The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-03-18

to k gas, and ] prauced round a draw
! iue-room in a state of holy horror,
while the Shrieks of the woman losing
her old moiars and extensOrs, lno1sors
and outsiders, narrowed my sympathe-
&c soul to madness. l chung TO an at
tsndant.
On, give her gas, you're giving her
-" well, 1 advised giving her any
thing, and all the while Maria S hoWls
tore up the carbolic laden air, and the
attendant mixed a dose of something
to quiet my nerves.
So the third act didn't horrify me as
much as it did others, because I've been
through it before. go,
But, oh! Great rip-snorting Scott!
| That fourth act paralyzed me! got
afraid. locked around to see II l cCull
witness the rest of it IN the company OF
| so many STRANGERS. l thought l might
have enjoyed IL IL I'd been looking 1t 1t
through knot-hole IN board renee.
But to glance from the situation on the
stage and meet the enquiring eyes OF
| lot of young dudelets It over from the
season, who peeked out OF box TO see
how the women took 1t. was little
more than your ragged Gusher could
stand. A yell of horror escaped me as
Mordaunt dismissed the seneschal at
! at the gate, and babe him knock before
he came in again. l had just strength,
| lent me on good security, to crawl up
the aisle. Ny beloved Sanger net me
| in the lobby, and asked me if I'd been
| cold? Good gracious! that act fried US
in our own fat.
Fanny Davenport. with red eyes and
I
heaving bosom, thus discourses on
La Tosca to newspaper reporter:
II hardly know what l am going to
do" she said, in answer to the first
query put to her regarding her pro-
jects. Il feel anything but pleasant to-
ward the press. which l think Is IN
mercifully prosecuting me. l have
given La Tosca as it is written. If you
agree to present an authors work to
the public, you give it as nearly as you
can in the way he wrote it. That's
lust, isn't it2 think Sardou would cot
appreciate it very much if l were 10
give his play otherwIse-neither would
the public. Mrs. Frank eslie Says that
the two first acts should be made into
one. Why. l shouldn't DIRE to do
anything of that sort with the work CT
an obscure author much less that OF a
man of great intellect like Sardou The
press would have me change il entirely,
Shall [ make Scarpia an angel? Shall
make his love molly? If l were to do So
Sardou would be apt to say it was not
his play, and the press would eXclalm ::
Why do you not give US eardou's
tragedy as he wrote it? Let US judge
whether the material is 1T for the stage
or not!'
There is a terrible picture-it is a
nude corpse being dissected. Yet
crowds throng about the window where
it is displayed, staring at it. If the
flesh is painted so that it resembles
nature, does that spoil the picture
True, it is not beautiful subject. But
that does not alter the art of 1T Just the
same. Criticism l believe in, but abuse
and persecutIon-no! Take 1t oil
Take it of they cry. Is it any worse
than thousands of other plays that
have been done? Take, for instance
Francesca Da Rimini. Is not that
rather a questionable subject? Is no!
the moral of Cymbeline great deal
worse than that of La ToscaP Oh but
that is Shakespeare, and so the press
accepts it. Fszio is another play OF the
same sort. If people were to accustom
themselves to the terrible things in life
there would be much less sin. 1t Is
because they shut from sight the evil
that there is so much Of it"