THE COURIER
I
ha a right to buy transportation at
the cheapest rate. Democracy and not
an.rchy will finally dethrone all inoii
arns. But before that time comes
democracy will have raised the price
of . ages so that a sailor's services will
cost an employer just as much whether
ht ships him in Portugal or in Japan
or in America. The subsidy system is
.1 backward step, an endorsement of
off of the most objectionable features
of a monarchy, namely the elevation
and enrichment of the few at the ex
pnse of the many. It is Senator Han
n;i's pet scheme and the man is a true
patriot. He believes that a ship sub
sidy would develop an American mer
chant marine that would compete with
the world and beat the Meets of the
world. Very likely, but if the business
will not pay of itself it is inexpedient
to charge the losses to America.
The Turquoise Cup
Magazine stories are disappointing,
in spite of their brilliant illustrations
by illustrators, whose work is far more
Expressive and charming than that of
the hundreds of magazine story-tellers.
Enclosed between gorgeous covers by
Maxfield rarrish, Edward Penfleld, or
Howard Chandler Christy, the Christ
mas numbers of the magazines are a
most attractive and promising charac
teristic of the holiday season. In
jeweled colors, they Mash more bright
ly than window displays of rubies,
emeralds, and opals. Drawn with a
tine discrimination and colored by
artists, the covers attract more eyes
than the jewels, though the artist
works only with ink and the jeweler's
window-dresser decorates with the
most expensive of colors. Maxfield
Parrish in particular suggests the leg
endary good cheer of Christmas. The
blues, greens and gold-browns of his
cover to Scribner's for the month of
December has doubtless sold many
hundred copies of the magazine. There
are not many magazine writers whose
stories please and satisfy like the pic
tures and arrangements of color and
form accomplished by Maxfield Par
rish. The stories are like three meals
a day; we should miss them and re
gret them, but while we are in ac
cordance with lifelong habit, eating
breakfast, luncheon and dinner, we are
not especially delighted, thankful or
stimulated. After reading the maga
zine stories, enthusiasm engendered by
the cover and Illustrations vanishes,
leaving sometimes a regret for squan
dered moments. Hut one story in
Scribner's is very much worth while
and leaves a pleasant fragrance of ro
mance, of beautiful woman and her
eu ig-weibliche charm.
The Turquoise Cup, by Arthur Coss
letj. Smith, is the story of a cardinal
as gentle and altogether lovable as lie
of the Snuff-box. He looks like Nn
polean and knows men and women as
The Little Corporal knew them, but
added to his penetration and great
generalship there is charity and the
beneficent life of a true apostle. A
sublimated Napoleon, unselfish, tender,
emotional, is this cardinal archbishop.
Seventy-six years old, his character
has the grateful bouquet of true piety.
'Story-writers have of late taken the
cardinal type for portraiture. The
Italian cardinal seems to have all the
graces. He has the literary knack of
irresistible expression, the simplicity
and kindness of true greatness and
so many other charms that enumera
tion lags. But a Christian Napoleon is
the key to this cardinal, and his char
acter may be built up by one imagin
ation as easily as by another. To be
sure these churchmen of Italy are far
across the water, and it is very un
certain if any of us will ever see one.
and if we should we could not, in all
Probability, gain the intimate view
that the story affords. Cardinals are
sure to be haughty to Protestant
Americans, and however "prominent"
an American may be in his own vil
lage, he is microbe size In Rome or
Venice. Therefore these fascinating
cardinals are not so threatening to
Protestantism on this side as they
might be if their dear wise Eminences
were not divided from us by a deep
and very salt ocean.
There are love stories and love
stories. Those which present the wo
man so that we see her with the lover's
eyes and the man so that we see him
with the woman's eyes have accom
plished what Maxfield Parrish seems
to do so easily, namely, transferred
momentarily to us his own superex
cellent gift of seeing. Nora Daly is .1
lovely young Irish woman and her
lover is a wholesome tall young Saxon
whom we love as his lady loves him.
