“This is brute life, indeed,” I soliloquized, “for it can be easily seen that the hearts of these people are so seared and their ears so dull that they have no desire for the music of celestial choirs, or the ecstacies that rise from heart-communion with God.”
I also saw that there were numberless underground connections between the lower Theatres and the Schools of Suicide, and with the varied haunts of Prostitution that infested the whole region.
This startling fact also forced its way to my attention:—_the money flowing from the entire seven grades fell into one treasury_, so that they who moved in the supposed moral atmosphere of the first and second grades were, nevertheless, patrons of the whole iniquitous business. At once I thought of the churches that were in sympathy, or league, with this part of the work along the Broad Highway. And I inwardly uttered these sad sentences:
“_It is no more a mystery why such churches have lost their holy influence and their warmth of spiritual life, while worldliness flourishes from the pew to the pulpit_.”
The Devil’s Substitute to the Prayer-Meeting (The Christians left their Bibles at home.)
Mr. World and Miss Church-Member spent several seasons of leisure in the Theatres of the first and second grades. Finally he invited her to accompany him to a Refined Vaudeville in the third grade Theatre district. It happened to be on the same day of the week that she had formerly been accustomed to attend prayer meeting. This fact awakened memories of bygone days, and brought feelings of sadness to her heart. Mr. World, by an artful diversity of language, arrested her mind and calmed her conscience as he playfully remarked: “This will be a good substitute for the prayer-meeting.”
I saw the two enter the Vaudeville with many other church-members that mingled with the jostling crowds. These Christians left their Bibles at home, while some took as a substitute their opera glasses. They can see through these better than they can through their Bibles.
While Mr. World and Miss Church-Member tarried at the Theatres, I was permitted to see a conference of the evil spirits that had in charge the Theatre interests of Satan. The conference met at the opening of the year 1901 what was called “The Century Session.”
For the time I was lost to all other surroundings, and I could hear all and see all as if I occupied the best seat. The unusual parliament seemed to be held underground, and yet one could enter directly from the surface of the earth.