The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 21, 1901, Page 18

TEMPLE OF MUSIC MORE NEEDER for Attainment of Higher Life ' THAN THEATER OR SKYSCRAPERS. Bu Blanche Partinut_un. . o —— HE city in the midst of its moral spring cleaning is now also expe- riencing the customary musical change of heart that follows the big religious conventions. There is the usual questioning as to why we have here no oratorio society; why there is no fitting house of song in the city; why the large organ, so escential to chorus accompaniment, is conspicuous by its absence from available halls, and, lastly. why there is no symphony orches- tre to add the final grace to the great choruses in which man has hymned his God? Or the other hand, the Epworth League concerts have proved again tnat there is here all the vocal material neces- sary for the grand chorus; that the musi- cal spirit is abundantly present; that we have organists and leaders fully capable of their work. and, further, that we can build an excellent organ within the State lines—a showing not to be despised for & fifty-year-old youngster of a city. S As to our very patent limitations. Of the prospects of a symphony orchestra it is of but little use to talk. The matter is in the irritating condition common to the inception of the symphony in all new cit- jes. There are some small indications of a renewed activity in orchestral direc- tions, it is true, but not yet of sufficient importance to warrant ndvertisement. The chorus is another story. If Paul Steindorff comes out alive at the other end of the Tivoli grand opera season it is reasonable to suppose from certain plans, that 1 will later exploit, that we shall goon have a chcrus here that will go far to fill the present gap in our choral equip- ment. Mr. Steindorff’s plan is an unusual but not wholly new one. It has been tried with success in New York, among other places, and the chorus thus formed was ultimately relied upon to furnish much of the operatic and choral material needed in the warious musical functions of the city. More anon. As to a hall fit for large concerts, there i none in the city. Sherman & Clay Hall, Golden Gate Hall and the Native Sons’ Hall are all well fitted for the giving of the smaller concerts and recitals, but, barring the Metropolitan Temple, there is here no hall large enough for the or- chestral or choral concerts. The Mechan- jes’ Pavilion, except for convention con- cert purposes, is absolutely impossible, and it would really seem a paying invest- ment for some one to bufld, not the favor- fte mew opera-house that perennially makes its appearance on paper and which we can do well enough without, but a music hall for the accommodation of the Sousas, Strausses and Scheels that hap- pen along our way. Not only such or- ganizations, but the world-famous solo- ists could be relied on for patronage—the Godowskys, PaGerewskis, Carrenos, Tre- bellis, Ysayes and people of that {lk, who &re now compelled to engage the theaters as the only places large enough to accom- modate their audiences. The music hall should also have a good pipe organ as an indispensable musical adjunct, and, fur- ther, as another source of revenue from the recitals on the instrument. That such & hall would not here end its usefulness may be readily imagined, ang it is to be hoped that the almost certain pecuniary success of the venture will shortly per- suade some public spirited citizen to in- wvest thus some of his idle capital. B URTS It seems that in my Tuesday notice of the Epworth League concert I paid un- witting compliment to the Juanita Quar- tet of Chicago, ascribing to them the sweet strains of the second selection of the clever Park sisters, but the truth of the matter is that, in my perambulations arcund the Pavilion to get the effect of the organ and chorus from different points, I missed the announcement of the Juanita Quartet's non-arrival, heard only the opening notes of “The Holy City” and fled. “The Holy City” is without the pale, beyond the limit of my sympathies, and 1 simply won't listen to it at any price, and that is how the mistake arose. But 1 don’t mind saying that the Park girls’ unique performance would go far to make even “The Holy City” tolerable. As a musical curlosity, and a really enjoyable one at that, this quartet of fair cornetists is in the foremost rank. They obtain a delicacy end grace of effect that is not usually associated with their