rtain phase of the
Broadway drama.

"Maybe they got hopes that quite a number of people would pay money to
see such shows, Abe," Morris suggested, "because so far as I could tell
from the few fellers in the theayter business whose acquaintance I
couldn't avoid making, Abe, they are business men the same like other
business men, y'understand, and what they are trying to do is to suit
the tastes of their customers."

"But what them ministers claims is that them customers shouldn't ought
to have such tastes," Abe said.

"That is up to the ministers and not the fellers in the theayter
business," Morris said. "Theayter managers ain't equipped in the head to
give people lectures on how terrible it is that people should like to
see the plays they like to see, because as a general thing a feller in
the theayter business is the same as a feller in the garment business or
grocery business--he didn't have to pass no examination to go into such
a business, and what a theayter feller don't know about delivering
sermons, Abe, if a minister would know it about the show business,
y'understand, instead of drawing down three thousand a year telling
people to do what they don't want to do, understand me, he would be
looking round for a nice, fully rented, sixteen-story apartment-house in
which to invest the profits from a show by the name, we would say, for
example, 'Early to Bed.'"

"But the trouble with the theayter fellers is that they think any show
which a lot of people would pay money to see, Mawruss, is a good show,"
Abe declared.

"Why shouldn't the managers think that?" Morris asked. "If the ministers
had the people trained right, any show which a lot of people would pay
money to see should _ought_ to be a good show."

"You think the ministers could train people to like a good show!" Abe
exclaimed. "It's human nature for people to like the kind of show they
do like, Mawruss, and how could ministers, even if they would be the
biggest _tzadeekim_ in the world, change human nature?"

"That's what I am trying to tell you, Abe," Morris said. "The theayter
managers simply supply a demand which already exists, Abe, and they are
as much to blame for the conditions which creates that demand as you
could blame a manufacturer of heavy-weight underwear for cold winter
weather."

"But why should the theayter manager try to supply an unhealthy demand,
Mawruss?" Abe asked.

"The demand for heavy winter underwear is also unhealthy, A