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ar Mabhe Limit ofState Decency?
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"The Passion Play Is a Drama Produced with High Purpose and
Cleansing, Uplifting Results.”
By Maurice Elvey
THERE Is nothing that cannot
be put upon the stage.
No subject that has to do -with
inankind’s problems should be barred.
I have heard that a great editor once
said: "Anything that God permits
to happen I am not ashamed to
print.’’ Most heartily do I agree
with him and extend the truth from
the newspaper to the stage. Any
thing which happens to mortal crea
ture I can depict on the stage and
with decency and propriety.
Approach such plays as are now
forbidden, if you are a producer or
one of the audience, with a mind as
reverent as that of a pure-hearted
priest, and the result will be a
drama played same high
purpose and same cleansing and up-
First Aid in the Family--To Save Doctor’s Bills
'T"’ URPENTINE In some form is often
| used by the laity. A rectified oil of
* turpentine might be kept on hand
for preparing hot stupes for applications to
the abdomen or other parts of the bodj. It
might ba added to weaker liniments to
make them more irritant; but if used
carelessly it can cause blistering, and it
really seems hardly necessary to have it
in an emergency cabinet to be used with
out instructions from the physician.
Narcotics, such as morphin, codein
or heroin, are rarely advisable for a house
hold to possess. If one of these drugs is
needed In a special family, for a special
patient, for a special reason, the family
physician should decide which it should
be, and the'strength.
It is rarely advisable for a family to
possess a hypodermic syringe, and then
only for some specific reason. Every
family will have pain somewhere some
time. If the pain recurs, a patient might
ascertain that not only the morphin, but
the combination of the hypodermic and the
morphin will quickly stop it, and the habit 4
be readily acquired.
Even in small doses, and even used just ,
for a cold, heroin is inadvisable for house
hold use, and should never be in tablet
form or in cough mixture toim, unless the
physician prescribes it.
A clinical therometer in the family
is generally inadvisable, i’hc watching
of the rise and fall of any child's tempera
ture is something to be deprecated, unless
the mother is particularly sensible, or hei
physician at a distance.
Now. specifically, what could well be
In an emergency cabinet? First we
nia; discuss acute couds and the family
(and this means the mother) should un
derstand th'-' value of diminished food or
total abstinence for a short time; the ad
ministration of son-'- simple hot drink, as
uot lemonade; the value of a hot bath and
lifting result as is the Passion Play
produced every ten years by the in
spired peasants of Bavaria. Inde
cent plays, these? As decent as any
word of sacred writ. Since no theme
should be barred frqp the stage, be
cause anything that is livable is
worthy of stage production, what is
the limit of stage decency? Stage
propriety has two boundaries. On
one side the limit is the spirit of the
treatment. On the other an appeal
to the lower emotions.
I can treat any theme of life on
the stage without offense to intelli
gent honorable persons. But I can
not treat the theme in any way.
Take, for example, the French farces.
For a long time they have been the
synonyms of nastiness, and they de-
putting the patient to bed, and the value
of a simple cathartic as the proper dose ot
licorice powder, castor oil, some prepara
tion of cascara, a compound aloin tablet, a
Seidlitz powder, or effervescent sodium
phosphate. The household could well
have a few tablets, with proper instruc
tions, of the family physician’s rhinitis
formula. Hydrogen peroxid in proper
dilution and boric acid in saturated solu
tion may be recommended by the family
physician for gargles in the strength and
frequency which seem to him advisable for
use until he sees the patient. Some sim
ple throat or mouth wash, as an alkaline
antiseptic tablet (Seiler's formula) in solu
tion or the Liquor Antisepticus Alkalinus
N. F., diluted, are pleasant, efficient
sedative preparations to have on hand.
The composition of Seiler’s antiseptic
tablets is as follows -
gm.
