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is tiresome 'tt placed between you ''and
the horizdn on a pedestal! The pedes
tal, the' elevation is 'what' we object to.
Who put it up there? Or did it climb
up there' in the night' like Mr. Thurs
ton? Any way, it belongs down on the
ground with the rest of us. Even 'Na
poleon got his column in the Place'
Vendome pulled down because it was
too high to celebrate one man's" deeds.
A hero must wear his stainless honor
with entire unconsciousness if he does
not wish the gallery to tell him to go
home to his "ma." Mr. "Russell's pedes
tal was a little too high. He might have
got down and kicked it over when he
had the chance to get drunk but he
wished to teach his relatives a great
moral lesson and he kept sober more's
the pity.
The curtain raiser "Mr. Valentine's
Christmas", was very pathetic. Mr. Rus
sell was the gentle old bachelor. His
servant and lie were written by Thomas
Nelson Page were they not? The pathos
was genuine or so many would not have
wept. His servant announces what his
master will do when he comes in. "Mas
ea Valentine" does it. In "An Every
day Man" the scornful cousin tells what
Mr. Empy will do when he comes in. He
does it. The incident is effective but is
it not a little overworked?
A play founded on the Yankee.Pedlar
of fifty years ago a character compound
of shrewdness, honest but cold blooded
insight into human nature acquired and
inherited, acquisitive, not passionate nor
poetical in any way might be written
and Sol Smith Russell becunie a favor
ite in New York City. A mawkish play,
like "An Everyday Man-' is difficult to
redeem. Probably no one in the coun
try could amuse an audience with it for
a whole evening except Mr. Russell.
Last wpek was remarkable for three
full houses. Three in a week has not
happened before this winter. Altho
for Richard Mansfield, Saturday night
at the Funke the seats were double
price all over the house, it was filled by
a more than usually good, that is, intel
ligent and critical audience.
The actors of today are so much better
than the plays they play. In Shaks
pere's time acting was a servile trade
(hat died not out because there was
something called the drama which men
respected and which was Shakspere and
Ben Johnson that held the people's
imagination and taught them unutter
able things while not seeming to. JJow-a-days
Duse, the elder Salvini, John
Hare, Bernhardt and Olga Xethersole
are occupied with trivialities, in which,
in spite of everything they are able to
reveal their own geuius.
Feulllet's nlay of "A Parisian Ro
mance" stops at the end of the fourth
act when Baron Chevrial dies. The au
dience some of it remains for one act
more. It was more than Beatrice Came
ron could do to oiako us care whether
she lived or died, survived or perished
in the last act, She really should have
been drowned for leaving so handsome
and enamoured a husband as Henri de
Targy. Everybody was disappointed to
see her back again. The play is made
up of five acts not especially related.
The second act might as well have been
the first, or the third could have suc
ceeded the first. The fifth might be
suggested in the fourth and saved Henri
and the audience needless annoyance.
Besides the play has no action. It is
all declimation and dialogue. A class
in elocution might say it off and noth
ing be missed except the scenery.
The class aforesaid would have a good
deal of trouble with the fourth act: Ba
ron Chevrial's petit souper which has
action and one moment of supreme in.
terest when the Baron rides to give his
toast, which Death does not prevent him
from giving, reels up the steps, turns
round and round and dies to the shrill
screams of the premiere danseuse and
the ballet. r
Richard -Mansfield's makeup was per-
THE
:A-iSft-
An order for SI worth of seeds or
feet. His eyes were burnt nut fires set
half-way back in his head. His cheeks
were hollow and palia under the rouge,
his lower lip was a different shape from
his own firm feature and drooped more
and more as death came on . His hands
shook all the time he was on the stage.
Mr. Mansfield has a dramatic con
science as exacting as Savonarola's. He
does not spare himself nor his troupe.
Infinite pains be taks3 to present a play
correctly though there be only a few
who recognize his integrity.
He made the old roue so disgusting
and so real that a shadow walked be
hind the people on the way home and
its soft foot-falls frightened them until
work drove it away. An artist can have
no greater triumph. Richard Mansfield
made a terrifying and abiding reality
from the dramatist's faint words. In
spite of the desire to forget that horrid
old man it is impossible. He had some
virtues better call them traits which
were not eo ,bad. He was not a hypo
crite, and although he was not gener
ous, neither was he a miser. He did not
hoard his money. His wife dressed very
well, and he gave petit soupers to un
grateful danseuses.
His troupe were well enough but some
thing made them wooden. It was their
inflexible lines which they had not talent
enough to bend to their use.
Johnstone Bennet looked strange as a
countess. She seemed to be conscious
that as a star she had shot out of her
place but meditated another flight.
Miss Eleanor Cary and Mr. Orrin
Johnson, mother and son in the play,
were the only good-looking family on the
stage. Beatrice Cameron was not
charmiiig nor pretty. In Beau Brum
mel she was light and graceful anyway.
Her mouth droops and two acts of droop
and whine do not produce pathos. Tne
part is especially unfortunate for her.
