THE COURIER.
II
the society contemplates. Under the long as a literary examination is not
Incubus, however, of twenty Vice- the prerequisite to the possession of a
Presidents General it is difficult for theatre ticket, theatrical managers
the mind which has never been acknowledge the obligation that they
trained and strengthened by flights are under of putting a play on which
outside the ranks, to conceive how is complete and self-explanatory. Ru-
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1
the society can be of permanent and
actual usefulness.
War between nations will be
an overwhelming disaster to one
side or the other or even to
both. The Maine explosion is a suffi
cient indication of the total destruc
tion that mines and torpedoes will be
able to accomplish in maritine war
fare. If the impending war between
our beloved country and Spain is de
clared, it will be the first time in his
tory that explosives and engines of
such energy have been
shot well directed, one mine.
pert of Hentzau opens with the reap
pearance of the king who wore the
coronation robes, who felt the holy
oil trickling on his forehead the real
king of the queen of Ruritania. The
king who was never crowned by love
or priest is assassinated, the corona
tion king, Rudolph Rassendyl, is
forced, in order to save the
queen from gossip to assume and
to act the king once more,
before he knows the uncrowned king
is dead. Well, he has played the part
so many times that when the news
The Passing Show.
WILLA CATHER.
I
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The two plays which are making being wasted, and the discovery that
talk in New York, "The Tree of Brian has lost all his money does not
Knowledge" and "The Conquerors," tend to stimulate her interest in rustic
are both pretty bad from every point simplicity and love's young dream. I
of view. I saw them both in one day cannot fancy a human being more
and about midnight I felt that life
was hardly worth the trouble of
respiration.
It seems a trifle incongruous to en
counter such a piece as "The Tree of
Knowledge" at the Xyceura theatre,
odious than this Belle in the scene in
which she learns of her husband's
financial embarrassments. Miss Opp's
father keeps a "dive" down on the
Bowery, by the way, and I fancy she
fAACtl'l CAA tliinrwi il.u... 1. il.
used One comes that the legitimate heir to the thp n7 rt 7tmn7i7ir 7 tiiomilrt i 7 . turuu" tueiW
USCa' "ne t,mn. nf T?rifnnin i H,rt h8 11. e ' and stronghold of the mild passes of sentiment anyway. It seems
:,uruneiur- '""" """ ..7 domestic dramas or Messrs. Uelasco almost too fafcilli- o.nsu mi.P
pedo exploded in the right spot at the
right time will explode the magazine
and the ship and every soul on board
will be blown to atoms of flesh, tim
bers, and fragments of metal. Such
awful and sudden destruction of our
seamen as well as of the innocent and
brave Spanish tars, is what makes
those in authority on both sides of the
ocean hesitate before signing the death
warrant of thousands of those who love
life and whom God loves equally. If
Spanish citizens blew up the Maine
without the knowledge of Spain,
Spain will and must make adequate
material restitution. She cannot pay l,er
tnr tlio flmn limluvl enilnns wliraA more
W VW ,WWI W1M ..V.w, ....
s orv his theranfd lac- 'r the ministry, had fallen under tberewas nothing else interesting to
Pr soner of S and 7"' We'U rtl,0dX and cal1 ao' ust t0 rself, the fair
5"!1, " ,f.'. ? ifc tue "spell" of a female vampire, Belle teils her boy husband that, sl.o
legitimate British cousin will have to
take his place in order that black
scandal darken not the lives of Sapt,
Fritz Von-Tarlenhcim and Queen
Flavia. The
tion of The
comes very near causing lovers to be
late at the tryst, students to be late at
lectures and innumerable suppers
wait while the head of the house finds
out how Fritz secured theletterand
how many were killed in the attempt.
DuMaurier's posthumous criticism of
the three most famous contributors to
Punch are finished in the March Har
Hie frmnHnnoccf tr tArwflAtc ic
than ever apparent in these
and de Mille, but these are degenerate
daj-s. The plot of the piece is about
as follows: NigilStanyon, while study-
almost too fatally easy to her to be
common.
