The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 25, 1903, Page 2

w THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 1903. GREEK THEATER DEDICATION ON UNIVERSITY GROUNDS MARKS BEGINNING OF LARGE ARCHITECTURAL PLANS Aristophanes’ Play| “The Birds” Enacted. Clock Is Turned Back Many Centuries. Place of Beauty Site for the Temple. -~ are all Greeks. t was what President jenjamin 1de Wheeler told audience at the ded- of the Greek alr theater at fornia yesterday. the Univer- k earth, rising tier upon er e the arena, and the great stage ng between two great pillared S, Was even an improvement on the ysiac theater of the Greeks of | day might have been an nature wa: at h very e people—the t—were there in their and the stern good ulating the Greeks of the East. to make the pi n Ran- and Mrs , with the , who held s the e from hem Mr. Wheeler sai an that ¢ speaker shou hi university the natu amysing to thosg ited with the mem! was -litfle of rea since an.ap) omioEs. f boxing gloves gives 4 very pugnacious another had the jlaced over his awn, rticular attention t§ as given a toy sword, se gifts the dispensator en- t characteristics of his ch advice as he maw fit r satirical. Such, in brief, ¥y exerciges of old—very sim- on the inside, very amusing, WEED TELLS THINGS. 2 But the class of 94 had in mind the presen. tation of & spectacular verformance in which mil the class should take part in costume, ¥or this purpose th large place was 1l adapted. gh, and only those in le- to hear and see of comfort. The necessity of place was evident, and, I started out to do so, the spot on which this @lhe Fuh Chas. Keilus & Co. B-X c 1 un s 1w High-Grade Clothiers No Branch Stores. No Agents. to We Are Better Equipped This Season Than Ever. The Fall Smart Models Scientific in Details, Tailored With Skill, Exclusive and Cgt';'qct. Only IMen’s Clothes Here. °13Z e Kearny Street Thurlow Block open | warmth | | C. ‘Pardge. | % 11 Weed’s Discovery Delights All Observers. |+ many years be and was a o 3 years ago 0 stand out e selectic but ¢ ture of all L inspiration were t ng of this Greek theater. }:RESIDENT BEHOLDS SITE. tor b t it He called B bilities of to her son, suggestion brought us Mr. Presi- pleasure of him the hich has > the atulating h he has this monument to lent witness that st , this e live in the lands of the gods. President Wheeler then read & letter, which-he- said-came-from a loyal gradu- ate -of the university—Governor George Dr.’ Pardee sald_he regretted thut the ‘pressure of ‘business did,net per- mit him’ to be jpresent at”the dedicatory ceremonies. .~ In: introducing John “Galen Howard, supervising’ aféhiteét<of* the “uni. versjty and architect, of the Greek theater, Pr architect “hadr “modeled it *after an an- Gient Greekithedter set under a Greek sky and for! the use peculiar |'Greék 'in” ct tteristics” ying, Mr, Howard sald An architect feels that)when he has said Mis say in‘ferms of his own art he has a right to -be, excused from verbal utterance. He may well ‘paraphrase:the epitaph of Sir Chi topher, Wren,, upon_whose ‘tomb we read monumentufn_ fequiris, circumsplce’” (" would, see his monument, look around. 1_might ®ay, ould -you have speech, hear this architecture.” HOW THE ARTS SPEAK. The .arts are.so many Re; his fellows. But as all tongues are not equaily intelligible it is perhaps not unseemly that some._ sort_of word-of-mouth commentary be givern on what is spoken here'in stone. ot solely by the play of the imaginative | taculties can architecture achlieve. It must | grow out of ‘ositive human needs and must | conform with - practical conditions. It is this | art’s peculiar priviiege and its spectal aif culty that it must stand op common-sense, it it 15 to rise, untottering, to greatness. If the buflding within which we are gathered fall of greatness otherwise, it has at least this merit—that it is bullt firmly on good stuff. Mother earth has no surer nor more enduring foundation for work of man than these walls rest upon. No more lasting elements hath she than those of which this structure is made Up, for they are of her Very fabric. This | bullding springs, racy of the soil, out of the | earth itself, of which it forms a part. In its | erection we have returned well nigh to the primitive methods of prehistoric time and built our house of mud. Ah! such mud pies as we have played with here! And then have essayed to come close to nature, too, in the