People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1895 — Morbid Curiosity Seekers. [ARTICLE]

Morbid Curiosity Seekers.

A prize fight is said to have taken place in Rensselaer last Saturday night, upon which considerable money was bet. It is current report that the “mill” was a hippodrome affair, and that it was known t oa select few who the winner would be, even to the number of rounds that would be fought. Verily this town is taking on metropolitan airs. Prize fighting is not only disreputable but it is criminal, and the line between agenuine knock-out battle and a sparring contest is too slight to be readily distinguished. The town and coqnty officials would be perfectly safe in absolutely .stopping both. Such exhibitions are demoralizing and their influence extends much further than to those who witness it. It is pleasant to record that this contest was refused the use of the opera house, though more than five times as much would have been paid for its use than was received from the opera company which afterwards engaged it for that night. The opera house manager should be given credit for attempting to give the public only clean entertainments, and if he fails it is fair to suppose that he is more disappointed and deceived than the public. And it is not always that condemnations are just, as was evidenced by the disgraceful conduct of* the demonstrative larger part of the audience last Saturday night at the presentation of the opera “Galatea,” a high class production by an accomplished author. The talent that attempted to please a decidedly gross and unappreciative audience was better than is appearing in first class theatres of metropolitan places, and by far superior to any that has visited Rensselaer this year, the Jennie Linn quartette not excepted. Reference is made to the “Galeatea” in this article to illustrate the fact that this town has a numerous class of theatre patrons who are led to attend shows through a morbid curiosity to witness something indecent. That class was well represented there Saturday night and probably would have been much more at home at the prize fight. They came undoubtedly to see a “popular variety show,” and being disappointed, proceeded to prove their own barren conception of what opera consists of. It was the fools as usual that laughed. It is true that but a portion of the audience was of this element of indignity, for there were present some of most cultivated musical critics of the town, people who came to hear “Galeatea,” because they knew it was an opera, and understood what it should be. They were pleased with the performance and freely complimented the effort. It is music, song of the richer class, that one expects in going to an opera, not acting of highest perfection, but in the play above refered to the acting was certainly fair. That there are sufficient people in Rensselaer, who appreciate these better entertainments, to make them popular by their patronage is certainly true, but they often fail to encourage the opera house manager by showing their classic countenances at the box office when he does put them on the boards. The prize fighting patrons never fail to patronize the shows they like, and the theatre business not being a philanthropic enterprise, it would tempt the best of men to look after the financial end a little more sharply when the . public is so careless in the matter.