The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 24, 1902, Page 22

VOICE IMPEDIMENTS DO NOT DISCOURAGE BRAVE PERFORMERS By Blanche Partington. : 4 SINGER WHO IS ONE OF THIS WEEK'S STARS IN “LA BO- HEME"” AT THE TIVOLIL it ? | i | + | IGNOR RUSSO, slightly hoarse be- tween acts last Monday evening, called the gentlemen at the, bar (Tivoll) to bhis. assistance. The gifted little tenor ordered sherry, sherry and an egg, the cla tion for a rasped throat. busy making eyes at the toread ere long wouid be listening for the capit- ulatory bigh G of Don Jose, on which Eignor Russo usually has such a good time that he is loth to Jeave it. There vas just the necessary moment to mix potion, end the singer deftly brol egg into the glass and hurriedly & ed the mixture, for the imperious 5y must not be kept walting for her lovesick @ragoon. But, alas and alack! it has ever been true that “the more haste the less speed,” | and Signor Russo soon found that he had swallowed much more than he had pald for. The egg, indeed, was long past #ts first youth—in fact, was fast leaving egghood for—but it is best to draw a veil here. Suffice it to say that Don Jose was et the trysting place on time, bravely throwing up his customary high note and much more gallantly keeping down his unweicome visitant. Through two more @cts the singer sang, entertaining his ster boarder with the best grace he foight, but at any rate successfully con- | gealing from the audience that “la vie @e Boheme” is not all “beer and skittles”; that in fact it is sometimes eggs—of other days. al- . e s The story is amusing in the telling, but | every one in the possession of 2 stomach b will heartily agree that no common self- | control and a genuine courage went to the singing of those last measures. It is @ kind of self-sacrifice very frequently demanded of the singer and of his fellow entertainer, the actor. It is, of course, & kind of self-sacrifice demanded occa. sionally of us all—the attempt cheerfully | to play our various parts with breaking hearts, etc. But while the honest burglar who's a-burgling with affectional or other disorder to mar his purity of touch may fall to achieve his usual distinction, it is & matter of moment only to an audience of one. With the singer it is different. His defection affects his thousands, and be is under the disagreeable necessity of migning his mame to his least successful effort. Knowing full well that he eannot do himself justice and that it is impossi- ble to explain to his audience that he bas been walking the floor all the pre- vious night with toothache, or has just recelved word of his father's death, or, more impossibly, that he is suffering from one of those deadly fits of depression to which genius is heir, the singer must yet piay bis part and subject himseif to in- evitable misjudgment. And as a reward of his herolsm he receives—what?—the | damning faint praise of the unconscious | critic and the half-hearted plaudits of a | disappointed house. o i The matter has rather forced itself on the attention of late. At the theater round the ,corner from the opera shop there has been Margaret Anglin, battling for eleven weeks with a persistent cold; not, one may happily aver, one made in Ban Francisco. It is high tribute to Miss Anglin’s genius to say that there has been apparent hardly any sag in her emo- tional pitch, hardly any evidence but an occasipnal hoarseness of her indisposi- tion. The story of Henry Miller's hero- ism of last Wednesday night, in going through the last act of “Camille” with a broken nose, is already familiar. That the acter spent seventeen hours on a M from 11 ¢’clock on Sunday morn-, | of Monday night was indubitably wooden, ¢ | her breach | ties ana I have done. ¥ ing to 4 on Monday morning, in polish- ing and rounding off the *“Camille” pro- Guction, then at it again on Monday af- | ternoon, before his brilliantly forceful ig- terpretation of Armand in the evening,is less familiary known. Nor is it Enown | that Mr. Elllott, whose Monsieur Duval bad that afternoon suffered a minor oper- ation. v R But to return to the Tivoll. Frate, the molto appassionata pri donna, whose directing of Mr. Steindorff during | the first ma’ performance cregted much righteous and some undeserved in- dignation, was not wholly rgsponsible for of professional .courtesy. Apart from the fact thet the harp went | sharp—through the heat of the house— making it impossible for the singer to sing in tune with i#fDe Frate was labor- | ing under severe neyvous excitement, due 15> a failure to regelve news from her ne in Millan. Like the good | ow ke is, Mr, Steindorfl recoguized | and freely forgave the singer for | stopping the harp, beating time on Pozzi’s | plump chest, gagging Venerandi's high note and otherwise rebelling against the omnipotent baton. Like the good fellow | she is