The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 24, 1901, Page 26

o 6 By Guisard. . CRITIC TROUBLES OVER IRVING’S STRANGE ENUNCIATION. ILLARY BELL of the New York Press has been saying things of Sir Henry Irving’s Shylock, lately Seen in New York. Mr. Bell has | gone to . the trouble, with ver picturesque resuit, to spell out the Shak: pearean blank verse as pronounced by Henry Irving. ir cording to the Bell audi- | e prefaces this literary curiosity < | There were times when Sir Henry might as well have translated the fount of English un- | defiled, S0 far as coherence of sound and syl- lable were concerned, into Choctaw. e Irving English as heard by rhaps necessary to state lock’s speech to Antonio: Ah! Um! eperes. yo med ! we wode hev moanies; ! thet dade vide ye rome ! "syo spourn a stringer coor Um! "ver you thiashold; moanies s yore suit. Ach! Ouch! What shode I ssay toe you? Shode In't saay Ha! Ha! Um! Hath aa doag moany? Ach! 's't paws'ble, Um! Um! A core 'n laynd three thousend dookits? Or, Ouch. Shell eve bind low anina bawndsmin's kave, Ith batted brath ‘nwisprin homblent Say thess, Ha! Ouch! Um! Um! Ugh Far seer, yo epate yospund may sooch a doag. No- thur time Yo calt ‘m Ha! Ha! doag, Um! Nind for thess kiritissys Ouch! Um! moanies. The New York Press critic then goes to say: y an intimate knowledge of the itself can carry us through experiences Ha elnd yo, Ha! thoss mouch play for when the actor becomes ex- cited by his role not even a professor of lan- guages can decipher him. With all his faults Herry is a wonderful player. In the battle of “‘Macbeth” he abandons Shakes- peare’s verse entirely and contents him with a of grunts and inarticulate exclamations, who can portray the Thane of Glamis bet- ter? In his scene with Tubal on Friday night not one word in ten could be distinguished, even with an opera-glass—yet Irving’s Shylock is p stroke of genius that has no parallel in the annale of the drama. It is & paradox that an actor who is defi- ctent acting should rematn in the applause of eritics end theater-goers, be knighted by his sover- eign, and universally recognized as the great- est player of his day. The p.2y's the thing us, &s it was with Hamlet, and any per- former who 80 mumbles the language of the drams that it cammet be understood must merit condemnation, apparently, rather than compliment. Sir Henry Irving openly defies elocution. He bronounces the Bnglish tongue e it is pronounced by no other man, woman child. He lards the flowing verse of espeare with ejaculations, interjections, exclamations and inarticulate grunte that have no place in the poet. Wholly apart from his carriage, which is individual and unique, this actor is fecund with vocal eccentricties that, if the laws of logic ruled the theater, would be rejected on the stage. OAdly enough, the better he scts the worse he enunciates, until, when the dramatic fervor is at its loftiest height, the audience can make nothing of his language. The good old stand-by, “Yon Yonson,” is to be the ‘California Theater's pro- gramme this week, with the special inter- est of a “yenuine Yon” in the titie role. Knute Erickson is his name, and Sam Thall picked him up at Kullagunnarstop, eic., in Bweden, last summer, after see- ing him in the role in London. The honor of being first comedian in Sweden is claimed for Mr. Erickson, and there is no doubt of his success in England and Ger- many in Swedish dialect parts. He is said to resemble J. K. Emmett in personal ap- pearance as that favorite actor-singer ap- peared in his younger days, and also sings like him in & voice that vividly recalls Emmett's. His humor is of the same rich, spontaneous sort and he is going to show us a Yon that, by all accounts, will range itself with the delightful German dialect characters of Emmett. The names in the supporting cast promise well. Dy 9% b George H. Robinson, part of Hix, the reporter, in “On the Quiet,” is a Californian product and a son of the late Dr. Luke Robinson. Mr. Robjnson bas more claims than one to consideration. Besides a neat histrionic faculty, he writes well and is now en- gaged upon a novel soon to be published by Harper's that he purposes calling “Splinters,” the story of a street acrobat. He is author of a number of playlets, among them “A Family Affair,”” “The Spiritualist,” “A Game of Con” and *Dick Burton's Rival,” all of which have been who plays the nina ‘n Wednesday | these puzzling | in obe of the fundamental principles of | e H i A GENUINE “YON YONSON," || WHO IS AT THE CALIFOR- | | | NIA: | & - successfully staged. Mr. Robinson’s histri- onic leanings have been known to all his circle of acquaintances ever since he was old enough to yell “Through by daylight or we'll bust the boilers,” and the rest of it