Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-06-27
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ruxArHrcAL EVENTS.
An interesting thsatrical event to the
philosopher, II not to the public, was
The revival here on Monday night Of
Miss Pauline Markham In what 10 tech.
nically called Legitimate drama" but,
strictly speaking, is dims-museum di.
version. The event showed how
ephemeral Is stage representation when
not built upon ability. Markham was
at one time the best sung, the most
dely.sdmirsd, and the most reckless
". flsttsred woman in America. She it
is of whom the Shakspearesn scholar,
MIR. Richard Grant White, wrote his
best rhetoric. He called her voice
"vocal velvet" lie said she hsd re-
stored the lost arms Of the Venus Of
Milo Ito whom she restored them he
didn't say. Attired only 10 his Eng.
lish undefiled, she walked the boards OF
Niblo's Garden for several seasons q
thing of beauty--but, alas as time has
shown, not q joy forever.
recall now, as I look at her in
womanly skirts trying TO do the drama,
how the sensuous town went mad over
her pagan msgnificence. One we'll
known artist offered her an enormous
sum to stand for him rs Godiva. Mana.
gers saw o fortune in her if she would
only play Mazeppa on horse.
It is difficult to get the town to look
at her now. She opened her engage
ment at the Third-Avenue Theatre in
Tom Taylor's Ticket-ofLeave Man."
There was q very slim house Of apa-
thetic people who probably never heard
Of her. The name, in big letters,
" Pauline Markham" had no longer
thrill in it. A matronly woman came
on and played in the most conventional
manner. Here and there in the par
quette were bald-headed men who
tried to fan the fire of the past out of
tho ashes of the present, and failed.
Markham is still superb woman in
the pagan sense. Her very step is like
the Roman goddess. Her bursting
figure is the affiuence of vital femi-
unity. But she can't act. She never
could. Her vocal velvet has lost its
pile. "The lost arms" are there, and
the other limbs that were never lost,
but alas of what use are they in
draped melodrama?
II the actresses of New York had
bit Of moral pluck they would rise up
and call upon Markham to give a pro-
fessional matinee, and then they would
buy and distribute tickets among all
the young men, so that they might 60
and see once for all how futile is beauty
of form and sensuous praise to pre-
serve q woman's success on the stage.
/ once heard a very beautiful woman
who thought she could act say to Mr..
Harry Palmer that she intended to be-
come a Charlotte Cushman.
"Then," said the remorseless mana
ger, you'll have to use vitriol on
your face instead of rouge" This was
the neatest mixture of philosophy and
compliment | ever heard. Put into
plain English it means that personal
beauty is bar to permanent success.
Dime-museum theatricals are gnaw-
ing away the best elements Of melo-
drama. The reduction OF sterling
plays to the cheap and nasty goes
steadily on. There is Mr.. Frederick
Paulding, a young man Of great pro-
mise, who has been associated with
some Of the best productions. He is
playing in the I" Sea Of Ice" with a
woman named Rose Lisle. A more in
suferable aflliction l never encoun-
tered. Mr.. Paulding appears to have
sold out his ambition for ten cents.
Rose Isle was sent from Alexandra
in sarcophagus some years since. She
is aromatic, and, like all Egyptian ruins,
well preserved. Her acting is like the
recitation Of Plutarch by victim Of
st. Vitus's dance.