very lines and form of our conception. We have taken our cue from the oldtime hollow in the hills which all men knew as Ben Weed's Amphitheater. And we have done as little as might be to change it, bringing order out of its irregularities, state- liness out of i suggested opportunit| its proportions 'are useful and ‘agreeal the praise be nature's. We have followed where she led, as simply and as closely as we could—wherein we have fallen short, call the fault not hers. A& we are using it to-day, the theater is no more than a sketch of what we hope 1t will one day becam®. We have behéld a vision which in majesty and beauty shall in. the fullness of time rival the temples of old Greece. Is it 1o remain a vision? A FILIAL GIFT.' A filial gift to mothér Sfate from a son whase eareer is opening out in ever wider @nd more influential eiroles, this auditorium has the added charm of being, In a semse, a filial gift to the human- mother. for it contributes no Tean shate 40 that great scheme—the Phebe A. Hearst, architectural plan. Sketch or fin- ished work,4it has been our aim to keep it worttiy. of*ith. place in that supreme unit, Countless suggestions In the interpretation of natural ‘conditions have been taken, obviously, from the works of elassical'antiquity. but always with an eye open, ope, to, the dictates of our American—our c-i‘uorm-p—clvmuunn. ‘building 8, ot Jmerely; anarcheological stud: though much consulting of antiquity has con: tributed 10 its creation.” No line, no surface, no slightest detalindme. been fixed in its de- zign, without the careful consideration of ail the documents to. which ;we have ‘access, & spirit of deepest reverence for the past; nor, ¢ languages—various | means of communication betwixt a man and | | | [ h dent *Wheeler sdidithat the |/ NIA'S" GREEK THE- AND SOME ACTORS IN BIRDS ATER “THE 1 the other hand, without a sincere and rea- ization of every element (as I be- eks worked with their antiquity before it was permitted to enter into the com- pleted scheme. The tk er is thus a closely | woven web of old and new, of traditional methods and of free design, We ha tried to keep in mind the need of work a character at once grace- ified—warmly pure In its detalil, | > in its proportions, delicate in odeling. If when completed it proves to be-all this, then, indeed, will it 'be €omething far better, for it will show itself one in spirit with this niversity and this great State. we all keep fn our minds cessive bullding the words ply to ea of the poet: Bulld thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll. Leave thy low vaulted past. Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Ehut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length-art free, Leaving.thine-outgrown shell;by life's unresting sea! WHEELER GIVES FACTS. i Président, Wheeler ‘then delivered the dedicatory ‘addfess, which ended with a tribute .to ‘Mr. Hearst for his generosity in ‘providing the university with a great gift. "He said: 4 ‘We dedicate to-day a mnew, structure on ground already consecrated. The well estab- lished usage of the graduating classes long since appropriated this hillside to mystic riteg and set epart this spot to be a temencs of Dionysos. These solemn trees that now look down upon us have acquainted themselves well through years of patient attendance with ali the various ritual that makes up the service of the govereign god of dramatic art, and Here they staud to-day familiars to the romping satyrs and the trooping maenads and guard- lans of the sacred revels. This day they shall have joy beyond their wont to see the worship of the feast enacted by thelr old feathered friends of the tribe of birds. In bullding our theater on o site already dedicated we follow an anclent and honorabie precedent. A hundred years befors the old Athenians made the beginning of & perma- nent structure on the spot where now rest the glorfous ruins of their theater the people had been used to assemble on the hillside over- looking the old orchestra, the dancing circle at the southeestern foot of the acropolis, to see the choral dance and hear the plays of Phryni- chus and Aeschylus and ‘Sophocles, of Crat- Inus, Bupoils and Aristophancs, As'time went on they built for the spectators seats of wood, fkria they called them. They were veritable bleachers in the fact, and as bleachers often do, these once at least collapsed and once notably during an unusually interesting