instrument and phrase and color with strong musical feeling. Technically also the perform- ance of these clever girls is quite unus- ually good and all around they are de- cidedly one of the attractions of the con- vention. P 1 should like also to make reparation here for another unfortunate suggestion that appeared in the same criticism. As it was worded it reads that the Stanford organ, for which I have before an- nounced my unbounded respect, “speaks’ two seconds after striking. It should read that by reason of the difference in altitude of console and organ proper, also their distance from each other, the sound is two seconds—as nearly as I could gauge it—in traveling back to the audience efter the note is struck. A wvastly different thing. The actual differ- ence between note and answer as proved by actual experiment is only a fraction of a second. All organists will under- stand the full import of this. All round, 2s I have before said, it is impossible to judge the organ In its present environ- ment. It is voiced, its volume of tone gauged for a comparatively small room to begin with. Were its full power al- lowed it would fill every farthest corner of the Pavilion. It is one of the best in- struments I ever heard, and that such an organ can be built in California is of the utmost artistic importance. Mr. Har- ris should build a good organ. He is a great enthusiast in his work and has a crew of workmen who are all more or less Stradivariuses in their line. I don’t see why Los Angeles should not be the fu- ture Cremona of the organ. The Stan- ford organ is certainly a hopeful effort in the direction. . . . Before taking leave of convention af- fairs, I should like again to compliment the leaders of the various choruses on their work. To Mr. Robert Husband, Mr. Isazc E. Blake, Mr. J. M. Robinson, Mr. W. C. Stadtfeld, Mr. F. C. Bacon, Mr. J. J. Morris, Mr. J. C. Hill and Mr. C. M. Vesper large credit is due for the success- ful issue of the league concert; also to Mr. W. B. King for his excellent work as accompanist, and to Mrs. F. J. Murdock as planist of the occasion. B 5 The organ solos of Mr. W. F. Skeele have also added greatly to the interest of the festival. To-morrow evening's pro- gramme will be largely given over to an organ recital by Mr. William B. King. & i At the request of many musical people, Dr. H. J. Stewart has arranged to give two organ recitals before his departure for Boston. The recitals will be given at Mechanics’ Pavilion on the Stanford me- morial organ and will take place on Sat- urday afternoon, July 2, and Monday @vening, July 29. Dr. Stewart's pro- @rammes will be selected from those Played by him at the Pan-American Ex- Position, Buffalo. > Professor Hermann Genss has accepted & call to the directorship of the Irving Institute Conservatory of Music and as- sumes charge at the beginning of the new session, August 5. He will teach piano- forte, vocal music and harmony. i At St. Dominic’s Church, corner of Bush and Stelner streets, there will be special music this evening at 7:30 under the direc- tion of Franklin Palmer. The programme is as follows: Chorus, “Ave Verum” (Gounod); tenor solo, *“St. Paul” (Men- delseohn), Frank Onslow; contralto solo and chorus, “Agnus Dei” (Rossini), Miss Ella V. McCloskey and choir; bass solo, “Creation” (Haydn). J. C. Hughes; tenor solo, “The Holy City” (Adams), D. M. Lawrence; soprano solo and chorus, “In- flammatus” (Rossini), Miss Marion Har- don and choir; “O Salutaris” G. M. Deth- ier; “Adoro Te,” Dethier; bass solo and chorus, “Tantum Ergo” (Widor), Walton Webb and choir; organ selections by Franklin Palmer—Sonata Op. 108 Fan- tasle (Rhelnberger), Organ Symphony No. 5, Allegro Vivace (Widor), Traumerel (Schumann), Berceuse (Franklin Palmer), Marche Solenelle (Mailly). i e A correspondent Inquires: : First—In voice cultivation are there superior results to be obtained from any one method? That is, has the German method anything to offer in results superior to the Italian and per contra? Second—Is not the general ‘‘register teach- ing” recognized a German specialty? Third—Are not equal results obtained by producing the volce in an even gamut from the highest to the Jowest notes without special instruction as to the three registers? Fourth—1Is the latter idea recognized as the correct method to-day? Yes, Subscriber, there are superior re- sults to be obtained from one rather than another system of voice