Evening Star Newspaper, November 26, 1922, Page 74

'THE SUNDAY PRt STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ¢, NOVEMBER 26, 1922—PART 4% BY E. H. SMITH. N Zurich the other day the public attention was distracted from the plans of Max Oser and his Ma- thilde long enough to examine a noisoning case which contains a curious and perhaps a sinister interest for Americans. A Swiss antiquary and col- iector had bought in Turin a curious <erpentine Ting of the renaissance pe- riod, which was guaranteed to have heen made at the end of the fifteenth or the dawn of the sixteenth century _fie new owner of the trinket wore it home from Italy and arrived in Zurich with a badly swollen and infected arm. The ordinary and perhaps the correct xplanation was immediately offered by the man's physiclan, namely, that the ing had been too tight, had caused a blood stoppage and eventually an ulcer- ation of the finger, from which the pus sondition had spread to the arm. The S5 Dispersal of Great 0 Jewelry Recalls Time D T AT O Man. these have found their way not only to America, but to the Latin coun- tries In South America, and even to China, Siam, Australia and the Indian Islands. It is interesting to note that these disgorgements of hoarded jew- els were 50 extensive as to depress | the American and European diamond | market for nearly two years, begin- tators Maintained Official Poisoners—What Fluids Were Secreted in Toxiferous Rings So -Powerful That They Caused Instant Death? History of Poisons as Long as the History of TSSOV TV IO SIS SOOI Baffle Scientists of Present Day ) Collections of Antique When Kings and Dic- W%Q%QQ%Q%W@WM % $ T is probable that this historic woman poisoner used nothing but the vege- table substances in her official toxicol- ogy. Domitian, on' the other hand, re- sorted to an extraction from a specles of sea hare, the Aphysia depilans, to poison Titus. A little later that form of arsenic known as orpiment (arsenic trisulphid), was used by the official as- sassing of the emperors, but white ar- senic and the modern metallic oxide were not well understood until much later. Arsenic in its oxide forms was the substance which formed the basis of the poison feats of the late middle ages and the renaissance in Italy. Here the great question intrudes | itself. From the writings of alchem- AT A GREAT BANQUET LOCUSTA DID AWAY WITH BRITTANICUS FOR NERO, AND WAS LAVISHLY REWARDED BY THE EMPEROR. ists, historians and the confessions of | convicted poisoners of that age it is | BN victim responded to treatment and re- Later he declared that he was atisfled with illness and caused an examination the ring to be made by experts. It vas found that the head of the golden erpent of which the ring was formed llow and large enough to contain arops of fluid. Moreover, the . side of the ring under the ser- ar's head contained tiny sharp points metal, possibly designed to cut or rick the skin of its wearer. In addi- on. there was disclosed a minute hole | n the center of these fine metal points, hrough which a fluid in the head of the werpent might have seeped. like the ve- iom through a eerpent’s tooth,:into the ine abrasions of the skin. The imagination of the antiquary. his ends and the public was immediately ied to visions of Borgian poisoning lots und strange medieval crimes. ‘crhaps the ring was one of those made r Alexander VI or Caesar Borgia and 4 for the destruction of their ene- nies and rivals. All that weird par- n history of Guicciardini was re- +ived from its sleep, and every one who d bought any of the antique jew- and art objects which have lately en flowing out of Italy began to ex- nine Yhis treasures with a new and + rrified interes x % 7AS it possible that u ring, im- “ prisoning one of those subtle and mexplained poisons of the renais- wnce. had survived 400 years and wme by some strange machination of he fates to exert its evil potency ipon an innocent dabbler in antiques? ‘The student of tox:cology will find rreconcilable difficulties in the way | 1 aceepting this romantic story, yet e explanation seems to have gained \e credence of the Swiss police au- iorities and several men of scientific ding, who were asked to examine lLie patient and his ring. The whole account of poisoning by \eans of minute quantities of some systerious drug or venom concealed | i pieces of jewelry long ago raised «uestion which is still open to seri- - us debate. Even modern chemistry, ith its thousandfold advance over e Borgian age. would likely find difficult to make such a ring for ny modern tyrant who might arise wish to treat his friends in the teenth century manner. We do not now even today of any poisons hich might be practically applied | this manner and with mortal re- its. Naturally, we doubt