The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 20, 1896, Page 20

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1896. The Befogging Ibsen Drama and an American Thanksgiving in London LONDON, Exe., Dec. 1.—The past week has been an exciting one in London. We bave had a black—or rather, a green pea- soup—fog; we have had tne first perform- ance of an Ibsen play in the same day— the connection is obvious; we have had a Thanksgiving day dinner at the Ameri- can Society, and picture exhibitions, one for every day in the week! What with a sprinkling of concerts and teas; what with reading the latest revorts of inter- views with the President-elect, and the latest scandal in *hig lif” and the true and veracious agccount of everything the Prince and Princess of Wales did or did not do at Blenheim—life has been a toil- some and serious affair. The Ibsen piay was ‘Little Eyolf.” Some harsh critics affirm that the fog had 1ts origin in the theater—there were so many deep meanings concealed in misty sentences and sighs and disjointed ejacu- lations. The unprejudic:d will be able to assert that the fog seemed to hover chiefly over the audience, whoseemed in so much doubt as to the proper amount of expres- sion to throw into their own faces that they did not have much attention left to give to the play. Tue audience was quite wortn while seeing as a whole— writers, and artists, and playwrights, and great ladies, and stage managers, and journalists. Only Iondon can gather to- gether such a heterogeneous mass of people. In the stage-boxes, as the play pro- gressed, you would catch a glimpse of a head thrust forward in absorbed attention —Henry James, reserved and melan- choly; Comyns Carr and Pinero, inaul- gent, if a little supercilious; *‘Hanthony ‘ope 'awkins—as I heard a newsboy at a railroad bookstall recomrmend to an in- quiring customer—Anthony Hope Haw- ‘kins, between young Justin McCarthy and his wife—Cissy Loftus, that was. And there were Will Rothenstein of Yel- low Book fame and Bernard Shaw and Clement Scott, the critics, and Ibsenian young women with intense faces, and ever 50 many more! It would be tempting fate to give any opinion on the play. The first act was deeply interesting, at times thrilling, at times touching. The second and third acts were without dramatic force—inter- esting, as scholarly analysis of character, dissections of motives and sometimes rather repulsive honesty can make them. Courtney Thorpe did the bookish prig with high ideals; Janet A. Church over- did the passionate and recklessly loving wife; Miss Robyns, who gives the plays, acted exquisitely and bad the most deli- cate and charming part, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell made of the Rat Wife a figure so weird, so grewsome and so picturesqe that she stamped her personality upon all the rest of the play, permeating it, although only five minutes actually before the audi- ence. ’ The critics, I verily believe, sat up all night over their virtuous tasss. What- ever unpieasantness had escaped the mul- tftude in the performance itself was dragged to the light of day and discussed in the most pleasing and open manner from the highest moral standpoint. I be- lieve William Shakespeare of Stratford- on-Avon once asserted—is it in Hamlet?— that-“there is neither good nor evil, but thinking makes it so.” In this cass the critics thought to most excellent purpose, and the poor benighted men and women of duller perception who had hstened without a blush now blush to think they did not blush. Of course, since then no further places can be purchased, every seat is sold for the remaining four per- formances. “This is a strange vor!d,” as Sam Weller would have said. The American Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel Cecil was a “‘magnificent affair,’”” ATTENTIVE LISTENERS AT IBSEN’'S as the gociety journals would chronicle it. It was rather disappointing from one standpoint and infinitely amusing from anotber. That Minister Bayard, who would have presided with so much dig- nity, was inconsiderately invited to Wind- sor to dine with the Queen on this very aay caused some vexation probably e¥zn to Minister Bayard himself. Ry This fact is likely to be a little misun. derstood. Mr. Bayard had no option. in regard to accepting or refusing the invi- tation; he could not consult his personal wishes any more than a young and ambi- tious lieutenant may who is asked by the commanding officer, General So-and-So, to conduct his aged grandmother to church. Mr. Bayard would probably have preferred to be “first in his little village,” especially with “turkey and pun’kin pie’’ as his reward, His absence was very much to be regretted. It is