also, De Frate frankly confessed | her sins and presented her ‘generous con- ductor with a handsome floral acknowl-| edgment of her repentance at the follow- g “Norma” performance. Since then | ance. Since when peace has reigned. | It is rather singular that it should ever | have been disturbed, by the way, since madam carries with her an infallible | talisman of good luck. The curious have noted In the singer's hand almost in-| y a shining something, about five | or six inches ln;g‘ that has been takeni for everything frbm a stiletto to a tuning fc It is, in reality, an exaggerated horseshoe nail, with a gold plate, in- scribed “Ines Biliotti"—the singer's real name—wrapped about its head and an- cther above its point. This, madam ex- plains with touching falth, is warranted 1o bring good luck and I cannot see but that it s as good as any other of our pathetic fetishes. One more instance of art under difficul- D’ Albore, the bari- tone, who has been doing a very decent torcador since the first performances of ‘Carmen,” was ill on its first night. His work in “Lucia” had premised rather disastrous effort for the season and his toreador came, therefore, with agreeable |, surprise. cal were galvanized into atteution by its @ramatic strength, and D'Albore "was boping to redeem himself by the per- formance. But the first night came and the baritone’s voice gave out. There was, however, no one else to sing the parf and he was perforce obliged to undertale it. With strenyous effort he managed to get through its first measures, thovigh palpably inadequate to the reguirements of the role. Then he broke down com- pletely for an agonized moment, but, sup- ported gallantly by friends on the stage, returned to give the encore always elicit- ed by the swinging song of the iereador. Gf course, only the fact, not the reason of the inadequacy of his work was ap- {zflrenl to his hearers, and tbe singer, eenly feeling this, gave way fo a truly Latin' abandonment to grief after the scene. It would have been n curiously bard heart that would have risfused sym- pathy to. D’Albore that night, as he sat obbing like a child, in the wings. But art, my m&s(el’s.. is 2 cr:lel mistress. Even the supers at its rehear- It is good to know that, “La Boheme,” in which Agostinl and 'Montanari are sicging so well this wee/z at the Tivoll, will be repeated. It shoyld not be missed, for besides the good sfngers above, the whole production is excellent and De Pa- dova, Tina de Spada and Dado are also very pleasantly heard in the cast. —_— Prunes stuffed with apricots. Townsend’s.® ——————— Townsend's California Glace fruit and candies, G0c & pound, in artistic fire-etched boxes. A nice jresent for Rastern friends. 639 Market st., Palace Hotel building.* —_———— Special information supplied dafly to business ho‘n'laBn.nd y\z:‘ulc men byythe cnpz:u ureau en’s), 230 Cali- fornia stre, Telephone Main )XM!Z.' » THE SA FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 24, 1902. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL. JOHN D, SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manag=r SUNDAY . Publication Office. .AUGUST 24, 1902 Market and Third S. F THE PROOFS. ONTINUING in the second stage of the case of Governor Gage against the proprietor and manager of The Call for libel the evidence is now cumulative. The defense has es- tablished, in the sworn testimony of unwilling witnesses, the existence of “the Warden’s shop” at the prison, in which the illegal manufacture of furniture is carried on. By the same witnesses, all friends of the Governor and anxious to shield him, it is proved in court that large purchases of fine woods were made for that shop. Itis in evidence that when the prison was turned over to Warden Aguirre the inventory showed fine woods on hand, mahogany, ebony, rosewood, oak and maple, to the value of $6000 or $7000. This material was in the cabinet shop when the law closed that shop and made the many- facture of furniture at the prison an unlawful industry. It was stored in the shop to the end of Warden Hale's term, and was seasoned and in splendid condition for the manufacture of luxu- rious furniture. It is not there now, nor is any showing made of its sale as raw material for the benefit of the State. It was used up in “the Warden’s shop,” and then more of similar material was bought to continue the unlawful industry. An unwilling witness swore that the Warden or- dered him to get a quantity of laurel logs, “fit for furniture,” and that he procured such material and it was taken to “the Warden’s shop” to be made into furniture by convict labor. The stock of fine wood on hand and the input of more of the same material, shown to have amounted in one meonth to nearly a thousand dollars, being clearly established by unwilling witnesses, the output is traced by legal evidence. It is shown