whether \e comparatively ignorant late mid- ‘e ages knew more. On the other and, the accounts of these ancient wisonings are so convincing that the ost cautious investigator finds it im- sible to discredit them. Poisoning was a great and much .ultivated art in Europe for 1,500 cars. Rulers either employed their ificial poisoners or encouraged the nister artists and used their prod- ‘ts. Again, many thousands .of Ichemists and magiclans were at ork through centurfes of history aking strange experiments and, i ay be, profound discoveries. Per. \ps some of their knowledge was st with other arts that mankind has argotten. Hence the deadly ring iy be left in the limbo of improb- :ble possibilities. To Americans a close Interest ariges .ut of the recent flow of renaissance imports. The Italian law against the xport of old art goods and objects f historical interest remains in force, ut apparently there is a good deal of .akage, especially of small orna- ients and the like. In addition, many amilies in other parts of Europe ave been forced by poverty to dis- .erse valuable collections, not only of aintings, tapestries, antique furni- ire and other art creations, but nota- 'y of old jewelry. The bulk of Rus- ia's crown jewels appears to have -emained in the hands of the new overnment, but countless rich and oble families in every European ountry have been compelled to throw .hglp ornaments on. the markety the explanation of | in spite of the closing of the African mines by the De Beers syndicate in the hope of maintaining the high war prices. * ok ok ok SW YORK dealers are just now displaying unusually interesting collections of antiques, and, because | of the great vogue of the resplendent | Italian period, there is almost a pre- ponderance of renaissance goods of |every kind, including much jewelry and personal ornaments. Accordingly, |it is not beyond the realm of the | possible for the experiencg: of .the Zurich collector to be repeated ih this country All this leads us back once more |into the fascinating mystery of the | poisons and poisoners of these spa- | cious and forbidding times. It takes {us back much farther—in fact, to the | very beginnings of the use of poisons | | by humanity. Two things are not | too easy to plcture—the great an- | tiquity of the employment of poisons |and the fact that the poisoner, now {an abominable monster, was once th | master and king of men, and later, | even within modern times, the right hand of great potentates. The most primitive peoples on the | earth know and use poisons, usually in warfare and- religious rites. The sav- age tribes of the unconquered Ama- |zon hinterland make darts for their | blow guns which are dipped in vege- | table poisons and serpent venom. The | Moros on Mindanao, in the southern | Philippines, had a pleasant habit of lanting in the tangled jungle paths | sharpened bamboo sticks, the spoints of | which had been dipped in a poison ex- | tracted from the sting ray. | diers stumbled upon these savage de- |fenses and suffered extreme tortures from the slight scratches, or died if prompt medical attention was not at hand. But the Amazonian 2nd the Moro are | comparatively far advanced over the stage in which man came first to em- | Dloy poisons. Anthropologists consider that the use of animal poisons, such as both these tribes know, came thou- sands of years later than the first em- ployment of noxious vegetable extracts. The latter were probably first employed in rites and in battle by the medicine { men and shamans of neolithic and pos- sibly paleolithic times, and these pre- Listoric alchemists became the first kings through their dark knowledge. It is not hard to imagine the power such | leaders must nave exerted over savage | men when they were able to throw reb- «ls into convulsions at their feasts, put | personal enemies to death without a blow, or tip the spears and arrows of their tribes with a magical substance that turned foes iato corpses at a touch. The Greeks appear to have been most familiar with these vegetable extracts. Theophrastus mentions aconite. Socrates drank the potion of hemlock, and it is fairly ceriain that the Hellenes knew {most of the common vegetable poisons |of the modern pharmacopoeia—the oxglove from which we take digitali tlie olcander, the belladonna jlelding nightshade, the strychnos, black helle- bore, tiorn apple and poppy. They also inew the sulphides of argenic. | The Romans were acquainted with | some of the animal poisons as well as mineral drugs of lethal potentlalities. Agrippina conspired with the infamous Locusta to poison Claudius with a dish of mushroomns supposed to have con- tained some’ highly mysterious poison, but the modern critical mind must con- clude that these women did nothing more subtle