition of affairs an they are said to 
 exist, for it must be remembered that these plays are 
 still before the public, and some of the plays here 
 condemned because of their immoral nature are still 
 given throughout the land, with thousands of people 
 being corrupted by their influences. Further this 
 magazine article says : "■ It is held for a Camillia, a 
 Zaza, a Mrs. Tanquery, or a Sapho to come from the 
 dregs, and parade the sufferings she has richly earned, 
 to touch the wellspring of tender feeling, and overflow 
 the sluices of lachrymal sympathy." 
 
 The editor of this magazine appends the following 
 note to this article : " The foregoing article was sub- 
 mitted to the Metropolitan Magazine by one who 
 knows the stage and its people as a mother knows 
 her offspring or an actor his pay-day. Accompanying 
 the article was " comment to the effect that since the 
 public does not, care to have its idols shattered or its 
 pet theatrical productions bluntly criticised, the ruth- 
 less integrity of the writer's words would doubtless be 
 rewarded by consignment to the waste-basket. The 
 editor of the Metropolitan Magazine does not believe 
 that the theatre-going public is averse to hearing the 
 truth about the stage or any of its concerns, and that 
 when plain facts are given in plain terms no intelli- 
 gent person can be offended. 
 
 " To this end, then, the article, dealing with a phase 
 
THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 26 
 
 of theatredom promir ently brought before the public 
 during the past season, is given here intact and un- 
 abridged. What is said about the salacious plays is 
 so true that the presentment admits of no contradic- 
 tion by the well-informed and the just. It is the 
 province of a periodical of the high standing of the 
 Metropolitan Magazine to criticise existing conditions 
 of life and art, no less than to offer to the reading 
 public an array of interesting literature and engaging 
 illustrations." 
 
 Perhaps I may be pardoned if I take time to quote 
 from another journal of standing, and one which will 
 not be accused of Puritanic leanings, but one which 
 has the following to say on the moral condition of the 
 average theatre. The New York Press utters these 
 words: "There is entirely too much nastiness and 
 immorality in real life to make it desirable to repro- 
 duce them upon the stage. The stage was meant to 
 portray human nature in its best moods, for, if the 
 better mood is not the fitly surviving mood, then 
 human nature perishes into brute nature. The drama 
 of the hour is artificial ; it pandei-s to the passions, to 
 nervous greed, for excitement, to eroticism. Instead 
 of teaching a moral, it mocks our tested notions of 
 morality. Instead of teaching humanity that good 
 is preferable to. evil, it makes light of virtue and places 
 vice in an alluring light of epigrammatic raillery." 
 
 Here is an article clipped from a Toronto paper 
 dealing with the dramatic bill-board, which, if true to 
 the patrons of the theatre, must tell in a pictorial way 
 
26 
 
 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 what is placed upon the stage in living reality before 
 the eyes of the thousands who throng our play- 
 houses : " The play-bills in many of our cities and 
 towns are schools of vice. It is almost impossible to 
 go down town at any time without seeing representa- 
 tions of crime that cannot fail to be suggestive to the 
 young. Pictures of one man pointing a pistol at an- 
 other are so common as to excite little comment. That 
 they have a very bad influence upon boys and young 
 men is more than probable. To handle a revolver 
 skilfully seems to many a youth rather a manly thing 
 to do, and the ambition to own a fire-arm is stimulated 
 by pictures which we see every day. Many homes 
 have no works of art upon the walls to exercise a 
 refining and elevating tendency upon the family. 
 Their only art gallery, the bill-boards, is carefully 
 studied. Even those who never think of attending 
 the plays that are advertised, are nevertheless un- 
 consciously influenced by what the eye rests upon 
 every day." We are prepared to endorse every 
 word of this article. 
 
 We quote from the Century Magazine of August 
 1895, on the principal cause of this condition of affairs 
 in the dramatic world. There can be no doubt that 
 there are many in the profession who are far below 
 the level of sound morals, but the most fruitful cause 
 of the evils complained of in these selections is to be 
 laid at the door of the managers who are in the 
 business for the dividends they can declare and that 
 regardless of the methods pursued. However, here is 
 
THS CURRENT DRAUA. 
 
