The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-10-06


singer into a successful drama in which the
song was aptly incidental. The character
was that of a London SWELL fashionable in
the highest degree, and the scene where he
drank and vocalized the cham payne was
big clubhouse. That was enough for our
young fellows about town. The wine that
was drunk by English nobs was the wine for
them. 1t is a popularity of drinking that,
while we call directly for whisky, and almost
everything else in the alcoholic line, we
never say, Give us bottle of champagne.
We always specify the brand, and look critic
ally at the label when we get it, as though
no other on earth would do at all. So all the
dudes took to ordering the champagne OF
the song, and now it is in the lead once
more"
But what has kept the home house open
during the long spell of disfavor?'
80, bless you, Americans are not the only
drinkers of champagne. While the business
OF this concern sank to almost nothing here,
1t rose to great proportions in Russia, which
is wine drinking country, and SO they
simply shipped in one direction instead OF
another. The house that has exported most
largely to America during the past five
years sends hardly anything to England"
You are asking me to believe that our
champagne really is a foreighn product"
And that is the truth as to all OF the lead
ing brands. Considerable native and bogus
stuff is in the market, of course, but there is
Hbtle uduSer Oh SeJLlnS 1t at nlOSC oars. IL is
chiefly used in disreputable resorts, where
few questions are asked, and tastes are not
scrupulous. But commoner fraud in such
places is to buy up empty bottles, on which
authentic labels remain, and fill them with
cheap imitation of champagne.
l have said that women were free consum-
ers of wine at the race The sight was pecu-
liar, Wives and daughters of respectable
wealth were emptying their glasses in the
same Enclosure with the most notorious
cyprians. Still, though decency and indie
cency were thus quaffing their wine inside
the same fence, they were not mixed. The
former element $50 far as it was confined to
the female SEX was safely located in the up
per story of the clubhouse, to which women
were admitted only when escorted by men,
bers of the Gentlemen's Driving Association,
while the latter element (also so far as it was
confined to the female sex) was in the field,
where it made brave show of good clothes
and personal beauty. Both exhibits
were in full view of the multitude of male
spectators, and it is only truth to say that
the behavior of one was about as good as the
others, though the balance i'll beauty was
naturally in favor of the wicked. Vice is
not monster of such hideous mien when
you dress it in silk.
MOTHER FRocHARD AND FANNIE DAVENPORT.
Few indeed, of US are what we seem to
strangers. If you go to the theater at all,
you have hardly missed seeing The Two
Orphans" Therein the character of old
Mother Frochard impressed you as embody
ing all that was possible to woman in the
way of coarseness, cruelty and dishonesty.
If Mrs. Marie Wilkins performed it, you saw
such a presentiment of responsiveness as
makes it impossible, probably, for you to con-
ceive of the actress as other than a brutal
woman. Mrs. wilkins was so successful
with this role that the public knew her only
as Mother Frochard, until after her death,
few days ago, when they read that she had
been the wife of Sergeant Wilkins the most
famous of London lawyers and club men
fifty years ago. He was foremost figure in
polite society at that time, and he chose her
tor beauty and accom- plishments. Nor did
she degenerate-except in getting to be
seventy years old, and in falling away from
fortune to the extent of being compelled to
| earn a living on the stage-to a condition
that enabled her to enact the beldame with
out art. Frochard in private life was a re-
fined lady She got no savage satisfaction
out of maltreating Kate Claxton Indeed,
she complained that Kate compelled too
much realism, and had to be dragged about
by main strength, instead of bel ping the pre-
tense. 1t is said that Mrs. Wilkins died of
acid doses taken to reduce her fairness. Every
woman who loses flesh nowadays is accused
body has any doubt on the subject
Fanny Davenport reappeared on the New
York stage this week or, putting it accu-
rately, about 100 pounds out of her 200 or
thereabouts have returned to us from
Europe, where she managed somehow to
leave the rest. Perhaps she reduced her
weight by the kind of training that a pugilist
takes for a prize fight. That does not seem
unreasonable after seeing her as Fedora. Do
you recall how the song and dance of the
variety stage used to be pretty, graceful and
softly sentimental? Then it bee anne gradual
ly athletic, until at present it is almost alto
gether a knock-about matter, too rough
for women to engage in. Stage love-making
is going in the same direction. Billing and
cooling behind the footlights have become
more and more demonstrative, and that be-
tween Fedora and her sweetheart, Lors,
finds climax in fierce and at length deadly
wrestling match. Fedora sets cut, accord
ing to the story which the play presents to
detect and revengefully kill the slayer of her
afianced husband; but when she finds the
man she falls desperately in love with him.
The arrangements which she has made to
bring him to punishment render
it necessary, If she would so change
her plan as to save him instead that he
shall stay in her apartments all night. There
they have the first round in their phvscal
encounter. for he is bound to circumSpectlv
60 while she opposes his will by physical
force quite as much as by endearments. 1t
is a lively struggle, but she wins the first fall.
This is no wonder to those who view Fannys
splendid physique, and nobody could sell
pools on the result in the auditorium, even
if the manager and the law permitted sor
nobody would risk any money on Loris. There
is no surprise. therefore, when in the second
round he fails to floor her in a homcdal at
tempt nor again when he undertakes to pre-
vent her from taking poison. METRoPoL.
General Sherman on the Presidency.
Interview in St Louis Renubliaan