in those wonderful “‘productions” that were given in “Robinson’s basement” on Van Ness avenue, where he was actor- | manager and general utility man com- bined. It is not so long ago, either, but in the meantime the actor has been a student of Santa Clara College and a | Stanford man, with his ,studles always bent in the one direction, however. He has made steady progress all along the ylmo and is among the most promising ;mf’mbers of Willle Collier's good com- | pany. B | | s | The Theater for the current month con- | tains an interesting sketch of the players of the Pacific Coast, with mention of Blanche Bates, Florence Roberts, Mary | Van Buren, Juliet Crosby, T. D. Fraw- ley, James Neill, White Whittlesey, Ea..h Chapman and others. The article is ef- fectively illustrated by portraits of most | of these. In addition Edgar Saltus contributes an article, entitled “Our American Dra- | matists, an Apology,” in which he pre- | sents some truths In his usual forcible | style. Mr. Saltus declares that the writers | for our stage lack virility, argues that | | America has not yet produced a dramatist of the first rank and that none of those now before the public give evidence of real creative power. He insists that it Is owing to this dearth of strong dramatic | fare that a large class of Americans keep aloof from-the playhouse altogether. He also accuses our dramatists of pilfering wholesale, blaming them little for this, seeing that they merely follow in the foot- steps of Shakespeare and Mollere. but finding* fault because they fail to embel- lish what they take. The illustrated matter is effective. as usual, with the exception of the chromo- lithographic libel on Ethel Barrymore that appears on the cover. There is a particu- larly good portrait of Mrs. Fiske in her much-discussed play, “Miranda of the Balcony”'; another dainty and fetching picture of Maude Adams and a strong portrait of Mrs. Le Moyne, as she ap. peared here in “The First Duchess of Marlborough.” | TERYR ) Miss Virna Woods' play, “Horatius,” is duc here in January next, when it will be produced by Frederick Jarde at the California Theater. It was written by Miss Woods for Mr. Warde, and s an ambitious affair, a five-act tragedy i blank verse, dealing with earlier Roman bistory. The play has lately been pro- duced in the Southern States with some measure of success, and will be put on in elaborate fashion at the California Theater. Miss Woods has returned to California after traveling with the Warde company during the tragedy's first pre- sentations. e ‘Walnut and Pecan Panoche. Townsend. * —t——ei Choice candles. Townsend's, Palace Hotel* —_——— Cal. Glace Fruit 50c per Ib at Townsend's.* —————— Special information supplied dafly to 3“'"’“5'" hm and uhu'lfe r;lean the ress Clipp! ureau n’s), gomery street. Telephone Main 1042 “:" —————— A woman's idea of man's crueity is for him to be able to sleep comfortably when she is worrying about whether her best friend's new gown is going to really be- come her. —————— Guillet's Thanksgiving extra ce les *cream and uh.mumn..:.mo#m- % g THE SAN FRANCISCO THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager Publication OEs. ... ..vevesurerstreessesssnsnss CCREEIBD ....o. eeucusnressescussssnen. Market and Third, S, F. ISOLATING CONSUMFEFTION. CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1901. NCIDENT to the discussion of quarantine and isolation of consumptivés on railway trains Dr. Grant of Denver, in a paper read to the American Academy of Railway Surgeons last year, described the liability to infection in the Pullman cars. The plush furnishings, drapery with a nap and carpet on the floors, offer the needed facilities for harboring germs which may easily inoculate the healthy traveler. Dr. Grant's paper did not at the time produce any further impression than to draw a protest from some of the Pullman employes, who were con- vinced without trial that it would be impossible to run a car especially for invalids. One point raised they did not answer. however, and that was in relation to the furnishing of the cars. There can easily be some system of identifying a car in which patients have ridden so that at the ter- minal it may not only be dusted out, but thoroughly disinfected. If a traveler breaks out with smallpox it is found easy to disinfect the car in which he has ridden, and it should be just as easy in the, case of the more fatal and deadly disease, consumption. Judging by the news that comes up cut of the deserts in New Mexico, Arizona and South- ern California the immigration of consumptives to those points is greatly increasing. In San Diego County, in this State, the consumptive colony of Sunbath has been established. It has long been known that our Indians are proof against