The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-15 00:00:00

Home Truths for Actors,

A correspondent of the Reader, in the course of a
very brilliant article in to-day's number of that very
able contemporary, writes thus delightfully in re-
gard to the general run of modern actors :

" I happen to be particularly fond of good acting, and to
have a high opinion of the value and charm of this won-
derful art. But, of course, like other persons of any edu-
cation, I am debarred that pleasure in this country. I have
indeed, a settled resolution never to enter a London
theatre, but now and then I get entrapped into seeing a
play. Sometimes a country cousin beguiles me ; sometimes
I am fairly taken in by the boisterous praise of the profes-
sional claquers. Well, I go ; trusting it will not, cannot,
be so bad as on the last occasion. Each time I come home
jaded, outraged, and wretched. My ears have been tor-
tured by the sort of talk one hears from a superfine hair-
dresser. No vulgarism of look, tone, or gesture has been
spared one. Fellows with no more manners than a foot..
man strut about as Sir Charles and Lord Harry ; their in-
sufferable airs leave me sick, weary, and distracted. The
women—but I will say nothing of them, poor things.
Surely, if an average servants' hall were to play the parts
—footmen for the men of fashion, cookmaids for the fine
ladies, and the butler for the heavy father—it could not be
more unlike the ways and the language of real gentlemen
and real ladies. Of course, there are gentlemen on the
stage. Mr. Kean, Mr. Charles Mathews, Mr. Sothern,
Mr. Wigan, Mr. Fechter—to say nothing of others
—are as completely gentlemen on the stage as
they are off it. What I mean is, that the rank and
file—the dukes, counts, and baronets (save the mark !)--_might have learnt all they know in a public billiard-room.
d rather hard ; but my case is, that the
bulk being almost without any education or
This may sound
training, hhe acavetsoersdled into a coarse, conventional routine.
Do people ever ask themselves if the whole stage business
is not utterly forced and absurd ? Why are we to swallow
the whole system at a gulp? It may be necessary to rouge
the face and walk in long strides, but why say " whmr-
uld " for "world ?" and why laugh always with the ha-ha
of a sporting bagman ? And then the " supers !" What,
in heaven's name, is the good of those seedy vagabonds--
those gawky ticket-porters in velvet cloaks and fleshings
—those
scraggy
ineach other'swaiting, face
lords in
minutes--
eright
hand ann
and I
starerythree
those berouged, leering, stripped sluts ? I sicken at the
thought of them. The English physiognomy and form
(the admiration, as we know, of the foreigner) happens to
be singularly ill-adapted to the display of antique costume.
Why, then, this greasy crowd of street-idlers, with their
boozy faces, their mutton-chop whiskers and ill-shaven
chins, their daubed cheeks, their wry knees and feet. The
noble dress and trappings of our ancestors are utterly
absurd on the backs of ill-favoured ragamuffins. A really
good mise en scene (such as that of "Faust," at Covent
Garden) requires unlimited cost and care. Anything short
of this would make the best acting intolerable, and had
better be left to a country fair.

THE SIAMESE TWINS.—The Siamese twins are
living in North-Carolina, where they farm a slave planta-
tion. They married two sisters, and while they had five
children each they lived happily. When one of them,
however, had a sixth child, they quarrelled, and would not
lire under the same roof. The twins are now 50 years old,
One of them is drooping, and experiments have been made
to find out if the ligature that binds them were cut whether
they could survive. On the ligature being tied so as to pre-
vent the circulation of the blood, the twins fainted. It is
evident, therefore, that when one dies they cannot be sepa-
rated, and both must perish. Their respiration is syn-
chronous when they are calm ; their hours of sleeping and
waking, and their joys, sorrows, and desires are the same.
—New Nark paper.