Scott County Kicker

THE "MORALITY" CROWD.

There is just one play that I am anxious to see. It is Salome. For some reason, the ruling class is trying to suppress it as "immoral." I am of the opinion that "immoral" in the same sense that a Socialist speech is immoral. It pictures conditions as they really are.

Last winter I read an interview by a New Orleans reporter with Olga Nethersole, who first introduced the play into this nation. I never read after a more humane and intelligent woman.

The play was shut out of Chicago last week. Think of it! Chicago, the white slave mart! Miss Garden, who plays the leading part, had this to say about the stopping of her play:

"I am only sorry for those who are ignorant enough to criticise this wonderful work. Salome is played all over Europe and in London, where they have a strict censor. They know what art is. Some time you will learn here."

The play is to come to St. Louis, and the highly moral dailies tell us that Police Chief Young is already "looking up the municipal and state statutes relating amusements to see what his authority is in the way of preventing a theatrical production."

Wonder why he hasn't looked before? If he wants to find something really "warm," let him go to the Standard theatre of his own city. "Two frolicks daily."

But I reckon that ain't the sort of immorality that jars the sensibilities of "the better class."

And the filth-laden newspapers that always take a fit at the approach of Salome carry the advertisements of the Standard.