'T '
THIS cou
nessing Miss Nethersole's remarkable
exhibition of realism, feel called unon to
make a demonstration. Apart from the
recklessness with which the actress
plays her part, the play is not remarka
ble. There are other plays In which she
appears to much better advantage.
Miss Wllla Cather says:
I saw Miss Nethersole four times as
Carmen. It is certainly her most finish
ed. If not her greatest performance.
The next scene
is the gipsy quarters. It is Miss
Nethersole's best scene. I have
never heard an English speaking actress
do anything better. Her Interview with
poor, tearful Dolores is unsurpassed in
its cool Insolence. Her love scene with
Jose Is unparalleled. I expected a good
Seal In that scene; It has been written
about and talked about, treated with
scorn and wild adulaiton as people hap
pened to be cynical or sentimental. It
simply cannot be even touched upon in
cold type. I thought I had seen good
Miss Nethersole's work in that scene. I
don't know myself whether I thoroughly
approve of It; I only know that I can
not help but admire It; that It Is great,
elemental, volcanic and true, true, true!
It is one of the strongest proofs of her
greatness that this girl, young, sensi
tive, in a strange country, in spite of
eery thing has dared to be true, the
hardest and the most sacred task allot
ted to an artist.
Now. the wonderful part of It is that
each time I saw Miss Nethersole In this
part she played it differently, absolute
ly. Stage business, intonations, ges
tures, glances, were all different. I
suppose that Is how she keeps her car
esses and her maledictions alike so
spontaneous, so bewildering. In this
play which deals so wholly with the ca
prices of the senses, she never for a mo
ment merits that coarse adjective some
times applied to her any more than
Bernhardt. Anna Held, for instance,
is frankly and simply sensual, vulgar.
a chaos of the senses; Sappho had It
and Bernhardt has It. and Miss Nether
sole has It when she pleases. Hut not
always. As "Denlse" she shows not a
trace of It; she Is simple, sad. tender,
womanly. In "Denlse" I could not And
one vocal or physical Indication of the
woman who played Carmen. The same
eyes were there, the same mouth, but
they meant differnt things, belonged to
a dfTerent soul. "DenNe" Is a painful
play, like most of Dumas, but I am
glad I saw her In It, for I know now th.t
she can play a good woman quite as
well as a bad otie. even better, perhaps,
for In 'Carmen" there occasionally
creeps In Just a little bit of "stage fire,"
but In "Denlse" there It. none oflt.
Whereas Julia Marlowe can only be
pleasantly and negatively good. Miss
Nethersole can be righteous.
The very delightful quality in Miss
Cather's writing Is her appreciation of
genius and her ability to Impart some
of her own adoration for the mystery
Harry Vokes. The day of the circus
Ward struck up an acquaintance with
Vokes. Ward, himself, had become
somewhat proficient in ilip-Haps, cart
wheels, etc.. and was soon showing the
circus performers what ho could do.
From this chance meeting of tho sum
mer of 1885 sprang the team of Ward
and Vokes. The winter seaion found
Wark and Vokes doing a knock about
block-faced tarn in tho variety theatre.
As Ward himself sajs, "This was too
hard work," and after some two or three
years of it he conceived what has since
become famous, their "Percy and
Harold" specialty which they played
700 nights in New York city alone.