rather a sad comment on American oratory that the best speeches of the even- ing were delivered by Sir Frank Lockwood and Sir Richard Webster. The contrast between the post-prandial efforts of these shining lights of the English bar and those of our own countrvmen was a little painful. The comparison was unavoida- ble. 8ir Frank Lockwood especially pro- posed the health of the President of the United States in a gpeech that was so hu- morous, so cordial and so fine, in language s0 choice and a voice so perfectly modu- lated, vigorous and clear, thatit was a rare pleasure to listen to it. Of the American speeches only one was even audible; that was delivered, with great ability, by Mr. R. Newton Crane, who has probably been disciplined by his long years of practice in London. As a rule it was possible to catch a word here and there by straining the attention, by clutching tne ear and bendin« it forward like a very old person in the babit of using an ear trumpet. Sudden sentences were shouted -as though addressing a camp-meeting, and PLAY. others were whispered facetiously, evi® dently for the delectation of the immedi- ate neichbors of the speaker. If it could have been put to vote I think there would bave been a unanimous resolution passed that every man or woman with aspira. tions for the after-dinner laurels should be forced to spend a year at an institution where it would be possible to study voice- culture and the fine art of oratory. The dinner itself was lavish. An army of waiters served the 800 guests; a sou- venir volume, bound in red leather, writ- ten and illustrated for the occasion, was presented to each and every happy.person, and the great banqueting hall of the hotel, like the hall of some medieval castle, was superb even under the decorative infliction of hundreds of small' cotton flags— ha’penny editions .of the star-spangled banner—and the shields and emblems of all the States and Territories. As a whole the guests were representa- tive of that curious specimen, the Ameri- can abroad, but a more unrepresentative gatbering of Americans as they are at home it has never been my pleasure to see. The beautiful American girl was a rara avis. Mrs, Paul Cowles of San Fran- cisco was unquestionably the prettiest woman 1 the room. Ot other San Franciscans I saw only Mr. and Mrs. Denis O'Sullivan, Miss Hey- nemann and Colonel Alexander G. Hawes, although I strained my eyes. It was almost as hard to see as to hear across that vast hall, and it was only by means of the table card that we could trace the celebrity to hislair—to his chnhl'i. more properly speaking. So we discovere! that ;’lr:e()riigh\ (John Oliver Hobbes) was seated belween & man’s active black arm aud a lady's waving fan; that the heads seen now and then between moving waiters and a number of backs belonged to Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Sianley. He looked bent and white and old, and Miss Dorothy Tennant that was looked fresh and charming and young. Poultney Bige- iow sat in close proximity to the con- tingent from San Francsco, and seemed to enjoy bimself even without pis most intimate friend, the Emperor Wulnm_ of Germany. Opposite him sat the writer George Manviile Fenn, and at the head of this table the delizhtful, incomparable Benjamin Franklin Stephens, secret ary of the society, beamed upon bis particular guests. ; It would be an 1interesting if somewhat complicated task to try todiscover just bow many “really and truly’’ Americans there were. They: had a provincial air, the greater proportion. The young men had’a patient éxpression like clerks in a fancy-goods shop—store, I would say—and the ladies’ costumes appeared to have come with the ladies themselves from the regions of Petaluma and Milpitas. They were astonishingly original. One most impressive scene was the entrance of a bride, apparently just risen from her wed- ding breakfast. She was 6 feet 3 in height, and the happy bridegroom was fair, fat and 5feet4. Long streamers of gauze and tin- sel floated about her, and artificial orange blossoms were caught here and there. I have made cdreful inquiries about the spe- cial character of her sleeves, and have beard it authoritatively asserted that they are called angel sleeves. It is a matter of deep regret to me that I have never cultivated the acqunin‘ance of the society reporter, whose eagle eye would at once have ascertained whether the skirg was gored or—or some other thing. The fan that she waved carelessly to and fro was a guaint conceit. It would have or- namented a hearse; itlooked like the wing of an enormous mythological bird—and the waiters circled around it with great respect. The vegetable decorations of the bridegroom in