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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1900)
THE couxrsft. and cuntrnctois who have made for- slow, the climax makes up for it. It is tunes by extra labor and by economy, a remarkable piecoof stage management, The building trades unions of Chi- and Mrs. Fiske'a superior intelligence cago have effected the building in- is seen nil through it. The English dustry so that few buildings are now generals in uniform are grouped at the being erected. The division of the top of the grand staircase, below thorn, products of labor irritates workmen in he ball room, the dancing is at its and they have made rules lessening height. Mrs. Fisko herself is seated at the number of apprentices who may a tablo plaing cards with George Os learn any trade. They have made borne and cheating him out of hia eyes ridiculous and arbitrary divisions be- and his heart. Presently a soldier enters tween this and that man's labor from the Io.t, goes up tho stairway, has which remind one of the juvenile some conversation with tho geaorals king who stood shivering and taking and then departs as sintly as became, his death of cold while his little shift After a few momenta another soldier was passed from one courtier to an- enters and goes through the same per other till it finally reached the hands formance. The generals are visibly agi of him whose office it was to put on tateJ by this time. Then a dispatch the King's shirt. While he was put- bearer, covered with dust and bleeding, ting it over the little King's half- dashes in through tho door, through the frozen shoulders, it came into his crowd of dancers, up the stairs and falls royal highness' in'nd that over or- at the feot of the officers. Still the ganization was burdensome and tire- dance goes on and the mirth is un ome and ordered a strike but such abated. Suddenly a woman screams; is the tenacity of custom thai the she has heard the cannon. The music strike failed, as this strike in Chi- stops, tho wounded soldier rises to his cago may also fail. knees and shou.s in tho phrase of Lord m Byron, "It is, it is the cannon!'1 Tho call to arms sounds and tho danco The Stotsenburg Fund. breaks up, and the dancers hurry off to Peviously reported 11'.).S0 step to another kind of music. Mrs. Charles Francis Roe, New If for nothing elsf, this, play would be York city 100. CO notable in that it is the occasion of one Chain letter receipts: of those fitful revivals of energy which Mrs. L. M. Perry, Denver have occasionally graced Maurice Bar- Mabel Deitch, Malcolm rymore's indolent career. His Rawdon Miss Garcelon, Boston Crawley is another illustration of how Mrs. L. C. Richards, Lincoln true an artist can be when he takes the Mrs. A. C. Cass, Denver trouble to try. It is only fair to say Mrs. Cowdery, Lincoln that bis Rawdon is nearer to Thackeray Mrs. Mildred Leach, Lincoln than is Mrs. Fiske's Becky. Ho plays Miss E. L. Frow, Lincoln the character, not a caricature of it. Mrs. A. S. Raymond, Lincoln Ho is the only noble figure in that sad 2-10 assemblage of sordid and selfish people, stupid, slow, powerful in any last resort, Total j'222.20 tho kind of feliow who lives badly and , dies well, as hard as iron in an extrem- ........... ity, otherwise as soft as a woman. His goo 1. bye to Becky before he leaves for rrin? PAQQJT'XfP Q"HYYV the Beld of Waterloo, was, I think, the mILEi rAOOllWOnun fiDeMbit of acting in the play. This v WILLA SI6ERTCATHER g duffer of a Rawdon, who never pretended ofr0oxoa& to pay his debts and couldn't keep out ... - , ,j ,-,. , . t u of the bailiff's hands, came out strongly Minnie Maddern Fiske has been here . t . , ' , , ., , c. ,, just where other men were weak, and he in her new play, "Becky Sharp," an J ,. .... rru t t.T -i was staunch wboto other men were dis- adaptation of Thackeray's "Vanity , , IT . ... . ... ,-i mi. i u i u loyal. Ho goes out with tears in his Fair." Tho play has been somewhat of ' , , 4 , . . . , ...... ... . , eyes and Becky &tands at tho window a disappointment to the public and to J , , . . ' , , . . m r.- i u ir vr ,u. : : . and watches the troops go by, laughing Mrs. Fiske herseu. Not that it is not , . A . ,. . , . . - . . . . gcod natureJly to herseu as she says, clover enough, and interesting to boot, . ,. ' ...... ,...,, ,, . n.. i . ,. ... ''.There they go to die for their country but it lacks well, nobrtity. I believe it 1T J. , , ,..,, ., -ii u -j .iti and I am :hing for mv breakfast !" was Mr. Zangwill who said, "There is a J b ... ., I . .!