Litchfield enquirer., 1879-08-21
Frrzrrg.s Acrrss.-As an actor. MT. Eech-

FEExxg,S SACTIxG-=As an actor. MT. Fech- ter exceiled in the domain of melodrama- by which is meant the drama of situation and in this he required moments of convulsiye peSsioA fer the full display of his peculiar powefs Ass0eIl- moments hebecatne einspired with kind of frenzy-reckless and lawless, vel oos ungOyerned- which sometimes produc- cd wO7izTfm effects upon sepsibiiity and lm- sginzfion, causing intense excitement and suggesting splendid images of human nature exalted by emotion into the avenging Fury or the dreadful and invincible Fate His per foruaDce of the '-Corsican Brothers, was, for example, ss nearly perfect in this way as anything that has been seen upon the stage His performance of the Count of Monte Cris- to, though little prOlix with minutia and therefore tedious-for he was rather a prosaic artist in his mechanism, and not used to deal much in suggestiveness contained many of these stormy and thrilling moments. His third act of ''Ruy Blas," his fourth act of --Ciz1de MelnOtte, his "Legardere," and his Alpine scene in ''ObenreiZer" might be cited and dwelt upon as illustrating the special ex- ceIIe1ce of his acting With Shakespeare he w&s DOs sucoessful-fOr the reason that he car ried into poetical tragedy the colloquial tone and shs faniIiar manner and thus, in striving to oesSzn2fuFef, he sometimes become absurd. His idea ef speaking blank verse was to make
 
 ernrhas& on rsovement-to the destruction of chzracseE and of poetry. It was hisexpressed OpIniSa fiat Hamlet's soliloaay ion life and death Is 4n impeachment to the action of the tragedy and ought therefore to be discarded. He male striking points in Hamlet's scene with the Queen, in act third, and in Hamlets killing of Ciaudius- This was exactly what might have been expected from a nature es- seuEiaIly melOdramatic and theatrlcal Those -E..-t ideals of ShakeSpeare's conception personified in pOcsical manner could not be content with Mir. Fetcher's Shakespearean efforts The American public was not slow, however to reach just conclusion as to MT. Fetchers acting It was speedily seen that he was a great actor in a small field-that he elevated little subjects and that even so the hlumina- tIO1 of his subject was always secondary to the display Of himself. There have been and there sill gre, actors who can express high poetic ideals, and. in themselves, suggest mo- ble and lovely and elevating images of charac- ter and sctiOn-giving high thought and high personality, and yielding influence of splen- did example Mr. Fletcher chiefly announced and interpreted his own picturesque and spas uodic self He will probably be remembered in dramatic history rather as what Garrick used to call ''an exotic"-a bizarre individual ify-th@n power in the dramatic art. His acting. however, has been useful in it's teach inIof lessons of grace. It always was nota- ble tor elegance of treatment.--N. r. Tribune
 Ths edTinr of the London TyuM, after ob- serving that probably not one in twenty of the persons who indulge in boating on a holiday can swim. proceeds to tell his readers how to acquire this accomplishment. Nothing" he says. ''is more easy. When the air is out of a body its owner sinks; when the air is in the body it's owner floats. Let any one slowly draw in his breath as he draws back his legs and pushes forward his arms, retain it while he Is preparing for the stroke which IS to pro- pei him, and slowly allow it to go through his lips as his aruls are passed back from be- fore his head to his sides and his legs are stretched out The action of the stroke should Dot be quite horizontal, but should be made on S slight incline downward. The real reason why people take weeks to learn how to swim Is because swimming professors either do not know. oS do nOg choose to teach. the philoso- pdy of breathing, so as to render the body bu0Fnnk Il wculd engage to make any one a soles@hA swimmer in an hour, unless he be rssne~ssFtag sdsnf 1 I Fs zs