his buttonholé were of the same delicate proportions. They walked across the room, the lady sailing forward with her wing spread, the gentleman hop- ping over her train in a most stately manner. It was quite in the spirit of a court function, especially as represented on the stage at, the Grand Opera- house with slow music. Speaking of music reminds me that the musical pro- gramme added largely to the patriotic feelings of those present. We enjoyed first *God Save the Queen,” then the “Star-spangled Banner,” in which the chorus was sustained by 800 voices in 800 aifferent keys. “Thw Oid Folks at Home,"” sung by Mme. Belle Cole, with the notes sustained to a point that made the audi- ence transfixed with the fear that she would never catch her breath again, was applauded, after that feat was successfu!ly accomplished in the most satisfactory manner. o On the whole, however, the American dinner if it gives an unscrupulous journal an opporfunity to poke fun, was distinctly enjoyable ard has a mostadmirable object, to promote good feeling- and cordiality among the exiles abroad. In spite of the \ frivolous tone of this communication the “object all sublime” of the dinner is nevertheless deeply appreciated and grate. fully acknowledged by this particular exile. Vax Dyck Brows., Desectation of the Famous Old Castle of .Tintagel, the Birthplace of The sad news comes that anotherspot ot legendary and poetic interest and sanctity is in danger of desecration. 1t is Tintage! by the Cornish Sea.” Tintagel is a primi- tive county seacoast place on the north shors of Corr-vall, and its castle, pow in the last stages of ruin, was orce a mighty stronghold. King Arthur was bora in the Castle of Tintagel, according to the | Monmouth, | accounts of Geoffrey - of and of the poets and chroniclers of the Court of King Henry II, while Lord Tennyson, not wishing for his own reasons to accept this view ex- actly, devised a story of the baby Ar- thur being washed ashore in the midst of remarkable elemental disturbancesin the little cove below the castle. King Mark of Cornwall lived in the Castle of Tintagel. Thence he sent Tristram to bring the fair Isoit from Ireland to be his bride, and it was on the way thither that the knight and the Princess drank the love potion that made them forget the King and the world and all eise in gazing at each other. It was in the burial- ground of the castiethat they were finally buried. Tintagel is a spot of wild and romantic beauty, but it has been hitherto so inac- cessible, and the accommodations which it offered for visitors have been so limited, that it has had comparativeiy few of them—that is to say, few in comparison with many other places of no greater at- tractiveness. For there is & hotel there which, though not very large, is uncom- monly good, and the reiiway now comes to Camelford, only sixmiles away, whence the ride to Tintagel by carriage or coach is delightful. 8o of late years a good many pevple who knew of the place have gone there, and have been glad that they went and sorry that they did not arrange their plans of travel so that they could stay longer. Many of them have been Americans, of course, who are always the first to find places that are worth visiting. There was no objection to this, any more than there is ever any objection to any beautiful place being seen by as many people as can see it without hurting it. But now it is pro- posed to disfigure Tintagel by a big new- fashioned summer hotel, and to build some sort of structures or other on Barras Head, which commands the best view of the castle. All this will interfere with the present beautiful simplicity and pic- turesqueness of the place, and if it could be prevented it would be desirable that it should be. If the plan to buitd a hotel at Tintagel is really serious it will probablv be carried out, but something can be done to save Barras Head, and that ought to be done, The National Trust for the Preservation of Natural Beauty and Historic Interest hasthe matter in hand, and asks for sub. scriptions for the purpose of buying Bar. ras Head and keeping it away from the touch of vandalism forever. Americans who feel an interest in preserving so beau. tisul a spot for the future enjoyment of themseives and their countrymen are asked to help, and they will nodoubt do so. The project ought to interest them no less than Englishmen, and it is well tbat those who care for such things should know that one of the loveliest spots hallowed by the poetry of the common language of the two couniries is in danger, and that the address of the treasurer of the fund that mnst save it is No. 1 Great College street, ‘Westminster, 8. W. It shouid be added that the time