per- formance of a play of Aeschylus—an occur- rence which set people a thinking as well as smarting and turned their thoughts in the absence of Portland cement toward seats of stone. They bullt or tried to build at various times, but not until the drama was well toward the completion of its second century of residence In Athens did the good times of Lycurgus bring the stable building which after centuries of goodly use we now identify as the Dionysiac Theater of Athens. That we in these our earlier days can partake in the great festival, can see openly, hear distinctly, and sit securely we owe to the munificence of his mother's son, William Randolph Hearst. THEATER WAS NEEDED. The university has long stood In sore need of an auditorium ample enough for its great meetings and the celebration of its chief fes- tivais. Once it has used & huge tent and the winds sported with its roofing and would have none of it; once and again it tried the gymnasium, and the roof sported with the #peaker's words till the wind bore them away; twice at least for the university’'s annual fes- tival and repeatedly for others, it has trusted itself to the open California sky, and not having been deceived has learned that the Greeks of the West must follow the Greeks of the East. But temporary buflding for each occasion involved expense, toil and danger. A | permanent structure was our great need, and help for our need came from a source hard by whence timely help has come before:; and the fine spirit in which this help was given speaks In the Eivers stralght, simple words: “I am interested in this university and want to help it. This is no great thing, but it seemed to be a need and I am glad to'supply it. 1 hope to be able to do more for the uni- versity in the future. I am particularly, glad that the building .takes the form of an an- cient classical structure, for this accords with my own personal interest-in the classics. This bullding is the creation of its archi- tect, but in its type and in its detalls of design it 18, 1 am conscious, as finely representative of the donor's personal taste as In its solidity and its dimensions it is representative of his strength and--his of- heart.. < In' Be- ns for reconstruction of the uni- | school system. and students, in behalf of this great concourse Tepresenting the State which the university s set here to serve, I thank the giver for his e, WORDS OF THE DONOR. Mr. Hearst's name was omitted from the list of speakers for the day at his own speclal request, but at the last mo- ment he consented to speak. He was greeted with much applause. He said: My Friends: Mr, Weed fs resvonsible for the selection of thia admirable and appropriate site, and' I wish to compliment him upon it most highly; Mr. Howard 1s responsible for the designing and construction of this beautiful theater, and I wish to express my sincere ad- miration for him and his work; my mother is responsible for the interest I have taken in this particular profect, and I wish to thank her most heartily, As for me, ‘I feél very much like the small boy Who belonged to the baseball team. Some- body said to hims *‘Sonny, what position do you play on the nine?’ And the small boy said: “Oh, I don't play no position. I just belang.” I feel ms if I just belonged, but I am very happy to belong and very proud to be asso- clated in some way with this great university. 1 Lelieve that this university will eventually be thé greatest in the world because it is the most_thoroughly American, It is thoroughly American and characteristically Californian, and no institution can possess both of those qualities and fall to reach the top. I say it 1s thoroughly American because I believe that the essential elements of American progress and development are independence, equality and opportunity, and I think this uni versity possesses and expresses in the highest degree the true spirit of Americanism. FAVORS BROAD VIEWS. Many of the universities in the East are modeled on those abroad and are largely for the gons of the favored few. Many of them foster a feeling of eniffy superlority, a distrust of popular rights, of popular education, of uni- versal suffrage, of most of the things that have made this country great. Many of them de- velop a certain snobbish class distinction which ought to have been forever forgotten when this nation was founded. They cannot encourage complete independ- ence because they are