culture. There are two distinct methods in use, a bad one and a good one, neither confined in their exercise to Germany or Italy, not to speak of Oakland. The human voice is the same instrument the world over, from Paris to Milpitas, its legitimate preduction the same, and any one advertising a speclal national brand of instruction in the art is presumably a faker of the deepest dye. It was to satisfy the eternal demand on the part of the public to be fooled that the first ingenious faker of the kind labeled his goods Italian, or German, as the case might be; as the artist in sardines trust- ingly titles his goods in the Gallic style in spite of the patent fact that if France were founded on sardines, mountained with the flavorsome hors d’oeuvres and her shores washed by a sardine sea, she would vet be unable to supply all the sar- | dines ascribed to her that the world an- nually consumes. As to the “register teaching.” It is no more a German fetich than an Itallan superstition. The mistake of arbitrarily dividing the voice into registers is not con- fined to any particular people, but flour- ishes wherever singers are taught to sing. The method is a simple result of a false mental conception, not of a natural, physi- ological law, and is one of those artificial barriers erected by clever and dishonest teachers (in those cases where it is not the result of ignorance or empiricism) for the sake of giving value to the expert as- sistance that they have to offer in the con- quering of the said difficulty. A condition of the voice answering to the register conception can, of course, be brought about by the force of the sugges- tion if such be sufficiently insisted upon. If you are constantly told that there is a natural break between your E and F, the break between those notes will not be long | in making its appearance; as infallibly as it would happen that if one were con- tinually told that the tongue might rea- sonably refuse to pronounce the word “cat” on account of some malformation of that useful member the stutter at sight of “cat” would make its suggested ap pearance. By the same force of sugges- tion the created difficulty is smoothed away, as when the pupil is told that by the use of certain vocal gymnastics the gulf in his voice can be bridged over, and his natural intelligence reasserting itself, the artificially ereated break does indeed disappear. Voltaire once sardonically af- firmed to some plous priests who were engaged in exorcising certain suspected demons In some indisposed sheep, his be- lief that “incantations (and pills) would cure any disease.” His faith was evi- dently with the pills, but in the particular matter of “registers” it is the incanta- tions that count. The highest and lowest notes should be and are, when they be- come music, produced in exactly similar fashion, including also, of course, the notes of the middle “register.” Your third question, Subscriber, is an- swered in the foregoing, and your fourth will be recognized as unnecessary when you remember that there are as many “correct methods” calling for recognition as there are teachers. Cholce candies, Townsend’s, Palace Hotel* —_————————— Cal. glace fruit 50c per 1b at Townsend's.* ————— Townsend’s California glace fruits, 50c a und, in_fire-etched boxes or Jap bas- fete. 638 Market, Palace Hotel building.” — e—— Selling out Al eyeglasses and specs, 10c to 40c; look out for 81 4th, front barber. ¢ — e Special information supplied daily to business houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 510 Mont- gomery street. Telephone Main 1042, ¢ —_—————— A girl's best friend will tell you more to the ztirl‘a disadvantage in a minute tha‘n you can learn from her avowed enemy in a week. e ——— Are You “Of the 0ld World”? Pverything pertaining to the New World meay be easily and cheaply seen at the Pan- American Exposition, and the best way to get to Buffalo is by the comfortable trains of the Nickel Plate Road, carrying Nickel Plate Dining Cars, in which are served Amer- jcan Club meals from 35¢c to $1 each. Book free, showing pictures of exposition bulldings. Hotel accommodations reserved. JAY W. ADAMS, P. C. P. A, 31 Crocker bullding, San Francisco, Cal. ——————— Grand Canyon Excursion. On July 22 the Santa Fe will make a specfal excursion, $40 for the round trip, from San Francisco to the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Leaving San Francisco at 9 a. m. on the 22d you