for which the option of buy- ing the property was given bas nearly ex- pired, and that subscriptions should be sent early, The castle iiself, with the ground on whieh it stands and the whole of the big peninsula called Tintagel Head, belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall, ahd is therefors the property of the Prince of Wales. BSo the castle is not in danger. The village of Tintagel is on bigh ground, back half a mile or so from the shore. A village that shouid try to staud un the very edge of the share at this point would have a good deal to contend against, for though the cliffs are lofty +nd rugged, they are not too high for the itis no modern inn ovation, for the quarry must have been here or somewhere near here before King Arthur's time, else how could the castle have been built of the slate for him to be born in? The visitor will not get far in his ex- furious spray of the terriple winter seas | plorations before he will begin to sce that beat upon Cornwall to wash over " what » strong place this must have been them, and it is sometimes as much as the inexperienced stranger cares to do to stana against the winds that blow in from he water even on fine days of summer. = S e The village consists of a few houses, the most of them small ones, ranged along one street. Tbe hotel, the Wharncliffe Arms, does auch a thriving business in the summer that it has to have an annex. It is of the plain and comifortable sort that is usnally found in the country dis- tricts of England. Tke way to the castle from the village is along the street, down a grassy lane, up over a hill and across a heathery down. Then, perched on the very edge of a great precipice, the castle is reached—that is to say, half of it is reacted. The visitor who has not been told what to expest will be surprised to find that the other half of the castle is so situated that he will have to take an altogether different way to get to it, or else make a sbort cut down to the house where the key is kept, along so steep a grade that he will need to be care. ful not to make the latter part of the jour. ney headlong. For the castle is on both sides of a deep gorge, which separates the mainland from the peninsula Tintaget Head, commonly called “the island,” because it comes so near being one.. Tne connecting isthmus is a narrow, rocky ridge, almost down to| the water’s edge at high tide. It is fairly well shown in one of the pictures here miven. This gorge was once narrower, it is said, and there was a bridge across it, conneeting the two-parts of the castle. The bridze was gone nobody knows how long ago, and the terrible attacks of the sea and the wind upon the rocks that the castle stands upon have worn and torn them away till the gorge itself is widened and much of the castle must have fallen into the pit below it. i It was built of the same sort of slate as the rock on which it stands, and if the su- per-esthetic visitor thinks that the pros- pect is injured by the slate quarry down at the bottom of the gorge he may console himself with the thought that st any rate to resist all the possible attacks of an- cient warfare. If the wind is not blowing 80 hard as to make it dangerous he will crawl upon the highest place of the wall g\_@gawm—"’s@wh\y@_ P ffi%@; CceC oo oS now left of ‘the castle, which is also the part furthest inland. Itisa heavy piece of masonry, and the top of it is wide enough t0 make a comfortable walk, if it were not for the wind that has been men- tioned once or twice before. 4 It is a glorious view all up ana down the coast from the castle. To the west and south there are headlands after headlands (for the whole coast of Coruwall is made up of them) till the most boldly jutting one of them cuts off the further view in 2he direction of Lands End. To the north and east there is Barras Head, the one that is now to be saved from the spoiler, and then acain headland after headland, away toward Boscastle. Straight out from the shore there is the open sea. It is the open sea, thatis-to say, as far ag the eye cun tell. Beyond the hori- zon, if you are looking far enough to the north, is Ireland. It is straight across this sea that the ship is sailing when the curtain rises on the first act of “Tristan and Isolde,’’ and it must have been down in the little coye under the castle, the lit- tle cove shown in the picture, that Tris- tram’s ship came toanchor. Over on the island, down close to the [ that it was set up at the usunal height of water of the cove, there is a little fragment of battlemented wall, with a door in it, which looks as if it mizat have been con- nected with a landing-place, and you can believe, if you want to, that King Mark stood at this