thun to ply the emperor with a dish of noxious fungi, of the kind knows to every high school bot- anist. Logwsta was put in prison for ithis uncoecessful attempt, but - kept {alive to dispatch the emperor's foes. | Later she’did away with Britannicus for Nero, an imperial service which won her a pardon, got her -established in noble splendors -and saw her pro- vided with a number of pupils, to whom she taught her art, in the interest of Our sol- | | torm or another was the chief poison employed in the evil work of the assassins who played so great a part lin the political, social and private life of men at the dawn of modernity. Tt is quite apparent that arsenic, some | forms of which are practically taste- |less, was the favorite druz of Pope Alexander VI (Borgia) and his son Caesar, for these royal killers usually made away with their enemies by inviting them to feasts and dosing the wine cups. Guicclardini recites that on one occasion Alexander himself got the poisoned chalice and became | violently iIl, but was saved because he knew'in time what had happened and what counter-measures to take. The story goes that this terrible pon- | tiff finally died by the hand of another {drug user. The celebrated Toffana. who re- signed as chief poisoner at Naples a | little later, with the Aqua Toffana or Acquetta di Napoli, sold in little of Bari,” appears to have employed arsenic extensively also, and her con- fession on the rack, in which she ad- mitted the destruction of about 600 persons, mostly the husbands of dis: contented wives, made no mention of more subtle chemicals. Hieronyma Spara, who plied her infamous voca- tion in the reign of a later pontiff, Alexander VII, was similarly prose- cuted and failed to reveal any deeper secret. of the poisoner's art. The most powerful of the arsenic poisons and now the commonest— white metallic arsenic, arsenic trioxid or ratsbane, to use its various names—must be taken internally in considerable quantities, compared to some other drugs, before tb~ fatal result can be achleved. It is béyond possibility for this drug to be used in a ring whose maximum content would be a few drops. Such a quan- |tity of white arsenic as could be | placed. evcn in the largest ring, in the form of a solution, would prob- ably not kill if swallowed, and if ap- plied to a cut or abrasion would have only a local effect. Hence, if the stories of deadly poisonings through jewelry, through the inhalation of a vapor, through slight external con- tacts and the like, are to be credited, the the renaissance knew other drugs than those commonly used by its murderers. None of the vegetable poisons seems to offer itself as a pos- sibility here and we are forced back upon animal substances and the minerals. * ok k¥ EITHER prussic (hydro-cyanic) nor cyanic acid was known until three centuries after the Borglan period, and it is only these sub- stances, in their rarest and most con- centrated forms, that stand out among modern chemicals as possi- bilities. On this line of reasoning, then, the stories of these ring poison: ings are fictions or the medieval assassins knew of animal poisons or other combinations of noxious sub- stances whose powers have been for- gotten. The possibility of having used extracts from certain animals, especially sea creatures, is not to be denied, for the potency. of some ser- peant venoms remains as a proof of the power of animal secretions. Nor is it beyond the range of possibility that mineral and_ vegetable poisons may have been condensed and com- bined in some mysterious way by the experimenters of that day, in -the course of whose constant gearch for the elixir of life many strange re- sults are likely to have been achieved. Another factor needs to be considered. The Renaissance, with its almost total ignorance of medicine and its complete darkness as regards antiseptics and hy- giene; which matters were ‘then known only by- the despised and expelled Moors and Arabs, must have been an age when Doisons, now comparatively harmless, might have begot deadly results. When it is remembered that the first physi phials marked “Manna of St. Nicholas | investigator must suppose that| ‘| said, “he was oo rich.” ning in the summer of 1920, and this | well established that arsenic fn ono|pearis in a mortar and administered their dust to & Pope to save him from disease, and. wRen one may read in a | thousand old volumes of the filthy and disgusting medicaments then applied by doctors. who were no more than leeches and magicians, it is not hard to be- |lieve that the treatment of men suffer- ing from small doses of poisons often did more to hasten their deutns than | the drugs of the poisons p | One other deadly posibility presents itselfl. At the close of the Borgian |teign a