The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 24, 1925, Page 10

When the News Reached Siberia By AMY SCHECHTER. SPECIAL meeting in the People’s House. The big log hall is fillec with men and women in rough sheep: skin coats and high felt boots, th« men with ear-lapped fur caps, the women with shawls, some with babies wrapped in the folds. The news reached the county committee of the party several hours ago, so that mos‘ of the workers know why the plant whistle has summoned them to a spe cial meeting, and their faces are grave. The party secretary comes in, throwing off his great shuba he weare over his sheepskin coat, he has come by sleigh from the next village and it is bitter cold. He is the typical worker of these parts, blonde and strongly built, and he tells about Lenin’s death in simple words. Then he reads the telegram: from the central party and union state organs. The messages tell of Lenin’s last weeks, his part in the revolution, his relation to workers and peasants; but the burden of each one is the same: “Lenin is dead—his work goes on.” The workers are very silent anc some are weeping. Now their minds loss. But within a few days many will join the hundreds of thousands of workers all through Russia in con- firming the party's words, when the mass movement of workers to the Communist ranks will come as a mag: nificant answer to the whispering and whispering among the counter-revolu- tionaries and the liberal defenders oi “democracy,” and the-plain ordinary speculators and crooks and grafters all waiting vulture-like for the disin tegration of the revolution after the death of Lenin. = “Lenin is dead—his work goes on.’ A comrade. has died while on a job of vital importance to the workers’ re- public, and the others feel a persona! responsibility for seeing that it ir carried through. For it is exactly ar ja comrade worker on the job of build: jing the workers’ republic together with them that the revolutionary workers of Russia think of Lenin. . The chief of militia in this village was a worker in a Leningrad factory when Lenin led a strike there. . . AI’ over Russia workers are scattered who, at one time or another, came into just such contact with Lenin in their everyday industrial struggles. To some of the peasants he may be a sort of supernatural figure. Here abouts, for instance, the peasants tel’ * * aro filied with the bare fact of their |that once in the days of Kolchak when | -|read, and the meeting is ended. the Whites herded all revolutionary |garden of the People’s House where sympathizers into this same People’: ;girls and boys stroll about on summer House and were getting ready to firc jr '<hts between dances or the acts of the building when “Lenin suddenly ap | plays. peared in their midst’. . . and a it is far below zero, and the sky is few moments later, “A Red band came jblue ice, and the stars distant and down from the hills,” and put thc /pale. ' The Young Communists come, Whites to flight. : and the chill of the night is broken All of which is true, save the ap-|by red-flaring of pine torches, dusky pearance of Lenin; and avhat is tha’ red of flame.lit banners. after all, but revolutionary force as| ‘The band plays the opening bars of personified in the peasant mind? the Red Funeral March, and the dark But to the mass of the workers |sheep-skin clad mass thins out as it Lenin is the comrade, the organizer ‘goes through the gate and becomes a of strikes, the teacher of workers’ procession. It circles the little settle- groups, the comrade who knew every ment, passing the coke plant where detail of their daily lives and strug blazing ovens show a living industry gles, and who, at meetings, as Stalin where lasts year there was dark sil- tells, might always be looked for in | once, some corner of the hall, talking ani- matedly with a group of rank and file workers. se ¢ The messages have all been This is the regular meeting night for the party shop nuclei, so the mem bers of the mixed nucleus which reg. ularly meets in the People’s House, remain, and the machinists and elec- trical workers and carpenters and other groups go off to their shops. The work goes on, . . * @ Y The night of Lenin’s funeral. The workers gather in the snow-heaped By ALFRED V. FRANKENSTEIN. The fourteenth program of the Chi- cago Symphony orchestra, given at Orchestra Hall last Friday and Satur- somehow sneaked out of the Thurs- day night pop series and found its way into the solemn - subscription