The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 3, 1902, Page 22

22 AUGUST 3, 190 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL,- SUNDAY, ot | PUBLIC DRESS REHEARSAL IS CREATING ? DISTURBANCE IN GAY PARIS | BY GUISART. THE LATEST Sranors X LEANORA DUsSE THE FAMOUS ITALIAN ACTRESS WHO WILL BE SEEN IN THIS COUNTRY NEXT SEPTEMBER. IN YCITTA rorTA” § (r HE DERDCITY) | never quite comfortable the throes of some one her violent revolution, is just t into hot factions on the re- ARIS, or of the public dress hear: For years immemorial, since it has been the habit of the Parislan to exact a de- criticism of a first night perform- his next day's breakfast, the s rehearsal has been in force, srivilege of the Paris eritic. ago through the rebellion of some stout old nized the improbability of his being able to do justice either to author or actor. al or himself under the existent the “Repetition Generale” has the custom of the Paris Taking place the afternoon or theaters. evening before the official first night, it the critic opportunity to formulate , just and seasoned review of the play, his criticlsm being prepared between the dress rehearsal and the first public performance. has been highly valued. In Paris theater rarely, if ever, closes until mid- night. Much more frequently it remains open until 1 o’'clock. With & paper that goes to press at 3 o'clock and a critic anxious to do justice to his author and | the ectors by remaining until the final | curtain, there is jeft only a feverish hour | and 2 half—if that much—in which to “place” the play, sketch its plot, criticize its craftsmanship and judge of the ac- complishment of its interpreters—all this in Gallic undefiled. But the public dress rehearsal opbviated this difficulty, and is one of the factors that have helped to make the French school of criticlsm the most just, polished and authoritative in the world. ournalist who recog- | It is a privilege that | the | - e | | stroll in for a few minutes at the back of the | use. Any incident worthy of notice was tacked on to already prepared article, | which went to press after the first-night per- | | formance. | 2 A great m indiscretions mitted by the so-call amis de they were 3 spolled more than one i It is needless to say that these speclal per- | | formances will be regretted by the invited | public, who will in future be obliged to pay for their places. | On the other hand, the dramatic critics for | the a protest loudly, alleging that they cann their articles to press in time if not pe to attend dress rehearsals. | A fine of £600 wi were com- rmitt I be inflicted upon any manager who transgresses the rule. Piaces | will be given as the critics of dailies | for. fle weekly, bi-weekly | Teceived the second night. H | | | Here is the situation reported by the | same writer just one month later, and the end 1s not yet. | I spoke of the decision taken Some time ago | by the Soclety of Authors and the directors of | the Parisian theaters to give no more dresa‘ rehearsals. The system does not seem to | work very well, and the suppression of public | dress rebearsals has caused a number of con- | flicts with the press. The crities for the Paristan -dailies elaim that they cannot get their articles to press in time, and there is | corsiderable bitterness over the matter be- tween directors and authors on one side and the critics on the other. | held “another There were only two ways out of the meeting last Batur- % H L1 <E & matter. One wes to admit frankly that they | had made a mistake and the other was to per- sist in their decision with pigheaded obstinacy. | The latter solution was chosen, but as they | {u\“f the press against them they must even-b Ually aive in The enmity of {he press implles, in a cer- | tain sense, the enmity of the public, two pow- | ers that it is difficult to resist. In Paris the theater is a very expensive pleasure, and the public, that does mot care | to bring Its money.to a bad show, is in the | babit of relying on the judgment of the pro- | fessional critics before patronizing a play. But it seems to me that the correspond- | dent has not even touched the kettle on | the dramatic dog's tall. As he puts it/ there is but one side of the question, the But certain abuses in connection with | reasons advanced for the change belng the “Repetition Generale” have crept in, | wholly inadecuate in comparison with the | with the result that the “Soclete des Au- | 8dvantages of retaining the custom. Yet | teurs Dramatiques” and the theatrical | there is really much to be said from the | | avthor's and manager’s viewpoint. Both managers determined to abolish the privi- | oh o | P ity in Moy tust war tosung | these people naturally wish that the critic shall gee the play under the best possible | 8 pronunciamento