The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-11-01
Pauline, as Interpreted Last
Evening, by the Peerless
Mary Anderson.
The Lady Of Lyons presented
to a 5000 House.
Deputy Sheriff Ankrum tn
terviewed by an Argus
Scribe,
And Declares Himself a bet
ter Republican than his
Traducers.
Edward Patterson on His
Death Bed.
The Markets and other In
teresting News Matter.
Edward Patterson on His
Death Bed.
PAULINE.

Last night Harper's opera house was
filed from pit to dome" with as fashion
able, as intellectual and in every way as
select and appreciative an audience as ever
! greeted clever actor or actress outside
our state metropolis. And right here the
time audiences in our sister cities there
| were no fashionable laggards on hand at a
late hour for the purpose of effectively
showing off their stylish costumes, but
nearly all were in their seats before the
curtain rose for the first time.
In the impersonation of Pauline, in the
ancient but popular Bulwer dramatization
of The Lady OF Lyons, the widest scope
is at beck and call of Mary AEderson's
wonderful histrionic gifts, and almost from
! first to last even those of her audience who
had never seen Bernhardt but had heard
her described, insensibly seemed to ally
Miss Anderson closely with that noted
actress. Although not quite as slender to
attenuation as the noted French woman,
Miss Anderson is leaning quite strongly
that way and if she continues to lose flesh
as rapidly in the next five years as in the
more recent past, both actresses could
scarcely muster sufficient substance to cast
| a respectable shadow. 1.-the, slender and
willowy, to begin with, one is forced to
the conclusion that in most of her dra-
matte work Mary Anderson is striving
after the Bernhardt ideal With physique
and small features which would seem to
forbid vehement defamation and cores
pondi ng physical demonstration, Miss An
derson rose magnifcently to the most Sc
we're requirements of the play With her
it is but short step from tragedy to com
edy, from the expression of the
most intense hatred and loathing to
that of the utmost tenderness, pathos
and love. This was most strikingly shown
in the cottage scene after her marriage to
Claude Melnotte, the bogus prince. The
picture of the poor, unhappy, covering
fellow in one corner of the room, and
his new made wife opposite striv
ing to overpower her love for him by the
most terrible, yet half suppressed invec
tive, is one never to be effaced While
thus confronting Melnotte, she expressed
her contempt for his perf1dy in such man
ner as to lose sight, utterly, of the actress
in the character assumed. Almost kissing
her detestation, this, combined with the
peculiar fluctuations of her body, conveyed
the impression of the serpent SO strongly
as to start the cold chills in her audience
In the judgment of the writer this was the
most effective of the generally effective
work of last evening And at the last the
spectacle of an all conquering love was
| as pretty an exhibition IN that
| line as was ever seen in Rock Island. That
Mary Anderson is one of the most faith
full interpreters of the subtleties of human
passion upon the American stage, is fully
conceded by everybody who saw her last
night. No more graceful compliment, we
are sure, could be paid her.
| Mr.. r. L. Downing, az Claude Melnotte,
proved fully equal to his task, for task it
is most assuredly when brought in jux-
| Imposition with such Pauline as Mary
Anderson. With fair, rosy, almost girl
ish face the first impression was not favor
able to the sturdy peasant lad, but as the
play progresses and Mr.. Downing has OPP
portunIty to show what he, too, can do in
the realm of pathos, first impressions dis
appear and there stands before us the
.tSon of gardener whose
deep, earnest love for
4l,o l,ao,,t;f,,l panl;ua r,varxI, adr,vvs ovarv
thing else and even induces him to forget
his maahood long enough to be willing to
lend himself to the designs ofconteinptible
conspiratsrs, the handspring of whose am
bition is revenge. In the cottage scene
after the wedding. Mr.. Downing was the
icomplete picture of discontinue. aye des-
pair, when he knew that his decea, llone