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i
L he Following petition lien ton rutepay-
THE SALFORD SCHOOL QUESTION,
cre, asking the trustees to calla meeting of'�
I
--
the ratepayers, to decide whether dramatic
An Upon Letter.
plays shall be .permitted in further school
To Mr. John Fletcher, Teacher.
entertainments, and the accompauyfngg letter
DEAR SIRS We are very sorry that in
from the trustees, given to Mr. I)encon
'.Friday morning, granting the request on
the agitation that has recently been going
condition that the meeting should decide
on regarding the Salford .,heal entertain-
the ryuention, explain themselves. To
sthent, the impression Should have gone
the traetces of the public school section,
road that any of as should have been In-
No. 2, !it the township of Derehmn. The.
uenced by unkindly feelings toward your•'
petition of the undersigned ten ratepayers
self, or a desire to see yen leave Salford.
of the school Section aforesaid, respectfully
We utterlyy rs Ciliate any such feelingS or
sheweth, that they think it desirable that
motive. R'e have, air, the greatest respect
for you as a teacher and a gentleman. WO,
the trbmtees, on recefyt ofthis petition,
• should call a meeting the
•n!
with other of your friends, trust that the
of ratepayers, of
the section, for the consideration and (Its -
ties that have bound us together and havo
posal of the following business:—Tn decide
endeared yyou in the many family circles ill
whether dramatic plays shall be permitted
this neighborhood may not be soot Severed,
and hope thatyou only be long spared to
lit connection with the school entertain•
monde in the foliate. Dated
-
labor in your chosen profession to ilia glory
of God and the advancement of those
this IOth day
of March 1893.
placed
in your charge, We believe with themthat
Snlfwd March 16th 1803.
you have proved yourself to be an able
_
Rev. all. Dcsemy
teacher, and have taken a deep interest. Chit'
DEAR SIR:— We the undersigned trustees
the moral and spiritual welfare of the Chit-
of aahool Section No. 2, in the township of
dren. We feel proud of our school, umd
Uorehany have considered the petition of
have taken pleasure in speaking highly of
the ten ratepayers, presented by yourself,
our teacher and smells you that we have
asking for a pitbhe meeting of the ratepay.
none, other than kindly feelings toward you
ere to decide whether dramatic plays shall
now, and will welcome you at any time to
' be permitted in connection with the school
'
our homes. There is, however, one matter
entertainments in the future. Although
!
in which we widely differ from you, and
under no legal obligation to do gn, we have
i
that is the advisability of introducing dra-
decided to grant the request, provided that
matic performances into the annual enter-
you and the nine other petitioners, give us
1
ininninnts f r o the ,heel. We are glad to
s 8
a written
t statement over your ei gestures
Y 8
1
ackno 1 •r t car \vlre t, that the drama of thin y
agreeing to abide the decision of the
1
-.w yea great improvement on some of thy;
a
meeting. Woagree to abide by the de•
e
past, and cic.Lned up as it wan after title
agitation begun, we know of nothing in it
cisfon of the meeting. Wo reylire on
offensive to the ears of the public. Still we
answer not later than 8 p, m. Saturday
March 18th. Signed A. Tuttle, R. Harris,
1
are oppposed oil- principle to dramatic per-
form
J. R. Dickout. No answer has• been re-
t
noes. The history of ilia stage is bad.
Occasionally a pure piece is presented,
calved. The open letter to echoed concert
from sixteen ladies end same number of
v
Y
yet the majority of the playa brought for-
ward on the
gentlemen, residing in the Salford and four
t.
stage are cotrupt, and we are
surrounding school , Sections, ; has caused
y
opposed to our children and young people
some talk.
being trained to think that the theatre and
theatrical la's are good. {Ve believe that
plays g
Salford March 21st., 18s8.