- L . iorce witnin me nears oi inings inai makes for beauty," and when that force is not strong we feel the lack of it, even in a work of art. Of course, Mrs. Fiske is always artistic, but, ah! she can be so much more than that. The play "Becky Sharp" is by Mr. Langdon Mitchell, and the young man has shown remarkable Bkill in selecting the essentials of bis play out of the great mass of material before him. He has 'ftakon only as much of the novel as con cerns the fortuno3 of Becky, introduc ing, of course, tho fragile Amelia, by way of a contrast. The first act opens just after Becky's marriage to Rawdon Crawley, and we are treated to Sir Pitt Crawley's pro posal of marriage to Becky and regret that she has maried his handsome nephew only an hour before she has the opportunity to becomo Mrs. Crawley. Mis3 Crawley's rage at her nephew's alliance closes the act. The second act presents tho ball at Brussels. Becky is discovered, flirting with all the men, cut by all tho women. But in spite of her clever speeches, the act drags. Amelia, an ingenue part ad mirably played by Miss Williams, ap proaches Becky and tearfully demands her husband, to which entreaty Mrs. Rawdon blithely responds, "Take him, - it r . i my tioar. anu Keep mm. i m worn out, "with lookiug after other women's hus bands." If tho first part of tho act is Eight years elapse before the events of the third act occurs. During that time Rawdon and Becky have pulled along together rather better than most mar ried people, have lived and owed money and broken up establishment3 all over Europe. Two things have never changed, Becky's unfailing pluck and Rawdon's unwavering admiration for her. Tho act opens on one of their blue days. The bills are stacking up and there is not a sixpence in the home. One of Rawdon's creditors has falbn into prison for debt and threatens to ex pose the fact that his wife has cheated at dice. When this news anives Raw don flies into a passion, but when the unphaseable Becky denies that she used loaded dice, be believes her immediately, and sits down rubbing his forehead. He is so very much in love with her that ho is blind to most things, and what she does goes, and all that, yet there are certain shades of black that she cannot persuade him into calling white. "I say, Beck," he says as he sits down, "don't frighten me like that again. Sport's sport, damn it, but loaded dice that's pretty muddy, you know." Again, when she suggests that he dun one of bis friends for a gaming debt, he tugs at his mustache.in a helpless sort of way, and explains, "Hang it all, you can't remind a fellow of a debt of honor, Becky." Rawdon had a code of ethics, somewhat origiLal and rather inconsist ent, but what ho believed he stuck to, and be wanted to do tho square- as nearly as ono may do it on nothing a year. As for Bocky, tho ono admirable quality about her, now and always, is her grit. Mrs. Fiske bolioves that Becky's pluck, coupled with hor clever ness, was enough to make her moro dear to Thackeray than wero any othor of bis women, and it is upon theso qual ities that the actress bares Beckj's claim to public interest. Even in that splendid dramatic momont when she is discovered at supper with tho Marquis of Steyno, her nervo does not fail her and she lies to tho last, lies even when the marquiB bank notes are in her huB band's hands. Great as Mrs. Fieko was in tbat scene, I think Barrymore was greater. Her magnificent acting recalled that phrase of Stevenson's, that if that blow from Rawdon Crawley's fist had not descended upon tho marquis' head "Vanity Fair" would cease to be a work of art. For dramatic purposes Mr. Mitchell has addeJ a few flourishes to Becky which I think a littlo inconsist ent. Take, for instance, tbat soliloquy by tho fire, in which Becky says: "I am so tired of it all my God, the very muscles of my face are tired with smil ing to the people I hate." That in not Thackeray's Becky. Sho liked the game for its own Bake, regardless of the stake. Next to winning, sho liked toe ing. The last act is in Becky's lodgings in Pumpernickle, where sho lives with the old hope of getting back into respect ability, wearing soiled evening gowns and drinking beer with noisy German students. The atmosphere is meant to be cheap and sordid, but I found it no less attractive than tho rest of the play. Valutas vanilatum is all very well in a book, and one can stand the meanness and petty vices of humanity in type, but in actual flesh and blood, clothed in selfishness as with a garment, flaunting