THE COURIEK.
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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.
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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
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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
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The second act takes place in Clar
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has served him ever since his old barn
storming days comes in lamenting over
his master's wild ways, and really ap
pearances are rather against Clarence.
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