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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1898)
THE COURIEK. 3 T-,i ..' r V c p f 4 6' United States wishes Cuba.. The Pearl of the Antilles annexed to the Union would supply the United States with sugar and in time would deprive Prance and Germany of the English market. The Americans pretend that simply in the nalne of humanity and liberty they take the part of the Cubans. One must needs be very naif in order to believe them willing to declare war merely from a chivalrous point of view. Certainly this generosity is not in keeping with their character. They are interested in Cuban atTairs solely as a business transaction into which enter strongly the elements of tiHi bustering." This article is mild indeed in com parison to some with which the French have delighted to 'ionor us. Imbued with ideas of the Anglo-Saxon versus the Latin it is utterly impossi ble for them to look upom Cuban affairs in an unprejudiced manner. OIMMMHMO0 0OIQMMMMMIMIHMMIMMMMMMMIHMIIIMIIHMM f. A PRAIRIE PASTEL. Across the level prairies, faint at first As tint of opal, creeps a tinge of green That overcomes at last ' the gray and brows, As tides, the sands that gird the ocean's sheen. And ever as the verdant tide moves on The bending skies grow softer overhead, And near the shallow stream that flows thro' sand The stunted willow lifts its lance of red. On broken gum-weeds sings the meadowlark, His song seems calling to the stirring earth To loosen from their prison in the mold The prairie'ilowers that decked the spring babe's birth. And now and then a. sonorous call comes down From out the sun-kissed air, as northward fly The wild geese in an arrow huge and black, The only shade against the azure sky. The shimmering sunshine floods the earth and sky As with a bath of gold; the fight winds lift The fragrance of the grass and bear it far To some bare land and leave their precious gift. As far as eye can reach, the level land, Its floor unbroken by a rift or seam, Outstretches till it meets the curving sky A world as fair as ever graced a dream. William Reed Dunroy. NEW TOURIST CARLINE. Weekly Personally Conducted Excur siona to Portland, Ore., via Burlington Route. On February 17 and every Thursday thereafter at 610 p. m. Pullman tourist sleepers in charge of our own excursion conductor are scheduled to leave Lin coln for Portland, via Denver, Leadville, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Oregon Short Line, passing through the grand est scenery of the Rockies and stopping several hours at Salt Lake City to allow a visit at many points of interest there. Berths, tickets and full information may b9 obtained at B. & M. depot or city ticket office, corner Tenth and O. Geo. W. Bojjheia, C. P. & T. A. i The Passing Show. WILLA CATHER. ! "In my mad youth when George the Third was king." Don Juan. I know of no art product in which the atmosphere, customs, society, sentiment of an historical period are more perfect ly and evenly and unobtrusively repro duced than are those of the Georgian period in Charles Cogblan's play, "The jtOtMlllimiHHIMUMMMMMIIIIIMIIW Bottles and glasses ate the articles most in evidence. One gentleman it stretched out on the table and another reposes under it. Clarence himself is lying on a couch at the rear of the stage, his muddy boots on and his linen crumpled and stained with wine. The dresser gets rid of the guests and proceeds to waken Royal Box." The play is, like most of our plays, an Vadaptation from the Freccb," but this time tt is a French play of English life, Dumas' "Edmond Kean." In his adaptation Mr. Coghlan has unfortunately weakened the love story, which is none too fervid in the original, but he has given the play some thing that Dumas never did atmos phere, that rare and elusive quality, that volatile, indefinable something which gives one the actual impression ofa given time and society. There are few plate which so deserve success. The irten3ely dramatic situations which the elder Dumas knew so well how to con struct almost insure the popularity of the piece with the masses, and to this dramatic potency Mr. Coghlan has added Clarence, who rubs his eyes and mutters: "I say, is my act called?" The dresser begins lecturing him on the error of his ways and Clarence puts his hand up to his head, one of those excrutiating "next morning heads," and promisee to do bet ter. The son of his first manager with whom he used to do an egg dance comes in with a hard luck story and asks Ch r ence to stand god father to his father's thirteenth Eon. Clarence promises to give a benefit which will net funds enough to bring up the whole thirteen. Then Ceha Pryce the part is charming ly played by Miss Grace Filkins enters and announces that she has determined to become an actress rather than marry her distasteful suitor, Then