The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 9, 1902, Page 22

22 THE SAN FI.ANCIEC() CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1902. L HERNE'S “HEARTS OF OAK” | TO BE PRESENTED TO-NIGHT AT THE CALIFORNIA THEATER By Guisard. T 2R ! R R ) e Sy . 2 ! 2, ST T i ) N O TALENTED ACTRESS WHO IS PLAYING LEADING ROLE IN | HERNE'S “HEARTS OF OAK.” | HE appearance of one of the James A. Herne companies', to- night at the California Theater in the lamented author's play, “Hearts of Oak,” revives pleasant memories of the works of the famous ac- tor and writer, San Francisco has a warm spot in her heart for the memory of James A. Herne and his plays. This city was the scéne of his early struggles and it was at the old California Theater that Herne first met with success. The truthful realism that James A. Merne placed Pefore his audiences was | firet met with fierce opposition, but t'ne\ ector-author finally won out in his battle for recognition. “‘Hearts of Oak,” “Shore Jcres,” g Harbor” and “Griffith Dav- enport” have taken their place in the #mall list of American dramatic classics snd wherever they are presented men, wvomen and children flock to enjoy the guiet realism of life as depicted in the plays. During the score or more of years in | which the plays of the late James A. | Herne have been before the public, a | large number of children have made thelr | theatrical debut in the charming works | ©f the late actor-author. ‘While some of the children do not con- | tinue in the dramatic profession when they grow up, others have earned prom- | fnent positions behind the footlights. e e e ¥YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY A PIAND At Jeast until you sée the only house on the coast selling direct from the factory to purchasers. We sell goods to some of the largest dealers here and can seve you from $50 to $100 on each instrument. “The Examiner” ses from us exclusivi in large quantities each year. We alwa; have at least fifty slightly used and sec- ond-hand bargains, inciuding one Conover, $%8; five Hallett & Davis, Fischer, $8: one Helne, 5 ings, 396, $186; three Steinways, $185, rer‘ 83, etc., ete. ‘ WARNING! ‘ | New Uprights, $75. Thump boxes, stenciled, sold by dealers who make use of the names of old manu- ‘ facturers who have discontinued making | ianos for years, such as Decker Bros., | bert, Arion and many others, These goods are ally made by so-called ! thump box manufacturers of New York | at $5 each. We sell these goods with | their manufacturer's guarantee, including | two stools ubber hood and scarf, de- | livered to ¥ house at $137. These are the same goods reported by others to be | worth from $400 to $500 under pretext of | special sales and other lame excuses. $1.00 Week Are our terms on all cheap pianos, and you don’t have to join any assoclation, trust or club to get these terms. HEINE PIAND CO.HALL, 235-237 Ceary St. Agents for the Playano plano player, abler and ten other standard es. ver 200 to select from. Visit our free g‘l’livvl-no exhibition from 2 to 4 o'clock - -3 Grace Estelle Clarke, the leading lm‘]y| of the “Hearts of Oak” company, tHat; commences a week's engagement at lhe] California Theater this evening, is one of the mest successful of the Herne schocl of “children.” | Sheé is a California girl and by a strange | coincidence makes her appearance to- night on the stage of the California The- ater in the same play in which she made her debut as the baby of the famous pro- | duction. When James A. Herne first produced | “Hearts of Oak” at the old California | Theater Grace Estelle Clarke figured in the production as the baby:: Then she was but six months old, and after an en-, | gagement of ten months she was replaced in the cast by another infant. i When Miss Clarke arrived at the age of | 5 years she was engaged by Mr. Herne for the role of little Chrystal in “Hearts | of Oak” and she continued to play that character for three seasons. Then she was transferred to the “Shore | Acres” company and delighted thousands | of playgoers by her clever impersonation of the “Waif’ in that popular Herne play. | Another step upward was made in the | career of Miss Clarke when Mr. Herne assigned her to the role of Hester in| “'Shore Acres,” and she continued to por- | tray this character for four seasons. | When “Hearts of Oak™ was revived | by Mre. James A. Herne three years ago, | | one of the first engagements made was | for the services of Miss Clarke. She was | assigned to the role of Chrystal, a char- acter that calls for the portrayal of the | deepest emotion. How well Miss Clarke succeeded is shown by the fact that she | has continued to play this difficult cha.