 27 
 
 what tho Century Magazine has to say on that point. 
 After calling attention to the fact that " managerial 
 ignorance, vulgarity and greed, are more largely 
 responsible for current theatrical evils than all other 
 causes put together," the writer continues : " It will 
 be understood, of course, that this arraignment does 
 not apply to tho four or five managers in the United 
 States (there are no more of them) who live up to 
 a creditable standard of literary and dramatic excel- 
 lence, but to the illiterate and only partially civilized 
 speculators who, by their commercial enterprise, 
 audacity and astuteness — admirable qualities in 
 their way — have secured control of nearly all the 
 theatres and conduct them upon the principles which 
 in better days were confined to the music halls anJ 
 
 tho circus The nature of the entertainment 
 
 is to them a matter of most profound indifference. 
 They are ready to deal in theatrical goods of any 
 description, from a Shakespearian revival to the 
 lowest type of melodrama, from the Passion Flay 
 to the coarsest of French farces or the most idiotic 
 variety-shows, if only somebody has made money 
 out of them somewhere else." 
 
 Dr. J. M. Buckley, editor of the New York Christian 
 Advocate, personally examined no less than sixty 
 different plays of the best theatres of New York during 
 three seasons, and he state.s that fifty of these plays 
 were actually immoral, while the balance, with three or 
 tour exceptions, were of a low order of merit ; and 
 Prof. H. M. Scott, writing in the " Bibliotbcca Sacra," 
 
S8 
 
 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 Vol. 42, p. 71, says : " The favorite dramas of Qennany 
 now come from France, and 99 per cent, of them 
 hinge upon matrimonial infidelity. One vile play 
 has been given over three hundred times in Berlin." 
 In his comment on this statement, Rev. Perry W. Sinks 
 has this to say : " Some of our cities have out-Parised 
 Paris itself in disgraceful plays, as they have out-Lon- 
 doned Ix>ndon in the matter of Living Picture exhibi- 
 tions. The introduction of immoral plays and their 
 accompaniments has accelerated the fast youth of the 
 country in a whirlwind of immorality which is truly 
 appalling. Our American cities are little, if any, 
 behind London, Paris, Berlin, and other European 
 cities which have long borne a reputation for lewdness 
 and immorality." 
 
 Here, then, is an institution, hoary with years and 
 colossal in proportions, organized for commercial pur- 
 poses, and run, for the most part, by a corporation of 
 capitalists with headquarters at New York. This 
 firm, we are informed on the best of authority, is made 
 up of those who find it difficult to use the Anglo-Saxon 
 tongue, and who are said to have absolutely no regard 
 for the morals taught in the New Testament. 
 
 According to one authority already quoted, there 
 are not less than five thousand places where dramatic 
 performances are conducted for the dramatic season 
 of eight months of the year. The authorities say 
 that the moral influences of many of these plays 
 are bod. Many good people go to these places 
 because they find there something to aid them in 
 
THE CITRRENT DHAHA. 
 
 to 
 
 passing the time, and there is, in all such places, the 
 element of merriment which, if of a healthy character, 
 is most beneficial to the jaded people of city 
 life. The only other healthy element present in the 
 average theatre of to-day is that of the artistic. Bat 
 who will say that this is at all in the thought of the 
 managerial tyrants at New York or elsewhere, when 
 the one thought of their brains is how to declare divi- 
 dends for the stockholdera If the drama were to give 
 itself to the matter of pure art and entertainment, and 
 blacklist everything that fell below the line morally, 
 then the world woald be the better of what the play- 
 house has to give; but so far from this being the ideal 
 we are confronted, in every city and town where there 
 is a play-house, with the most outrageous violations of 
 decency to be found anywhere in society. The public 
 execution of criminals had to be abandoned because 
 such scenes were most demoralizing to a class ever 
 present and ever susceptible to evil effects, and we 
 cannot but think that the presentation of crimes, such 
 as are depicted upon the bill-boards of every city 
 and town on this continent, and then, in a more real- 
 istic way, on the stages of all our theatres, forms a 
 school system for the teaching of vice and crime which 
 must result in the lowering of the moral standard of 
 the nation to an extent that Wd have not yet fully 
 appreciated. 
 
