THE COVI.i.
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5 W I LLA GATHER S
An hour with Minnio Madriorn Fisko
- that is an hour to be singled from
among tbo reHt, an hour touched with
high lights and standing out boldly in
tho long calendar of hours eo gray and
so liko each other. It is an hour epont
in" a poworhouso where great forces nro
gonoratod, nn hour that loaves ono
humbled and exhausted, rather glad to
deecond into tho street and minglo
again with tho common, lazy-going
world, to chat with tho noweboy on tho
corner and to discuss tho weather with
tho street car conductor. For tho most
of U3 cannot livo at whito heut all tho
time, and a very little of that atmos
phere, so Bur-chargod with electric
forces, in which genius live?, makes our
breath coino hard and reminds ub that
wo aro of tho oarth.
I found hei very pale and weary look
ing, but that did not last for long. A
little conversation on tho ono thing on
earth or in heaven that matters to hor,
and tho color glowed in hor cheeks as in
livo coals when you blow upon them.
Sho was attired in sntno sort of a looso
pink arrangomont that caught uud ac
centuated tho colons in that wonderful
Titian hair of hers. Sho was seated at
hor breakfast table, wboro a place was
waiting for mo, and Bhe had a volume
of Browning in her hand, reading while
sho waited. 1 really think I made a
feeble i rowning joko, but I am not
sure. Iho furniture swayed around tho
room in a rather suspicious manner ai.d
on tho whole it was a lather trying mo
ment. Apropos of Browning sho re
marked: "Ho seems to mo tho most
modern and fullgrown of poets. So
many of the others aro boys, curried
away by their own emotions and enam
oured of boyish fancies. But ho has at
taiccd hiB majority, tho mauhood of
poetry. Play Browning? O no, that
would bo midBummor madness. Tho
Queon in "Two in a Balcony" is my
favorite part, but I Bhall never play it in
public. Wo are not so very unaliko,
that queon and J."
Tbo wholo secret of talking to artists,
whether it bo a professional interview or
otherwise, is to enter completely into
their mood, not to ask them to come to
yours; for tho moment to mako their
gods your gods, and to make their lifo
tho most important thirg on oarth to
you. It you ask questions you aro
doomed, moreover, that iB importinent.
But if )ou can stir a little of that en
thuBiusm by which they live, fan a little
that lire which mukeB them great, then
you no longer feel like an intruder, the
hour becomes worth many hours of our
comatose existence, and tho day is mado
memorable.
I saw that, as Bhe spoko. eho glanced
again at the volume in her hand and
hulf opened it. I know that momont
was mine. By tho grace of heavon I
remembered the first few linos of one of
tho Quoon's speeches to Constance:
"O to livo with a thousand
boating hearts
Around you, sorvicoublo hands
Professing they've no caro
but for your cuubp,
And you the marblo statue
all tho time."
Thoro sho caught up tho lineB and
finished thorn. When sho concluded,
hor oyoB woro as bright as tho Queen's,
hor cheeks as hot, that fragile, drooping
littlo figure which lounged back in tho
arm 'aair a momont before, was erect
and tenBO, her llngors trembled as sho
swept the bttir buck from her forohoad,
and I wus to havo an hour, not with tho
tirod woman, but with tho artist. Tho
brilliancy, tho richneFS of tho experionco
I cannot oven suggest. I can ropoat
Homo of her wordB, but tho poreonul
olomont is loBt. The broakfust wus a
name, nothing more. Sho sat besido
tho table rolling tho breadcrumbs up
into little balls and stacking them up
liko rcsorvo ammunition, and talked on
Hiid on in that hard, dry staccato which
can outmatch in its wonderful effects
tho most sonorous elocution. "Of
couiso no ono can uct who htiBti't lived
tremendously; and yet people who act
well can't afford to spend much timo
living. But tho littlo of lifo wo got wo
take vory hard, wo havo hungry palates
and onr tHBto is koon. Tho mcro sug
gestion of an experionco is enough to
mako us realize it fully. This faculty
makes sad havoc of our lives Bometimos
but that doesn't muttor. In fact, tho
work is all that doeB matter. I think
that, wo often livo again momonts of our
own lives on tho ptago, experiences
wholly different from that which wo por
tray, but aliko in kind. Ono hue por
haps at Bomotimo accidentally hurt an
animal, and then ono knows how it
would fool to kill a man, tho nausoa, tho
physical rovulsion which would follow.