- | acter for three seasons. { Surrounded by the artistic atmosphere | of the Herne productions, Miss Clarke | has benefited in a marked manner by her | early and continuous service with thc | Herne companies. It was ever the aim of Mr. Herne to keep as many of his | actors and actresses with him as long | | a8 possible and some of the men now | with the “Hearts of Oak” companies have | been playing the same roles for ten and | twelve years. The result is that the pre- | sentation of the characters is without a fault. Although the stage sustalned a great | loss in the recent death of James A. Herne, his widow, Wwho manages the “Hearts of Oak,” “Shore Acres’ and other companes, has closely followed the | lines laid down by her husband. The | pame careful attention to detail is given | to each produdtion and many of the for- | mer associates of Mr. Herne have been retained in the companies. “Hearts of Oak” was fitst produced at the California Theater twenty-four years | ago, and its career has been a remark- | able one. It has made more than three- | quarters of & million dollars’ profit and has been witnessed by more than 35,000, 000 people. Its presentation this séason is meeting with pronounced success and | its revival in this city is likely to draw large audiences during its week’s run at the California Theater. e s Currie—Bighead is quite a character, is he not? Peters—Yes. He is one of those fellows that are willing to make fools of them- selves to show their individuality.—Judge. “Understand me,” said the balloon to the parachute, “I wouldn’t for the world encourage drinking habits in the young and innocent, but ‘at the same time I don's think a drop would hurt you in the least.” 2 Whereupon the parachute dropped.— Cleveland Piain Dealer. Chicago Millionaire (showing his library to distinguished novelist)—See them books? Distinguished Novelist—Yes. Chicago Millionaire—All bound in ealf, ain’t they? Distingulshed Novelist—So they are! Chicago Millionaire (proudly)—Well, sir, I killed all of them calves myself.—To- peka State Journal. Prunes stuffed with apricots. Townsend's.® ———— Townsend’s California glace fruit and candies, 50c a pound, in artistic fire-etched boxes. A nice present for Eastern friends. 639 Market st., Palace zotel building. * Special information supplied dally to business houses and public men by the Press Clipping B len’s), 280 3 : pp) :xh\l:.r:nu (Allen's) Cali THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL. JOHN D, SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manage — SUNDAY . Publication Office..... ARMY MARRIAGES. . DJUTANT GENERAL CORBIN, whose service has for years been departmental and not in the field, and who has recently embarked on his second matrimonial venture, talfes oc- casion in his annual report to severely deprecate the marriage of young officers in th; army. He declares that “a young officer/should have but one allegiance, am‘! that_ S_hOllI. be to the service,” and that those who have no resources but their pay must necessarily divide it between their office and their family, and it is insufficient for both. : ; The juniors in the service will not thank the adjutant general for his advice, and the coun- try will receive it with surprise. If the general staff decide to follow t'he counsel of the report it may mean cne of several disagreeable results. Either commissions w:l} be more and more re- served for rich young men, whose private means make their pay an immaterial matter, or the service will be exclusively for celibates, who are willing to let the age of. romance and adaptability go by unused; or the pay must be advanced to a figure that will permit the sons of the people to enter West Point without the dull prospect of passing their young manhood without the compan~ ionship of a family. i : General Corbin’s proposition will of necessity remove the officers of the a}'rfly.iurther fr9m the body of the people and leave them untaught in the domestic virtues and v1c1551tudt.:s which are justly esteemed necessary to make a complete man. We are satisfied that _t}{e American peo- ple will prefer to put a,premium upon the marriage of army offic;rs, by a sliding scale of pay, so that when a young officer marries his pay may go up in proportion to his new domestic re- sponsibilities. We believe it is the experience of young officers that they seldom ' save any.thmg from their salaries untfl they marry. After that event they restrict many useless expenditures caused by their single state and devote the savings to their families. Our most noted and successful officers have nearly all married young. They have listened to the promptings