The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-11-02


said the mother to her other daughter
who sat beside her.
8 "Why, mother, thee knows she hs
! been talking to Just such crowds IA
= six months" said sister Sac.
= A gentleman touched the mother
arm. pardon me, madam, but ar
you connected iu any way with tn:
0 young lady WHO is to speak to-night2
: "Yea-Yea, thee mears my dsngil
ter" said the mild Quskeress.
l. The whole country at thAt time Wa
8 in q particularly eXeitable and emo
g tionRl state, and instantly all face
near turned toward the mother ant
: sister till it seemed TO the tImid moth
eT as If she were swimming in q Sc
I of eyes. I-be gentleman who hai
spoken to her WAS the Mayor Of Phil
adeIphia, and it was his duty to in
trOduce Anna to her audience. HI
did it iii q brief speech, stating hos
Anna had won the elections IN the
] State of Maine and New Hampshire
( how she, the daughter OF Philadelphia
had gained the applause Of the world.
2 "And now" said he, taking hel
hand. "PhiiEdelphia, receive you
child 90
~ IVES Tie Jul Ailut III All AAliA
! experience that her heart almost
, failed her. The audience Burst into
, thunders Of applause, wave on wave
, of sound shook the building, and tht
noise was terrific. The little Qaakel
mother heard it all, and covered her
face with her hands, and bent hei
> head in an agony of terror.
THAT child never can do il J" she
grnaned.
Presently Anna spoke her first sen
tence. The little Quaker mother
raised her head, aud became so .b-
sOI bed in the speech that she actually
forgot all about "that clild" in the
wonderful Oratory OF Anna Dickinson
which msde strong men weep one
moment and rend the air with wild
cheers the next, ia spite Oi them
selves.
As soon as Anna came Of age she
was formally read out Of Quaker
meeting for "ineiting TO war and
blOOdshed." Nothing can describe
the effect of her speeches so we'll as
the brave old Bible sentence. "Aud
the heart of all the people was moved
as the heart OF one man."
Well, all that was dozen years
and more ago. The occasion which
walked the echoes OF this magical elO-
quence has passed, and pray Heaven
il may never come again The occa-
sion has passed-has the power and
glory Of the young orator passed with
it Please the fates, no. A woman
at three and thirty ean hardly have
lost either her good locks, her intel
lectual genius, or her courage. De-
cidedly, no!
Since taking the stage, Miss Dick
| insOn has been offered double her old
price to lecture Just once, at different
places. She will not. Whether right
\ ly or wrongly, she has chosen the
stage, and will stick to il through
thick and thin, till she makes a noble
success. Mark that. The genius is
ali there still the indOmitable pluck
is all there, and her stage makeup is
as beautiful as that OF any woman
who ever trod the modern bOarda.
The techniealities will come in time.
Meantime it appears to plain peO-
pie, without any reputation as dra-
matte critics to lose, that the news-
papers have been singularly unjust to
Miss Dickinson. They have made
her stage experience a literal "crOwn
of thOrns" for her. In the first place,
il is the sheerest nonsense for critics
to say that she is lacking in emotional
power. What was it, pray, o wise
old sticks but just exactly the tre-
mendOus emotional power Of Anna
Dickinson which once "mOVed all the
hearts Of the people as the heart of
one man ?D The tenderer, emotional
M frrr In alf r1ufnallr lcntrfn gunnRa
blue-gray eyes and black hair get to-
gether in complexion, and even the
critics will maybe find, after time,
that the softer emotions are not lack
ing in this Elue-eyed, black-haired
young woman, who has received more
love.letters than any other woman in
America. The stage expression OF
the soften emotions will come will
you mind that, again ? l myself
have heard q number OF gentlemen,
who were not dramatic critics, re-
mark "Anna Dickinson has the |
sweetest smile 1 ever saw on the |
STAGE"
Again, as q matter of fact. it is not |
true that the language OF her play is |
commonplace. Let US be honest |
and if we can't be hOnesJ, let us be |
'tCroWn of Thorns" may not be q |
audiences Of people who enjoy Black |
Crooks and things, but people who |
listen to it, will be rewarded by find |
ing it studded all through with spark
ling, epigrammatic sentences and |
pOetical fancies. One trouble with |
the "Crown of Thorns" is that it re-
quires some little knowledge OF his
tory to enjoy it properly, and your
average citizen Tesents as mortal
insult anything which pre-suppOses
any historical knowledge on his part.
Miss Dickinson's "Jane Eyre" will
probably be better paying play than
her "CrOwn OF ThOrns." An ardent
admirer of hers wrote her letter ask
ing her why she narrowed up peoples
feelings by having Annie Boleyn's
head cut off! 1t was her own play,
she could end it as she pleased. Why
did she not have Henry VIII's heal
cut of, and make Aunie BOleyn
Queen Of England, said this critic.
Miss Dickinson considers that she
has been better supported here in Gin
cinnati by Mr.. Macauley's company
than she has been anywhere else.
There are faults in Miss Dickin-
sons acting. What then, Old PrObs
The faults Anna Dickinson under
stands better than anybody else, and
what Is more, she will remedy them.
There are passages where her voice
needs to be softened down to sWeeter
and more delicate phases of express
sion. It will come. All that and
far more is possible to the genius, the
courage and the conscience OF Anna
Dickinson.
She has given a new and nObler
conception to the character of Annie
BOleyn. She has read and studied
more about the times Of He1ery VIII
than probably anybody else ever did,
and her conception Of Annie BOleyn
is likely to be correct, therefOre-at
least as correct as snybOdy's can be in
these times.
Every boot black, so TO speak, seems
to swell up with 4 call to criticise An
ma Dickinson. There are scarcely
half q dozen people in her audiences
who are not watching for her to make
some mistake. And the qneerest part
of it all is that every boot-blaek, so to
speak, considers himself perfectly |
competent to judge of her acting. 1
noticed that particularly greasy-h head
ed fellow who sat behind me, and
kept digging my back with his dirty
toes ever and anon all the evening,
kept saying to himself, "'Taint her
forte" az appeal to the King OF
Kings" said Miss Dickinson. Dig
went the toes. "'Tairt her forte"
says the greasy-headed fellow. Miss
ID. proceeded. GOuge cams the toes.
" "'Taint her foTte," says the critics
voice, keeping time to the toes. and so
on all through.
Why people should be so much Sc
verer on Anna Dickinson than to other
debutantes do not know and can not
tell. Tney certainly have no right to
be. For myself must say that there
are already some passages in her act
ing which never saw and never ex-
pect to see excelled, particularly the
scenes with WOolsey. Furthermore,
the majority of US plebeians who have
heard her, believe in a grand future
for Anna Dickinson on the Stage.
Il. in Gin. Commercial.