arrive at the Canyon for supper the 23d. In all the world there is no place like this, the grandest of nature’s marvels. Towering mountains, mighty chasms, rushing waters, crevices, the home of anclent cliff dwellers, all painted by the brush of nature in colors beautitul. Ask about it at the Santa Fe office, 641 Market street. —_————— Best Way to the Yosemite. The Santa Fe to Merced and stage thence via Merced Falls, Coulterville, Hazel Green, Merced Big Trees, Cascade Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, arriving at Sentinel Hotel at 5 the next afternoon. This is the most popular route and the rates are the lowest. Ask at 641 Mar- ket st. for particulars and folder. ————— Cheap Rates for Epworth Leaguers and Their Friends. The Santa Fe will sell low rate tickets to all points, July 12 to August 15 inclusive, to hold- ers of Epworth League tickets and friends ac- companying them. Call at Santa Fe office, 641 Market street, or ferry depot. ——— Chicago and Return $72.50. On sale July 20 and 21, the Union Pacific Rafl- road will sell round trip tickets to Chicago, good for 60 days, at rate of $7250. D. W. Hitch. ‘cock, t, 1 Mon . JULY 21, 1901. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager jUNDAY s R e e B BRI L UL 31, 1908 Publication Ofice............eeuesesrseseseeeenne. SERUEBEI .o teeeireenees A PIECE OF RAW WORK. ..Market and Third, S. F. ELLY and Crimmins have made good their boast that they could swing the Republican State Committee to the support of their gang in local politics. The committee met ves- terday and was made up mainly of proxies. It went through the form of listening to arguments on behalf of the two sides to the controversy,and then, within five minutes after the arguments closed. one of Kelly’'s members, McKinley of Los Angeles, drew from his pocket and read a type-written set of resolutions setting forth that argument had been heard and judgment given in favor of Kelly’s gang. The open revelation of the fact that the bosses had drawn up a decision in their own favor not only before the committee had heard argument, but even hefore it met, did not disconcert the holders of a majority of the proxies. Notwithstanding the fact that the reading of a written de- cision on the question within a few minutes after argument had been heard made every one laugh at the rawness of the work of the bosses, the majority of the committee stood by the programme and adopted the decision that had been written for them. 3 In accomplishing this work the slum bosses have had some powerful allies. Governor Gage was not at the meeting, nor was John C. Lynch, but the State patronage was represented by W. F. X. Parker, expert of the State Board of Examiners, and by the water front push; while the Federal brigade was represented by Jacob Shaen of the Appraiser’s office. Of course Herrin was not t1.1ere, but he has now becn so long and so closely identified with Martin Kelly that his pres- ence is no longer needed to indorse the boss. For many a day it has been known that wherever Kelly went the Herrin was sure to go. Doubtless the bosses will claim the action of the State Committee as a great victory. There was rejoicing in the slums and in the homes of Herrin and Gage last night. Once more, to use John Randolph’s famous phrase, the combination of “the Puritan and the blackleg” had won out, and all the predatory classes that do politics for coin and who break into the Republican party for about the same reasons that a burglar enters a bank had their night of hilarity and triumph. The victory is not going to do them much good. The primaries will not be rin this year by Kelly’s toughs at Herrin’s dictation. The elections are to be conducted under the law, and in spite of the scheme of the bosses, the rank and file of the party will elect delegates to the con- vention and nominate honest candidates. The issue is squarely presented now to the better elements of the Republicans of San Fran- cisco. All the bosses are in alliance. Their hypocrisy has been thrown aside and they are acting now openly and defiantly in opposition to the traditions of the party and every principle of local self-government in party affairs. If any new incentive has been needed to rouse good men to or- ganize and work for honest politics that incentive has now been furnished. Kelly and Herrin and Crimmins and Gage have done their worst. Froin this time on every point in the conflict should