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THE PASSING SHOW.
fill as tins morning remarked to me.
yesterday When I thinkor the great
xm! imprisoned in that frail little
hotly and shut in behind that pinched,
pale face, I rebel. It is a miWarriage
of divine justice." Ami, indeed, I
know of no better way to express it.
The woman has everything against
her. Jacks everything but genius.
Her triumph is purely one of or that
word mouthed about the world so
inucn, out or wnicn we see an. so
little in a lifetime! Her power is in
the naked truth and the jiassionate
sincerity of her words, and in the pen
etrating power of an analytical intel
lect. I never saw anyone who could
so impart aimgst anything to yon
without the aid of words. She speaks
to you mind to mind., in a new and
soundless language. You can abso
lutely look down into her brain and
watch her mental processes.
llrs. Fiske's first entrance upon the
stage is a piece of the most unconven
tional work I have ever seen. While
t lie milkmaids and dairy hands are
chaffing each other at the front of
the stage, slic comes in at the rear,
wijiing her hands tin a towel, her back
to the audience.
'J lie first act of the play-occurs at
WbonisavihisI am sneakimronlv of the dairy farm, where Toss' mother
English plays, excluding the dramas and father and little brother have
or lben. which to futurity will stand romc to congratulate her uinm her ap
for tills century as Shaksperc's Poaching marriage with Angel Clair,
stand for life I would place 'Tess One of the prettiest scenes in the play
beslde ?Thc Second Mrs. Tantpieray.'' 5s that between Tess and Abram, her
For all practical stage purposes the littIc hrothcr. They bit down to
"Icfrltiuiale" has had its day. There Kcther under a tree and he tells her
is no use in righting the facts any now hc hoI,es e'H marry and be a
longer. When you have said all you fl,,e latl' so lhc' " nave the roof
will against "problem plajs," the tended and buy a cow and always
truth remains that fairy tales, how- have plenty to eat. She puts her arms
vcver replete in grace and poetry, charm aboul him aml sa.vS '"I would do any
the world no longer. They were the thing in the world roryou and Liza
fancies of an earlier, cruder, happier Lu' Abram. to keep you safe and put
civilization than ours. They lack -vou in t,,c r'Snt path. Sometimes I
warm contcmiwraneous interest. The think you arc all in the world I have
drama that is truly potent today must to livc for- And J 1 want to take:
heso through the only religion that is vacm uza-Liii i want to take care
left ns now the religion ol human
suffering and of human pit'.
'Tess" will stand close scrutiny as
a piece of literature; it has distin
guished literary finality. Thcsuirit
f Thomas Hardy is wonderfully pre
served throughout. From what other
cu could those hoydenish milkmaids
aud the elder dUrbervillcsand the in
iniitablecountry bumpkins havecome?
They might have stepped right out of
the pages of "The Weodlauders' or
"Far from the Madding Crowd."'
1 havcMHiii Minnie iraddeni Flke
;is "Tcs3 of the d'Urhervllles" four
tiniest his week. 1 could notM-cher
oftcner in one week without risking a
ncnous collapse. Flesh and blocd can
endure only up to a certain jioint. Of
all the performances now on the Amer
ican stage I think this is the only one
that will go down into history.
lu the first place the play itself is a
marvellous piece of work. I should be
inclined toelas it with the few really
great plays of the last half century. I
doubt if a more vigorous piece of play
writing has been done since the
joungcr Dumas in Ids prime wrote Li
Jhime Atuc Cumelian. In point of con
struction it is not flawless, for the
last act is an anti-climax, a jarring
note. But dear me, we have so much
clever stage carpentry: there are all
the heavy domestic dramas of David
Helasco which are put together al
mtist faultlessly, but which mean
nothing at all. Tess"' lias the vital
quality which is so much more potent
than cleverness, the thing which
makes a play live. 1 should almost
will it the play of the present: the play
which best embodies the tendencies of
modern art ami modern thought.
(D06)CPC(D3J S s)ii)&li)(&9i&&6 9?i
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9
C
of Liza-Lu!
'How bright thcstarssliine tonight,
Tess. Tie it true that they be all
worlds, like ours?"'
'Yes, Abram, thv be all worlds
like ours: all filled with sad. suffering
women, I suppose."'
"And no men?"
"Ah, if there were no men. Abram,
the women wouldn't suffer:""
Then the lad tells her how they
miss her at home and a gleam of al
most hysterical joy lights her face.
Here Is a play for you without the Who is there who docs not know how
accursed manufacture 1 '-comedy ele- good it is to be missed at home?
incut," yet rich in indigenous comedy. Inside the cottage Angel Clair be
so to speak. The natural comedy that gin singing, accompanying himself
grows out of life in an English village, on his harp. Then you begin to re
to virile and earthy that it might alizc how great an artist is before you.
have been written by Fielding or She takes the little boy's arms and
Goldsmith. winds them tight about her, holding
Ins bands against her breast. Xow
And yet, after all. what isa play but the child has never seen Angel Claire.
a wraith, an inanimate thing into but his hands arc on that heart aud
which some man or woman must pour he whispers. "Re it hc, Tess; be it
his or her hearts blood, a thing born he?" She only holds him closer and
of the passion of some great brai n, and closes her eyes. And O that face, that
wliicli lives only in the at mosphere of face across the footlights!
the passions, as certain sea mosses. Then comes the beautiful little
which have lain shrunken and brown scene between Tess and Angel, in
upon the rocks many a summer, ex- which she begs him not to marry her,
pandand grow green again when they but "just let her go on loving him."
feel their nati vc element about them? She tries to tell him what she has
" tried a thousand times to tell him.
When Mrs. Fiskc first Steps before and cannot. He asks her about her
youshc, by no means, fills the mind's childhood, and she rise with a smile
ideal of Hardy's blooming, volup nous more bitter than tears, and half facing
woman, llcrbody is frail to emacia- the audience she utters some or the
tton;shc has absolutely no physique, finest lines in the play:
Her face is pinched and plain, utterly "At Mariott there is a cottage
without charm. Her"s is not a big, smaller xhan this. There are three
broad, mobile ugliness like Xctlicr- rooms: the kilchen. with an earthen
sole's, lier face is simply plain and floor, my mothers bedroom, and the
characterless, like these of hundreds loft where the children sleep. Some
of women you meet every day in the times the Monday's work is done by
strcct. An actress who isasbeauti- Saturday: sometimes it is not done at
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TRAIN TO TAKE
The Ihirliugton's "Aesti
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Lincoln every evening at
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Denver the next nioruing
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It carries thro' sleepers,
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member this when pur
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G. W. BON NELL, G. F. & T. A.
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