series. The entire program was light. except for one composition. It war an international program as well, since music of Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Russia was repre- sented. The Italian work, the third sym- honic poem written by G. Francescc Malapiero under the title, “Impres- sions of Nature,” was given its first Chicago representation. It is in three sections, “The Festival in the Valley of Hell,” (not Dante, but an actua™ valley near Naples), “The Roosters,’ and “The Tarentelle at Capri.” Thc section is quite clever. The music is most solemn and churchy, broken by eacklings from the muted brass. Thu: Malapiero contrasts the serious as pect of the dignified cock with the sounds to which he gives voice. Th: last section is a sweeping, infectious dance tune. The program opened with a still born and stupid little overture, “Th« Barber of Bagdad,” by Peter Corneli us, a German who has written far be! ter music. The Austrian work was the “Rus- tic Wedding,” symphony of Karl Gold mark. Th's is a gracious gestur. among symphonies. (It is really not a symphony because it is not in sym phonic form, but Goldmark called i that.) There are ve movements, : wedding march with variations, a brid al song, a serenade, a section callec “In the Garden,” and a heavy peas ant’s dance. Soviet Russia came to bat with th« symphonic poem, “The Sirens,” by Reinhold Moritzovitch Gliere. Thi: work was written during Gliere’s Ger man period, in 1912, and shows mark- edly the German infinence. The plot of the poem is the familiar one of th: sirens luring the sailors to aproach the island, where the ship is wrecked on the sunken rocks. Gliere’s setting is second only to one piece of music 1 know of in describing water. The passage in the mysteriously muted horns describing the approach of th« doomed ship and the terrific clima: when the ship is ground to bits on the rocks, are two of the great thrill written by a master of thrills. Since the Russian revolution Giliere has directed the government conserva tory at Kiev, where he was born. The program wound up with some selections from the opera, “The Dam nation of Faust,” by Hector Berlioz one of the great master hands of France and of the world. In these days when the Gounod Faust is popu- lar and the Boito Faust bids fair tc attain a popularity aproaching § epi- demic proportions, it is well to hea these melodies of a Faust greater far more than both others. Mr. Stock’s suite from the opera consists of the invocation of Mephistc the dances of the will-o-the-wisps ane of the sylphs, and the famous Rak oczy march. Let those who loudly proclaim, as they often do, that Ber. lioz contributed only to the theory anc not to the worthwhile literature o music hear this suite and forever hol¢ their peace. The two dances are mus ic with an unexplainable quality abou it which is at once graceful and light nd hypnotic, in the literal sense o' that word. The Rakoczy march is : splendidly vigorous setting of an olf Hungarian tune. There is a lon: story behind this Berlioz arrangement but it is too long to tell here. *. * a Anna Pavlowa, empress and stand ard bearer of Russian dancers, is due to arrive at the Auditorium theater next Monday night. She and her company are to stay here for twr weeks. The present tour of the Pav lowa company is announced as its last. The regular Pavlowa repertoire wil’ be presented with several important additions in the way of revivals ance new pieces. Chief of these latter is a ballet in two acts on the subject of “Don Quixote,” with music by a com poser named Minkus. Minkus is a name unfortunately not within the ken of this writer nor do any of the stand ard reference works carry any com- ment on him, but “Don Quixote” is alluring material for ballet treatment and Pavlowa is famous for presenti- ing the best in the art of dancing. Another new presentation is a work called “Coquetterie de Colombine,” by. the Russian composer Richard Drigo author of that famous restaurant tune the serenade in the ballet “Les Mil ions de Harlequin.” The revivals are the ballets “The Sleeping Beauty,” by Chaykovski, the waltz of which is played by every amateur orchestra, “Coppelia,” by Lec Back near the People’s House again, the Communists line up facing the river with rifles at aim. A speaker mounts the platform set in the open \near the graves of men who fell here -| in the revolution. His speech is suddenly broken into |by the signal for the parting salute \fired at the