Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-12-22
An English Critic On ihe Success OF the
Lily" i'm merfca.

| Lilly % i'm merfca.
The London Standard says: The success
OF Mrs. LsngtTy in attracting audiences In
| New York does not strike US as surprising;
| it is the English interest in that success
which requires 10 be accounted for. By
consent which might be termed unanimous
but that Mr.. Oscar Wilde thinks HIM
sell a critic of dramatic representation, and
likes to stand alone in opinion, Mrs.
Langtry is not great actress, or even
good one, and is not likely ever 10 establish
a reputation az an artist; but the Americans
are naturally eager to see very ladylike
WON an, who was pronounced by the highest
society in England and by many artists ex-
ceptionally beautiful. The provincial de-
sire to know what the mother country adj
mires, mipgles, in Mrs. Lanstry's CASE. with
the instructive wish to see, if not the most
beautiful thing in Nature-for women, how
ever fair, have still rivals in trees and lakes,
and. as some artists pretend, in horses and
birds-at least that object in Nature about
which human consent has been most uni
versal and longest lived. Helen was admired
before mountain scenery was. The audiences,
therefore, are large, and as the Americans,
who have among them some OF the most
beautiful faces in the world-though the
special beauty OF American women's faces is
DOT of Mrs. Langtry's kind, being dependent
on their charm when In movement, and not
on their charm in immobilty-have IN
dorsed the English verdict, we should not
wonder If appreciation gradually rose, as the
actress moves westward into fiery enthusi-
asm, such az followed Jenny Lind.
AMERICANS HAVE CAPACITY FOR ADMIRA-
TON
which Is very often Tidieuled, but which is,
perhaps, of all signs OF the freshness of ma
tions, one of the very strongest. Men who
can admire are young, and that sort OF re-
hox-a inf,
before them and are MOI experienced" until
half their faculty OF emotion is dead. All
that ia natural, and, so far as we see, unob-
jeclionable, admiration for a beautiful work
of God being at least as innocent az admira-
ton for beautiful work OF man; but what
is the cause OF English interest in it all?
Why does it pay the journals 10 send long
kilograms about Mrs. Langtry, and the
audiences she attracts, and the prices
paid for stalls in her theater when
they are put up at auction, in that
American way which is surely of all ways
the one least creditable TO the land of equal
ity? The French give a blouse his chance,
il only he will stand en- queue long enough;
hut the Americans openly declare that earth,
including The pew nearest the preacher, be-
longs to the moueyed man. These kilograms
are not forwarded for the actress friends |
only, for did they include all society their
pennies would hardly repay the PROPRIETOR
expense. They must be intended to interest |
the public at large, the whole circle of news |
paper buyers, and whom do they interest? |
We suspect that they interest great many
who do not say 80; that they are read quite |
as much as kilograms about Mr.. Secretary |
Folger's gold operations, and that they are |
much longer remembered. |
A great many people are interested in gos-
sip, TO bsgin with, gossip of any Sort if it is |
only about people Of whom they have ever |
heard, and nearly as many 'fike TO know
how Americans deport themselves in social |
STAIRS The English never acknowledge the |
truth frankly, but are as keen to know what |
Americans do as the Americans are 10 know |
what the English do keener to watch them, |
we begin to think, imam they are 10 watch |
Parisians They like to hear of Partisan |
rush for stalls to see Victor Hugo's drama,
lie Roi s'Amuse, prohibited for fifty years; |
but they are more interested in seeing that
scores of New Workers
100 cAMPED OUT ALL NIGHT
in the porches of a theater in order to be |
early enough to buy the mueh-sought-for
tickets. They have, we believe, grand
fa.herly feeling about the matter, kind of
pleasure, or il may be pain, in seeing that
the New World, 10 its frivolities at least, is
go very like the Old. Here are these children
of ours, with continent 10 conquer, and the
future OF the world, perhaps, in their hands,
sitting up all night, and spending thousands,
to make sure that they will see beautiful
facei Chester did precisely the same thing
or was it Shrewsbury, for we have half
forgotten the legend?-to see "the beautiful
Miss Gunnings;D and Chester is great-graud-
mother Of New York. 1t is 4 interest to
note how, if knowledge grows, wisdom fingers
and folly remains as of old, especially if the
ioolishness is not very harmful, is not at our
expense, and IL ezhihitea- by -onE-swn de-
Que smiles then, and il there is
little scprn in the smile. there is also regret
for ones own past. This semi-paternal in
terest in things American is, we are con-
WINGED, quite genuine, and exceedingly deep,
and will one day make the fortune of some
observant travellers book. If some Mr..
how American boys and
girls dress, hirt, disport, and edu-
cate themselves, what a success he would
havei English men and women get bored 10
death with those accounts of American in
situations plentifully studded with statistics
which are the temptation of English travel
ars, and the besetting weakness of most
A merican visitors who. with faces brimful of
humor and keenness, must still tell you how
he free schools are managed; but the mo-
Hent social facts are mentioned, the moment
some charitable American girl explains why
she has more of good time" in PhIlsdel-
phia than her sister has 10 Liverpool, how
he Indifference disappearsl Dozens OF COM
petent persons with pens have reviewed
Democracy, and TIE Europeans, and most OF
hem, no doubt, have done it we'll; but none
Of them hit the special interest Of the read
FRS without pens, who remarked unanimously
that Mrs. Lee was obviously more free from
comment than she would be in England,
hat "Miss Dare" was intoIerably vulgar,
and that Gertrude" in The Europeans, for
all her separateness, was altogether lady.
Then, besides these sources of interest,
here is the greater one-the interest felt by
almost all women in what is essentially q
triumph Of beauty, vindicalion OF the idea
hat it is power, like genius, and gift,
like the capacity TO keep an audience hang
ing silently on your tongue, surely the most
enjoyable Of the Creators gifts. All women,
sven the ugliest, feel that beauty is a weapon
IN their side in the battle Of life; like to see
t exert force, and wnen it is great and, so
10 speak, beyond criticism, admire it with
genuine heartiness as real as that which men
show In their admiration for strength mani
ested in any conspicuous way.