-it -'-t -5i
S fV
Isthmian Canal
In lfcSO, when De Lesseps began the
excavations for the ship canal across
the Isthmus of Panama, the world ex
pected that within fifteen years trans
oceanic ships would be making their
way from the Atlantic to the Pacific
ocean just as ships were making their
way from the Mediterranean sea into
the Ked sea. De Lesseps, who cut the
Suez canal and collected the money
for the cut, was at the head of the
American project and there was good
reason for believing that the canal in
the New World would also be success
ful. The idea is old enough. The
earliest known surveys in Panama
were made under the authority of an
order issued by Charles V. to Cortez
in 1531. The Xicaraguan route was
suggested as early as 1551. Great Brit
ain, under the inlluence of William
Pitt. King William I of Holland. Louis
Phillippe of France, Napoleon Bona
parte and Commodore Vanderbilt of
America, have severally tried to build
or organize a project for building an
Isthmian canal.
Poor De Lesseps spent on the Pana
ma canal and in bribing influential
newspapers to help him get money for
the great cut more than $3:S.000.000.
When he began work he promised that
the canal would be finished in ISSit and
would cost only $120.000,000. Eight years
after the first spadeful of earth was
dug out of the right of way De Lesseps
announced that the company was
bankrupt and hundreds of French peo
ple, who. intluenced by his Suez suc
cess had invested their money in the
scheme, loft all they ha 1. In 1VJ3, after
a long trial, De Lesseps and his son
Charles were sentenced to five years of
imprisonment and to pay a fine of
3,000 francs. The sentence was never
enforced against the father and the
son's sentence was set aside on tech
nical grounds, after he had spent a
few months in prison. In considera
tion of his past services the Suez canal
company made him an allowance which
kept him from want. In the last years
of his life there was none so poor as to
do him honor. Though there is no evi
dence that he was not first of all
interested in the canal and believed
from the first that he would dig
through from Colon on the Caribbean
sea to Panama on the Pacific ocean.
That is, he went into the scheme with
a pure motive and not as a stock job
ber to make money merely. The tinal
failure and the company broke his
heart.
The Panama route is freer from the
dangers of seismic distrubances. The
deepest cuts have been made, innu
merable lives have been sacrificed to
accomplish the work and more than
$358,000,000 have been spent to accom
plish this idea which began 10 stir in
men's minds as soon as the first map
of North and Soutli America was pro
mulgated. Is it not a pity to take any
other route than the shortest and
safest across the Isthmus, to let the
labor of the thousands of fever
stricken men who labored in the great
ditch go for naught? The commis
sioners who have been sent by the
Tinted States government from time
to time to investigate the relative mer
its of the Panama and Xicaraguan
routes have reported in favor of the
former as safer from earthquakes, not
needing so many locks, hence cheaper,
as shorter and on account of the work
alreadv done, requiring a much shorter
time to complete. But the French
company which owns the abandoned
ite holds the right of way and the
excavations already made at a higher
price than the sum for which a canal
may be built on the Nicaraguan route.
Fn.'le Sam is ready to pay the French
man that price and no more. What
has been spent on the Panama canal
has been spent It Is gone and the
share-holders will never get their
money back. Nevertheless there are
millions of North and South Americans
as well as Frenchmen who strenuously
"hope that the Panama route will be
selected and the work of the enthu
siastic, misguided IV Lesseps om-
pleted.
. .
,k- a- -
Modjeska
With the exception of Hlchnrd
Mansfield and Joseph Jetterson.
Madame Modjeska Is the last of the
eminent group of American actors who
have made the last quarter of the
twentieth century a distinguished pe
riod in the annals of the stage. Al
though Madame Modjeska is not an
American, she chose to play here, her
company is invariably American and
unquestionably her biography is a part
or the history of the stage of America.
When Time shall have claimed her and
Joseph Jetterson. only the youngest 01
the group, Uichard Mansfield, will re
main. Mr. Mansfield's dramatic career
began as least twenty-five years ago.
and although it is happily in the dis
tant future before he will be classed
among tne old men, he is perhaps
fifty years young. .Mrs. Fiske and
Blanche Walsh have shown evidences
of genius, but except for these two the
period of eminent American tragedians
seems to be drawing to a close. The
period whose beginning was illumin
ated by Charlotte Cushman and its
fullest expression in the genius of Ed
win Booth is expiring. Among the fa
mous comedians of the American stage
theie are Hopper, Wilson. Uussell,
Tim Murphy, and Frank Daniels. Con
stant additions are made to this latter
group from the crowd which ever
closely presses up from the back of the
stage. To take the place of Booth.
