1925-06-05 — Page 2

D'YE KEN

JOHN

THE ORIGINAL

HAIG?:

40

462

THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, FRIDAY, JUNE 5T8, 1925

THE GLASGOW SUNDAY. A MIGHTY PEOPLE AND THEIR DULL CITY.

“BOOM IN DECADENCE.” MODERN ENGLISH LIFE ON THE STAGE

The moment chosen by #morning A special commissioner of the theerver

the English, is writing a series of articles on Sept paper for an attack on laod to-day, and fasgow be anys:-drama is inopportune for there aro

There isn't much excitement to-day," many clean and healthy productions on. said the hotel liftman apologetically on the Londor. stage at the "present tiras, He was right. The and those which cannot claim to come WITH Sunday morning,

Glasgow Sunday was much as ever-in that category can contend that their day when the stimulus of work was purpose, is to raise rather than degrade withdrawn and the combined weight of the moral tone of the community. Alter dreary architecture and negativ» marality allowing an eminent writer to defend the "sat heavy upon the soul.

drama of to-day, which he did in a Glasgow is not a city to dreana in,uncompromisingly trenchant article, the and when its industry imported the paper turus him down by declaring that Irishman, who must have his direnining the West End theatre is in the grip of time, it took to itself a full cargo of a "decadiener boom which will leave socini discorde scheme of life bused the English stage and English standariis on "gear and graen" (Let" Glasgow, soiled, and English life travestie and

A few years ago the sur flourish by the preaching of the Word" libeled," could not assimilate a rage touched to paper was calling uper the theatre to lighter, if not to finer, issues. The Irish clean out its Augean stalle:" to-day ́ submission was a low, and sour one, it is compared to the gespool in which mitigated by shelwening and its fraile managers find a profitable market.. consolations... But there were" "others The indictinent is made. Lot against who could not all the void of the Sabbath revue, in which indecencies might occur with gluttonous "diets of worship," and that are not in the written word, or might be at after nildition, but against became the xullen prisoners of the in- elastic code. Unetion and ugliness tern- those plays which have actually passed ed many a mild and harmless, bohemian the Censor," and it makes one wonder into a social malcontent. There was whether the offer really does exist. The once a little girl who resigned herself truth is that the gentlemen who pass to the prospect of reaching Heaven only our plays were never more alert, and! by the hope that she might occasionally they ends in the sex-problem plays go out and play with the little devils." the tendency to uplift which each drama- It must be a very strong-minded people tist strives to attain. We have the word among whom the Glasgow Sunday would of the author of "Spring Cleaning" that| not win the little devils some popularity. he has put one objectionable character In or to the stage in order to hold him up Though there is counter-restraint,

to ridicule, and when he no longer serves that purpose a healthy normal character kicks him out of the house. Surely dis- Vier is a mouster of such frightful! couragement sufficient for this type of

individuat! mien. As to hated, needs but to be seen. The concrete result seems to be, in foot- ball terms. a draw. Glasgow has little ill behaviour, but a heavy load of bore dom for those who come short of its own praefervidum ingenium.

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NATION'S MORAL TONE.

The drama has the right to claim that it is a reflex of contemporary life, and if that life is decadent it is not the fault of the dramatist. but rather that of the people with whom he deals. We have heard it freely, asserted that 90 per cent of the youth of the country is morally corrupt. We trust this estimate

The two classes tend to sharpen their respective features by mutual resentment, A. Saturday evening paper prints a page and a half of church patices, and thereerts greatly on the side of exaggeration, is more intense church-going in Glasgow to-day than in any other Scottish city. That I take to be in part a reaction to the "Irish question. The Presbyterian is moved to assert himself, much as one will attend the English Church in a foreign resort (by way of showing the ang") who would scarcely think of doing

80 at home.

but if is comes anywhere near to the truth the playwright who points a moral from that position must use the material at hand if He desires to paint life as by finds it. The dreudence of the drama, therefore, must inevitably be due to the decadence of the people. One needs not be sanctimoniously inclined to realise that the increasing ease with which divorce has bret. made obtainable has THE CITY'S ACTIVITIES.

led to the decay of family life, upon But Sunday only accentuates that which moral tone of the nation chiefly starvation of the senses which en week depends. The marriage, contract in be days persecutes every unoccupied houring more and more regarded in the light There is so little to please the eye, so of a legal formality, to be determined little pattern of life to excite the inby another legal formality at the in terest, so little self-expression in the stances of either party, A fantastic ex collective movement, so much that is ample of modern auditions finds ex-

The lack featureless in the spectacle.

pression in the recent case of a lady of tradition is strangely vivid in a lead-who sued for a dissolution of her marri ing thoroughfare like Argyle Street. For age because her husband wanted her all its size and bustle it has the air to! How, under such conditions, can of some Far Western town in which modern life be anything else than what' no standards are yet established, and is, and how can the stage err in where the newest arrival might as easily clothing auch facts with dramatic ideas set the fashion as the oldest inhabitant.so long as they show them productive of Unfortunately "Gear and grace" have let slip the mould- evil instead of good? ing of these million lives No other playgoers have a habit of not taking to formative vision has taken their place. themselves what is said and done of the Highly-engined respectability and hang stage, and of failing to fit the appro dog indifference confront each other priate caps to their own heads. unereatively, each on the defensive.