consumption in their natural state, living an eutdoor life and during much of the year going almost nude. When they wear our costume, live in houses and no longer get the sun direct upon a large part of their bodies, they languish and die. Applying this knowledge, it has been the practice in the consumptive camps near Phoenix, Ariz.. for the sufferers to spend the greater part of every day clad only in a breechclout. The sexes are separated, of course, for the purposes of this treatment. The clothing is divested gradually to harden the skin to the heat, and is finally-discarded entirely and the body is exposed to the direct rays of the sun in a temperature that ranges above a hundred In one of the sunbath ‘camns in Ari- zona there were sixty patients, all of whom arrived in the last stages of the disease. In two years only two have died; a majority of them have gained wonderfully and fifteen of the number have gone home completely cured and as sound as ever. The pioneer in this heroic treatment was an actor who was given up by his physicians. He went to Phoenix. bought a horse and tent and struck out.into the desert, where he lived entirely naked for two years. At the end of that time he was well and is back in his profession. One interesting feature in this system is the unwillingness of the people to leave the desert after they are cured. This is not due to fear of contracting the disease again, but to the fascipation of the desert itself. This is contrary to all that has been said in history and literature about the desert, but those who have lain in its hot sands and have seen the night fall and the day break across its shimmer, and have been in the enchantment of its mirages, and, above all, have heard the music of its solerhn silence, join in testimony to its charm. The new camp at Sunbath is one hundred feet below sea level, in the Colorado Desert, and capitalists from Phoenix have undertaken its development. They are having building mate- rial taken to the locality, and will build a sanitarium planned in consonance with the treatment by direct exposure of the naked body to the sun. The design will be to put this refuge within' the reach of all, and to make it a public sani- tary enterprise of first importance. It is to be hoped that the projectors will guard against making it too elaborate and too much a resort rather than a sanitarium. What the patients need is to get back as near to nature as the wild Indian and get her blessing in health such as he enjoyed before vice and civilization lured him from her. In view of the founding of Sunbath and the desert camps. it ought to be easy for the rail- way surgeons, and the national and State boards of health, in conference with the Interstate Com- merce Commission and the Western Passenger Association, to reach a plan by which the sick who journey to the life-giving sand and sunshine may be isolated from the well en route. It will be glad tidings to Southern California that consumptive tourists are to be isolated in this new retreat in the kindly desert, for their presence in the hotels and boarding-houses of that section of the State has unfavorably affected the healthy tourists, who are afraid to travel with them or to lodge in the same house, where carpets, hangings and curtains are so many traps for catching germs that may infect scores. As our California Board of Health was the first to suggest quarantine, may it not be hoped that it will lead ‘in securing the scarcely less important safeguard of isolation in traveling? TTHANKSGIVING WEEK. ALIFORNIA enters Thanksgiving week with a prosperity not inferior to that of any other State in the Union, and with bright prospects for the future. In the Eastern States and in Europe the approach of winter has been heralded by storms of a severity unusual for this season of the year. Heavy snows have fallen over all the country from the Lake States to the Atlantic coast. Great Britain has been swept by tempests, while reports from continental Europe abound with notes of bad and threatening weather. We, on the con- trary, are enjoying a fall propitious to every interest. We have had rains enough for the season in nearly every part of the State, and nowhere have we had too much. On that score then if. for nothing else we would have good reason to rejoice in our good fortune and give thanks for the blessing.' In addition to our natural advantages we have cause for Thanksgiving in the well-ordered condition of all our material interests. The disturbances between labor and capital which inter- rupted trade and industry for a time are ended upon terms satisfactory to the conservative on each side. We can thus look forward to a long period of harmonious co-operation between these two clements of the community, each