 Theft, assault, hypocrisy, domestic infidelity, eroti- 
 cism, duplicity, murder and suicide form the staple 
 o' vue themes which have passed, and are ever passing, 
 
30 
 
 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF 
 
 ocpose the stage* of the play-house* of thin land. In 
 order to portray such scenes as those the lowest 
 vulgarity, the basest sufrgostions, and the most obscene 
 actions are demanded by the managers, and, in too 
 many cases, by a considerable section of the audience. 
 It must not be supposed that all plays are bad nor that 
 all actors of either sex are depraved. This is certainly 
 not the case, for we have no doubt there are not a few 
 in this profession who have kept themselves untainted, 
 and even some of those who have, through necessity, 
 descended to the base, have, through it all, longed for 
 the purer, moral, and more lofty artistic atmosphere in 
 the histrionic world. But the dominating thought of 
 the amusement caterer is to make the play go, fill the 
 chairs, and the coffers of the company regardless of 
 the tastes of the actor, or the public, .. that poiiion 
 of it who take an interest in the morality of the 
 nation. 
 
 A word in conclusion as to the best methods of 
 meeting the condition of affairs herein described. 
 The people who spend so much money and time on 
 the training of the youth, should spend more on the 
 removal of those influences which are ever undc.;ig 
 what the Church and the home have labored to accom- 
 plish. The boy is at the Sunday School for two hours 
 out of the week, while he is for the other days study- 
 ing the obscene theatrical pictures on the street 
 Would not common sense dictate a crusade against 
 that which makes your work of no effect ? 
 
 This will rest with equal force against the youth of 
 
THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 SI 
 
 both sexes who have the teaching of the Church for 
 one day in seven, while for several nights in the week 
 they study in the theatre that which is at the very 
 antipodes, morally, of what was taught from the Word 
 of God. Would it not pay to give a little time to the 
 destruction of these forces that the good might have 
 a better chance to develop ? This can be accomplished 
 by wide, united and persistent efforts to have proper 
 laws placed upon the statute books and then effec- 
 tively enforced. If we enforce the laws against con- 
 tagious disease where the bodies of men are endan- 
 gered, should we not be as faithful and persistent in the 
 enforcement of laws against the moral contagion, 
 which destroys the soul ? There is a need for public 
 sentiment to bo aroused and kept at a white heat on 
 moral question?, for, when the average official feels 
 that public opinion is not with him in the enforeement 
 of the law, he is more than likely to place the glass 
 to the blind eye. 
 
 But all this will not be found sufficient to counter- 
 act the influence of the theatre and kindred institu- 
 tions. One thing is sure, the Church has been too 
 slow to recognize the fact that the people must have 
 amusement and entertainment. It is absolutely cer- 
 tain that no soul can be what it should be it life runs 
 along in the rut of toil without the tonic of laughter 
 and lightsome entertainment. It may bo said that this 
 has] always been'''admitted, but we answer, r.- the 
 most part only in theory. Athletics have, only re- 
 cently, been introduced into the life of the Christian, 
 
32 THE ETHICAL OUTLOOK OF THE CURRENT DRAMA. 
 
 and it is not long since the concert hall could connt 
 upon the most pious of the community. 
 
 The most mighty force to be brought against the 
 immoral play-house is the gospel as preached from the 
 home and the Church, but it must be backed up by 
 clean, inspiring, up-to-date entertainment, held in 
 balls convenient to the people, conducted upon sound 
 commercial principles, with admission so low that the 
 wage-worker and his wife and family can, at least 
 once a week, take the rest and relaxation so necessary 
 for his tired muscles and also for her tingling nerves. 
 
 When Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts, Superintendent of the 
 International Reform Bureau, was asked for some- 
 thing to counteract the low theatre he outlined the 
 above plan — not a new one, of course, but one which 
 has yet to receive the support of the Church as it 
 should. 
 
 The average church entertainment is altogether too 
 irregular, and too often the loctil talent is selected 
 because it costs nothing, and such efforts have 
 no more effect against the regular, thoroughly 
 equipped, and moneyed theatre, than a flake of snow 
 has under the wheel of the fast express on a down 
 grade. This is a mighty power which has never been 
 fully tested, and which will yet meet one side of 
 human nature now captive to the demoralizing drama.