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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1899)
THE COURIER. noxt twonty-Uve years will toll tho samo Btory. Thoy have tho contidenco of tho pooplo bocmiBO thoy deserve thoir conlldonco, and tho good citizen of tho republic must givo thorn trust and sup port. For it i in tho university at InBt tho history of domocracy must bo written." MOMMMMMI WMOOOMMMMMIMM I THE RECRUIT. Sez Corporal Madden to Private McFadden: "Be gob, ye're a bad 'un: Now turn out yer toes! Yer belt is unhookit, Ver cap is on crookit, Ye may not be dhrunk, But, be jabers, ye look it! Wan-twol Wan twol Ye monkey-faced divil, I'll jolly ye through' Wan two! Time! Mark. Ye march like the aigle in Cintheral Park' Sez Corporal Madden to Private Mc Fadden: "A saint it ud sadden, To dhrill such a mug! Eyes front! ye baboon, ye! Chin up! - ye gossoon, ye! Ye've jaws like a goat Halt: yc leathered-lipped lo.n, ye! Wan -two! Wan -two! Ye whiskered oran-ou-tang, I'll fix you Wan -two! Time! Mark. Ye've eyes like a bat? can ye see in the dark?" Sez Corporal madden to Private McFadden: "Yer figger wants padd'n' Sure man, ye've no shape! Behind ye your shoulders Stick out like two boulders; Yer shins is as thin As a pair of pen-holders: Wan Two! Wan Two! Yer belly belongs on yer back, ye Jew! Wan Two! Time! Mark. I'm dhry asa dog, I can't shpake but I bark!" Sez Corporal Madden to Private McFadden: ''Me heart it ud gladden To blacken yer eye, Yer gettin' too bold, ye Compel me to scold ye 'Tis a that I say, 117 ye heed what I tola ye? Wan-Two! Wan Two! Be jabsrs, I'm dhryer than Brian Boru! Wan Two! Time! Mark! What's wur-ruk for chickens is sport for the lark!" Sez Corporal Madden to Private McFadden; "I'll not stay a gaddV Wid dagoes like you! I'll travel no farther, I'm dyin' for watherj Come on, if ye like, Can ye loan me a quarther? Ya as, you, W hat-Two? And yell pay the potheen? Yer a daisy! Whurroo! Ye'll do! -Whist -Mark, The Regiment's flattered to own ye, me spark!" Robert W. Chambers. C J The most quiet home like place in the city. J J Just the place for V Ladies and Families. f7 Every thing- first-class i m MEALS 15c A TICKETS $2.50. A L L.C.Holaday,Prop'r., 3J6SoJ2. y : THE passing show: I W I LLA GATHER f Ono of the moBt intoropting and ar tistic porformancoB I saw at tho theatro last winter was Olga Nothereolo's pro duction of "Tho Socond Mrs. Tanquo ray." In tho first placo, it is a great piny, tho greatest play written in tho. English tonguo for many n long day. I suppoeo thoro is no quoBtion that Arthur W. Pinoro is tho first living English playwright. For many yoars an actor liitnBolf, ho knowB all tho limitations, requisites and possibilities of tho stugo, and ho novor writes a play that is not an acting play. Ho roalizes what a dis tinct form of litoraturo tho drntna is, and ho makes no endoavor to distort it from its original purpose. Ho is a con summate artist, and he knows a groat doal about life. Ho is not deep, ho mnkos no rovolatioLs, but hoissubtilo and ho knows tho tricks of his trado. Ho has an unusually light touch for an Englishman, juBt a spico of Congrove, and ho has written some of tho moBt de lightful of farces, of which "The Amazons" is probably host known in this country. But in tho prosontution of Paula Tanqueray ho Iiub turned to more serious things. Of courso the play is a "poLlem play" which every play is at tho bottom. It is tho old question "Oamillo" and her past treated more candidly and honestly, if less brilliantly, than Dumas treated it. Now here is a woman who bad much bad and much good in her. She bad live a bad life and honestly wanted to quit it. She tries with all her Btrength, and she has a good man to help her. How far will she bo able to do it? Tho first act transpires in Aubrey Tanqueray's rooms in London. Aubrey is a big, kind, soft man and everyone calls him Aubroy. Ho, is a widower with a grown daughter who iBvery pious and has contemplate d entoring a con. vent. Aubrey is a typical English coun try gentleman, intensely domestic, some what stolid, and withal a good fellow. For some inexplicable reason, be loveB Paula Tanqueray, a woman of many en tanglements, and has resolved to marry and domesticate her. I fancy it