The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 30, 1901, Page 18

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, UNDAi', JUNE 30, 1901. = ' THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL e LILLIEUTIANS I BLANCHE BATEs COMES {JDHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager POLLARD s L' LL P A 2 ‘ Back 2 Theatrical Staw |'supay ....... e h i e TURME 0 The Rustralian Marvels, OF THE F'RST MAGN'TUDE. 1‘ Publication Oi_l'z‘ce_ s .Market and Third, S. F. Mfly SYNG 'N TH'S c'Ty. e COMMENCEMENT ADDRESSES. R By Gul'sard‘ ITH the commencement season in our colleges and universities the scholar who pos- By Blanah‘_Par"ng g X & e +| sesses any faculty of oratory has the attention of the American people to a greater |<— o - % 5 + degree than at any other time. In fact, so numerous are our colleges and so great |+ CALIFORNIA ACTRESS WHO STEADII ASCENDING LADDER OF FAM 18 ) THE IS8 BLANCHE BATES has ar- rived. She is “there,” she is{ “4t.”” in the concise and elo- quent argot of the. street, and to the chorus of Ea the Frohman stamp on her geniu ®#dded that which rings most kindly in her ear, the unrestrained praise of Miss Bates’ own peop Mr. Belasco's * nia girl last se nature of an covery™ of the Califor- n was something in the | after-the-event affair: not to say, however. that it is not by his un- | erring appreciation of personality that her genius has been given its most grate- ful opportunities of expression. But Miss Bates was discovered here. a full | two years ago, and her art given a cer- tain honor in her own country, which one is pleased to remember at this date. We even did a little prophesving ourselves, myself among the chorus, b: upon | Miss Bates' work “Tre Dancing Girl,” two years ago, which was an extraordi- if comparatively de perform- It is true that t made in Cali- ftamp on reputation is not yet| tern currency, and that | count the prophecy; for ance. fornia” recognized in the results ai although the Cigarette conception might | be deduced from Miss Bates' Drusilla Ives, given the actress’ extreme temperamental mobility, yet “Madame | Butterfly,” in which she achieved her first | Eastern success, is quite another story. | In the one c ssolute, lawless free- of panese straint is required frette the dominant nota Is unce: reasonab! ality, in that of Madame Butterfly the | last essence of conventionalist mbol- | fzed to a micety by the short skirt and gaiters of the one and the slim, clinging. prisoning kimono of the other. Yet Miss | Bater is equally happy in either role, and | in other parts at apparently a direct dra- | matic tangent from either of these. s | We did not like Mr. Belasco’s “Naughty | Anthony” here, yet it was a reasonabl successful venture in New York, owing, partly, to Frank Worthing’s clever work | in the name role, but still more to Miss | Bates the airy heroine. “The Great ! Ruby,” given by the Frawleys last year, | ‘was docketed in our dramatic annal: | scenic wonder, but without other reason for existence, yet Miss Bates actually made an acting part out of the seemingly | impossible role of the Countess. It was | the same thing with the “Children of the | Ghetto,” for the production of which wo | are also indebted to the Frawleys. As given here the Zangwill play pleased by #ts novel material, disappointed by its form and delighted by the admirable op- portunity it afforded Wilton Lackaye, whose Reb' Shemuel was the feature of the play. In New York, as the Rabbl's daughter, Miss Bates again altered the dramatic focus and became twin star with the plcturesque priest. So it has been with all her mature work: she is the star by sheer force, weight, of personality. Put her anywhere in the picture and she becomes at once the important fact, the high light, the central interest. If the perspective is thus occasionally disturbed, the dynamic values upset, so much the worse for values and perspective; it fs evidently safe only to give Miss Bates the starriest of star parts. PR -1 Such is the Cigarette role in *Under Two Flags,” In which Miss Bates is now appearing at the Columbia Theater un- der the Frohman auspices. Of the fiye | or six adantations of the frothy movel | that have appeared within critical mem- ory this of Paul Potter's (that bears also the magic polish of Belasco’s touch) is the only plausible attempt—plausible be- cause of the freedom of its adaptation. Flimey enough it is, obvious and ancient in situation, hysterical in plot and de- pendent for its undoubted success on the personality of the star, a certain bright- ness of dlalogue and its admirable stag- | 2 But there is no_doubt as to its suit- s a means of expression for Miss Bates. Long after the day that will shortly arrive when the play is buried with other dramatic rubbish her brilliant work as the little vivandiere will be falth- 2 remembered and compared with that | er work which she is soon to do. Best remembered in that day will be the dance at the Ace of Spades, when | | | Cigarette, in a mad conflict of passlnn“ | and jealousy, dances out her sorrow on the floor of the wineshop to the accom- | papiment of -the drunken soldlers and camp followers' dancing and singing. It n epic of rage and despair. She has | discovered Cecil's love for the beau- | English