of romance and willingly devoted their pay to the comfort of wives who were willing to share quarters with their young heroes. Grant and Sheridan, Sherman and McClellan were all family men. On the Confederate side Lee, Jackson and Johnston were married young, and Longstreet has kept on marrying &ven into the “lean and slippered pantaloon.” General Corbin appears to think that much of the army will be hereafter employed, at least for many years, in the Philippines, where living is expen$ive and officers with families suffer actual hardships. If this be so, the pay of that service in the case of officers should be raised to meet its added expense. This country does not want a bachelor army staff. It does not want a mil- itary career confined to the rich. It does want every army post to be freely under the influence of chaste wives and to be brightened by the presence of children. What ails Corbin, any way? Were he a bachelor curmudgeon, csystallized in the discom- forts or selfishness of single life, one could account for this sudden outburst against army wives. - But he is hardly out of his second honeymoon. What has happened to him, that he seems to re- flect upon 2 state that he has twice chosen to enter? He is not a graduate of West Point, but he has annually visited that training school for our young warriors. Has his hard heart remained untouched by the vision of girl loveliness pleading for cadet buttons as souvenirs of the tender and romantic experiences of the cadet ball and of those ambrosial days and evenings when social life for the graduating, incipient generals of the army is free and unrestrained? Doesn’t he know the fairy dreams, that flash across the future of those young people at a time when V-nus is whirled through the waltz by Mars? He is on the shady side of life, like the rest of us who see the past in considerable perspecs tive. But as we look back along the path of life, the bléom that borders it and makes even its hard places, its jogs and bumps live in loving memory is there because romance was unrestrained by the sordid considerations which are written into Corbin’s report. We invoke upon, him the execration of the ancient order of American girls, who will love the military in spite of his narrow and cold-hearted proposition. to discourage them. Papa will unanimously support any proposi- tion to make the young officer’s pay fit the married state, and we will have no celibate officering of our army. The girls will appeal to Mrs. Corbin in the matter. She is a California woman and is above suspicion of having influenced her general against the state in which she attends to his military buttons. : = UT of the contest over Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 28 there has come a, conclusive test of theinfluence of the press as compared with that of the political ma- chine. The result is worth more than a passing notice, for it not enly vindicates the power of the press, but gives assurance that a free people with a free press need have no fear of whatever intrigues or maneuvers the powers of corruption may set in motion to ac- complish énds injurious to the public welfare. \ Assembly Amendment No. 28 was carried through the Legislature by trickery that pre- vented anything like a full discussion of it, and consequently the people had no information con- cerning it. The statement of it on the official ballot was so vague that no one could learn from it anything about the intent and purpose of the scheme. Even the copy of the amendment circu- lated with the sample ballot conveyed to the public mind a scant conception of the full scope of the measure and of what its inevitable effects would be. Thus had there been no other source of information on the subject, it would have been easy for the corporations to have carried their scheme before the people about as quietly and as cleverly as they carried it through the Legis- lature. The press, however, noted the meaning of the scheme long in advance of the election. The Call was the first to perceive the danger of the measure and at once sounded the alarm.. The issue was promptly taken up by the press of the State and dfiring the canvass the public was fully in- strutted as to what its effects would be upon the State and upon the people. The issue was brought from darkness into light. Full publicity was given to every detail of it and the voters were re- minded again and again of the importance of defeating it. In the meantime the corporations, not daring to defend the measure openly, set in-motion the machinery of politics in its favor. A farge sum of money was raised. The bosses in whom the corporations trust were employed