was Paula's brilliancy quite as much hb her beauty that fascinated him, for Aubrey muBt have been a good deal of a bore, even to himself. The first act is light and brisk. Aubrey has a little dinner for some men and announces to them bis prospective marriage. They receive the news awkardly enough, but Aubrey is pretty brave about it. After the iuen have gone Paula cornea in. He chides her for coming to him at eleven o'clock at night, but she tells him that her cook has left her and she wants some of his dinner. She pretends to be a little suspicious about who his guests have boon, not that she really careB, but it II litters him. Miss Nethersole leans back in her chair, takes up a bunch of grapes and tearing them off with her teeth says delightedly, "What beautifu fruit! I love fruit when it's expensive." Poor Paula; that was her history in a nutshell. She had got into the way of liking only things that, in one way or another, cost exorbitantly. For a long time she deluded herself into the belief that she could make men pay for them, only to come at last to tho bitter knowl edge that wo must pay for everything ouisolves, and the longor tho settlement is deferred, the heavier tho interest By the end of the act ono sees Paula's at titudo toward Tanqueray pretty clearly. Sho is not at all in love with him, but she likes bim immeceely and thinks she will like bis kind of life. Instead of despising hi'ii for his good heart, sho rather respocts him for it. Gonerosity wne nono too common in bor world. Sho is pretty woll tired out by tho paco sho has sot for horsolf, and bIio finds hie kindness restful. It takes hor away from herself. Then, abovo all, she has that road craving for respectability common to women of hor class. She in tired of tho Bneer and tho "terrible, terriblo laughter of tho world." Sho wants to be lifted above it, to commund roBpoct, to enter gentlewomen's bouses to got ovon. Tho socond act is laid in tho breakfast room of Aubroy 'a country houso in Sur rey. Thov nro soatod at tho tablo. Aubroy is full fod, and bonmlng with domestic hnppinoFB. Ho is roading his mail. Paula 1b rather curolorisly dressed in a looso broakfast gown. Sho is lean ing back listlessly in hor chair. A coffoo cup is half raised tc bor lips. She forgets to drink and aits thoro holding it while tho clock ticks on" tho slow minutos that nro all just al'ko. Upon hor faco is tho weariness of a thousand years of virtue. I have novor soon ennui so perfectly exprossod ub Miss Nethersolo expressed it in that long, heavy silonco. Finally Aubroy looks up with his nico, good naturod smilo. Aubroy "Sunshino! Spring!' Paula glancing at tho clock ''Ex actly six minutes." Aubrey "Six minutoB?" Paula "Six miputoe, Aubrey dear, sincoyou mado your last remark.'' Theso dear people thought they had a life time of things to toll each other, but before thoy have beon married a year, their remarks aro six minutes apart, Paula is bored to extinction, she is not willing to piy the price of respectability, and ahe is unable to ordure tho stupidity of respectable people. She has not thn slightest desire to return to hor old life, but she !b frantic from he monotony of her present one. She is furiously jealous of Aubrey's affection for bis piouB young daughter, Elloan, and exasperated and hurt by Elloan's coldness toward her. Elloan haB from the first felt instinc tively that there is something wrong ubout hor Btepmotbor, and has repulsed her. Paula fancies that if only she could get this chilly little primrose of a girl to trust her, it would some how come out all right. Sho sayB to Ellean; "afow years ago I went through a great trouble. Since then I haven't Bhed a tear. I believe if you should put your arms around me once I should run up stairs and have a good cry." But she might as well have talked to an ice berg. A respectable lady comes to call, and to apologize for not having called before. Paula treats her with the most atrocious impudence. It ia arranged that Ellean shall go to PariB with this respectable person. Paula is cut to the quick at Ellean's being sent away from her, and insits upon inviting some of the gay people of her old world down to see hor. Aubrey refuses to permit it, and the act ends in a domestic thunder storm. "Be