Barrett, Jefferson, Modjeska, there are
Mrs. Fiske, Maude Adams and Blanche
Walsh. There are doubtless others
who are only waiting opportunity to
demonstrate their superiority to the
ruck, but the effulgence of the closing
day Is far brighter than the dawn of
the new one where only shadows move.
Lincoln audiences fully appreciate
the historical and literary privilege of
attending the theatre when Modjeska
plays the principal role. Consciousness
that a historical period is closing does
not often permeate the audiences who
watch the actors make their last en
trances. That there Is this conscious
ness about Modjeska and her relation
to the dramatic period which her re
tirement from the stage will close, is
demonstrated by the public tenderness
exhibited to this most graceful and
womanly of American actresses.
Modjeska's voice is still liqui I nil
she reads Shakspere's lines wit 1 lai
pressive dignity. Her Queen Katha
rine renews reverence for the great
play-wright and for the English lan
guage. In playing the molded queen
Modjeska is particularly happy. Henry
Eighth's first wife was about Modjes
ka's age when the fickle king made
Anne Boleyn queen in her place. Queen
Katharine was a Spanish princess,
with the thin blue blood of a long line
of royalties in her veins. Modjeska's
natural dlgnttv ami elevation of char
acter fit her to play a queen's part. As
Mary of Scotland In prison. In the
presence of Elisabeth, on the way to
execution, or as Mary Antoinette she
Is every Inch a queen and thrills the
heart of man, and of woman, too.
Human dignity, impregnable human
dignity Is so rare a quality; mid we
love to be in the presence of an exalt
ed being; democrats as we are we yield
to the fascination of royalty. Even
though her throne Is papier mache
and her crown paste, never a queen
sat in her ebony anil gold throne or
wore the crown Jewels with more sin
cerity and grace than Modjeska. the
last representative of a powerful but
perishing dynasty.
The piny of Henry the Eighth Is a
succession of tableaus. There ts little
action and but little development of
character. The length of the mono
logues and the dialogues, the large
number of people on the stage at once
and the length of the play preclude
any subtle character analysis. It Is
essentially a spectacle or miracle play.
It is 11 fable of the pageantry ami ab
solute power of an English sovereign.
The Elizabethan audiences who wit
nessed It were able to compare King
Henry's absolutism with bis daughter
Elizabeth's respect for the commtftia.
At the time when the play was written
Shakspere had not a free hand. Even
Katharine Is allowed to say no evil
of her unfaithful husband, and his slhs
are only hinted at. If Shakspere were
writing the play now he would treat
him as the infamous husband of six
wives, two of whom were beheaded,
two divorced, one dead of a broken
heart and one who survived him. He
had three great ministers: Wolsey,
More and Cromwell. The first died a
natural death only in time to escape .1
violent one. Sir Thomas More, the pious
catholic and pure-hearted scholar was
executed. Thomas Cromwell, who suc
ceeded i.lin. was the first protestaiu
minister, but he also was executed be
cause he brought about the marriage
of the king with the very plain Anne
of Cleves. False both to man and
woman. Henry VIII Is hated by both
catholic and protestant. In the play
this unpleasant tyrant is only a ca
pricious king still reverenced by his
subjects. His wickedness is never
translated into hate so that the full
blackness of his heart and life do not
have their full effect upon an audience.
If there Is a villain In the play It is
Wolsey and at his fall he shows that
he is not a villain and retires with the
tears and sympathy of the audience.
Modjeska's supporting company Is
very good indeed, especially the male
members. Mr. Louis James has the
full set of Shaksperlan stops. He re
spects tradition and reads blank verse
with literary effect without interrupt
ing the effect of realism, a difficult ac
complishment. Common actors let the
scanning go and make the most of
their ''motional climaxes. The scenery
was painted by an artist and a his
torian. The costumes were planned by
another artist who is also an antiqua
rian. The program states that the
name of the former Is Alexander B.
Corbett. and the hitter's name Is H.
B. Pearson.
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t"1