The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 1, 1900, Page 2

LOooKING TONWARD, HE WAGNER THEATRE Uth and San Frangisgo =r e f th th symphony of ¢ ted by Wagner and exe- e rs t c ra and chorus f n e sion Wagsner g f Ma y ~ % . PR L s It And whether re a Wagnerit cornerst 2L EERE] e world his career R! the cond: 5 ev t & ¥ : is_not ugly, is not E 1. Wagner the M = L s that when Europe was covered { ice, during the period of the (, the great woolly mammoth ) s way thr 1 valleys and over s, man was there hunting and /() him. A eory has been advanced before, the discovery that the bones, ) Ny the 1 tusks of theV ved with the rude/) New Prehistoric Theory tved the same gla th, et m gs of early man but objectors - e arisen who suggested that it was P € e than possible that man could have , . ich later and then found the(/ 1 b tusks of the mammoths which ) I s been frozen In the glaciers. These ®ig r discoveries remove this objection, for () ¥ ng e of the bones of the mammoths have § been found with flint spear points still D < DO OO @ | the Chinese as One of Their Lead- ing Men of Letters, £==2IMOTHY RICHARD, poet of poets am a Chinese poet,” he says, “and rais no more wish to translate these chil- of my brain th: the fond mother remold her darlings. 1 have lived ong in China and so close to the Chi- that I think and speak thelr lan- as my own. 1 have never English poetry. nor do I think I My thoughts seem to find their setting in Chinese verse and meter.” In this age of freaks this literary freak cannot be accounted the least. For an Englishman born and bred to slight the muse of his countrymen fs strange. For a Chinese muse to come at the beck and call of a foreigner Is stranger yet. During his long residence in China Mr. Richard has not confined himself to de- lighting the Chinese intellect, but has also sought to save the souls of the yellow men. He combined poetry with mis- sionary work, often making poetry the le. M rough -~ handmaiden of misslonary work, trying e ve not been 10 Eive them the gospel through the publishing Pleasant medium of poetry. - 2 them have been repub. _ FOr the past ten years Mr. Richard has - S St (N s Setvisasd "n secretary of the Society for the Dif- finding their way from end to end of fusion of Christfan and General Knowl. - edge Among the Chinese. With the aid s of this society, he has published over 100 w the Orient to add 9!fferent books and pamphlets in the last the tiny ray of light plercing Year—over 37000000 pages—and so well »om of Chinese superstition and ig- Dave these books been received that sev- The tiny day has grown into a ol “fnltwn:(;run-e :w('n r’evubllnhed by the nd brighter one, but the head of Chinese in different provinces. rown gray. Thirty years of AMONE other translations, the publish- rk among the Chinese has 16 SOm™pany has brought out several of hair and furrowed his brow M M0ody’s sermons. They are in pam- nds, vellow, prevailed PPlet form with vellow dragon borders, him to take & much needed rest. 8o _~ickenzie's History of Civilization” has with the passensers of the ™50 been translated, the binding and cov- Gaelic Timothy Richard landed ta San i Orhamented and embossed In Chinese Francisco signs. o B I have not confined my work * 1:‘:“'“, ‘“’;::'“;w;:‘:‘:“""l’—v’fi In Jigious translations,” Mr, l{lchud n:t::- ese that it vardly to Eng- ‘‘we have also turned out essays on 4 ccordi e = men- X According to account, his verse 18 tal philosophy, agrlculture., c]...xz'.ll learning and miscellaneous selections from works on sclence, if would not attempt it. progress.” e aRLe e t inte ard him ble shape it would in & way work itself VIEL OF BAYREUTH.| ples of mu < THE SUNDAY CALL. P RICHARD WAGNE R ... He thought that the correct interior this that it was one of the best known possible, for these i y suggest and evolve & Wagnerian ideas. The only possible way would enable the spectators to see into stage space rises sufficlently above and + style for the tem- of entirely concealing the orchestra from the orchestral pit. Walter Damroseh) on the Coming Wagneriap Festival at Bayreut @itions as best it might. Wagmer regard- The entire structure of the building was view of the singers was to place it In & pit od this theater as merely provisienal. He determined by the necessity of concealing sunk below the level of the stage and belleved that the problem once given visi- the orchestra from the view of the audi- auditorium. This arrangement made the ence. Wagner had so often written about system of balconies and ranked boxes Im- MUsic Make amphitheatrical rows, thirty rows in all, each one sufficiently elevated above those in front to command a view of the stage. The number of seats in the separate rows increases, making a total seating capa- city of 1344. This is not a large audito- rium, but it 18 the best in the world for the purpose for which it was bullt. Wagner himself in these words describes the effect of this arrangement which hides the orchestra and makes the figures or the stage seem to have more than the stature of mortals: “The spectator finds himself as soon as he has taken his sea in what may be called a ‘theatron’ In th true sense of the word—that Is, a place designed solely for observation, the very position of his seat turning his gaze in the right direction. Between him and the scene nothing is distinctly visible, but an tllusive sense of distance arising from t architectural device of the' double scenfum carries the scene, as it wer the unattainable regions of dreamia while sounds of music escape from ‘mystical gulf’ as from a world of spir and like the vapors which once arose fr the bosom of mother earth upon t Pythian priestess create {n him a condl- tion of clairvoyant exaltation In which the scenfc picture becomes a truthful repro- duction of life itself.” Another striking feature of the theater is the introduction of ranked columns terminating the rows of seats upon either side, and concealing the flat walls behind. These columns are so arranged that to- gether with the seats which are flanked by them they continue the system of perspective. About the stage itself there is nothing extraordinary but its mechanical re- sources and its dimensions. It is three elevated positions times as high as the aunditorium. The sinks sufficlently below the auditorium to the audience