, 1880-08-22

notes." wanted to be loved *'for himself y
alone and not for his writings, = and talked
sentiment with the tender flower Of. the pln1y' :
passionateiy bass sb beaatifni. s's @ Anafe made love
to rattie-6ransd young man a; He5 daas;c mGtns5 8
says mater fan,iias Nothing >, rsEn5nea 9ha ae,1
-Annie. "Then don't DO it again.; am oan ae and mui
| roared. The eorn-doctor struggled through
| the piece will, the butt end Of q cigar,
| and gets laughter out OF it BY continuous
endcavor 70 light it ana ny ex,eflastlhg's al
make dasfh f6e "po popalarity % Of an the Rage.
! Fried cabbage" said the dramatist to
aFried cabbagel" echoed Manager Hill:
"Yes, sir, fried cabbage commonplace
conversation, familiar phrases, the jargon OF
the street; thnt's the Kind of fried cabbage
the piece amounts to-"
1T makes the people laugh, thoughT'
The dran,atist admitted this.
land the sentiment Interests the people?"
les, the playwright thought that might be
"Then,' said the manager. THAT'S the
OF local color IS the successful playwright.
There's lots Of it in s'AIl tile Rage"
"But,'' reasoned the dramatist, there is
nothing in Tue piece to inspire thought; there
t'Never mind the plot,'' nfr. Hill broke in;
g that will take care Of itself il you can crowd
into the piece sufficient incident to make 1t
interesting. Old playgOers used to attend
come @ % to tie be thestle ssu1 tonay % want tt to be
amused without the expenditure OF thought
They get enough Of it in their business III
these days of competition: they don't want
to find it at the theatre. They want. to see
fnr tfnr
recognize at once"
"But,'' the playwright venturcd, "suppose
would dramatic art colne to ?"
pay{as &st fsaFs aa h. pgti p NJ bdTdgs IN na never ct
makes his nose up for his scene in the third !
act without turning from the glass and,
pointing to the tla,ning proDoscis, saving sar-
eastically: There; there's high art for you.' I
hG people at the tg p5eSent tine ; l9nt Want
to it in the theatre by and by, though.
There is much i'll this play that don't please
me; but it makes the public laugh. If con-
suited my own taste would cut some things
IS tie sl,opkeeper vino would insist upon a
customer buying silk pocket-handkerchi
III the place of q linen duster. The audiences.
laugh at the atlusion to a tripe sandwich.
There may be nothing particularly funny to
however, want tripe, and tripe they shall
lave 4 great many managers WHO are con-
inualiy falling are like the man who is try
" to make two and two into five. They get
play that they think is guod, but Which the
,ublic won't accept, and they try to force it
.pon that public. When I got All the
iage' did exactly what did with Joshua
Ehitcomb.' Every night I went to the the
tre- watched my audience, noted as near us
hose that fell 1lat. The weak |
oints were eliminated or made
trong, the obscure portions of sthe piece
;ere Made plain, and eventually the play
;as made so simple that it forced itself upon !
1e people, and they luugh without following
he ptot.n
lou believe in giving the public, as near
) you can get atit, exactly what they want ?''
Precisely: that's a managers duty. I
ont believe in making people eat beefSteak
they want musli and u,iIk''