CHILDREN AND PICTURE SHOWS

Evening Star, Issue 15960, 13 November 1915, Page 2

CHILDREN AND PICTURE SHOWS

In our last article we indicated the effects i of a certain kind of pictures upon the ' grown-up people. The picture we had chiofly in our thought was that in which | sexual passion and low, suggestive scenes predominate. It is undeniable that a very considerable number of the piqtures are of this nature. And the tendency is to increase these, and make them move ! sensational. Xow wo want to say soinej thing about the effect of these, pictures i upon the young. One is surprised to dis- ; cover how large a proportion of the audi- . enee is made up of these. We should ! think that in the shows we visited more ! than one-half consisted of children and J young people in their teens. Sometimes I the parents wero with the children, but ! often the latter ware alone or with older • companions. Here we are face to face i with the. most serious problem of these. ! picture shows. We have already referred 1 to the effect which a frequent attendance I at them must have upon adults. It tends ■ to blunt their sensibilities to the realities 'of life. It must have a similar effect, j only in a much higher degree, upon the I ! children. They are more impressionable, I and what they see goes in deeper and lasts longer. Every country has art collec- : tions, designed to teach peoplo to love i the beautiful and live it. But there is said to bo only one museum in the world maintained for the express purpose of collecting and classifying examples of the opposite kind. It is in Wurteniburg! And it is called " The Museum of Had Taste." Into this are gathered all possible examples of the sort—wooden ornaments painted to represent gold or marble; tin vessels colored like faience ware; china faked to appear like'wedgwood ; and hundred' of other spurious and trashy things. The founder, who is, of course, a professor, thinks that every museum should have a "horrible example" section. We gravely doubt it. We think, on the contrary, that the instinct which has led people to multiply the good out of all proportion to the shoddy and tho evil and the ugly and the hideous is nearer the truth. It is a profound mistake to suppose, that the " horrible example" is of a gr'it educative yalue. There is a charming little, book of fabies in which the author suggests this truth. " Brother," said the little boy. " .-.how j me a pretty picture book." " Nay," said the brother; "I would rather show you this book with the ugly pictures, so that when you come to see ugly things you may know what they are. Look! seo how hateful it is; and this, how j hideous! And here again—this is ! enough to turn one cold with horror." "Oh!" said the child, and he shuddered, "they are horrible indeed! Show me more." Next day his brother found the child before a mirror twisting his face this way and that, squinting. and making a thousand horrible grimaces. " My dear little boy," cried the brother, "why are you making yourself so hideous?" "I want to see if I can look like the pictures in tho book." said the child. That is the true psychology of the effects of these picture shows upon the children. It is a profound error to suppose, as realism in' art claims, that ugly and j ghastly things will disgust. Symonds, in \ his study of the Renaissance in Italy, refers to the terrible cruelties characteristic of the time. He traces it to tho I influence of tho fiendish atrocities of the tyrant Ezzeiino. In vain was the humanity of the race revolted by the hideous spectacle. ... It laid a deep hold upon tho imagination, and by the glamor of loathing that has strength to fascinate proved in the end contagious. "The glamor of loathing." That is an impressive truth. It has been truly said that it is infectious to represent evil, often dangerous to talk of it. If it is necessary to do it at all for children—and that is very doubtful—it should be delineated and dramatised but rarely and with the utmost reticence. ******* And so that leads to a worse evil that result* from children witnessing these exhibitions. They tend to develop an unhealthy precocity, especially of a sexual kind. There is nothing so nauseating as this premature knowledge of forbidden things in youth. Cardinal Newman says : " The only sure defence against sin is to be shocked at it." But pictures of the class to which we are referring give a familiarity without, the safeguard of disgust. As a critic has said of tho tragedies of Corncille : "The best of them give you "lessons of virtue, and leave you with. " impressions of vice." We fear that that can be said, as far as the children are concerned any way, of nob a few of the pictures shown in our theatres, if we arc to save our'children from becoming blase mon and women, we must at all hazards seek to preserve the bloom of their youth. We know what bloom is to fruit. Many supposc that that ethereal-looking beauty has no use at all. It may be pretty to look at or reproduce in a painting, but i nothing more. Nevertheless the naturalist j tolls us that "the bloom is really a rharj " acter of the first importance. It has to j "do with the perfection and perpetuation ; "of tho fruit, and jf it- should suffer, the j " fruit must suffer also, or entirely perish, j " Fine, pure, high feeling takes a similar ■ "place in human character to that of the ; " fairy dust on peach or plum. It is not |"only a thing of beauty, but, upon all I "the glory a defence." Well, that is j what wo must seek to preserve for our ; children. We must not be beguiled by ] the specious pleas regarding knowledge of : evil, Sir Henry Bessemer, whose rornark- : able discoveries are well known, said that ! in his various successes he was greatly ini deb ted to a "golden ignorance." That ! may bo carried too far, but, the danger j of our young people relative to these shows ; is of an entirely opposite kind. Huskiu j has told us of the value of high and j noble- curiosity, but there is also ;•„ mean ! and lascivious curiosity that we must be- \ ware, of exciting in our children and our ; lads and lasses. As one of our ablest ; thinkers says : j Hosts have been ruined through seek- : ing to know the precise facts of the illegitimate; they are lost by the fa.s----j dilations of a morbid curiosity rather ; than by a purposed wickedness." . . When will wo loam once and for ail ' that there is nothing worth having on i to; bidden, ground ''. ******* What is to be done, then? We think i that children under 10 or 12 should not be | permitted to the picture shows at nisriit. j unless accompanied by parents or guar- ; dians. Tnere is far tort much liberty al- ; lowed young people in this Dominion. In \ t!ie theatres and about the doors -are Inin- ! dreiU of children of the ages indicated ! whu ought to be in their homes and in : i,heir beds. These nightly excitements a.re 1 I most unhealthy, both physically and ! morally, and must seriously interfere with | their school work in the daytime. YA'o . j should be inclined to go even further than • this. It increases Hie difficulty of ma.nI agers when adults and children have- to be , j catered for at the same entertainment. And pictures are .'creeued to suit the , grown-up people that ought not to be '■ shown to children. When they are not ' bored by them, they get knowledge, that j detiics the bloom of youth. As Professor