Yes, I think wo food our art with every
thing in our lives. Othor thingB come in
for a momont and wo pursuo them and
clutch nt them, but in tho end we como
back, alwuys back, and in ono way and
another our experience colors and en
riches our work. You see tho work is
all, or it is nothing. Ono gives body
and brain and soul,oronoiB a dilettante.
And then thero iB another thing; it
Bounds rather absurd, but I boliovo that
to play well ono must have Buffered,
Sometimes I think thut it was oorrow
which first called any art into being.
Such a statement savors of sentimen
tality when it is mado boldly, but I be
lievo that the trouble with tho work of
half our young players iB that life has
been too easy for them.''
The talk dtifted to tho new play
which Mrs. Fiske is to bring out next
year, tho dramatization of Thackaray's
"Vanity Fair." Tho adaptation is by
Langdon Mitchell, son of Dr. S. Wier
Mitchell, of Philadelphia, tho Hugh
Wynne mun. Mra. Fiske is already
studying her part need I Bay that it is
"Becky Sharp?'' and wilf be hard at it
all summer. In October she will put
tho piece on in Now York, afterward
taking it to Chicago and Boston only.
Tho following summer she will go
abroad to remain ono or perhaps two
season's. The production will be sump
tuously staged and the cast will include
thirty livo people. Tho scenario calls
for five acts, tho ttrst is laid in tho home
of Mrs. Crawley, tho second at the ball
in BruBsolB closing under tho cloud of
tho impending battle. Tho third and
fourth acts take place in the Curzon
street houBO after Becky's marriage with
Rawden Crawley, tho fifth is concerned
with Becky's lifo in PumpernicHe, after
the fall of her fortunes.
"The second act'" said Mrs Fiske" is
ono of the strongest. The scene in which
Becky, who iB quite without irrcsistable
personal charms, makes herself irre6ist
ablo to Georgo by sheer force of will,
BeduceB him by intellect, as it woro, iB a
vory groat opportunity. Throughout
tho wholo novel, Thackeray never allows
you to lose your respect for Becky's
into ligonco for a moment. In a sneak
ing sort of way, you even liko hor, at
least I do. This regard is just what I
shall try to keep for hor. In tho old
English comedioB you are mado to sym
pathize with women who aro "either
virtuouB nor sentimentally naughty, who
nevor deceived ;ho'iiBelves or called their
vices by potty names. Tho eamo thing
can bo dono to day. Sho was a woman
posBOBBod of power, and force is force,
it tells, it moves, it commands irrespec
tive of morality, just as electricity
does."
The hour had passed, and several of
them, and I rose to go looking long at
that strango littlo wiBp of a woman with
tho Titian bair, tho compressed lips, the
searching ayes, and tho bright spot
burning on oithor cheok, upon whose
frail Bhouldors tho hope of our stage so
largoly rests.And tho old question came
back to mo, how long can eo slight a
body onduro tho friction of a mind bo
groat and so incessantly active. When
one thinks of tho red blood that is wast
ed all ovor tho world every day, of the
health and strougth and Btrungtli that
aro squaudorod, ono protests at tho in
justice of it. Ah well, "Other heights
in othor Hvob, God willing," when 1 havo
boon for n littlo whilo with minds liko
that, thon I know that somewhero,
sometimo thero is a resurrection and a
lifo, that nothing can destroy or ontlroly
disintegrato a personality so unique, so
dominating. bo pregnant with power.
