THE COURIER.
Y
life without his knowledge, loved his
very uncoiuliness, and now sees at
last another woman brought into the
place denied to her, and makes
ominous prophecies of this union.
When Giovanni reproaches uer with
her "old bitterness," she breaks out,
in a passage of remarkable beauty
and power, the like of which no other
living Englishman could do.
"Bitterness am I bitter? Strange, O
strange!
How else ? My husband dead and child
less left,
My thwarted woman thoughts have in
ward turned,
And that vain milk like add in me eats.
Have I not in my thought trained little
feet
To venture, and taught little lips to
move
Until they shaped the wonder of a word?
I am long practised. O those children,
mine!
Mine doubly mine: and yet I cannot
touch them,
I cannot see them, hear them Does great
God
' Expect I shall clasp air and kiss the wind
For ever ? And the budding Cometh on,
The burgeoning, the cruel flowering:
At night the quickening splash of rain, at
dawn
That muffled call of birds how like to
babes;
And I amid these sights and sounds must
starve
I, with so much to give, perish of thrift!
Omitted by His casual dew!"
This is, on the whole, the noblest of
the many tine passages in the play,
and at tirst glance it might seem
strange that it is given to one of the
unimportant characters. Unimpor
tant? no, there is the error of mod
ern taste and tradition. Here again
Mr. Phillips' Greek manner is ap
parent. Lucrezia, though she is
nothing in herself, is everything in
the drama. It is she who betrays to
Giovanni the love or bis brother for
his wife. This dark, disappointed
woman is the embodiment of fate,
she is to the play what the chorus was
in the Greek tragedies.
In the second act Giovanni goes to
an apothecary to get a love potion to
give his wife, and hears Paola who
comes for poison, confess his love for
Francesca and his determination to
die.
In the third act Paola goes to walk
in the garden outside Francesca's
window. She has been unable to
sleep from loneliness and comes out,
book in hand. They sit down under
the vines to read the story of Lan
celot and Guinevere, and the scene
which precedes the kiss is one of ex
quisite beauty, suggestion and repres
sion. It has been a long time since
anything so simple, so impassioned,
so pitiful has been done in English
verse.
In the last, act Francesca, overcome
by the nameless powers that have
laid hold on her soul, afraid of her
self, tlees to Lucrezia with
"O woman, woman, take me to you and
hold me!"
and then Lucrezia, out of her great
pity feels that at last her maternity
has come to her and catching the girl
to her breast cries
"Close!
I hold you dose: it was not all in vain,
The holy babble and pillow kissed all
oer!
O my embodied dream with eyes and
hair!
Visible aspirations with soft hands;
Tangible vision! ....
And now I have concaved and have
brought forth;
And I exult in front of the great sun:
And I laugh out with riches in my lap!"
But it is too late to turn back the
purposes of destiny. Francesca again
encounters Paola, after a scene which
must be read to be understood and
which is above any description in
prose, they go out together, drawn,
Paola says, by the same power that
draws the tides to the moon and
holds the star dust together. The
tragedy occurs off the stage, in the
Greek manner, and the two bodies
are brought in on a bier.
Mr. Phillips has written a dramatic
poem of great beauty, but it docs not,
I think, till all the requirements of a
great play, and it is too early to as
sert that he is one of the men who
writes for all time. A dearth of
great poetry has blunted the edge of
criticism. This play is in no respect
equal to "A Blot on the Scutcheon"
for instance. The most beautiful
phrasing, the most fervid language,
the most delicate fancy cannot in
themselves make a great drama.
Certainly a man who can say:
The Carnegie Institute of Pittsburg.
In the sixties Pittsburg was just bo
ginning to acquire fame as an iron man
ufacturing center, lis only claimant
to fame, aside from the historic interest
connected with old Fort Duquesne, was
its emoke-laden atmosphere, which still
surrounds it.
There were then no parks, no public
library nor public conservatories; noih- expect symphonies."
tutuo has provided accommodation for
what hs loDgbeen desirod, it permanent
Pittsburg orchestra. The present sea
son is the fifth and I'ittshurgers feol
justly proud of this organization, which,
under the leadership ot Victor Herbert,
has won laurols, not only at homo, but
in New York as well. One of the Now
York papors said: "Wo expect tine
steel rails from Pittsburg, but wo didn't
"All Asia at my feet spread out
In indolent magnificence of bloom."
or
"That face that might indeed provoke
Invasion of old dties,"
Is a true son of Apollo and of the
Royal House of Song. It is in beauty
of phrase that Mr. Phillips excels.
The melody of his phrases, the joyous
union of his words. Is perhaps equal
to Tennyson's, and there is about his
verse a more spontaneous and uncon
scious quality, a wilder, sweeter and
sadder music. This it Is that some
thing savors of Keats, but the warm,
sensuous joyousness of Keats is not
there. After reading Mr. Phillips'
"Marpessa" I took down my Keats
and read "Lamia" over again and
thought the hand had not yet
been made that could erase that, great
name writ in water Alas! the water
of our tears it was, for that untimely
end.
ADD OBSERVATIONS.
The Library Site.
The location selected by the library
board for the new library may just at
present be the centre of population
but it does not please a great many
people. It is of course impossible to
please everyone but, the one selected
does not accomplish the satisfaction
of a respectable minority.
