THAT those parents who took or sent their children to the Iroquois theater on that fatal afternoon of December 30, did a terribly unwise thing, no one will dispute. That it is unwise to take children to the theater anywhere, many parents might not be ready to admit. Such forms of amusement for children are, however, to be condemned upon physiological and moral grounds, aside from the danger of accident and the unchristian character of the play. So says Dr. Mary Wood-Allen in the February issue of American Motherhood. We quote the following statements from this authority:— “Is the theater a proper place for children?” This query will arise in the minds of many as they read of the appalling disaster at the Iroquois theater matinee. “It is probable that the discussion of this question will, in most instances, be conducted from the standpoint of morality. But, leaving entirely out of consideration the morality of theater-going in general, or of any one play in particular, there still remains a large problem before us in this question. “In attempting its solution, we may safely lay down as an indisputable proposition, in order that the child may develop harmoniously, that his life should be simple and wholesomely natural. The life of the city child has in it, inevitably, many elements that can not be classed under these heads. Lack of pure air, unnatural restraint, undue nervous stimulation, are unavoidable concomitants of life in cities. The child brought up under these conditions is deprived of a full share of the most important food of the body, oxygen, of his ‘right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ and is subject to the reflex influence of the strenuous life around him. The clang and clamor, the rush and whirl, the unrest and irritability all about him, must make its impress on his susceptible nature. An afternoon trip to see the holiday displays in the windows is more filled with excitement and stimulation than is a whole year of the life of the country child. “It may be urged that the city child, being accustomed to the nervous strain, would not be as much injured as the country child, to whom all would be new and unusual. But the very fact that his nerves are already wrought to a high pitch by his daily life may be an added element of danger to the city child. His country cousin would be, in a measure, stunned and dazed by the novelty of the experience, and so to a degree protected from its dangers; while the city child, alert, excited, turning with lightning-like rapidity from one brilliant spectacle to another, experiences to the full the evil resulting from the constant shifting of the attention, the brain stimulation, and the rapid succession of varying emotions. “The actual journey to the theater and home again would furnish to the child an amount of excitement sufficient for many days. In attending the play, we add other elements of danger. “First, the impure air of the crowded theater is a direct menace to the health even of the most robust adult; and how much greater to the delicate organism of the child! Even had the children sacrificed in the holocaust of the Iroquois returned to their homes apparently uninjured, there would still have been an incalculable amount of injury done through poisoning by bad air; and doubtless lives would have been sacrificed as a result. “There would have been, also, two or more hours of physical restraint, accompanied by the keenest of attention to the kaleidoscopic effects of the stage and the stimulation resulting therefrom, the exciting music, as well as the reflex excitability from the nervous state of those around him. Two hours of such nerve-strain would be enough to exhaust utterly the immature nerves and brain of the susceptible child. “In all probability a surfeit of sweetmeats or other indigestible articles would be added to further disturb the overtaxed organism. “The child who goes often to the theater becomes possessed by a craze for such amusement. It is actually a species of intoxication, a craving for excitement that is positively dangerous. I have seen children of four or five years of age fairly delirious over the prospect of going to see a play, and also so excited afterward that it took days to restore their mental equilibrium and good temper. “Still keeping clear of the theological view of theater-going, we may question the moral effect of the plays upon the children. The life presented may seem child-like, seen from the standpoint of the adult, and yet may give to the child-mind unreal and undesirable views of life; and, following out its suggestions, he may be led into wrong views and objectionable conduct. It is difficult for mature minds to measure the influence upon a child of the suggestiveness of a play that to the parent seems only entertaining. Again, artistically the education of the play is not likely to be true to the highest ideals. Crude, grotesque, if not absolutely coarse and vulgar, it presents not the most artistic pictures; and the child’s taste becomes vitiated at the outset, instead of being developed along worthy lines. “Like the colored supplement to the Sunday paper, the play is apt to be a caricature, perhaps not influential in forming the artistic sense of mature minds, but dangerous to the inexperience of the child, who imbibes lessons in life and art that, if clearly discerned by the parent, would arouse his alarm. That the child is pleased by the play or the colored supplement is an argument against rather than for them. “The country or village children who, on the afternoon of December 30, were coasting down hill were in truth surrounded by some dangers; but they were far safer than at any play; for their lungs were filled with life-giving oxygen, their nerves exhilarated by natural activity and childish companionship; and the hills and snow-covered fields, the bare trees and fleecy clouds, gave them only pictures of true beauty. A wholesome appetite, satisfied with simple food, and a refreshing sleep, burdened with no dreams of demons or fairies, of glancing lights and shifting visions, naturally follow the normal outdoor life of the child: and through normal gradations he advances to the enjoyment of mature pleasures. “But the play-going child is hurried out of the domain of real child-life into a field of delectation unsuited to his development, and therefore undesirable. He is overstimulated, unbalanced, and thrown out of poise, is led to crave unnatural excitement, is defrauded of his rest, his mind filled with a whirl of changing scenes, accompanied with exhilarating music and nerve-taxing, dissolving color views. He is overwrought and strained by an effort to project himself into a world beyond his knowledge, and the effect must be disastrous. “It would seem there can be but one reasonable answer to the query with which we started. Whatever may be said in favor of the theater for adults, it is certainly no place for the child.”