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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (May 23, 1908)
AliUSed Diction on the . Stage and Off iTjllplivSn Is Lamentably Bad By OTIS SHXMX DWfdlifci Ac c fOnilnflnlw" ImiiIi Is I A T J edse t r I at tk 1 T- say that the diction of the present generation of actors ami actresses is lamentably bad is merely ta give ulierance to a recognized fact. I have recently aoue on record for the statement that the modern stage. UHxIora acting and the productions of to-day are equal! ami often sujerior in tlwroughness and artistic per-t fei t ion of detail to those of SO or 55 years ago. But in ju.-tice to the actors of yesterday I frankly aeknowl-s hat thev were masters of diction. Thev not understood how to tlieir voices, hut they hadj same time a metrical sense which enabled them to tarry to tla? audience the full beauty of blank ti j line. No-alays tin si age is devoted almost entirely to modern dramas; and j.Iauk wrse- idavs are indeed rarities. The one point required of tle dor w that he shall avnear natural that lie shall seem on the stage! what he and even- other modern man is on the street; heroics are out of place; to -Wute is the unforgivable sin. I'oiiMuently. while e hava many actors of great talent ami absolute knowledge of t-chnbUe, the sieaking on the American stage is about as I tad as it could Iv. Your modern actor mumbles under his breath, his in flections are roii:j. his use of his voice ignorant and careless: your ntodcrn at tress, no matter 1kw clever sle may 1 is affected to the last decree in Sier sjieeeh. The success of some woman of genius on the stage straightway inspires a school of imitators, ami the worst faults are more carefully aped tlwn the best qualities of this idoL Tlien tlere is a grow ing tendency to cultivate British accent. Instead of being satisfied with our own high standards of pronunciation of English words, many of our young Anerican actors affect a hybrkl pronunciation that is ridiculous in the extreme. Ami our actresses particularly some of our young lead ing wxuiten offend even more grk'vously through their willful neglect of the rules of pronunciation and enunciation. Nobody experts or desires to hear an actor in a modern play deliver his lines with lite labored distinctness and flowing resonance that blank verse entails. The two A-hools of drama require different styles of diction, but it is a foregone conclusion titat if our present generation of players knew bow i read blank verse they would deliver their lines in modern plays with greater eiTeet ami assuredly with greater distinctness. As for the young svhool of actress?, they would, if subjected to a blank verse train ing, soon lose their morbid affectation and their absurd craving to imi tate the intonations and inflections of bad models. The Clothes that Union Men Make . are the Clothes .that Union : : Men Should Purchase : : Proper Training of Children r cwmr u tlstt. Children are always in what is called by the physicians the first hypnotic state."" ami the- younger they are the more they are in that state. (This faculty of being easilv influenced surrenders them to the mer cy of their elders, ami therefore we cannot be attentive enough as to how we influence them.) People are always trained only by this influence ami suggestion, accomplished in two ways, consciously ami umaisckHtsly. All that e teach our children from prayers ami fables, to dam-ing ami musk is aceom 4ited through conscious influence and sug gest HMK Schooling, education these are tin? conscious inilucnce and sugges tion; teaching in the iarrow by example, or as I will call it en-, Itghtenntcnt that is unconscious influence and suggestion. Our society t directs ail its efforts for the flrst ; but the second is involuutarily held in contempt, because our life is so had. lYople, educators, are as a rule cither concealing their own life ami the life of grown people in general from the children, placing them in exclusive surroundings, in military shools. institutes or hoarding schools, or they transfer that which should W acompJislvd umutsi ioui v to tle domain of the conscious influence; they presrrilw mora! laws of life, to whk-h it is neces sary to add : fais ce que je dis, mias ne fais pas ee que jc faia (IV as 1 tell you. but dont do as I do.) As a result of this, education has gtunc so far ahead in our society, ami real training ami enlighten ment hare not remained bchiud, hut are almost en tirely absent. If ibex- are to lie fouml anywhere it is only in the homes of the poor working people. Ami yet of the two-skit! effects upon the children the first, that is the unconsckNts moral enlightenment, is beyond measure nw important for individuals as melt as for soviet r as a viwle. ill I Mm III J I Clothing merchants aim. to keep the goods that the general pub lic wants and is satisfied with after buying. If the supply of axaast made clothing is limited, it may be owing to the fact that the demand for the label is limited. Did yon union men ever think of that? The blame may be on the shoulders of union men, not the shoulders of the dealer. But you have no excuse now, for we carry a splendid line of Union-Made Clothing. Made by Brock of Buffalo Nothing finer in the line of Union-Hade Clothing can. be found anywhere. We simply kept looking for the best until we found it and Brock of Buffalo supplied it. We are awfully proud of this l and we bought largely of it just for union men, although plenty of men who are not unionists take advantage, of the exceptional barf gains. In style, make, finish and durability, this Htw measures up) with the best. The label is in every garment pants, vest and eoai and the clothing honors the label as much as the label honors the union workingman who buys it, We also carry a fine line of labeled Hats and Caps, labeled Shirts, labeled Work Clothes, etc Wall carry what you want but yonTl have to make your wants known. Honestly, we like to have a union man demand labeled clothing for we carry it, And