to that effect with rea- | conditions. Now, barring. the fiet the | sons and substance something as follows, | last rehearsal is the worst, in many re- sccording to the Paris correspondent of | 8ards, @8s any one familiar with the a2 New York dramatic sheet: thousand and one last things that turn | 1. The unnecessary expense, the management | UF, then for the manager’s sins knows. being obliged to give places for the firat night | thvrousiny Tubieesig rpery 0ys, and o the crities addition to their places at the dress rehearsal. Rarely were the places | tears or plaudits, no huge guffaw to set occupled op first nights by the critics. Hav- | the comedian tingling to its tune and ing attended the dress rehearsal our dramatic | NOne of that thrilling, ]iving, sensitized eritic was in no wise disposed to see the play | Atmosphere, in which alone the actor can evening following an afternoon rehearsal. | scenic filusion, the great, gloomy bare- So the seats were ocoupled by relatives or | ness of the stage, with its background of friends, it being the habit of the critic to | shouting, busy scene shifters, ' and the equal gloom of the silent house. Constant | interruptions to the text oceur, breaking the continuity of the thought with.cheer- ful barbarism. Last suggestions ' keep tumbling in to every one's bewilderment, |and the plavers, perhaps in new costumes, that suggest the Inquisition, are ready to stand on their heads with annoyance. Yet everyone is doing his beet, and it is almost an axiom that a bad 'dress rehearsal means a good first | performance, in the queer superstition of | the cratt. Yet, the dress rehearsal is a sketch, the whole thing in rough though vivid out- | line, and, as the trained eye can see the finished portrait in the dabs and dashes that mean nothing to the outsider, so | may the critic, possessed of the requisite krowiedge and intuition, foreshadow the completed product. Something of course iz lort, for he, too, depends upon the mob magic of the audience, but what is gained | is possibly more valuadle. ol It is definitely declded mow about the Duse tour for the coming autumn. We can only pray that we are included. uninspired. There is no avdience to give out its magnetism in GRAPE-NUTS. Demand Grape- Nuts pour Hotel Breakfast and the food will come. Some fepw hotels leave It off the Menu because It Is not fur- nished them free. | $ 2 B s e THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL. JOHN D SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address Communications to W, &. LEAKE, Manager s L ST SR e R AUGUST 3, 1902. | Narkst and Third S. F LOS ALAMOS TEMBLORS. HE superficial earthquakes, limited to a small area around Los Alamos and Santa Maria, while somewhat deétructive of poorly constructed buildings, and very disquieting to the inhabitants, need cause no alarm. They seem to be among the evidences- that earthquakes have more than one cause. It is found upon testing the oil wells within the disturbed circle that they arc unharmed, the tubing being neither bent nor broken. The displacement then must be very superiicial. and is due either to the pressure of gas exerted against the surface of the ground, or to the passage of strong electric currents through the soil. On former occasions in this State miners in deep-mines have failed to observe any move- ment of the earth at all, while the surface was displaced considerably by earthquakes. This could not be the case if the movement had a volcanic origin, or were related to a slip in the thick crust of the earth. It is quite well settled by geology that there are lines of weakness in the world’s shell, causing slips, and that the violence of these depends upon the distance of the siip. It is believed that the extensive earthquakes which affect San Francisco and Oakland and the whole bay region simultaneously are caused by such a line of weakness, or crack in the crust, along the Coast Range from Mount Hamilton northward. The guarantee against any serious displacement lies in the frequency of the slips. If a long time passed with no demonstration the results might be anticipated with apprehension, for the upraise on the line of the crack would then be so great as to imply a considerable subsidence on the side that would part contact and fall. The Eastern earthquake line is believed to be due to such a line of weakness, that extends from the Upper Mississippi Valley itregularly to the Atlantic coast. This caused the New Mad- rid earthquake in 1812, and then the earth rested until the destructive manifestation at Charleston a few years ago. The earth is a vast ball of matter, constantly subject to motion within itself, and by centri- fugal force being steadily bulged out at the equator while the poles approach each other. "Its ulti- mate destiny is to