Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-09
ARE IN SAVANNAH.
First Attempts to Establish an Art
Notwithstanding About the Theatre
and About Actors-A Peep Behind the
Scenes.

w uAAC CdAuON give wv mum
the ladies Telfair for the use they made or
their wealth in establishing the Hodgson
Library, a hospital, Sunday schools IN
Savannah and Augusta, and the Telfair
Academy of Arts, and incidentally in
clude praise to the trustees of the library
and academy for the manner IN which
they seem so far to have carried out the
designs Of the donors, truth compels me
to say that to Miss Telfair cannot be at
tributed the first attempt to give
Savannah a picture gallery for the
instruction and delectation of its
citizens. This was done by Mr.. Daniel
Blake, large planter and wealthy man,
decended from an old English family, and
l think from the famous Admiral of that
name. through a ''cacique'' of the Caro-
linas under the constitution of Locke. He
was an amiable man, and seemed anxious
to add to the enjoyment and Improvement
of Savannah's citizens in any way in his
power. One of his ideas was to have
fancy ball, in which special regard should
be had to the costumes of different times,
and tn manners and customs ofthe wear
ers. To my surprise he consulted me
on a subject of which [ was almost
entirely ignorant, but upon discussing
the matter more fully, L suspected his de-
sign. and agreed to aid him if he could
make me understand fully what he wished
to do. This he did, and | saw that his
object. though not fully confessed, was to
organiZe-sO to say-a system OF social
intercourse among the young, which
would at the same time amuse them and
direct their mental activity in an artistic
direction. l was much surprised at this,
for nobody suspected the quiet, unobtru-
siye, almost taciturn, practical man
of business of having any such
proclivities, but as soon as L
understood Kim | recOllected the
S.Dream of Shakespeare as represent
ed on the old drop curtain of the Theatre,
and suggested the recommendation OF
selection from the plays of the great dram
atist, the adoption Of proper costumes, and
a studying of the parts assigned the play
ers. He thought the idea very good. but
objected TO the attempt upon the ground
that the beginning should be on smaller
scale, and the development of it be left to
the teachings of experience. The ball
came of at a convenient season, but l
took no part in it, because Just before the
evening appointed, we heard Of the death
of a relative.
In consequence of this only saw the
per- OrmancaS from the street, and had an
opportunity of judging how important
all the parts of a scheme are to its proper
exposition when not hearing the music,
the bobbing up and down OF a crowd of
grown people struck me as the most
ridiculous sights | had ever seen. The
crowd in the street, and especially the
negroes, were equally amused, and when
the master of the reyels, in his rich cos
tune of ''Grand Turk" in which he ap-
peared to great advantage, showed him
self in passing window, their sense Of
prOpriety scarcely prevented them from
applauding, as they would have done in
circus.
THE "REMINISCENCES OF ANY NAN OF NY
AGE,
if honestly told. must contain something
of the grave and the gay, the sublime and
the ridiculous, and as my object is to
show the manners and customs Of their
prOgenitOrs to the rising generation, this
attempt OF Mr. Blake to introduce taste
for costume balls, in which the character
of the actor was to be assumed with the
dress, properly belongs to the region of
the theatrical. and is naturally suggested
in considering the Telfair plan for Guilt
waiting a taste for painting and sculpture,
which, properly considered, are the drama
fixed to an instant of time when the whole
may also account for the fact
that Mr.. Blake did afterwards
obtain possession of the theatre, and con-
vert the ''green room" into an art gal
lery, the first, if not a successful effort,
to give one to the city Of Savannah, and
then bv natural sequence, as the object of
both theatre and art gallery is to reform
the manners and cultivate the taste, the
two are connected with the efforts of the
present prohibitiOnist movement, which
has for its object to stamp out taste for
the spirituous as first step towards pre-
pairing the way for the more general Gull
tivatiOn of the intellectual and spiritual
over the material. This considered the
following anecdotes of a personal nature
may be received as pertinent.
The Savannah Theatre was built in the
year 1918, but | recollect nothing OF 1t
till three or four years after, when
Cooper, the great tragedian of the day,
appeared upon its boards as manager and
star actor. His chief characters were
Hamlet Orchard H." and THE
Gamester." NV father believed that a
child should be familiarized with every
thing that he was likely to encounter in
his progress to manhood. as the best way
to prevent his being the victim of illu-
siOns, and that intercourse with men of
all classes under proper guidance would
shield him from the evils of man.
worship and the pursuits of phantasms;
therefore his sons saw all the visitors at
his house, and frequently sat at MS festal
board till the retirement of the ladies and
the circulation of the wine began to tell
on some of the company. As all men are
not angels, and in ninO reritdS was proved
by display of character not beneficial as
an example to the young, we would be
sent to join the ladies in the drawing
room; and here let me say to the credit of
the men of Savannah of that day-Or per-
haps in a measure to the purity Of the
liquor they drank-that never saw az a
gentleman's dinner table an instance of
that debauchery to which their fathers
are said to have been given. But my
mother thought that such treatment was
of doubtful wisdom, and quietly took her
own way to counterfeit its evil
tendency without interfering with
the good that might be in it. She did
it effectually, and in manner which
recommend to the consideration of pa
rents and rOhibitiOnists-Yiz. The
great cure-all for the infantile maladies
of that day was the nauseoUs hot pressed
castor Oil then in use, and whenever we
needed a dose, she was sure TO put at the
bottom Of the Subsequently, one of the
best cut-glass, for the sake of association
"a sufficiency of my fathers best brandy
or Gin. The effect may be supposed; and
if my fathers sons were never wine bib
bers. it need not be attributed to any I'M
appreciation of good wine.
But IN TUE MATTER OF THEATRE
GOING
and initiating the young into the ways of
this wicked world, she had as decided
objection, without seeing how she could
put break on the inevitable downward
course to which it led, if prayer,
Bible reading, the Sunday school, and
the grace of God, did not do it. go
she wisely waited the time. which
in the wisdom of Providence, would surely
come and give her the means Of convert
ing my father from the error of his ways,
without action on her part unbecOming a
wife. She had seen that while Richard
Ill" and ''Hamlet" had no appreciate eff
feet in moral point of view, the act OF
the s'Gamester,'' in killing himself in de-
spair and leaving a beautiful wife and dear
little boy. for a home in the bad place,
Just as the death OF an uncle left him a
large fortune, had struck me with horror
ard planted in my breast hatred for
cards and gaming; therefore she was
obliged to admi. that there might be some
good in the theatre teachings, and she
consented to have the great actor to one
of the dinner parties at our house, and
treated him as she did other professional
gentlemen.
Nevertheless, she held that the evil out
weighed the good. and at last her oppor-
tunity came in this guise. In looking
over her music-bOok she ca upon