Sodium bicarbonate... 30|00 51
Borax 30|00 §1
Sodium benzoate 1130 gr. xx
Sodium Salicylate 130 or gr. xx
Eucalyptol o|7o gr. x
Oil of wintergreen.... 0'25 gr.iiioriv
Menthol 0135 gr. v
I’he mother should be taught that an
acute diarrhea, with or without vomiting,
should first be treated with a cathartic,
and that no food, except possibly milk if
deemed necessary, is advisable, with the
administration of possibly some bismuth
subcarbonate and phenyl salicylate (salol)
powders, in such doses as the family phy
sician deems best for the family to have
on hand. The family should understand
that with or without vomiting diarrhea
gets w - ell quickest when the patient is
kept in bed and the abdomen kept warm.
If th re is vomiting for any reason, the
greatest sedative Is large draughts of hot
water until the vomited liquid is clean;
then give nothing, except possibly an alka
line effervescent like vichy, possibly pieces
of ice to suck, possibly one of the bis
muth powders, perhaps with a little so
dium bicarbonate, as previously named,
"No Play Indecent so Long
as It Does Not Treat
Sacred Things Lightly or
Artificially Excite the
Lower Emotions." Says
This English Manager
1> London there is a Censor of Plays, who decides what is
proper and what is not proper to produce in public. In New
York the police decide what is indecent.
Mr. Maurice Elvey, an English theatrical manager, has very
broad ideas about what may properly be produced on the stage.
To avoid collision with the English dramatic censor Mr. Elvey
formed a private club, with a membership of 800 subscribers, !u
London, and by this device was able to produce plays of ques
tionable morality.
Mr. Elvey is now in New Yorv organizing a similar private
elnb, and will undertake to produce before the club members a
series of plays which might not be accepted without interference
in a public theatre.
It is probable that, sooner or later, a good deal more will be
beard of Mr. Elvey If he goes on with his plans and produces
Strindberg and Ibsen plays and certain others which no theatrical
manager in New York has had the courage to attempt
Mr. Elvey explains on this page why he believes that any play
or any situation in any novel can be shown on the stage if done
according to his methods.
served it. Their theme Is that which
In its true proportion Is a soul trag
edy. marital ipfldelity. Yet the
French farces treat the falseness of
a husband or the corruption of a
wife as a joke. The audiences laugh
at It from rise to fall of curtain.
That it has no influence upon their
lives is absurd. We are affected, to
some degree, by all we see and hear.
You cannot nullify the influence of
one evening so spent. Suppose that
instead of its being laughed at the
subject had been treated seriously
a g the debasing, soul-corroding
scourge It is. Some persons in the
i'udjence would have been lifted out
of the mire by- It.
It has been the jest of nations that
Ibsen's “Ghosts" was barred from
the English stage by the censor. The
nlay Une was drawn, as it always is,
In England because of the theme.
Now what was the theme? The
Biblical and immortal one, “The sins
of the fathers shall be visited upon
the children unto the third and fourth
Generation.” “Ghosts” is a terrible
moving picture of that great truth.
It strikes the intellect with all the
force of a blow with the fist be
tween the eyes. It cannot offend
any more than the inescapable truth
that we must die offends. It is an
unwelcome truth that must be met
and faced and for which we must
be prepared . Every man or woman
who sees "Ghosts” leaves the play
house with a sense of responsibility
for clean living. The Ibsen play is
a mighty warning, that, being seen
and heard, is sure to be heeded. Yet
the English censor thinks it is unfit
for the stage.
“Mrs. Warren's Profession,” Shaw’s
forbidden play, deals with what?
The same question precisely that
was handled in the novel, “The
House of Bondage,” which you are
all reading here, and the topic of re
ports and lectures by probarion offi
cers in the courts which deal with
the erring woman. It argues that
wages too low to be lived on are the
great cause of the ruined lives of
women. It not only makes the claim
—it proves ft—and people leaving
the playhouse where it has been pre
sented go with grave faces and
minds busy with the problem of how
to assure a living wage for women.
But it was barred in England, and I
am told you had at first a mom!
spasm about it here, one resulting in
the play being closed the second
night. Though you were broad
enough to finally reopen it and per
mit its rendition for several success
ful seasons.