exact spot to welcome his bride, the Irish Princess. The mention of the island brines the account of the place back to where it be- longs. Ifyou want to go to the partof the castle on the island it wil! be better to make up your mind to that effect before you leave the village, instead of trying to make your way there from the mainland vart of the castles Then you will take the | picture goes clear through the headiand, ! and .you can walk all the way through it at low tide if you do not mind getting | your feet wet. > path down the ravine, between the castle and Barras Head, till you come to the little house that is shown in the picture— the little house away down the ravine, not the one in the foreground, which is almost as much a ruin as the castle 1tself. In the little house lives an old woman who makes her living from her ancient privilege of keeping tne key of the castle. Go to the door and knock, tell her politely that it would be a favor to you if she would lend you the key, end she will lend it to you. Then you go along by the only path there is, so that you cannot lose your way across the connecting ridge and up the steep shore of the island till you get to the castle wall and the door witk the lock which your key fits, This bitof wall is only a few yards long, yet so steep is the rocky side of the island with this one little path up its side that it would be extremely difficult and dangerous to gain any access to the island except through this door. ‘When you are once thronghk vou will find easy ways over the whole of it, and you can explore it at your leisure and un- disturbed, except for some few other visitors who have borrowed duplicate keys from the old woman. The ruins here are not quite so far gone as those across the gorge, being on the.sheltered side of the island instead of the exposed side of the mainfand. 1f theisland has protected the castle it has felt the fury of the sea itself, The cave that shows its mouth in the In toward the middle of the island is island as you care for you must take the key back to the old womax, and then you can give her anything you like for the use of it, or nothing, if you are that kind of person. There are many finer ruins than Tintagel within a thousand miles of it, but there are few anywhere which the sentimental visitor can more thoroughly enjoy. Heis not bothered with the surroundings of a dirty modern town, with the jarring and elaborate .conveniences of modern hotel life, with the nuisance of officions guides or with many visitors. It is the place to rest, to breathe pure breezes—sometimes gales—to dream of King Arthur and to feel the full spirit of poetry and chivalry and beauty. PAnachronisms in Art, *The French artist whose picture in the Paris Salon a few yvears ago showed the eccentricity of presenting a cavalier of the time of Louis XIV armed with a modern revolver was not alone in his an- achronism,” says Henry Granville in the Home Journal. “Some of theearly painters were amusingiy careless about such mat- ters. Tintoretto, in a picture of the chil- dren of Israel gathering manna, represents them as having taken the precaution of arming themselves with shotguns. When Cigoli painted the aged Simeon at the cir- cumcision of the infant Savior, which picture is now in St Petersburg, he re- membered that aged men wear spectacles, and so placed these conveniences upon Simeon’s nose. “In a picture by Verrio of Christ heal- the chapel. All that is left of it is the foundations of the walls and the altar, This is a sleb of stone at one end of the room. It was found lying on the ground, THE CASTLE, THE COVE AND THE CAVE V@z‘—@mm@m@», oA -.'-"s.y ard it was so clearly an old altar stone [ fl4 an altar, so that it now clearly marks the use of the place. There is an inclosure near this which is called the castle grave- yard. A curious natural—or apparently natural—formation of the island is known as King Arthur's Seat. It is a sort of double throne, hollowed out of the rock on the side toward the land. It is any- thing but a comfortable seat and the view from it is inconsequential compared with the glorious prospect from the other side of the island. King Arihur had bad taste if he spent any great amount of time sit~ ting in it. When you have seen as much of the ing the sick the bystanders ara represented with periwigs. The ludicrous effect is equaled in Albert Durer’s picture of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Gar. den of Eden by an angel wearing a flounced petticoat. The same artist, in his scene of Peter denying Christ, depicts a Roman soldier quietly enjoying a pipe of tobacco. “Of all the artists who have sinned against propriety or probability, the Duteh and Fiemish have been among the most eccentric, In the Museum of Vienna there is a picture of *Christ Bearing the Cross,’ by Peter Brueghel the elder, which shows Christ carrying his burden, whiie s monk, erucitix in -hand, exhorts the two thieves to die repentant.’ *Nicholas Poussin has represented the deluge with boats at hand ready for use, and on another canvas ‘Rebecca at the Well’ is seen with Grecian architecture in the background. And in a picture repre- senting ‘Lobsters in the Sea, Listening to the Preaching of St. Anthony of Fadua,’ the lobsters are red, although as yet itis fair to presume unboiled. A French artist has depicted the Lord's Supper, the table beinz ornamented with tumblers filled with eigar-lighters; and the Virgin Mary, in another work of the same nationality, is helping herself toa cup of coffee from a chased coffee-pot. - “But drollest of all blunders is that which portrays the Gardenof Eden with Adam and Eve in all their primeval sim- plicity, while near them, in full costume, is seen a hunter with a gun shooting ducks.” = ——— A Playful Elephant. A most remarkable incident happened in the early hours of Sunday morning to s police constable on duty in the High Road, Clapton. It appears that on Satur- day night a traveling cireus gave a per- formance on Mount Pleasant Fields, aud, as is usual, struck the tent soon after the close of the entertainment. Among the amimals was a performirg elephant, and this, in the charge of a keeper, was dis- patched to the next stopping-place. All was quiet as the -pair jogged along, but when nearing Goulton road, High King Arthur road, Clapton, the keeper noticed that the elephant would walk on the pavement, but he little thought of the trick it was about to play. Sianding just round the corner of the road was ‘a police constable sheltering from the wind, and quite un- conscious of the approach of the elephant, whose tread gave forth no sound. As the; amimal reached the cormer be put his trunk round and just touched the come stable’s arm. The latter turned to sel what it was, and on- seeing the elephant was seized with alarm and took to his heels along the road, closely pursued by his tormentor. The keever tried toscall the animal back, but it*was of no avail, for the re- treating figure of the constable occupied the sole attention of the elephant, who kept up the pursuit until the officer darted into ‘a garden and closed the iron gates behind him. The elephant stood at the other side of the railings, but made no attempt to get at him, and, much to his relief, on the arrival of the keeper, turned and went on its way,—Westminster Ga- zette. A Money-Making Youth. Harold C. Green is 13 years of age. He owns a lot of ground that he values at $500. He was offered $350 for it some aays ago, but refused. He earned the money himself, with which he bought the proo- erty. Not only that, but he earned it in his ‘* off hours’’ — for ba goes to school and does not allow his money- making propensities to interfere with his good standing in his classes. In fact, Har- old is an up-to-day twentieth century native son, He lives with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Johan C. Green, at 410 Fell street. They are well- to-do people, but they have put Harold upon his mettle—are coaching bim to look out for himself. And so, the boy at 13 has won and invested the first half of the first thousand dollars that capitalists say is harder to win than any $10,000 after- ward, “How did I make it?’ said the young business man the other day. ‘Oh, buying . and selling things—chiefly newspapers and books. I sell newspapers right along every day and then when Isee a chance at something else that interests the public I take hold of it. I sold some of the earliest campaign books, and when Coin’s Financial School first came out and people were talking about it I wrote to Mr. Harvey at Chicago and got a lot ol them before they got in the bookstores bere and I sold them all. I put all my money in bank until I had enough to 'buy a lot with., Yes, I go to school right " ‘loTI;:Ke. young man is also very clever _wlth the pencil, exhibiting signs of consider- able talent as an artist. Heisa good il- Justration of what even a boy can do wh‘c tries, though some people thh_uk mu.nu youthful energies should be directed infc some more substantial channel than thai HAROLD C. GREEN. At the public library in Macon there a barometer made simvoly of a thin st ofecedar and a thin strip of white pi placed together and stnck perpendicularly in a base rest of wood. When it is going to rain the strips b-nd down, and when i is to be dry they stand rigidly stiff an¢ straight. Itis said to 1indicate coming storms unfailing'y.