American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-10-03
Mark TWain's New Play.

A DECENTRALIZATION by Mark Twain of
his latest work, 1.-The Gilded Age" was
produced in the Park Theater, New
York, few evenings ago. At the close
of the performance Mark appeared in
response to a call and spoke as follows:
L thank you for the compliment of
this call, and will take advantage of it
to say that | have written this piece in
such way that the jury can bring in a
verdict of guilty or not guilty, just as
they happen to feel about it. [ have
done this for this reason: If play car
ries its best lesson by teaching what
ought to be done in such case, but is
not done in real life, then the righteous
verdict of guilty should appear; but if
the best lesson may be conveyed by hold
ing up the mirror and showing what is
done every day in such case, but ought
MT to be done, then the satirical verdict
of not guilty should appear. l don't
know which is best, strict truth and
satire or nice moral lesson void of
both. So l leave my jury free to de-
eide.
Il am killing only one man in this
tragedy now, and that is bad, for moth
ing helps out play like bloodshed. But
in few days l propose to introduce the
smallpox into the last act. And if that
don't work | shall close with a general
massacre. l threw all my strength into
the character of Col. Sellers, hoping to
make it a very strong tragedy part, and
pathetic think this gentleman tries
hard to play it right, and make it majes-
tic and pathetic; but his face is against
him. And his clothes! l don't think
anybody can make Il tragedy effect in
that kind of clothes. But suppose he
thinks they are impressive. He is from
one of the Indian reservations. OH l
f,.,r hat 1,. f-,n I,.r to, 10
solemn and awful and heroic, but, really,
sometimes he almost makes me laugh. |
meant that turnip dinner to be pathetic,
for how more forcibly could you repre-
sent poverty and misery and suffering
than by such dinner, and of course if
anything would bring tears to peoples
eyes that would; but this man eats those
turnips as if they were the bread of life,
and SO of course the pathos is Knocked
clear out of the thing. But l think he
will learn. He has an absorbing ambi-
ton to become ii very great tragedian.
Il hope you will overlook the faults in
this play because l have never written
play before, and if l am treated right
maybe | won't offend again. l wanted
to have some fine situations and spec
tacular effects in this piece, but l was
interfered with. | wanted to have a vol
cano in a state of eruption, with fire and
smoke and earthquakes, and great
tossing river of bloodred lava flowing
down the mountain side, and have the
hero of this piece come booming down
that red-hOt river in cast-iron canoe :;
but the manager wouldn't hear of it; he
said there wasn't any volcano in Mis-
souri-as if am responsible for Mis-
souri's poverty. And then he said that
by the laws of nature the hero would
burn up; his cast-iron canoe wouldn't
protect him. Very well,' l said, put
him in patent fire proof safe and let
him slide-all the more thrilling-and
paint on it, 'This safe is from Herring's
establishment" same us you would on
piano, and you can pay the whole e1-
pensc of the volcano just on the adver-
tisement;' but the manager objected,
though he said heaps of pretty things
among others that | was an ass-and so
| had to let the volcano go"