THE FAULT OF THE PUBLIC.
By T.
In the Literary Digest of April 23 may be found the following significant statements:— “Mme. Modjeska made a little speech at the Twelfth Night Club benefit in New York a few weeks ago which has called out favorable comment. In speaking of the degeneracy of the stage, she said: ‘I appeal to the women of the stage and to the women off the stage, and in particular to those who form our audiences. Can we not exert a common influence to remedy this state of affairs, both from the inside and from the outside, the former—the actresses—to elevate the standard of our art so as to have it afloat together with the other emblems of higher civilization, and the other, our sisters from the outside, to help us in the struggle by exerting their own refining actions in order to protect what is best and to taboo what is unclean or unartistic in the theatrical world?’” “With Modjeska’s speech for a text, The Commercial, Louisville, makes the following pointed comment: ‘If there are plays on the stage that are not fit to be seen, it is the fault of the public as much as of the actors and the managers of those actors. The people always get the plays they demand and deserve. . . .” “A theatrical manager who was in Louisville not so long ago summed up the whole matter without thinking of it. Speaking of his star, he said she had played bad women all her life, and had had great success. This season she had played the part of a good woman, and had lost money.’” The theater is intended for the amusement of the “public.” The manager of the theater will of course have to cater to the “public” in order to make his business a success. And when it has to be acknowledged that the actress must play the “bad woman” in order to succeed, whole volumes of truth are proclaimed in regard to the condition of our world to-day. The Bible tells us that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse” and that the “last days” shall be made “perilous” thereby. We are further told that the sins of Sodom will be a leading characteristic of the days just before the second coming of Christ. We are surely in that time. And all who still have the pure sentiment left in their minds that would lead them to cry out against these sins, should join in the work of proclaiming the good news of the Messiah’s return. When He comes, all this sin will be destroyed, and the everlasting reign of righteousness and peace will begin. T.