The Countess Julie, a Strindberg
play, which I shall produce here, is
one which has as its theme the truth
that sturdy, worthy stock may come
from the lower orders. You have had
several presidents to prove that, I
believe . To confirm this and to show
the truth in greater relief by con
trasts, Strindberg has placed as the
opposite of this young servant a de
cadent daughter of an old and aris
tocratic family. In the end she com
mits suicide and he goes on living a
full, successful life. Another great
primal truth the English censor
chooses to condemn as "indecent!” •
Brieux’s plays. "Maternity” and
“Damaged Goods” are as all-reveal
ing as a clinic. “Maternity,” its
pains and penalties, its joys and re
sponsibilities and rewards, are
throwm upon the play canvas in such
high lights that men and women
are better for seeing it. “Damaged
Goods” treats the same subjects as
does “Ghosts.” but more powerfully
and Inexorably. Brieux is an apostle
of better living. His works are
searchlights turned upon common,
but unrecognized, truths. Yet Eng
land refuses to allow him to enter
its play portals as Jerusalem closed
its gates upon the Christ.
"Ann,” a play that passed the cen
sor and was a London success, is an
extremely indecent play. It escaped
the censor’s extinguishing hand be
cause it was treated as a jest. The
theme was how a young girl, pre
and perhaps a mustard paste or paper on
the abdomen.
If there is much fever with or without
anj’ of the above-mentioned causes, the
withholding of food, sponging of the pa
tient first with hot water, then perhaps
later with tepid water, the sucking of ice
and the taking of cool drinks are the only
ways of reducing temperature that she
should undertake without the orders of her
physician.
The best laxatives are vegetable drugs,
and of these aloes and cascara sagrada are
the most valuable from all points of view.
Cascara varies enormously in its activity
and purity, and the family physician
should aid in deciding which preparation
is the best for the family to keep on hand.
Aloin represents very well the family ac
tivities of crude aloes, and the addition of
other drugs to it to prevent griping makes
a tablet that has long proved itself of
great value. A very good formula for an
aloin tablet, in dose sufficient for an adult
who has long been constipated, and a tab
let that will not necessitate increase in
the dose, is as follows:
gm.
Sulphate of strychnin 010015 gr 1-40
Aloln oio2 gr'. 1-3
Powdered ipecac o'o3 gr. 1-2
Extract of belladonna o|oot> gr. 1-10
Inflammation of the eyes or ears, and
especially pain in the ears, should imme
diately call for advice from the family phy
sician. Os all neglected parts of the body
the ear is probably the most neglected or
mismanaged. Even the family physician
should recognize that the ear needs the
treatment of a specialist.
A swollen joint, or even a pain in a joint,
should be tampered with only a few hours
by the family. Such a condition calls for
the diagnosis of a physician.
It is presumed that with the general
education of mothers as to proper ventila
tion, proper clothing, proper ■i< t etc., for
her children, she is also taught how to
care for the mouth and teeth Cleanliness
and care of the teeth constitute not an
emergency, but " daily promoter of the
general health.
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“The Quaker chorus al the
Winter Garden contains the sug
gestive note that is reprehen
sible and is the limit of stage
decency.”
sumably innocent, but oddly sophis
ticated, went about winning a young
man who had never been kissed as
a husband. Her mother was a
strange one for a young girl. Sh ■
rap about in a nightie aaid placed
stockings and shoes and lingerie—
suggestions of matrimony—about his
rooms.
“The Gay Lord Quex," long a fa
vorite play in England, was essen
tially indecent. It dellt, though
lightly, with a profligate's attempt
to marry and to cast off entangle
m nts. There was a scene in which,
to reduce the last lady to a state of
acquiescence with his plans, he
sleeping apartment at mid
night: Where is the consistency of
the censor?
“TTie Wife Without a Smile" is
another example. There is no excuse
for it. It draws away the veil of
sanctity from private life by permit
ting a spying upon a honeymoon
The censor permitted it in England
You, here in America, closed it bv
public sentiment in four days.
