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Show LONDON'S DEMORALIZED MUSIC HALLS Not long ago all the world wa? shocked and disgusted by a murder nf b peculiarly squalid and loathsome kind. No sooner was the trial over than a wretched woman who was Closely Involved In it was offered B large weekly salary to show herself to music-hall audiences Released or escaped criminals, heroines of sordid society scandals, men and women who could not be admitted into decent de-cent company are paid to appear before be-fore (presumably) appreciative crowds. The line has not been drawn at Mrs. Evelyn Thaw ; perhaps ll will cot be drawn at Thaw himself, if be Is able to keep clear of the New-York New-York police. Thero are music hnll proprietors who will not be satis-''ed satis-''ed till they have ' billed" a genuine alid undoubted homicide. sane or otherwise; Just as there are others v he gratify their patrons With fragments frag-ments of a murdered girls clothing or scraps of the wrecked aeroplane In which B brave man's life has been lost II would all be painfully syrup- I tomatic of a grace degeneration In the popular taste If we could really believe that this is "what the public wants." No doubt there are plenty of frivolous and uncultivated persons per-sons who do really enjoy this kind of thing But we are sure that the purveyors Ol amusement overestimate overesti-mate the number, and wc are convinced con-vinced that the great majority of their patrons would prefer the more legitimate and the more reputable entertainments which used to be , ivcn before "the present debauch of competition and fierce sensation-mongerlng sensation-mongerlng had worked havoc with ihe music-hall stage. London Standard. |