good many adventurers were | already returning from voyages to the inewly discovercd West Indies. With | them they brought, according to Bloch land other authorities, that dread | scourge of humar {long called the Italian sickness. This | blood disease was then far more deadly ! than at present, for it attacked a popu- | lation which had not been made even { partly immune. (We know what rav- {ages tuch mild ailments measles | caused umong the innocent Eskimos and |South Sea islanders.) Whether the | poisoners of that period understood the contaglous nature of this fearful | disease and managed to convey it to | selected victims by means of slight abrasians caused by rings and other jewelry is certainly a matter for | grave doubt, ‘vet the possibility re- | mains. ok * % N the other hand. it seems highly probable that the students of something of the those days knew [ results of infections, even if they had | no inkling of their nature and de- | velopment. They may quite possibly | have understood how to cause such disturbances, and the absence of any knowledge of their treatment would | assuredly have rendered them useful to the poisoner. and lost poisons which were in com- mon use among the expert poisoners of Italy three and four hundred years | ago. The famous case of Marie d'Au- | bray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, offers evidence of a circumstantial char- acter. This handsome and noble French woman, put to death in 1676, nearly two centuries after the acces- sion of Alexander Borgia, had caused the death of both her brother and her father in an attempt to get the family property into her hands. She had also tried to dispatch her sister and her husband. Her guilt was proved by establish- ing her connection with one St. Croix, a gentleman adventurer and Ppolsoner, who had probably furnish- ed lethal potions to a whole group | of politicians and woman favorites at the court of Louis XIV.- This St, Croix had,died and 'bequeathed to the | Brinvilliers a secret chest, but the man’s heirs refused to deliver it and it was opened and found to contain many poisons. The history of her crime and trial is too familiar to be related here, but the nature and origins of St. Croix' poisons, which were undoubtedly those. used by the marquise and many others, are mat- | ters in point. St. Croix had been confined to the i bastille some years earlier, as the result of a lettre de cachet obtained against him by M. d’Aubray, the father of La Brinvilliers, who had taken umbrage at the scandalois re- |lations between St. Croix and his daughter. In prison St. Croix was confined with' one Exili, an Italian alchemist and druggist, who - had made many “subtle discayerles.in the course: of his ‘experimentation.” . St. Crofx learned the Italian's secrets'in prison and later, when he was freed, procured the release of Exili-through powerful personages who were iater suspected of .having ‘likewise made use of the alchemist’s evil knowledge: The laboratory of this man and of St. Croix was discovered subsequent- 1y in the house-of a highly placed person who had fallen under sus- pician, but was not “convicted be- cause, as the ‘Count’ de Grammont The -#trongbox of: St,. Croix,. -when,| which the French { Still the idea persists of mysterious | EAVING through the tan- gle of motors on 5th ave- nue, Jack Milford and his former college chum, now his guest, Bert Bedford of Califor- nia,’passed & smart open car in which an unusually attractive young wo- man sat, apparently oblivious of the crush. ‘By George!” Bedford exclaimed. ‘'Why the thrill?” Milford asked. “That queen—see her?” Milford's glance was directed by “Ah! Miss Gyles! Your enthusiasm is natural. So say we all of us. But there is no hope for you there, Bert. You have too much money—" “Isn’t that an unconventonal tion? I thought money—" “Oh, money does, usually. But this is an exception that proves the rule. She's the daughter of Sylvester Gyles. Epeaking figuratively, Gyles could glve alms to Croesus—if Croesus were here. And Gyles might look favorably upon you, for he has tried to marry that beauty to more than one young man whose income tax in itself bulks like a fortune.” “You contradict yourself.” “Oh, no! That's only part of the story. Miss Gyles—I have it from her girl intimates—is a law unto her- self. She declares she never will marry a man with money, on the theory that her own pecunlary pros- pects wauld be the real attraction.” “Rather a novel situation,” re- marked Bedford. “but she {8 rarer than any money she can command.” And the subject was changed. It was about six months later that Sylvester Gyles, who financially was all that Milford had intimated, and no- reply. | But there was ‘further discussion. “We shouldn't be too hasty,” eaid Mrs. Gyles, “and thus cause talk. Some | qulet way must be found.” | “I'll find a way,” was Gyles sponse. He was a man who found { ways for everything. His perspec- | tives were habitually perfect. His | financial coups were scientific. And | if ispiration was lacking he resorted to common sense. But this matter was quite removed from Gyles' busi- ness genius. At one of his clubs a few evenings later Gyles met a friend, a famous | psychoanalyst. He talked on love | and its influence upon the young.' re- BY ARNO DOSCH-FLEUROT. ’ N the Kammerherrsky Peryooluk, | in Moscow, there is a little play-; house known to the entire world | as the Moscow Art Theater.