VOL. XIV., NO. XL.
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s
U
1
g OBSERVATION,
Theatrical.
One of the best companies that ever
played in Lincoln, appeared at the
Oliver last Friday night Yet the
play was so worthless, so unworthy of
the attention of a people who have
. undertaken.to clvjllze tribes in the
orient, that the Buaall audience was
not altogether undeserved.
George Boniface," Bertha1' Waltzln
gcr, Kathryn' Osterman, Stephen
Maley and the other first class actors
who, form the "Dear Old Charley"
company, would make more money
with a better play. Families and
fathers of families, voung men with
sweat hearts whom they revere and
high-minded people in general with a
love for the drama are the main sup
port of the theatre. Any manager of
experience will confess that it in the
respectable people that support his
theatre. The crowd ot men and boys
who come in and go out in bunches,
who nudge each other or laugh when
the dialogue or situation is riaqui con
tribute only incidentally to the in
come of the theatres The respect
able people who patronized the "Dear
Old Charloy'' company wero attracted
by the names of the actors who form
ed the caste. And in the conscien
tious finish of the performance they
wero not disappointed. But "Dear
Old Charley" will never draw them
again. Neither they nor their wives
nor their son's wives will recommend
it to tlielr friends. And as every
body Is an oraclo to somebody it fol
lows that the play outside of New
York which has cultivated a morbid
dramatic taste will not play, to ex
ceptionally good business, such as the
quality of the inspiration and culture dlences of New York and has pleaded
of 'the company fully, warrants. them, the oecoud .season it is started
The Dreyfus trial and conviction is out on the road with Its last year's
only a Judicial evidence of the degen- costumes slightly soiled, to play the
eratlon of the French people. French country people. It Is a pity that .the
literature and drama have testified' to
the decayed fibre of the race for many
years. The birth irate "which only
balances the death rate might have
been as accurately predicted from an
examination of the literature as from
the books of the supervisor of the
census. Whatever charge of gaucherie
may be made against American and
English writers, the good red blood, of
a healthy race is apparent in the
typical writings of either of these
countries. Of course there are nar
row faced writers in America who
can pick out'a color by its odor and
who criticise a sonata for its bad
drawing and bad perspective and in
England there are Oscar Wilde and
Richard Le Gallienne whose poses are
French and whose preciosity will for
ever preserve them from the promts
cutty they dread. These precious
people either in England or America
do not affect the conclusion. Hardy,
Kipling, Doyle, Hope in England and
Joel Chandler Harris, Mark Twain,
Mary E. Wilklns and Aldrich in
metropolitan audience Is nut a better
indication of the taste of the country
people who like to go to the theatre.
It is a pity because of, the talopted
companies which play to small busi
ness and on acconnt of the country
people. The former are discouraged
by the small business and the latter
by the bad play.
Ta Carter Cast.
Upon thn advice ot Attorney Gen
eral Griggs, President McKinley has
formally approved the sentence of the
Court-Martial which tried Captain
Oberlin M. Carter, corps of engineers
U. S. A. The five thousand dollar
fine is the lightest part of the sen
tence Five years imprisonment In a
penitentiary and the degradation
which Is involved in the publication
of the sentence in the papers of the
locality in which Carter lived an well
as his loss of rank in the army, are the
severe parts of the sentence. Law
yers for the defense claim Carter's
innocence with apparent conviction.
America, do a6t 8owlhcolors-sjfcusiczaf be ia-Jnaoeeat tba -walbjuaocy of
nor hear pictures. The people of
England and of America read their
books and accept the types they find
in the books as genuine. Well they
may for the authors take them di
rectly from models and the models
recognizing what is characteristic,
strive to make the type. more perfect.,
Mr. Howclls arid Mr. James are pur
posely omitted from this short list,
because although the former is un
questionably the first living Ameri
can novelist, it is bis reputation
rather than his contempoary perfor
mancethatis notable. Mr. 116 wells
and Mr, James'lhave become too cos
mopolitan to serve as 'examples of punishment
either English or American authors, court."
Their tragedies and evolutions are
tragedies and evolutions of the soul
and newspaper comment is too
material to deal with their volatile
and impalpable butterfly agonies.
The moral of all this is that Eng
lish and American readers and play
goers are not precious. They have
not mush taste, literary or dramatic.
