The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1886-11-06

feet above you is the roof of the build
ing. As you stand gazing into the dis
tance you lose all sense of time and
space. Over your head is the calm,
warm summer sky, miles away are the
green vistas of that beautiful valley
made immortal by the most tremendous
battle Of the century, and almost at your
feet are thousands locked in the en-
brace of death, which made Picketts
desperate charge one of the most terri
ble and memorable OF the war. The
nation owes debt of gratitude to
Mons, Philpotteux which II will find
difficult to discharge. He is not to be
regarded as a mere artist only, but as
great teacher whose works entitle him
to the gratitude of mankind.
The other night dropped into the
theatre to see Denman Thompson in
his new play of the Old Homestead. If
the church and the stage are ever to be
brought into intimate relationship it
will be by just such plays as this. 1t is
simply plain everyday picture of New
Engla I'd life such as you can find to day
anywhere among the hills and valleys
| of Massachusetts or New Hampshire.
All the surroundings are of the plainest
and homeiest kind, and the story itself
so truthful that you never doubt for
/
story of actual life, and till the curtain
falls it never occurs to you that the peo-
pie before you are only actors. OF Mr..
| Thompson himself it is difficult to
| speak, he does not seem TO act but from
the moment he steps on the stage till
the curtain falls he is the central figure.
Hardly anything so intensely natural
has been seen in this generation. 1t is
no small triumph when an actor can
make an audience forget the theatre,
the music, the scenery and all of its be
wildering surroundings, and yet this
Mr. Thomson does nightly to thousands,
apparently without an effort. Then the
tone of the piece is wholesome, the moral
is good, and as you rise from your seat
you feel bettered for having seen it,.
These thoughts are forced upon me by
many of the entertainments now given
in the first class theatres of the city. In
one Of the largest and claimed to be the
most fashionable, on the front rows of
seats every night can be seen bald head
ed old sinners who ought to be thinking
Of their last wills and testaments instead
Of the Opera Bouffe. Everything about
the play is suggestive of indecency. The
men look reckless and the women dis
sipated, and even in the so-called society
plays the plot of the piece is such that
no gentleman would dare to breathe it
ir respectable company and no lady
of delacacy or refinement would com
promise herself by listening to it. 1t is
therefore with pleasure that we return
to The Old Homestead with its simple
story and its moral sweet and clean. 1t
is something that man can take his
wife OF his young daughter to and re
member after with pleasure and sats-
faction. We hope to see more of The
Old Homestead.
While the grand naval procession was
moving down the river on Thursday
while the vivas of countless thousands
rang out in loud acclaim upon the sky:
while the air was filled with suphurous
smoke and the earth shook with the
thunder of the guns; in "A magnificent
marble palace on Fifth avenue one of
the most distinguished dignitaries of
the Episcopal Church was repeating the
saddest portion of its beautiful ritual:
"Ashes to ashes-dust to dust" There.
wrapt in silk and lace of fabulous cost.
lay all that was mortal of the once
beautiful Cornelia Finch, better know
to the orld as Mrs. Alexander r. Ste
wart, the wife of the great dry goods
millionaire. Not all of her millions
could keep death from knocking at the
!.
her husband passed away ten years ago
the withered old woman almost without
warning answered deaths call, and
yielded up her spirit and millions. In
all this land, no life so bloomless and
so sad. Having within her reach ex
haustless blessing, her life for fifty year,
was jOyless as an Arctic night. No child
no friend, no pet, no bird, no flower, NJ
/ cat, no dog, no confident hghtened the
, terrible gloom that hung upon her lif,
like funeral pail. Millions were a
p her command, but the poor and tn,
A., suffering were not permitted to approach
her, her body guard was impenetrabl,
as the Chinese Wall. As one of til,
-, richest widows in the world lay in stat e
, around the costly sarcOphagus wer,
gathered few OF the chief beneliciaries
% not sigh was heari-nOt an eye wa
g wet-she was dead, and this was tn,
last of earth. While New York wa
- rejoicing amid one Of the grandest 'holi
, days of tie century, they bore her NOR
tai remains to the magnificent Mauso
I leuIn at Garden City, and laid them il
p the marble sarcophagus beneath III,
, cryPt-there to lie Till the archangel'
q trumpet shall summon the quick an,
5 the dead. Beside her is an empty shell
e where the bones of her husband were L
e TO lie; but they will never repose ther,
! now, nor will the secret of their restin,
5 place be revealed till the Judgmen
e morning. What a lesson to earlhl,
10 ambition; what a rebuke to human
4 vanity; where are the millions now, 70
$ which Alexander T. Stewart bartere,
i body and soul; naked he came into tn
A world, naked he want out of it, "Ashe
+ to ashes-dust to dust"
We are just beginning to realize tina
e we have made terrible mistake in TN