end in a complete victory for honesty and genuine Republicanism. DAVID IS TIRED. NLY a little while ago Mrs. Nation of Kansas was a national issue and a world-wide curiosity. Minor judicial officers cringed under her sharp tongue like slaves under the lash. Politicians looked at their compass and barometer every few minutes to see on which side to get. They feit that there might arise in Kansas “The Smashers” as a political party that hatchet in hand would hew its way to victory. The Governor of the State tried to stand in executive erectness, and was reproved for not joining Mrs. Nation by his own son, a pert lad, who draws regularly on his father for college expenses. Kansas has not been so stirred up since the days of John Brown and Jim Lane, of Border Ruffian and Free Soiler. If the spirit of Quantrell, the Lawrence raider, ever flits around the scene of his pernicious activity its ghostly noddle must have been puzzled to see the difference in principle between his way of solving problems and that of the petticoated smasher. The ven- erable Colonel Anthony of Leavenworth, whose stormy career has filled him so full of lead that if cremated in a smelter he would prove paying ore, found his tempestuous soul galloping like a colt in his 85-year-old body at sight of another row and row-maker worthy of the most riot- ous days of his State, when lie and Jennison the Jayhawker used to put in days shooting each other from wagons, buggies, horseback and on foot. Even old Bender from his grave or his hiding-place, as the case may be, must have felt that his special chapter in Kansas history was in danger of obscuration. As the smasher approached a city the rulers thereof would treat with her as in other days the Mayor and council of cities from Peking to Tashkend used to treat with Timour the Tartar, paying tribute to avoid loot. Suddenly the whirlwind collapsed, the waterspout. burst, the earthquake ceased, the hatchet gleamed no longer in the air and the sound of breaking mirrors was not. Mrs. Nation was already half forgotten when from the summit of Mount Gilead, Ohio, came this news dis- patch:’ “David Nation, husband of the famous Carrie Nation of Kansas, who is at the home of ‘his daughter, Mrs. William Riddle, at Iberia, this county, has written the following to the pub- lic: Mrs. Nation has seen fit to leave our comfortable home in Medicine Lodge, Kans., and says she will never return to it to live. Therefore there is nothing left for me to do but to live some- where else, as I am too old and feeble to live alone. I have decided to spend the remaining few years allotted to me with my daughter, Mrs. William Riddle, in Iberia, Ohio. She takes good care of me in all my afflictions.” 7 We cordially approve the course of Mrs. Riddle in this matter. But as David has taken the public into his conjugal and domestic confidence why does he not give a ground plan of his many afflictions? Is the absence or the presence of Mrs. Nation among them? The particular statement of his present address has a sort of “donations thankfully received” appearance. Any- way David has waxed old and is tired, and Carrie has left their happy home at Medicine Lodg'e. Making a business of reform for the sake of notoriety has some features that are not attrac- tive to the thoughtful mind. OUR EPWORTH VISITORS. F the Epworth League Convention, now assembled in this city, San Francisco will long retain pleasant mcmories. The thousands of delegates coming from all quarters have filled the streets with bright young men and young women, and have given, even to the thoroughfares that are most habitually thronged, a measurable increase of activity and animation; and that, toc, in spite of the fact that the delegates have not been in any 'sense a crowd of sightseers. - Their time has been mainly spent in attendance upon some of the numerous meetings of the convention, and but little upon the streets. : From the first day the work of the convention has been carried forward with vigor and with remarkable success. The committee that has directed the arrangements merits high praise for the excellence with which it performed its work. Every movement of the vast assembly has pro- ceeded with the smoothness and precision of well-ordered machinery, and if there has been any friction at all it has not been sufficient to attract notice or to cause discomfort. A notable feature of the convention is the high order of oratory