assume the form of two saucers put together by the rims. -What will occur then can be foretold only by study of the laws of mattér and of motion, and of the attractive agency of the sun. The results will doubtless be cataclysmal. The earth will change its posi- tion, and the poles will be on the line of the present equator. Existing equatorial regions will become polar and there will be a redistribution of such animate and inanimate life as survives the readjustment. The existence of tropical plants, flowers and animal remains, in the ice of the north, seems to prove that the planet has already undergone at least one readjustment of that kind. since such evidences of tropical life could not have been slowly overtaken by polar ice. The change was instantaneous. Given such causts of movement in the earth’s entire mass, it is not to be wondered at that constant disturbances appear upon its surface. The very process of crushing the mass together at the poles while it bulges at the equator accounts for the profound movements in the crust at all points between the poies, increasing as the equator is approached. Now it will be seen that movement as that at Los Alamos and Santa Maria cannot well have any rela- mass. Therefore it is caused either by the passage of gas such merely loca tion to this general motion of the earth’s or electricity. } SPARRING FOR TIME. HE progress of the case of the people against The Call is again impeded by the attor- neys for Governor Gage, who desire, no doubt, to secure an appealable decision from the committing magistrate, by which they may go from his to an appellant court and secure more delay. The talk about collusion in the case is bosh. Collusive action, to be det- rimental to the people, must include the court and the prosecuting attorney. The action brought before Judge Fritz enables a complete examination of the issue, and the development of all the testimony. Governor Gage's attorneys can appear and examine and cross-examine witnesses. But, instead of doing this, under his instruetions, no doubt, his leading counsel appears to denounce the proceeding as political! Well, what is Governor Gage’s prose- cution of The Call for criminal libel, if not political? The suit, like the civil suit against General Otis, was brought for the purpose of escorting the Governor through the primaries on the 12th of August. He did not dare have a fair investigation of the conduct of San Quentin, nor did he dare seek a renomination by paying no attention to the charges against that conduct. So he started a suit in a jurisdiction where such an investigation was not possible, and has fought a jurisdiction that was lawful and perfectly fair to him, in order that he might stand a chance in the primaries and thereby advance his personal political ambition. It does not lie in the mouth of his attorney to charge political motives to the men he is pursuing, and over whom he holds legal penalties in an action brought in the name of the people. He has talked about “fugitives from justice” and “outlaws.” When he gets the persons so offen- sively characterized in a jurisdiction upheld by the Superior and Supreme courts, why does he not follow them there? Of those decisions on the writ of prohibition no other view can be taken. The Governor’s attorney in his argument to Judge Fritz said that the decisions of Judge Sloss and the Supreme Court voided the view he had taken of the legal jurisdiction of Judge Fritz. He said that, in these decisions, “we have met with very serious disappointments.” No. doubt, but that is an admission that he has the “fugitives from justice” and “outlaws” at last before a court of compe- tent jurisdiction, and all he has to do is to enter that jurisdiction and proceed to prosecute them. In the situation which he admits is created by those decisions the personality of Board- man is eliminated entirely. Any citizen ¢zn do just what he has done. 1f, as the Supreme Court say, Governor Gage is not beneficially intcrested, and it is a prosecution colely in the name of the people, he and Boardman are exactly equal, and the suit brought by one is no more collusive than that brought by the other, for in [act it is the same suit brought in the name of the people. THE WAY OF IMPROVEMENT. ONGRESS at the late session dealt liberally with the national capital, and the Wash- ington people would doubtless like to see well nigh every one of its members re-elected. Without counting routine or minor appropriations, the city obtained for permanent im- provements and adornments $475,445 forithe White House, $65,196 for an office build- ing for the President, $150,000 for the improvement of Anacosta Creek, $70,000 for the Potomac flats and $25,000 for a Lincoln memorial. The appropriations will make a good beginning for the movement to