This new building presented to the
city by a stranger should, at least, be
erected on as sightly a spot as that of
any other public building. The capi
tol, the university, the court house,
the post office are erected on sites
that are at once dignified and im
pressive. The one selected for the
library is just off the main street. It
is a pleasant residence part, but en
tirely unsuitable for a public build
ing of any size and stateliness. The
generosity and public spirit shown by
the members of the Round Table is
doubly commendable when it is con
sidered that the majority does not
approve the site insisted upon by the
library board. To raise money to buy
land when the city already possesses
the sightliest site in the city is a
stumbling block to many who have
the interests of the library and the
city at heart.
First M. D. What a lot of things
have been found in the vermiform ap
pendix." Second M. D. And look at the money
that's been taken out of it. Life.
What a beautiful complexion Mrs.
Gayboy has.
Yes; that's something new; the drug
gist has not had it over a week. Town
Topics.
ing to minister to the artistic neeJs of a
growing population. In this last decade
of the nineteenth century what a change
has come over Pittsburg! And the
change is largely duo to the generosity
of one man, whoso struggling boyhood
was passed in Pittsburg, where he has
since gained his large fortune.
Andrew Carnegie began to be known
as a donor of libraries in the early
eighties. His first gifts were made to
the town of Braddock, where one of his
largest mills is located, and to the city
01 Allegheny. This last has also a
music hall connected with it.
Nearly two years later the city of
Pittsburg was offered one million dol
lars to build a library, museum, art gal
lery and music hall, all to be under one
roof, and in return the city should pro
vide a site and funds for the mainten
ance of the library. A few yarB be
fore this, Mrs. Mary Schenley presented
the city with a large tract ot land for a
park: she now presented a site for the
library at the entrance to the park. It
remained for the city to make provision
for an annual appropriation. This was
speedily done.
In the fall ot 1895 the library was
formally opened aud presented to the
city. On that occasion Mr. Carnegie
delivered his now famous prediction
that "it would some day bo considered a
disgrace for a man to die rich." At the
time he announced his determination to
give a million dollars, in addition to his
original gift, for the endowment of the
art gallery and museum. At that time
this sum was considered ample. But it
was soon found that more room was
needed, A commissioner from the mu
seum found a mammoth in Wyoming too
big for any part of the museum. Mr.
Carnegie met the difficulty by a larger
gift. He has given in dl a sum between
three and four million dollars. Plans
for the addition have been made and
work will begin soon.
The library has established two
branches in different parts of the city,
and a third branch is proposed. The
museum will soon take its place with
other important collections of the coun
try. At the time of the endowment of the
art gallery certain conditions were agreed
to. An annual exhibition must be held
to which all artists may contribute.
Pictures entered for a prize must have
been painted within the preceding year;
a jury voted for by the exhibitors them
selves acts as judges and awards three
annual prizes; the prize pictures are
bought by the Carnegie institute for its
permanent collection. The jury must
consist of ten artists, two of whom xust
be from Europe. This system ot award
ing prizes is considered the fairest pos
sible, as favoritism under these condi
tions is difficult.
The first exhibition opened in Octo
ber, 1895, the fourth being held in the
fall ot 1899. This is the only interna
tional exhibition in America, and artists
agree that it is the most important and
representative of the year. None but
masterpieces are admitted. The prizes
go to foreigners ami Americans alike.
In 1897 a Scotchman took the first prize,
in 189S an American and this last year a
Pennsylvania woman, Miss Cecelia
Beaux, of. whom William C. Chase said:
"She is not only the greatest living wo
man painter, but the greatest woman
painter that has ever lived.'
The music hall of the Carnegie insti-
So out of the smoko and doom ot
Pittsburg has emorged this sign thut In
the midst of an unparalleled muturial
prospeiity, her citizens care also for the
things ot the spirit.
A woman of seventy, who does not
look forty, and whose youngost child
was born only eight yours ago, has in ;i
few weeks won herself an enormous fol
lowing among the women ot New York
and of some of our adjoining towns.
She carries the secret of psrpetual
youth with her, and as it lies largely in
a question of hygienic living, she has not
yet antagonized tho doctors. She rec
ommends, among other things, the
drinking of a goodly supply of water
daily, and the eating of a grated carrot
before breakfast. The effect of tho
carrots may not be visible at once, but
in a few weeks ono will notico a certain
captivating gloss on the hair and a clear
ness in the eye and complexion altogeth
er new. She is absolutely without em
barrassment in her criticisms ot her
pupils, no matter how largo tho audi
ence. When one meek little woman
ventured to suggest that her husband
liked her as she was, the lady on the
platform answered, in brnxen English,
"Impozeeble." She is most amusing in
her caricatures of certain clubwomen
who walk on the lecture platform hold
iog themselves eo badly that their avoir
dupois becomes the must conspicuous
thing about them. "I would like," she
says, "to teach ze American vimen not to
hold zero prayer-books on ze'e stomak.''
She recommends, among other thingp,
the use of cucumber juice not tho pre
pared cream, but the juice itself as a
tonic for the complexion, soap being in
jurious, water only cooling, and most
preparations pernicious for the skin, and
she experimented on certain faces be
fore her to prove how cleansing the juico
was. A soft cloth dipped in the juice
and applied to the face will be sufficient
to prove to anyone else the value of her
suggestion as a cleansing process. The
Bazar.
Baggs Jobleigh's tickled to death
with his new flat.
Faggs What's the special joy in it ?
Baggs Why, it's so commodious ho
can let the folding bed down nights
without moving the dressing case into
the parlor. Town Topics.
J. F. HARRIS,
No. I, Board of Trade,
CHICAGO.
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