themselves dependent on the endowments of a wealthy class and are correspondingly hampered and restricted by the timidity and prejudice of that class. ‘This university is dependent only on the State—that is to say, on the people. Here there is nothing to prevent anybody— professor or student—from thinking if he is capable of thinking, and thank God all of them are capable of thinking and all of them exer- cise that blessed American privilege. This university offers the most perfect in- dependence, the fullest equality and the freest opportunity. It does mot invite the sons of any speclal part of the community, but stretch forth its arms lovingly to the youth of the whole people. Here there is no distinction save that of brains and industry. A university such as this is-a superior public school and the crowning glory of our American public Truly I am proud and happy to be assoclated with it as I have the honor to be to-day. . § The speech-making over, “The Birds" alighted upon the stage and with their antics and bantering of the gods from above entertained for still another hour. The formal taking over of the theater by the students will be marked by a great university meeting this morning in the theater. To mark the student par- ticipation there will be very brief talks by Ezra, Decoto_’00. Richard Tully '0L The ,address of th will be delivered by the ‘Most Rev. George Montgomery, coadjutor archbishop of San Francisco, ‘Ben Greet, manager of the company of English players, who will present “Twelfth Night” in the theater.on Sat. urday, will also speak. « | FrPT oS - o Z ZXANDBL s RrrTE AER | | \ FIND3 A BRICK INGTEAD OF GOIN Hotel Proprietor Mar- vels at Contents of a Valise. Special Dispatch to The Call. FRESNO, Sept. 24.—One of the cleverest and most mysterious thefts ever perpe- trated in this. county took place last Fri- day night at Sanger. Con Harrigan, proprietor of the Sequoia Hotel at Millwood, had forwarded to him Friday from the Bank of Central Cali-| fornia, in this city, a sack of coin amount- ing_to $1500. The money went as far as Sanger by the express company, and was called for there by John Price, manager of the stage line to Millwood. Price put the sack of coin in a valise and carried it to the stage office, putting it in a locker for safe keeping. In the morning the stage driver put the valise aboard without looking into it and delivered it to Harrigan at the hotel in the evening. When Harrigan opened | it hae found it contained not his money, | but a brick wrapped up in a twine sack. | The weight was almost equal to that of | the sack of coin. | The supposition is that somebody who | knew that the money was In the stage | office entered it with a skeleton key and | substituted the brick for the money. Har- rigan has several detectives working on the case. e ALLEGED SWINDLERS ARE RELEASED ON BAIL Two Phflndelphl;;: Are Accused of Selling Stock in a Mythical .. Copper Company. NEW YORK, Sept. 24—“Larry” Sum- merfield and ‘John M. Wilson, arrested here on a warrant issued in Philadelphia charging the lgrceny of $21,000 from George A. McLean, an iron and steel manufacturer of Pittsburg, were rear- raigned to-day. Bail was increased from $5000 each to $7500. They secured bail. The allegation is that the defendants sold Mec- Lean seven thousand shares of Montana Copper Mining Company stock at $3 a share, securing $21,000. The Montana Copper Mining Company, it is charged, is without legal existence. —_—— | larceny a man wanted for murder, until OFFIGERS L05E THE FUGITHE Slayer of Former Sheriff Makes Escape From Jail BAKER CITY, Ore., Sept. 24.—Anderson Garred, who shot and killed A. J. Mec- Kinnon, former Sheriff of Harney Coun- ty, Oregon, at Guerneville, Cal., Septem- ber 8, was seen in this city to-day. " Garred was arrested by Constable | Thornberg at Granite the other day for stealing a pair of shoes. The constable, did not know he had arrested for petty his attention was called to the fact by | a notice in a paper to that effect. He went back to the jall to see that the pris- oner was more closely confined, only to find that the man had escaped. Thornberg is positive, since he saw the picture sent out by Eheriff Grace of So- noma County, California, that the man he had in jail was Garred, and this is confirmed by several people who saw the picture of Garred who declare that they saw him on the streets of Baker yester- day and to-day. Officers are searching for him to-night. —_———— YOUTH MUST SERVE YEARS IN A PRISON Young Man of Shasta County Found Guilty for Killing a Half- Breed. REDDING, Sept. 24.