Tucker, of Melbourne University, says of certain pictures, they are " for 'adolescent "boys and girls a positive and virulent "poison." Therefore we think it would be wise to limit the attendance of children under 10 or 12 years to afternoon shows only. In America, we believe, it is th<j law in many States that no child under 10 is allowed into the shows at night. It i s possible that their absence may incline the management to screen more lughly sens-i----tioniil pictures, b„t, that can be guarded against in other ways. ****** * And that brings us to the question of cwworelup. There is a growing conviction that the censorship should be much more strict than it it. As » matter of fact there us no legal censor in the Dominion' We are informed that managers may put on any pictures they choose, whether censored or riot, subject always to the ri-dit of the police to interfere under the Police Offences Act. .Managers, we learn, do exercise a censorship, .rutting out. scenes {even from films censored elsewhere) tint seemed strong. We believe, too, that the taste in Duncdin has more of a, Puritan llavor than elsewhere, in the Dominion and cortaju pictures shown in other dres would not be tolerated here without' a vigorous protest. Tho difficulty about the censorship is that it would require an \ ot) ot Parliament. The Catholic Federation askea our Municipal Council to intervene It is to be congratulated on its action, it is not a day too soon. But it is doubtful it the council do it without the sanction of •in Act of Parliament, The council did once pass a by-Jaw demanding to sec the programme of every entertainment, but it proved ineffective, and is now a dead letter. At present tho only acting censor is public opinion, and the wish of the management to screen nothing that would dimmish profits. For, after all, the picture shows are commercial ventures and the dividends come first. We cannot'enter into the question as to how the entertainment tor children might be improved. There is a whole world of unobjectionable subjects to choose. But there is one sort of picture that should be absolutely prohibited when children are present—prizefighting lilms. We hold no brief against boxing. In itself it may be a inaniy ana athletic sport. But its exhibition to children seems to us most reprehensible. Like so many other sports, the curse of commercialism is upon it, and it has become largely a spectacular and nioneymaking affair. A visitor at a picture theatre, when a prize light was screened watched two little girls who were absorbed in the contest. They had been m the theatre for nearly two hours, and were not tired. "Do you like the picture?" he asked one of the girls. •• Yes," she replied, "I think it is tine." What) sort of woman and mother that girl mav become after supping full well on the horrors of a prize tight we da not care to think. But ue. do not forget the howling 11100 ot men and women in tho Sydney Stadium who refused to listen to the Premier and others when they wanted to speak of tho peril of the Empire and its need of men. The- boxing exhibition was more to them than any patriotic claims, or even tho destiny of their country. St, Augustine in his 'Confessions' tells a significant story of Alyseus, a friend of his. The latter was much averse to the gladiatorial shows, but some of his schoolfellows and friends., after dinner one day, drew him along with them to the Amphitheatre. He resisted their familiar violence, saying : " You may drag my body, "but not my mind. I shall bo "absent, "therefore, and so overcome both you and "them." When the combats began ] w shut h:s eyes, so as to prevent Jiis soul going out after such wickedness. But an accident raised a hubbub, and curiosity caused him to open his eyes. It was. the old story; he looked and lusted and took fire. Tho excitement of the combat held him. He became drunk with its pleasure, with its cruelty. And he returned again and again, not only " with those who had "dragged him thither, but before them, "and drawing others also with him." It is an ancient story, but it embodies an eternal principle. We shall be wise to pay heed to it. *******

It must be said in conclusion that while censorship and prohibition may do some good, they are rot the last word nor even the first. The chief security against the ir.tluenees of evil pictuics must be lodged in the life itself. If the life is kept strong and pure, that is the surest guarantee against resultant harm. The good and evil wo get out of anything depends not so much on what it is as on what we are. The bakxrs distribute their bread through the City, One eats it and it becomes thought; another, and it is transmitted into force that drives the pen or wields a spade. In a third it appears in tho energy that sweeps a room or watches by a sick lied. In a fourth it gives the strength for the burglar's deed or tin assassin's blow. The meal is the same for all. What creates tho difference in the outcome is not the food but the iife that uses it. It is there that we must find our chief security against the evil of our picture .shows o"r elsewhere. We must seek to increase the life—to make it more strong, more pure, moie self-reliant. How to do this is a pioblein that belongs to the parent ajnl the home, and behind these—religion. We shall not overcome evil bv la-wi--. Had that been so the millennium would have been here long ago. Statutes and censors aaid prohibitions have their place, but their place is subsidiary to the creation nr.d" development of strength within. And here the problem must, be handed over from the Press to the pr-.rent, horn the politician to the policeman, to tho pulpit and the church. It is good to stamp upon the weedn when we see them. But it, is belter and more, effectivo to cherish and develop tho golden corn which smother and ehoko the tares. It is a slower method, but in this, as in many other tilings, the longest way abemt is the shoit'.vt road home.