their miserable ambitions as they flaunt their jewels, these people are hateful beyond tho limits of one's patience. Some way these envioue, scheming, Enobbisb, stupid English folk seemed very much more detestable thin the suave, worldly people in the French dramas. After al', they aro only conven tional Don Juans and their wickedness is only stage wickedness. But these Thackeray folk are too much like the sad caricatures of humanity that we know every day, not the rare victims of grand passions, but "the countless slaves of petty and sordid ones, the people who love money better than blood, who wait for dead men's shoes, blackmail their neighbors or leer at their neighbor's wives. "Becky Sharp" will not be a popular piece. Not even the genius of Mrs. Fiske, nor the admirable efforts of her company can secure for the play a long run. Ten righteous men would have saved Sodom, one would save "Becky Sharp;" but there is only poor, stupid Rawdon, much moro siunoj against than sinning. There is not enough beauty in the play to save it. If our fellows are like these people, we at least will not admit it. We wilt wear dominos and masks and play that there are gentlemen and gentlewomen behind them. The soul refuses to be stripped bare of its disguises in this fashion. The mirror which William Tiliackeray held up to nature was too true a one, we shudder and drop the glass. lIIMMMIMMMIlMMIMMm00 Went Through. "Little Johnnte had a pair of skates when I saw him last." "Did he learn how to use them ?" "Yes. He has a pair o! wings now." Town Topics. GLIiBS- LOUISA L KICKETTS. OM000jlllMK0MMMMtH9O CM I, EN' DAK OFNKHRASKA CLUH. 9 April. Ill-lory ami Art c. Parliamentary 21. ilrill- 21. .SlL'loinmiil.lliiiiOiiiri IK. i nasty Seward I Woman sc.. Household econ- t outlet North I lend 21. Woman's i, French .. ..Lincoln 21. Keview ami Art i. Whisipip York 2a. Woman's c. lluslness meeting Lincoln 23, Woman's c. French history Mlndcti 23. Sorosls, Literature- Stanton 23. Matinee Musical. Artists' recital Lincoln 21, Woman's c.. Current eents Lincoln 21, Woman's e.. Literature Falrhury 21, Woman's e.. Illrthilay Ouialiu 21, Woman's r.. Kthlesanil Philosophy .Omaha 21, Woman's c. French eoniersatlou Omaha ... I History anil Art i, lluslness meet- "' I Inif Alhlon 2T, Woman's c.. Oratory Omaha I C'enturvc. What has Holland ilone . t for the worlil In agriculture. ' ' t charltahle ami reformatory work Lincoln 20, Woman's t. History Lincoln ,y j Woman's e.. Household eeonom- ? Ics Omaha 2il, Woman so.. KniMKh literature. Omaha 2i, Woman's c , Ktlucatlon Omaha 2il, Lotos c.. Current events Lincoln 27. Woman's c . Music. Lincoln ... I Woman's c. Modern methods of otlnir . I'lattsmoutli 27. Woman's e.. City improiement Omaha 27. Woman's e.. Current events Stromshiirt; .y I XIX. Century c. Paintimr In SikiIu "' i HNtorv of politics Seward , Woman's e . Child Study Lincoln . Woman's r. French ....Lincoln 2S, Woman's c. History North llenil 2S, Woman's r.. KniMKIi history. ...Stromshurir 2. History and Art c. Cermany. ...Seward 2S. Self Culture c Olla I'odrida. . St. Paul M. Zetetlee., Philanthropy . Wcrpim: Water OFFICKKS OF X. F. W. C. IHV lii(. I'res., Mrs. Anna I.. Appcrson. Tecumseh. V. 1'.. Mrs. Ida W. HUlr. Wayne. Cor. Sec. Mrs. Virginia I). Am up, Tecumseh. Kec. Sec.. Miss Mary Hill, York. Treat, Mrs. H. F. Doane. Crete. Librarian. Mrs. '.. M. I.amlerlson, Lincoln. Auditor, Mrs. K.J. Halner. Aurora. As we travel the path of life, we always fancy that the other fellow has the best side of the road. Town Topics. Announcement. To the Club Women Who are to Com pose the Fifth Biennial of the Gen eral Federation of Women's Clubs, to be He'd in Milwaukee, Wis., Juno 4 -9, 1900: The biennial committee finds that in order to show adequately what tho gen. eral federation is accomplishing through the individual clubs and tho state feder ations, it must prepare for ten sessions. These with the preliminary and closing meetings which aro provided for by tho constitution, the evening meetings and the very imro tant businrcs meetings will consume the week for which wo have been invited to Milwaukee. That delegates may leave for home Sat urday, June !, it is necessary for tho council to meet Monday, Juno 4, at eleven o'clock A. M., and the meeting for reports of state chairmen of corn;- J. F. HARRIS, No. I, Board of Trade, CHICAGO. STOCKS AND- BONDS. Grain, Provisions; Cotton. Private Wires to New York Gty and Many Gties East and West. MEMI1ER N3v York Stock Exchange. Chicago Stock Exchange. Chicago Itoard of Trad