of which is absolutely essential to the prosperity of the other. The swift advance the people are making in wealth is manifest on every side. It is to be seen in the number of new buildings arising in San Francisco and in other cities, in the improve- ments made on the farnis. orchards and vineyards of the rural districts, and in the official reports of banks and of the export and import trade of the port. We have, therefore, ample reason to ap- proach the great national festival in a genuine Thanksgiving spirit. Every State in the Union has some cause for rejoicing, but none so many causés as California. A short time ago Mr. Moore, Chief of the Weather Bureau, officially declared the practice of cannonading hailstorms for the purpose of dissipating them was ‘absurd and futile, but now comes a report that the Swiss Government, after investigating the results of the experiments in France, has come to the conclusion that cannonading is a good thing, and is to apply it in the vine districts of Switzerland.* e Joseph Jefferson in his old age has begun to take an interest in the political affairs of the country, and by way of improving things he suggests the election of two Presidents—one to shake hands with the people and the other to attend to business. The suggestion has ‘merit, but for- tunately at this time we have a President who is quite capable of attending to both jobs. Two runaway girls in the East, when captured, explained their conduct by saying they in-’ tended to go to Bulgaria so that they couldbe kidnaped and thus be able to demand damages. It is sad their romance has been spoiled, for now they will have to seek damages in the common way by suing some man for breach of prontise. . By There is said to a famine imminent in certain parts of Texas, and in the absence of fuller information on the subject it is fair to infer that so many farmers have quit farming and gone to boring their land full of prospect-holes that they are about to starve to death. i General Funston is never weary of doing startling things. The latest report is that he has entirely recovered from the effects of the operation performed upon him for appendicitis. It seems that even the surgeons can't get ahead of him. s - THIS SEASON GLIMPSE OF IMPRESARIO’'S MANY TROUBLES. By Bla-=che Partington. . GIVES ? g R 5 3 { § T was thought last year that Mr. Grau was overinsistent in his pride in the fact that only once was the bill changed, and that in an insignificant detail, during his three weeks' season here. But we have this year had a glimpse of the troubles of an impresario, and with sympathy for Mr. Grau comes appreciation of the reasonableness of his jov In last year's unchanged programme. but Fritzi Scheff, Van Dyeck, Sybil San- derson and cther singers of lesser ilk have been indisposed, with the result of | a general upsetting of programmes and trouble all along the line. Nothing but sympathy is expressed for Mr. Grau, who has behaved In the handsomest possible fashion under the trying circumstances, or for the singers, who are evidently just as sorry as we are for the various disap- pointments. The artists who are in good form have come to the rescue in noble fashion, and, with their generous assist- ance_ the season in spite of its troublous course—or because of it—has so far been even more successful than last year's. Probably Mr. Grau never before gath- ered together a greater company of artists than he has just now, and the task of replacing one bill by another has therefore been a comparatively light one. But gratitude and admiration are due both to the im- presario and fhe singers for the splendid fashion in which this has been done. These they have in fullest measure, to- gether with the cordial liking and respect of all those cognizant of the circum- stances. It is sincerely heped that the season’s programme may now be carried out without further disaster, for the ben- efit of all concerned, and at present it looks that way. . The week has been chiefly remarkable for the matchless performance of “Le Nozze di Figaro,” the splendid production of “Die Meistersinger” and the Carmen of Calve, the fair lady who has upset things so successfully this season. Not least among the things Calve has upset is the reigning conception of the part in which she first found herself famous. The other evening her audience was evi- dently puzzled, disappointed, even, in the opening scenes of the interpretation. It is pitched in quite another key from that in which the majority of the audience had determined that the role should be played. It was therefore long before the beauty of the Calve Carmen could make headway against previous conceptions— or misconceptions—of the part. The opera is a favorite here and famillarly known