CHURCH HECKLERS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1140, 30 May 1911, Page 6

CHURCH HECKLERS.

_ $ PREACHER'S DEFENCE OF. THE THEATRE. The Rev. Dr. Warschauer, pastor of Horton Lane Congregational. Church, Bradford, in the course of his sermon on March 2G, spoke favourably of theatres, and advised Christian people to see good plays. At the close he was severely heckled by members of the congregation in all parts of the church. Asked if he would support' n theatre, Dr. Warschauer said:

"I think it is a grave omission on our part that while wo havo national support of picture galleries and colleges of music, wo have not a national theatre, especially in a country which has produced tho greatest dramatist the world has ever known."

K-eplying to another question, Dr. Warschauer said the fact that people appreciated low, frivolous stuff heard in some of tho music-halls and theatres was due partly to the miserable kind of education most people got. Economic conditions had a great deal to. do with it. People worked very hard, with great expenditure of nerve force, and felt scarcei!y inclined for any thing icducationnl. Another answer was that many people disliked the theatre because I hey had not licen to one, and because they did not know anything about it. They went and found it was not nearly so unholy a placo as they imagined. That was the experience of the lato Dr. Parker, whn was fiercely prejudiced against it nntii he had been.

"Do you think an actor's life is subject to more than average temptations?' asked a ladv.

Dr. Warschauer: I am quite willing to recognise that the actor is open to cctain temptations. So is tho Civil Servant. So.are grocers and lawyers. Actors and actresses, he said, in Teply to another question, were not Sabbatarians, adding: "I don't regard Sabbatarianism as necessarily an indication of a religions mind." "Is not the drinking bar one of tho chief attractions of the theatre?" wis another question.

Dr. Warschauer: It is only a small proportion of the people who drink be-tw-een the acts. To imagine that tho drinking bar is one of the chief attractions of the theatre is one of those wron» notions held by people who know nothing about the theatre. I wish fanatical temperance people would get tho idea from their minds that the man who drinks is necessarily a drunkard.

As Mr. George Jelley was driving tho Daphne motor-van home last night he ran -mta a cart-load of timber standing in tho middle of Derwent Street, Island Bay. Mr. Jelley states that he adopted his usual practice of blowing his whistle (on the exhaust of tho car) and sounding tho siren just as he left the parade to turn into Mersey Street; these ho kept going until ho was right at his homo in Derweirt street. Mrs. Jelley heard her husband's approach, and opened the gates and turned on the electric light, so that Mr. Jelley could drive straight into the motor-shed. Just as she reached the gates aijain she heard a crash as the motor-van came in contact with a cart-load of timber standing in the middle of the road. Mr. Jelley states that he saw nothing of the cart, as there was no light of any description on the cart, and tho night was very black and misty. The first he knew was the crashing of timber into the "bonnet" nf the car, and the lower portion nf ihe. wind-scrc-'n. Hal the rar not been slowed down to turn into the shed it is certain the accident would have been a serious one, for when Mr. Jelley pulled up the car one length of timber had smashed the lamp beyond description, crashed through the wind-screen, and bent the iron supports like twigs, and only wanted about two feet to have pinned him to the back of the seat. Fortunately the engine of the car was not damaged, and the firm wish it stated that their delivery will be carried on as usual, although their van will bear a somewhat battered appearance for a day or two.

Mr. Donald Reid, Upper Hutt, 'invites tenders for felling -100 acres of bush.

In the agenda of tho London Education Committee apnear seven instances of successes at Cambridge or Oxford of London County Council scholars who were awarded senior scholarships in recent years. One of them is Mr. G. H. Livens, who has been elected to a fellowship at Jesus College, Cambridge, and was awarded the Smith prize. Mr. Livens was educated at Brackenbury Road London County Council School and Latymcr Upper School.

Arthur Wilkins, a homeless labourer, was sentenced at Kingston-on-Thames to fourteen days' hard labour for begging. His coat was found to be. lined with seven packets of food, including bread, cheese, Yorkshire pudding,'roast beef, a packet of sweets, a box of tobacco, and wvengence in. coppers,