Aq
n open letter to sixtoon ladies *,to axtee I
there is much fit the repeated practicing of
gentlemen, residing in the Salford :and four
I
even the beat dramatic pieces that is iu-
nvighboring School sections.
jurious to the yofmg, being neither elevating
to their minds nor purifying to their hearts..-
LnnEs Area (}ErertExEN. IE is to be hoped w
yuu will pardon my delay in answering your a,
]error of two weeks ago, I tell
And then, air, we think that some of the
when you that
I (orexpected er t In the school Learn to
a ected
plays performed in Salford have been pas-
RanP
much more se
itively bad. Sire refer you to the one of
section, which world have keen
satisfactory to me and probably more satisfy. to
two years ago, entitled "Irish Assurance,
to Homo of you. Is,
and Yankee Modesty," a piece written ex.
I think it would have been bettor for all I to
ressly for a noted actress, and performed .
rwnverned if you had not forced coo into this in
aorree yriendsondeSt w„
a great nuinbtr of theatres.
6
My friends stood by me and made our Suter- th
We have carefully examined this piece,
Lmiumout agreed success. I have been asking w,
• bud are convinced that it is full of cur- I
for nothing and desired only to be let alone. to
f am sorry I cannot begin ray letter by saying
t tion. We know it bun been said that
P
uC
as many pretty things about you as you odd
o girls who took part in it never saw the,.
about me at the bogmning of yours, but t will ro;
Oak. We are thankful for that, that was
,lay that I believe aunt many of you are honest ref
who would not have bean found in
wise precaution. Still, we think that the
.people your rn
prvsont rompany If you had understood both
orals of boys and men are not beyond
sides of the gdoetion. ax
wl
Ding injured by such things, and there are,
Being pmntully aware of the reverend
nsny witnesses to the fact that much of the
writer'. unfortunate peculiarity, I cannot mayp0
that I am surprised to Had in your tatter Somtit
very worst in the book was given on the
statements not strictly In accordance with the
stage. Of these things We cannot approve,
and we wish you, sir, to ask that out of to-
gku
.facts. I will notice them all I proea*pl '!c
Yon .reDudiata a motive which `�J_
com to the feelings of a ]arum part of the
community, including a number of rate-
-many have, and do impute to Your leader and
to
payers in the school section, and a number
perhapDs to soma of thoga who are led. I can..
not tell certatilly what your leader's motive
ill, but
of persons in the snrronnting country, who
feel certain that it is not ghat he say@ it
To
worship in Salford, to leave everything of
NH, and I believe if It wore pure he would not
I
the kind of dramatic performances out of
reap to the methods he has employed in till..
ayttnLion.
"the
we
b
the programme of the future. By doing so
t'ou say drama of this year was a groat
Onpruvement
tie
you will greatly oblige us mud many other
persup
who have expressly endorsed this,
on sons of the past and cleaned
as It will, eta.•." I pre.u0 you mean the.
I,ittlo me
tat
YO'
ADII YOU
Anil you will farther show respect to the
Brown Jug. 'There lesLutvmem )rare
In reference to the clearing up, which I have
no,
le i
religious feelings of a large part of this
who
eemmnnit who hold such thine to be
Y g
bomxl characterized us a lie. 1 shall call it one
uY Lhoee etatmeuta calculated to lanceuYnlnu
tat
sod
aguinat the of their church, nod
Impiwesion. '1'o my dull precaptfona, the book
its it stands, is as pure and as good - any novel
till
set
who have been advised by their leaders'
mcetingnot to countenance them. Yours
in your Sunday School library, and vary much'
abeadofsomoofthene. The only expression in
wt
r'el
faithfully, Chance Deacon, W. K. Newton,
N. L. Newton, William Wilson, L. J. Will.
he excision of which the moat prudish could
it, tLorin cleaning up, was' one whiell your leader I
know was to by left out before he
the
C
sou, Anna Gregg, W. H. Chambers, Wm.
spoke to ilea I
on the subject of the concert.