Well, when life got really too
monotonous, one hot afternoon when
splendid discipline and courage yielded
not to panic even in the moment of
death, but she can pay to their fami
lies a sum equal to the earning capac
ity of each man in an average lifetime,
plus a pension for the superannuated.
But to the men whose activity is con-
critical notes of himself and his pre
decessors. The type is warm with
kindness and goodwill to us and to
those he writes of, and the iutente
easily reaches as far as the central
plains of Xorth America.
Belle, her last name varied to suit the
occasion. After setting him a merry
pace for some months, the lady left
him for some fellow with more money
and he threw up his high calling and
returned home to break the heart of
his pretty little ward, Monica, with
his selfish and rather theatric re
morse. While he is posing as a blighted
being, his best friend, Brian Boilings
worth, mariies and brings his wife
home. Xigil meets her and of course
recognizes the woman who shared his
past, the fascinating Belle. This lady
is portrayed by the large, large Julia
Opp. I really never saw an actress
boy husband that she
has been another man's. Conceive
that, if you can! The boy simply goes
daft. After his ravings have grown
monotonousand have ceased toamuse,
Belle advises morphine and gets him
hopelessly bound to the drug. But
even making morphine fiends soon
loses its charm, and Belle hies her
unto the ever fruitful tree of knowl
edge again for j new variety of ex
periences. When a woman goes snake
hunting the serpent usually turns up
This time he comes in the shape of
Mr. Loftus Roupell, who tells Belle
that he doesn t love her and has no
fined to moving with the sun in win- ment of the second part of Waller
terand the shade in summer on the Wyckoff's experimental studies called
corners of Eleventh and O, whose feet "The Worker's." Mr. Wycoff was a
are planted on the comparatively peripatetic seeker for work in Chicago
harmless sidewalks of this bucolic during the winter of 1891 when rows of
town and not upon the deck of a bat- hopeless laborers slept at night on the
tleship which contains thousands of marble floors of the corridors of city
pounds of powder and high explosives, and government buildings. He says:
these suggestions for rendering a bill
of damages to Spain will be denounced
illusions about her, and thev think
xsyii. j. icaiij iictci sun an ciuucsa film- will cuit u i
Scribner's contains the first install- quite so large. One might almost play !! J"1" "'flf th er excellently
on Miss Arthur's well known sobri- -vs:i o
-i-'ibii oluujuii .aiscovers tne plot
and on the night of the elopement
goes to the house to save his friend.
He tells Belle she ihall not go to her
lover who awaits lier, and attempts to
keep her by force. Then follows one
of those abominable wrestlingmatches
as unpatriotic. Although the advan
tages are not all on the side of peace,
the horrors of total annihilation
"A new phase of myexperiment is be
gun, nitherto 1 have been in the
open country, and have found work
with surprising readiness. Now lam
in the heart of a congested labor mar-
which would attend a maritime war ket, and I am learning, by experience,
today is giving pause to the delibera- what it is to look for work and fail to
tions of the administration which in find it; to renew the search under the
the days of shoot and run they would spur of hunger and cold, and of the
not have had. animal instinct of self preservation
The advantages of war are that it until any employment, no matter how
unites a country divided by petty low in the scale of work, that would
partizan hatred, and kindles patriot- yield food and shelter, appears to you
ism; it stimulates the heroic virtues the very kingdom of heaven; and if it
of which the signs have been almost could suffer violence it would seem as
obliterated by centuries of peace, but though the strength of your desire
it does this at tremendous cost. must take that kingdom by force.
During this prologue of war the But it remains impregnable to your
country needs be thankful that no attack, and, baffled and weakened,
jingo sits in the presidential chair you are thrust back upon yourself and
but a man conservative and careful held down remorselessly to the cold,
which
quet and call Miss Opp "A Lady of
Quandity."' Yet her proportions are
not at all of the Lillian Russell sort;
she is wonderfully well made-only
there is so alarmingly much of her.