woman, “daughter of a | * to speak in Ouldaese, and | v change in the brilliant, mobile face { . every lithe line of her ex- | every note of the vibrant | volce strengthens the suggestion of her | sense of the hopeless contrast between self and the “‘Silver Pheasant,” until, in an ecstacy of jealous madness she falis fainting at the feet of her lover. | But throughout the conception is re- | markable, powerful, consistent and truth- | ful to the last thread. By turns child, | saint, woman, devil, is this untamed daughter of the regiment, her mother a camp-follower, and herself the companion of Zouaves, chasseurs, and God knows who, until the coming of Cecil, whom she | has jearned to love. Cigarette has the manly virtues as befits her military up- bringing, and one of the cleverest bits of s Bates” work is here done, in the sug- fon of the conflict of her boyish can- = with the gentle craft that the com- ing of love has taught her. Sex has been | to Cigarette an incident, not an occupa- | tion, hence her supreme conteémpt for her rival, the “silver pheasant,” who has done nothing all her Aife but study the | aris of feminine fascination, and her{ contempt and the profound fear of this, to her. unintelugible fascination, is ex- pressed with admirable intelligence by the actress. There are laughter and tears in her resulting attempts to become fem- inine, where she breaks her pipe, brushes hair, dress and shoes with the same horse-brush, and scans herself in -the mirror for the first time to measure her physical attractions. Excellent business, 100, is the writing of the fake love let- ter that is to make Cecil jealous, all car- ried out with the same brilliant vivacity. The difficult tenderness of the vivandifire —in the love scene, her native pride and new humility, her pathetic fear of her old life, her passion of delight when her lover consents to give up the “silver pheasant,” her mad rags when she finds him gone, as she supposes, to join her rival, all is terpreted by Miss Bates with rare po and charm, and even to the banal will-save-him-yet” climax of the act, I8 made credible. And of course she “makes a good end,” as Cigarette savs of the dead letter car- rier. The death scene is a touching af- fair, pientifully wept over by the audi- ence, but it leaves behind a desire for a play that shall, by right of esthetic morale, give Miss Bates opportunity for the use of her extraordinary talent for our artistic betterment. One does not care to be cozened Into sympathy for claptrap and banality and, in_ her con- scicnceless way Miss Bates could persuade to bellef in any dramatic gold brick that she might offer. It is not that this melo- dramatic entourage is her native air, wit- ness the “Madame Butterfly,” and it is not safe to mention limitations in her con- necilon. Miss Bates' domain is probably bounded on the one side by Bernhardt In the “Camilleries” and by Mrs. Fiske on the other in the elusive subtleties of the Becky Sharp school, but all else seems open to her. Let us pray, then, for an- other ““Madame Butterfly,” interdicted by Mr. Belasco because of the unpopularity of the double bill, and may a C,Pulrtornl- playwright have the good fortune of i terpretation by this brilllant young wom:. an of ours, and one of the biggest facts of the American contemporary stage. ju tiful | | { Choice candies. Townsend's, Palace Hotel® ——— Cal. glace fruit 50c per 1b at Townsend's.* —_——— Best eyeglasses, specs., 10c to 40c. Look out front barber and grocery, 81 4th. L —_——— Special information supplied daily to business houses and public -P b‘ the Press Clipping Bu: llen’s), :om.:ry ‘-ue-t T:I‘:p‘;xgci Il:ln 'l‘b,fi. - is the public interest in the annual graduation and other exercises attendant upon the commencement week that there is hardly any portion of the people who have not been more or less under the influence of the scholars who have been called upon to make addresses. President Hadley of Yale in the baccalaureate address at that university pointed out the great change which has taken place in later years in the world and in its demands upon men of culture. He said: “Three hundred years ago the man who left college to go out into active life found a wide range of careers open before him. No social ‘barriers or conventional re- straints restricted his choice between good and evil. . If he were bent on nothing higher than per- sonal pleasure and adventure, he might turn buccaneer and sail for the Spanish main on a career of piracy, or he might become a soldier of fortune and engage h'mself for years in wars which as then conducted were little better than piratical: or he might attach Wimself to the fortunes of some great man whose followers countenanced one another in a career of dissolute ease. Any or all of those evil things he might do without forfeiting his hope of what the world called success. That statement of the conditions of the past serves admirably to reveal the immense ad- vance that has taken place in social conditions and in the moral standards by which men are judged. As President Hadley pointed out: *\We live in a world where the man. who would be successful in serving himself must at the same time be occupied in serving others. We no longer respect the pirate, the soldier of fortune or the