- In | it has been developed a company of theatrical artists who have perfecled the art of acting. They have turned acting Into life, or, put the other way, they have put life on the stage. For the first time they are on tour. | They will play in all the capitals of Europe, then in America, and then | they will go back home to the little | showhouse on the Kammerherrsky iPeryooluk. All the time they lre!’ away their eves will be constantly turned toward that little playhouse. ’becnnse it represents something to | {them almost religlous. It Is the shrine of their art, and they literally and actually live in their art. On tour their first stop was Berlin, {and while they were there T took oc- |casion to catch these artists when jthey were oft their own ground, and ioff their guard. to make them inter- |pl'et themselves. I did not go to Stanislovsky, the| | master mind behind these artists, be- cause he made the picture, and I, | wanted to have the picture interpret litself. 1 sought out Katchaloff. who is the best actor I have ever seen. Of | course, 1 have not seem all living | actors. But Katchaloff refused to be | singled out that way. He considered Limself simply one of the company, {and before we got through almost | every one in the company took a hand in trying to make me under-| {stand what 1 was driving at. * Kk *x ¥ ET Katchaloff talk. It was during the presentation of “Na Dniye,” Gorki's great play, translated, liter- ally, “On the Bottom,” presented in | New York in an English tranelation as “Night's Lodging.” He was in his make-up as the broken-down and sub- merged baron, and, as he talked, I had to keep dispelling -the illusion that I was not talking to Katchaloff, but to | = e examined by a court officer. was found to contain a quantity of lus- trous white powder (metallic trioxid | of arsenic, beyond question), some corrosive sublimate, Roman vitriol, powdered vitriol, antimony and two bottles, one containing a colorless, clear fluld and the other a similar liquid, but with a slight white pre- cipitate. The nature of all except the 1iquids was understood. The lai- ter were then tested on a pigeon, & cat and & dog. All died, and surgical examination after death showed no evidences of poisoning in the bodies. Repeated experiments were made with these liquids, but the science of | that day was unable to determine| | either their character or the precise organic effacts by which they caused death. Neither Brinvilllers nor her servant, when put to the torture, could reveal the nature of these fluids. These then, may have contained some of the mysterious poisons of the Italian school of killers. Skeptics will prefer to belieye that they were substances probably common and well known to modern science, but thére is no more evidence on this side of the question than on the other. The romance of Renaissance poi- sons thus remains undispelled and he who buys a ring belonging to the great florescent period of modern art and culture may ihdulge his fancies as freely as his temperament will permit. If his fmagination be pow- erful enough he may even be able to work up a first-class attack of physi- cal infection and give good doctors something else to puszle and contend i i [ | assumed that she over again, never more than four or five in a season, and rarely a new one. ‘We are stjll playing dramas that we do because we love these dramas. have not always played before ap- preciative audiences, but it has not |the real life history. made the same difference to us that|over, in fact, when some one makes it might have made if we had been |a false gesture, perhaps ever so slight, playing-merely for the audiénce. painter does not express himself on canvas .for the admiration of .the salon, what he thinks ought to be there and to express’ what he wants-to say. That iz our Way of ‘actings™ ¥ BY J. A. WALDRON. A SUCCESSFUL STRATAGEM Secrets of Old European Poisons “THAT QUEEN—SEE HER?" “How may love—a youthful fancy.