1 sha11 give the DxDre..ion•
the
At
Nagle, T. L. ennie Gilbert ]Hinton,
Jehniu Newton, Jennie Chambers, Harriet
A mail is tellinggge�e
the news to mmdon holy, anm d among Other
things he say. :1frA Jm>p. expectation. have
I
air
dot
Mitchell, Andrew Mitchell, Martha Stew-
art, Priscilla Hills, Joseph Hills, Sophia
P P
turned out a bouncing boy." She replies
'What, anotherl" Although like exprossionsl
the
tie
Addinou, T. hamburg Margaret Embnry,
may be seen in the newspapers anyday, wv bud
landed to too, lit out I :Yore Lhery
the
Mrs. A. J. Stevens, Charity Peck, Charles
Quinn, Mary Quinn, Robert Mitchell, Sr„
wtw may
ugivatiou. After the agitation began, ant not ,.
�n d Lu the a[SiGaLorn •thunder"
wo
ails]
Len
Gcor ge Mitchell, Ella Denton, Ella Wilson,
6
germmu was
chaugad Cm• "nude" "hued,' 'g1orY 4alluhyC
'kingdom Coma; "'gilt,
Ed
John Wilson, Robert Quinn, Elizabeth
sit our.
alit but Surely eat unu oP chase emdd
W
oat
not
I
-. Quinn, Robert Peck, P. S. Deacon.
sidereet dirty. lit "'flee School Por `
on,
1*0
V,&)w'f (W,11`Xpbsf'
Yarom rho bWu raudIT sipq+*
nude. '1`Imsv who 6nvo lilo
no
I gutting tip dunal.h.., know
I s are not uneowmoe
.ay you tiro opposed un 1
tic peel, 49 fall U Now 1
Oil Itself, o. far concerned, your lea F• .
they havecothis ptina
they have abet convert
tg gmoo they atartod
]aim In their
teQIIv them •y
hr gior---
t writer et yew- Yout• ICI
sbn he Hpweke of
and'buyy ecn ofn
ludo. may wisp C-
or his of iv,is su
This oY course tad
the S. S. nut
is sa active
o S. S. Gage,
.m.naau..., Sine_
cmr quite as m
id iu u theatre as nay1
,.,...6oVc
uartainly or it riantatic character.
had a girl oil the stage with blaaketm,.,
and oil one occaseion 6v had the boys mud Sit
dru..ed in their nightdresson go to bed together
Oil tile parterreor at want lie down together
ropr.egnrerap going to bed. This, 1 can prove
awl further cxnmpleH are uneecomary. 0,
Uousisruncy, thou tilt a jowel!
You say bile history of the stage Is bad. Wall
[ am always ggWd to get Information, especially
from a reflabla Conroe. You " Believe there is
much En the repeated practisingg of ever the
oast dramatic yyiOuse that is itUurious to the
Owing etc." As I have no wish to got my.vlf
ap" dictator to this or neighboring mctroae,
I shall not dispute your right to believe what
Lou please. But I hold flat 1 wILLI the large
uvjor•ILy of the people of tires .action have
ust as gaud u right to differ from you. Then
,ot any that Some of the plays performed have
well "positively bad." How you can believe
that 11 proved myself air able toachor and have
tikot a deep interest in Glue moral and Spiritual
LeLfare ofthe childron" as you say you do,
I
ad Still believe that planed .oumthmg'
'positively bad" before the childrma, is a
mzzlu to more than Inc. You spunk oP arm
rave we had two years ago. having been acted
I a great number of theatre.. if that is a
grloug olliection to s pheco, ISO om you tJP
eon sidecar an open letter to the Minister of
,ducation asking him to remove several
loose from the Readers.
You say "You have Carefully examined the
iec, untitled Irish Assurance'and Yankee
lodest "and You sdmst Y, Y there wag part of the
wok not vcn on the am
81 n and ou starts, Y In lit
are added that what 1 thought unfit for the
augge, your reverend loader road from the
Id Y m
greedy to the adificathin of Wm ,tile
Id young en asaemblud. 1 wmtder how the
]lea stood it.
