Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; London (England) -- Description and travel
And now, I am brought to the fact, that the lowest part of the audience
of the previous night, _was not there_. There is no doubt about it.
There was no such thing in that building, that Sunday evening. I have
been told since, that the lowest part of the audience of the Victoria
Theatre has been attracted to its Sunday services. I have been very glad
to hear it, but on this occasion of which I write, the lowest part of the
usual audience of the Britannia Theatre, decidedly and unquestionably
stayed away. When I first took my seat and looked at the house, my
surprise at the change in its occupants was as great as my
disappointment. To the most respectable class of the previous evening,
was added a great number of respectable strangers attracted by curiosity,
and drafts from the regular congregations of various chapels. It was
impossible to fail in identifying the character of these last, and they
were very numerous. I came out in a strong, slow tide of them setting
from the boxes. Indeed, while the discourse was in progress, the
respectable character of the auditory was so manifest in their
appearance, that when the minister addressed a supposititious ‘outcast,’
one really felt a little impatient of it, as a figure of speech not
justified by anything the eye could discover.
The time appointed for the conclusion of the proceedings was eight
o’clock. The address having lasted until full that time, and it being
the custom to conclude with a hymn, the preacher intimated in a few
sensible words that the clock had struck the hour, and that those who
desired to go before the hymn was sung, could go now, without giving
offence. No one stirred. The hymn was then sung, in good time and tune
and unison, and its effect was very striking. A comprehensive benevolent
prayer dismissed the throng, and in seven or eight minutes there was
nothing left in the Theatre but a light cloud of dust.
That these Sunday meetings in Theatres are good things, I do not doubt.
Nor do I doubt that they will work lower and lower down in the social
scale, if those who preside over them will be very careful on two heads:
firstly, not to disparage the places in which they speak, or the
intelligence of their hearers; secondly, not to set themselves in
antagonism to the natural inborn desire of the mass of mankind to
recreate themselves and to be amused.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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