The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets — John Shaqi
The Spirit of Youth and the City StreetsAddams, Jane
General
The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets
Addams, Jane
Child rearing; Urban youth
This discrepancy between the church and the stage is at times
apparently recognized by the five-cent theater itself, and a
blundering attempt is made to suffuse the songs and moving pictures
with piety. Nothing could more absurdly demonstrate this attempt than
a song, illustrated by pictures, describing the adventures of a young
man who follows a pretty girl through street after street in the hope
of "snatching a kiss from her ruby lips." The young man is overjoyed
when a sudden wind storm drives the girl to shelter under an archway,
and he is about to succeed in his attempt when the good Lord, "ever
watchful over innocence," makes the same wind "blow a cloud of dust
into the eyes of the rubberneck," and "his foul purpose is foiled."
This attempt at piety is also shown in a series of films depicting
Bible stories and the Passion Play at Oberammergau, forecasting the
time when the moving film will be viewed as a mere mechanical device
for the use of the church, the school and the library, as well as for
the theater.
At present, however, most improbable tales hold the attention of the
youth of the city night after night, and feed his starved imagination
as nothing else succeeds in doing. In addition to these fascinations,
the five-cent theater is also fast becoming the general social center
and club house in many crowded neighborhoods. It is easy of access
from the street the entire family of parents and children can attend
for a comparatively small sum of money and the performance lasts for
at least an hour; and, in some of the humbler theaters, the spectators
are not disturbed for a second hour.
The room which contains the mimic stage is small and cozy, and less
formal than the regular theater, and there is much more gossip and
social life as if the foyer and pit were mingled. The very darkness of
the room, necessary for an exhibition of the films, is an added
attraction to many young people, for whom the space is filled with the
glamour of love making.
Hundreds of young people attend these five-cent theaters every evening
in the week, including Sunday, and what is seen and heard there
becomes the sole topic of conversation, forming the ground pattern of
their social life. That mutual understanding which in another social
circle is provided by books, travel and all the arts, is here
compressed into the topics suggested by the play.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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