carry out the great plans for beautifying ‘Washington and realizing the dreams of L’Enfont, the great artist who laid it out and sought to start it upon a career that would make it the most mugnificent city of the world. In another respect, too, some of the appropriations are notable. They attest once moré the truth that one improvement almost inevitably compels the undertaking of new improvements, so that when once a beginning is made he work of improvement goes on steadily so long as the people remain progressive and have suificient wealth and energy to achieve new things. The appropriation for the improvement of Anacosta Creek results from a former appro- priation to establish a war college. The proposed college is to stand near the creek, and as a consequence the improvement of the creek becomes an essential part of the college programme. Nor will ti.e matter end there. Washingtonians point out that the improvements to be undertaken near the mouth of the creek will compel further improvements higher up, and they predict that these in tarn will soon bring about the realization of a long cherished Washington dream—that that of establishing a “water park” which will be one of the sights of the continent. In a similar way the improvement of the Potomac flats by the new appropriation will lead to further and further improvements until the whole flat district shall have be¢n converted into parks or blocks for buildings. Thus the work goes on,and the national capital sets an example for the rest of the country. Municipal improvement is going to be one of the salient features of American develop- ment for the next fifty years, and a community that once embarks on it will find itself thereafter borne forward by well nigh resistless forces, for when once begun it can never stop uptil the com- munity itself becomes stagnant. Professor Spencer of Melbourne University is reported to have said that among the na- tives of Central Australia it is the custom that a mother is not permitted to go within a mile of the residence of her married daughter without the consent of the husband. Is that savagery or good sound sense? ~ / BY BLANCHE RICHES OF LITTLE LA SCALA ADD TO MUSICAL SEASON, BUT ARE NOT ONLY LCOT OF WEEK PARTINGTON. £ o | 'M the.better this week for acquaint- | ance with the best Lucia I have ever ! | seen, and one of the best Aidas I| have ever heard. Naturally, this is| leot from our little la Scala, the Tiv- 1 oli, and not the only loot of the week. But Miss Tina de Spada's Lucia is some- | thing to have seen, rather less, though | rot litile, to have heard. She is a 'slim, | girlish thing, with a small, vi¢id, expres- | sive face, framed in black Italian hair, | and eyed like the tragic muse. Her tem- | perament seems almost too intense for | her fragile physique, her soul too large for its frail shell—to speak in key. Emi- | nently suited to the part by her personal | graces, by temperament, Miss de Spada is | even more aptly fitted to the ill-fated | | Scotch lassie’s role, and it is hardly possi- | DLle to imaginé a more satisfying illusion in the shy and difficult {llusion of grandopera. | | Donizetti has given hardly a chance to even a musical Duse in the twinkling rou- | lades of the “mad scene,” yet in it Miss | de Spada creates a delicate intensity of atmosphere that grips and holds her audi- | ence till its last note is sounded. Too bad | they insist on encoring the effect out c)fl the scene. i Miss de Spada sings well, really well, ! also. Her volce has a sharpness, perhaps. of youth, but Is very high, bright and | flexible, and trained in a peculiarly refined | school. She has a wonderful attack, and | phrases in sensitive and scholarly fashion. Miss de Frate, the week's Aida, is an- other story. Miss de Frate is much bet- ter looking than she looks and those who | saw her Monday in Aida will appreciate | the force of the statement. The make- | up was perhaps more like that.of the | wooden Indian maids that for some mys terious reason haunt the tobacco shops | than anything else, only in the latter | case there is more congruity of complex: icn. On Wednesday night De Frate ha washed it off, coming out in a plebald | | effect that set one wondering if Am- | cnaro’s, like Caesar's wife, were above | suspicion, Then again, she is little sulted temper- | amentally to the character. Her mien was that rather of a king’s daughter in power than of a savage ruler's child in captivity, even to where she did a little stage managing on her own hook, mov- ing Princess Amneris’ table and chair to one side that they might quarrel in com- fort, with a royal air that matched Am- neris’ own. But she is not old, as opera singers go, and as has been alleged. Miss De Frate counts forty years unashamed and there- in is younger than Nordica by some and