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Show THEATRES AND THEATRE- COiNO. The rcreat discussion of the influence influ-ence of theatres has brought up the old subject again, aud called for the re-fitatementof what we regard as the true and rational position of the church upon the question. The radical rad-ical mistake of the Protestant church ot this country is that lack of discrimination, discrim-ination, in ita condemnation of theatres, thea-tres, whioh haa gone to the extreme of making that a gin in itself whioh ib not a sin at all. To go to the theatre, thea-tre, for an evening's entertainment, is regarded by multitudes as a flagrant wrong. tJo wrong is it considered in iiself, or so bad is it in example, that ministers ore abut out of the theatre aa a class, with sweeping com-pletenf com-pletenf sd. . For a clergyman to be Been in a theatre is to compromise his position and inilueuce. We know that many clergymen regard this as a hardship, for they have told us so; but their unwise predecessor have , made the bed for them, and they are obliged to lie on it. The public opinion opin-ion that has been generated in the church, by pulpit criticism ond denunciation, de-nunciation, has built a wall around the theatre so high that men holding responsible positions in the c lurch cannot cross it. For this position oHhe church, the stage itself is very largely responsible. The stage has always been under strong temptations to sel (-degradation. If it had always been pure; if the amusements it lias offerea to the pub lic naa always Deen innocent; if it had not at one period of its history been a breeding place of vice; if it had not presented strong attractions to those who seek the society of lewd women; if profanity and poorly disguised dis-guised obscenity had never had a place in the plays presented; if impure im-pure imaginations had not been cherished among the young by half nude dancing girls; in brief, if the animal nature the lower nature had not been addressed bo persistently by those who have assumed the entertainment enter-tainment of the public, the church would never have taken the position that it has. It is not to be wondered at that the protest was strong, when the provocation was bo shameless. The older men of the present day remember the horrible "Third Tier" of their youth. They remember, too, the double entendre, the poli'.e profanity, profan-ity, the broad jest, that woke the disgusting cheers of "the pit." It is no justification of an institution that has arrogated to itself the title of "a Hchool of morals," that itofiered what was demanded, and what the public most willingly paid for. It was a part of the legitimate office of the stago , to protect public morals and to educate edu-cate the public into a pure taste. The enmity of the church toward the stage hos not been without cause. But the Btao is better than it was, on tho whole. We have vile theatres in New York, to-day altogether too many of them plays presented that degrade or vitiate the taste and morals mor-als of those who witness them men and women on the boards who are 'base in character and life. On the other hand, we have theatres whose aims are high, and actors and actresses who have pride of personal character, and a desire and determination determin-ation to hold their moat interesting arl fn ruirit.v mid rontnhi litv These people faithful husbands and wives, intellectual men and women, good fathers, . mothers, maidens, friends and citizens naturally chafe under the wholesome condemnation which the church visits upon them. We cannot blame them for this. We can only ask them to be patient with a state of things which their predecessors prede-cessors and many of their contemporaries contempo-raries have helped to bring about. The church is gradually working toward their recognition, and they must give it time to move. There was a time, and it was not long ago, whttn carda were banished from every christian household. The older men and womon of the church very well remember when a pack of cards found in a boy's trunk would bo taken as a proof that the devil had a very strong hold upon its owner. Millions of men and women have been bred to believe that card-playing was with cr without reason a sin in itself. That time has paised away ' already, and tho innocent little pasteboards paste-boards haee become a source of ; amusement in multitudes of christian families. Children never could see any reason in their exclusion, and the church is stronger in the child's mind for the chango that has occurred. Billiards wore once so associated with vicious practices, that a man disgraced dis-graced himself by appearing where ( they were. Now a billiard-table is in nearly every! house that can afford one, and is purchased in many instances in-stances as a home-guardian ol the morals of tho boy.s. Novel-reading was once as thoroughly under ban as theatre going. Wo remember the time when tho novel-roader hid his j books read them when ho ought to have been asleep stole their charms on rainy days, iu garrets or on haymows, hay-mows, and then paused them into tho hands of some other sly thief ol pleasure, pleas-ure, who still patsod thorn on, until ihey were wom out. Well, the first novels were poor. They gave false i idena of life, and were condemned en masse by tho church: but tho church found at an early day that it wanted novels for its own purposes. Now the ! great majority of the Sunday-achoool bookn are novels of a religious sort, while every christian library hold Hcott and Dickens, and Thackeray: and the public libraries and the reading read-ing clubs, all over the land, rind more readers lor their novels than for any other class of books. They have become be-come the sources of moral, political and social instruction, as well as of genera entertainment, within as well as without the church. We allude to these sources of amusement and the great change that has occurred with regard to them, lor tho purpose oi illustrating that which is certainly progressing in relation re-lation to the theatre. We have parlor par-lor theatricals, and they are recognised recog-nised more and more as harmless and instructive amusements. We have dramatio exhibitions in our educational educa-tional institutions. We go to the opera really for its music, but we are obliged to get this through the representation repre-sentation ot" tho most vapid dramatic I compositions that can be imagined. In short, we have acknowledged, in many ways, that the representation of a play is not wrong in itself, while our Christian travelers mako their pilgrimages to Oberammergau to witness a play that degrades the great christian tragedy to the com-momplace com-momplace of spectacular drama. 1 he time is rapidly coming provided, of course, that tboso who have the theatre in charge, stand as good men and women, by their obligations to the public, and uphold the diginty of thoir arf when Christiana will seek amusement in their presence, from their performances; when they will discriminate between theatres as they do between novels, and when the premium of their presence and patronage pa-tronage will be offered to those who serve them conscientiously. ' as a people, we have no such superfluity of amusements and recreations re-creations that we can afford to hold one under ban, that is in itself harm-; leas and legitimate. We work under great pressure, and need much more recreation than we get. If a man thus pressed feels that a pure dramatic representation refreshes him, he ought to be at liberty to avail himself of it, and the time is certainly coming when he will do so. The historic art is as legitimate as any art, and any man or woman who practices it worthily and we1, deserves our honor, ay, our honor and our sympathy, for the art-life art-life is a hard life to live under any circumtances. To be obliged to rely for a livelihood upon the plaudi's of the multitude, and to be Bubject to the caprices of the press and the pttblic, and the jealousies that are inseparable from all art-life, is a hardihip from which the bravest man and woman may well shrink. If among those who have so many temptations to strike a low key that may at least please ".the groundlings," ground-lings," there is a considerable number num-ber who appeal to the nobilities of human nature, let us give them our hands and help them to build up a pure taste in the public mind. We have only to remember that the theatre thea-tre is with us, that it will stay, and that the church has a great responsi- Kilitu M.rnmn (ha tarra nf lUa future. If it supposes that condemning condemn-ing it at a Btreet's length, and indiscriminately, indis-criminately, will discharge its duty, it will find itself sadly mistaken. Dr. J. G. Holland, in Hcribntr for February. Febru-ary. - |