Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-01-24

4
through my dying speech, aud was
very dead, and never more glad to be q
corpse since was born, when my
Juliet caused the greatest excitement by
her most impassioned acting. Having
gradually worked herself up to
fine frenzy, she played her dagger
into her stay Dusk and fell hud on
my poor body, which caused my ca
daver, laying so quietly awaiting the
autopsy, to give out the most common
place grunt. have always endesvored
to be conscientious even when playing
a dead man on the field Of battle, but
here was case where I could not be
expected to command myself. The
grunt was forced from me against my
will, and when it is remembered that
the lady stood six feet high and weighed
100 pounds, may be forgiven for my
helpless deviation from the artistic uni
ties.
COUNT oRLoFF's SENTIMENTS.
could multiply instances Of actual
suffering in the portrayal Of parts.
Only last season when playing Count
0rloff in Diplomacy, at Wallack's
Theatre, have stood upon the stage
in the Trois Hommes scene and actually
experienced the torture the noble
minded gentleman is supposed to feel
when has denounced as an adventures
to her husband a woman whom a mo-
ment later he discovers to be the wife
of his dearest friend. used to expe-
rience an access of giddiness every night,
which frequently frightened me. l
would break out into cold perspra-
ton and saturate a new pair of lavender
kid gloves each evening, rendering them
useless. And the proof Of how COM
municated all felt to the audience was
that when left the stage invariably
got a magnificent recall on to the scene,
and was sometimes honored with dOu-
Die call before the curtain at the end Of
the act, ten minutes after had left the
stage.
One mole instance Of feeling parts
was playing Achmed in Jessie Brown,
in Plymouth, Eng. This individual is
an East Indian by birth and a scoundrel
by persuasion A part of his business
in the piece is to hang an inoilensive
person who is obnoxious to him. But
the tables are turned on him and he
gets hanged himself This is truly
realistic situation, and is accomplished
before the audience by means Of a trick
rope, which fastens around the actors
body while it appears to be twisted
around his neck, with the orthodox
knot under the left auricle. Achmed's
schemes had been frustrated, and
| was placed in position, the signal was
given, and was slung-when horror
something had gore wrong with the
trick line, and, instead of being sus-
pended by the waist. | felt the rope
tightening round the vicinity of my jul
gular. My feet left the ground, aud in
an instant Of time lived over years Of
my life. | have no means Of knowing
wht Their the ply steal suflerings depicted
in the reports Of executions have read
have any foundation in fact, but ] can
,ouch for it that here was a case
where an actor for once really
felt his part. Instinct set my hands
flying upwards above my head. where
they clutched the rope, but scarcely in
time to ease all the weight Of my body
of it, and the tightening grip caused
me, in the person Of Achmed, to un-
de1go some of the sensations of the
doomed malefactor. Imagination added
horror to the situation, and | felt my
self undergoing an undeseryed and ex-
tremely uncomfortable dissolution, and
that my face expressed all | expert
enced | was assured by every MEM
her of the company when the curtain
had fallen and | had again touched
tara trina. The interruption to my
respiration was only partial, and for
tunately complete asphyxiatiOn did not
take place, but | was given to under
stand by medical friend little later
that if my second cervical yertebre
had been dislocated, and my odOntoid
process had pressed upon my spinal
marrow, I should never have lived to
write on the subject of whether or not
an actor feels the part he is playing.