Tne woman who car wear a large hat
to the theatre and not take it off when
she gets there, annources to all who can
see her absolute iudifference to tne
rights of others. She shows that in her
own person she has balked civilization'
that so far as she is concerned there is
no such thing as evolution. But she is
an angel of mercy compared to the man
who can go to the theatre, sit beside
ladies and spit on the floor. The thea
tre hat is growing smaller and fewer.
Spitters have no mercy and no conscious
ness of the nausea they create. Surely
a woman has some rights. I doubt not
,f she were given the choice of suffrage
or being freed from the sickening sight,
sound, odor of tobacco spit she would
choose the latter as an emancipation.
If all men were compelled to go about
for one, week in skirts, up and down
stairs covered with expectoration they
would be even the most brutish, a lit
IMfcK-
GQVteRvS
For $2 we will (five a year's subscription to the
Courier and an order on the Griswold Seed Co.
N. W. Cor Tenth and N Sts, for $2 worth of
seeds and bulbs as may be selected. Forty
5c packages of garden seed and the Courier
for $2, or ten 20c packages, or twenty 10c
packages or thirteen 15c packages or eight -25c
packages or four 50c packs.
the: hr:ier
bulbs given with every renewal of subscription.
tle more considerate. If bloomers are
unfeminine, they are the only costume
a woman can wear and keep her dress
free of foulest stains. The steps of the
postoffice which hundreds of victims go
up and down every day are covered with
a filth unspeakable. So long as men
continue to make neatness impossible to
everything that wears skirts it is incon
sistent to rail at theatre hats or any
other feminine usurpation.
The times are relieved, there is no
doubt of it. From a grocery store to a
railroad the tension is relaxed and the
earnings increased with every month's
summary. "Burlington officials feel
elated over the results of the operation
of their road for February. Instead of
a net decrease in earnings, as has been
the rule for the last few months, a net
increase of $278,392 is shown by the
statement just issued. For the first time
in many months all the departments
show an incieaEe in earnings. Chicago
Tribune after the report. The following
is taken from "'J own Topics" before the
report appeared:
It is estimated that the forthcoming
report of the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy will make a most distressing
showing, and it is on this that the street
is invited to go short of Burlington, the
promise being tacitly made that with
the publication of thr net returns for
February, now due. quite an important
selling movement will set in in this stock,
that will land prices at a lower level
t han those reached in more than three
months. There are few better ptocka to
hold for a long pull than Burlington.
It still retains its prestige of being the
New York Central of the west, and, un
der ordinary circumstances, can be made
an uncomfortable property for the bears
to be short of. Officials of the company
assure their friends that there is no dan
ger of the dividend being reduced: on
the contrary, they dwell largely upon
the prospects of improving business,
and they believe most sincerely that in
the course of sixty days the earnings
will so swell, because of the movement
of corn now being held back, that the
anxiety that any of the stockholders
may have will surely be removed.
Eleonora Duse will appear in Chicago
in spite of vow and crucifix.
"Eleonora Duse's superiority as an
emotional actress is not questioned. In
playing upon the finer sensibilities of
the people she has no superior. Her art
grows on one because she appeals to the
pure in heart and mind. There is noth
ing reversionary in her methods. It is
too bad, then, that her managers give
her only five performances in Chicago,
beginning Monday, May 4, and continu
ing as follows:"
Monday. May 4 '. "Camille"
Tuesday, May 5 : "Magda"
0
217n 11 St.
Wednesday, May G, double bill
"Cavalleaia Rusticana" and La
Locandeira."
Friday, May 8 "Magda"
Matinee. May 9 ..."Uamille"
Robson is playing "Mrs.Ponderbury's
Past" in Chicago. The Tribune says:
"The humour of the play breaks out in
spots, but Mr. Robson manages to throw
the burden of laughter upon his man
nerisms 'as it was in the beginning, is
now, and ever shall be, squeak without
end.'" S.B. H.
"Queen Victoria." Ladies' Favorite
Her Majesty's Perfume, is the most
lasting and perfect Perfuxce. Ask
iggs the Druggist" for a sample.
Trilby's "Truthful pills'" is a specific
in all cases of kidney and liver toubles.
Just one pellet at night does the work
At Riggs' pharmacy cor 12 and O.
A comfortable California trip can be
taken every Thursday at 10-30 a. m. in a
through tourist sleeping car, Lincoln to
Los Angelos without change via the
Burlington. Remember this when ar
ranging for your winter trip. Depot
ticket office, 7th street between P and
Q streets. City office, corner Tenth and
O streets.
Special prices on
stationery at Roy 'a
tablets and fine
GO TO
California
In a TourlHt Hleeper
It is the RIGHT way.
Pay more and you are
extravagant. Pay less
and you are uncomfort
able. The newest, brightest,
cleanest and easiest
riding Tourist sleepers
are used for our
Personally conducted
excursions to
Galifornia
which leave Lincoln
every Thursday at
10:30 a. m., reaching
San Francisco Sunday
evening, and Los An
geles Monday noon.
Ask G.W.Bonnell city
ticket agent, cor 10th
and O Sts., Lincoln
Neb for full information
or write to
J. Fraxcis, G. P. A. Omaha, Neb.
"''
2
Jlfes!
