Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-22
MUSIC AND DRAMA.
COMEDIAN CRANES PHILANTHRoPIC
ENDEAvoRs.
Victoria vokes' Visit to America-Hard.
ships of the Interstate Com
merce Law-Stage Notes.

merce Law-Stage Notes.
William H. Crane, the well-known
comedian, gave rise to much comment
some time ago by means of an article he
wrote touching the vexed question of the
American dramatist. In the course of this
article Mr. Crane took the ground that
one of the reasons of the paucity of good
American plays is the fact that native
dramatists are not properly encouraged by
American managers and actors. He pointed
out that no author could do thoroughly
good work unless he were sure of mar
ket, and avowed his intention of doing all
that lay in his power to nurse the budding
geniuses who should bring to him work of
positive merit which still might not be
exactly suited to his purposes. Perhaps it
would have been wiser had Mr.. Crane re-
Trained from thus publicly placing his
generous intentions on record certainly it
would have spared his tender heart many
severe pangs. 1t appears that hardly had
the comedians views become public prop
erty, through the medium Of the press,
than the trouble began. The form the in
Fiction first took was that of manuscripts.
They began to arrive by the dozen, then
by the score, and finally by the hundred.
Manuscripts written on the creamiest of
cream-laid paper, and tied up with blue
silk ribbons; manuscripts on what looked
like coarse wrapping paper fastened to-
bnr of frvi,,
scripts indited by the typewriter manu-
scripts which, paradoxically, were not
manuscripts at all, but printed books-they
senger boy, by the bell-boys of the hotel
they came in at dawn with the milk, were
served with breakfast, appeared at lunch
con, and interrupted the courses at dinner;
they were polyglot in complexion, for
there were English, French, German,
Italian, and even one Chinese, though this
was a translation. In short, manuscripts
were the bane of the literary actors exist
enee. They were all plays, of course, or it
was so alleged by their various authors,
but, though Crane is known to be CO.
median, and good one, toe" it was evil
dent that the manuscript fends gave him
credit for vast amount of versatility,
since their offerings included tragedies,
melodramas, emotional plays, comic operas,
pantomimes, burlesques, vaudevilles, his
torical romantic dramas, plays of high life,
of low life and of no life at all.
So it went on until the end of the season
came, and Mr.. Crane stepped on board his
steam yacht and headed for his pleasant
summer home at CohasSet Here at least,
he counted on peace, but he reckoned with
out his host, or, rather, without his guests,
for no sooner had he snugly ensconced
himself in the picturesque cottage he calls
his "crib," than the disease broke out in a
new FORM This time it assumed the COM
plexion of plays accompanied by authors
Seedy-lookIng individuals lurked about the
premises, and waylaid him as he returned
from his morning swim; aristocratic be-
ings drove up along the Jerusalem road in
dashing turnouts, and sent in their cards
while he was at .leSls; young men u gor-
| geous raime1t anG elderly lefdales in Iaded
bombazine focked up the gravel walk to
| the front piazza, and all carried rolls or
| packages of suspicious appearance under
their arms. The harassed actor fed to
Boston for relief, and 10! the streets seemed
to be peopled with varied assortment of
| native dramatists, who waylaid the
wretched man and forced their lucubra-
tions upon him. He boarded his yacht in
final desperation, and, in his nervousness,
ran down small boat, and narrowly es-
capped drowning the occupant, who, when
he was picked out of the water with a
boathook, shook the water out of his long
hair and handed the prosecuted wretch a
water-logged package, which bore the
damp but recognizable sign of Gan Ameri-
can Drama" And so it is still going on
plays of every conceivable degree of bad
ness are pouring in on Crane, and, though
he conscjentiousIy wades through at least
an act of each of them, he has not yet
been rewarded bv one 2samer OF the
latent talent which, in his opinion, it is the
actors or managers duty to develop and
encourage.
VICTORIA voKES' VISIT.
ooh you are going to interview me ?"
said Miss Victoria Vokes the other even
ing. "But we don't do that in England.
don't know what to say. l can give you
all the dates you want. Let me see! l open
in Philadelphia In Hubby 1t has been
| great success in London, and hope it
will be here; but it is almost impossible to
tell if a play is going to be successful
Many plays that are successful in London
| have proved dead failures here, and some
American successes have fallen quite fat
in London"
81 suppose, of course, you feel certain
nervousness about it p? And do you never
| feel uncertain about your audience
"Well, no; l have acted so much, you
know. / have spent nearly all my life on
| the stage. To be sure, have not acted
since my brothers death, something more
| than a wear ago. We were more than the
usual brother and sister are to each other,
| and his death was great shock to me.
suffered terribly, but after the first few
months had passed, my friends began to
urge my return to the stage. | had
| thought l never should act again, and l
| devoted myself to painting and to caring
| for my birds and dogs. | live at home, in
Burleigh House, in London, and we have a
big vegetable garden. Yes, indeed, and
we raise sweet corn that is quite as good as
any that you have here. Lolita visited me
there, and she is the only American actress
| that know.
81 knew Charlotte Cushman very well,
| however. She was a fine actress and a
splendid woman. We met her the first
time we came over, at a hotel, and she
used to call US her children. One of the
last letters she wrote was to us. / have it
at home. She wanted me to keep to
tragedy. Yes, know many of our English
actors aud actresses. The Kendak, Irving,
Terry andmany more. Ihaveseen Mary An
derson many times, and admire her greatly,
but | have never met her, although we
visit at the same houses. | saw Mrs. Pot
ter play in London-it was when She first
began, and thought the play POOR one.
She was rather amateurish, of course. /
have never seen Mrs. Langry act, but /
met her at luncheon in LONDON some years
ago, Her husband was with he, and
thought her very lovely. But Adelaide
| Nelson! All, there was an ACTRESS l
| knew her well She was a lovely tasciilat-