Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-24

takc al iuteTtst III tuo pehSO "S"i0
|. do we'll to follow our example. Here
and there the book has not received
that purely technical revision which
is necessary to the finish OF literary
work, but indulgence will be readily
made for these errors of detail
Varnhagen Won Ense wrote OF the
great Humboldt that he knew moth
ing about making a book, and ye'
few works are read with the avidity
which the scholar experiences IN
perusing Cosmos. Mr.. Lemans
theatrical career covers the best era
of the American stage. He first trod
the boards in humble roles at time
when the stage was poor but self-re-
specting and artistic, and when 1t
was fully inspired with the genuine
Thespian instinct. Those were the
days of accomplished actors and hn-
ished stock companies, when Slip
shod acting would not have been
tolerated for an instant. Then the
whole interest of piece was never
permitted to center in a single per-
son. While there were stars, the
starring system had not been in
vented. When the elder Booth,
Addams, Cooper, Macready, and a
score of scarcely lesser lights, were
in their meridian, they were sup
ported by polished actors and ac-
tresses who frequently divided the
honors of the evening with them.
Such surroundings were highly stim-
ulating to- the younger members OF
the profession; and they resulted,
even when the fire of genius was lack
ing, in the creation of artists who,
like Mr.. Leman. himself, were honors
to noble calling.
The author, with a pardonable
pride, devotes some attention to his
own exploits as actor, author and
poet, but modestly withal. He was
not without civic distinction, and his
sterling personal worth was recog-
nized by an election as Justice OF the
Peace, an office of considerable
power in San Francisco, and after
wards by being chosen to fill the post
of Public Administrator OF that city
and county at time when all the
rest of the Republican ticket was
showed under. A pleasing thing,
which crops out all through this
little book, is the quite pronounced
morality of it's author. One can read
between the lines that the narrator is
a thorough gentleman as we'll as ac-
tor, both of the olden time.
Mr.. Leman has his views OF the
American drama, and we cannot for
bear reproducing few of them. He
says: "We shall have pure drama,
can American drama worthy of the
"name, when playwrights cease to
"write plays with one part only;
"when managers relegate the trans
"planted drama of the demi-monde
"to the place of its birth, and have
sufficient judgment to discover
"merit when the playwright possesses
"it, even if he should have the mis-
"fortune to be born on this side OF
"the Atlantic.
"And the American theater will
"have better moral standing when
municipal magistrates have suffi-
"cient consideration for the youth
"who are destined in the immediate
Culture either to honor or disgrace
"their country, and sufficient official
"firmness to close the filthy dives
"of our cities, where men are de-
"graded, women debauched and the
"drama bastardized by the manager
"(God save the mark who calls his
"den a theater."
These be excellent views, capitally
expressed. They may and doubtless
do belong to the realm of Utopia, but
the lover of the drama and the stage
at their best, and of good acting as
we'll, are obliged to take refuge from
present chagrin in Utopia. "Hope
springs eternal in the human breast"
and we cannot forbear indulging the
fond idea that the day is not far dis
tant when the legitimate drama, with
the natural accompaniment of good
stock companies, will again be resur-
rected in this country, to afford the
judicious unalloyed pleasure. There
is no reason why the stage, hand in
hand with the pulpit and the editorial
tripod, should not be instruments for
the amelioration OF mankind, nor can
we see why the frightful phantasma-
gorias Of the burlesque stage and the
dive should not be things of the past.