Arraigment

Arraignment

Mode-arbiter Conde Nast made quaint obeisance this month to Quakery by decreeing as first "special issue" of Vanity Fair ever published, a Sesquicentennial Number. Though the Sesquicentennial achieves little prominence except its mention on the cover, an arraignment of Manhattan's last theatrical season in 67 compressed capsules of reproof give to the issue an appropriate Quaker tone. Mr. George Jean Nathan, a critic steeped in theatre lore, discerning though scurrilous, able though loud, composed the 67 indictments with nice variety of language. A few follow:

"1. A play in which an act of adultery was implied to be in exciting progress in a room adjoining the one before the audience's eyes. (It All Depends.)

3. A play in which a man openly tried to seduce a young girl. (The Mud Turtle.)

5. A play in which a young girl realistically showed symptoms of being with illegitimate child. (The Fall of Eve.)

6. A play in which a flapper was seduced by her own father. (Outside Looking In.)

7. A play in which three married women took on three young boys as gigolos. (Cradle Snatchers.)

8. A play in which a rape was realistically attempted before the audience. (All Dressed Up.)

9. A play in which a male went after a female breathing like an incalescent bull. (Love's Call.)

10. A play in which a young woman who defended her excessive sexual promiscuity was offered as a sympathetic heroine. (The Green Hat.)

11. A play in which a boy's lascivious and degenerate mother carried on under his and her husband's nose with her young paramour. (The Vortex.)

13. A play in which a young woman, longing for a sexual experience, took on a tramp who casually happened by her house. (The New Gallantry.)

14. A play in which a young girl married to an old man deliberately had a child by a younger man. (Human Nature.)

15. A play in which a white woman had an affair with a Chinaman. (The Bridge of Distances.)

17. A play in which a man invaded a house and immediately seduced one of the willing lady guests. (The Buccaneer.)

20. A play in which a sex-starved young woman deliberately went out and had an affair. (The Call of Life.)

21. A play in which a young wife committed adultery in order to get a job in the movies. (A Man's Man.)

22. A play in which a man carried on sexually with the madam of a bordello, to the delight of the half dozen fancy-women residents. (Weak Sisters.)

23. A play in which a middle-aged woman tried to seduce a young boy. (Lovely Lady.)

24. A play in which a girl-child urged a man of forty-five to deflower her. (The Glass Slipper.)

25. A play in which a scene of seduction was elaborately acted out in full view of the customers. (Arabesque.)

39. A play in which the heroine had innumerable affairs and was openly coveted by an octogenarian lecher. (The Makropoulos Secret.)

40. A play in which a man pawed a young woman with animal intent. (Down Stream.)

42. A play in which a young Englishman coveted the mistress of a Chinaman. (The Love City.)

45. A play in which a nymphomaniac went to a bordello and took on a Japanese. (The Shanghai Gesture.)

48. A play in which a young woman proposed to a man that he seduce her in her own home. (The Jay Walker.)

49. A play in which a white man stole a colored mistress from her black lover. (Lulu Belle.)

50. A play in which a young girl married to a cripple and needing sexual relief ran off with a lusty sailor. (Port o' London.)

53. A play in which a lumberjack tore the chemise off a young girl and tried forcibly to deflower her. (The Virgin.)

55. A play in which a young man enjoyed illicit intercourse with a married woman and in which a Lesbian made a play for young girls. (Nirvana.)

60. A play in which a half-naked yellow girl employed all her sex resources to get a white man into her grip. (The Half-Caste.)

61. A play in which a young white girl had numerous sex affairs among South Africans. (Kongo.)

62. A play in which a young married woman went sex-crazy and seduced a clergyman. (Bride of the Lamb).

64. A play with a passage of sex double entente that made Jurgen seem stuff for babes. (Pomeroy's Past.)

65. A play whose leading scene was laid in the bedroom of a couple of unmarried lovers. (At Mrs. Beam's.)

67. A play that dealt realistically with the pastimes of a harlot. (Sex.)

"Omitting a record of the many revues, that contained more smut than all these plays rolled together, and omitting, also, a number of the revivals that dealt largely with incest, syphilis, sexual intercourse, murder, degeneracy and concupiscence generally, we find that the above list represents considerably more than a third of all the plays produced during the season.

"Not a voice has been lifted against any of them. And yet the moralists go down into a remote corner of the town, where men and women are as tough as stale beefsteaks, and demand that the lid be clapped on the innocent spectacle of a fat girl shaking her middle."