libertine. The careers which appeal to ambitious men are careers of large public service, whatever may be the unlerlying motive with which such service was begun. The fact that we have heen able to secure th's degree 6f coincidence between selfishness and unselfishness is-the most important characteristic of moden civilization.” The bright picture which our age presents when contrasted with the conditions of the past has not, however, led our scholars to look upon it with comolete satisfaction. Dr. Edward B. Coe of New York in addressing the graduates of Radcliffe College 2t Cambridge, Mass., re- minded them it is an error to suppose that intellectual culture makes beautiful lives, and that sometimes knowledge is like the ornamentation put on an ugly building. Dr. Buckham of the University of Vermont told his class that society and humanity have the right to expect service from every individual. “Some men,” he said, “have no right to live in a community because they make themselves no part of it.” That doctrine is pertincnt'm every American community, for one of the great evils of American life is that men of culture and of wealth neglect their political and other public duties. It is to that neglect much of the weakness of municipal administrations is due, and the right of a community to command the service of all its cit'zens cannot be too often emphasized. A strong note of warning was sounded by Wayne MacVeagh in an address before the Phi Beta Kappa at Cambridge. He spoke of the widening gap between the contented and the dis- contented class of our people, and declared that eventually these would constitute the two great political parties of the country, the one representing property and the other representing labor. In that conclusion Mr. MacVeagh will not have many to agree with him. There are no evi- dences that all men of préperty will ever agree upon a platform of content, or all laborers upon a platform of discontent. Upon another point, however, he will have more support. In speaking of the growing indifference of our people for the weaker races of the earth he said “that no single member of a weaker race can be killed; no hut of such a race, however humble, can- be burned; no one can be selected for especial honor for his part in such pitiful warfare, without its helping to light the torch -which starts the fire by which some hapless negro is to be burned at the stake in our own country, not only in defiance but in contempt of law, and all such acts must be surely followed by greater insecurity for the surplus wealth which the contented class possesses ” The examples cited serve to show the general tenor of the criticism which scholarship has to pronounce upon life. It is not without its word of warning, but on the whole it is encourag- ing and hopeful. Hardly a single address that has fallen under our observation has been of a strictly academic nature. 1In all parts of the country the eommencement addresses have ex- emplified the scholar in politics and given proof that the universities are taking an active interest in all that affects the welfare of the nation and the people. HOT TIMES IN THE EAST. EATHER reports from the East show that the cold spring has been followed by a summer of unusual severity. We read of forty-one persons prostrated from heat in New York in a single day, and that at night the tenement districts reveal thousands of men, women and children lying on the sidewalks, balconies and roofs trying to find ‘sleep and rest after the exhaustion of the day. Throughout the Mississippi Valley matters are about as bad as on the Atlantic Coast. A recent dispatch says: “Men. women and children are dropping on every side in city and in country. Cattle shipped to the slaughter-houses at Chicago are taken from the cars dead, and powerful horses sink down on the pavements and are shat to put them out of misery.” Through all the sweltering season the cheerful optimist tries to keep cool. He admits that the weather is hot, but he insists the world is still beautiful. Thus the Atlanta Constitution man says: “Too hot for thinking, too,hot to write, too hot to quarrel, too hot to fight, too hot for talking, for riding or walking—but the world’s out of sight.” . 2 In Boston the philosophers of the press advise their readers to forget the heat, the the- ory being that if a Boston man can forget a trouble then the trouble ceases to exist. Conse- quently all New England is getting plenty of advice to “forget the heat, go slow and think_cool things.” One transcendentalist sings a song of consolation to this effect: : It's cool up there where the stars are, Where Venus and Neptune and Mars are; Though it's hot down here about half of the vear, It’s cool up there where the stars are. By ceasing to work, by sleeping on the sidewalks. by thinking cool things and looking up at the stars, a good many Eastern people may survive the heated season; but if they be wise they will come West next year and spend the summer in a decent climate. Tt is announced that Porto Rico can pay her own expenses and will not need the revenue derived from the customs duties imposed by Cangress, and the free traders are therefore demand- ing the repeal of the duties. Tt seems to be overlooked that governmental administration