The company which is the largest they
have ever had, as well as the largest now
enroute in musical farce. The same
vehicle has beeu retained this year,
namely "A Run on the Dank," but tho
elastic nature of its make-up permits of
new possibilities. Prominent in this
year's cost are Chas. Guyer, who for tho
past two years has been the "Pierrot"
with Hanlon's fairy spectacles "Superia"
Joe Kell. the "Con Man" of last yoar )
Chas. A. Mason, the Mt. Clemens Dutch
man, into a Dut3h sheriff; Tony
Williams is in his original partofCien
eral Note Shiver; Arthur Deagan, or
last jears company is still the saino
sweet singer and will bo heard in
ssveral soln selections. Handsome
Giibertiu Loarock, who has captivated
eastern theatre gjers with her choioo
interpretation of "Neara Nana," tho
book-agent, Margaret Daiy Vokes, tho
charming wife of Hirry Vokes, as
"Sassy Moll" the "tough girl." Another
new engagement is Miss I ucy Daly, of
"Iiassing Show" and "In Gay New
York" fitne. Manager Stiir has paid
particular uttintion to tho pretty girl
contingent this yoar and this important
feature embraces Misses Pauline Von
Arold, Martha Franklin. Sadie Whit
comb and others. Tho costumes ara to
bedazzling. Ward A: Vokes come to
Lansing next Thursday evening April
8th. Frico 1.00. 7.",, r0 an! 'Si. Seat
on sole Tuesday at 10 a. in eharp.
Secure our 6eats early.
EASTER.
love-making before, but when the thing
was over I felt like Romeo, that I had
"never seen true beauty till tonight."
The celebrated "Nethersole kiss," I ex
pected, would be merely a prolonged
bit of stage business, rather cheap, per
haps a little vulgar. It was nothing of
the sort; it was terrible. If anything; a
flash of lightning, an earthquake, any
thing you please; anything that terri
fies and Intoxicates and destroys. Pitts
burg audiences are the coldest you can
find anywhere. They do not approve of
Miss Nethersole's plays or her realism,
but at the end of that act the curtain
calls were so many that I lost count
of them. The people Just sat dumbly
ln their seats and pounded away as If
they knew they ought not to but could
not help It. It was the sort of applause
that comes through set teeth. A good
many unkind things -have been said of
Ward and Vokes.
Hut Nethersole, who is too thin, too
fiery, too Intense, too serpentine. She
has that intense and consuming nerous
force that is so flatly opposed to stupid
sensuality. It is in her eyes, her walk,
her twitching fingers: it devours her
frail body like a hidden fire. And she
has imagination, O such imagination!
The thing that gives her such power is
of the spirit, not of the senses. Even In
Carmen It Is the spiritual quality that
Is forever dawning n her liquid eyes,
forever being driven back and drowned
by the click of the castanets that is al
ways recurring like the Venus motif In
Tannhauser. It Is this poor spirit, for
ever being shamed and tortured and
dragged through the mud. that you
pity. Somehow, by a negative process,
she effects a spiritual result as Brown
ing does so often. It is a strange thing,
that abortive spiritual product, born of
We break the fragrant stems and strew them
high
Upon our shining altars, white and sweet.
And stay the hurry of our restless feet,
To stand a while before them silently,
And listen to the organ tenderly,
The white peaceof the Easter morning
greet,
And on the waiting stillness of the street
Sweeps with a softer, stranger stillness by.
"We look a while upon that peace and then
We go into our toiling world again;
Eor Eden dew the salt sweat stains the
brow;
But we have stood within the holy place,
And on the furrows of each sin worn face
There is a shining from the Presence, now.
-KATHERINE MELICK.
and divinity of genius to the multitude.
Nobody receives a more cordial wel
come than thoao funny fellows
Ward and Vokes, John Ward, or
"Happy" iB a native of Richmond, Xa.f
where his mother kept ftr years what is
known as a professional boarding-house.
In this way joung Ward was constantly
thrown into the society of theatrical
people, mainly from the variety branch
of tbe profession, and got a desire to go
on the stage. His first experience on the
stage as a super in Ford's Opera House
In Baltmore, where he received the
munificient salary of a dollar and a
quarter a week. His work attracted the
attention of no less a personage than
Tony Pastor, who encouraged him to
persevere. After this time a small
wagon circus was billed to appear is
Baltimore and amongst the acrobats
"Cigarettes are bad for the lungs."
"I know It. but I can't get my wife to
smoke them."
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