The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-04-19
Anna Dickinson and her Play.

Anna Dickinson and her Play.
At New York, recently, Anna Dickin-
son devoted a full hour after the curtain
dropped upon the last scene of her play,
"a Crown of ThOrns,' to a merciless
criticism of the New York critics. 1t
was nearly midnight before she closed,
and yet very few of her audience left.
She began by saying she did not OBJ
ject to criticism-to being called no
actress, or to being called ugly. What
she complained of was deliberate falsi-
fication of the facts in regard to her and
her play. She quoted from the Tribune
the assertion that she had made failure
in Boston, and said that, after only four
days rehearsal, after sleepless nights
and anxious days-70 hours without
sleep and II without food-during
which she had lost II pounds of flesh,
she appeared before 5000 people in BOs-
ton. She was not elated when the first,
second and third acts passed without
any of the audience retiring; but when
they remained till the close and called
her before the curtain, she felt
that her play was not a
failure. She directly charged
the Tribune with falsehoOd, several times
repeated, in commenting upon herself
and her play; and she quoted the BOs-
ton papers and the papers of other New
England and of Western cities, almost
unanimous in the opinion that the play
would be the most successful historical
drama of modern times. To the Herald
critics recent query, "Where can we
find any one of all those persons who de-
clared this play a success?n she replied
by quoting from the Herald of year
ago the assertion that 1.-The Grown of
Thorns is pre-eminently a good acting
play and thus lett answer itself. But
upon this critics claim that she had
erred in choosing the title of the piece,
and thus dragging Il sacred subject
% through the slime of the theater,' she
was bitterly severe. She said that when
neither the pulpit nor the politicians
dared to take open ground against that
foul crime of slavery, the stage had done
it through 'Uncle Toms Cabin " and
''The OctorOon,n and she gave the
names of other plays now on the boards
which teach the highest kind of moral
lessons. She added, with forcible en-
phasis. 81 venture to put my long,
serious, thoughtful, prayerful training
by my Quaker mother, my religion, and
my pronunciation against the brOgue
and bigotry of the man who wrote that
article Laughter and applause.
She replied with less bitterness to criti-
eisms in the World and Times. Refer
ring to the production of her play in
New York, she told the difficulties and
the sufferingS that she had met with.
She had in times past felt so strong that
she thought she could bear any thing.
But what could she do against the pa
pers of New York-a small, weak, sick,
miserable, crushed, heart-broken wOm-
an? "God knows she said, . did
not want to fight them. l was almost
crushed, but I struggled on, as | will
struggle on; because, having taken
hold of my work in life to do, will not
lay it down till utterly fail"
During the delivery of this part of hel
address Miss Dickinson's emotion moved
her audience deeply, and the applause
that followed was hearty in the extreme
Miss Dickinson added that, but for the
New York critics, her audience here
might feel toward her as they did in cold,
critical Boston, where every one agreed
that her play was a great success, until
they read the New York papers the next
afternoon. She closed by saying, " AL
1 ask is that the New York papers dc
what some OF them have falsely said they
have done-give the facts about me and
my work, not simply here, but elsewhere.
What | ask of all good, kind, generous
people, is that they do not form their
opinion from what the New York papers
say, but give Anna Dickinson a chance
to show her work come and listen to it.
Then, if you condemn it, Anna Dickin-
son has not one word to say in reply
Miss Dickinson bowed herself off the
STAGE amid hearty applause.