which has entertained as well as instructed and exhorted the vast audiences. An organization so well disciplined for its work and which has the support of so many and such eloquent advocates cannot fail to increase in power and in influence with the years. We can then look upon these earnest men and women who will throng our churches to-day as among the most potent of the mighty forces which are slowly but surely working out the problems of the moral advancement of mankind. In the con- sciousness of that fact we salute them not only as most welcome visitors but as co-workers with all good men for the welfare of humanity. ' It would hardly be supposed that any nation on the globe could teach the British anything about naval affairs, but in a recent speech in Parliament Lord Selbourne announced that it is the intention of the Government to “establish a school of naval strategy such as exists in the United States.” Uncle Sam has reached the point where he can teach his grandmother how to suck eggs. The Philadelphia Record says the machine politicians have succeeded in so crippling the Commercial Museum in that city that several of its departments will have to be closed for lack of funds. Such a report justifies us in congratulating ourselves that the Pacific Commercial Museum is not going to be subject to politicians. Tt is stated that the Anti-Cigarette League gained more than 100,000 members during the year ending June 30, but it is safe to say that most of them are fellows who never tried a cigarette and do not know what they are leaguing about. et -+ i SOME STRONG AND WEAK POINTS, Open to Criticism and Comment, OF PLAYS AND THE PLAY ACTORS. . Bu Guisard. PERSON calling herself Robert J. Sinclair, who may be a very nice girl for all I know, ‘writes to complain of a critieism of E. J. Morgan that appeared last week in this paper. Further, she objects to Mr. Emery of the Alcazar being criticized un- £ Careless Isor in- quires what novice hand condemned the favorably for his conception o in “The School for Scandal,’” and al work of Theodore Roberts. As to Theodore Roberts, Miss Robert, his work has not been condemned in these columns, but has been accorded the high praise due the efforts of a conselentious Mr. Roberts struck the one note of reality in the absurd carperln;»: v A and gifted actor. show that Frawley gave us this week, and I think, if you refer to ‘Tues- day’s issue of The Call. you will find that such was said. You have mixed your pa- pers, Robert. About Mr. Emery’s Care- less, though mine is not the particular “novice hand” that filled the objection to his work, I am bound t6 say that I quite agree with the other fellow. Mr. Emery’s Careless is by no means up to Mr. Em- ery’s standard. Careless was a gentleman with all Fis fanits, not a clown, and the part is completely out of key with the spirit of the play as it is misconceived at the Alcazar. Tn Careless’ day even the “scientific and passionate drunkard,” as Gautier phrases it, took his manners to the tavern with him, and Careless was not that. It was “By're leave, sir,” when yoa pinked your rival, or dropped under the table after an all-night toast to the reign- ing belle, and the courteous Careless can by no manner of means be conceived as becoming a boor, even though he had drunk 14 every lass in the category of contemporary charmers. Yet ‘Mr. Emery makes him so, £nd if you like it that way it's ail right, but you must not expect me to agree with vou. As to Mr. Morgan In “The White Heath- er,’ the critic seems to have chosen a rather involved form of compliment in poking fun at him, which, Robert, it is probably not all your fault that you could not discover. Mr. Morgan is a good actor, an actor who has done big things, therefore, an actor who looked particu- larly foolish in trying to act a fool part in a fool play. there by neither look as pleasant as possiblé of contemptuous the rest of the company ambled through the play in question. But Mr. was painfully out of place, looked it, and, moreover, its usual ample intelligence. delighted with erts in the same paint-pot drama, do the occasional discernible advantage in so labeling it. It is not respectful to the purchaser for one thing, who prefers his chalk and water temptingly ticketed ‘Jersey cream.” though he knows and we know that he knows we know that the mild ‘moo” of the gentle Jersey has been far from the milk bucket so scheduled. And that, I think, is