Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-02
TALK

iIdb tllS xtLlO TE-9 W II, c4Q u OiiiIO VI bti0
population imagines it has genius for it,
beginning with mild aptitude for elocu-
ton, and ending with some histrionio as
sumption sufficiently great to hold their
swelling ambition.
81 have such swelling thoughts" said
Fields, the publisher, that it seems to mo
[ shall burst!" The anecdote is only
memorable because ii made Hawthorne
laugh heartily when ne happened in the
famous Boston book store shortly after.
So the theatrical ambition occasionally
sweils to busting up badly from Anna
Dickinson to the Grew" George G. Min.
Speaking of the daunsless Anna sug-
gests the long ago whom she made her first
public appearance as trance speaker
among the Progressive Friends and Spir-
itualists in Philadelphia when she used
to declaim for hours under the spirit in
huence, 30 she averred, of q. D. Baker, who
fell at Balls Bluff.
Her mother detached her from the Spir-
itualists and she efterward denied having
ever had any association with them. She
then fancied the stage was waiting for her
but was bluntly informed by Mr.. John
Drew that she had neither the style, talent
Tor voice for the theatre. (By way of par
enthesis, wonder what tho candid JohR
would say of the Countess Bozenta's voice.
how awfnlly nice it is TO write such a mel-
lifious title, and how more than charming
1t Is to have countess amuse US, even if
las You Like w was mostly pantomime,)
Well, to come back to Anna, her career
for while was made up of talks on WON
ans rights and other progressive themes
Finally, being heard at Concert hall under
the favor of Lucretia Mott, Anna struck
the vein that made her quality known, and
W. u. Kelly got her place in the mint.
An attack on Gen. Mcclellan caused her
dismissal, and then the Republican party
paid her for the diatribes familiar to the
public even yet. It all seems strange,
now, especially the abuse of Lincoln just
before his assassination, and the fierce fHl
limitations against Grant. The Grant
TRADE was Kissed in Philadelphia and in
Chicago, and wherever she delivered it it
met The same disapproval. Yet that was
the lecture dear to her stubborn heart, and
so is her dramatic ambition because tits
unsuccessful.
She thinks the press of New York was
banded to cause her downfall both as an
actress and as dramatist whereas, the
cold truth was, and is, that neither was
adapted for playing.
i When John Mccullough was asked why
he didn't accept her tragedy of Aurelian
he tersely said ''there was too much Zeno-
bia and not nough of Aurelian;" and we
hyperboreans who heard her read the play
here under the title of Zenobia were lust
dizzy with the boa constrictor length of
her speeches, and the wonder is
that the tragedy didn't end
with the captive queens tongue cut out
and borne aloft on spear Perhaps it
did. Who knows? It ought to, if the
Dickinson version be any where near the
verge of historic accuracy.
One of Helen Potter's best limitations is
Anna Dickinson in the 'Crown of Tnorns,"
and Anna, who wrote the play and acted
the leading character made it hot for her
IN Philadelphia, by having ar injunction
served upon her to hinder this announced
take-off, just as she was going on the stage
as "Anne Boleyn" Dickinson. But Miss
Potter went ahead, after cons alting law
yer, in readiness for the threatened emer-
gency, and no suit was brought. The
mimicry was too good, and what is good
can stand persecution, which further5 lis
success.
In the time of Louis Philippe there was
a publication in Paris called La PORE.
The front'splece was a harmless looking
pear. With few careless touches on il
it bore the most ludicrous
but unmistakable resemblance to his ma
jesty the citizen-king. When the innocent
looking cartoon broke out on the dead
walls, all connected with the publication
were unprecedented. The principal in the
business in open court drew the harrz esq
looking pear, and with a few careless,
swift and knowing touches gave the big
looking jowls, and the narrow upper head
with risible and Irresistible recognition
why, said he am to blame that his ma
jesty's head resembles pear in sLape?''
See for yourself, and the court did with a
light sentence.
When Helen Potter's audience saw her
do Anne Boleyn, and get off that tureid
text in the manner of Miss Dickinson,
could even her own friends in the house
resent the imitation? The applause
showed they did not
There is one bit of mimiory which Helen
Potter will spare Us, and that is Annals
Hamlet, because if she only gave US tho
torso of John B. Cough with coat and
vest, while discreet curtain left trousers
in doubt, the amazing tights and trunk
hose of Anna must always remain inalien-
ably her OWE, safe from any invading
touch of modest imitation.
Now naturally when Anna set out in her
stage venture ambition may have stirred
her to conquer this new world beyond the
footlights, but in all probability the mer-
cenary motive had more to do with it than
any other impulse. She probably argued
that persons without a 1.-THE of her ability
and mental cultivation were making q
mint of money, and, after the memorizing
ofparts and a foregone knack of elocution,
A..