to put the money where it would do most good and to bring out the full vote of their henchmen in support of the scheme. Thus the issue was clearly joined between the press and the machine. On the one side there were public discussiop and an appeal to reason. On the other was the tireless working of clever bosses backed by the powerful aid of all the corporations and having ample funds to carry on !le fight. © The result is written in the records of the election. It shows a triumph for the press in every section of the State. The scheme was overwhelmingly beaten and the subsidized machine of the bosses and the corporatiobs proven to be absolutely impotent to make headway anywhere against public opinion roused by the press. . It is not uncommon to hear the directors of great corporations, their boastful bosses and the fobls who follow them mock at the press and deride its power.” The fools may be sincere, but the other mockers are not. Their denunciations of the press are due solely to the fact that they cannot control it. They seek to underrate and to bring into contempt if possible that which is be- yond their domination. It is therefore just as well for the people to takedue note of this trial of strength between the two methods of doing politics. The press has met the machine and the vic- tory is decisive. : The manufacture of “prepared foods for breakfast” has been carried to sich an extent that the grocery men are protesting against what ihey call “the tab'cidizing of the grocery trade.” One of ttem is quoted as saying: “If this thing goes on I will quit keeping groceries and start as food store. I-will make a deal with a miller to put on luncheon foods and dinner foods, as well as breakfast foods. I'll grind up burdocks, red ink and popcorn and sell it for roast beef.” So that is what we are coming to unless a pure food law and a return to sanity save us from the im- pending doom. —— s According to late reports popular.expectations of the coming use of liquid air as a motive power are doomed to disappointment. Careful tests made at Cornell are said to have proven that a one-horse-power engine working steadily for an hour could produce only enough liquid air to run a one-horse-power engine one minute. : Washingten reports giving account of the Presidential turkey hunt in Virginia say the ser- vants of the expedition carried “large hampers filled with luncheon and mineral waters.” Perhaps that is the reason they got only one turkey. The noble bird has to be baited with something bet- ter than mineral water. < ~ : ; ...NOVEMBER o, 1902 .Market and Third Streets, S. F. WITH “LA TOSCA” GRAND OPERA y SEASON AT THE TIVOLI WILL CLOSE IN BLAZE OF GLORY By Blanche Partington. HE Tivoli, which began its season of grand opera almost four months ago, will to-morrow night begin its last week but one. With “La Tos- ca,” which with ‘‘Andre Chenier” and “La Boheme" is the best thing that the little opera-house has done this year, the season will énd in a blaze of glory. In ne opera of the year has the cast been mere fortunate than in this latest work of Puccini, and the whole production is on an astonishing scale of excellence. One thing it conelusively proves—that youns Italy the singer is absolutely in sympa- thy with young Italy the composer, de- spite the undeniable fact that the com- the singer, pure and simple. De Padoya, for example, is sheerly, wholly at Messer Puccini’s service, at Franch s, Ponchi- elli’s, Leoncavallo’s, Mascagni’s, the later Verdi’'s. Agostini, charmingly at home in “Faust” and “La Favorita,” is yet much more Agostini in “La Boheme” and in “La Tosca.” Montanari, hopeless as Marguerite as Desdemona, is a lightful Mimi, and in ‘“La Tosca's” title role dramatic and powerful in a seem- ingly impossible degree. The smaller peo- ple share the faith, and director, orches- tra and chorus have done nothing with quite the seriousness of sympathy, the warmth of belief, the nobility of effort, that have met the work of modern Italy this seasgn. These are at their highest in “La Tosca,” with the result of a produc- tion second to none this year. How they are able to do what they do at the Tivoli with the means at their dis- pesal is a prolific source of wonder to the uninitiate, but a single rehearsal, a sin- betrays their secret. It is a simple one, tion of the mystery. It is how things are always done when heart and brain are the largest share of the available capital —just the simple, old fashion of tucking everything your hand finds to do. Prob- ably every member of the company, from De Padova down, has contributed to the Success of “La Tosca,” those not on the programme as well as those on. Service