OUTRAGEOUS DEGRADATION OF THE STAGE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 907, 29 September 1879, Page 2

OUTRAGEOUS DEGRADATION OF THE STAGE.

(Prom the Wellington Chronicle) Last night the Victoria Loffcus Troupe of " British Blondes" were to make their last appearance on the Wellington Btage. The management had ascertained by experience that the more grossly indecent the performances the larger the attendance of the public would be. Accordingly they distributed handbills all over the city, from Pipiter Point to Newtdn, indicating that their last performances would be singularly " spicy," and that ladies wcnild not be admitted. They well knew that this announcement, would "fetch" the Wellington male public And they were not disappointed. At 8 o'clock, when the ourtain rose, fully ITOO people Had assembled m the Royal to witness the rt spicy" show of female nakedness, and hundreds of" eager

people had to be turned away because the building had not sufficient capacity? The vast crowd sat m hungry expectation of the delicious banquet on which they expected to feast their gloating eyea. They were bitterly disappointed when the curtain rose on the first programme of the Loftus Troupe. They signified their disgust by loud hissing, and finally by hooting. Geneveve St. Marc appeared on the stage, went through some steps of a lascivions dance, and, the, lustful multitude was at once pacified. Then the business was proceeded with, but the crowd had conte to see naked female charms, and would be satisfied with nothing else. One of the proprietors of the Bhow came before the curtain and announced that the audience, if they kept quiet, would "see what they had | come to see." This announcement, was greeted with a.> wild shout; of ecstatic gladness. Now, it appears to us that that all this must, to the moralist, seem a most melancholy evidence of the degradation of the public taste. There were present at the Royal last night, grey-headed men, occupying the highest positions m society ; there were grave men, of the middle class ; there were staid fathers of familes, of the artizan and the laboring classes. And what had they all come to witness ? The indecent exhibition of lascivious female beauty. They were disappointed, and they evinced m an unmistakeable manner that the Bhow was altogether too decent for them. We put it to you, O, ye reverend pillars of the church ; 0, ye leaders of society ; O, ye grave fathers, of the lovely daughters who are to be the mothers of the coming generation of New Zealand — how can you reconcile it with you v duty to the loved ones of your domestic circle, with your obligations to the State, to use utmost endear ors to prostitute the public stage, to make young girls degrade the fair image of female loveliness by lasciviovs exhibitions of charms which should be sacred to modesty 1 "Men, with sister* dear ! men, with mothers and wives !" how can you gloat over, m other women, that which would make your ears tingle with shame where it mentioned m connection with those who are dear to, you 1 We trust that the seventeen hundred people who, last night, went to the Royal, hungry for a scandalously obscene exhibition will, on reflection, feel that they ought to be heartily ashamed of themselves. The stage must ever' be the mirror of the character 1 of the age. If the public crave after prurienoy, then theatrioal managers must give it to them or go through the bankruptcy court, The reform must * come from the public. Let us hope that our strictures shall not be m vain.