careful what you say to me now," says Paula, "I have only felt like this once before in my life, bo careful what you eay to me!" In the third act the gay pooplo have come, and Paula loathes them even more than she does the respectable people. Sho hates their slang, their bad manner and bad grammar, their loud clotbos and tho porfumes they ueo. She has good taste and she likos tho clean, orderly surroundings of her new life, thoy ht.ve become necessary to her. Sho wants the good manners of one world and the excitement of another, and she belongs to neither. Sho has been a part of the show so long that ahe cannot now bo merely a spectator, and yet a whiff of the old life makes he,r faint. But tho needs which that life had created in her rre still there. A nan trained to absinthe cannot quench his thirst with water. Sho Bits at tho piano playing and muttoring to ono of tho mon of tho old days of freedom and oxcltomont. Suddenly Ellean returns from Parle, bringing with her a certain Captain Ardale with whom sho has fallen in lovo. Her lovo haB molted her and sho come to toll Paula about it. At last sho throws hor arniB about Paula's nock and Paula eayp, "Ah, I shall sloop tonight!" Sho thinks sho has it ut last, this confldonce, this some thing which will nuke a change in hor, kill tho unrest, slake the thirst, satisfy and in alio hor good indood. Alna! poor Paula! It would bavo mado no dif foronco, it would havo choatod hor as did everything olso, but it was tho ono thing untried and sho could not but boliovo tbat thoro wiib holp and wholo somonoBB and poaco for hor somowhoro. Captain Hugh Ardulo comes in, Paula utters a cry and Bonds Elloan away. Tboy both wander up and down the room muttoring bolploBsly. Tho hor ror of tho situation completely upsets them. Tho dialogue Ib short, sharp, broken, incoherent and masterly. Paula', "Oh, oh! What happenod to that Hat of ours in Etholbert st root?" Hugh', "I lot it." Paula; "And all that pretty furniture?" Hunh; "Sold it." Paula', "I came across tho koy in an old puree tho othor day. What am I maundering about?" Hugh; "For Qod's sako be quiot and lot mo think!" Paula; (,You you beast to crop up in my life again like this!" He goes out and Paula Bits staring at hor face in a band mirror. , Whatever sho is, Paula is neither a coward nor a liar. She ia not a woman of petty faults. Throughout the whole play she novor dissimulates ono moment Sho does not even lie to herself. Sho told Aubrey who and what eho was to start with, and now she sends foe him again. She says to him: "Woll -why don't you striko me? Hit mo in tbo faco, I'd rather you did! Hurt mo! Hurt mo!" If Aubrey had beaten her like a nav vy with his fists then and there thoro would have boon no suicide at tbo end, of the play. It would have let her nerves down, put the whole thing on a lower commoner basis whera she could have grappled with it. But he gave her only his cruel forgiveness, and she said once again to Lim in tbat old grateful, af fectionate, brave way, "you'll do your best, O I know that, for you're a good fellow." In talking of the play with me, Mies Nethersole said she thought Aubrey must have been mighty good to Paula in the old days sometime, that in spite of hiB ttupidity she felt such a loyal and lasting gratitude toward him. She was always square with Aubroy, sho liked him. Aubrey proposes tbat they go off somewhere on the continent and begin it all over again, he Bays the world isn't so small "It isn't", says Paula "but tho greatest distances it contains ara those we carry within ourselves. Of course I'm pretty now, I'm pretty still, and a pretty woman, whatever else sho may bo, is always well, endurable. But even now I notice tbat my face is cov ered with little shadows that used not to be there, and when I have not one ser vicable little bit of prettiness left to de fend myself with, you'll sicken at me." She goes out crying "Oh! and I wanted so much to sleep tonight!" As tbat black drees vanishes through the portiorre, you know tbat she will sleep. The pistol shot surprises no one. When the nerves are over driven to a certain point, chat must come, at least with a fearless woman like Paula. Had Paula Tanqueray been a thor oughly bad woman, there would have Coatinuod on page ),