What a straugo figure sho ib among
our gay mummkks and masquers, that
pulo, fragile littlo ono with tho thin tier
voub lips, and eyes fixed always upon
tho distance. And life has nover been
oasy for her. No player ovor reBorved a
harder novitiate. Sho began life on tho
stage; she hHS nevor known anything
oUo. Her cradlo was one of the theatre
trunks in her mother's dressing room,
and tho trunk lid wub propped up to
keep the light out of her eyes. But that
wub not for long, she loved that florco
light even as a baby, and could stare at
it without Llinking. Sho whs not un
easy child to taku care of, and as Bhe
was more contented at tho theatre thun
ut tho hotel, hor mother alwuys took her
along. Tho play ground sho loved best
was that dusty green carpet behind tho
footlights. Tbo hurd pitiloes light of
tho calcium wus tbo sunlight of her
childhood, uud in it Bhe shot up as palo
and slender hb a collar grown pluut, and
thiB world grew to bo very real to hor;
tho painteu ekios nnd BoaB and tho can
vaB trees wore to hor what tho real Bkios
and woods aro toother children, and sho
learned to think und dream and live
with them. So from tho first the un
reul waB roulity to hor, and tho lifo of
the imagination her only life. All her
most acuta needs and desires und ex
periences were those of tho imagination.
When sho wus but seven years old sho
was already going with her father's
company, u poor, bedraggled little com
pany of strolling players, wandering
fiom town to town across tbo prairies of
tho blizzard swept west, performing on
tables lashed together in tavern dining
rooms, often stranded and without mon
ey for days together, The child dancod
the highland lling, brought up tie rear
of the Amazon march, played the Duko
of York in "Richard III.," played in
Ten Nights in a Bar Room,"' iu short
went through tbo whole reportorio of irk
some duties attendant on the lower
walks of tho profession she loads today.
When sho was ten she was doing tho
child prodigy with Burry Sullivan in
Now Orlouns, and a sad timo of it tho
poor follow had with her. It took tbo
moBt persistent coaxing to make her
learn hor linos, as she always insisted
that Bhe could improvise somothing.quite
as good, and held the text of the play
wright in utter contempt. Even in
Shukesperian plays she frequently im
provised in blank verso to tho astonish
montof tho audionco and tbo utter con
founding of her follow players. One
night she was cast for the apparition
which bids Macbeth be ''lion mettled,"
and tho appearance of this funny littlo
ghost in a white night-gown sent the
audience into a convulsion of laughter.
Then came the long, hard, hopeless
hopeless year of wandering about the
frontier, starving in cheap tnelo dramas,
living at cheap botelB, in the compan
ionship of cheap people. She played
only soubrette parts and she did not
play them remarkably well. Sho was
poor, unknown, unnoticed, nnattraclive.
"Tees of the d'Ubervillos" had not been
written then, Ibsen had not been trans
lated into English. What noble faith,
what miracle of hopo supported her in a
struggle which seemed eo hopeless?
When sho was fifteen she was married
to Legrand Whito, un xylophone soloist
she met somewhere in the west. It
seems that the FuteB have a senso of
humor after all.
Her Now York debut was no moro
successful than hor western starving
ventures. She appeared in a soubrette
part in a wretched play. Fogg's Ferry,"
and played it indifferently. Then sho
married Harrison Gray Fisko, editor of
tho Dramatic Mirror, and woary, dis
heartened, disgusted, sho left the stage,
Baying that ebo was loaving it forever.
Then came nearly six years of retire
ment, recuperation, ceaseless and tire
less study. It was during tboso years
that she found herself, found within her
own breast tho power she had thirsted
und starved for. When she came back
upon us, it waB liko the coming of a
storm. So great a reputation wus novet
built so quickly. Since then her career,
covering lees than five years, has beou
one of constant triumph, her talent tho
moBt conspicuous und the most hopeful
on the American fctago. Who has u bet
tor right to say that to be groat, one
must have suffered?
Pittbjiurci, Pa.
''HIIIIMIIIIIMIIIIIH
LtlBS-
l.OWIHA I, HIOKKTTH.