by bills of lading and shipping receipts, identified by the captain of the Caroline, by the superintendent of Wells-Fargo and by the general freight agent of the North Shore Railroad Company, that each of those three means of ' transportation was em- ployed in shipping away the output of illegally manufactured furniture. . By their testimony it is proved that twenty-five shipments were made from the prison to Governor Gage, to members of his family, his household and his home; most of these were large shipments of crated and wrapped furniture, while others were of harness and various articles. It is also established by'proof that the Governor’s family lived at the prison, in the Warden’s house, for periods running from two to three months, and it is in evidence, by the testimony of un- willing witnesses, that the expense bills of the Warden’s house, which during such sojourns of the Governor’s family exceeded the amount allowed by law, were charged off, illegally, to account of the officers’ mess. All this is proved, under judicial rules of evidence, in court, by oath of the Governor’s friends, by the legally proved documents and by the oath of the captain of the Caroline and of the superintendent of Wells-Fargo, and of the general freight agent of the North Shore road. Let it be remembered, now, that these things, these many violations of the law, these cumtlative proofs of the relations of the Governor as beneficiary of these unlawful acts, are no longer newspaper charges. They are facts proved in a court of justice. The Republican State Convention meets to-morrow. These proofs necessarily concern it and its action. It would be an exhibition of hyper—delicac‘y to pretend that such proofs take on no other significance than they would have in the case of a private citizen. They affect the Gov- ernor of the State who is seeking a renomination at the hands of that convention. We ask the Republican party to consider well and wisely the ground on which it stands. We ask that it pon- der soberly the consequences of adopting as its own the acts of Governor Gage by renominating him. Does any Republican know of any other Governor who adopted San Quentin or any other State institution as his family residence for periods of two and three months at a time? Does any Republican know of any State institution before in which the cost of keeping the Governor’s family, paid for out of the treasury, had to be charged off its proper account of maintenance and charged on to the officers’ mess account? Does any Republican knéw of any other Governor to whom heavy, and frequent, and numerous shipments of furniture, and other articles of illegal manufacture, were made from San Quentin by water, by rail and by express? There is but one answer to these questions. Such acts are before unheard of. so extraordinary as to be appalling to all men who have the correct conception of official honor and propriety. This being so, has the Republican party any right to offer such a candidate to the people for indorsement? Can it do so and its members retain their self-respect without cleansing their party at the polls? Looking above and beyond the party to the State, as a commonwealth the State of Cali- fornia has superior rights, which are in the keeping of all the people. It has a right to high character and clean hands in those who seek its highest office. Can any party safely violate that right? Can it hope to escape rebuke if it try? EIPLINGH AS AN ORATFOR. IPLING has set forth upon the third phase of his effort to rouse a military spirit among the British people and to inspire them with a desire to know how to shoot. First he taught in prose, then he exhorted in rhyme, and now he .is spelibinding on the stump anc is making a reputation as an crator. Reports from the scene of his activities are to the effect that he speaks much as he writes, and has an airy eloquence that pleases as it flows. A short time ago he was confronted by an op- ponent who declared the development of military habits among the people, and a frequent use of arms, would excite in them a desire for war, render them bumptious and fill them with jingo en- thusiasms that would disturb trade and drive peace from the earth. In reply Mr. Kipling said: “Teaching 2 boy to write does not lead him to persecute his neighbors by writing a book, a man does not run about the streets firing a rifle because he happens to be a volunteer, nor does he fall into military formation whenever he wishes to get on an omnibus.” From those facts he drew the conclusion that teaching a young man how to do the part of a soldier would not necessarily fill him with any wild desire to immediately set forth to battle. Kipling’s plea is that the youth of Great Britain should be taught how to use the weapons of modern way, and should be taught young and thoroughly. “We do not