to every opera-goer. The singer had te contend with an opinion, practically the size of the audience, that was bounded on the one hand by Zelie de Lussan's Car- men and on the other by the Tivoll's gyp. sy, Collamarini. The work of both has its merits, too familiar to need description, but it is the kind of thing they give— dramatically—only more so, that was ex- pected from Calve in her Carmen. So much we know. But that is exactly what Calve's Carmen is not. It Is everything else, and one at last greets it as the only Carmen, the Merimee Carmen, with Calve's genius to boot. * . . Its subtle artistry is recognized from the moment Calve appears, a barbaric splash of color among the other girls but evi- dently of them. She ‘| effort to catch the eye, but magnetizes at- After all the talk about the famous blue Hope diamond it is announced that it isr}’t blue. The report, it will be noted, was not made public until the gem was sold, so ‘perhaps thé pur- chaser is blue. 3 . Boss Croker can bear to hear Seth Low and all the reformers laugh, but what érinds him is the consciousness of the fact that there is a smile on the face ¢f David Bennett Hill. Congress will be asked to repeal the tax on beer, the tax on whi:k'yfland the tax on tea, so it looks as if there might be free drinks of all kinds before fong. =~ i RO tention just as she draws the unf: Don Jose to her, by the sheer tum greater beauty and sensuous electric. ' Nothing more powertul upon the has been seen than Calve's acting the scene where she fings down the th. Her face has Not only the delicately throated Calve, | EMMA CALVE, THE GREAT CAR- MEN OF THE GRAU COMPANY, AND HER PET CANINE. - lithe line of her figure spells & crouching terror. Breath was scant in the house during that scene, in spite of the fact that she was unable to give it its full voeal expression. Calve's conception is climaetic in char- acter, building un little by little the pic- ture of the fascinating gypsy. Not a touch that can add truth or strength to the character is forgotten, from the odd charcteristic trick of “frizzing” a lank lock of hair to the wearing of a trained gown—the sign mangal of her kind—ig | the ‘dance scene. Its passion iy’ as deep | as it is subtle, as all pirvadiag as it is | deep. not depending for its advertisement on the voluptuous tricks of the usual Carmen, but slowly biting its way intp the consclousness to startle at recog- nition of its depth. All the bold vanity of the creature is there, the tigerish grace, the splendid lawlessness, the eru- elty, a brilliantly consistent dramatic conception, and Calve, the better than | beautiful, like a glowing tropical bloom, looks Carmen to the last necessity. She was not in good voice the other | evening, sang when she shouldn’t, in fact, and we do not, therefore, fully know what she can do. She has the wonderful low Carmen notes—produced with exquisitely legitimate art—yet she sings Jullet. She sings Carmen, yet Marguyerite is an- other favorite part. A marvelous com- pass, and as could be heard the other night the voice has a quality as beautiful as it is rare. It will be the regret of a lifetime if Calve shall not recover suf- clently to be heard here at her best. She is promised for a week from Saturday night, and again in “Carmen.” .. The San Francisco Symphony Soclety announces a series of three symphony concerts, to be given under the direction of the new conductor, Paul Steindorff. The concerts will take place at the Grand Opera-house on the afternoon of Decem- ber 13, January 19 and January 17. Mr. Steindorff will have an orchestra of fifty- five men under his baton, and great things are exvected of the organization. The directorate of the soclety is as follows: Mrs. Phebe A. Hearst, president; Dr. Ed- ward R. Taylor, vice president; Professor Willlam Carey Jones, secretary; P. N. Llelienthal, treasurer; Mrs. Kate & Goewey, Mrs. J. N. Ode'l, Robert Tolmia, ANSWERS TO QUERIES. HANDBALL—H. D., City. In playing handball, If a ball strikes a player that is called “a hinder”; if it strikes one who Ib-.unotlncbenm,uuemu “3 dead THE ROSARY—A. W., Alameda, Cal The sopg entitled “The Rosary,” in which is the following: . The hours I spent with thee, dear heart, Are as a string of pearls to me; I count them over, every one apart, My rosary. W;.s written by Robert Cameron Rogers and may be found in the * ‘World’s Best Literature.” RN De Reszke and the Weber Piano. Weber Company, New York. Gentlemen: The tone of the We ber Pianos used l’ay m:.n{dn :‘l‘::- York, San Francisco where has given me real delight, and I have found them admirable instruments in all ways. oIS, mnfi'figflm’ DE RESZKE. Used Exclusively by the Grau Op-ra Company’s Artist. GLARK WISE & CO0., 41 GEARY ST, Cor. Grant Ave, © €OLE AGENCY. Y ¢