is not all that Porto Rico needs, and that a considerable revenue can be used every year in the main. tenance of schools and roads. ¢ v e e George H. Phillips, known as the “King of the Corn Pit,” is reported to have said: “Let the Government tax the farmer one cent a bushel on his corn, and with the money build elevators to store the crops, paying 40 cents basis Chicago market for it, and the world will pay the same.” A corn boom of that kind would be immense. Mr. Phillips is a plutocrat, but he talks like a Popocrat. h One of the novelties of the time is the organization in New York of an association known as the “National Locomotor Ataxia League.” It is an exclusive organization, as no one can be a member who has not the disease; and yet all are eager to get out. Two of them in fact have offered a reward of $10,000 for the first permanent and guaranteed cure of locomotor ataxia. It is said the savings banks of the United States will make on July 1 the largest showing on record of deposits drawing interest; so it seems a good many people will be able to take a holiday out of their savings this year and enjoy the prosperity of the country. —_————— Tt may be that no international complications will result, but it will be well to keep on the lookout. Mrs. Fease after filing a petition in bankruptcy has gone to England to demand a for- tune which she claims is hers by inheritance. A man, name not given for publication, went into a church in New York City and found that all the pews were free; whereupon by way of expressing his satisfaction he gave the chirch $10,000. ARG BRI \ Judging from the reports of Eastern weather the summer resorts of that section are liv- ingfiup to the title and are furnishing summer enough to satisfy the most ardent demand for hot stuff. - Yok . R R - ) 0 S . N GUVSEPPE AGOSTINI MONG the novelties of the com- ing musical season, a children’s opera company, Pollard’s Lilli- putians, hailing from Australia, will not be the least. The ap- | pearance of the Pollard Lilliputian Com- | pany here is not vet a matter of certain- | ty, but the probabilities at the present {time are all in favor of their coming. | Charles Frohman gave strong encourage- | ment regarding an American tour for the company when consulted by one of its managers a few weeks ago, and it is all | but certain that these clever youngsters | will be heard here. | The organization is a Melbourne one and consists of from thirty-five to fifty | members, from 6 to 16 years of age. The | | children ‘are said to be extraordinarily | | clever and have a repertoire of astonish- | ing proportions, including such operas as * “Mikado,” ““The Belle of “Les Cloches de Corneville,” | “Mascotte,”” “Paul Jones,” “The Lady | Slavey” and others, all given in their en- | tirety. It is a little difficult to understand the | existence of the company in Australia, | { where education Is a compulsory matter, but I understand that it has only been permitted to appear in the Wild West of | | the island continent. This, however, is | not the limit of the Lilliputlans’ travels. | They have toured in the Far East, in | China, Japan, Java, South Africa and | have just returned to Australia from a | | most successful engagement in Manila. | | They were caught in the Kimberley siege | two vears ago down in South Africa, lost | | costumes, settings, everything and have | generally had muchk more than their share | of adventure. The prima donna assoluta of the com- | pany is a tiny miss of six years who, | | among other achievements, sings the O, | | Mimosa San part In “The Geisha.” She is | sald to be also a wonderfully clever little | actress. Another child, picked up in the | streets—the children are all of the poorer classes—Hhas a natural genius for odd character parts, keeping the whole house entertained with her own witticlsms. And there are clever dancers galore In the | company, good singers and actors that | compare very favorably with their elders, and In addition to their operatic attain- ments the Lilliputians are accomplished vaudevillians. Some idea of the work in- volved in the training of such a ‘company | may be had when it is understood that ali their parts are learned by rote, none of the children reading written music, and a few of them, including the six-year-old prima donna, not even knowing how o read and write. Yet they memorize cor- rectly whole operas, words and music, gesture and dialogue, becoming thereby unconsciously educated, and in spite of the apparent moralities of the case the Lilliputians must be considered compara- tively fortunate in their career, when their origin and former environment are remembered. It will gratify several sorts of interest if they do make their appear- ance here, which they will, if at all, most probably In September. Most of the above rather scattered in- formation I obtained from A. R. Moulton, former conductor of the leading Mel- bourne theater, the Princess, who is now in town. Mr. Moulton conducted the chil- dren’s opera company on one of its tours, besides helping materially in its tralning. The conductor is himself a:composer of some note, with two light operas now in hand that he is anxious to pla “Lela- mine”’ and “The American Girl. Lela- mine” has already received its copyright performances in England and has received considerable praise from well known mu- siclans. Herr Meyer Lutz of the Galety, London, sald of it in a letter to the writer: The music of your serio comic opera ‘‘Le- lamine'’ is certainly most taking. The libretto is good, the music pretty. You may tell any manager I have sald so. The song ‘‘Dilapi- dated Don”" is an extraordinarily funny song, and the vatter song Is the most remarkable patter song to put before the public. Your lyrics good, your dialogue good, and the ideas remarkable. 