They laugh at what an artist knows
is pathos, and they applaud bombas
tic and sophomoric periods Never
theless they know right from wrong,
white from black and decay from life.
Their ideals are keeping the birth
fate towards him is Incredible. He
was tried by a jury composed of his
brother officers. The jealousy with
which army officers protect a .brother
officer's fame and the solid frono they
exhibit towards civilians and civilian
criticism is familiar to everyone who
has had any experience of military
life. But the officers of tho jury con
victed Carter of misappropriating
funds as charged in the, indictment.
It is estimated that, at least forty
men all officers of the army reviewed
the verdict and their judgement like
that of Attorney General Griggs was,
"Carter is guilty and deserves the
recommended by the
Then the friends of Carter are
among the most influential men sur
rounding President McKinley and
doing business in New York City.
They havo done what they culd for
Carter from tho first. Some of these
friends are Senators Hanna, Piatt,
Depew, Quay and Sewell, and former
Secretary of State, John Sherman.
Yet in spite of these influences the
President confirmed the sentenco of
court-martial.
Carter is not a Jew, he is not poor,
lie has not been persecuted. He has
had the use of plenty of money and
rate far ahead of the death rate; it is numerous rich and powerful friends,
the difference In ideals which makes
the difference between American sea
men and the. Spanish, between tho
American courts and the French.
New York has transplanted tho
French drama." But New York is not
an American city. Unfortunately the
who have interceded lor mm con
stantly. That their prayers, and
money and influence failed to induce
the President to set aside, the verdict
Indicates that the testimony against
him was convincing, if not Infallible.
The newspaper ruse of attempting
good companies start from New York to confound the case with that of
and, play whatever the manager Dreyfus was palpably an attempt to
"selects. When a play has been tried divert the universal' American sym
upon the French, "Portugee,' Spanish, pathy for Dreyfus Into sympathy for
itallan, English and American au Carter. Only the most slavish re
publican organs attempted to fuse the
popular feeling into pity for Cartor,
but the attempt has failed. Presi
dent McKinley might have been sure
that the enfranchised press of this
country was willing to take the word
of the officers who tried Carter and of
the forty other officers to whom the
President submitted the' papers In
his case. A pardon or refusal to c6n
firm the court-raartlal's verdict would
have placed the president in an awk
ward position before the people of the
country, whose verdict he," himself
will be listening for before long.
And the President has been president
long enough to find out that even
Senator Hanna's displeasure has only
a limited influence. He has begun to
realize the area of the United States,
and the millions of people which are
plowing It, driving engines across it,
digging holes in It and building cities
on it. Nothing Is more interesting to
watch than the gradual diminution
of a great man in the eyes of a man
whom the great man thinks he has
created. The President has found
himself and realized the comparative
insignificance of Senator Hanna and
his lack of popularity in the United
States. For this reason and because
the president Js-teachable,.he is likely
to make better appointments and rule
with more confidence in his second
term. His action in the Carter case
and his disregard of the gentlemen
who have faithfully tried to cultivate
gratitude in the President to their
own aggrandizement, are indications
of his awakening to the largeness of
the country and the comparative in
significance of Senator Hanna and
even of Wall Street.
. Tie Honorable MisMcvy Amu
In-full she styles herself the Honor
able Minervy Ann Perdue. She has
been brought to life by Joel Chandler
Harris and I know of nobody In maga
zine or book so Interesting, so viva
cious, so capable of making her. re
citals transpire as she ta'ks. The
vitascope with its sound, of wheels
and Its glittering, constant vlbratlcn
is still a machine and the features of
the men and women who pose for it or
fight before it are undlstlnguishable.
Mr. Harris' Minervy Ann is a loyal,
clever, old negro woman, whose .de
ductions are faultless, from premises
as indisputable as Aristotle's, And
since Aristotle, or at least since
Shakspere no more -.learned or correct
observations of human nature have
been made than thoso recorded 'of
Minervy Ann Perdue by Mr. Harris.
The construction is so skillfully hid
den it is as though we were listening
to her ourselves, so well does 'the
author understand "that he who
would be first shall be last." ;in
these chronicles, Mr. Harris himself
is entirely obscured. It is only when
we reflect on the naturalness and
actualness of the character that ' we
are aware of the extent of our debt; to
the author. Then we know It Is only
because he holds the glass to our eyes
i
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