wait,” he said, “until a boy is eighteen years old and_wishes to be Lord Chancellor before we teach him the alphabet, so we ought not to wait until he is eighteen and thinks he would like to die for his country before we give him a rifle and teach him to stand in a straight line.” Then he clinched his argument by saying: “So we may hope that the next time the nations see fit to love us with the love which has found such perfect expression during the last thirty months, we may not be wholly ignorant of one or two of those less spiritual accomplishments, which, if they do not secure affection, at least command respect.” Those and similar statements of the orator sound much. more like persiflage than serious argument, but we are told they are very effective, and of course that is the final test of oratory. As a result of his persuasion three new rifle ranges have been set up in the district where he has been doing his campaigning. Evidently he is the kind of spellbinder who could get votes if he took the stump for Parliament, and that will probably be his next move. There are very few men who once acquire the knack of speaking fluently and feel the thrill of it, who do not sooner or later desire to get into some great assembly where talking goes on all the year round. Conse- quently a parliamentary career may be the next stage of the Kipling evolution, and he who began as a romancer with a chance of immortality may end as a prosy old bore at the head of a committee. The savings of British workingmen invested in savings banks, co-operative' associations and similar societies are said to amount to more than $1,700,000,000, or about half the debt of the empire. There are of course other savings im addition to those noted, and it would seem that John Bull has become thrifty in his old age and no longer spends all his earnings for beer and skittles. : AL i The announcement that a Kentucky girl is to go to Europe to study music is accompanied by the statement that she has refused 150 offers of marriage, so it is safe to say she will succeed. Her talent for advertising renders it certain that she is a musical genius. —— It is said the Secretary of the Navy is at a loss to get the 1200 additional naval officers re- * quired to properly officer the ships now on the navy list and those that will be soon ready for ser- vice; but as yet we have not heard of his advertising for proposals. Since the Kaiser has been so liberal in distributing crosses to prominent citizens in this country and promising to give us a statue ¢f Frederick the Great, it does look a little unreason- able in him to refuse to give his son to an American girl. ¥ They are . e ’ DENIS O'SULLIVAN | I | SPEAKS OF PLAYS | AND PLAYERFOLK' | By Guisard. DenNTs O SvrrrvAN-— ~~RALISKY- PrioTo. T is “up to” Denis O’Sullivan, but T felt as good “Faynian” as the next man when I dropped in upon the bril- liant young Irishman’s “Wearin' of the Green” at the Grand Opera-house | the other morning. I felt my blood boil to think that we must wear “England’s cruel red,” and swore that “‘until the law should shtop the blades of grass from growin’ as they grow,” that I would not change the “‘color that I wear in my caubeen,” s'elp L me. “Nealy” O'Sullivan has lately escaped from England; that is, he is here, and surely a wise government would hardly permit this attractive Hibernian's free range in the ould country. However, Mr. O’Sullivan maintained a discreet silence as to this, when I caught him after the rehearsal, and told delightful yarns of his three years' absence in London. Mr. Ackerman of the Grand Opera-house management has persuaded him to appear in three Boucicault dramas—“Arrah Na Pogue,” “Shaughraun”’ and “Colleen Bawn.” This is the gifted native son's— for O’Sullivan first saw_the light here— | first appearance in the drama, and he is not a little nervous over it, though he has ranged the stage with large success in Irish opera, and is one of the most wel- ;?,;rtlreorfxlgures in London on the concert TURNS TO APPEAR ON DRA- Mr. O'Sullivan does not promise the MATIC STAGE., Chauncey Olcott sort of thlnfi-chauncoy * Olac&tt. mel\"erengly {abeleg “ief‘hafnberz L mdid’s darling” in New Yor! e is no ” of the sentimental school, but a virile. | 814, the Tinker.” to which Wepostto has magnetic singer, with a rich fund of gen- | ¥ '"e““l e 7‘305 and in wl O’ Sulll ulne tenderness and warmih that finds its | YA Wil some day appear, has been - happlest expression in his favorite Irish ( Jected to this ingenious treatment. ~Not ballads. So far as personality goes, his | 22 e Post Bag,” written by Alfred C. genial and buoyant build admirably fit O’Sullivan for the romantic heroes of Boucicault. He attempts first “Arrah Na Pogue,” opening to-morrow evening, in which the singer will introduce the fal- lowing songs: “‘Low-Backed Car” (Lover): Cow ; “The Leprechaun’ fatt) ng of the Green'" Belleve Me, If All Those Endearing =3 ACTOR-SINGER WHO RE- Graves, composed by Esposito, and ed into dramatic shape by O an himself. *“The Post Bag” is a little Irish idyl, playing abeyt fiorty-five minutes, which has made a considerable stir in London lately. I asked if there wers any possibility of its being heard here. “A very attenuated ome,” the it_picturesquely. 