You hint that the four non who took part In i
who It
s the t
w "Am
the ten
Y one is a
one
by
Your.
see his
we are
I ❑as no earthly Chance of r
a promise from me or from
Whom hands thu whole me
Yours Etc.,
JOHN FLETCHaR.
THE OTHER SIDE.
has fore. he ra
ado 0 servo a uo
.
as
was
were pine moarbers on what we cmtxidor ful
wrung 8id0. and as far all we know not n
single merttbar of the 1; It That
does not look its the ug]I we were h111141 the
Baptists. I hope that all partyy feeling on
this matter will cease iced Lhat all throe men
Of wit t or churoh tiny are will unite to put
down this evil.
In your issue of Fab. the Uth ovor the names
of the three trustees I find- 'We do hereby
%pDtrovo 04 the manner in whloh you, John
Flbtaher, have conducted, the school enter
talnmoute in the Past." ' tic na+4," Cove i2.._..
IV IV
BALFORD.
Salford, April 16, 18
o the editor of the Tribane : -
DEAR SIR, —As Mr. Deacon seems be
to keep up the Salford entertainment
to bance, we wise: to State to the to
our reasons fur the positioa we have to
in the matter sod show that acme .
manta made by Mr. I)eaoon 1. hie let
to the press are take.
In the first lace \ r .1 . lloacon I. p uti
othe
r two euElam en who star K tot tits.
tttrbuuco were present at the aurae it a:Lc .I
meeting, Mr. D,:;mou being m,,,tary, an.:
said nothing against the past e,tc,,nin-
ments ur the expected ,no, although lw ul,.
portunity was given by the chairman.
No complaint was Died, to the fee des
by thee* gentlemen or any other r:itep yore
regarding any of the entertamrncute,
Cho first we heard of a complaint was
when Mr. Fletcher notified is to meet hin,
at the school house of F'bb. loth, that he
might inform us of the action Mr. Deacon
had taken and explain his position. Wr
then found that Mr. Deacon declared, we
heard him declare that he would "fight"
the cutertafnmsut unless be was allowed
to "supervise" the programme.
His proposition wall all follows :—That a
committeo consisting of the pastor, of the
two churches and the teacher, or the super
intendants of the two Sunday. Schools and
the teacher should draft a programme for
the concert. And he stated that it the
majority of the committee put anything on
that programme which he did not approve
of he would still fight the concert. He
stated that the committee should examine
every song, every reading and every dia-
log��. is chief supporter, who was pro.
sent, told us before a dozen witueaeea that
Mr. Deacon's proposition ices "most
absurd." He also stated that he dfdo't
think the coacert should be stopped. You,
Mr. Editor, and the public can see the Dim
reasonableness of the reverend gentleman,
Mr. Fletcher placed the matter 1* our
hands and asked as to consider the ins
and give him our decision on Monday `
ing, when we gave him the resolution
ad by Mr. Deacon.
On the following Sunday Mr.
stated from the pulpit that he had It
to appear before the trustees and
reasons why a certain part of the eut
meat should be dropped," He has r
eel thin in the press. This Stateme
declare to be Islas. Iwo d,• v s befo
made this statement, one of un asked
why he didn's ask the trusteca to nice
to hear him, instead of going
trustees individually and tram house to
house leaving false Impressions.
In his letter published Mar. 30th, Mr.
Deacon says the fault of the trustees "was i
that they would not carefully look into tiro
matter and hastened to commend some
thing they would not wait to examine."
Now, we have attended those concerts and
we judged them by what appeared on the
platform, not by what Mr. Dearmn says is
in certain looks, and we believe we are all
capable of judging them as Mr. Deacon and
his few followers, very few of whom have
ever attended the concerto. The majority
of the ratepayers have attended these con•
carts and commend them.
In refereaft to the public meeting pett•
tioued for, the petition asked for a meeting
"to decide whether dramatic plays ,hall be
permitted in connection with the school =
entertainment. in future." When asked
by the secretary if he would abide by the
decision of the meeting, Mr. Deacon said 4
he would not unless the meeting decided in I(
his favor." Now yen can see why the