when he makes the demand we know he is play ing the union game square. GOOD CLOTHES MERCHANTS - str a X o o o The Church and Labor 3, o Advantage of Good Roads lLL CMSS. Wherever road building has been start ed, it has always been against vigorous op position; hut so far as can be learned, no community ever begau the building of hard roads that dkl not routiuite to build them, year after year. The omt ground of opositkn is taxes. IVople do M object to using fine roads, but tmy think tWy cannot afford to have them. The wkhwake farmer is constantly on the a3ert to improve his farm and make it more valua3e: he repairs his fences or builds new ones, keeps up bis barns, plants trees. installs a windmill and hues as much machinery as be can a:?ord ; and su a couple of years the former owner aoakl not recogniA it. A thousand dollars wtsvy expended will proWbly aKI to thousand to tW va!mv of the farm. liood ivds are just as essktitial an improvement and will add just as sarely to tm- valte of fann lamls as these internal imprownents. INery dollar ejwmkd ujxhi buikitng a ermatent roal will add at least five dollars to the value of the farm propsrty serrol by it. Under the plan of state ami national akL gooil roads can he built within ten years all over Illinois, even in the corn belt, with a total tax not exceeding eigat mills, ami usually it can be dne aith a six mill tax. The present tax for n'.ud - a- i roatis is osieu as in n or s f xoot rivan this. III. GIVING LABOR A HEARING. It was nvv privUese, some atoatlts ajx. to preside at a ciurr-h and labor crnfereace. udr ttte auspices of the lVderathm of Cfcurcaes in one of the feadins cities in this country. The audience was a representative one. c rvsisiiuj; of men and women of con siderable influence. There were four Well, ir thaCs the object of labor, then thev certainty have done a sood Job. But I take it that it should be the aim of those who are entrusted with leadership in the trades union Eiovement, to enlist every possible iiifluence in behalf of the toilers, and among taese influences, few are more powerful than the churches. The churches need education in sneakers. One of them was a renre satative of labor. When he got th ,abor mjUeni- nd ,he ave wwd floor, he sim)dy roasted everyooctv in the tueetins. and save fits to the cfcurches as a whole. Now that's all n$hu The charefces need it. But t have found that no one ntbs it in hsrder than do toe preachers and church traders, whsa they- speak ot Ifce faitin$s of the church. This speaker for labor insisted that the church never $av workin$men a chance to teU their story, and that the church did not care, anyway. This statement seemed rather curious, ufeder the circumstances, and it ceased some in his andieace to smile. btcause he was even then the -gaest of preachers are eager students. There are not many better oppor tunities for the labor leader than right here. But the job cant, be done vith a dub. I'd tike to feel perfectly confident, when I recommend a labor naa to a church convention, that he ill be always a semlenaan, able to present the needs of his fellow aorkers, without beins carried away by personal prejudice or passion, and oeterntined to win by a reasonable l uttins of his case. It he fails to win, let him remem ber that possibly he hasn't pot up the best kind of an arswnent, or bnndreds of churches, so that he scil cou,d Bot alyht speak his mind, and it was known to most ot the folks present that he had for some months been ccaductins labor conferences in one at the city churches, with the priv tese of sayinac just what h pleased, aud JKiius with the ateetins precteety as- he thought best It was pitiable that my friend masted all ot his time in pointins out the faults ot the church, when he r;;sht have employed It in telling ahont the needs of workinsmen, so that he niisht enlist the co-operation of those whom he was addressing. This fault of workinsmen is only too common. When they do get a winds. At any rate, let him calmly think U all out, and study wherein he may strengthen hia arguments and bring to the front those phases of his prop osition concerning which there can sot possibly be a difference of opin ion among right-thinking men. And thc-re are nvany such. Rev. Charles Stetele. THE ELECTRICAL WORKERS. The executive board of the Inter cational Cnion of Electrical Workers has voted to increase the union's eefense fund from SlOO.OOd to JV ciance to secure the interest of ruin- j tHXMM. The board also contemplates titers, they fritter it away by in-1 i!ereasing the death benefit for dlging in bitter sarcasms and sharp thrusts at real or imaginary neglect Then they will boast ot how they just skinned those preachers alive.- widows and orphans. An assessment will be made on the locals throughout the Vnited States and Canada to meet the increase. THE STRIKERS, Out on the roads they have gathered. a hundred thousand men, Tc ask tor a hold on life as sure as the wolfs hold in his den. Their need lies dose to the quick of life as the earth lies dose to the stone; I; is as meat to the slender rib, as morrow to the bone. Tiey ask but the leave to labor, to toil in the endless night,' For a Httle salt to savor tueir bread, for houses water-tight, They ask but the right to labor and to live by the strength of their hands T Ley who have bodies like knotted oaks, and patience like sea-sands. And the right of a man to labor and his right to labor and joy Not all your laws can strangle that right, nor the gxces of hell de stroy. For it came with the making of man and was kneaded into his bones. And it will stand at the last of things on the dust of crumbled t a rones. Edwin Markham. m - ----- li:ccl3 G:l Cclbso Open for Patients Every Afternoon th ua o aw. OFFICE OF Dr. R. L. BEUTLEY SPECIALIST CHILDREN Office Honrs 1 to 4 pl Office mi O St. Both LIXCOLX. NEBRASKA www a th9 raw rau D j. c ivccd e co. rat PSICKXJST. FHONKB: BaQ, 14T. Anto, vm M St T lamia. txizm hot sn:::3 New LocatJon, C27 O Ate3S3n talkX X ESTATE IS3 Scb IS'Ji St LITHOL 11 I