what your critic meant to say—that Morgan is a big actor with a bad part; and, though he does it well, as he cannot kelp, will yet not pretend he thinks it worth while doing. Now, is that S0 great crime to be accused of, Robert? May you never be arraigned for more! Did you see the play, Robert? Perhaps you saw “The Great Ruby” last year by the same authors. If so, imagine all the things that did not happen in “The Great Ruby” and you'll find them in “The White Heather.” The villain scales the skies in “The Great Ruby,” the big scene being a balloon ascent with either hero or villain done to death in an aerial duel. In “The White Heather” the villain is found wallowing in sin in a diving sult at the bottom of the sea. In “The Great Ruby” the hero sails in triumphantly on a coal black charger; in “The White Heather” he scorches triumphantly across the stage on an ‘“automobile”—no back numbers for Messrs. Raleigh & Hamilton, you see. They have exploited in the two plays the heavens above, the earth be- neath and the waters under the earth. The mise-en-scene of their next effort will ac- cordingly be of unusual interest—probably a case of getting off the earth altogether. Twelve scenes “The White Heather” boasts, and like “The Great Ruby” is a very pretty picture drama, but that is its sole and insufficlent raison d'etre. PP It is a far cry from “The White Heath- er” to “Hedda Gabler,” yet to our credit we have also had the latter play in the week’s repertoire. To Miss Blanche Bates' unselfish devotion to her art, our valued opportunity of hearing the Ibsen drama is ‘owing, and we cannot be sufficiently grateful therefor. And there is no need to hang heads about the audience that greeted Miss Bates and her gonfreres on Friday afternoon at the Columbia Thea- ter. It was a crowd that felt and fol- lowed every whisper and sense of the play, a crowd economical of its breath and forgetful of its feet, an intimately appreciative crowd that filled every chair and corner in the theater. One can only pray that occasion may soon arise to draw again such another audience to the theater but echo and the managers an- swer, “No, sir!” “Hedda Gabler” is not a “nice” play. One does not like the particular slice of His people are folk one would willingly walk three times life Ibsen exploits here. around the block to miss, and the play itself is among its author's most obscure efforts. It is truth, oh, ves! but truth that one would glady cut if one could. is a naked chunk of life cut quivering from the body politic with all its vital deeps and angles left raw to the sight. No moral purpose is served by the play, no lesson taught, no problem advanced. Ibsen seems for -once neither to be as- sailing conventional ‘“pillars of soclety,” knocking down “dolls’ houses,” or raising “ghosts’" for our soul's benefit. His mor- bid heroine is presented without excuse or explanation for her being, save that she is, has been and always will be. It is a pure experiment in portraiture, brilliant and vivid, art for art's sake, and without further justification. The character is too strange not to be true. That the author has not seen fit to exchange truth for vraisemblance is explanation of the an- gles that constantly offend the conven- tional dramatic sense. Born bad, or mad, possessed of the devil of seif to the remotest corner of her con- sciousness and compelled further to a special insanity by the prospect of be- coming mother to a child whose father she lothes, Ibsen's passionate pervert is the weirdest of psychological heroines. She has an unappeasable craving for pow- er, with the most limited tools for its ex- ercise. She has a pagan love of beauty and the beautiful ever flies her touch. Everything in her hands turns *vulgar and mean,” the inallenable characteris- tics of her own soul. She lacks the last efficiency of even her feminine fascina- tion, and is bitter to the quick by the con- sciousness. - Even the little fool, who is yet genmerous in her folly, Mrs. Elvsted, Still, as he found himself our—the audience’s— deed, nor yet wholly through Mr. Fraw- ley’s doing. it was, perhaps, his duty to under the trying circumstances and act in the key good nature in which Morgan felt so and didn’t seem to care if we knew it, though his work at the same time was distinguished by all Possibly the actor did better service to his art thereby in declining to announce himself the role of a sawdust dummy than was