|great culinary skill. hated John be- rather—be attacked, defeated?” he |cause John was handsome. Jealous asked. “I mean the phase of it that,{came out in all the other hirelings if unhindered. leads to mismating?" |like a rash. Even the maids turned “We Lnow nothing about mis-|UP their pretty noses, perhaps be- mating, Gyles, until after the fact.|cause John never had responded to Theories don't count,” said the scien- | Overtures. Mrs. Gyles, whose social status thus |tific friend. “And trying to deleal% “I think it will '_'"k beautifully, was definite, were discussing a prob- [love Is a perflous thing in most |5aid Gyles to Mrs. Gyles. o it lem. Usually Gyles settled problems |cases. It doesn’t work. It brings| “It was one of your inspira- without reference to his wife. auto-suggestion that arms the sub- |tions,” replied Mrs. Gyles. “Marion “You are certain, then.” said Gyles, | ject and defends. Moreover, it in-[is so fastidious. The slightest “that Marion is really in love with |Spires resentment against” the med- gaucherie will disgust her. A girl John.” dler. And it fans the passion.” cannot measure a man simply by a. Ana whatshalliwWe o So Gyles, who always placed |riding behind him in a motor. John was their chief chauffeur. |great dependence upon experts, took The dinner was as P_lnhoram as They employed four. another tack. He decided that di- | Would have been provided for a “Break it up, of course,” was Gyles' | plomacy—or craft—was due. | social leader or a dipiomat. Its | | Marion, who had been plied with |Paraphernalia. cquipment and ac- questions by her mother, had an- |cCessories might have puzzled many lan expert of social usage swered few of them. And she had| was mistress of | realization. of age. Her. John had not been required to drive of her. He | any of the family motors that da {7t may have been that Gyles had | theory that idle waiting might make !the young man nervous. | * % * her future. She was father had founght shy had his iron in the fire. John, the chauffeur, was invited to dine with the family one evening. Marion simply raised her evebrows when informed. The news spread through the sub- terrancan part of the household with natural reactions. John. the chaffeur, was not popular below stairs. And |in the drawing room before service the butler disliked him: he so]\ras announced. Marion did not ap- different from other chaffeurs. The | pear until they went in. but she was chef, an inflame vorth waiting fe John never had HIE chauffeur appeared for dinner dressed more corrcctly than Gyles was dressed. Perfectly at case, he chated with his employers L oS H 3 THAT 1 WAS NOT TALKING TO KATCHALOFF, BUT ACTUALLY TO THE BROKENDOWN “1 HAD TO‘ KEEP DISPELLING THE ILLUSION PLAY.” BARON OF GORK! The per-| “When do you feel you have ceased sonalities became confused in my [to be yourself and are the role you mind. In his they were not confused, |are playing? What is the transition? because they were parallel. He could |1 asked. step back and forth across a fine line | “I canpot tell you. It is something between Katchaloff and the baron be- |T could only explain to a fellow cause he was both. craftsman. But it is a very impor- “How do you succeed.” 1 asked, “in |tant question with us. 1 wonder if giving your audience the impression you realize how Important a question. that they are not seeing a play, but It is the cause of most of our heart- are the spectators of a drama in real |burns, most of the depressions that life? I am asking this question not |come over us at times when we feel because it is a flattering way of open- | we cannot succeed with a play. You ing a theatrical interview, but be- know how we work. Stanislovski cause T want to know. What is your |never starts to read a play until the secret’ whole company has become steeped “If we give that impression,” saidlin the history, the manners, the Katchaloff, “It is'not by chance. We |psychology, the everyday life of the must be not only in our parts, as the | times and country in which the scene theatrical phrase =oes; we must have |is set. Then when the play is read entered so completely into the role leach one feels it according to his tem- that we actually are the parts Weiperamenl. We take our parts in- play. It comes, of course, only after stinctively as the parts are Tead. constant repetition. You will notice ! Then begin the rehearsals, lasting we play our chosen plays over and |perhaps for months, perhaps years, until it comes to us that we have it. And until that moment arrives we have all the trials and pains of the painter who cannot express what he ‘wants. But there is not one, there are many of us; and each one, no mat- ter how minor the role, must be lost in the part he plays. It has happened often that we feel we are about to go over in a body from unreal acting to We are all but the busted baron himself. have been/giving constantly for many years. And