same moment by thou- jsands of Communists in towns and ‘eities and villages all through the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The volley is answered by a flash from the hills across the river where the miners are gathered. The speaker takes up his them<« with its burden—“his work goes on.” Delibes, author of Lakme, and balle composer par excellence, and a set tine of Weber’s “Invitation to the Dance.” The company for this final tour i: over a hundred strong. That phe nomenal athlete, Laurent Novikov will be Pavlowa’s partner, as in prev ious seasdns. Theodore Stier wil! again be the orchestra director. The program of the first week i: subjoined, There will be seven divert fssments at each performance. “Di vertissement” is a fancy word for 2 short ballet five or ten minutes long The program: Monday, Jan. 26—Don Quixote. Tuesday, Jan. 27—Amarilla and Au tumn Leaves. Wednesday, Jan. 28—Fairy Doll anc Invitation to the Dance. Thursday, Jan. 29—Coppelia Chopiniana. Friday, Jan. 30—Don Quixote. Saturday afternoon, Jan. 31—Sleep ing Beauty and Fairy Doll. and Saturday evening, Jan. 31—Don Quixote. Sunday afternoon, Feb. 1—Don Quixote. Sunday evening, Feb. 1—Polish Wedding and Snowflakes. Emperor Jones at the Punch and Judy Theatre in New York NEW YORK, Jan. 23.—Paul Robe- son, great Negro actor, has risen t« the peak of his artistic career in the title role of The Emperor Jones, th« fine West Indian play of Eugene O’ Neill, now revived and presented by Harry Weinberger at the Punch & Judy Theater. Robeson has the physical magnifi- cence that goes with the part of thc ex-Pullman porter who rose from stow away to emperor in two years on thi: Carribean island not yet “self deter mined by United States marines” a; the program puts it. He is a genia! superman in the opening scene as hr tells a shrimpy English trader of : good lesson he learned from the quality folks on the Pullman cars— that if you steal a little they put you in jail but if you steal enough they make you emperor. And like a goo sport, trained in the school of craps he gaily admits that good luck can"! last always and that he is ready any time to make his getaway and cas) in, if his luck turns. Luck turns when the “bush nig 4 RUSSIAN COMRADES T0 GIVE CONCERT TONIGHT FOR LENIN MEMORIAL A Lenin memorial meeting will be held by the Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia and the Rus- sian branch of the Workers Party on Saturday, Jan. 24, at the Soviet School, 1902 W. Division St. A beautiful concert appropriate to the occasion will be given and speakers in Russian will address the meet- ing. .Besides the musical program the well-known and justly popular Russian actors, Pokatilov, Luganov, Lijes, Namgova and others will participate. it will begin at 8 p. m. sharp and admission is 25c. All who understand the Russian language are urged to attend. gars” the emperor is exploiting, star‘ a revolutfon. The gaudy monarct hikes thru the tropical forest. Night sets in and fears with it. The ter rors of the darkness and the old super- stitions he laughed at in the daytime overcome him. He is haunted by vis- ions his distraught mind conjures The chain gang and whipping boss he had once fied from appear before hin with other phantasises of the horrors he has seen or hear from of old. In the end the “bush niggars” get him. ae ee Another O'Neill Sailor Play. The Steamship Glencairn, another fine O'Neill revival, now playing at the Princess Theater, after a run at the Punch & Judy and the Province- town Theaters is a powerful presen- tation of the life of the sailors of a few years ago before unionism wrought some reforms. The passing out of Yank in his forecastle bunk {: one of the most realistic pieces of tragedy the New York stage has seen and the crimp joint scene in London where sailors are vamped, doped and shanghaied is raw, disheveled life a it was. So some old sea dogs, not reg ular theater, goers, say after seeing it. O’Neill’s years before the mast have been vividly crystallized in the Steamship Glencairn. Teachers’ Silver Jubilee Today. The Chicago Teachers’ Federation will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its entry into the tax campaign in the city of Chicago with a silver jubilee luncheon today at the Morrison Hotel 79 W. Madison street. There will be an informal reception on the second floor, main parlor from 11:30 to 12 o'clock. Luncheon will be served at 12.30 sharp in the Cameo Banquet Hal) on the same floor.