than Sembrich by several vears. She is oven rather good-looking and owns that handsome mane Aida shows by other than right of purchase. And she can sing. De Frate certainly can sing. Her voice is delightfully sym- pathetic, pure, sweet, round and under excellent control. It is more flexible than the usual dramatic soprano and has a full, even range. She has some low tones that are exceptionally good and her high notes are clear and unworn. Vocally she is much the best Alda the Tivoll has had, vet she will be heard in parts that sult her better during the season. R De Padova, the barytone, is another ac- quisition. He Has the fault of his sort of voice in some time uncertainty of in- tonation, but otherwise has a resonant, fine organ and an excellent cleanness of enunclation. He has fire, too, and should do very good work in “La Favorita” this week. Venerandl is the new dramatic tenor_and his Radames shone apprecia- bly. His voice is brililant and powerful and he should do valuable service during the season. Zonghl, who was the gardo in “Lucia,” has only a limited com- pass,‘but it is of a particularly pleasant caliber. He is more than common tall as tenors go and has a very effective stage presence. He sings and acts with both sympathy and power. Dado is a constant pleasure. He is a thorough artist and has a noble voice. He seems to me to have gained much on the dramatic side since last year. Then there is Marie Pozzi—but we shall hear her Favorita this week and shall know better then just where Pozzi stands. ostini also will be welcomed again in ‘‘Favorita,” no one of the company more heartily. Also we are to hear those two favorites, Collamarini and Russo in “Carmen.” 1 hear D'Albore 1s going to astonish as the toreador, and Collamarini, tell it joyfully, has lost her superfluous tonnage! pere D I cannot do better for the projected FAMOUS TENOR WHO WILL APPEAR IN “LA FAVORITA” AT THE TIVOLL b have space for to-day. Here follows the circular: The remarkable development of musical cul- ture in San Francisco during recent years has attracted_attention to this city as a musical center, likely at no very distant date to rival in importance the older and larger cities of the Eastern States. The study and practice of choral music, which should be one of the most important {: rs In our musical life, has hard- 1y kept pace with the progress made in other branches of the art. The Cecelia Choral So- clety has been founded with the object of sup- plyiag this want. An_excellent opportunity now presents {tself for the formation of a large choral soclety, in connectfon With a series of concerts to be given by the Mechanics' Institute. These concerts will be held monthly during the season in the The - vith choral numbers selectsd from standard works. At each concert there will be a large band or string orchestra, and prominent vocal- ists will be engaged as soloists. Twice each ear it is intended to give an oratorio, and in his connection it may be stated that Handel's “Messiah™ has been chosen for performance during the Christmas season. ‘Ladtes and gentlemen desiring to join the Ce- celia_Choral Soclety as active members are in- vited to send their names at once to the sec- retary, C. Harding .Tebbs, care Kohler & Chase, 26 O'Farrell street. The first concert will be held in the month of September, and rehearsals will commence at an early date. Members of the Cecelia Choral Society will pay no@entrance fee or monthly dues. The only expense they will incur is that of pur- chasing the music selected for performance. Every member of the chorus is entitled to two free tickets for each concert in which the Ce- cella Choral Society participates. Prunes stuffed with apricots. Townsend’s.* ———— Townsend's California Glace fruit and candles, 50c a pound, in artistic fire-etched boxes. A nice present for Eastern friends. €39 Market st., Palace Hotel building. * paubatiidbatbe; ool pakes. o Special Information supplied daily to business houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 230 Cali- fornia street. Telephone Main 1042 ——————— When a man begins to Nave children he }:egms to have real troubles, but real oys. creates perfect complexions and prompts the skin to per- form its highest fuactions; it imparts that fresh, healthful glow that so often disappears with youth; removes TAN, SUNBURN, PIMPLES, BLOTCHES, MUDDINESS, MOTH AND LIVER PATCHES Sold by druggists and eral dealers at S0c a Bottie. or direct from us, prepaid, for Tr?ll bottle and directions for 10¢. Cecilia, Choral Soclety than give verbatim its comprehensive circular. To say that Dr.'H. J..Stewart is at the head of the at- fair is all that needs be said of its stand- ing and to wish the society all the sue- cess the project deserves Is all that I E. B. HARRINGTON & CO. Los Angeles, Cal,