I
WHAT CAN THE LIBRARY DO FOR
TUB WOMAN'S OLUB?
As libraries in difforontflaccs vary so
much in tho ground covered by thoir
work, and in thoir resources and in
torostfi, it has sr emed best to conflno tho
dlscusBion to some of tho problems wo
havo boon trying to salvo in Omaha.
l'or while visiting in and noar Chicago
rooontly it was impiops-d upon mo that
ouch library has after all quostionB no
culiur to itsollf thut uiixt hi worked out
according to locul conditions, for in
Btanco, I saw in two libraries -separated
by only twonty-flvo miles of suburban
railway two ontiroly different systems,
each oporating to all uppoarancos suc
cessful in its own field. Neither of
thorn could bo poBeiblo in the similar
institutions of our own Btuto. And
einooitis in tho interests of our own
librariopand clubs that wo are working,
lot ub without any appoaraneo of vanitj.
relate our experiences in tho efort to
bring tbo two into closo and mutually
helpful relation. In bringing about this
reBult.tt sof primary importance that the
public library bo mado tho workshop,
not alono of tho Woman's club, but of
ovory study and dobating club, literary
society and university oxtenBion class in
tho community. To accomplish this is
not easy, tho' it may reasonably soom
so. lor tho library whi.m is fortunato
enough to havg a lecture room or large
committee room, tho difllculty is not so
groat. Clubs of varying interests may
thon bo invited to make tho library L
mooting place and whon onco tho mj.
ing public has formod tho hRbit oft
ing in at her doorB, tho librarian has it
in her power to mako tho atmosphere of
intelligent helpfulness felt and an
predated. l
Tho taxpayer (and his namo is leaionl
who has never been inside the buildinir
before is called to attend a meeting in
tho lecture room. Ho arrives ten rain
utes too early and drifting into the cir
cu lating department nonchalantly in.
quiring about tho rules for borrowing
books, remarking that ho would some
times like to read up a littlo when he
has to give a talk b-foro a clab or some
thing of hat sort, but then ho never
"happens" to huvo a card to use. The
quick-witted attendant will see hor on
portunity and assure him that eho will
gludly lay any number of books before
him for consultation in tho reference
room at any timo. This is a new idea to
your "First Citizen; and the next morn
ing his daughter will come in and ask if
you have "any books on music," she ie
to read a paper before the musical de
partmont of the club and "Papa mIH
why didn't shego to the library and Ob
if she could get any help there." She
and more especially her mother, who
cornea next week for something on
Alaskan missions, must have erorythinir
mudo easy for thtm the first time-the"
will dislike the formality of looking thro'
catHlogsand mdlcee, signing the insin
uating oference slip, and waiting in
turn at the deak. But remember, they
are forming the insidious "library habit."
and before long the bright young worn
an and her mother will become ac
customed to the rules and learn to help
themselves. '
It is a beginning of mutual benefit for
tho librarian to joiu local clubs, where it
:s possible, and so to come into persona!
contact with the townspeople. If. in
hr relations with these club, she dis
plays proper willingnesa, she will in
evitably be cboBon chairman of the com
mittoo for suggesting courses of study
and preparing outline?, and lo! another
opportunity. She calls in the members
or her comm ttee and opens to them new
possibilities by showing them her tools
and how to use them. For of course
our model lioruriun, or reference atton
dant as tho case may be, is well equip'
pod with bibliographies, best book lists,
handbooks of history, literature and art,
as well ub outlines and club programs
tied in previous years, and reading lists
clipped from periodicals. By bio
graphies I mean rather the helpful notes
and essays that appear frequently in
library bulletins, than more exhaustive
and pretentious works of that kind. At
this point the matter ontera her peculiar
province of helpfulness. With her
thorough knowledged of the material
required by the club for ita course of
study, she glances over the amount of
material already on her shelves, and,
making a careful study of the Data I
have mentioned, orders at once the books
Contiauad on page 6.
