Most people, if pressed, would agree that the world has changed over the past ages, and that it is still changing. Many would confess a belief that it changes for the better. But breathes there the man who has not, at some time or other, wished for a return of the ancient and honorable custom of vigorously expressing distaste at the fare offered audiences by some of our present-day stage entertainers?
The End of Laissez-Falre
There is perhaps no deed of Cyrano de Bergerac, that redoubtable French anticipation and compound of Babe Ruth, George Washington and Dr. Sarkas, which has so endeared him to the public as his rustication of Montfleury, the contemporary ham. And who has not cursed whatever gods may be, during the torture of any especially unfortunate and protracted turn, that the spirit of Cyrano was not reborn in him, and that he could not produce a sword from beneath the seat which didn't even have enough room for his knees, and drive the offender headlong from the stage?
Failing such heroic methods, a renaissance in the vigorous vocal disapproval of the Elizabethans would be balm to the shattered soul of the man, dropped between the two halves of Mae West's latest, and condemned to the tortures of a stage show. The rise of the word genteel, and of all that it connotes, during the last century, has effectually outlawed such virile practice as booing, hissing, the throwing of fruit--with the exception of communities on the farthest frontier and of political meetings.
This is, to say the least, unfortunate. This business of him who is without sin throwing the first stone may be all very well, but a false idea of politeness has detracted and still does detract from the greatest good of the greatest number--the vaudeville artist of today cannot be trusted to take absence of applause as a request for his departure, especially as someone in the audience (and he needs to be spoken to, too) always thinks everything is funny.
It is but another symptom of the breakdown of our economic system--the laissez-faire of the good Dr. Smith cannot function if the markets allow themselves to be unprotestingly victimized by shoddy goods. All good Republicans should unite in rising to boo.
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Communication