Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1900 — “SAPHO” IS SUPPRESSED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

“SAPHO” IS SUPPRESSED.

Police Prevent a Performance of flu Nctheraole Play. The production of the play “Sapho” was stopped in New York by the'police. The management of the theater and representatives of Miss Nethersole said no attempt would be made to produce “Sapho” until it could be done legally. The critics of “Sapho” say such a play should have no place on the modern stage. It is a picture of a phase of life that might far better remain unpictured, for it serves no good purpose. To claim that it teaches a moral lesson is

the purest sophistry. It is the argument with which the pruriently curious satisfy their consciences when they go slumming in evil places. Such pictures of vice tend to demoralize rather Than reform the world, even though misery is portrayed ns the result of it. In any circumstances, it is claimed, the play is distinctly vicious and its influence bad. Magistrate Mott in New York did not undertake to pass finally on the question of its morality, but he held the managers and principals for trial before a jury, and thus was at least successful iu securing its temporary withdrawal.

OLGA NETHERSOLE.