—Frederick Craven Jr., aged 24 years, was this afternoon found guilty of murder in the second de- gree for kjlling Frank Rowe, a half-breed Indian, at Whitmore on December 29 last. The verdict contained a recommendation that the court In passing sentence impose the least penalty provided by law for such a crime. That is ten years' impris- | onment, Sentence will be passed Satur- day. Rowe and Craven quarreled over 25 cents in a card game at Whitmore and | the killing resulted. Craven came to Red- ding and offered to give himself up, but was not wanted, as the details of the | tragedy which first reached the District Attorney showed Craven to have acted in self-defense. The Coroner’s inquisition re- sulted in Craven’s arrest. In the mean- while he could have left the country had he been so minded. The first trial, held last May, resulted in a jury standing six for acquittal and six for conviction for manslaughter. The jury Ingthe second trial after being out twentV-one hours reached to-day's verdict. e HAWAIIAN CRIMINAL LAWS FOUND TO BE DEFECTIVE Extra Session of the Legislature May Be Called to Remedy the Existing Defects. HONOLULU, Sept. 2i.—Judge G. D. Gear of the First Circuit Court of the Territory in a decision rendered by hir in | the case of a Chinese accused,of selling opium illicitly holds that the Territorial | criminal laws are defective in that the | most trivial offenses, including drunken- ness, are legally classed with infamous crimes, which require an indictment by a grand jury in Territories under the Fed- eral constitution. Judge Robinson con- curs with Judge Gear in his decision, The decision places the police in a serfous di- lemma inasmuch as they cannot enforce the most unimportant police regulation without the ald of the Grand Jury. The imperfections of the criminal laws ! of the Territory are said to be due to the failure of Territorial Legislatures to make the statutes of the monarchy and repub- lie of Hawall conform to the United States constitution. The advisability of holding an extra.session for the purpose of curing defects In the laws is being dis- cussed. —— Suspected of Train Robbery. WATHENA, Kans, Sept. 24—Officers here and at St. Joseph think that a very jmportant capture was made here this afternoon which may be a clew as to who held up the Burlington train near St. Joseph Tuesday night. Sheriff Ram- sey of Troy arrested Willlam Munsle on an old warrant charging him with an at- NEW YORK, Sept. 24.—The first Lipton Amarluh (2-: cuuenn; tltm.m-m:k L is re- ried ve_been 0 George de Pinna 5 this *city, Who wx‘fi probadly eo:v.m the yacht into a schooner for cruising. The pur- chase price Was not mentioned. tempt to kill. Munsie slipped into W; thena last night and was at his father's Crowd Is Handled Competently by Ushers. R T s College Yells Re- sound for the “Discoverer.” | Arc.hitect Howard Delivers an Address. By Blanche Partington. ESTE dedi, ADY a Untversity of ( place perhaps cant event of th in America. Under heart of a Greek Greek was people who have not « the Greeks of the It w was impossib I to th of the drama. coolest not to t » suggestl lled the sight of the colossal crowd that every inch of the magnificent spaces of great building. 1t was a festival er to be forgotten, the bapt per- haps, of the coming national drama range it seemed at first to aught t the chiton and sandal of the Athen: nd fans against th fc backs of the auditorfum ntly is the classie atmosphere suggested. The theater, fash- foned after the famous theater of Epi- daurus, is in the heart of a grove trees, the stately shell of t leaning against a eirc “stage,” with its sever tic background of umns, is a noble picture in its it is the “orchestra,” ring whe the action takes place, wherein was 3 yesterday the first Greek com pre- sented in America, wherein to-morrow may be given—what? “Rah! Rah! Rah! California!"