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Show A. O. H. DENOUNCES VULGAR LITERATURE AND A DEGENERATE DE-GENERATE STYLE. The Ancient order of Hibernians, in convention assembled last week in the city of Boston, adopted a set of timely resolutions, not the least important of which was a resolution condemnatory of the questionable and vile literature that is now rampant in America, and the debasing class of plays with which the American stage is now shocking respectable re-spectable people. This resolution .makes pointed reference refer-ence to the source of responsibility for the debasing class of plays referred to, when it calls attention to the "unchristian, "un-christian, if not anti-Christian," syndicate syn-dicate upon which the American people peo-ple are dependent for their legitimate pleasures. It were well if other organizations followed the example set by this Irish Catholic organization in Boston. Any one who has given the least thought tot the matter must be instantly convinced that there is eminent danger to the purity of the American home when the youth of the land are given free access to dbasing books and their passions played upon by suggestive and immoral im-moral playB. That the convention of the Ancient Order of Hibernians manifested an appreciation ap-preciation of existing conditions is obvious ob-vious from the following paragraph from the New York Evening Post, whose editorial page at all times cont servative reflects the better thought of the American people: The increase of coarseness in the urcauc, auu me complacency wun which offenses against good taste are regarded by audiences supposed to bo representative of the most highly cultivated cul-tivated classes of the community, are among the most disquieting social phenomena phe-nomena of the day. There never was a more striking illustration of the truth of the old proverb that familiarity breeds contempt. Not so very long ago the production of a play from the French was always preceded by assurances assur-ances that it had been subjected to a careful process of disinfection, but now the managerial plan is to stimulate public interest in a new piece by pre-I pre-I liminary hints concerning the improprieties impro-prieties contained in it, and domestic audacities are added to European abominations. It is no exaggeration to say that the conventionalities of civilized civi-lized life are outraged today upon tha I New York stage not in all theatres, of course as habitually and as flagrantly fla-grantly as they are in Paris, not excepting ex-cepting even the Theatre Antoine. And these nudities of speech and action are not only not resented, but are vehemently vehe-mently applauded, and are accepted as matters of course, even by young girls, still in school, or just out of it. who never ought to be exposed to such pol- lution, least of all in the company oil young men. The evil is a very seri- ous one, and one not at all easy to deal with. Undoubtedly the baser daily press has made itself partly responsible responsi-ble for the existing condition of affairs af-fairs by the encouragement which it has given to unscrupulous managers and the demoralization which it has wrought in the public mind and con science by its exploitation of all that is abnormal and disgusting, but the newspapers, although they can help a dirty play by advertising .it, cannot hurt it by denunciation. Things have come to such a pass that the surest way to crowd a theatre and enrich its manager is to say that the show in poa-t session of the stage is not fit to be seen. This. fact is notorious, and must be perfectly well known to the writers who make a practice of minutely describing de-scribing all the more atrocious features of a vulgar or salacious representation, under the pretence of exhibiting a virtuous vir-tuous Indignation. |