“The Girl from Maxim's,” in whirs
n dancing girl is discovered in the
apartment of a bibulous master of
the bouse the d.-y after he has been
slumming, and for whose presence h >
cannot account, is an Instance o'
what is provided In a spirit of levit
for entertainment for persons with
brains in their heads. w U1
The approach in a spirit of lev ity
to sacred subjects as home and marj
tai life is a fixed border of stage d>
cency. Another still more fixed t
cause a great truth mav somoH,
be illuminated by a jesf.T the tJea?
it e win f ? th<!me hl SUCtI m!ln nPf that
it will be an artificial excitant o
those emotions which I have classed
as the lower ones, in other words
the suggestive is always indecent’
andor may be majestic. The veiled
insinuation of the same truth is in
decent. To illustrate: A girl i t g! ts
is not an immoral sight. Who would
declare, for instance, that Annette
kidlermann in swimming costume
should be driven from the stage?
But a display of underclothin- -s
always Immoral, because of it." su
gcstion. The most indecent thing
have seen in your country are the dis
plays in me corsetieres’ windows A
in II tightand wearing very
stays and a necklace passes the limit
of decency.
l et you ar.- always doing that sort
of flung here, which is the reason I
regard you as the most unmoral jf
nations, lou are unmoral because
you do not care. Consciously or un
consciously. you commercialize your
sacred emotions. You are a cold
people, with --motion reduced to the
minimum, but you are mercenary,
i our women, the good as well as
the bad, accentuate their sex at
tractions by their dress. The best
dressed women in the world, they
are. in a moral sense, the worst, for
ihey frankly outline their figures to
call attention to every charm. The
European nations are primitive in
their emotions, but they are not mer
cenary. They do not, as you do here,
think dollars even in connection with
the tenderest topics. I can produce
any play In this country without giv
ing to you the offense your shop win
dows do to me.
Because they excite the lower
emotions, I believe all musical come
dies are indecent. All of them con
tain suggestion, whether in the flar
ing. flying petticoats of their chorus,
or ins a spoken line and wink of the
comedian. T1 ere is sure to be some
where an indecent spot. At the Win
ter Garden in the first act there is
an array of beauty that I consider
artistic and beautiful, though ex
tremely candid as to feminine
charms. But tho evil suggestion lies
not In thes.- In -o sense do they
pars the hurdler line of stage hide-,
cency. It is the chorus of Quaker
esses who do that. The very short,
tight costtimes, outlining every curve
and the fact they they claim to be
Quakeresses contain the note of sug-
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“ ‘The Girl from Maxim’s’ Is
an instance of Impropriety.”
gestlon that is reprehensible and con
stitutes the limit of stage decency.
Musical comedies deal largely in
colors. Colors are not in themselves
indecent, but in connection with
half-clad women and spoken innu
endo they are. It is the spirit of
musical comedy, not its form, that is
indecent. In music itself I have
never found impropriety It has been
called "the handmaid of the senses,’
and it is sensuous, but uot‘in itself
sensual.
There are plays that In themselves
ere proper that may easily by blun
dering or vulgar treatment be reu
dered improper. In "Fanny’s First
Play” there is a girl of the streets
She could have been vulgarly played
or drawn. For instance, while she
is telling the old master of the house
that bis son is in jail, she might
have made overtures that would have
been offensive But she didn’t. She
was by nature, though not by expert
ence, as wholesome as the boy’s
mother. Shaw tried to show this
when, as the two women were left
alone, the mother did not shrink
from her. but asked her where she
had bought the lace on her jabot.
I bey met essentially on common
ground.
Ihe Master of the House’’ seems
to me an immoral play, because the
erring master has a good time all
the way through, even tq the end.
where he Is forgiven and taken back
to household No. 1. There is no
poignant presentation of sin and
suffering in this.
"The Easiest Way” is of the same
class to my mind, for, while it
showed sin and suffering it was a
commercialization of those themes.
—Hi a tew words I sum my views
of the limits of stage Indecency: A
play is a discussion, and it is possi
ble and right to discuss anything.
But it is wrong and indecent to treat
with levity sacred subjects, and It
Is wrong and indecent to artificially
excite the lower emotions.
I would place no age nor sex limit
upon audiences. Plays that are seri
ous discussions of serious subjects
may be . eon by very young gfr's and
boys. They will be good f or theni
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“A girl in tights is not an im
moral sight. Who would de
clare, for instance, that Annette
Kellermann, in swimming
clothes, should be driven from
the stage?”