Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/144

 character comes from the decreased sensitiveness of those who form the play going habit, the thickening, as it were, of the moral skin. Their ideals are lowered; they are coarsened and made more common by the experience. Even the thickest-skinned boy could scarcely help but have his point of view changed by a constant contact with such representations of life. It seems to me, also, that the forces of evil which are present in every town, or at least in every one in which I have lived, recognize the fact that vaudeville and coarse picture shows help to prepare those who frequent them for lower things, for, with us at least, these forces have gradually begun to gather near, so that the fellows making their exit from the vaudeville and picture shows may have an easier and more direct backdoor entrance to the houses where intoxicants and evil women are to be found. How widely this influence extends, I can only guess; and though I cannot believe that it is far reaching, it must at least be taken into account and reckoned with.

The effect of these dramatic influences on a young fellow's studies is not infrequently disastrous. The habit of attendance once begun grows. Each new bill as it is advertised must be discussed and analyzed, and seen. The bill at the vaudeville theatres and the plays that are being shown at the "movies" furnish a regular and time