that could not be bought has been freely given for pure love of art, and nothing bas been held too small or mean for any one's attention. Look behind the scenes and you w!ll find Agostini in the inter- vals of being Cavaradossi beating time for Signor Cortesi, who in between his appearances as Scarpia’s minfon is tap ping that ominous drum. Signor Russo's merry black eyes look out from the prompter’s box, while his lyric tenor { hisses a signal word now and again to Montanari. Dado has taught the dialect of the little shepherd song to its singer, ana there is Mr. €olverd down in the or- chestra trying to be all of the fourteen or so trombones that the score calls for, as if fourteen salaries lay ahead of him at the week's end. The little Duchessa de Spada is pinning Montanari together, while I am called upon to admire the Parisian structure that adorns La Tosca's head in the first act—the work of Monta- nari’s own fair hands. Collamarini lends her wholesome contralto to the chorus if she happens to be around, and she gener- ally is, and Gertrude Hopkins is ding- denging for dear life on Mr. Leahy's im- ported chimes to Cortesi's conducting. Then Napoleoni takes a hand with the baton, and thus things are managed. It is a dear, ridiculous, delightful family affair, with an unselfishness and unity of enthusiasm and effort that but few man- agers can command. . s » De Padova, to whom Puccini himself taught the part of Scarpia, is chief among those to whom “La Tosca™ is indebted for truth and completeness of production He has been Mr. Steindorff's faithful hencaman throughout. Quite apart from his powerfu! Impersonation of Secarpia, the baritone's intimate first-hand knowl- edge of the opera, of Puccini’s own tem- pos, of the complicated and important “business’” details of staging,, and many other such unconsidered trifles, have all been lavishly thrown in to the sum of service it has attracted. And thus, again, the Tivoll “La Tosca.” Of the whole company De Padova rep- resents the nearest approach to the ac- tor-singer for whom Puccini, the dramaty ist-composer, writes. He is acutely in sympathy with the new school—this issue direct of the later Verdi and. Wagner. Beyond a doubt his particular gifts. lie that way, and he is only one of a large company that the new school can mar- velously count upon for its contemporary s dnterpretation. His entbusiasm is un- poser pays but a tempered attention to | de- | gle performance, seen from behind scenes | up your sleeves and turning in to do | | | and, after all, the only possible explana- | necd, for luck. MEMEBER OF THE TIVOLI OPERA COMPANY FAMOUS 1 | AS SCARPIA, I - - “ limited, trough he is left not without large liking, which, however, from his work, seemsgless instructive than ae- quired, for tH® older opera. I found him the other night stifl smoking from the death throes of Scarpia, but eagerly ready to talk Puccini, Franchetti and any other old thing concerning the big new Italians. “It is with the modern opera, first the acting”—marking off with the lithe fin- gers of one hand the thumb of the other— “then the declamazione; then last la voce, la voce, la voce!" finishing his count on the little finger that he keeps long- “The orchestra is more than the singer, but combined magically with him. It paints the story. The singer cannot get in fromt of the story. and say ‘Listen to my trill: hear me, De Padova, sing a bunch of the best scales in Italy, while I tell the heroine how sorry L am that she is drowning! ™ “Whom do.you hold the best of the moderns, personally?” There was no pause before De Padova replied: . “I like best to sing Falstaff, of Maestro Verdl. A great opera. the best comic opera ever written. Franchetti is the foremost of the living men; deep, no- ble, classical, a master of form, a philos- opher and most musical. Puccini, you know Puccinl. He is dazzling, erratic, sensational, picturesque, a wizard with orchestra, a dramatic genius, every- thing. Mascagni is simpatica, popular, charming, and Leoncavallo has written one . opera. Glordano’s ‘Andre Chenier” is a beautiful work, very melodious, amd I ltke very much to sing both Girard In that, and the Barnaba in ‘La Gioconda.’ Italy still lives, is it not?” and De Pad- ova, with ar earnest invitation extended my way to come and talk opera again, bent his black brows into a Scarpia frown as the last notes of “La Tosca” floated into his bare, little dressing-room. Makes Skins Lighter, Clearer, Purer =08 X% Lighter, Clearer, Purer _ ANTIDOTES BLEMISHES The clear, is “‘coaxed moves Tan, B Tioth san L reatie ons with h jar. druggists or of us. Srepei. ANITA CREAM & TOILET COMPANY Los Angeles, Cal ’