3 It is a pity if it cannot be heard here. “Kitty of the (Mot~ (tradl- tional); e Sa ¥ % | The “Shamus O’Brien” production that Young ouarms” (Moore); “The Domovans™ | yno Tyvolf gave three weeks to in ‘97 after Mr. O’Sullivan’s successful “creation” of the role the year before in was highly encouraging to any future venture of the kind. ‘“The Post Bag” should cer- tainly be heard while its chief interpreter and part carpenter are with us. He is sunny-faced and big-shouldered, 15 O/Sullivan, ‘an aetor, certalary: more of a singer, perhaps; but above all. an Irish- man. I could with difficulty get him to talk of himself after the fascinating sub- ject of the new Irish movement, that hie catalogues as ‘‘constructive, not destruc- tive,” came up. He i3 full to the fiager tips of information concerning the Na- tional League, the Land Purchase Act, the Cottage Industries, the Feis Ceofl, the co-operative stores and banks that are to bring back lm-osperlzy and the national spirit to Ireland. and o is In *The Shaughraun’” and ‘‘Colleen Bawn,” that follow in order, will be sung: The Leric in the Clear Alr (Esposito); (Lover); “The Ould Pl (4 Roam the Wide World 3 er) (Stanford); ‘‘Father O'Flynn" ( “I'm Off to Philadelphia in the Morn- ing’’ (Haynes). “I did not know that you played any- thing but the violin,” I said, as the actor came down to me fresh from tootling a quicksilvery jig on a tin whistle. “No?” laughed O’Sullivan. ““Why, you know, I used to _Fiay the violin at the old Philharmonic?, but I was general utility man, too—played any instrument they were short on—moved the piano round—introduced the prima donnas—and when they couldn’t pay any one I used to sing, you know"—in which you have Denis O’Sullivan in a nutshell ““You studied singing here at first?” I asked then. “‘Oh, yes,” he said, and hunching his broad shoulders to the )keness of a very old man with unconscious mimiery. “I studied with Karl Formes first. But the He hails by descent from Bandon Skibbereen, where he goes yearly to give an O a concert and Where every ey hoid a wake hen 1 v 10] wi over me back g London,” he laughed, 'unl f.‘& imclh a Paddy that I'm happy as the day s long. “You don’t want to come here, them,” 1 sald. lessons consisted usually of my sin; “And why not?" he lied. “De a scale and listening to the dear, old‘}:l‘- it the bclt"elcflm. of from old ’&l:-:.uf low tell his favorite story of how ‘this 3 arm was the von vich had taken out the Kveen of Engeland to dinner,’ "—but it is impossible to reproduce theFormes-cum- O’Sullivan accent. “Ugo Talbo came next,” resumed Formes' former pupil. ‘He was a good teacher. And then, well, I went to Van- nucini in Florence for a few years; thence to London with Shakespeare for a while, but Sbriglia I really got most good from.” “I read that you are quite as well known in England as an interpreter of German leder as you are of the Irish ballad?” I advanced. And then it came out that Mr. O’Sullivan did “follow a little German at a frespectful distance; fool a bit with Frenc] ne had to, and jabber a bit of Italfan.” The Gaelic, of course, though, when he first went to learn it, sitting on the baby benches in the Infants’ class at Nottinghlll Gate ~School, betwen two young shavers of 10 and 12, a plasterer and two ermined aristocrats—(who repre- sent the varied Interest in the Gaelic tongue now taken in London) the small bq}: ‘“‘made a fool of him at the game.” en followed an enthusiastic deseri, tion of the work of the Gaelic Society in London, with the revival of Interest in Irish music and literature represented gr George Moore, Esposito, the composer: r Charles Villiers Stanford, the “Sh mus O'Brien” man; Dr, oods and by inference O’Sullivan himself, who is chief bard of t! movement. One odd " and suggestive fact the memory. G M has deserted “Evelyn Ras. subjected his ate work oo ety as subjec s late work t 4 lowing curious process. He = completed opus to Dr. Douglas Hy head and ¢ Gaelic philologicai e It Sririntaied ng! one Teague O'Leary, and is found thml to * ot y have gained the very o ? 1 think it llkely it will be a good onme. Makes Skins Lighter, Clearer, Purer ANTIDOTES BLEMISHES exion of youth ita Cream. ed in fi thus imparting the full benefits of its medicinal nature. Re- moves Tan. Freckles, Muddiness, Pimples, Moth and ver Directions with each jar. or of us, prepaid. ANITA CREAM & TOILET COMPANY of the p Lok Angeles, Cal Moore’s recent little play,