—the mod- ern note was soon From base to rim of t n of the shell sat the college b ch with a mighty throat of his ow crowd was handled with notable competence by the college ushe performance was na- turally som late. B ermez- en Mrs. andolp 20s were lively and frequ Phoebe Hes W Hearst arri Rah! Ra covered where the theater now stan “Rah! Rah! R: They ¥ right good will for President Wheeler, fo: President Jordan, for Prof 3 len Howard, and when ther body to yell for they yelled, crooned college songs for themselve: any manager fearful of the success of a N play I recommend the college youth. Me makes the yawn as extinct as the dodeo bird—talking of birds. To be dull or erit- ical in his lively vicinage is impossible and as an entertainment between waits he is also a bird. Yesterday until Pres- ident Wheeler, Mr. H and Ben Weed took the stage, he was a host himself. My gratitude to him. “Mr. President, are you a bird? Is it g00d to be here?” he yelled as the presi- dent took the stage. Gravely the president answered then “It is good to be here,” and introduced to the audience Ben Weed as the fittest in person to speak first in the ceremonial exercises. “This will be a shrine where we can meet the gods face to face,” Mr. Weed said in closing, and looked round at the vast place that grew from a psalm about a fallen redwood tree some ten years ago. John Galen Howard, architect of the the- ater, then spoke some great-hearted words of hope for his art and the un versity, and President Wheeler followed with further speech of noble prophecy Then Mr. Hearst, giver of the splendid theater, gracefully deprecated the grati- tude of the university by saying that it was at the suggestion of his mother, Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, whose generosity to the university is a matter of familiar knowl- edge, that the gift had been'made. Then for Mr. Hearst the boys yelled “Rah!™ with a tiger, and then commanded Tustilyy “Bring on the birds!” ‘The Birds,” next to “The Frogs” the finest comedy of that mischievous satirist, Aristophanes, was the play chosen fo dedicate the new stage. The scenes rep- resented were arranged and chosen By Professor Flag, who also authored and authorized the free translation that wds offered at the theater yesterday, The afe fair was under the direction of Professos Richardson, who must be congratulated on the notable success of his efforts, A large chorus, under Professor H. J. Stew- art’s competent direction, sing the ap. propriate accompanying musie of Joha Knowles Paine and added largely to the effect of the presentation. The huge comedy nest, with fts eologsal egg on the altar at the back of the ““orchestr: prepared one for the fun of “The Bird and though its language was forelgn to most. there was plenty of its humor as intelligible to-day as when the comedy was first played. Pis- thetaerus, a political adventurer, who turns everything to his own ends and is a magnificently self-satisfled person, be- comes disgusted with Athens and goes to live in the kingdom of the birds. The comedy is the account of his subjugation by guile and what we now occasionally call “gall” of the feathered folk. Though the political trickster’s local allusions ang much else are now lost, the sly malice and brilliant skill with which Aristoph. anes has. drawn the character ave sti) apparent. We find first the chorus, hers all of birds, and dumb save for bird-ca)| fluttering and flopping from the entrances on to the stage. As in Greek days the figures wore masks, very cleverly made, and tha cos. tumes, owls, crows, eagles, were all cop. spicucusly picturesque and ingenious Ope after ‘another, until twenty-four were there, the dirds hopped. skibped and flow to the stage, crowing, cawing and peci. ing at the trees behind in comically real. istic fashion. Then from the tree trunk whereon the great nest rested heta- erus enters with Euelpides, his servant, and the action begins. Pisthetaerus plans the building of a city in the air of which he is to be king amd the birds with marvelous quickness build it, leaving him without his characteristic grumble. This is soon remedied, however, for Iris, the spirit of the rainbow, tres- passes upon the new domain. Pisthe— and the rest of it—is again comfortably discontented and has “kieks” on hand for the rest of the comedy. Prométheus, rebe} to Zeus' authority, comes then to tell him of the weakmess of Zeu#' rule and then Heracles, Poseldon and Triballus, enyoys of the gods, come to maKe terms With the successful adventurer. Pisthetaerus ends up, as frequently in real life, with-a beau. tiful bride, a full purse and a kingdom at his feet. house when captured. He fills the de- scription of one of the Burlingion train Fobbers. s RBLE 2 \ The cast was remarkably efficient, and much praise is due to those who trained the players.