Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-10-09
BETWEEN OURSELVES

We are told that the worst woman on
the stage is that one whose ideas of life
are formed entirely by stage influences
and, inversely, perhaps we may add that
the most acceptable actress is she who
gives the impression of life pure and
refined back Of her profession. It pre-
supposes ability in any event-ihe power
which makes you lose sight of moral de-
linquencies, the power which empha-
sizes virtue also and brings out the
real character as the best in the Yeper-
tosre.
During the Mccullough engagement
no one who witnessed the Hermion Of
Mrs. Augusta Foster, her Emilia, and her
Queen Elizabeth in Richard Ill. needs
any analysis Of the neutrality-suspicious.
ic sincerity, and the unstudied grace
with which this most worthy actress
personated them. But 3 the last
symmetrical touch is given with the in
tuition of her inherent goodness, which
associates her with her work, and gives
her histrionic mimicries a powerful
double action on mind and heart.
81 am an artistic, said Pauline Viardot
but above all l am woman with the af-
fectiOns and duties of woman So
Mrs. Foster can exclaim, and her friends,
too, chronicle their observation Of an in
dustrious and studious life.
One afternoon she was making the
neck-kerchief and cap of the Widow Mel
notte While with swift and dainty
touches the work progressed, it was
fascinating revelation of essential wo-
manliness to listen to her aspirations and
ambition for her two sons, while anon
the noble eyes filed with tears as she
told of beloved daughter buried in Rose
Hill, to whose memory she was hoping
to raise monument by her professional
exertions this year, significant Of her
motherly love and grief.
And then to know the dignified resig-
nation which accepted the calamitous re-
verse of fortune by an instant response
and return to the work of her youth, is
the elimination of admiring regard for
this conscientious woman, and accom-
plished actress.
The spell is quiet dignity, and self re-
spect, overlaid by the sympathetic tenn.
permanent which apprehends the passion.
the pathos and the heroism of dramatic
revelations. The life is jealousy guard
ed to itself. No recluse can be more ut
terly isolated when the curtain is down.
Then are all the affections and duties in
full play, and the "world' before the
footlights remote and unthought of,
while letters, and books, and sewing con-
vert any chance hotel apartment into a
cell, exquisite with womanly excellence.
When writers describe actresses now
a-days tits generally for very different
women that the adulatory expressions
are flush. We have columns of gush
| about the Mary Andersons, and the
Adelaide Nelson's, whose tributes are
mainly referable to beauty, which capt.
Yates the eye alone, with scarce men
ton of intelligent qualification for their
calling There are, too, dozens of act
resses whose chief claim to popularity
would seem to be sumptueus assert
ment of Worth toilets, with suggestive
exposition of physical good points.
But for the women who make the stage
noble and attractive by personal worth,
and mental power there is meagre con-
cession at times, or none at all, as pleases
the critic of the hour. 1t is only when
some great nature like Charlotte Cush-
mans levels every barrier of prejudice,
and becomes as uncomfortable as fire,
that praise is universal among the
scribes, no matter what their preferences
may be for youth and beauty. An indo-
| mitable intellect, and the patient study
of years proved too much for them, and
Charlotte Cushman, without any striking
personal attractions got where she right
fully belonged without much tribute
from the press, until twas coerced into
tardy acknowledgment of her hard
won greatness. This, her victory, was
legitimate and suficing. No speech
making and writing, no wrangling with
opposing and hostile critics like Anna
Dickinson, who commenced her theatre
cal career where the courageous Char
lotte left off-as star-but a calm,
'unhasting, unresting'' elimination of
| prodigious power wisely governed.
The American stage to-day has many
actresses of supreme merit as women,
with the affections and du-
ties of women, and of admir-
| able achievement in their profession,
with personal charms and graces, too, if
it comes to reckoning of all their claims,
but somehow it isn't fashionable to con-
cede them much. They are the "good
women whose virtue must be its own
| reward. Flowers and diamonds and
costly visible gifts are much more telling,
and the actress whose jewels are lost every
few months is more sympathetic adj
vertisement than she whose loss is an
only daughter buried in Rose Hill ceme-
terry at Chicago.
The success of the snowy actress is
meritricious, vet fascinating to the shall