done by Theodore Rob- when the latter galvanized into reality the per- haps more plausible figure assigned to him. But it's a question. Though we all ““pot-bofler,” there is no It Hedda envies in that she has “had her fingers in a man's déstiny.” She is lar, coward, thief and murderess in her mad effort to pedestal herself among the “vine leaves” she sees in Lovborg’s halr, and she won't pay the only price for the pe- destal—one moment’s self-forgetfulness. Hedda is mostly met with in spots luck- fly, the whole unhappy vdlume rarely coming together, but some of us have met her in all her bad glory. We've all known the other folk, too, some in the exceptional moments of our lives, the others in the every day crush. The characters, outside of the heroine, are conventional enough. the amiable aunt—the only “nice’” persor in the play; Tesman, Hedda's husband, a good na- tured fool: Eflert Lovborg, an amorist and writer, formerly attached to Hedda and later a Platonic lover of Mrs. Elv- sted; Mrs. Elvsted, a foolish little person with a grateful mission to perform in saving Lovborg, while incidentally sacri- ficing a somewhat anclent husband, a Assessor Brack, the friend of the Tes- mans, who suggests, with an eye to profit on the transaction, a menage a trois to the bored wife—oh, they’re a charming f Jats . . . And as to the performance. “Hedda Gabler” furnished several sorts of sur- prises as it was presented on Friday aft- ernoon, agreeable for the most part. Mr. Ormonde’s work was a revelation. As Eflert Lovborg he showed a delicate pas- ston and poetry that lifted the part to epical heights. It is a case of absolute insight into the character, with a full mastery of its technique and expression. Albert Bruning, too, as Tesman, was delightful. His dullness was almost di- vine; his quaint, maddening amiability the most exquisite foil to Hedda's restive ambitions. Every short-sighted look through his professor's glasses, every opening of his foolish, good-natured mouth, every word, every gesture. splashed color on a portrait that could not be improved upon. Campbell Gollan was a satisfactory Assessor Brack, per- haps a little too obvious in his methods. Mrs. F. M. Bates made a lovable Aunt Juliana, and Miss Mabel Howard might have been stronger as Mrs. Elvsted. . ve. @ As to Miss Bates herself as Ibsen’s strangest heroine? I am not of those who regard the part as the best in Miss Bates’ repertoire. Hers 1s ‘wonderful Work, a strong conception, but it is mot the Hedda Gabler of Ibsen. Miss Bates herself is too patently of the wholesome, honest, normal sort of folk, ever fully to merge her individuality into the decadent complexities of Hedda’s character. Her brush is too broad, her colors too bright, her lines too few and simple to paint Hedda as Ibsen paints her. All the im- patient passion of the creature is there— the resentment, the ghastly humor; but the sickly half-lights that should tone into these are not found. Her method is too robust, patent, healthful in short. It lacks the mephliic suggestion, the subtle- ty, the cold cunning of the mad thing that Hedda is, yet one gets grasp of the char- acter in grateful proportion even so. And I want no more from Blanche Bates, for the further insight that would carry her into Hedda’s heart could be obtained only at the cost of that magnificent healthful- ness, that brilliant freshness that is her chiefest charm. For her generous effort mn the play’'s production there is only praise, and one can say to her only “thank you" and “encore.” i -2 I didn’t say anything about the scenery, a1d 1, Robert? Can any one tell me if there was any scenery in “Hedda Gabler”? Yeast—Wonder what's become of that Mrs. Nation. We don’t hear so much of her smashing things now. Crimsonbeak—Oh, I suppose the poor woman had to give up something during Lent.—Yonkers Statesman. B.KATSCHINSKI PHILADELPHIA SHOE CO., 10 THIRD ST., SAN FRANGISCO. PARENTS, ATTENTION! PRICES CUT THIS WEEK ON BOYS' AND MISSES' SHOES. Vacations are hard on sh an now that SCHOOL WILL %ORTG- LY OPEN the youngsters have to be shod. Now, why not buy dur- able shoss when you are about it. ‘We have a line that cannot be bez. and we have cut the 1prlce for this week only. Boys' Tannery Calf Lace Shoes, coin toes and heavy double soles, with bottoms and strengthened an outer row of steel circlets, and ev- tirs, uilted ;:%. pair guaranteed. 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