MERIT OF A PLAY.

After all, the merit or otherwise of a play is to be judged by its effect on the public; if it has a debnsing influence it is to be condemned, but if it preaches a wholesome moral it is entitled to

are

But what a power of mind, heart, and will is concealed behind this surface so lacking in carriage, gesture, and art form 1 The cross-word puzzies in Gl gow newspapers are addressed to a The London cross- strenuous people.

The holiest word is a mere flattering digestive. The consideration whatever be the medium Shakespeare. Glasgow variety at once diverts the blood-1 by which it is reached. found it thoughts stream ..to the cartes--which every physician will tell you is a thing to be yet a number of his plays deal with ir.. avoided after dinner. Such straws show fractions of the Sixth Commandment, how the wind blows, Wherever you go and many of his lines would fail to Lot contended with serious purpose you meet purposeful pass the Censor. It is intelligence and efficiency. Whether it that the brillianer of our present-day is a big draper explaining why "narrow writers stones for the subject-matter of shops make bad stack," a caterer describ-thoir plays,, as Shakespeare's did but ing his employment of Industrial Pay-wo do josist that the dramatiss of to Jay has a sincere desire to pat vien "shipping firm displaying their and virtue in their traditional places. chology," organisation, or a public official giving

A distinguished judge has been at some you the "hang" of his department, there is the same concise and lucid expression, pains to assure us that a recent unsavoury the same forceful enthusiasm, the same case in bo way represented the general of well-to-do people in England, and

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pace with netion. The Glasgow Corpora of social and family life. But it is tion is something of which no one can sprak lightly. Its tramways make the really only a matter of degrer, for th taxi almost a superfious instiuation? It umber of decrees aisi which mount up every session in an appalling way are hs got the factory chimney

un-

der such control that the smoke problem founded more or less distastefully has been reduced to that of the domestic on the same offence, If the half-dozen hearth and what is blown across the plays which deal with it do ao in a city is from neighbouring and more way that tends to arrest the evil, then egligent areas It has torn out macar they are justified in their possession "of of building to give the air-space which the stage. The Era. last century thought a vain thing: it

builds new houses that are cheerful and and music (quite apart from the pare civilising, and I cannot believe that it Highland speech, which is so often beard would not empty the slums, at a rapid and is a separate pleasure). Its pro- nace if Labour gave it fair chance.ciency in the new "verse-speaking" The Socialists constantly cite its achieve exercise need be no surprise. The city ment as an argument for Collectivism. must be loaded with undeveloped art. and they certainly have recourse to many Aching for an hour of civilisation after a day's slumming," I stumbled on an amateur performance of Offenbach (an oasis in a wilderness of cinemas), and ever heard anything less amateurish

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INDIVIDUAL GOOD WILL. Although the city's note is one of heaviness, administration has none of that failing The Poor Law régime

H

And yet Glasgow is a place from which is, like the municipality, flexible. in men flee when their business is accom- resource and buoyed with imagination.plished. For human nature's daily food The Woodilee Asylum, on its airy site, it ia top-heavy with worthiness. Just seems to be governed with as light now it has a lamentably large "dle touch as the delightful day Tursery and elása." It seems to need a smaller one kindergarten with which the Corpora at the other end, capable of leading tion mitigates the Cowcaddens. But it in entertainment and expressiveness, for diffused individual goodwill Glas as when the tobacco lorda paraded the gow takes a place by itself. Are you Broomiela in scarlet cloaks, curled nking an appointment by telephone with wige, cocked hate and bearing gold-head- business man's secretary! Before you od canes. There is such a distressing bave finished she will have found you faintness of colour, about company direc are a stranger, given you, your route, tors People spoke of the Students* and told you where to change trams. Hospital Carnival of a few weeks before Everywhere one meets with not only tour; as a refreshing outburst of youthful. tesy, but real, willing, interested help spirits that took the town by storm That it might be a city populated entirely seems what the Americans call a "poin by gentle nurses and Boy Scoute And ter. The next benefactor of the the Glasgow voice is full of kindness University should establish a Chair of

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