the longer we play them, the more real they become to us, the more we forget ourselves in our roles. “In our company we play what we We that shows he, has not crossed over with us. “There is only one thing to do then—to drop it, to go back to the beginning again.” * ® X Kk % HILE Katchaloft “was talking, ¥V . Burjaloff, a ridiculous caricature A but to put into the picture in the| seen lier look o handsome, and sh. | was as unruffled as she would hav. been at a family tea. She | young woman of poise. was | Throughout the dinner John d i closed no note of unfamiliarity wits such a function. And he was an e tertaining talker. When Gyles | Mrs. Gyles lacked a subject, Join supplied one easily and gracefull: and with 1o air of pretension. 11 | discussed music, art. the drama an: literature with an expert’s knowledz. land a student's modesty, and G | and Mrs. Gyies were plainly ama: { Marion played up to John perfec kindr T !and was in a heaven of ap; Diplomacy, strategy and devices that aim at | legitimate in love as in war wise have said so, and furnish proof. { Gyles and Mrs success fre Gyles were astonished when. over the cof John proposed for the hand of Mari He laid all his cards on the ta 2 n Marion for a moment—but a moment only—was bewildered “So you are Mr. Bert Bedford. t young California miilionaire:” G exclaimed. HCjever—very cle T must say! You must have he about Marion’s ipath to m before you began your masqueral “I heard some! like that an who smile appea voung man rep jook at Marion PLAYERS MUST BE LOST IN ROLES of a miserable old underground lo ing-house keeper, was leaning « his chair, his eves burning with i patient desire to break in “The worst of it is.” he interrupts “when some one deceives himself t00. You see. it is so natural f. us to forget ourselves in the role w pl: t we sometimes think w have passed that indefinable lin tween acting and living the role. we also all have not only eves ears to detect the als note; W {acthially fecl the difference. For ir stance, suppose it is a role. as i ‘Czar Feodor Ivanoviteh,” where Bor | Godounoff turns upon the follower of Shouiski with such an imperious gesture that they cower in fear o him. If the actor playing Boris dois not make that gesiure because he i~ 8o immersed in the role that he does it instinctively, it does not frigh the actor he menaces. If he oml thinks he is living the role we fecl |the differenve. He must actual! | frighten us.” | Some one had entered while Burj: loff was explaining. and 1 tur gee Vishnevsky, the Tartar Dy He winked at me. recognize me?” he laughed you seen me as Boris in "Czar Feod Ivanovite Ha. ha. 1 frighten the But Burjaloff was persistent in his theme. “If he did not frighten us he went on, “if he only made believe he was frightening us and we made |belleve we were being frightened that would not be acting at The more diflicult thing is to detect i I him if he really menaces us and if w. really fear. It is very difieult to ex plain to you. but’ we know.’ Moskwin came wandering in. look ling at us with the Kindly. sorrowfu ve of Luka, the pllgrim. Tle was so | completely his role that he sat | there unconsciously as if he were jthe stage. Burjaloff looked at hin and went on. “Ther Moskwin.” he said. “He | the marvel of all the German actors (Here he is tonight Luka. In ‘Cz Feodor Ivamoviteh' you have e |how he plays Feodor Ivanovitci. an then in the ‘Cherry Orchard’ he plays the. stupid country bookkeeper T Germans cannot understand how can get o completely into three en tirely different roles.” PRI \/ OSKWIN, still Luka, smiled un u- V1 genuy. Vishnevsky's wink ha broken all formality between us. We began talking about more ordinary things, and he asked me how I thought their different plavs would 0 in America. T said I considered | “Czar Feodor Ivanoviteh™ as an as- sured, perhaps even an overwhelmin. success. Inive,” s the fin plece of acting being given on any stage, could hardly have less. Du | Tcheckoft's plays I was more doubt- ful about, and I explained why. | said 1 doubted if peopie in Americu could realize sufficiently the life of Russian provincial towns to get tin tragic pathos ip its fullness. His mind wa# drifting from some little provineial Russian town, real fancied, and the little theater in the Kammerherrsky Peryooluk. What we consider real life was forgotten, and what to him is real life, the life of the bitys he plays, remained us tiw reality’ for him as-T moved back to the front of the house, where I longed, to see’ the rest of the play from the audience. —_—— One hundred thousand tons of cou! a year wvére formerly required to run the St. Gothard rallroad from Lu- cerne to the Swiss-Italian frontier. but now its complete passenger and freight traffic is run by hydroelectrie power.