PREACHERS AND PLAYERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 129, 2 June 1877, Page 4

PREACHERS AND PLAYERS.

v Snyder," thus moralises in the ..Poverty Bay Standard on Preachers and Players: — ".* There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, thamra dreamt of in your philosophy.' I think I could tell my friends there are things in this world which, if his philosophy did dream of, he would have to oall in b first-class interpreter to make them understood. Here wo are in the midst of dull times. I know it, because all sorts of people tell me so. Things were never so bad; never, sir, upon my honor. You couldn't, sir, — you couldn't get change for half-a-crown all over the town; and what a pound note is like has faded out of memory like a vision of tbe past. I hear this and more of the , like but then I can't understand it. A theatrical troupe passes by, and puts out some flaming placards; a. charge of five shillings ia made for the right of occupying a few inches of rough plank, with ever so many splinters about it, snd there is a rush of people— mad to be first for the buying or tickets. In a feW^mintites after the doors of the hall are opened' there is close upon a hundred pounds of money stowed in the place, and probably two hundred pounds worth of millinery. I don't object to this any more than the proprietor of the theatrical company. But what I do object to is that, while we often . spend at tbe very shortest possible notice, a hundred pounds to hear the singing of songs, we allow our churches, ■■ to remain in a state of indebtedness, and our ministers to wonder whether there is a probability of the current quarter's stipend being paid , the said stipend be. lag considerably less than a journeyman carpenter makes upon a bit of contract : work. I don't think it very creditable, bat I 1 fear it-is too true — that a clever actor of the present day will draw more money than the most eloquent :of preachers. I heard one little story in which it was stated that when a dramatic . company was announced to appear, upon an elderly laundress applying for 'her washing bill, instead of receiving the money she was asked for the loan of five shillings for the purchase of a ticket. The laundress lent it like a cherub." ;