follows Mr. Coghlan's magnificent speech, the mat- week? O you could live on that, per haps ! But the dresses? O you must be well dressed, or no manager would look at you. 01 course there are plenty of young men who would gladly supply the dresses, but I I scarcely think their conditions would be acceptable to you. There, do not be angry, you said I might peak frankly. And the manager, good hearted fellow, bo genial, so cordial at first. He will soon find you cold, mechanical, unemotional, unle3s you take pains to convince him to the con trary. And your rivals. Have you con sidered that on the stage our friends are our rivals, and that those who smile and drink with us are those who grudge us every good fortune and rejoice in our every ill? " The cool malignance of that man Coghlan is beyond belief, yet I think any actor worth the name would forgive him the slander for the sake of his elocu tion. He infuses light and shade, vital ity and color into every line he ep?aka. Miss Pryce throws out her hands to him with a gesture supremely generous and womanly and says: "If a woman young and rich were to say to you, 'Here, take all I have, leave this profession which humiliates you and be happy ?,! Clarence starts toihis. feet: "Leave the stage? The stage? Leave Green and Mellville to reign while I am for gotten? Impossible! I wonder if the world can ever know what a shirt of a fine literary quality and keen intellec- ter of which ladies and gentlemen of NeMU8 u .g thgt we actora wean It tual interest. It is not really an emo tional play any more than Mr. Coghlan is really an emotional actor; like him it is thoroughly intellectual and always eminently artistic. his profession naturally find objection able. Though the conditions of the dramatic profession have changed for the better since the times of the George's the public is Etill ever ready to calumoi. ate those who follow it, and that speech is certainly indiscreet and in rather questionable taste. I wonder that a man who has a sister and daughter and sev eral wives on the stago should consent to speak such lines, yet I though he de livered them with a sort of bitter relish. "Pray let me speak frankly, my dear young lady. Have you considered that even should you be so fortunate as to take some manager's eye, you would earn at first no more than a pound a The first act of the play takes place in the reception room of the Swedish em bassy, where some dear lady friend is twitt ng the Countess Felson the am bassador's wife about her affection for the actor James Clarence. Jn the mid dle of this interesting conversation Count Felsen an, the Prince of Wales enter. Such a prince! Why the ghosts of the Hanoverian kings rise up before jou. He is the sturdy Black Forester with the sort of heavy, brutal good looks mat an iuo piiiii.es ui mai uuuee, uvea j Mill IMII doxn to theprisent one, have possessed, t .as soon as no naa saiuieu ine laoies, me 'first gentleman of Europe" of course begins talking scandal. Miss Celia Prjse, a young heiress, has runaway from the stupid lord she was abcut to marry and fled for help to the actor Clarence. .The prince implies that she is probably still with Clarence when the actor himseif is announced. I must con fess that Coghlan's appearance was at first a nainf ui shock. Why he is an old man and he is Etill r the years which give a man no right to be old. He has the haggard, tired face of a man who has let life get the better of him. His teeth are gone and his enunciation has a looseness that makes him seem older than Jefferson. One thing he has retained, his magnificent figure; gener ous, shapely and vigorous, the like of which is not to be seen anywhere on our stage today. Clarence explains that the purpose of his visit is to contradict the gossip about Miss Pryse. The young lad is not with him and he wishes to show the CountesB Felsen the letter he-received from the young lady and to ask her to publicly testify to its innocent character. The Countess read the letter, and on turning the page finds a love letter from Clarence to herself, asking her to meet him at the theater and telling her of a private door to his dressing room. tortures us beyond bearing, yet when we try to tear it from ub, it tears away the flesh of our bodies. Ah no, the feet that have once presred that burning path must tread it to the end, and when we die, we must die like Moliere, with the echo of the applause speeding our departing spirit. The third act does very little but fur ther develop the character of the fascin ating Clarence. Indeed the whole play does little more than that. I'never saw so omni-present a character. Hamlet does not more completely dominate the play which bears his name than does HIIIHIIIHIMIHHHIIIIIMIIIHIHHMI We Have the Finest Carriage Repository in the State. 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