1t it takes, it will take with a crash of thunder. I will talk about it to Ld- wardes at the Galety. It seems, however, that “Edwardes of the Galety” was crowded with other things, and the opera is still open to pur- chase. The fine tenor Agostini will be heard at the Tivoll during the coming grand opera season. His delightful si in * Boheme,” when it was first m‘;‘n h‘;re ’5; that company of shabby immortals, 2" Contis, 1s still a nl{u‘ otmphunmmt " - - - The following interesting account of the i | tle muste, SINGER WHO WILL APPEAR HERE DURING THE OPEha SEASON. +* L 4 work of a young plano student of the De- troit Conservatory of Music, who recently gave a recital to illustrate the method of memorizing and study of Professor J. H. Hahn, her teacher, is taken from the De- treit Journal: Miss Richardson came from a small town in Ohic to Detroit and started studying under | Professor Hahn's direction two years ago the coming August. Last night.she played with perfect ease and with fine musicianly feeling the Beethoven sonata in E flat, the Chopin etude fa C sharp minor, the Bach prelude and fugue in C sharp minor, the Arthur Foote suite in C sharp minor. besides several other numbers, the whole making up the kind of programme that a student, returning after seyeral years in Europe, would be glad to give. Yet there is Mr. Hahn's word and her own for It that she knows eighteen other Chopin etudes, which she can play at & moment's notice, five Bach preludes, such Mr. Hahn is quite willing to admit that he worked five years on when a young student, and mumber- less other difficuit compositions. Indeed, Mr. Hahn says that with a couple of days’ notice Miss Richardson could present almost fault- lessly two or three other programmes just as comprehensive and difficult as that she did last evening. The means by which she is enabled to do this is Mr. Hahn's system, for when she came to him two years ago she had studied very lit- and what she learned has been done in that time, most of it since last De- cember, for before that there was technie to be learfied. Mr. Hahn says that his system consists simply in disassociating the four acts of reading, studying, practicing and playing, which the general teaching plans allow the student to do all at once. In the first place, the composition is divided into its musical sen- tences of two, four or eight measures, and each one of these sentences Is lettered. Then, sentence by sentence, the composition is men- talized, all this being done before the piano is touched. The letter is associated with each sehtence, the result being that the student knows the musical meaning before sver the piece is played on the plano, and the number of hours' study required is indefinitely dimin- ished. The practicing and playing come later and are not arduous, as the Hard work has been dome in the earlier stages. In the Chopin etude which Miss Richardson played last evening the phrases took up the whole alphabet in their naming. Yet Miss Richardson was quite able, and actually did, at a rehearsal in the morning, start at any phrase required of her with apparently no effort at all. Each one of the eighteen she knows in this way, and was able to begin and play at any letter called for in any of them. Official Route Christian Endeavorers to Cincinnati, Ohio. The Burlington Route via Denver has been selected as the official route. ‘Through Pullman Tourist Sleeping Cars to Clncinnati will leave San Francisco July 1 at § p. m. Tickets on eale June 30 to July 1; rate, §78 5 for round trip. July 1-2 we will sell round-trip tickets to Detroit at 352 235; July 3-4 to Buftalo $87: July 20-21 to Chicago $72 50. For sleeping car berths call on or address W. D. Sanborn, Gen- eral Agent, 831 Market street. ———— Are You “Of the 0ld World”? Everything pertaining to the New Warld may be easily and cheaply seen at the Pan American Exposition, and the best way get to Buffalo is by the comfortable trains of ‘the Nickel Plate Road, carrying Nicke! Plate Dining Cars, In which are served Amer ican Club meals from 35c to $1 each.. Rook free, showing pictures of exposition bufldi Hotel accommodations reserved. y JAY W. ADAMS, P. C. P. A, 37 Crocker building. San Francisco, Cal ——————— Quickest Way to Yosemite. “The Santa Fe to Merced and stage thenos via Merced Falls, Coulterville, Hazel Green, Merced, Big Trees, Cascade Falls and Brida‘ Veil Falls to Sentinel Hotel. This gets you In at § In the afterncon, which iy ahead of any other line and costs you less. Ask at 841 Man ket street for varticulars." . ——— Fourth of July rates to Stocktom, Fresno, Visalia, Hanford, Bakersfield and all points or the Santa Fe Valley line. | Tlokets on sale July 3 and 4 at 841 Market st. and Ferry Ticket Otton