while leaving the leader in The seats were therefors arranged {n allow of either the elevation or the de- Timothy Richard, Who Writes Poetry in Chinese. ' pression of & ‘stage set” entirely out of TV POV VT IOV OIT DTS T T I DD DD <, @ sight. { Just befors the performance begins a (tew long-drawn notes of trombones and { cornets give the signal and the spectators cslrelm quietly in, the number of en- trances obviating any rush or confusion. The doors are shut, not to be reopened ( until the close of the act. The gas lights Th\ir Pilgrimas Qere, & 2 are extinguished, all but one row, from :‘hlch a glimmer Is barely perceptible. The theater is all but absolutely g 4 no inspectlon of costumes or read. & of texts and scores is possible, For a minute or two there is a deep, profound silence, then from the mystert- e two prosesnia the overture. Any tes ¢ who sh n learn hat he is In a re art ha e meaning and mands all the respect elsewhers ac- Cored to religion AS stated before, the performance be- gins at 4 and lasts untfl 10, with ¢ sions of an hour each. Mo ~heon with taking agner lives in Bayreuth with her fried. Their home is called hnfrfed” and here Frau Wag- is who come to sband's nds. Agnerian the Bay- stivals are only c standpoint, so pald a tithe of elsewhere. But and highly ner- rom ar are not erformers As yet it has fallen t y Nordica has suig a leading part one or two ers have been given inor roles. The Califoraia girl has yet to have her chance. But according to Mr. Damrosch, San Francisco audiences have enough musical BAYRELUTH THEATRE BETWEEN THE ACTS, P intelligence to highly appreciate Wagner. Mr. Damrosch ought to bs a most com- petent critic, for he has bad a chance to measure us. “I am delighted with the musical int. ligence of the audiences here,” says Mr. Damrosch. ‘“Many of them could fully appreciate the Bayreuth festival, and that is the acme of praise. “Everything out here is so bi con- tinues Mr. Damrosch, “that some day California will produce a singer big enough for Bayreuth.” )stuck In them, showing that the animals { were slain by these primitive weapons. To-day, by the ald of the stone imple- )ments which have been found in France and Germany, it may be possible to say very much about the life of the men and \women who dug pits for the unwieldy (/mammoth, and, having trapped him, dis- )patched him at their lelsure by repeated (blows of rude stone weapons. We have (Jsome of the very weapons which were {made by the earliest men on European soll. Of these extinct animals the best known (is the mammoth, and next comes the woolly haired rhinoceros, while perhaps the most famous is the cave bear. The cave lion, the cave hyena and the urus were also quite common. QGreat llliteracy in Russia. The {lliteracy of Russia exceeds that of any other country claiming to have & civilized government. The Humanitar- fan states that in 10,000 villages of the vast empire there is not a school and it I8 estimated that not 20 per cent of the pop- ulation of the empirs has acquired even the rudiments of a common school edu- cation. It has been figured out that If the Czar would ¢ d 100,000 men of the t army he wou save money enough to provide a school for each of these villages. It is not surprising that the Czar should desire to reach some ar- rangement with the other nations which would permit him to partially disarm. Composes and Writ es in the Language of the Mongofians as Readily as in His Native Tongue. Mr. Richard says that the movement to- ward vast reforms proposed by the young Emperor two years ago was largely through the influence of the publications of the soclety. ““That was a great beginning,”” says Mr. Riehard, “and had not the Empress Dow- ager again taken the Government into her own hands China would by this time be well upon its way to a quicker civilization and reform. The Empress Dowager’'s pol- icy of conservatism Is a great blow to China’s prospects, trending the natlon backward toward superstition and igno- rance. “The Empress Dowager favors an antl- foreigner policy, and so long as her rule continues the best hope of China lies in the action of the powers who are her greatest friends. It Is to be hoped t! in the name of humanity and the best terests of China herself, s power will take her in hand, keep from being divided up and help her the path of progress. Then instead of ing a menace to the peace of the world she may be the means of bringing great good to all nations.” In regard to the plars of the society, Mr. Richard says: “China has about two hun- dred centers of examinations, aggregating some half-million students, and our aim is to circulate useful literature to these two hundred centers of examin/itions, so that when these students retudn to their homes and become officers in the Govern- ment or engage in other departments of lite they may carry light into the great Is {n China. We hope these students will be Instru- mental in the uplifting of China.” Besides being a missionary and philan- thropist, Mr. Richard is also a business man of some wealth. His work, aside from its objective purpose of Influencing Chinese educational affairs, has been the source of a considerable income, and he has been a successful investor in different enterpiises in China, Speaking of China's future, he lays great an med w, chemicals It needs waterworks w miles apart, are abso- without means of communication. a, however, is w up. American clocks, watches and sewing machines are finding ready sale. The farming Industry of the empire is growing to be important, a needs American farm mackn- ashing m1chines and separat in used in CI Jors and sifted by the accom- ina fans or sald Mr. Richard, “China Is go- Ing to be a great market for American e is an ‘open door The yellow men certainly astic ck Rehard. He future and is sympa c with their pr ent. Of their past he is regretful, and all his energies, for thirty long years, have been devoted to lending a hand in tr removal of the Old and whit have an en- the Rev. Timothy faith in their but a few months of respite before agaln taking up his work. These many years hence the student running over the list of the Chinese poets will stumble upon the name of Timothy Richard. For by the verdict of the ale mond-eyed critic of to-day Timothy Rich- ard ‘'shall have a line in the Chinese book of fame,