She is handsome, and she is a clever
actress. She has an ungrateful part
to play, a "woman without even the
kindly instincts of animals, a woman
whose only task is to debase other
people as much as possible and whose
only grief is that she is not quite bad
enough to satisfy her own imagina
tion, a woman who is only happy when
she can be actively destructive, like
some hungry acid which must be
burning up someone's tissues always
and grows more deadly and potent
u, ..a. . 1CCU3 u,u.flu uv Qnce j , confessed
plays this woman well. She dresses TnmhrM,
naked fact that you, who in all the
universe are of sunremest importance
to yourself, are yet of no importance
to the universe. Youare a superfluous
human being. For you there is no
part in the play of the world's activ
ity. There remains for you simply
this alternative: Have you the pliysi
caland moral qualities which fit you
to survive, and which will place you
at last within the working of the
large scheme of things, or, lacking
these qualities, does there await you
misgivings acquired from the experi- inevitable wreck under the onward
ence of many sequels, "Rupert of rush of the world's great moving life?
Hentzau takes precedence of all the That, at all events, is pretty much
magazine literature of the month. It as it appears tonight to Tom Clark
is said that rights of dramatization and me. Clark is my "partner," and
have already been sold, but this story we are not in good luck nor in high
will be a most difficult story for the spirits. We eacli had a ten-cent
stage to tell. Most dramatized stories breakfast this morning, but neither
depend upon the assumption that the has tasted food since, and tonight,
audience has read the story and that
So
of the best interests of the country as
well as jealous of its name and honor
among nations.
J
The magazines of the month of
March arc unusually entertaining.
Because of the universal interest in
Anthony Hope's sequel to the Prisoner
of Zenda now running in MacCIurest
that magazine will probably have the
honor of emerging at the end of the
month with dogs'-eared leaves and
very dirty covers. In spite of the
her, poses her just as she should be.
Yet when I have said that Miss Opp
is clever, I think I have given her
her full mead of praise. What she
does she does well, but I never saw so
good an actress so completely lacking
in the power of suggestion, nor so
continually conscious that she was
acting and acting well. She is self
conscious, but it is a sort of trium
phant self-consciousness which car
ries you with it. 1 kept feeling that
she was just putting up a magnificent
bluff, such a strong one that nobody
dared call her. She is as totally with
out atmosphere and personal magnet
ism as a big scarlet tulip is without
perfume. I doubt if she ever does
better work than she is doing now,
I doubt if she will
more than a big, striking looking
woman, with aggressiveness and self
assurance to burn.
But to return to the "Tree." Belle
quite enjoys the situation created by
the discovery that her sometime an
nex is her husband's "dearest friend."
This is so thoroughly to her taste that
for a time it quite reconciles her to
the monotony of country life. But
seem to be in vomio in mr
York theatres just now. Brian, the
husband, returns and demands the
meaning of this extraordinary scene.
Miss Opp shelters; herself in his pro
tecting arms in the most approved
manner and gasps out: "Don't let
him speak! He will poison your mind
against me, Brian there has been a
shadow between us all these months.
I knew it, but I was helpless. I told
you some of the truth, but not. all.
Do you re-
mem oer?'
"I told you that, before 1 met you,
a thief had stolen from me all that a
woman holds most dear. I told you
so much but no more. 1 didn't tell
you the name of the man."
to me,! now," pants Holl-
"Tell it
ingsworth.
mercy to you,"
'There
is why most of them are a failure.
after an exhausting search for work not for long; she soon feels that her
we must sleep in the station house. talents, which are of a high order, are
"I kept it secret.-in
she says.
"Tell me the man."
"Nigil Stanyon,': she cries,
is the thief! '
You may think that even this play
could not sink any deeper into the
mire of nauseating melodrama than
this but it did. After IXjgii leaves
them Belle twines herself about poor
little Brian, who is shorter than she
111 llfllf n linorl ,! -J .
ever be anything "i , 7 .V i , , ' T ieuuces I1,m wa
striking looking state of abject and maudlin adoration,
men nns mm up With morphine, and
when he is asleep, signals to her lover
and softly and silently elopes! Yes,
just like the unfortunate Bakerman
in the "Hunting of ;the Shark," she
"Softly and sucnUy vanished away
And never was heard of again."
And I don't know; any better reason
than that the shark was a Boojum
like most sharks. '
Xow if you can conceive of anything